When you watch anime, or indeed anything originally taped in another language first, do you prefer subtitles, dubbing, or both depending upon circumstance?
For me, dubbing gets a SLIGHT advantage. I adore some shows in Japanese (I have a hard time even imagining a Free! dub for example, because so much of their interactions sort of depends upon that softer Japanese version of male friendship you often see in slice-of-life shoujo anime), but by far my favourite show is a dubbed one. Listening to the characters I can't help but feel that the English voice actors managed to portray each and every character better. It helps that the show is dubbed by Funimation, which is arguably the best dubbing company out there right now. (Their dub of Summer Wars, I couldn't get over it! So good!)
Now, we all know that you lose a bit of the context either way if you don't know Japanese. Yes, yes you do! This is one of the biggest thing I see "sub elitists" (the ones who exclaim that dubbing is THE DEVIL'S WORK and anyone who watches it that way isn't getting any of the original intent of the show) use, that dubbers are somehow "missing something vital". Well...unless you know Japanese, you're losing a lot of subtle cultural references they make either way. Subs often have to "clip" lines to make them fit on the screen in one or two lines per frame. They have to cut out subtle language-related skits (for instance one I can remember, which was luckily spelled out by the translator (this doesn't often happen due to timing constraints with subs though, so it is a bit of an anomaly), was a pun related joke between characters using the word "koi" which can mean both "love" and of course, the fish). Dubs, depending upon the company, sometimes try to match "lip flaps" (Funimation luckily seems to ignore this most of the time) which can lead to lines being twisted around and deviating farther from the meaning of the original line in order to make something more visually appealing. Both dubs and subs have to find a happy medium somewhere.
I don't think I have to go too far into the evils of dubbing since I'm sure we're all aware of it, especially those of us who got into the anime boom early, but I will say that a lot of the most horrible dubs happen when they take shows not meant for children, and air them for children. 4Kids is by far the most horrible dubbing company out there today, making strange, often WTF kind of decisions, and editing these shows out the wazoo. Also, before dubbing became a more "acceptable" form of consuming anime we often got some really bad dubs (Yami No Matsuei springs to my mind for the horribly weepy acting and the fact that Hisoke, who looks to be around fifteen or so, is slight of build and has the classic "uke" mannerisms (the whole show is shounen ai), has a voice that calls to mind Barry White Lite Version. Sort of...Rickrolling without the music!
)So, all in all I definitely feel that neither is "superiour" to the other, I just prefer a well-done dub to a well-done sub. If I'm getting pretty much the same information either way (Funimation again, oftentimes their subs will match about 85% of the dialogue to their dubs exactly), I would prefer to listen to it in English with a well-rounded voice cast. And sometimes they throw little things in there that just make me happy, for instance one character, in the Japanese sub simply says "Let's go!", while riding on horseback and talking to his second-in-command. The English dub took that line and made it "Race you!", which fit the spirit and intent of the character better.
I would say I'm definitely a "both" sort of person. How about everyone else? What do you prefer and why?
However: I don't watch that much female-lead oriented stuff, and the females I can recall tend to be adult females in dramatic roles so I can't talk with any authority on this subject!
I think a lot of that is the extremely well-done voice acting put forth by everyone in the cast, they wove subtle nuances into their voices that matched the tense, often conflicting action put on the screen. I think the Japanese VAs have a...hmn, how do I put it....
No wonder it wasn't that good!
