What is it with people and dubs

[Pestilence]

Nothing slow about wanting to watch the visuals without having to look away and read every couple of seconds. It's far easier to allow 2 sense to do one thing each, rather than one sense to try and take in two things.

At the same time, you're also having to try and block out the foreign langage which is often distracting, and then input emotion into the text you're reading, as in some anime, emotional tone in the voice is often hard to distinguish.

To be honest, any Anime dubbed into english that is worth watching, will have had the original creators working alongside the dub team to create a top notch US/Eng version with excellent voice overs.

You see, I don't understand this at all.

Are you saying that a foreign, subtitled, film has never made you cry? If one has, then obviously it's not that hard to get the emotion across.

The "mind conflict" that you're describing simply doesn't happen with me. I can easily take in the visuals, subtitled dialogue and everything else across every single second of a film. Reading the subs amounts to nothing more than a cursory glance.

 

[fringey]

You see, I don't understand this at all.

Are you saying that a foreign, subtitled, film has never made you cry? If one has, then obviously it's not that hard to get the emotion across.

The "mind conflict" that you're describing simply doesn't happen with me. I can easily take in the visuals, subtitled dialogue and everything else across every single second of a film. Reading the subs amounts to nothing more than a cursory glance.

this .

also there are words that cannot be converted ; especially japanese jokes, gag etc.

 

[Pestilence]

this .

also there are words that cannot be converted ; especially japanese jokes, gag etc.

Actually, that's the one thing that can make me lose track -- when subtitlers put the explanation for certain words and jokes that we wouldn't understand at the top of the screen.

Perhaps that's how the more uninitiated feel when watching a standard subtitled flick?

 

[V4NT0M]

This, entirely.

Reading subtitles in no way detracts from a film's visuals. Realistically, you barely even rtealise they're there. Your brain processes the reading much more quickly than it does the visuals. Anyone who complains about "reading" when they should be watching etc, in my mind, is a moron.

Please tar everyone with the same brush, surely people who find it easier to read than "concentrate on the voices" are equal morons? Don't forget to add yourself to the moron pool too, how can text on the screen NOT detract from the visuals? It's overlaid on the video frame blocking at least some of the image!

But maybe you're right, maybe people in general process text much more quickly than visuals I think that's why the government suggest reading a thrilling novel whilst driving instead of listening to the radio.

 

[Pestilence]

Please tar everyone with the same brush, surely people who find it easier to read than "concentrate on the voices" are equal morons? Don't forget to add yourself to the moron pool too, how can text on the screen NOT detract from the visuals? It's overlaid on the video frame blocking at least some of the image!

But maybe you're right, maybe people in general process text much more quickly than visuals I think that's why the government suggest reading a thrilling novel whilst driving instead of listening to the radio.

Hmm, subtle differences there include being in control of a vehicle and being sat stationary in a seat, purely focused on the screen in front of you.

I'll let you realise that one by yourself.

 

[Tefal]

i do find subtitles draw my eyes to the bottom of the screen so i tend to miss not essential but "pretty" details in the visuals up the top.


Also often find myself reading quicker than the speakers which can be a bit crap on a sub that puts too much text on too quick.

 

[Werewolf]

most of the times animes that are dubbed have completely different dialogue compared tot he subbed animes .... i would rather watch an anime in subtitles and in the original voice any-day of the week .
a subbed anime will always sound better , the japs show real emotion instead of the boring and awkward sounding dubs .

can you imagine an English voice over for zoro or luffy , it would not sound right regardless of who is playing the part , also a dubbed anime is heavily edited .

With regards to the "completely different dialogue" generally that doesn't seem the case these days (in my experience), the main differences tend to be word substitution to get a more natural sounding flow, or because a particular phrase/joke would have absolutely no meaning in English without an explanation (things like Azumanga's word games, or the puns in Excel.Azu and Nedesico).

With regards to dubbed anime being heavily edited, that simply isn't the case in 99% of modern releases unless there are either legal reasons (in which case the sub is likely to be equally edited), or the version is for show on something like the cartoon network, and even then there are often two versions made, the "CN" edit, and the unedited version (the howls of protest when even the suggestion of an edit are quite loud, so it's rare now).
About the only "edits" I can remember recently on US "normal" releases have been at the insistence of the Japanese (the music change in the Sub only Gunbuster release for example).

