Why Do People Hate on the Dubs?

Sometimes you hear people say how if you live in America, you should learn to speak fluent English instead of expecting everyone else around you to learn your language? For whatever strange reason that doesn't apply to anime. In fact, a lot of people often hate on the dubs...usually for no real reason either.

Worse yet is the steryotypes that come from the dubs. Of course these steryotypes are usually only made by those who don't know the subculture that is anime, but still. Like how people make fun of Japanese shows by saying how the words don't fit the lip movements and that's what anime is. No, sorry, not true. I personally have never seen an anime that does that, especially not as bad as a lot of people say. That steryotype only holds true when it's a live action movie that's dubbed because the lip movements of people are a lot more pronounced than that of cartoon characters.

Now I'll admit there are a lot of dubs that theroughly destroy the character's because of bad voice casting. A great example of this is Allen Walker of D.Gray-Man. He looks completely bad-ass and yet he is voiced by Todd Haberkorn in the dub, effectively making him sound nasaly, nerdy, whimpy and whiney. He has the same voice as the super geeky nerd-looking character, Kimihiro Watanuki of xxxHOLiC whom Todd Haberkorn's voice fits extremely well.

However you can't blame the voice actor himself for this, if anything, its the fault of the casting people. On top of that, in the original Japanese version Allen is voiced by a girl, making him sound all the more pathetic than in the dub! Personally I think Brad Swaile would've worked nicely for Allen, but that's just my 2 cents.

And let me just say this before you start saying I'm biased because I only watch dubs. That is actually untrue, I watch both dubs and subs, in fact I watch more subs, the only reason being is they're more readily available and because I enjoy hearing Japanese spoken. However there are several anime that are in fact better dubbed for perfectly logical reasons, which I'll get to later. And there are several that really should never be dubbed...also for perfectly logical reasons.

Anyway though, the only other real bad example I can come up with for a crappy character dub, is again because of the voice actor they cast: Black Star in the Soul Eater dub. He's a ninja for crying out loud! An assassin! And they gave him the high-pitched girls voice of Brittney Karbowski. Again, not trashing her as a voice actor, I loved the job she did with Himeko Katagiri of PaniPoni Dash! because it fit the character well.

My point is though that people will use characters like these as an excuse to knock all dubs for whatever weird reason. Again, personally, most of the dubs I've seen are great, especially the PaniPoni Dash! and Code Geass dubs. Not to say the other's I've seen aren't amazing as well, but those two are arguably better than their Japanese counterparts. Well ok with Code Geass I loved it as a matter of oppinion, but PaniPoni Dash! there is a very valid reason for the dub being better, and that leads me to my next point.

Some shows (like PPD) rely heavily on the way things are said rather than what is said. Unless you're fluent in Japanese, it's extremely difficult to get that way of saying things while understanding what is being said and there for the effect (most often humor) is lost. To top that off, sometimes the way the words are aranged in the dub is just better. Again, lets take an example from PaniPoni Dash! in the very first episode when you meet Cat God in the vending machine in the middle of the woods. Which is funnier: Cat God: "The cans are warmed by my body heat. Oh and FYI, I'm God by the way. As a token of our new aquaintenceship would you like another drink?" Becky: "Screw you kitty" OR Cat God: "It's body temperature." Becky: "Who are you?" Cat God: "God" ? Personally I think the first one is a lot funnier, and thats the dub. Not to mention the dub has a much more expressive tone of voice than the sub.

All I really have to say in closing as my last point: reguardless of wether you like dubs or subs, its absolutely pointless and downright stupid to go yelling at somebody for liking subs or for liking subs and saying that they're stupid and whichever they like is horrible. It's personal preference and if you dont like dubs, DONT WATCH THEM, simple as that. The same goes for if you don't like subs, if you can avoid it, don't watch them.

P.S. Comments Please! Spread the word! Tell your friends! Push the little "Follow" button to your right! Please? =( Thanks in Advance -Chitaka