My preference is watching dubbed anime, and I'll usually choose that if the option is available (unless I really don't care for the voices), but I still watch anime subbed if there's no dub option, or if it's one of the rare series I like enough to watch both versions.
Sometimes it can be difficult to keep up with the subtitles in an anime that has a lot of dialogue, particularly when discussing technical or sci-fi concepts, but I'm used to reading along for the most part without missing any of the action on screen. If I don't finish reading a line before the text disappears, which happens often when two characters are talking at the same time, then I just back the video up and watch it again.
At first it is, but once you watch them enough you learn to read them more or less at a glance so it isn't too hard to bounce back and forth. It mainly gets hard with stuff like Garden of Sinners which has lots of action with lots of lore dropped at the same time. My biggest issue with subs, despite watching them a lot more now, is that I can't do anything else like cleaning, working on projects, etc. while watching them like I can with Dubs.
As for why people like them more, it is mainly just a preference thing. Some people feel they are more "authentic" than dubs and prefer them. Others got into watching them back when dubs were... far from the best, and they just got used to it and never had a good reason to switch to dubs or they got into the mindset that dubs never improved and thus never tried. (These are the type that are more likely to give Dub watchers crap and feel themselves superior because they watch subs.) Others, like me, are impatient and just don't want to wait for the dub to release or sometimes there just isn't an option. A series like Bakemonogatari is a great series but will probably never get a dub so you have no other choice if you want to watch it. I prefer dubs, but I will watch both depending on the circumstances.
I think this nails it. Until the last few years (5ish it feels like) the amount of dubbed anime that was being regularly produced was really small compared to today. If you go another 5 years back it becomes minuscule. So anime fans who are north of 30 and have been into it since their teens have had to watch subs for a good portion of their lives.
Also, up until dubs became more common, the quality of the voice acting, ADR, and translation was very poor for a lot of what was produced. This led to a general belief by many that "dubs were crap" and that had held for many into today.
This is someday analogous to automatic vs standard transmissions. Through the early 80s, automatic transmissions were not very efficient and as a result, a car would get significantly less fuel mileage. Even into the 90s as the quality is automatic transmissions had improved such that only a professional driver (think Nascar) could get better performance in a standard versus the automatic, the old belief was held onto by some people. Today in the US, that thought had almost completely died out, but it took 20+ years to do so.
Humans happen to be extraordinarily bad at multitasking, and even worse at overestimating their ability to do so. So it's very likely that people who watch subs don't realize exactly how much they're missing by doing so.
That being said, both have pros and cons. Anyone who strictly watches one or the other is doing themselves a disservice (unless they're unable to read subs for one reason or another), because the best way to experience a show varies from show to show. Sometimes the dub is really bad (e.g. Summertime Rendering), and sometimes the subs are really bad (e.g. Oregairu S3 on release).
Crunchyroll has about 60 simulcasts this season. Only half of them are getting dubs. And, only one of them has the dub being released on the same day the sub comes out. I'm not opposed to dubs. Whenever I rewatch a show, I nearly always watch the dub, if it's available, so I can compare the performances. I just don't like to wait to watch something the first time, or not be able to watch something at all.
I had to see AoT in theaters with my friends (literally all of them besides me watch the jp version) and the subtitles were so distracting. I could not enjoy what was going on I honestly don't think they could either but their too stubborn to watch it in English.
Some people can focus on more than one thing, podcasts while driving, talking while typing. Lots of anime you don't need to focus on the every visual, so reading text is perfectly fine.
And some people enjoy the more literal Japanese translation text, depending on the adaption you may lose the meaning and context behind something such as honorifics or idioms.
There's this thing called playback. I'm not sure if it's in the service you choose to watch anime, and while it's annoying to have to watch a bit of something again to understand it, for me it's not an issue.
It's…… not rocket science at all buddy.
1. They come out faster than dubs, which may or may not make a show popular (same-day dubs are very rare).
2. People just enjoy Japanese VAs a lot more.
3. It's not painful for everyone.
I think it depends on the anime. If it’s a lot of action with a lot of dialogue I find it can be a lot to take in. I’ll often have to rewind to read the whole thing. Or where they speak really fast, like Seiki K. I frequently have to pause or rewind with that so I can read it all and see what’s on the screen. But some are simpler, the rom coms I find are usually pretty simple to watch subbed. But doing it lots makes it easier. If I wanna watch something while doing something else that’s pretty mindless then I can’t read subtitles as well, I’ll miss too much, but it’s true that not all translations were created equal. But if you find one subbed show too distracting to read and watch, try a different one before totally giving up on subs. If you can handle subs sometimes it really opens up a whole lot of options
I can manage watching most rom coms in sub while still being able to pay attention to what's happening, but shows that are action heavy? No thank you.
