Pokémon Anime Sub vs Dub!

[Genaller]

I’m really curious about what the general watching preferences are for people over here. For me I grew up on the 4Kids dub which despite butchering a lot of the original dialogue showed a lot of heart though after TPCi took over the dub quality drastically diminished making some scenes unbearable to watch. Once I switched over to Japanease (around mid DP), I noticed such an astronomical difference in the quality of both the voice acting and the soundtracks that I just couldn’t go back. I’ve even tried watching a lot of the iconic episodes of later series like DP and XY in English and honestly the quality just doesn’t compare.

A reason I get for why dubs are preferred is because it’s in a language that they can understand meaning that they can understand the precise tone in which each word is uttered. To that I say that the general tone of a sentence (happy, sad, angry, nervous, serious, sarcastic etc...) can most certainly be understood in Japanease as well. The only instances where this should even be an issue is if there are sudden tone shifts mid sentence and it may be difficult to pinpoint at which word did the tone shift occur though usually there wouldn’t be any more than 1 or 2 such shifts and such sentences are quite rare to begin with especially in a series like Pokémon though it shouldn’t be much trouble to work out at what word did the shift occur based on context.

Another reason (which is 1 I can empathize with) is that it’s difficult to simultaneously read subtittles and appreciate the visuals of the show, but then again I was able to get used to it and I have non-correctable visual impairment, so I can’t imagine that it would be all that hard for normal people to do the same.

 

[Hanto]

Subbed version only. The Japanese voice acting is a way better than other ones.

 

[U.N. Owen]

I'm going with the sub version.

The English dub just has terrible vocal direction. Either characters sound way too old (Shouta) or the pokemon themselves sound way too phoned in which can probably be chalked up to the Japanese language having a different structure of syllables.

It also feels like no direction was given to the voice cast. Eileen Stevens, the dub voice of Iris, was so much better in the Yu-Gi-Oh 5D dub than in this one. She's even done work in motion comics where she voices Kitty Pryde where she sounds so much better.

 

[Madame Chocobo]

This may not end to well.


But dub, for the simple purpose of not wanting to read of subtitles, and I prefer the English voices over the Japanese. I think the BGM music fine, the only problem I have with the dub is some of the openings.

 

[Apslup]

I prefer watching Pokemon Subbed for the most part and I try to watch it whenever possible.

• The Voice-Acting is better 99% of the time (the only exception is Meowth).
• Subbed Episodes come out months before Dubbed Episodes.
  
• The music (after the PCI started to add their own music) is far superior and adds more emotional impact to most scenes.
  
• I don't like how overly PG the Dub is, doing stupid stuff like replacing Japanese Food with Western Food (I mean seriously? Why does it matter?), along with Censoring some other meaningless parts of the show (such as in Kukui and Burnet's Wedding episode where they changed the Champagne into Juice! Kids have seen adults drink alcohol and know what a wedding is! It's not like they're going to steal some of their Dad's Beer out of the fridge and neck 5 cans or anything!)

I can tolerate the dub though. Since the vast majority of Pre-BW episodes are hard to come by Subbed, I do watch the Dub when watching older episodes and I've found that most of the 4Kids episodes aren't that bad and have a charm to them that make me feel nostalgic, such as the bad puns and most of the old voices being pretty good. One example of this is with Butch from Team Rocket, who has the running gag of people never remembering his name (with characters calling him Biff, Buffy, Bob, Mitch, Batch, Buzz, Bill, Hutch, Butcher ETC). His Japanese name is Kosaburo, with the only name change people give him being Kosanji, while the dub was really creative and used a bunch of different names for the joke.

However, PCI is a different story. The voices are awful and it's just straight up Cringey a lot of the time. Especially Ash's new voice, he sounded pretty Mature in DP which I liked, but from BW onward he sounded like a little kid again!

 

[Pokegirl Fan~]

I don't really have much of a preference between the two.

I guess ryu will love this thread

 

[Alola Adventurer]

I don't have much of a preference between the two. But I do prefer the Japanese Version a little more over the TPCi dub, though.

 

[Dragalge]

I will say that Sarah Natochenny has come some way since her debut in voicing Ash. Granted she’s still inconsistent here and there but she’s definitely improved since BW first got dubbed, which imo, was the best of TPCi’s dub to date in terms of voice acting and music. I rewatched the final two frontier episodes in AG and you can really hear the difference in Ash’s voice between that and Sarah’s current voice for him in SM. B/

TPCi needs to get new and better voice actors for TRio however. Stat. Get rid of Cathfart ffs. And Lillie’s dub voice is too screechy.

