Fans not complaing about the Japanese dub being bad as often as an English dubs?

Kadmos1

Member
Joined
Oct 18, 2012
Messages
442
Reaction score
17
Similar to my thread "When are the Japanese dubs considered 'crappy'?", I'm asking for opinions on why fans might not complain about the Japanese dub being bad (like on forums or YouTube) as often as an English dubs.

I'm not talking about simply "I preferred the dub over the sub" but more of "I prefer the dub over the sub because the Japanese voice(s) for said character(s) sucked".

I think the most common ones I see is how at times certain male characters sound too girly in the Japanese version (DB's Goku especially) or how annoying girl characters can be with their high-pitch voices.
 

Young Vongola

Anbu Operative 🎭
Veteran
Joined
May 23, 2013
Messages
4,781
Reaction score
387
I think the main reasons why a lot of people think sub > dub are:
1) Watched sub first. People are bound to prefer what they originally got into over a change.
2) Most anime watchers don't really know Japanese, so a different language sounds "cooler" to them + we can't tell if a person in Japanese is speaking differently from the others. We just know if we like the pitch of their voices or not. In English we can tell if they're speaking in a choppy way, mispronouncing things, etc because we actually speak English and it's easier for us to pick up on those things.
 

-Punk-

Member
Joined
Aug 23, 2012
Messages
35,343
Reaction score
3,840
I prefer sub , there's nothing better than the original ...but there's dubs out there that I've really enjoyed .
 

GloriousTrainwreck

Leaf Village Regular 🍃
Regular
Joined
Mar 12, 2014
Messages
552
Reaction score
44
One reason why you won't see too much Jdub complaints is because watchers are used to it. A lot of people I know have found listening to English awkward because of the fact that they were watching anime in Japanese for years and that they feel uncomfortable with the change.
 

BlacLord™

Kage in the Making 👑
Legendary
Joined
Jun 7, 2012
Messages
16,201
Reaction score
1,503
Because the majority of people don't understand Japanese itself, they just make a uninformed judgement. But because they understand English, they can pick out the tiniest mistakes in the English Dubs and moan endlessly.

But with the Japanese VAs, the majority don't speak a single word or know all of the inflections and so, won't know when mistakes have been made and so, just assume it's perfect.
 

Zorø

Kage in the Making 👑
Legendary
Joined
Oct 24, 2012
Messages
11,729
Reaction score
687
I prefer subs the only anime I prefer dub is Dbz Goku's voice is annoyin in sub :|
 

Hexuze

Legendary Shinobi 🐸
Supreme
Joined
May 19, 2011
Messages
20,359
Reaction score
1,533
The only anime that I prefer dub over sub is Eureka 7. Most Japanese voice actors/actresses are very talented like the OP voice acting cast.

[video=youtube;VMt2io3NPrk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMt2io3NPrk[/video]

I mean they put a lot of energy in what they do. I'm not saying the eng. dub voice actors don't but they aren't at that level yet of Japanese voice actors.
 

The Dreamer

Jōnin Strategist 🧠
Veteran
Joined
Jun 29, 2013
Messages
2,202
Reaction score
177
I preffer sub better than dub because I want to watch my shows in the original version like the authors imagined it, and not some censored, modified version wich usually turns out terrible. The same goes for non-anime stuff. If English people made a cartoon ofc I'm going to watch it in English instead of Japanesse dub. So this isn't really about the language but the quality instead.
OT: A lot of dubs for anime suck just go see the 4Kids ones... u.u
 

BlacLord™

Kage in the Making 👑
Legendary
Joined
Jun 7, 2012
Messages
16,201
Reaction score
1,503
The only anime that I prefer dub over sub is Eureka 7. Most Japanese voice actors/actresses are very talented like the OP voice acting cast.

[video=youtube;VMt2io3NPrk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMt2io3NPrk[/video]

I mean they put a lot of energy in what they do. I'm not saying the eng. dub voice actors don't but they aren't at that level yet of Japanese voice actors.

I preffer sub better than dub because I want to watch my shows in the original version like the authors imagined it, and not some censored, modified version wich usually turns out terrible. The same goes for non-anime stuff. If English people made a cartoon ofc I'm going to watch it in English instead of Japanesse dub. So this isn't really about the language but the quality instead.
OT: A lot of dubs for anime suck just go see the 4Kids ones... u.u

Do you guys have a working command of Japanese?
 

Bimbonium

Sannin of the Scrolls 📜
Elite
Joined
Jan 25, 2013
Messages
6,573
Reaction score
496
Since I don't speak Japanese it'll be illogical to criticize it, and it also sounds better; the characters have more swags....when they speak Japanese.
 

Desiigner

Anbu Operative 🎭
Veteran
Joined
Mar 15, 2014
Messages
3,338
Reaction score
443
I mostly watch the first episode in sub and the second in dub. Then I choose.
But 99% I pick sub because many German Voiceactors suk. But Death Note 4exmp I watched dubbed, because the German Voiceactors for Kira and L were great!
 

