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

[Ferbgor]

English dub. I don't have time to waste deciphering the Japanese version, when I could just watch it in my language.

 

[Yamato-san]

I prefer to watch the Japanese dub over the original dub.

um.... what?

Japanese original for me. Hell, for several years now, I've barely watched any anime in English. Though, like most people, I started on the English dub, but I made the switch over to the original somewhere in the middle of Houen (though I would've done it sooner had I known where to find downloads, as even by that point, I had an inkling for the language). Not only did I watch every episode in Japanese from that point on, but I discoverd downloads for the first series, watched through all of that and gradually displaced the English version from being the "default" version in my mind altogether.

More recently, I've even taken it a step further: I imported Black and White (and, you know, I'm actually READING through the text rather than continually tapping a button through all the dialog). I've also read raw manga scans before that, so I'm experiencing the original version across numerous forms of media.

 

[Catzeye]

I enjoy both.

I watch the Japanese episodes because they come out first and I'm curious to see what happens in the episode. However since I don't understand Japanese I have to watch the English dub to understand the dialogue.

 

[Shinneth]

I honestly like both the English dub and the original. From DP128 to BW008, I was waking up (or staying up) early in the morning to catch the Japanese episodes live. For my favorite episodes, I'd download subs as soon as they became available, but I'd still watch the dubbed version as soon as it came out. I enjoy both for better or worse; I enjoyed DP in both languages and I'm loathing BW in both languages.

Honestly, I don't care at all about how much music was retained from the original in the dubbed version, so that obviously doesn't upset me. I cared about the original music being retained only once this entire series, and it was only for one particular scene, and it was retained in the dub. So I'm cool with it. I honestly don't have strong feelings one way or the other for the BGM tracks in Pokemon... which contrasts to how strongly I felt for the BGM tracks being retained for, say, Sailor Moon or Ojamajo Doremi (neither of which retained a bit of their original music in their original dub). Or Winx Club, which literally the best thing about that shallow show was its music, and 4Kids was at its worst with that show for sure... how dare they think they can outdo the Italian music. I dunno how, but Italian dub music is by far the best dub music around. It's honestly on par with Japanese music, I think. But enough about the music.

In the episodes I care about, I usually closely analyze the dialog in both versions and see how much the dub retains. I've written transcripts of a few DP episodes for my story, so I'm quite familiarized with TCPi's method. It doesn't really bother me; not even Team Rocket's tendency to be OOC (which they weren't much in the episodes I transcribed, surprisingly).

I gotta say, even when the new dub was at its worst, it was better than, say, the initial new dub of DBZ was on its best day, both in terms of music AND voices. Anyone who was unfortunate to watch Funimation's first take on DBZ without the Ocean Group cast should know what rock-bottom is for replacement dubs. Besides that, Japanese VAs aren't exempt from being terrible, either. Sometimes the dub voices can be a lot less appealing if they say their lines with a certain delivery (which I'd sooner blame the voice director rather than the VAs themselves), but there are some Japanese voices I find inherently annoying no matter how well they emote and deliver their lines.

But I'm also one of those people who prefers to actually watch the show over reading the subtitles and watching the show simultaneously (I suck at multi-tasking), plus even though I've watched enough Japanese raw episodes to get a good feel of what's going on without knowing what exactly is being said, I obviously prefer knowing EXACTLY what is being said and the enjoyment I get from watching the raws with no prior knowledge of what's going on is limited.

So yeah. Each version has their perks and drawbacks. I'd love it if the dub got the full extent of the OP and ED songs that modern dubbed anime gets these days; I'd even love to see the eyecatches in the dub one day (hell, Beyblade's dub gets that much, at least), but they are perks I can live without... especially since I can just see them on Youtube or when I watch the live feed, anyway. Um, yes. So I like both.

 

[kantoskies]

From like the 3 episodes I could find of the raw Japanese, it was amazing. Of course, they were either from the Indigo League or Best Wishes, which were the 2 best dubbed sagas, imo. I usually stick to the dubbed stuff, mainly because I can't find the raw Japanese.

 

[CrackFox]

The Japanese original, definitely. America like to sensationalize everything and that's why we have Ash trying to appeal to youngsters with his annoyingly 'hip' phrases and attitude and Iris is basically Hannah Montana of the Pokemon World.

The Japanese versions are much more innocent and sweet with generally better names and voices, especially as far as the Pokemon are concerned.

 

[Serperiority]

I like the English dub for one reason, I can understand it.

 

[AshK]

I liked the english dub best because its what I am used to and It is just too hard to watch the japanese version even with the subtitles. The voice actors just don't do it for me (voice actors are a big thing for me when I watch anime). I don't care much for the music though so Its not a big deal for me if the english dub of pokemon historically changed their music from the original.

 

[AtoMan]

Polish dub. Mostly because it was first version of anime i've seen; it was also very good, voice-wise (translation quality... varied). The recast (see Bulbapedia if you're interested) and "comeback" of old voices brought the good quality back along with better translation, and when SDI got the dub "back", they needed time but finally started doing it in acceptable way.

Sadly, the changed music really makes DP look worse than previous series.

 

[matt0044]

Both. When I watched the early episodes in Japanese, the VAs were more natural than the English VAs then (though, to be fair, it was 4kids just starting out). I thought Rica Matsumoto did a great Ash and every other voice actor worked wonders for their characters but, nowadays, they kinda sound stale. Not in comparison with the English Voice actors but in their own right. Mostly because of the characters themselves and the dialogue. Believe me, when you know what they're saying in Japanese, it can sound pretty uninspiring. I will give them props for trying though. Speaking of natural voices, unlike most of TPCi's Pokemon voices, the JPN voices don't sound annoyingly forced. When the Pokemon is cute, its voice is cute. When the Pokemon is tough, its voice sounds tough. When the Pokemon is annoying, well, you get the picture. As for the music, it ROCKS! 'Nuff said.

