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Do you prefer to watch dubbed episodes or the Japanese originals?

Which version of the Pokemon anime do you prefer watching?

  • Japanese original

    Votes: 33 35.5%
  • English dub

    Votes: 28 30.1%
  • A dub other than English (please specify)

    Votes: 2 2.2%
  • I prefer to watch both the original and dubbed episodes

    Votes: 30 32.3%

  • Total voters
    93

garrison-san

someone in the dark
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Discuss here which form of the Pokemon anime you prefer watching - episodes in their original Japanese form, or the dubbed episodes. Are there any particular benefits or disadvantages to be found with each option?

Remember that this is a Contest thread, so be sure to give reasons for your choice (as opposed to just saying which one you voted for). Please also remember that, while you can say you watch subs, mentioning groups who make subs or asking for/helping others find them is NOT allowed, and will result in Copyright Violation Infractions. Thank you.
 
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The Japanese original. In my opinion, it has better music and VAs. It is the "true" version in my mind.

I do however, watch subs of the Anime too.
 
The Japanese original versions, since these episodes contain the original, unedited music scores and VAs. This was especially true in the case of Johto, AG, and DP, during a time period when the majority of the original score was replaced. In my opinion, the music of any television show is correlated to that show's tone.

Some people might argue that certain anime, like DBZ, have English dubs "better" than the original version, but I believe those people may be used to the English voices and were not willing to transistion into the original dub as their second dub. The same could apply with the music, as these anime (like DBZ) tend to replay their edited musical scores so often that viewers of these dub may believe that the dub music is better than the composition of the original scores. I tend to look at the original dub first, as it is the closest to the intentions of the creator or director, and then refer it back to how much the dub has changed certain storylines. Certain dubs dub differently.

There are certain anime whose plotlines, character backgrounds, battles, etc. are edited for a younger audience. This has rarely been the case for Pocket Monsters, as this anime is generally suited for a kid or family friendly audience. However, this is not to say that Pocket Monsters hasn't attempted to go that extra mile. There were many episodes in the original series when characters used actual firearms and projectiles to threaten people.

I prefer to watch the Japanese version over the English dub.
 
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The original Japanese. I prefer the voice acting and music. I only watch the dub in order to compare a scene.
 
The Japanese original. In my opinion, it has better music and VAs. It is the "true" version in my mind.

I do however, watch subs of the Anime too.

QFT.

A big deal is the voice acting, because it is so much more organic.
Dub actors PLAY the characters, but the original va's ARE the characters. they make them. as good as a dub can be, it is still an imitation, an interpretation. i just prefer the fluidity and elegance of the originals - of any anime, really.
 
I watch the English dub. Why? No point in watching an episode and having to read the subtitles just to understand what's going on - and sometimes that isn't really feasible and doesn't convey the feeling. It's usually a better idea to just hear what should have been heard. In something that I can understand. Besides, the differences are minor enough these days for people to not mostly care.
 
I pretty much agree with anyone who says Japanese original. Great music and incredibly talented VA's, compared to the dub which is just a pain to watch sometimes. I'd say that the only good point of the dubbed version is that people can understand what someone is actually saying. Unless they edit the script for some reason which happened plenty of times in Pokémon.

Besides, no one makes Dento scream like Mamoru Miyano.
 
Usually I watch the Japanese Original to see what actually happens, then I watch the dub version to see the translation.
 
I have watched the raw before. Heck, I've even seen it when it airs, although I don't plan on ever doing that again. I still prefer the dub since I can understand it better.
 
I prefer to watch the original Japanese version. Aside from getting to watch it earlier, I also feel more personality from the Japanese actors. I only really started watching the Japanese with Best Wishes, so it still feels weird hearing say, Brock, Misty or May in Japanese, but Ash's voice in the Japanese original just feels so natural to me now.

Main reason at the moment: Mamoru Miyano does not voice Cilan in the dub. I love Mamoru Miyano's voice.
 
My main access to the series in pretty much any form has been Japanese originals for many years now. I'm so used to it, I can't bring myself to watch a dub. Dubbed Pokemon stopped airing in my area back in 1999 (but I know they started to show it on Cartoon Network [so I've been told] year ago). I did have a friend tape eps for me up until the Johto stuff, so I've seen all of Kanto and the OI eps dubbed. Anything past that, if I did come across a dub (and those were eps where Misty were still around), it was incredibly scattered. AG and up, if I ever came across the series, it's been Japanese originals. So yeah...originals for me if I sit down and watch the show.

Oh yeah, didn't give a real reason as to why I continue with originals or subs. Well, subs don't bother me because I've grown up with closed-captioning. Even with English programs, I hate not having it there, so subtitles are second-nature for me. Growing up living with a hearing impaired grandmother had a lot to do with it (and for the record, she's lived with my family since I was at least 4 years old).

