Real talk, if you think either is unacceptable, and you like telling other people about this, then people 100% think you're a douchebag. Myself included.
this post was submitted on 15 Sep 2023
256 points (88.3% liked)
Animemes
2775 readers
1 users here now
founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
I like dubs so I can do other shit while I watch it but if it's something I'm really going to pay attention to I'll watch it either way. I don't get why some people think subs are so much better. Either is fine.
I don't get why some people think subs are so much better.
It's not necessarily better, but it's closer to the original material. Dubs often change various things in order to adapt it to their language, these changes are sometimes good, sometimes bad. Sure the translations are not perfect either, but they're not limited by lip-syncing and therefore tend to be more accurate.
For example:
Say a character makes a pun that only works in japanese;
Even a very good dub, will have to replace this pun with something else that fits the lip-syncing and makes sense in their language.
But a sub can keep the original joke and have a little asterix at the corner explaining that word A and word B look similar in japanese or something like that.
Plus, those of us who don't have english as their first language are often already used to subs, since not as many things are dubbed in our language, and when they are, it's usually terrible.
That said, use whatever works best for you.
My father is extremely dyslexic and it takes him 5-6x as long to read something as most readers. My family has always had to read subtitles out loud for him. I actually have to stop myself from reading subs aloud when I'm with friends and he isn't around.
So I prefer dubs because it allows my father to enjoy a program without depending on others.
Imagine being an ANIME fan and watching TEXT instead of the amazing ANIMATION ANIMEtors worked their ass off for. If you want to watch text, read a book instead, genius. But you're too lazy to move your eyes huh? You have to have the text all stay in one place and be delivered to you like the milkshakes to the morbidly obese content addicts in WALL-E. Watching with subs is disrespectful to the animators and reveals your extremely flawed character. I watch with dubs because I am sophisticated and I know how to appreciate art.
What am I supposed to do? Not much anime while I wash the dishes and fold laundry?
I'm running out of great anime, so now I'm learning Japanese. I'm not joking, haha. It's actually a really, really cool language.
I'm like, maybe 5% the way there, though... I still really love dubs, but I also enjoy a few subs!
We’re still doing this toxicity in 2023? Really?
Unpopular: Learning German, I download both German subs and dubs from 𝚊𝔫ιᴍɘ-Iᴏ𝗮𝕕𝘴•𝑜я𝖌, combine the two in ffmpeg and watch dubs with non-matching subs
I can't play on my GBA with subs
A few anime's break this rule. Like Space Dandy where the dub is clearly superior.
I also want to recommend the dub of SGT Frog. It's not as wild as Ghost Stories, but man do the VAs sometimes throw out some wild pop culture references.
Also Ghost Stories, where the source material was so boring that giving in the Abridged/MST3K treatment made it infinitely better.
Most of the jokes in the Ghost Stories dub still hold up in my opinion. Timeless. I feel the same way about MST3K.
The jokes are not PC at all, so they are also arguably more funny the older they get.
Steve Blum's dub of Spike is pretty amazing, too. But you should just watch both.
Steve Blum is always even amazing, even in Digimon.
He's a dandy guy... in space.
Baccano!!! I cannot imagine watching it without the accents!
I feel the same with Cyberpunk Edgerunners. It just feels more natural somehow
Ah, the ancient traditions persist I see.
I just want subs that match the dub because audio processing disorder sucks.
I prefer dubs mostly cause its hard to read subs when I'm wasted.
Depends, sometimes the dubs have their own punch.
Unless you speak Japanese, dubs are better because otherwise you miss out on vocal cues that you, a non-japanese speaker, can't understand and that text can only partially convey
sub is absolutely better than dub, on average. but the best sub can't touch the best dub.