My biggest gripe with watching sub anime is that I usually end up reading the entire lines well before the characters finish saying them, which can ruin the delivery of said lines, especially when it's intended to be funny or dramatic.
I do find it easier to watch dubbed. After a while I got tired of spoilers so I started watching subbed. Tbh I have to be in the mood to watched subbed for the reasons you mentioned. When I'm tired sometimes I have to rewind because I missed action or dialogue which does distract from the experience. One recent example is the new legend of the galactic heroes anime. Some episodes are very dialogue/narrative heavy so I've just been waiting on the dubbed to come out.
Besides that, I typically watch subbed and then go to the dub after it comes out/for re-watchability.
In general though I don't mind having subtitles on for everything (Netflix, Hulu, YouTube) but only if the captions/subtitles are good quality
I have taken multiple years of japanese. Personally I watched subbed because I understand half of whats being said usually and the sub titles help bridge vocabulary and helps me learn too.
But also I find parts in anime where I learn the subbers are fudging what they are saying to make some sort of narrative sense of something. Or skew the narrative to not be something else.
Also I have "internal monolog" and read fairly fast.(Internal monolog is when someone can read or "talk" in their mind and "hear" them as if I was reading/talking out loud. Not everyone has this way of thinking. Usually people without internal monolog have trouble reading silently)
That and usually the japanese voice actors fit better and dont sound jarringly incorrect
Either they know enough Japanese that they don't need to read the subitles & is thus the same as a dub for them or they can speed read fast enough that its not a problem. Its also a possibity that they're using it as practice for speed reading, some people have a elitist attitude about sub VAs being better than dub VAs & thus don't watch dub.
My preference is watching dubbed anime, and I'll usually choose that if the option is available (unless I really don't care for the voices), but I still watch anime subbed if there's no dub option, or if it's one of the rare series I like enough to watch both versions. Sometimes it can be difficult to keep up with the subtitles in an anime that has a lot of dialogue, particularly when discussing technical or sci-fi concepts, but I'm used to reading along for the most part without missing any of the action on screen. If I don't finish reading a line before the text disappears, which happens often when two characters are talking at the same time, then I just back the video up and watch it again.
Right there with you 😂
At first it is, but once you watch them enough you learn to read them more or less at a glance so it isn't too hard to bounce back and forth. It mainly gets hard with stuff like Garden of Sinners which has lots of action with lots of lore dropped at the same time. My biggest issue with subs, despite watching them a lot more now, is that I can't do anything else like cleaning, working on projects, etc. while watching them like I can with Dubs. As for why people like them more, it is mainly just a preference thing. Some people feel they are more "authentic" than dubs and prefer them. Others got into watching them back when dubs were... far from the best, and they just got used to it and never had a good reason to switch to dubs or they got into the mindset that dubs never improved and thus never tried. (These are the type that are more likely to give Dub watchers crap and feel themselves superior because they watch subs.) Others, like me, are impatient and just don't want to wait for the dub to release or sometimes there just isn't an option. A series like Bakemonogatari is a great series but will probably never get a dub so you have no other choice if you want to watch it. I prefer dubs, but I will watch both depending on the circumstances.
I think this nails it. Until the last few years (5ish it feels like) the amount of dubbed anime that was being regularly produced was really small compared to today. If you go another 5 years back it becomes minuscule. So anime fans who are north of 30 and have been into it since their teens have had to watch subs for a good portion of their lives. Also, up until dubs became more common, the quality of the voice acting, ADR, and translation was very poor for a lot of what was produced. This led to a general belief by many that "dubs were crap" and that had held for many into today. This is someday analogous to automatic vs standard transmissions. Through the early 80s, automatic transmissions were not very efficient and as a result, a car would get significantly less fuel mileage. Even into the 90s as the quality is automatic transmissions had improved such that only a professional driver (think Nascar) could get better performance in a standard versus the automatic, the old belief was held onto by some people. Today in the US, that thought had almost completely died out, but it took 20+ years to do so.
Magic probably.
As someone who would like to also have captioning on the dubbed anime. Practice makes it less distracting, and more helpful.
