As the premiere for dubbed Naruto is going to be on September 10th on the Cartoon Network, there has been a lot more contraversy than usual over dubbing amongst us anime fans. What do you think about dubbing? Is it good? Is it bad? Is it pointless to waste time dubbing when we have subtitles? What is Bleach is next on the dubbing line? Four of the most popular anime DragonBall, Sailor Moon, Fullmetal Alchemist and Naruto have been claimed, will anime be ENGLISH-FIED here in north america?


My Personal Opinion:
DUBS SUUUUCK!! XD!
I have a lot of points about why I personally hate dubbing. I'll start with a few...yush. It seems to me that when anime is dubbed and aired in america, it seems to have more appeal to younger people. Example: OnePiece! I was so excited when I heard OnePiece was going to be shown in america...I had only read the manga then, but whatever. I was -SO- dissappointed. I mean, TERRIBLY dissappointed. The voices were ruined, and I felt embarassed for watching it because I had the feeling it was being aimed at like, 5 year-olds. Bleh.
I think that Anime revolves a lot around Japanese culture, but taking away the Japanese speech and replacing it with english...kind of...ruined? How many of you have learned loads of japanese words and phrases from watching subtitled anime? It's wonderful, isn't it? I think since Anime is produced in Japan, we should leave it the way the Japanese made it! It's not DIFFICULT to read subtitles, and if people are truly watching the anime because they like the anime, the language shouldn't matter! Keep it original, don't change it D:!

I've emailed the Cartoon Network letting them know about my [and much of the anime communities] feeling on dubbing. I hope they will come to their senses, kind of.
If you agree with this, show your support also! Email feedback@cartoonnetwork.com

LOL i totally support you on dubbing and how its bad and how they ruin good anime series i dont know about you but im a GS/GSD addict and after i saw GS on ytv i could never look at the subbed version of GS the same way expiecally since they left the original ED but stayed with the edited version of invoke but they changed the song lacus sings throughout the series alright in enough of me making barely any sense but before i sleep time to send cartoon network and ytv how they ruin anime series by dubbing

ZOMG I watched the first GS movie in japanese, and I thought it was okay, but then I watched GS on YTV, and now I can't watch it anymore, even subbed XP!

You sould email cartoon network! I'm trying to get a kind of mini-protest thing going... by just having lots of people email cartoon network, hoping they'll air subbed instead D: D:

My problem with dubbing is that the english actors aren't usually aware of japanese culture and conventions at all. as a result, the emphasis in the english dub is usually placed on the wrong moments, and the emotions are a little off. even if i can't understand the japanese language completely, the subs take care of uderstanding while the japanese voice track provides insight into the emotional states of the characters.

For me dubs SUCKS sometimes the voice doesn't even go with the characterfor dub i'll give it maybe 5/10 depending on what anime.

I wouldn't say dubbing in general is bad. There are some good animes out there that have been dubbed. But I do agree about One Piece, I thought it wouldn't be too bad. But it all depends on who you have that is doing the dubbing.

For certain animes, such as...Cowboy Bebop, the dubbing isn't as bad as most other anime. I much preferred Steven Jay Blum's voice over Kouichi Yamadera, although I'd be willing to watch both versions. Same goes for Samurai Champloo, the American and Japanese voices are both easy to listen to.

But as for other animes such as One Piece, I'd have to say down with dubbing. But again, it all depends on who is doing the dubbing.

We should not dub the anime. It is the rediculous conservatives and rightists who installed censorship and blocked our anime. The companies who dub the anime, will not listen to our plees to not change it to thier vapid version of an anime. We sould ask Japan to produce and distribute thier anime in America. If it doesn't happen then we should rebel against the american dubbing companies.
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"Bombard the headquarters, to rebel is justified"

-Mao Zedong

Not only are politics are in this, its the soccer moms who seem to like letting the TV babysit for them. Parents will complain about anime being too violent, too many swear words, too much blood etc etc because they dont want to forbid them from watching that stuff themselves and make everyone else suffer.

