Ask Lemmy

Depends on what's available. Dubs are high ceiling/low floor, whereas subs are low ceiling/high floor, so when both are available, I try the dub first and if the dub is bad I fail over to the sub.

Subtitled, unless I watch it with family members who all prefer dubbed. I actually rewatched Frieren recently, this time with the German dub, and was surprised at how good it is (even if the German character/place names become even weirder in that version).

Substitle. I really hate dubs. The english voice actors have always the same annoying tone and lack of diverse emotions

Dub if the dub is solid so I can focus on the animation. Sub if it isn't.

Sub, English voice actors never feel like they fit the characters and either come off as overly cartoony or they don't have enough energy.

Mainly sub, there probably aren't any Czech dubs of anime besides the mainstream like naruto and such. And most of the English ones sound kinda weird and there's just something about the Japanese dub and its energy.

I watch subbed because the dub is almost always shit. only problem with that is the subbed voice acting tends to be a lot hornier

Dub. The problem with subs is that if you blink, or take your eyes off the screen to grab your drink or something, you miss stuff. Ears still work if eyes get distracted. 👂

That said, I’ve seen some dubs that were so bad I gave up watching the thing (live action).

SUBS4LYFE I can read fast and i almost always prefer the tone and flow of the natural language.

I prefer to watch movies and TV shows in their original language. I feel it loses some of its cultural identity when it's dubbed in another language. I especially hate when companies change the context of the show to make it relevant to the foreign audience. (e.g. changing rice balls to "jelly donuts" in the English dubbed Pokémon series.)

So when it comes to anime, I'm a huge advocate for watching subbed. I lived in Japan for 3 years and anime just sounds weird to me in English. It's unnatural. And there are so many interesting cultural quirks with their language that get lost when it's translated into English. It's boring when the show is really identifiable as my own culture. I wanna enjoy a different culture's perspective!

Broaden your horizons and learn more about foreign cultures. Watch your anime subbed! It'll also improve your reading speed and comprehension skills. I don't even notice that I'm reading subtitles anymore.

Plus, you'll be able to easily identify Japanese in the wild after a while. I also lived in South Korea for a couple years and I'm very good at picking out Japanese, South Korean, Chinese, and Tagalog (Philippines) languages, just by sound. Not to mention a handful of European and Scandinavian languages from a few years living in the EU.

I never realized how ignorant and closed-minded I was, living in the US. Traveling abroad made me realize there's a whole world out there that is extremely different from what I'm used to back home, and it's given me a new perspective of the world.

I didn't realize how much of an echo chamber America is. We're isolated on the other side of the planet from most everyone else and are exposed solely to our own media propaganda, which promotes the idea that we're the best country in the world and looked up to by everyone else. (We barely make the top 20 lists when compared to other nations, and are generally seen like a cringey edgelord by other countries).

Plus, we only have 2 foreign neighbors, but America is so huge, a majority of Americans don't live anywhere near the borders and will never bump into Canadians or Mexicans. So most of us live our whole lives without foreign cultural experience, and it's easy to fear-monger about "invading foreigners." Watching subbed movies and shows, of any language, is the easiest first step toward stepping outside your comfort zone and exploring other cultures.

90% dubbed. Sub only of no dub available. I'm happy for anyone who can read that fast but I just prefer looking at the scene. Also most dubs I know are pretty good anyway, I never understood the hate.

Dub, I rather listen to a show in English just helps me get into the story easier.

Mostly Dubbed. I like listening to my favorite animes while doing chores.

If I know the dub is good I would watch that. The same reason non-english speaking television or movies are less interesting; I want to be able to not have to watch the bottom of the screen every few milliseconds.

Subtitled. The English dub comes off as over the top and is more intrusive. I always check to see if the dub is good though

Dubbed. I can't just watch TV. I always want to be doing something else while I've got the TV on

Generally neither. I live in Japan so if wife watches something, it's usually in japanese.

No I do not.

I have always watched subbed except for a few shows that I watched on TV back in the day. I don't really know what it is, but the dubbed voices just always feel off. I can watch American animation and the English voices feel perfectly fine. But show me an anime with English voices and it's like an uncanny valley sort of thing.

Subtitle, never dub.

Subbed. I have horribly delayed audio processing so I prefer subtitles either way and anime having such high standards for subs makes it my favorite form of media - they don't feel like an afterthought.

With vague hand-wavy apologies to the purists, I cannot stand watching original language with subtitles.

When I'm watching a movie, I want to watch a movie. If I want to read, I have a bookshelf full of books, and a reader filled with even more. Subtitles take my focus away from what's happening on screen..

