What's your opinion? I saw this topic on a different forum somewhere in which case some love subs over dubs... in my honest opinion I love subs more. I can't STAND reading the text!

I always get excited when it has a good choice of Anime Dub... and usually the ones I find are filled with emotion and I don't mind watching it at all. Time to go watch some anime on Netflix! lol

I rarely if ever even watch anime anymore, but if I do I'll watch it subtitled. But I somewhat understand Japanese so anything I've watched subtitled I'm halfway paying attention to the subtitles and halfway paying attention to whats being said (which are often two different things, despite what sub fans would want to think).

One thing I enjoy doing is putting the English language subs on the Japanese-voiced film, or the Japanese-translated subs on the English dub.

I'm always curious how many times the English dubs add dialog to places where there were originally none.

In all honesty, I like original voices with subs, but if a dub is well done (written & acted) sometimes it outshines the original, IMO.

Well even though I do not really watch anime anymore (did not really watch it much in the first place), I watch a lot of foreign films and TV. In the case of anime, I prefer subs. Sometimes when I watch a Studio Ghibli films with friends, though, we usually watch a dub because I feel like it is easier for us to goof around and talk while watching the movie. Although we did watch 3 films last night together that were all subbed, and although they weren't anime, we could all follow it. It takes some getting used to, but I have become adapted to reading while watching.
I am in my third year of Japanese (as are also a few of my friends) and I really like watching the subbed versions because I like being able to pick up on things I know, which help me with my listening comprehension skills.
With anime such as Cardcaptor Sakura, when they change whole conversations, events, episodes, etc. because they are "editing" it for our fragile American children, it is very frustrating because you essentially lose pieces of the story and even the plot. That is a case in which I would not even consider watching the dub.
I like watching a lot of Japanese movies and most if not all are not dubbed into English so I am pretty used to it by now. Original voices are always nice too, which is a part of how the original director/creator defined the character.
If you ever plan on studying Japanese, though, I would advise you to get used to subs because the most things you watch/listen to in Japanese, the more used it you will become.

Honestly I watch subs more often, but it honestly depends on the voice acting. Sometimes the dub just sounds better. Generally speaking though I watch subs more because the series is currently airing over there and hasn't been localized yet.

That and I can't really afford buying the DVDs yet.

Dubs more than subs but if the show is good enough I'll watch with subs if there is no other alternative. Until I learn Japanese JP dub will only slow me down in progressing through storylines.

Definitely prefer dubs. I don't watch Tv, movies, shows etc often and when I do, I want to veg. Extra brainpower of reading bothers me, as does the possibility that I'll miss something while reading and have to rewind. I dislike subs to much I can't even bring myself to watch Wasabi again, and I love that movie.

I don't know what all this is about "I don't watch subs because it's harder". Um hello the subtitles are RIGHT THERE ON THE SCREEN, so unlike something with only speaking and no words, you can actually know what's going on all the time and take less brain power to comprehend it since you can just read it instead of having to concentrate!

But other then that, the problem or reason people do not like dubs, is because it changes the story. I don't necessarily agree that all American seiyuu are horrible, but I do want to see the show the creators intended me to see and not some fucked-up version of it. However there is a problem; if there isn't an "official" version, then you will just have random people subbing it so there are 3,000 different versions of the same show and you don't know which one to watch.

The other problem is, most of the ones I have seen, are actually done by native Japanese-speakers rather then native English-speakers,. so you get some REALLLLY weird sayings that don't make sense even in English!

Exactly! And it's even worse for me especially if I don't speak whatever language it is so I have to try to block that out while reading and it's all just confusing... dubs FTW.

when i'm watching cartoons i want to watch cartoons, not read them

I live in a country where English is not the mother language. Unlike the Germans, we don't dub everything, so we get subs for everything that comes from other countries. When it comes to anime that comes on tv, it used to be that way too, but in recent years dubs have become more and more common. The quality tends to be pretty good too, except with some seasons/characters of Pokémon.

Subs all the way, unless the japanese is bad but, that doesn't mean the english will be any better. It's usually much worse. Much, much worse.

I was trying to think of some examples of dubs that I preferred to subs. I know there have been some... but right now my mind is blank. You guys think of any?

Any ever. XD I think everyone also caught in my original post (since I made this thread) that I meant I like DUBS over SUBS... I totally messed up. But yeah... HAH.

I preferred s-CRY-ed and Gundam SEED's dubs over their subs. s-CRY-ed's subs in particular made all of the men sound really angry all the time.

I'll watch both, but I tend to prefer dubs when possible, because hearing the lines delivered in a language I am fluent in makes me feel more immersed in the story.

Though, oddly, I sometimes have this hobby of watching dubs and subs at the same time -- i.e., I turn on English audio AND translated subtitles. This has actually given me a bit of insight into the dubbing process, by comparing the two. It also tells me more about how different the two translations are -- in some cases they're very close and in some cases more artistic liberties are taken.

And just because said artistic liberties are taken doesn't mean the dub is "bad". It sometimes even leads to a clarification of the scene's meaning, or an alternative interpretation, both of which are interesting to think about. I don't make the assumption that the original is necessarily the best or the "creator's vision" or something like that -- pretty much all productions are flawed in their own ways. Not to mention that subtitles are still a translation and carry with them their own flaws and changes, including having to adapt things like slang to a different language.

And I'm always very interested to read translators' notes, which provide further insight into the story and the creative and translation processes.

Finally, I don't really like super high squeaky voices for certain female characters that much, and English dubs on average have slightly lower voices for such characters.