That's not to say that the dub is bad because the JPN version is better. When 4kids started out, they were a bit rocky with the voices but Veronica, Rachel, Eric and everyone else grew into their roles as time went on and got more experienced. Admittedly, I don't like the unneeded changes and edits but I'm always willing to look past them for my entertainment. Plus, the 4kids music score is kinda good. Not Shinji Miyazaki material by any means but it's good in its own right.

TPCi started out rougher than 4kids due to the VA switch and the whole controversy among fans but the voices did get better. Not as good as 4kids but not too shabby. During the DP series, they really screwed the pooch on their dub music. It was just awful. BW had improved dub tracks but DP... ugh. My problem is the dialogue since it sticks to the original dialogue too much and makes their own sound pretty awkward at times. So I don't mind if they spiced up the script but I don't want them to change the stories at all or add stuff that's unneeded.

Overall, I prefer the JPN version a bit more but I'd prefer the English dub if it appealed to my tastes stated above.

 

[Drakon]

Dub. I grew up with it and I cannot understand Japanese.

 

[Kelleo]

English dub. I can't understand Japanese, and though I do know I can just watch a subbed version, I'd much rather hear the words I understand rather than read them. Plus, I'm not a fan of Japanese voices. I'm much more used to English ones.

 

[Egghatch]

I prefer to watch the dub, simply because English is the only language I know. :sweatlol:

 

[Trainer Lisa]

I watch the English dub, because I don't understand Japanese. ^^;

Watching the Japanese version with subs wouldn't bother me. I've actually seen the Japanese version of a few episodes of AG. But, because I prefer dubbed anime in general, I enjoy the English version. And let me tell you, I absolutely love watching the 4Kids dub of Pokemon. It's nostalgic, it's funny, and it makes me so happy. It's just a wonderful show, overall. And I can't get enough of it!! =)

However, I will admit that, when the VA switch happened, I wanted to stop watching the show... But I just couldn't do it. Despite the flaws with TPCi (what feels to me like a lack of quality, due to 4Kids setting the bar so high for voice acting), I have stuck with the TPCi dub all this time and I continue watching the new episodes. Granted, I hated Battle Frontier and D/P wasn't much better... But with B/W, the big improvements with the voice acting have allowed me to enjoy the B/W episodes. And that makes me somewhat happy. Sure, the TPCi dub isn't perfect. And it isn't as awesome as the 4Kids dub, in my opinion, but I think it's decent. ^^

 

[Almonds]

I watch both because The English uses names and moves that I'm more familiar with, but I also enjoy the Japanese version because they sound more natural and original

 

[Gabo2oo]

From Episode N onwards, I watch inmediately the original Japanese, then I watch parts of each new episode in English (usually the ones I couldn't understand in the original or scenes with voice acting that worry me), and finally the full episodes again in my native language dub, Latin American. The problem here is that currently, the Latin American dub is delayed by 60 episodes from the English dub, which is more than one year of difference. Which is pretty damn too much. The Latin American dubbing process for each episode is finished even before that same episode airs in the U.S., so it's the Cartoon Network schedule the guilty one.

I feel that the Japanese sounds more natural, I prefer its acting and specially the music, and since I was a little child without actually watching it I considered it the true, undoubtedly official version. Even though Mezase Pokémon Master was the first Japanese opening I ever saw, the true first "upcoming" opening I ever watched was Together, and I was so freaking dissapointed when, a couple of months after I learnt about the recently debuted English song. That's why Together is the opeing that definitely makes me nostalgic about Pokémon, while I kind of hate DP Adventure.

About the Latin American dub, I believe it does a better job than the English one. Even though the script is pretty free so the actors can say and do whatever the hell they want with their characters, they manage to make the Pokémon anime a very humorous show when it's needed. It makes boring fillers far more tolerable. I mean, even Team Rocket didn't truly lost their personalities in Best Wishes, keeping almost all the humor, the only difference was the TRio's competence and BGM. Plus the newest director rescued the series correcting all continuity problems and making all old VAs return, in exchange for Ash's, who had to leave.

America like to sensationalize everything and that's why we have Ash trying to appeal to youngsters with his annoyingly 'hip' phrases and attitude

And sometimes they fail doing so. Ash's "Seems like Pikachu is gonna hit the wall" comes to mind. Unless that phrase was not trying to be hip and I'm just ignorant on urban slang...

 

[megaevolvedmushroom]

I prefer the original overall, but I enjoy the 4Kids dub more in some aspects.

 

[Hidden Mew]

I prefer to watch the dubbed episodes. I've been doing it for years and I'd like to be able to understand what the characters are saying when watching an episode.

 

[Combusken]

I can watch either, but I prefer to watch things with the audio turned off (...and I don't like most of the dub voices), so now I try to seek out subtitled episodes.

(I know, there's always closed captioning for the former.)

America like to sensationalize everything and that's why we have Ash trying to appeal to youngsters with his annoyingly 'hip' phrases and attitude

And sometimes they fail doing so. Ash's "Seems like Pikachu is gonna hit the wall" comes to mind. Unless that phrase was not trying to be hip and I'm just ignorant on urban slang...

I don't know the context of that line, but it's not.

 

[Thunder Stone]

I normally prefer subbed, pokemon is the only anime I prefer dubbed. It's mostly because I want to learn the English names for the pokemon and not the Japanese ones, but also because I've watched the dubbed version since I was very young and I've gotten used to their voices.