This is a subject that I’ve been thinking about for some time now…so please. Give this thing a shot, read it through (if you have any interest in anime that is) and please put down a comment. I’d like to get a good discussion out of this.

Aight, from the start. My love for anime was awoken from watching Cartoon Network’s after dark programme [adult swim]. Being American television, all was English dubbed.

My visit to Iceland to see my friends let to some good opportunities to watch various anime. I continued to watch Cowboy Bebop with my friend Pétur, and introduced him to Samurai Champloo, both were English dubbed ’cause I think it’d be more… non-anime-fan friendly. In my experience. I played some FLCL eps as well but those were just too weird for him, so CB and SC were good for him, being not too weird. Other friend of mine, already well familiar with anime, Eydís and especially Gísli, among others, prefer the original Japanese speech.

Thing is, I want to get into the original speech, get used to it. Be able to sit down with my friends and watch whatever they like, maybe some series I haven’t seen before or something. I just don’t know how to do it. But I want to. I’m not gonna go so far to say I need to, but I have a strong urge to get into watching anime in its original form.
But I also like the English dubs. Often, that is. It…fits better, see, given the situation that I and whoever that’s watching it is in, sometimes English can be better. Specially for us newbs, like Pétur which I mentioned before.

So I made this list. Pros and cons of both, with references, from my point of view that is. To get some thinking going. Some you might disagree with, but that’s part of the whole point. Kinda. So here goes:

English dub.

Pros:

• - Increased understanding. Of course this really lies in the translation, but given that it’s actually good and makes sense then I’d think that the storyline and plot is made clearer. Ghost in the Shell comes to mind.
• - Newb friendlier. Explained above.
• - Fits to the plot. Rare, I know, but sometimes you got something that happens internationally, off this world, or way outside Japan and I just can’t see how the Japanese language would fit into that. A small and maybe a bit stupid point but still a point I say. Thoughts: Cowboy Bebop.
• - The role of voice acting. Now here we are getting into bit more serious matter. In almost any animation, the things that we best react to, regarding to human interaction, would be the voice. Yes, you can animate fury in a person’s face, or great sadness, but most of that must be done in rather hard manner, a bit extreme. But in my opinion, the voice can deliver such great variety of emotion, even from the slightest change of accent or pronunciation that makes a line funny or sarcastic, to something quite dramatic. Ep. 17 of Trinity Blood forced me to pause for a minute at one stage. The sheer desperation and chaos in one’s voice had me absolutely stunned.
• - Use of senses. Another big thing. Hey, it’s anime, I like to watch the animation. If my ears understand what they hear, I don’t need to read the subtitles. I actually am not very fond of the subs, although I must admit they are handy (like the masturbation joke in Firefly, the Ours Mrs. Reynolds episode. Never would’ve gotten that one without the subs), they just distract me. So, eyes on the animation, ears open for the speech.
• - Quoting. A small thing but important for me. That’s the thing with foreign films, you can’t quote stuff you don’t understand. With the exception of some certain catch phrases or shoutouts (Furi Kuri!). Quoting funny stuff is a big part of my humor, between me and friends that I’ve watched it with. A recall to good times, ya know.

Cons:

• - Supply. I’m running out of dubbed stuff to watch. There’s of course such great amount of anime available, but just a fraction of that that has been translated. [as] and others are doing a good job getting anime dubbed but it’s not overwhelming amount that’s being released
• - “Bad dubbing”. Now this is a big issue. Every now and then I hear “Damn, that’s a bad dub” or something among those lines. I know there are some dubs out there that are…questionable at best (no names). And one sometimes thinks “Hm, they could’ve used better voice for that character, dosen’t fit him, really” or “damn, that’s just overacting”. But does that mean that every voice in the original version of every anime has been spot-on? I doubt it. But then we could have the concept of intentional bad dubbing, something that’s making fun of some overacting in some certain *cough*Dragonball Z*cough* anime. The dubbed acting of the character Issei in Full Metal Panic’s OAV: Fumoffu is bad yet brilliant in this concept. By the way, what is your definition of bad dubbing?
• - Japanese culture references. Not really an English dub con, but some do get lost in translation. More on that on the other con list.
• - Voices and lip movement. A pet peeve, really, but sometimes the difference between mouth movement and what the dub is playing is too great. And I certainly haven’t heard anyone say for real “Why would you say such a mean thing, huuuuuuuuuuuh?”. Also, unusual and out of concept       breaks in       sentences. To make stuff fit. At least they’re trying.

Aaaand the original Japanese list, although this is pretty much the last list with cons and pros switched.

Pros:

• “- The Way It Was Meant To Be Watched”. It’s the original. It’s the artist’s vision. Shouln’t it be viewed as such by the fan?
• - My friends watch anime like that. No I ain’t talking about group pressure or fitting in. You know what I mean.
• - Cultural references. Not such a pro for me though, but something that’s more easily lost in dubbing. More below.
• - Much larger selection, and no wait for translated versions.
• - Original voice acting. Might classify this as a “bad dub” English con but had to mention this. Sometimes the original voice acting hits the spot when a dub might translate correctly, in sense of concept, but miss the acting bit. I understand that a great scene in Trigun suffered from that (Ep 5, when Vash returns to the bar *trying to keep minimum spoilers* - haven’t verified this myself because, well, I haven’t seen the Japanese version yet!)
• - This pro list sucks noodles. guess the pro points just make sense and don’t require explanation.

Cons:

• - …I don’t understand what the hell they’re saying
• - The role of voice acting. Now I know I mentioned this before, and I might be wrong about this one ’cause it’s not alot of anime I’ve seen in Japanese where the voice acting plays a big part. But there’s just something with the “This woman sounds terribly upset, I wonder why. Let’s read on.” concept.
• - Like mentioned before, I’m not very fond of subtitles, they draw your attention from all the thing you should be watching.
• - Cultural references. Not really a con, but I don’t know where to put this. Gísli described this simply, yet brilliantly: “There’s anime in Japanese, and then there’s Japanese anime.” meaning that while some shows (like those described in the Plots point in English Pro list) don’t really have to be in Japanese, others do. There are some shows that are focused on the culture and I don’t think they should be dubbed, the language is part of the show and its plot/humor/whatever. Then there’s alot of shows that go the middle way, some culture references but not overwhelming or heavily linked to the plot. This is not such a big issue if you aren’t familiar with the Japanese culture, but if you are…

- Quick thought, it’s not bound by law that the original Japanese voicing cast is doing an outstanding job.Like, this one guy on some forums I lurk on says that two of his Japanese friends prefer the english dubs due to quality of the voice acting compared to the original. But that’s more of a personal opinion I guess.

That’s it. I’d say that the “goal” so to speak would to get myself to be able to toss myself into Anime no matter the language it’s in, but I’d prolly keep watching dubs if I have the chance. So whatcha people think? You agree or disagree with anything in particular? Have any recommendations? Anything? C’mon, talk to me.