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Toonami |Sep14| This is our Final Dandy, baby

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daveo42

Banned
At least there's a reason this time. Togashi is apparently having major back issues.
HxH is never going to end is it....

I do hope he has a quick recovery. No, it's never going to end.

lol It's on Hiatus again? Well, I expected it of course, but wasn't there only like 3 new chapters?

He's got enough for at least one full volume, so he'll be set for a little while.
 

Seda

Member
I've said this before, so sorry if I sound like a broken record. Ultimately, it's all about what one personally values (this is true for most things).

I like dubs because I'm very interested to hear the intonation of words, word emphasis, word inflection, and sentence phrasing. How things are toned give additional information about the attitudes of the speaker, it regulates conversations and puts focus on the elements of speech that require more attention. It's not only the way words are chosen and put together to express something, there's a lot of information portrayed in how words are said. More specifically, it can help with things like irony, or posed questions. I've always been a fairly aural-focused person - I certainly seem to focus more on sound and music than others. I'm a bit of an auditory learner as well, I process things better when I can hear them.

These things are more important to me than what is 'original'. Originality doesn't matter much when I lose all that. You might have noticed that this post is largely in first person. That's because I can only speak for myself on this. On that note though, in the past, several have responded with agreement to this, so I'm certain I'm not alone with my preferences.

And yes, as GMN said, losing on-screen text helps with focusing more on the animation.

I have nothing against subtitles or those who prefer them. Just watch what you like to watch, it's not that difficult.
 

Soulflarz

Banned
I've said this before, so sorry if I sound like a broken record. Ultimately, it's all about what one personally values (this is true for most things).

I like dubs because I'm very interested to hear the intonation of words, word emphasis, word inflection, and sentence phrasing. How things are toned give additional information about the attitudes of the speaker, it regulates conversations and puts focus on the elements of speech that require more attention. It's not only the way words are chosen and put together to express something, there's a lot of information portrayed in how words are said. More specifically, it can help with things like irony, or posed questions. I've always been a fairly aural-focused person - I certainly seem to focus more on sound and music than others. I'm a bit of an auditory learner as well, I process things better when I can hear them.

All that is more important to me than what is 'original'. Originally doesn't matter much when I lose all that. You might have noticed that this post is largely in first person. That's because I can only speak for myself on this. On that note though, in the past, several have responded with agreement to this, so I'm certain I'm not alone with my preferences.

And yes, as GMN said, losing on-screen text helps with focusing more on the animation.

I have nothing against subtitles or those who prefer them. Just watch what you like to watch, it's not that difficult.

That is my primary issue with subs. I don't understand the language, so I can only tell so much. I cannot understand subtle tones or perhaps the way they said it. "I love you" said normally and "I love you" being said with sarcastic emphasis on the word love have completely different meanings. However, in a sub, you cannot understand the difference unless the sentence words the sarcasm blatantly. Also you can notice the animation better rather than the general idea+the bottom part with the subs.

Overall, I'm for dubs instead of subs. However, I *can* watch subs, and do many times. I prefer dubs though unless they're notably bad.
 
I've said this before, so sorry if I sound like a broken record. Ultimately, it's all about what one personally values (this is true for most things).

I like dubs because I'm very interested to hear the intonation of words, word emphasis, word inflection, and sentence phrasing. How things are toned give additional information about the attitudes of the speaker, it regulates conversations and puts focus on the elements of speech that require more attention. It's not only the way words are chosen and put together to express something, there's a lot of information portrayed in how words are said. More specifically, it can help with things like irony, or posed questions. I've always been a fairly aural-focused person - I certainly seem to focus more on sound and music than others. I'm a bit of an auditory learner as well, I process things better when I can hear them.

All that is more important to me than what is 'original'. Originally doesn't matter much when I lose all that. You might have noticed that this post is largely in first person. That's because I can only speak for myself on this. On that note though, in the past, several have responded with agreement to this, so I'm certain I'm not alone with my preferences.

And yes, as GMN said, losing on-screen text helps with focusing more on the animation.

I have nothing against subtitles or those who prefer them. Just watch what you like to watch, it's not that difficult.

Seda dropping those truth bombs.

Seriously don't understand why there has to be hatred on either side of it. Each has their own qualities and flaws dependant entirely on personal preference. Subs aren't better than dubs. Dubs aren't better than subs. It is all up to you and what is most important to you.