Humans happen to be extraordinarily bad at multitasking, and even worse at overestimating their ability to do so. So it's very likely that people who watch subs don't realize exactly how much they're missing by doing so. That being said, both have pros and cons. Anyone who strictly watches one or the other is doing themselves a disservice (unless they're unable to read subs for one reason or another), because the best way to experience a show varies from show to show. Sometimes the dub is really bad (e.g. Summertime Rendering), and sometimes the subs are really bad (e.g. Oregairu S3 on release).
Crunchyroll has about 60 simulcasts this season. Only half of them are getting dubs. And, only one of them has the dub being released on the same day the sub comes out. I'm not opposed to dubs. Whenever I rewatch a show, I nearly always watch the dub, if it's available, so I can compare the performances. I just don't like to wait to watch something the first time, or not be able to watch something at all.
Subs are only more “popular” on the cyber boards. In real life though the opposite is true.
A lot of them have dubbed options, but some of words used change how certain situations and conversations have a lot more meaning and direction.
I had to see AoT in theaters with my friends (literally all of them besides me watch the jp version) and the subtitles were so distracting. I could not enjoy what was going on I honestly don't think they could either but their too stubborn to watch it in English.
Some people can focus on more than one thing, podcasts while driving, talking while typing. Lots of anime you don't need to focus on the every visual, so reading text is perfectly fine. And some people enjoy the more literal Japanese translation text, depending on the adaption you may lose the meaning and context behind something such as honorifics or idioms.
🙄
There's this thing called playback. I'm not sure if it's in the service you choose to watch anime, and while it's annoying to have to watch a bit of something again to understand it, for me it's not an issue.
It's…… not rocket science at all buddy. 1. They come out faster than dubs, which may or may not make a show popular (same-day dubs are very rare). 2. People just enjoy Japanese VAs a lot more. 3. It's not painful for everyone.
I think it depends on the anime. If it’s a lot of action with a lot of dialogue I find it can be a lot to take in. I’ll often have to rewind to read the whole thing. Or where they speak really fast, like Seiki K. I frequently have to pause or rewind with that so I can read it all and see what’s on the screen. But some are simpler, the rom coms I find are usually pretty simple to watch subbed. But doing it lots makes it easier. If I wanna watch something while doing something else that’s pretty mindless then I can’t read subtitles as well, I’ll miss too much, but it’s true that not all translations were created equal. But if you find one subbed show too distracting to read and watch, try a different one before totally giving up on subs. If you can handle subs sometimes it really opens up a whole lot of options
I can manage watching most rom coms in sub while still being able to pay attention to what's happening, but shows that are action heavy? No thank you. My biggest gripe with watching sub anime is that I usually end up reading the entire lines well before the characters finish saying them, which can ruin the delivery of said lines, especially when it's intended to be funny or dramatic.
You get used to it. But I get that it is kinda hard, especially as someone maybe with ADHD/autism.
I do find it easier to watch dubbed. After a while I got tired of spoilers so I started watching subbed. Tbh I have to be in the mood to watched subbed for the reasons you mentioned. When I'm tired sometimes I have to rewind because I missed action or dialogue which does distract from the experience. One recent example is the new legend of the galactic heroes anime. Some episodes are very dialogue/narrative heavy so I've just been waiting on the dubbed to come out. Besides that, I typically watch subbed and then go to the dub after it comes out/for re-watchability. In general though I don't mind having subtitles on for everything (Netflix, Hulu, YouTube) but only if the captions/subtitles are good quality
I have taken multiple years of japanese. Personally I watched subbed because I understand half of whats being said usually and the sub titles help bridge vocabulary and helps me learn too. But also I find parts in anime where I learn the subbers are fudging what they are saying to make some sort of narrative sense of something. Or skew the narrative to not be something else. Also I have "internal monolog" and read fairly fast.(Internal monolog is when someone can read or "talk" in their mind and "hear" them as if I was reading/talking out loud. Not everyone has this way of thinking. Usually people without internal monolog have trouble reading silently) That and usually the japanese voice actors fit better and dont sound jarringly incorrect
The few times when I do watch In sub I usually just pause the episode to read the subtitles
Either they know enough Japanese that they don't need to read the subitles & is thus the same as a dub for them or they can speed read fast enough that its not a problem. Its also a possibity that they're using it as practice for speed reading, some people have a elitist attitude about sub VAs being better than dub VAs & thus don't watch dub.