My spouse is hard of hearing, and actually CAN'T watch some anime because the dub and subtitles don't match, and it makes it even harder for them to figure out the dialogue, and since they're struggling to parse the words, they completely blank on the actual show.

When I'm watching anything by myself, I don't use subtitles. That extends to anime.

Both

I typically prefer subbed; watching dubbed feels off somehow. Then again, I'm perfectly fine with the dubbing in DBZA so it must be a preference I learned somewhere!

Subbed, because the Japanese VA is often the better actor and that carries the performance. If an anime has higher budget dubs, I'll watch those (not many of those; anything dragon ball usually meets the bar and witch hat atelier is treating English dubs with respect).

Dubbed and subbed, I do other things while watching, and when I do pay attention I like seeing the difference in translation.

I watch all my anime in braile.

I usually default to subs, but there are certain dubs that are pretty iconic and I'll sometimes choose over the Japanese. For example I always enjoy the English-language cast of Cowboy Bebop and count that as one of the times they really Got It Right translating the dialogue and casting the dub.

And, of course, there are the gag dubs like Samurai Pizza Cats or the Funimation version of Shin Chan in which the dub clearly veering away from the source material and doing its own thing is the whole point.

subtitled… I want the voice acting the creators intended

I don’t consider myself a connoisseur, so I watch either. I do enjoy watching a series both dubbed AND subbed over different viewings though cause it can lend additional context depending on translation.

If I find a competent dub version, dub; otherwise, sub. Latinamerican dub is often pretty good, yet scarce nowadays.

Mostly subs but it depends, some dubs are good. Some subs are annoying too. I’ve been enjoying witch hat in English. Black lagoon had a great dub. And then, if I’m watching while doing stuff dub so I don’t have to look at the screen the whole time.

First time always dubbed. I want to take in the visuals and not miss anything. Later on if I rewatch and I hear it's a bad dub because the meanings are wrong or things are missed, then I'll watch sub to take in more nuance of the writing.

Either way I find there are cultural memes that simply never translate and sometimes the dub, while less accurate, makes more of an effort to translate the memes into something similar that I can understand better.

Almost always dubbed. The Spanish dubbers are very professional. But I have no problem using subs if needed.

Watched both. Maybe there are some egregious counterexamples but I will put zero effort into choosing between sub/dub. Sort alphabetically or something and that is fine.

Depends on the dub, quality of voice actors, sometimes whichever one I was exposed to first. I generally prefer a good dub because I can get fixated on the words and don't pay as much attention to the actual show.

Subbed for sure.

The only anime I've ever watched dubbed was Cyberpunk Edgerunners due to my playthrough of the game being in English.

Subs, gotta have that original language. I want to have the feeling of the character as it was intended by the director and/or casting director.

Sometimes when you watch a show with dubbed language, it can completely change the vibe of the character if the voice is too different.

Sub with subtitles, my neurodivergence won't let me watch a show otherwise. If the two aren't synced that's a big nope.

when I was young the preference was subtitled but my eyes have gotten worse as I aged. both far and near sighted and although the near should not matter everything is kinda worse. anyway now favor dubbed.

Dubbed with subs. Often the best understanding comes from seeing both translation attempts

Subbed, but I also don't mind dubbed in most cases. Unless it's a situation like the Chinese donghua All Saint's Street where they changed the opening theme song for the Japanese dub and I prefer the original better. I have little experience with the Japanese dub* outside of that, but I kinda like the VAs better for the original dub. I know donghua is not technically anime, but I don't care.

Though, I will switch dubs to another language if I like the voice actors better. So, sub or dub is purely up to preference. Case Closed? Really wish they continued the Jimmy Kudo ENG dub so badly that if I ever became rich enough, I would buy the rights and continue that dub. BEASTARS? Sub is better, IMO. But wouldn't mind checking out the French dub for just a singular character.

*compared to the original dub

Dubbed every time unless there isn't one. That's the only time I'll watch subbed.

Both. I prefer subs but that requires attentive watching. Dubbed I can work on my bike with it in the background.

subtitled, always.

Original voices are always best and with subtitles one can always just read what is being said. I prefer to watch even english stuff subtitled because sometimes its really hard to even hear what people are saying and sometimes there are stuff you cant even know without the subtitles, like if someone speaks some other language or sign language.

Though dragonball z is odd exception, that is where i like dubbed voices better. Maybe its because its how i watched it first when i was kid.

Subs, Japanese voice actors just have a completely different style. And I'd probably need subs for English dubs anyway (like I do for English-language live action movies/shows), because English is not my native language, so there's barely an advantage.