For me, I like subs to hear the original language and see a translation that is most likely nearer to the original intent. I also like dubs for voice actors that I can recognize, audible qualities I can recognize because I know English and sometimes the adapted lines are plain funnier to me than the Japanese ones. If you look at the dub for Desert Punk for instance, there is a scene where one of the characters points at the protag and says "That guy? Nucking Futs." In the subtitled translation, that doesn't happen but when I was watching the dub I laughed hysterically at it.

Something that I think needs to be posted on every internet board in existance: "It's okay to like more than one thing." This is true for console wars, books, music, whatever you want. It's even okay for dub/sub. It's okay to like both.
 
I don't think I've ever seen someone who prefers dubs come out and say that subs are worthless but you regularly see people making the opposite claim, even here on gaf. I don't know if it's elitism, a persecution complex, ignorance, stubbornness, or a combination of all four, but some people will go to great lengths to justify their choices whether it be in anime, video games, politics, whatever..Like everyone else in here has been saying, watch whatever you prefer. Personally, I watch a mix of both subs and dubs and will generally prefer whichever version I viewed first.
 

Bio-Frost

Member
Yeah It does seem like a one sided argument. You almost never see fans of dubs blindly bashing subs.

I personally prefer dubs, ill watch subs if there is no other choice and I dont hate them I just prefer to hear it in my own language. One of my biggest issues with subs is in situations where more than one character is talking. This is why I stopped watching Rock lee and his ninja pals because they announced a dub was coming soon and this issue happens alot in that show. When more than one person is talking, you end up with subs on the top and bottom of the screen. Usually when some background characters are arguing, which means they are most likely talking fast. So im sitting there trying to jump back and forth between two conversations and it makes it hard to keep up.
 

Levyne

Banned
I've found myself less and less interested is even participating in the topic. Feels like everything's already been said. People prioritize different things and should watch what they want.
 
Over/stilted acting is pretty universal.

There is no way for a non-Japanese speaker to tell if VO is good, bad, or over-acted in my opinion. You need to have a grasp of the language to understand the nuances in inflection, tone, pronunciation, etc to be able to make that judgement call. I started watching AoT subbed when it first came out and couldn't tell how melodramatic and ridiculous the script was until the dub aired on toonami. From personal experience, the only people I've seen claim otherwise were elitists and Japanophiles who thought they could speak the language after watching a few subs and getting a free trial of rosetta stone.
 

Squalor

Junior Member
There is no way for a non-Japanese speaker to tell if VO is good, bad, or over-acted in my opinion. You need to have a grasp of the language to understand the nuances in inflection, tone, pronunciation, etc to be able to make that judgement call. I started watching AoT subbed when it first came out and couldn't tell how melodramatic and ridiculous the script was until the dub aired on toonami. From personal experience, the only people I've seen claim otherwise were elitists and Japanophiles who thought they could speak the language after watching a few subs and getting a free trial of rosetta stone.
Just because you can't do it doesn't mean it's impossible.

Hint: It's not.

You're also reacting to the fact that when you were watching the subbed version, you were experiencing that translator's translation, which was different from the dubbed version that airs on Toonami.
 
There is no way for a non-Japanese speaker to tell if VO is good, bad, or over-acted in my opinion. You need to have a grasp of the language to understand the nuances in inflection, tone, pronunciation, etc to be able to make that judgement call. I started watching AoT subbed when it first came out and couldn't tell how melodramatic and ridiculous the script was until the dub aired on toonami. From personal experience, the only people I've seen claim otherwise were elitists and Japanophiles who thought they could speak the language after watching a few subs and getting a free trial of rosetta stone.

the subtleties are certainly going to be lost, but the more obvious things don't really require a knowledge of a language. if you pick one of the worst English dubs out there, for example, i don't think people need to know much about English to be able to pick up on the poor quality.
 
Just because you can't do it doesn't mean it's impossible.

Hint: It's not.

You're also reacting to the fact that when you were watching the subbed version, you were experiencing that translator's translation, which was different from the dubbed version that airs on Toonami.

I was watching AoT each week on crunchyroll, is that not a reliable translation? The point is that I wasn't aware just how melodramatic the script was because I couldn't get a handle on the show in relation to the voice acting. It's a different experience when you read something on screen, see characters react and hear them speak in a different language than watching the latter two happen in-sync in a language you're familiar with.

Watch this Bleach clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-LuLR3zHmw

Now critique the voice acting for me. Tell me what makes it good or bad. Tell me if they were over-acting. Tell me about the inflection and if it was natural or not.

the subtleties are certainly going to be lost, but the more obvious things don't really require a knowledge of a language. if you pick one of the worst English dubs out there, for example, i don't think people need to know much about English to be able to pick up on the poor quality.

