I am writing this some time after I wrote that piece "subbed vs dubbed vs raw". So my views have changed a little, I guess.

Me, I am One Who Prefers Subs. I have no prob with dubs as long as they're done decently. Having said that, I think some of the best dubs I've seen include:

-Pokemon
-Digimon
-Card Captors

I *like* it when dubs change the names of some characters, give different types of voices to create different types of characters, to change some of the music - in short, to Americanise it and make it different to the original.

I *like* seeing dubs that are quite different from their original, and comparing versions. It's like watching two anime and you get the fun of seeing what's the same and what's different, each time appreciating things unique to each version.

Most of all, I *like* a dub having an identity of its own. Where the characters sound like real people and not weak imitations of the original, etc.

This own-identity thing can be taken too far. A prime example is Sailor Moon. I mean, I don't think the Sailor Moon dub was as bad as people made out - then, I never saw beyond SMR - except for occasional travesties like Nephrite's dub voice. *shivers* Still, there were things in there that were just kind of painful, especially if you've seen the original to compare it to.

Well, the thing is... I don't like dubs that try to be exact translations of the sub. I know that for most people, that would be a definition of a good dub - one that is really true to the original. But I don't like that. It just ends up coming off weak, like a pale reflection of the original. It doesn't shine with originality and life. Also, when English-speaking characters have to slip Japanese names and so on into their speech, it just sounds awkward. Purists get annoyed at dub VAs for 'messing up' pronounciations, but the thing is it's kind of hard to pronounce Japanese names correctly and have them sound smooth and integrated in your English sentences.

I saw a dub movie called "Wrath of the Ninja". It wasn't a -bad- dub but it was like most dubs I've seen - similar voices and approaches to voice acting etc. There were lots of Japanese names and place names in that movie. Some sentences involved twice as many Japanese words as English ones. I couldn't even work out what they were saying. Then, that might have been because I had no clue what was going on generally. ^_^; I commented on it and my friend said "yeah, they should change the names... call the evil dude Bob or something. At least it's easy to remember." Heheheheh.

Anyway, I'm getting a bit off-topic.

So I like dubs-that-are-different because it's like the writers have tried to make a real, new show out of it instead of just copying the old one. So you get extra jokes and different lines and angles to approach the series from. Stuff that appeals to the culture of the audience the language is in.

I think the best thing about this is that... well, I don't think exact-translation dubs really work in English, partly because a lot of things that are said in dubs would sound strange when put into English. Some of the jokes wouldn't be as funny, and people just speak differently in English to Japanese.

I haven't seen the Gundam Wing dub but I think it'd be one example of this sort of thing. In GW, there were lots of melodramatic/profound, long philosophical speeches. In Japanese, they were cool (because I don't understand Japanese, so I was just listening to the words and sound of the voices, while reading it). I can't see how this would *work* in English. If it were in English, it would just sound confusing and pretentious and difficult to follow. I found it hard enough to follow when I was just reading it!

So does the GW dub come off like that? I heard some voice clips of the dub and I didn't like them much. ^_^;

That's another thing; it seems like most dubs use similar voices to other dubs. And the voices don't carry much expression - they sound so bland. The Kenshin OAVs were pretty painful to watch in dubbed form, I thought.

Don't get me wrong, I definitely like the original way of speaking and the jokes in Japanese. But it's when they're translated that they lose their humour, in my opinion. If the voice actors can't pull it off, don't have them do it.

As for the Card Captors dub, I know there was a lot of outcry about how hacked up it was. I have to say that I think it's a great dub. It has personality, mostly great voice acting and doesn't try to be a pale reflection of the original.

I have seen the original and I like it at least as much as the dub, but I still think the dub is fantab. Maybe there are a few scenes that didn't need to be cut out of the dub that woulda been cool if left, but I didn't think it was so bad. Yes, the characters come off differently in the dub, but I don't think that's such a bad thing. I thought it was refreshing to have a main character like dub-Sakura, too. She actually seemed like a normal preteen girl, unlike most anime heroines.

Back