Dubs are bad, but it really does depend on the company. Companies like 4kids will BUTCHER an anime to make money. Viz and Funimation arent so bad about that but they usually release uncut DVD's with both versions on there.

And, some anime sound better dubbed. Cowboy Bebop sounds better than the original imho. Same with DBZ. But, they maybe just because i grew up with that XD

Dub is suck. I hate it. I tried not to watch them if I can. The only two I saw that English Dub are good Saiyuki and Fruits Basket.
They ruin the whole stories. If they change the voice of the characters would be okay...but how can they change the story. They change a little bit of this and little bit of that. Like One Piece.......how can Sanji the smoker becomes a candy. (I think it will be okay if they become a POCKY)
When I saw INuyasha in Japanese, I really like how Shippo and INuyasha voice. But when they dub in english...GOd...Shippo voice is not that cute anymore. And I don't even want to watch Inuyasha in English anymore.
I do agree that American actors are not aware of Japanese culture. How could they? That is their jobs. THey should have known the culture. They should know about Japanese culture to fit with their jobs. There is no excuse in that.

I am not sure about Naruto. 1. They cut some parts that we think it is important......2. Please don't put any weird opening and ending songs. 3. Don't change the conversation.........I think they will do all of that......

I just hate it English Dub. Subtitle are not hard to read at all. If you are hard core fans, you should be reading it without any problem.

Oh, I agree about the InuYasha thing as well. Poor Shippo. Although I still like think he's cute either way. =)

But again, it depends on who the people choose to do the voice-acting. For me, Steven Jay Blum is just, awesome. He can convey Spike's emotions as well as Kouichi Yamadera.

The people in charge of these things just need to learn how to pick the right people. They can't just pluck a few bystanders out from the street and ask them to be someone in an anime. Blaah. They need to pay more attention to the dubbing.

Personally... If people really like anime, they should be able to hack reading the subtitles.
When dubbing, the characters seem to loose their characteristics. You just don't get the full extent of the characters. Not to mention, the voices are completely off half the time. It just sounds too off.
I think the japanese language is what gives the characters a little more depth, I mean, after all, most of them are based on Japanese people and you can't really deny the fact that our language and the way we speak do play a pretty important part of what makes us... us I guess.

Mind you, I do pity some of the english dubbers. I mean, having to say so much in that one moment. I'd honestly run out of breath.

Dubbing really ruins the beauty and uniqueness of each anime. The voices don't match very well and they just say things however they want to. I know it's a hard job and all but please, get some real voice actors. There isn't any need to reiterate what everyone has said so I'll stop here.

Now I hope the Naruto dubbing won't be as bad, although I got a little glimpse of Naruto's english voice...

English dubbing on Anime is the pretty lame!! The vocal actors sound like mindless machines. There's no emotion, no personnality and usually the voices don't suit the character, specially the female characters... I got to admit something, th french do it better, we receive most of our tv programs from france, specially satelite tv, Mauritians speak both english and french,dbz, saint seiya or ghost in the shell are broadcasted on the french satelite tv, the dubbing is more tha decent, of course they've censored the swearing but the vocal actors show emotion and do it well. In fact, the french started broadcasting anime well before the americans and I got the virus through french Tv... VIVE LA FRANCE!!

Dubbing anime should be denounced! We had always been fans of anime becasue the manga came first to influence us. However it is being abnegated by the american companies! If the americans can't do a job then our only friend is Anime Japan. Let's help them set buissneses here in america.

I like dubbing sometimes cause i don't have to read subs while trying to enjoy the pictures.. cause i often miss a thing or too when I'm too busy reading the subs -_____-
but the voices sometimes or just horrible!
some of them or good and some of them aren't, -sigh- why can't they just gather all the good voice actors and dump the bad ones.. ><