In the end, Sub wins it for me in the music alone but they also have some fine VA’s too! I do watch both though. With that said, for the dub, there are still a few character voices I like despite them altogether being inferior to the 4Kids ones imo. post-DP Ash, Dawn, Cilan, Kiawe, Mallow, Lana and Kukui to name some.

 

[keepitsimple]

While better than the dub version, I personally don't think the voice acting in the original is all that amazing itself + I like being able to watch the show legally and understand all the dialogue without reading subtitles. Whenever both versions of the same episode are available, I watch the dub instead

 

[Ryu Taylor]

I guess ryu will love this thread

You wouldn't happen to be related to Sabrina's family, would you? Because you called it.

As everyone here knows, I prefer the dub and hate the JP version, and that's so mainly because I was introduced to the JP version by the overhype about it. There was no way it could ever live up to the hyperbolic promises its fans made about how "amazing" it is. Still, sometimes it even surprises me how much of my cruelty it continues to earn just by existing as the piece of **** it is. But why is that? And why do I like the dub better?

• Better Acting

Now, Meowth not being the most serial of serial ear rapists in any version except the JP version automatically wins them all the award for most improved acting. Seriously, how can Meowth's JP voice even be considered anything good?! But I digress... the other voices are also pretty bad, but even the ones that aren't have a serious problem with either overacting or underacting. At this point, the only actually good JP voices are Ikue Otani as Pikachu and most of the celebrity guests they've gotten for the movies. As for the dub voices, except for about five, they're all good and fitting. Plus, they know how to actually ACT; no overacting or underacting all over the damn place, just the exact amount of performance energy required for each scene (with only a few exceptions), and it works.

• Better Writing

Next to the superficial music complaints, this is the biggest complaint thrown at the dub, mainly when it comes to Team Rocket going as far as to cite their DP selves as the worst part of that saga's dub. But really, TR were the worst part of DP in general, no matter the language, and I blame that on the true culprit: the writers. If they could just learn to give their characters actual personality, maybe then I could agree with them being memorable characters. But nothing of the sort can be found in the JP version. Except for JP Mewtwo, no character as seen in the JP version has any personality, identifiability, or memorability to them at all. The dub (moreso 4kids than TPCi; more on that later) actually have to give all that to everyone because OLM couldn't be bothered, the lazy bastards.
I'll gladly admit that writing quality is the one area 4kids has the advantage over TPCi. See, since TPCi opts to translate dialogue too literally, that means the JP version's lack of personality leaks into the dub when it comes to most characters. I can tell when that rare time comes where TPCi chooses to adapt rather than translate a line because when that happens, suddenly an iota of actual personality is shown. Oh, and TPCi's take on TR can be annoying most of the time, but I'd gladly take them over their JP selves any day. Thing is, though, that adapting and giving actual personality to characters who formerly had none at all was 4kids' forte, which is why it's the only thing about the 4kids dub I miss and think the TPCi dub would benefit from having.

