So I rewatched the first episode of Azumanga Daioh english dub for a personal project the other day, and I can't believe my younger self stood this! The voices were annoying and nasal, and the characters used all sorts of weird expressions that didn't sound at all like natural speech. It did have a cheesy sort of charm to it though. But you know that saying, that "once you go black you never go back"? Well, somebody should make a rhyming saying to the same effect about watching subbed.
It's not the original.
If it makes you feel better, japanese voice acting for most anime doesn't sound that natural either; it's usually full of animeisms (it's the best word I could think of), exaggerated reactions and the like, for comedic or dramatic purposes. Dubbing makes it more noticeable because
a) You understand the language better, and
b) Dubs usually localise these speech quirks and mannerisms, along with wordplay/language gags and cultural references into something that makes sense for their audience, which can stick out like a sore thumb if there's no sort of cross-cultural equivalent. For example... have you ever seen someone do the 'EHHHHH?!!?!??' that shows up in Azumanga all the time when someone is surprised in real life, or even in a live-action comedy show?
Listening to jap radio shows and watching their news/talk shows is actually pretty eye-opening (or maybe ear-opening)
Once you go sub, dubs you will snub
Once you go sub, to dubs you can't rub
I'm　jananese call me 03-6384-7034
weebs
dicks
Anyways, >>9, please listen to me. That it's really related to this thread.
I went to Yoshinoya a while ago; you know, Yoshinoya?
Well anyways there was an insane number of people there, and I couldn't get in.
Then, I looked at the banner hanging from the ceiling, and it had "150 yen off" written on it.
Oh, the stupidity. Those idiots.
You, don't come to Yoshinoya just because it's 150 yen off, fool.
It's only 150 yen, 1-5-0 YEN for crying out loud.
There're even entire families here. Family of 4, all out for some Yoshinoya, huh? How fucking nice.
"Alright, daddy's gonna order the extra-large." God I can't bear to watch.
You people, I'll give you 150 yen if you get out of those seats.
Yosinoya should be a bloody place.
That tense atmosphere, where two guys on opposite sides of the U-shaped table can start a fight at any time, the stab-or-be-stabbed
mentality, that's what's great about this place.
Women and children should screw off and stay home.
Anyways, I was about to start eating, and then the bastard beside me goes "extra-large, with extra sauce."
Who in the world orders extra sauce nowadays, you moron?
I want to ask him, "do you REALLY want to eat it with extra sauce?"
I want to interrogate him. I want to interrogate him for roughly an hour.
Are you sure you don't just want to try saying "extra sauce"?
Coming from a Yoshinoya veteran such as myself, the latest trend among us vets is this, extra green onion.
That's right, extra green onion. This is the vet's way of eating.
Extra green onion means more green onion than sauce. But on the other hand the price is a tad higher. This is the key.
And then, it's delicious. This is unbeatable.
However, if you order this then there is danger that you'll be marked by the employees from next time on; it's a double-edged sword.
I can't recommend it to amateurs.
What this all really means, though, is that you, >>9, should just stick with today's special.
Dubs are annoying because anime is bad. You just don't realize it, but Miyazaki was right. The Miyazaki dubs are good not because they were done by Disney, but that the Miyazaki movies had good dialogue. Most anime has dialogue that is totally removed from how people actually talk or act. i.e. accidentally touching a girls boob and then screaming and fainting. I get that that is an extreme example, but really the vast majority of anime dialogue suffers from the same problem.
Anime is largely written by people who don't know anything about people. Just reclusive mangaka and otaku, so they can't write good dialogue to save their life. It seems passable in Japanese because when you read subtitles, you are really only understanding the main thoughts that are being conveyed. When it is actually redubbed in your native language, the intricacies become more obvious and you can tell how cringe-worthy the dialogue actually is. It's unsettling in the same way that Comic Sans MS is unsettling: you don't really know why it looks wrong, it just does.
Anime with good dubs like Cowboy Bebop (at least the main characters have a good performance) have dialogue that isn't garbage, so they actually sound natural. You'll notice most dub companies use the same voice actors over and over, so if you don't believe me, what's your reasoning?
>>12
Wow, this was a really well thought-out post. It's so good that I want to say that you must have gotten it from somewhere, but I feel like I would just be lying to yourself. I'm going to try to apply this opinion more often. Thanks, anon from like 14 months ago.
bump
>>12
Bullshit. I don't like Miyazaki dubs either and just try and tell me Ghost in the Shell had a bad dub because the dialogue sucks with a straight face. Many dubs change the dialogue, making it more vulgar and unnatural too. Plus you should be comparing the dialogue to other Japanese media, not the media of countries with a completely different mindset. If you can only get the main idea from subtitles, you're probably a dubfag.
I remember watching Gurren Lagann dubbed first because I was a super casual when it was new. I tried watching it in Japanese the first time and I couldn't take it.
Few years later, I rewatched it in Japanese and loved it.
Few years later again, watched a spoiler scene on youtube and nearly threw up. What used to make me cry or at least hold back tears instead made me want to close the video.
I've been slowly learning Japanese specifically because of this phenomenon. One day I won't need subs and I can focus on character movements instead of staring at words for a whole show.
>>4
True. In anime, they talk (usually) slower and pronounce the slylables better. Good when you're learning jap. Also they have trained voice-actors while in USA, the voice-actor pool is shallower.
Having clear voices help when the low-budget anime is essentially radio drama with cheap animation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGsS1WAhS5k
>>12
Do you really believe the fake Miyazaki quotes you read on the internet? If so you should feel ashamed.
This is so full of blatant holes, not the least of which being that dubs are made by the same 7-8 people who hate anime.
dubs are heinously anus
You know what would be good is if the fan dub had them all speak broken Engrish with thick accents. They could even run the speech through a translation program first to make it extra funny.
Check out the Google translate of DargonBallZ
>>18
It's not fake though, Miyazaki has actually said that the problem with anime is otaku. Since otaku are only creating anime from seeing other anime rather than viewing real people, anime is constantly flanderizing itself, becoming more and more a tropey caricature that is completely divorced from how real people act.
check my dubs
i am a heron. i ahev a long neck and i pick fish out of the water w/ my beak. if you dont repost this comment on 10 other pages i will fly into your kitchen tonight and make a mess of your pots and pans
English dubs suck cos USAian actors don't act.
Some English dubs are actually good though like the English dub of Death Note.
Scrappy-Doo fucked your mom
Because its english, American voice actors for Anime generally sucks.
One of the crappiest dubs I've ever witnessed was Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan's dub. Kare Kano's dub was weird, because they had to show the VAs in live action. Some dubs can be so bad that they're funny, like 4Kids Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokemon. I'm glad we have the Internet now so we ca just download fansubs.