Another reason is music and voice acting, although I do find it unfair since I'm not comparing it against anything. To me the characters sound more natural and the voices suit them. Of course I didn't mind Ash, Misty, Brock, Jessie, etc., but that was also Kanto/OI too. I heard that the voices were changed, no idea what they sounded like though.

I also kinda like the background music in the series that is kept that the dub might drop at times (then again, if I'm not mistaken, early Pokemon kept in a lot of the original bgm).

Wow, I really don't have a good reason aside from the fact that I'm just used of the Japanese version.
 
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I like both, but prefer English just a tiny bit more. I don't know why I watch the Japanese version anymore (To keep up with everyone else, I guess.)

The strongest point of the dub is that I can catch anything I missed in the original through it (that is, most dialogue outside of fight scenes).
Nothing else feels different enough to mention. The dub actors are fine. Nothing seems to get cut that I know of. Just another language, that's all.
 
Both, I like the Eng Dub and JNP one. I've been watching the ENG dub since I was 6, I'm just not gonna abandon for the hell of it. I enjoy it a lot believe it or not. I honestly don't get the whole "voice" thing with Anime fans. It really does seem like they complain abou.t every single voice in the dub of any anime ever made or just don't give it a chance, I'm not really some huge huge huge voice lover so I typically don't really care. :/ I still like Brock's voice to this day, regardless nothing has changed to make me hate Misty's just because I heard Kasumi's and I still like Ash's even though I've heard Satoshi's. I still enjoy May's cute voice, but I'm not gonna dump it up Haruka's voice. I don't hate Squirtle's because I heard Zenigame's :p I like both. The Japanese actors talk a tad bit fast for me so the English dub is enjoyable in that respect ^^;

The Japanese Dub is pretty nice to, the music is louder which is awesome and it helps me learn the names and correct Kana prounouciations of some Pokemon's names and it's really fun to watch. The character's different dialects and accents are always fun to hear in a JNP show, like Nanako and her Osaka accent and dialect and her love of baseball she's my freakin' hero ;_; Hearing characters say "Onikiki!" instead of "Oi" or "Konnichiwa". Hearing so many different words, and the Kanto-Johto episodes are great for helping with Kana since there's so much of it everywhere. I really enjoy hearing characters scream Eng phrases wildly, hilarity! "SHOOT-O!", "CUT-O"
 
Both. The Japanese version mainly for the music - which is less of an issue nowadays - and the dub for full understanding(assuming the translation is accurate).
 
I watch the episodes in Japanese first, then I watch them again when they've been dubbed. No reason for this really--I just enjoy both versions. I think they're both done well.
 
For DP and up, I prefer the Japanese original.

I still enjoy the dub more for Kanto through AG, mostly nostalgic reasons. Its also probably because DP was the first saga I watched in Japanese from the beginning, whereas I've never seen the Japanese versions of all the earlier seasons.

And goodness, a lot of DP's epic moments were killed in the dub simply because of the music replacements. I feel as if the music "made" DP in some scenes, because parts of DP were so lackluster in the dub after being so epic in the original. I think a lot of people who hated DP only really hated the dub of it.
 
BW is the first series that I'm watching in Japanese from the beginning on. I think that the characters' voices fit better in Japanese.

I still love the 4Kids dub of the original series and AG, mainly for nostalgia and because I got a lot more laughs and enjoyment out of 4Kids than TPCi. I really wished I watched DP in Japanese because I probably would have enjoyed it much more. I had the unfortunate pleasure of hearing Team Rocket's awful alliteration dialogue throughout the dub of DP. I actually like the BW dub mainly because I can tolerate TPCi's Team Rocket now.
 
I still love the 4Kids dub of the original series and AG, mainly for nostalgia and because I got a lot more laughs and enjoyment out of 4Kids than TPCi. I really wished I watched DP in Japanese because I probably would have enjoyed it much more. I had the unfortunate pleasure of hearing Team Rocket's awful alliteration dialogue throughout the dub of DP. I actually like the BW dub mainly because I can tolerate TPCi's Team Rocket now.

At some point you should really watch DP all in Japanese. There was a reason DP had so much hype in the fandom when it was airing for the first time, and it was from the people following the Japanese version of it.

The dub of DP was very watered down. The music changes alone killed it.
 
Believe me, once I get the chance I'll watch DP in Japanese. I've only seen the first episode and the last episode in Japanese and those were better than how the dub handled them. You have a point of people hating DP because of the dub. I didn't necessarily hate it, but Team Rocket's dialogue, Piplup's bootleg Torchic voice, keeping like 2% of the original music, and so many dialogue changes was enough to turn me off of it compared to other sagas.
 
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