• Better Music

OOOOOHHHHH-KAAAYYYYY, here it is, the subject that caused me to get gaslighted by every Miyazaki groupie who's ever heard or seen me say the dub music makes an absolute ***** out of the JP music. Actually, I should say they attempted to gaslight me because it clearly hasn't worked for close to three years, and it's STILL failing. And sorry, but this really needs to be said: they have the absolute WORST music standards in the world. I say that because said standards always boil down to meaningless platitudes like "Shinji Miyazaki's music is SO much better than the dub's crap!" "John Loeffler just randomly bashes synthesizer keys and calls it a day!" "Ed Goldfarb makes this show bland!" "Get ready to get Goldfarb'd!" (because that's apparently such a terrible fate). "Do we have any reason whatsoever to believe that things will get better?" "We can vote with our wallets by not buying movie tickets or DVDs, by not giving Disney XD good ratings by watching it on TV, by letting people know that yes, an alternative *does* exist, etc." (I didn't make those last two up, unfortunately; an actual living creature said those ones), basically meaning that to them, music is only good if a Japanese person composes it. Thankfully, that doesn't apply to everyone, and those that doesn't apply to can actually form coherent thoughts about the two soundtracks (kudos to you who have that ability). I'm not saying it's bad to like the JP music; I'm saying it's bad to have sub purist platitudes be your reason for liking it. The Miyazaki groupies have nothing but said platitudes as their standards, but the Miyazaki fans have actual coherent viewpoints. It's much better to be the former.
As for the soundtracks themselves, Miyazaki was at his peak during OS, his best overall soundtrack was that of the Lucario movie, and his best single track is Oracion. None of that makes him the John Williams people build him up to be. Plus, all that stuff I listed pales in comparison to the dub music. His main problem has to do with his skill as a remixer. I have never liked his take on a game track over an actual game track, nor have I ever liked a remix of one of his own original show compositions over the original version of such. He always ends up ruining it by making a choice of instrumentation that just messes everything up. The two biggest examples being his miserable take on the Regi battle theme which had unnecessary flourish all over the place, and the "I Choose You" movie remix of "Chaos" which had an overdone drumline running through it and practically drowning everything else out. The new stuff not derived from anything else game or past show track always was better. AG was where he started losing his touch since his original compositions started losing their passion and the already lackluster quality of the game remixes got even worse. It was a downhill slide for him until XY, which was his nadir. From that saga on, NOTHING went right. His music became the most uninspired and annoying orchestral bullshit I've ever heard. Oh, and the "I Choose You" soundtrack can go **** itself for flipping the bird at the past it thought it was celebrating.
Now, the composition quality is bad enough, but when you pair that up with how Masafumi Mima does the music editing, you get an absolute disaster. I mean, why else would I make up a word out of his last name (Mimaism= a terrible choice of music placement)? And considering this guy is responsible for ****ups like: using the G6 Legendary Battle theme for the introductory dance between Monsieur Pierre and Aria in "Party Dancecapades", spamming Future Connection everyfuckingwhere, using an inappropriately tense theme for when Ash encounters a Chikorita in "The Chikorita Rescue", using the utterly atrocious Meowth's Ballad over the sequence of Ash and his Pokémon keeping vigil over Litten in "One Journey Ends, Another Begins", placing circus calliope warbling over the scene of Mewtwo taking everyone's Pokémon, and other misjudgements like that, how can I NOT have a problem with his style?? The guy's a complete moron... while working on Pokémon. Somehow, he does great on My Hero Academia. I wish he could do that well on Pokémon. Even though that wouldn't fix Miyazaki's world of problems as a composer, at least stuff would fit.
And finally, the reason the dub music is better: it's better composed, better edited, and generally has a lot of heart and soul to it. I identify a lot more with it than the JP music because of all of that. I like emotional music for emotional scenes, tense music for tense scenes, happy music for happy scenes, funny music for funny scenes, sad music for sad scenes, creepy music for creepy scenes, and conclusive music for dénouements. Miyazaki and Mima fail in ALL those areas. But except for some isolated mistakes, the dub has succeeded in those areas. And that is why Ed Goldfarb is the best composer for the show: his music succeeded in all those mentioned areas. If Akhil Gopal could improve as a music editor (he's not NEARLY as bad as Mima, but he has made a few bad calls), everything would be perfect.

• In Conclusion

The Japanese version is an overhyped, annoying, badly scored, badly written and badly acted mess of a show, and the English dub is an enjoyable well-scored, well-written and well-acted Saturday morning cartoon. From now on, my Pokémon animated series viewing will be in English (or whatever other TPCi-produced language versions of favorite episodes I get curious about). I hope everyone understands.

And yes, I did copy a lot of this from my own post on Amino about why I like the dub better. I said it best there, that's why. Though I'm going to add one final thing: if I was introduced to the JP version by ANY method other than overhype, I'd be loyally following and liking both versions.

 

[345ash-greninja]

Well, first of all, I do admit that the sub is overall a better quality with better background music, better opening/ending themes and most importantly, better voice acting too (Rica Masumoto is obviously at another level compares to Veronica Taylor and Sarah Natochenny). But still, I personally have always preferred the dub over the sub for various reasons.

First of all, it easily and way more convenient for me to watch the dub compared to the sub. After all, the dub is in a language I fully understand to the core and sub is in a language which I pretty much I don't understand at all. Watching the show in a language I understand is obviously way more convenient plus also helps better to get more deep into the show and the characters of the show.

People can bring the subtitles which helps us understand each understand the dialogues whilst watching the show in Japanese, but TBH can we really get more deep into the show + the characters via only reading the subtitles? The answer simply is no, because the subtitles tell the overall meaning of a dialogue, that's all. From the subtitles we can't make any idea of what each and every word of a dialogue means, unless we know Japanese of course. Only getting to know the overall meaning of a dialogue isn't enough to understand the emotions the character is expressing through the sentence/dialogue unless we can understand each and every word of the sentence/dialogue in the first place (which is impossible via reading the subtitles). And when we can't adequately understand the emotions the character is expressing through the dialogue, getting a deeper insight on the characters is basically impossible.

