How do your DB language preferences relate to others?

[huzaifa_ahmed]

Just going to link my Reddit post here: https://www.reddit.com/r/dbz/comments/4 ... agon_ball/

But TLDR if they GAF about/pay for the dub, I GAF. If dub sounds like sub, I like. Also like non-English dubs too.

Dubs I don't like:

[*]Anything DB pre-Kai

[*]YYH (watch it after for extras, though)

[*]MGS (haven't played em, but Liquid, Solid, & Raiden sound like wimps - all much, much lighter than the originals, & from what I hear, the dub was entirely outsourced)

[*]Gyakuten Saiban ("Phoenix Wright", nuff said)

[*]Most PCB dubs (Sol Badguy, Yu & Yosuke are way too light, Kanji Tatsumi way too deep)

[*](on principle, as opposed to personal preference) YGO & Digimon.

In general, I dislike the overhyping of certain (butchered) Toonami-era & widely-exposed dubs, & "OMG English characters speaking English" dubs (yes, that includes Bebop, Hellsing, & FMA, despite HSU's acting being fantastic). Reddit anime has NO CLUE about how dubs even work, & I can't stand people who hype FUNimation's monstrosity over this AAA-list Japanese VO production.


[*]& of course, on TOP of the fact that FUNimation was this tiny company, which would be kinda valiant if they worked ADV-style, they totally mainstreamed this show to a million pieces, without even paying for talent like Voltron apparently did.

My main beef with this is that FUNimation reaps tons off ignorant fans & pays rather disgustingly low amounts to these VA's, who you'd assume are worth a lot, going by fan enthusiasm (I'm not sure how much this happens for other anime, but surely no dubs are as big as DBZ)

[Super Sonic]

Is English not your native language, as a lot of what you said I don't understand. And what is GAF, PCB and TLDR among what you said as abbreviations? And YYH's funniest line is great.

[huzaifa_ahmed]

Is English not your native language, as a lot of what you said I don't understand. And what is GAF, PCB and TLDR among what you said as abbreviations? And YYH's funniest line is great.

Technically, it might be Urdu...but I don't speak with an accent or anything.

Anyhow, GAF is "give a f***", & means caring

PCB is a studio that records plenty of video games, including dubs like Guilty Gear & Persona, Trauma Center, & other Atlus game dubs - they often reuse from a small talent pool for dubs, & often don't sound that close because of it.

TLDR "too long;didn't read" - a summary for those who simply want to understand & participate in the comment section.

[exodius33]

I'll never defend Grandma Freeza or the excessive censorship in the early dub, but I generally prefer Dragon Ball in English, though I admit that's a bias due to growing up watching Z on Toonami. I like a lot of the puns and added humor, too, as corny as they are. I find a bunch of bad puns and cheesy jokes as adding to the series, I never understood why people insist that a series about big burly men screaming at each other should be taken 100 percent seriously.

I still dig the Japanese cast, though, and I'm enjoying Super along with everyone else. It's interesting hearing different takes on the same character. Masako Nozawa plays up the dumb manchild of Goku, while Sean Schemmel is better at the heroic aspects of him.

[Cipher]

I'm not quite sure what this thread is asking -- if preferring Dragon Ball subtitled or dubbed means we prefer other media subtitled or dubbed?

Except in cases where there's some historical novelty to the existence of a different English-language or U.S. version (which I can only think of in the case of some vintage giant-monster material), I always watch foreign media subtitled. And that extends far beyond just anime or just Japanese properties. Many, if not most, of my favorite movies are foreign.

[Gyt Kaliba]

For me, unless a dub is just plain horrible (and I admit my bar for 'horrible' to the point of being just plain unwatchable is fairly low, at least in comparison to a lot of others), I tend to watch most things in my native language of English. It's mostly out of convenience for myself though - my ADD tends to make it hard to do just one thing like watching something, unless it's something I'm just really, really into, so I need to be able to multi-task. Whether it's messing around on my laptop, or playing a game on my 2DS or Vita, it's just a lot easier to do something else if what I'm watching is in a language I understand without having to read subtitles.