To be fair the average Japanese citizen has a better grasp of the English language than vice-versa. I'd actually be interested in showing a non-native English speaker an example of poor dubbing and seeing if they can tell that it's terrible. That would be a very interesting experiment.
 
I was watching AoT each week on crunchyroll, is that not a reliable translation? The point is that I wasn't aware just how melodramatic the script was because I couldn't get a handle on the show in relation to the voice acting. It's a different experience when you read something on screen, see characters react and hear them speak in a different language than watching the latter two happen in-sync in a language you're familiar with.

Watch this Bleach clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-LuLR3zHmw

Now critique the voice acting for me. Tell me what makes it good or bad. Tell me if they were over-acting. Tell me about the inflection and if it was natural or not.



To be fair the average Japanese citizen has a better grasp of the English language than vice-versa. I'd actually be interested in showing a non-native English speaker an example of poor dubbing and seeing if they can tell that it's terrible. That would be a very interesting experiment.

I had to block two non english native speakers because they argued with me that cowboy bebop's dub was bad and acted superior on the subject because they knew multiple languages
 

Raxus

Member
I know for certain I'd take dub DBZ and Soul Eater any day just based on how ear grating their protagonists can be in the sub.
 

Squalor

Junior Member
I was watching AoT each week on crunchyroll, is that not a reliable translation? The point is that I wasn't aware just how melodramatic the script was because I couldn't get a handle on the show in relation to the voice acting. It's a different experience when you read something on screen, see characters react and hear them speak in a different language than watching the latter two happen in-sync in a language you're familiar with.

Watch this Bleach clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-LuLR3zHmw

Now critique the voice acting for me. Tell me what makes it good or bad. Tell me if they were over-acting. Tell me about the inflection and if it was natural or not.
The voice acting was fine for what it was. I certainly wouldn't call it great voice acting, though. The scene was purposely over the top. It wasn't serious. It wasn't a solemn moment. In the scene the character was comically overreacting, and so the seiyū raised not only the volume of his voice, but also the pitch. He hit his syllabic inflections in an unnatural manner because the comically melodramatic scene called for it.
I had to block two non english native speakers because they argued with me that cowboy bebop's dub was bad and acted superior on the subject because they knew multiple languages
Cowboy Bebop's dub is fantastic, as any native English speaker would know. What you encountered just seemed like pseudo-elitism.
 
I had to block two non english native speakers because they argued with me that cowboy bebop's dub was bad and acted superior on the subject because they knew multiple languages

Anecdotal evidence but yeah, I don't think people are able to tell if voice acting is good or bad unless they speak the language. It's easy to say a non-English speaker could tell if a dub was bad but I'm sure I've watched subs of shows native Japanese speakers think is poorly acted, but couldn't tell the difference myself. Maybe I shouldn't speak in such sweeping terms, but I tend to believe non-native speakers who claim to be able to judge the VO of a language they don't understand on a fundamental level are full of crap.
 

Raxus

Member
AoT was melodramatic as fuck in Japanese too. Just sayin'

I put it on par with the dub. If anything the dub didn't go out of their way to improve lines like they did with Dandy which is a shame because they could of had something special if they didn't how to shout every other line.
 

Squalor

Junior Member
Anecdotal evidence but yeah, I don't think people are able to tell if voice acting is good or bad unless they speak the language. It's easy to say a non-English speaker could tell if a dub was bad but I'm sure I've watched subs of shows native Japanese speakers think is poorly acted, but couldn't tell the difference myself. Maybe I shouldn't speak in such sweeping terms, but I tend to believe non-native speakers who claim to be able to judge the VO of a language they don't understand on a fundamental level are full of crap.
Just because you can't doesn't mean it's not possible.

Foreign actors wouldn't receive nominations for and win Academy Awards for acting if English speakers couldn't tell they were acting well simply because the actors were speaking a different language.
 
Just because you can't doesn't mean it's not possible.

Foreign actors wouldn't receive nominations for and win Academy Awards for acting if English speakers couldn't tell they were acting well simply because the actors were speaking a different language.

foreign actors receive nominations once in a blue moon. and even then a person acting on camera is entirely different from voice acting since you get to see their body language.
 
I've found myself less and less interested is even participating in the topic. Feels like everything's already been said. People prioritize different things and should watch what they want.
Pretty much. It's a debate in which each side are firmly within their camps and nothing the other side says will convince them otherwise.
 
Just because you can't doesn't mean it's not possible.

Foreign actors wouldn't receive nominations for and win Academy Awards for acting if English speakers couldn't tell they were acting well simply because the actors were speaking a different language.