With the dub, there is no such problems. I (and most of the other Pokémon anime viewers throughout the world) understand that language fully, so in that case, as we can understand each and every word in a sentence/dialogue, and in the process fully understand the emotions the character is expressing through that dialogue. In the process, getting a deeper insight on the characters and the show is much more easier.

So, despite the fact that the sub is better in quality in many ways like voice acting, BGM, etc., I do prefer the dub because of the aforementioned reasons; to put it in short, it's way more convenient for me and helps me to gain a deeper insight on the characters and show.

 

[Ryu Taylor]

I think any big XY or DP fan should watch the sub. It often surprises me how many huge DP/XY fans, or Dawn and Serena fans, never watched those sagas with the Japanese music. It's on a whole different level, all the moments with Serena and Ash fell flat in the dub, and a lot of Dawn's Contest battles or emotional moments don't have that touching Japanese music to go with it. You guys are doing a disservice to yourselves if you really like those characters or sagas and don't watch the original.

I often hear the people who dislike XY in general are the ones who watched the whole thing dubbed, complaining how "stale" it was. Also Bonnie is a million times more adorable in Japanese.

Are they obligated to watch it with the so-called "better" JP music and performances? Absolutely not. People like you who act like they are raise impossible expectations in the JP version and risk creating more people like me. And really, I think it's a well-known fact that the fandom considers one JP version hater to be way too many JP version haters.

And needless to say, there is absolutely nothing said in your post that I agree with. All those moments you mentioned fell flat in the JP version, none of the JP music is touching (especially the XY music, that crime against sound), nobody who likes Dawn, Serena, or Bonnie are doing a disservice to themselves by watching them dubbed, and that statement about people disliking XY because of its dub is a bullshit generalization. Besides, I'm an XY fan because of the dub (and a DP hater because of Ambipom and that saga's version of Team Rocket; and no, it's not because of how TPCi wrote them, so don't go thinking that little designated ace in the TPCi hater hole will work here). If I only saw it in Japanese, I'd hate the **** out of it.

Well, first of all, I do admit that the sub is overall a better quality with better background music, better opening/ending themes and most importantly, better voice acting too (Rica Masumoto is obviously at another level compares to Veronica Taylor and Sarah Natochenny). But still, I personally have always preferred the dub over the sub for various reasons.

First of all, it easily and way more convenient for me to watch the dub compared to the sub. After all, the dub is in a language I fully understand to the core and sub is in a language which I pretty much I don't understand at all. Watching the show in a language I understand is obviously way more convenient plus also helps better to get more deep into the show and the characters of the show.

People can bring the subtitles which helps us understand each understand the dialogues whilst watching the show in Japanese, but TBH can we really get more deep into the show + the characters via only reading the subtitles? The answer simply is no, because the subtitles tell the overall meaning of a dialogue, that's all. From the subtitles we can't make any idea of what each and every word of a dialogue means, unless we know Japanese of course. Only getting to know the overall meaning of a dialogue isn't enough to understand the emotions the character is expressing through the sentence/dialogue unless we can understand each and every word of the sentence/dialogue in the first place (which is impossible via reading the subtitles). And when we can't adequately understand the emotions the character is expressing through the dialogue, getting a deeper insight on the characters is basically impossible.

With the dub, there is no such problems. I (and most of the other Pokémon anime viewers throughout the world) understand that language fully, so in that case, as we can understand each and every word in a sentence/dialogue, and in the process fully understand the emotions the character is expressing through that dialogue. In the process, getting a deeper insight on the characters and the show is much more easier.

So, despite the fact that the sun is better in quality in many ways like voice acting, BGM, etc., I do prefer the dub because of the aforementioned reasons; to put it in short, it's way more convenient for me and helps me to gain a deeper insight on the characters and show.

Don't let anyone take that from you, pal.

 

[mehmeh1]

Maybe it's nostalgia, but IMO 4kids>Jp>TPCi, though I think I prefer the latin american dub in terms of VA's (though Gabo Ramos>Miguel Angel Leal), but I prefer jp's OST

 

[Evanibble]

I generally prefer subs when I watch anime. Hearing everything as it was originally intended is important to me, because dubbing a show can really mess up certain things such as tone and intent of a phrase or conversation. Plus...some of the voices (in Pokemon and generally) don't always match up with their character and sometimes sound whiny or cringy. Oh, and japanese anime openings are usually superior to english ones in my opinion. Pokemon is no different.

Although I did grow up watching the Pokemon dub and definitely enjoyed it, and would still watch that. Also I don't have a huge problem with the SM dub, and would watch it if I happened to see it on TV. But at the end of the day I usually just stick to subs.