That said though, there are a fair number of things that I either love so much that I want to see the original version even if I like the dub, or I find the dub unacceptable for some reason or another. Just off the top of my head, examples of things like that would be Dragon Ball, Yu Yu Hakusho (Well, it's on my list to get to subbed eventually anyway), the works of Masakazu Katsura, Lupin III, Digimon, and Godzilla films.

[Adamant]

The idea of communities of functioning adults so opposed to reading they want the audio of their foreign entertainment replaced for them being so large they're actually able to support an entire industry is absolutely ridiculous. You'd get laughed out of any company for even seriously suggesting something like that here.

[TheBlackPaladin]

The idea of communities of functioning adults so opposed to reading they want the audio of their foreign entertainment replaced for them being so large they're actually able to support an entire industry is absolutely ridiculous.

Might I ask why?

[exodius33]

The idea of communities of functioning adults so opposed to reading they want the audio of their foreign entertainment replaced for them being so large they're actually able to support an entire industry is absolutely ridiculous. You'd get laughed out of any company for even seriously suggesting something like that here.

That's you

[RedRibbonSoldier#42]

That's you

Let's not resort to pre-packaged meme insults, especially not one as dumb as "weaboo"

[exodius33]

That's you

Let's not resort to pre-packaged meme insults, especially not one as dumb as "weaboo"

When someone passively aggressively attacking dub fans and questioning their intelligence for not watching muh superior japanese dub, calling someone a weeb with a prepackaged copypasta is an appropriate response.

[Cipher]

It's not a weeb thing to suggest that maintaining the original performances in film is immensely important.

[exodius33]

It's not a weeb thing to suggest that maintaining the original performances in film is immensely important.

Preferring the original Japanese cast is one thing, but that's not at all what he said

The idea of communities of functioning adults so opposed to reading they want the audio of their foreign entertainment replaced for them being so large they're actually able to support an entire industry is absolutely ridiculous.

That's saying "if you watch the dub you're retarded lol and I'm of superior intelligence for watching it in Japanese", which is an IMMENSELY weeb thing to say.

also reminder that Dragon Ball is at its core, a children's cartoon that airs on Sunday mornings, it is not high art. The reason for Dragon Ball's worldwide popularity is because its themes, characters and dialogues were easily translatable into other languages, and without dubs DB would just be some obscure japanese thing. Don't pretend you were watching bootleg fansub tapes in 1994, and I doubt even 5% of the people on this forum even really know Japanese. Even the admins of the site, who are ACTUALLY old guard western fans, have admitted the dub has come into its own in later years.

[Cipher]

Preferring the original Japanese cast is one thing, but that's not at all what he said

He indicted adult media audiences for still supporting dubbed material, which I think is mostly fair. Dubbing is a thankless, tiring job, and I have respect for those who act in, direct and edit dubbed projects, but I can absolutely see the argument that they shouldn't exist. And this is coming from someone who still watches maybe ... two, three? anime properties, including Dragon Ball. This is coming from my film-snob side, where I'm a lot more versed.

There's totally allowance for the fact that Dragon Ball is a children's property, and sure, I got into it dubbed. No one's going to change the media landscape now. But I'll point out that there are countries that subtitle children's media regularly (Scandinavian countries for sure, and I believe others), and Dragon Ball's squarely aimed at a reading-age-plus crowd.

I doubt even 5% of the people on this forum even really know Japanese. Even the admins of the site, who are ACTUALLY old guard western fans, have admitted the dub has come into its own in later years.

No one's talking about knowing Japanese; we're talking specifically, in fact, about language aids for those who don't know it. (Apropos of nothing, I do know quite a bit of Japanese, and minored in it, but not knowing any French doesn't stop Godard from being among my favorite directors and watching his movies subtitled.) You're talking about watching something in the original, which is without a doubt the best way, but also something completely different.

And what do opinions on subtitles writ broad have to do with whether anyone's purchased bootleg fan tapes?

Anyway, I don't really care whether anyone enjoys Dragon Ball dubbed or subtitled, and the reality of many country's media is that it would never take off there any other way. I do kind of get harping on the idea of dubbing, intellectually, though. I'm really not sure it should exist.