That's a poor argument. I'm talking about voice acting, there's a lot more to winning an academy award than speaking well.

If you cannot read or write a foreign language, it is objectively harder, I would say close to impossible, to judge the quality of voice acting in their media. This is just my opinion, I'm not trying to state it as fact or anything like that. If somebody says they can judge the quality of acting in a clip of a language they don't speak or study, I tend to think they're full of it. I watch a ton of subs but don't pretend to be able to tell who's doing a good job and who isn't. The truth probably lies somewhere in the middle like GMN stated. Nuances such as tone, inflection, pitch, etc are going to be difficult to pick up but there are other things that are easier to judge regardless of what language(s) you understand.
 

Squalor

Junior Member
foreign actors receive nominations once in a blue moon. and even then a person acting on camera is entirely different from voice acting since you get to see their body language.
There have been numerous in recent years, including three years recently with three consecutive winners in an acting category.

On a yearly basis, however, there aren't a multitude of movies eligible because of the Academy's eligibility rules regarding foreign film releases.

Nonetheless, it's not just body and facial acting, it's also vocal acting when you're talking about speaking parts.

Even if one doesn't speak the language, it's absolutely possible to judge vocal acting with enough knowledge and experience. There are inflection, pitch, tone, and volume queues and patterns in all spoken languages. You just have to pick up on them, which, as I said, takes the proper knowledge and experience.
 
Even if one doesn't speak the language, it's absolutely possible to judge vocal acting with enough knowledge and experience. There are inflection, pitch, tone, and volume queues and patterns in all spoken languages. You just have to pick up on them, which, as I said, takes the proper knowledge and experience.

Like I said, unless you speak or write the language, which indicates having an understanding of it, it is really hard to accurately judge the VO of another language. Just because there are patterns doesn't mean that they universally translate.

Definition of intonation:

In linguistics, intonation is variation of spoken pitch that is not used to distinguish words; instead it is used for a range of functions such as indicating the attitudes and emotions of the speaker, signalling the difference between statements and questions, and between different types of question, focusing attention on important elements of the spoken message and also helping to regulate conversational interaction.

Now read this

The intonation patterns of Japanese and English do not have many features in common. Some of the meaning that the English native speaker conveys by stress and/or a change of pitch is differently expressed in Japanese (for example, by adverbials). Learners often benefit from explicit instruction and practice in these areas. In general, however, those learners who have had significant exposure to English and have become competent in it often acquire much more natural English prosody than, for example, Spanish or French with comparable levels of English proficiency.

Source: http://esl.fis.edu/grammar/langdiff/japanese.htm

Most people who claim to be able to tell if Japanese voice acting in anime is good or not are full of crap. Those how have studied the language have an argument, but if somebody bases their claim off of watching a ton of subbed cartoons, I'm less inclined to believe their point of view.
 
There have been numerous in recent years, including three years recently with three consecutive winners in an acting category.

On a yearly basis, however, there aren't a multitude of movies eligible because of the Academy's eligibility rules regarding foreign film releases.

Nonetheless, it's not just body and facial acting, it's also vocal acting when you're talking about speaking parts.

Even if one doesn't speak the language, it's absolutely possible to judge vocal acting with enough knowledge and experience. There are inflection, pitch, tone, and volume queues and patterns in all spoken languages. You just have to pick up on them, which, as I said, takes the proper knowledge and experience.

numerous? the categories are dominated by English-speaking actors to the point where it feels like anything else is just token recognition.

i never said it was just body and facial acting, i said the presence of those things completely change how you view the acting and provide a concrete thing that people who don't speak that language can judge. it's barely comparable, and if we're going to keep using the Academy as a measure then it's so different that they don't even recognize purely vocal performances.

it's not impossible to judge the voices of a foreign language, but you absolutely lose a considerable amount of the subtleties if you don't speak it. it's actually kind of absurd that people draw comparisons at all when there's generally such a wide gap between their knowledge of English and their knowledge of another language.
 

MetatronM

Unconfirmed Member
The truth is that most anime has "bad" acting in Japanese. Or, at the very least, it's not at all natural.

One Piece's voice acting in particular is some of the cartooniest, zaniest shit around.

Fucking great, though.
 

ckohler

Member
I've always been more of a dub watcher for the convenience of not having to read. From my experience, English dubs have improved a lot in the past two decades since I started watching anime in both the quality of the voice acting and the choice of voices.