The dub, I will admit, does give us some golden lines like this.

 

[Frozocrone]

I prefer the Japanese version usually because my ears are pretty tone deaf so it's harder for me to pick out bad acting

The dub has its merits though, and although I don't agree with some of the music changes, the dub also changes music when the original tries to play a melody to draw out emotion thats unfitting (see SM episode 26).

 

[satopi]

I don't like the wording of the poll. Seriously, The English dub and sub are neither superior nor inferior from each other. It's a matter of preferences. Anyways, as far as the Pokémon anime, I watch sub/the original simply because I prefer it and I haven't liked the English dub since the end of DP. I wouldn't call the English dub bad. They have accurate translations and Ash's current voice actress has improved to a fantastic Ash voice (props to Gary keeping the same voice actor!) A few points I wanted to say is that they make questional choices like I'm not a fan of some of the voices since a lot of them don't fit. I find it absolute nonsense that they still change the voices of say, Rockruff/Lycanroc when in the original, it's plain dog barks/whimpers. Each Pokémon doesn't have to ALWAYS say it's name. I'm also still a bit pissed that they changed Isshu to Unova when it really wouldn't have been difficult to pronounce. Going back to the voices, I feel like the girls are starting to sound similar to each other like Mallow, Lillie, Acerola, (current) Misty. Or heck, they even change the voices even if they're the same name like Togedemaru! You change Togedemaru's voice (which doesn't sound differently from it's original voice) but don't change Dedenne?! I also hate that the original music is scrapped (understandable because of copyright issues) but is replaced with elevator music. Sometimes the music takes away the emotions and tension of the scene while other times, it's fine like they did with the scene where Serena cries after losing her first Performance. I do really like the English dub openings except for BW (BW English dub ops were a mess lol!) Aside from the voices and other technical things, my other issue is the dialogue. It feels too kiddy (maybe it's the delivery of the lines maybe?), I just don't feel that hit in the gut that makes me feel the emotion like I do when I watch it subbed.

Simply put, I don't like the direction and overall product of the current English dub, which sucks since I used to love binge watching it when there was a marathon of Pokémon back then and a lot of the English speaking viewers will judge a character based on how they sound and are presented that can be easily misunderstood and misinterpreted (#1 prime victim is Iris.) It's very easy to dislike a character, episode, and saga based on the sound. I wish Pokémon was treated with as much love as the English dub's handling of Yokai Watch. As far as other anime outside of Pokémon, I prefer English dub but don't mind the original at all. Only issue I have is if the English dub is voiced by FUNimation who yes, have great voices but they recycle a lot of the same voices which is really annoying and they can over exaggerate their dialogue in a scene like they stupidly did in the trailer of Danganronpa 3.

 

[Genaller]

I don't like the wording of the poll. Seriously, The English dub and sub are neither superior nor inferior from each other. It's a matter of preferences. Anyways, as far as the Pokémon anime, I watch sub/the original simply because I prefer it and I haven't liked the English dub since the end of DP. I wouldn't call the English dub bad. They have accurate translations and Ash's current voice actress has improved to a fantastic Ash voice

Well if you don’t like it, then you can make your own thread and word that however you want ^^. The Japanease version is vastly superior both in voice acting and music selection as far as I’m concerned. Yeah accurate translations don’t make the dub on par when the their actors can’t execute the script with anywhere near the same lvl of competency. LMFAO Sarah has never and will never match Rica’s incredible emotional range when portraying Ash!

 

[satopi]

Well if you don’t like it, then you can make your own thread and word that however you want ^^. The Japanease version is vastly superior both in voice acting and music selection as far as I’m concerned. Yeah accurate translations don’t make the dub on par when the their actors can’t execute the script with anywhere near the same lvl of competency. LMFAO Sarah has never and will never match Rica’s incredible emotional range when portraying Ash!

I just think the word "superior" comes out wrong. Again, I never said the English dub was on par with the original just because they have accurate translations. If anything, I said that I hated the dialogue and how the vocal script is executed.

Sarah is a good replacement for Ash (and has been voicing Ash longer than Veronica Taylor... who is my Ash!) but Rica is Satoshi. I gush over how passionate both Rica and Veronica are towards their roles as Ash but barely find any for Sarah. I think Sarah is doing the absolute best she can and sure she's not as recognizable or on the same level as Rica/Veronica but she honed her voice for Ash.

 

[raichu27]

I prefer the dub, since I don't understand Japanese. Plus, I grew up with the English dub.

 

[MidnightMelody]

Dub for everything before season 9 but sub for everything after season 8