[exodius33]

This is coming from my film-snob side

Well, at least you're self aware, thinking someone enjoying a cartoon in their native language makes them an idiot and less enlightened than you are, even while fully admitting you only like the franchise because you saw a dub, is a sure mark of a snob.

P.S. Godard sucks, Truffaut is better, and that you made that comparison in the first place is a hysterical sign of pretentiousness

[Cipher]

P.S. Godard sucks, Truffaut is better, and that you made that comparison in the first place is a hysterical sign of pretentiousness

You'd be making that remark after I've made it myself. I was just thinking of stuff that I liked, and sometimes you've gotta go 0 to 100. Dragon Ball's a wonderfully silly kid's comic from thirty years ago, and despite the conversation we're having, I don't think anyone here is pretending otherwise. But that post might have gone up before I edited in the last line?

Truffaut is great, but Godard's punk-rock edge in pushing the medium to its limits has always appealed to me over the deftly shot realism of Truffaut. (Though I get that even that was subversive at the beginning of the '60s.)

Also I'm just secretly trying to get more French New Wave + Dragon Ball discussions on this board, because it's hard to hit all your media interests in one spot. I'm so happy you had a response with Truffaut that I don't even care you basically called me a dick.

You should've been here when penguintruth wasn't banned though, man. That would've been a trip.

EDIT --

Anyway, I'm pretty sure Adamant is from a country where they don't subtitle much media, including children's stuff (aimed at those past reading age). So, even though decades of U.S. media history have left subtitled products niche--primarily because we produce so much of our own--in theory it doesn't need to be that way, which is where the argument comes from. Of course it's not changing now. On top of that, since this thread was talking about at least other anime, if not other series/movies as a whole, much of which is brought over to be aimed at adults, I think Adamant was indicting that whole practice more than dubbing Dragon Ball itself.

[Kid Buu]

I watch everything in its original language. Actually, to be honest, I watch everything with subtitles, even English movies, mainly so I can make sure I don't mishear anything.

Never had a problem with subtitles, I was pretty much raised on them since my parents always had Bollywood shows/films playing on the TV as a kid, and I studied cinema in my spare time and in college.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

I can understand subtitles taking people time to get used to, it did for me but I've started watching Dragon Ball in Japanese and its really worth it to see the show as it was intended and for the superb voice acting. I am happy we have faithful dubs nowadays (Kai, BoG, RoF, hopefully Super too) because a lot of us go through phases where we just want to relax and watch the show in a language we're familiar with, and I'm glad I can go from one to the other seamlessly. Goku's my favourite character, and I love hearing different interpretations of his character whether its Nozawa, Schemmel, the Ocean actors, there's something I appreciate in all of them, and that's the same way I look at Dragon Ball dubbed or subbed.

[ABED]

I can understand subtitles taking people time to get used to, it did for me but I've started watching Dragon Ball in Japanese and its really worth it to see the show as it was intended and for the superb voice acting. I am happy we have faithful dubs nowadays (Kai, BoG, RoF, hopefully Super too) because a lot of us go through phases where we just want to relax and watch the show in a language we're familiar with, and I'm glad I can go from one to the other seamlessly. Goku's my favourite character, and I love hearing different interpretations of his character whether its Nozawa, Schemmel, the Ocean actors, there's something I appreciate in all of them, and that's the same way I look at Dragon Ball dubbed or subbed.

Same here, I love the original in its native language, but I also enjoy listening to a good dub.

[Gyt Kaliba]

I dunno...while I can certainly understand there being some level of cultural difference here, there would definitely be a better way for Adamant to phrase his position there. Because whether he intended it or not? It's coming off as extremely close to arrogance, if not already there.

I mean, if someone is into something enough, they should likely develop an at least border-line interest in it's original versions. That's what led to my becoming more interested in the Mirage comics for TMNT, for example, despite not being a US comic fan by any means. But, if someone is a fan of foreign material and only watches it in dubbed form...so what? That's their prerogative. To try and decry the entire movement as lazy, or even questioning their functioning capability, just reeks of elitism, cultural differences or no.