I remember in the 90s, I would sometimes prefer the Japanese sub over the English dub of a show because of just how bad I thought the dub voices were. In hindsight, like Gucci said, I really had no idea know how good the Japanese performers were but I certainly remember thinking they put more "heart" or "effort" into their performances. Also, like girls who swoon over Austrialain accents, I was probably allured just by the sound of Japanese to boot.

These days, I exclusively watch the dub when it's available. While not all dubs are equal, it certainly feels like the bar has been raised enough to not even be about choosing which is the better performance between dub or sub.

Although, I do still like hearing Japanese subs now-and-then just for the flavor of the language with no idea if it's a good performance or not.
 
Anybody have any anime suggestions? I'm looking for something new to watch. Already plowed through Accel World this week and am all caught up with Akame Ga Kill and Sword Art Online II. I was thinking maybe Log Horizon? I'm down to watch pretty much anything.
 

Zonic

Gives all the fucks
Akame Ga Kill la Kill needs to happen.

.....I should probably see that series, considering people have said good things about Akame. Haven't been watching much this season aside from Jojo, P4 Golden Animation, & need to get caught up on Zankyou no Terror.
 
Anybody have any anime suggestions? I'm looking for something new to watch. Already plowed through Accel World this week and am all caught up with Akame Ga Kill and Sword Art Online II. I was thinking maybe Log Horizon? I'm down to watch pretty much anything.

Log Horizon and/or Gundam Build Fighters, the former is trapped in an mmo done right with great writing, characters, action, etc the later is basically yu gi oh with gundam toys that come to life and fight in some of the best 2d mecha action in the entire history of mecha anime. Both get my highest recommendation
 

Moaradin

Member
Build Fighters is really fun, I recommend. Log Horizon is great but action isn't it's strong suit. The politics and world building is great.

I recommend Barakamon. One of the best shows this season.
 
Anybody have any anime suggestions? I'm looking for something new to watch. Already plowed through Accel World this week and am all caught up with Akame Ga Kill and Sword Art Online II. I was thinking maybe Log Horizon? I'm down to watch pretty much anything.

You haven't seen log horizon yet? Do the shit out of that. Great show all around and really entertaining/satisfying.

Also, if you'd like to goof off and watch some shorts (7 min episode show) watch Tonari no Seki-kun. It's on Crunchyroll (might be under "Seki-kun Master of Killing Time"). That's a nice feel good show and all of the episodes are easily digestible.
 

Zonic

Gives all the fucks
Also, if you'd like to goof off and watch some shorts (7 min episode show) watch Tonari no Seki-kun. It's on Crunchyroll (might be under "Seki-kun Master of Killing Time"). That's a nice feel good show and all of the episodes are easily digestible.
Gotta agree with this. It's a rather funny series and makes use of its short running time for each episode where you feel like you got the perfect amount of each "gag" & it doesn't overstay its welcome.
 

bigkrev

Member
Also, if you'd like to goof off and watch some shorts (7 min episode show) watch Tonari no Seki-kun. It's on Crunchyroll (might be under "Seki-kun Master of Killing Time"). That's a nice feel good show and all of the episodes are easily digestible.

Anime was a bit disappointing, considering the Manga is basically the greatest thing ever created.
 
My pick ups today from my local Wal-Mart

ufmPEzG.jpg
I've seen Blood Lad subbed and it was very entertaining action/comedy shonen that I'm pretty sure will be coming to Toonami sometime in the next year. Vampire Knight I honestly know nothing about but it looks cool and it was cheap so impulse.
 
I had to duck out of Toonami because of a change in work hours, but I'll be back just in time for Attack on Titan to kick into high gear
 
Why the hell can't my Walmart have anime that isn't DBZ or whatever.

Might be sales based upon your area, my store does a decent amount of anime sales partially because I buy almost anything we get we generally sell 2-4 copies of any series we get in. Heck we had to get a restock on Vampire Knight as we sold out (started with 4) :X

Walmarts are weird. Mine still stocks physical copies of the Old Republic with the free month subscription. I even saw a couple of PS2 games on the shelf their too.

The PC section of Wal-Mart is largely a joke made up of 20% of new releases, 20% of sims stuff, 20% of Big Fish hidden object and other throw away software, 20% whatever random stuff we have way too much of in the back that'll never sell, and 20% of Blizzard

That store may be putting out PS2 games because the last 1-2 rows of most wal-mart cases are "flex" where you can just put whatever you have down their. They may just not have much flex for PS3/360/Wii/DS/3DS to put down there so they're resorting to old PS2 games they have back there. My store has a bunch of crap in the back, but I'm not even bothering to put it out unless I can mark it down to a dollar or less.
 
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