Indeed. I've long had it with all the English-language dubs that ruin the emotional delivery of most of the dialogue (seriously, who's hiring those subpar actors?), or invent groan-inducing attempts at localization (case in point: onigiri in Pokemon are never called "rice balls", the most logical though not literal translation; they're called "donuts", or "sandwiches", or "cookies", or "onions"), or censor barely-if-not-at-all-offensive stuff like pentagrams (Yu-Gi-Oh!) or the barest hint of cleavage (Sailor Moon's Usagi while submerged in a bath) just to appease the super-sensitive moral guardians.
TL;DR if there's an actually good English dub, it's the exception that merely proves the rule.
Indeed. I've long had it with all the English-language dubs that ruin the emotional delivery of most of the dialogue (seriously, who's hiring those subpar actors?), or invent groan-inducing attempts at localization (case in point: onigiri in Pokemon are never called "rice balls", the most logical though not literal translation; they're called "donuts", or "sandwiches", or "cookies", or "onions"), or censor barely-if-not-at-all-offensive stuff like pentagrams (Yu-Gi-Oh!) or the barest hint of cleavage (Sailor Moon's Usagi while submerged in a bath) just to appease the super-sensitive moral guardians.
TL;DR if there's an actually good English dub, it's the exception that merely proves the rule.
Indeed. I've long had it with all the English-language dubs that ruin the emotional delivery of most of the dialogue (seriously, who's hiring those subpar actors?), or invent groan-inducing attempts at localization (case in point: onigiri in Pokemon are never called "rice balls", the most logical though not literal translation; they're called "donuts", or "sandwiches", or "cookies", or "onions"), or censor barely-if-not-at-all-offensive stuff like pentagrams (Yu-Gi-Oh!) or the barest hint of cleavage (Sailor Moon's Usagi while submerged in a bath) just to appease the super-sensitive moral guardians.
TL;DR if there's an actually good English dub, it's the exception that merely proves the rule.
Most of those problems are associated with dubbing companies that aim their dubs at little kids, like 4Kids! and whatnot. Funimation tends to do a pretty decent job most of the time. And, hell, the voice actors that 4Kids! chose for Pokemon were pretty good, even if everything else they did had awful voice work. Of course, I usually still prefer subs even when the dub is decent just because I like to judge something based on the way it was intended to be watched. Hell, I've even run into a couple of shows where the dub is SUPERIOR and I still prefer the original because... that's just my weird preference. There are a handful of exceptions, but those are usually because I grew up with the dub and it's nostalgic for me (like the English dub of Transformers: Cybertron, which is absolutely awful but I like it anyways because I grew up with it), I started with the dub because the dub was more convenient and now the original just sounds weird to me (like Soul Eater), or it's a video game. I almost always prefer dubs when it comes to video games, for some reason.
I used to be a hard core Sub only, but one time at Anime Expo. I forgot what panel but they had a Q and A with a Japanese director for an Anime I liked and someone asked the Dub or Sub question. He answered Dub immediately and then actually wondered why you would watch it sub. He says that having subtitles would distract from the art and onscreen action and that having subtitles wasn't how it was meant to be watched.
I didn't suddenly switch to dub overnight. But I gave it more of a chance and I can see what he means. It might not be that great of a VA but it's definitely a different feel watching some series in dub. I still watch mostly subs. But when I show other people anime I'm quite willing to show them in Dub since it's what a lot of non-anime folks are used to. It's quite often the difference between them finishing the series on their own and continuing to watch more Anime on Netflix or just going so far as what I show them. Not every series depend on the quality of the VA to tell a story. It is just 1 part of a great whole.
Sometimes the Japanese learn something from American dubbing. Star Blazers (Space Battleship Yamato) was dubbed in 1979 with a non-union group of voice actors. Some of them overacted, while others were dry and plain, but it was how the Americans rewrote the story in places that became interesting along with the delivery of those lines (which was a whole lot better than the absolutely wooden acting in the earlier dubbed movie version known as Space Cruiser)
When Space Battleship Yamato 2199, the remake of the series, came out in 2012, there are some very clear references to the Star Blazers version of events. Mostly because the changes made logical sense in today's world rather than some of the 1970s era semi-bushido code over reactionary logic that was used from time to time. In the original series, A smaller Earth ship refused to retreat was because the ship's captain couldn't face his dead comrade if he retreated from the enemy in such a dishonorable fashion. His honor would not allow him to retreat from a losing battle to fight another day, even when his superior on the flagship made the argument that Earth needed both of them to survive regardless of what honor they lost might be. In Star Blazers, this scene was dubbed so that the smaller ship's captain was going to stay to provide a delaying action so that the flagship with ten to twenty times the amount of people on board could make it back to Earth. Simple numbers...the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. When a smaller ship's captain decides to stay and fight in Yamato 2199, he staying to provide cover for the larger more important ship in the fleet because someone needs to get home. Someone needs to complete the mission. This change directly reflects the changes from Star Blazers. In addition, the American dub tended to have the enemy tanks be robot tanks (even if there was clearing a living being in one of them)...in Yamato 2199, they had robots running tanks for real.
Sub or dub. To hell with them all. I learn the language to watch it. I start with voice over (original sound kept while someone dub all the lines in), then sub then without any translation. It's worth the effort. Trust me.
Welp, there's the issue with dubbers and some subbers becoming unreliable, like with what funi did to Dragon Maid. And they brag about it too. They're not trying to hide it. Not to mention the English VA community seems to consist of like five people, leading dubs to sound very samey all around. So until that all is resolved, I'm going to keep to fan subs. As bad as it sounds, some guy with a computer tends to be more reliable than whole companies.
I do prefer subbed to dubbed, but I won't argue against those who like dubbed better. It's a matter of preferences.
Besides, you should try English or any other language in Japanese original audio or Japanese dubs for Hollywood movies. It's not bad, but doesn't fit. Because it's not what the movies were made for.
Anway, I don't see the point to argue here. Why continue it?
Never-ending BattleLet's see... Language settings... It's gotta be...Dubbed, of courseSubbed, of courseTable
~?Utsugi does't understand the word tabletI'm gonna watch a movie with Padko-san on a tablet!That delivery guy didn't make it on time...