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299

It doesn’t matter if I am watching a Godzilla movie, Crouching Tiger, Princess Mononoke, or a foreign film, there is something about the “actors” hired to redub the performances that irks me - they don’t emote well, or they’re ill-cast because they’re celebrities. Sometimes they’re in the “so bad, they’re good” category, resulting in total hilarity, but that’s the only time I’ve ever enjoyed them.

If you aren’t smart enough to read a subtitle as you watch something, then just don’t watch it. Dubs are the distributors literally finding a way to expand an audience to the lowest common denominator.

It doesn’t matter if I am watching a Godzilla movie, *Crouching Tiger*, *Princess Mononoke*, or a foreign film, there is something about the “actors” hired to redub the performances that irks me - they don’t emote well, or they’re ill-cast because they’re celebrities. Sometimes they’re in the “so bad, they’re good” category, resulting in total hilarity, but that’s the only time I’ve ever enjoyed them. If you aren’t smart enough to read a subtitle as you watch something, then just don’t watch it. Dubs are the distributors literally finding a way to expand an audience to the lowest common denominator.

(post is archived)

[–] • 1 pt (edited )

This seems like the equivalent of "the books are better than the movie".. of course they are.

I would argue that having to read the subtitles to some degree distracts from the actual animation/imagery immersion. If you only care about the dialog then reading the manga is the way to go.

Obviously the best way to enjoy anime is to just learn Japanese and watch the original.

[–] • 2 pts

Won’t argue the point about learning Nip, but I’ve never had trouble being able to enjoy both the visuals and the subs simultaneously. Also, the Jap actors seem to really take the job seriously.

[–] • 1 pt

I prefer subs, 90% of the time they are better than dub, and the other 10% they are just as good.

[–] • 1 pt

You don’t like Billy bob Thornton’s flat voice in princess mononoke?

[–] • 1 pt

That may have been the one where I first realized how bad dubs were in anime. As a kid I would watch stuff like Voltron without realizing why everything seemed so weirdly off. Giant magical robot? Cool. Bizarre over and under acting? My little brain just fizzled and popped.

Then BBT in Mononoke put it all into perspective. Not only that, it seemed like he recorded his session poolside or something so they had to do major work in post to fix it.

[–] • 1 pt

It truly was bad.

I generally don’t mind the dub; it’s hard for me to sit and focus on only one thing for long, so forcing myself to watch and read is a chore. I’ve always heard the subs are better, but…I suppose I don’t k ow what I’m missing.

[–] • 1 pt

Sometimes the overdub sucks. Like the actors are really overdoing the voice but that's not all the cases. I find it annoying to have to read and then look at the visuals all the time. Some of the drawings are just amazing and why spend the time reading when I could be looking at what the artist s have done. The good news is they give you both options in a lot of cases to do subtitles or get a dub.

[–] • 1 pt (edited )

Unfortunately, that isn’t always the case. Some services force English dubs, and even hoisting the black flag becomes tough. One example: Time Jam: Valerian and Laureline is a series I’ve always wanted to watch in French rather than the god awful English version. Found the audio, but the subs don’t exist.

[–] • 1 pt

I'd say poorly done subs are worse than dubs. Small text, subdued colours, poor/woke "translations", displayed too fast/slowly. Done correctly I very much prefer subs.

[–] • 1 pt

Rarely encounter woke subs. But I also don’t watch the popular stuff when I do.

[–] • 1 pt

I rarely do either but with dei being so prevalent you find bits of it injected here and there no matter where you turn.

[–] • 1 pt

Maybe I self edit the written stuff. Usually if it’s woke enough for the subs, I would have an issue with the visual content anyway.

[–] • 0 pt

There are a few series and movies where the dub is actually better, very few unicorns but they exist, example being Dragonball series, I always thought the Dubs were superior, like the voices fit the characters better,

[–] • 1 pt

My one exception is Samurai Pizza Cats, but that’s only because the whole import was insane from the start.

[–] • 1 pt

If you want insane, watch the Ghost Stories dub.