Likewise a lot of modern dubs do have a fair amount of emotion, and it's fairly rare for me to pick up on something as "awkward" on a modern dub by an established company (probably in part because many of the VA's have now had years of experience, same with the directors and sound engineers, unlike the 80's and 90's).

For me I tend to watch most stuff subbed and dubbed, as there is no way to know how they are going to compare against each other until tried out, and subs always cover some detail on the screen, which can be rather annoying at times, especially if there is a lot of chat or a lot of small visual details that can easily be hidden by a subtitle that has nowhere else to go (so by watching both ways I get to see all the pretty pictures, and hear the original and dubbed versions).

*It is worth remembering that generally if you have 5 different people doing independent translations**, even just for subs they will often have variations based on what they think is the best translation for a word or phrase in context (and when it comes to getting that to sound natural/match lip flaps there may be slight changes in the exact wording again).

**it still makes me chuckle when occasionally people say a fansub is more accurate than what is often done by the likes of ADV, or Funi, when usually the official versions will be done based off the original script (rather than what is heard), and quite often with the explicit approval of the Japanese.

 

[Mahnsikir]

Don't watch anime but as others have said for foreign language films I like to stick with the original audio and subtitles as it sounds more natural being the original actors, not to mention I hate off lip sync.

Annoyingly enough some films, I'm thinking Nightwatch/Daywatch (Russian films) in particular here, have had fairly off/wrong subtitles, partly due to the length difference between the original audio and English text and no doubt a bit of miss translation. While it doesn't really effect the whole film over all (I didn't notice till I read about it and compared the two) but some lines and even whole conversations have a complete different feel to them that is lost in the subtitles or just plain wrong.

Normally though, subtitles all the way.

 

[fringey]

With regards to the "completely different dialogue" generally that doesn't seem the case these days (in my experience), the main differences tend to be word substitution to get a more natural sounding flow, or because a particular phrase/joke would have absolutely no meaning in English without an explanation (things like Azumanga's word games, or the puns in Excel.Azu and Nedesico).

With regards to dubbed anime being heavily edited, that simply isn't the case in 99% of modern releases unless there are either legal reasons (in which case the sub is likely to be equally edited), or the version is for show on something like the cartoon network, and even then there are often two versions made, the "CN" edit, and the unedited version (the howls of protest when even the suggestion of an edit are quite loud, so it's rare now).
About the only "edits" I can remember recently on US "normal" releases have been at the insistence of the Japanese (the music change in the Sub only Gunbuster release for example).

Likewise a lot of modern dubs do have a fair amount of emotion, and it's fairly rare for me to pick up on something as "awkward" on a modern dub by an established company (probably in part because many of the VA's have now had years of experience, same with the directors and sound engineers, unlike the 80's and 90's).

For me I tend to watch most stuff subbed and dubbed, as there is no way to know how they are going to compare against each other until tried out, and subs always cover some detail on the screen, which can be rather annoying at times, especially if there is a lot of chat or a lot of small visual details that can easily be hidden by a subtitle that has nowhere else to go (so by watching both ways I get to see all the pretty pictures, and hear the original and dubbed versions).

*It is worth remembering that generally if you have 5 different people doing independent translations**, even just for subs they will often have variations based on what they think is the best translation for a word or phrase in context (and when it comes to getting that to sound natural/match lip flaps there may be slight changes in the exact wording again).

**it still makes me chuckle when occasionally people say a fansub is more accurate than what is often done by the likes of ADV, or Funi, when usually the official versions will be done based off the original script (rather than what is heard), and quite often with the explicit approval of the Japanese.

Good points , yes most modern animes that have been dubbed are generally translated to the full context of the original .

Regarding the English dubbed voice actors , I just think that Japanese voice actors, are for the most part, more into their role so they give more emotion to the characters. I am a traditionalists i think animes should always be in the original format ( a Japanese anime should always be in Japanese and should not be dubbed as it looses its originality )

To be fair good examples of dubbed animes are rare however Yu Yu Hakusho , FMA , Ghost in the shell are excellent examples of animes being dubbed correctly.

Also dubbed episodes are generally way behind compared to the subbed releases . and there are a lot of animes that are not dubbed and will most likely never be dubbed . there are a lot of great series that people are missing out on , chobits , cross game , Yakitate!! Japan , Skip Beat , cooking master boy , etc etc