Kadmos1

Member
Joined
Oct 18, 2012
Messages
442
Reaction score
17
I'm not asking bout why a person may favor 1 version over the other, I'm asking why fans might not complain about the Japanese dub being bad (like on forums or YouTube) as often as an English dubs.

I'm asking that the responses be about the bolded statement.

Esdeath, your statement about nothing being better than the original isn't exactly true:
-ShogunGino in Escapist Magaizin's "Can the Japanese make a bad dub?" thread,
"It has been reported that Shinichio Watanabe, director of the Cowboy Bebop anime, prefers the English dub over the Japanese one. It has also been reported that Japanese fans of Code Geass prefer Johnny Yong Bosch's English portrayal of Lelouch over Jun Fukuyama. Apparently, they felt's Fukuyama's performance was too melodramatic for their tastes while they felt Bosch's performance was more natural sounding."

I've actually seen both claims on other websites.

Young Vongola, GloriousTrainwreck and BlacLord, I thank you for responding to the bolded part that this thread is about.
 
Last edited:

BlacLord™

Kage in the Making 👑
Legendary
Joined
Jun 7, 2012
Messages
16,201
Reaction score
1,503
I'm not asking bout why a person may favor 1 version over the other, I'm asking why fans might not complain about the Japanese dub being bad (like on forums or YouTube) as often as an English dubs.

I'm asking that the responses be about the bolded statement.

Esdeath, your statement about nothing being better than the original isn't exactly true:
-ShogunGino in Escapist Magaizin's "Can the Japanese make a bad dub?" thread,

I've actually seen both claims on other websites.

And the answer to your question is that they don't understand Japanese, so they just think it sounds cooler and then it's apparently automatically better. If they spoke Japanese, they would know that Japanese VAs can be just as bad and just as erroneous as English ones.

The only dubs I've known to be genuinely bad more often than not is French dubs:

[video=youtube;3M1EYDD6Fs4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3M1EYDD6Fs4[/video]
 

DeadManWonderLand

Sannin of the Scrolls 📜
Elite
Joined
Jul 2, 2012
Messages
7,167
Reaction score
712
Its a matter of preference.
Although,Japanese are famous for schools focused on voice acting more so than any other place on the earth.
So case in short on average you'll never hear anyone complain about Japanese voice casting,there usually superior.
 

Kadmos1

Member
Joined
Oct 18, 2012
Messages
442
Reaction score
17
For the last, please stick only to the bolded opening statement.

Just because someone doesn't really speak Japanese doesn't that would prevent them from criticizing. For example, if a person was reading a manga that has been officially released into English and they have gotten enough understanding of that manga's setting/characters and they watch an anime version that came out later on, I think that they could criticize a Japanese performance because sometimes even a Japanese performance may not portray the essence of a character as it was in the manga. With this, sometimes an English dub voice may actually portray that character essence the way the manga does.
 
Last edited:

Kazehime Seirin

Anbu Operative 🎭
Veteran
Joined
Mar 10, 2014
Messages
3,023
Reaction score
233
I like both dub and sub but for gaara I prefer his deep voice from the dub:yayy:
 

Kadmos1

Member
Joined
Oct 18, 2012
Messages
442
Reaction score
17
Concerning the complaint I hear that there are times where it sounds like dub voices are reading from a script when they are saying the lines, I've seen videos where seiyuu are reading from a script when they speak the lines.

The complaints about mispronunciation in English dubs? I'm used to that and this is partially because English has had centuries of mispronouncing foreign words. From what I understand, because of feudal Japan largely shunning itself from the outside world, I thjink this means that they have less of a history of mispronouncing Indo-European words because they were so closed off. When Japan opened up in the 1850s-60s, this enabled that opportunity.
 

Goetia

Legendary Shinobi 🐸
Supreme
Joined
Mar 12, 2014
Messages
34,484
Reaction score
1,419
Alot of people base their choice off of which sounds better (like me), but some, as stated above, make their decision because they don't actually speak the language and whatnot.
 

flyboyissac

Banned
Veteran
Joined
May 27, 2012
Messages
3,468
Reaction score
204
Only anime I hate in japanese is dbz english is bad ass matter fact best dubbed anime
 

Chakra Wizard

Sannin of the Scrolls 📜
Elite
Joined
Mar 25, 2012
Messages
8,958
Reaction score
336
It's just a lack of Japanese viewers and reviewers, honestly, cause how is an English-speaking person supposed to know if a sub performance is done badly, outside of having mismatched voices? The Japanese dialect just makes certain tones of voice sound completely different from those done in English, so it's hard to tell what sounds cheesy or badly done. On the flipside, though, it's pretty easy for me to point out "good" performances (I can tell you right now that Haruhi Suzumiya and Taiga from Toradora! are two of the best subs I've ever heard).
 
Last edited:
Top