Anime I have a question

[Cat]

I don't think that you have to watch the Japanese version to be a true fan. I have watch maybe 3 animes in Japanese version and they were all anime movies. I will say that the japanese is far better then the English. I also don't think it matters if you watch the Japanese first or not. I have watch animes in the English version and then Japanese before and it hasn't mattered for me.

[moogle claire]

[COLOR=DarkOrange]Hmmm good question... :animesigh
I think maybe you have to watch it in both, see what you like better. Sometimes the english voices can sound terrible and the japanese voices sound so much more better.
Anyway! Who says your not a true fan?? The fact that you wanna watch it is enough, just enjoy it and ignore the meanies!

Moogle Claire's advice is: Watch it in [B]both[/B] languages!!!!

[/COLOR]

[Aaoyr]

Look if you had to watch anime in a certian order i'd be sunk. I have next to no money so i can't buy anime, i have next to no t.v. so i can't watch anime alot. Do those factors reduce my love for anime? NO.

I lend anime off my friends and i watch/buy whatever i can when i can. Saying you have to watch anime in a certain order is like putting a restraint on it. what fun is there to a passion if all choice and freedom is taken out of it?

I'm not getting at those who enjoy watching the versions in a certain order because i personally would love to watch all the japanese first, if only to hear what they origionally sounded like.

And hey, some moron earlier said you must do this and you must do that to be a real otaku. well **** them. you don't have to incorporate japanese into your everyday speech, although it is kaiwaii in SOME situations. I personally do incorporate it into my everyday lingo because i did so before i knew anime, my third language is japanese.

So enjoy anime anyway you want or can!!!!! ^-^ :wave:

[lady_liege]

i personally hate subbed anime, and allot of poeple get really pretentious about this kind of stupidity. i personally don't think it matters, but allot of people get rather arrogant about it. i juts like watching anime, instead of reading it and only getting to glimpse the picture a few times between sentances. but when eople talk about it haveing to be subbed, i think it's just crud, whatever floats you boat, if you like t subbed, that's great, but you shouldn't purt people down about it.

[KatanaViolet]

I don't think it matters at all!!
What difference does it make, if you enjoy the anime that's all that matters. Whoever told you that is a tool, and if they think that they are these huge "otakus" because they watch anime in Japanese over someone who watches it in English, they're even bigger tools.
Although some dubs can suck, the ones that are well done will get the same message across as its Japanese counterpart. But preferring one over the other doesn't make someone more or less of an anime fan.

Personally, I don't mind either one. I like Dubs because it's in my native language and it's much more convenient, plus I find that most of the dubs are pretty good.
I like watching it in Japanese because sometimes there's just some humor that you'd miss otherwise.
Sometimes things get edited out in dubs.

But you watch whichever you prefer best.
Different strokes for different folks right?

[kayutori_sama]

[font=Verdana][size=2]Your friend is the type of person that gives the non-snobbish otaku a bad name. Whether you watch an anime subbed or dubbed should be your choice. There is no definition to what a [i]real [/i]anime fan is. We are all people with a common interest. Just because a person watches an anime in a particular language does not make them any more or less of a fan. If you like dubbing, watch the dub. If you like subbing, watch sub, but I understand that there are many instances where you aren't able to by or borrow an anime dvd, thus it can not be viewed in Japanese. Adult Swim dubs aren't bad at all. They've done pretty decently. So regardless of what your otaku friend thinks, you should do what you prefer personally. That's my 2 cents.[/size][/font]

[ANBU kunoichi]

Although it doesn't matter whether you watch it in Japanese first or not, I can completely understand why you would want to do so. For one, some dubs can totally butcher a character's voice or translation (perfect examples being Naruto's "Believe it!" and One Piece's "Zorro=Zollo", at least in my opinion). Secondly, because the American FCC finds many things in anime "innopropriate for younger audiences", some of the more violent moments in an anime are dummed down until they become more suitable for an American audience, often ruining some of the best fight scenes a series has to offer. Also, for some shows, they tend to create "better" openings for the American version of the show (yet again, this happened with Naruto's awful opening. It's worse than R*O*C*K*S for crying out loud!)

But this does not mean that all English dubs are bad. In fact, some are so good that I actually refuse to watch their Japanese counterparts, or prefer the uncut dubs to subs. Some examples of this are Inuyasha, Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, and Yu Yu Hakusho, to name a few.

From what I have seen, what it comes down to is what company is dubbing the series. To me, personally, the best of the best are FUNimation (Dragonball Z, Fullmetal Alchemist, many more that I am forgetting), Geneon (Samurai Champloo, Paranoia Agent, etc.), ADV Films (Full Metal Panic), and Aniplex (Fullmetal Alchemist). I would put VIZ (which I believe to be the company to dub Inuyasha) into this catagory as well, but I am currently having issues with them after they commited what I believe to be the slaughter that is Naruto w/ English dub :animeangr (as you can see, I am very upset over this, but I'm VERY slowly getting over it).

My personal hatred and rantings aside, there is no "right" or "wrong" way to watch an anime series. It all depends on which you prefer. As for me, well I'd say it's about 50/50. Some I prefer sub, some I prefer dub. But the choice is really yours.

[Dagger]

[QUOTE=ANBU kunoichi]
From what I have seen, what it comes down to is what company is dubbing the series. [/QUOTE]
[url=http://www.otakuboards.com/showpost.php?p=709810&postcount=22][u]Well, kind of.[/u][/url]

I think your post is nicely balanced, and I enjoyed reading it. But just out of curiosity, what English phrase would you have used to replace "dattebayo"?

~Dagger~

[ANBU kunoichi]

[QUOTE=Dagger][url=http://www.otakuboards.com/showpost.php?p=709810&postcount=22][u]Well, kind of.[/u][/url]

I think your post is nicely balanced, and I enjoyed reading it. But just out of curiosity, what English phrase would you have used to replace "dattebayo"?

~Dagger~[/QUOTE]

. . . Good point. But then again, "dattebayo" is not an actual word. For those who do not know what we're talking about, here's a brief summary. On the Japanese version of Naruto, Naruto often says "dattebayo" at the end of his sentences. It has no real meaning (many have looked for one). What I believe it is is an accent. I've heard that Kenshin has one, too. I believe that it is something similar to a Southerner saying y'all; they don't really notice that they say it until it is pointed out to them.

Anyway, to answer your question, I don't really know any other way to state that. I just find it extremely annoying to hear him shout "Believe it!" every other sentence. While you could say the same thing about dattebayo, he doesn't stress that word, it sounds much more fluid and natural than him shouting "believe it!". I suppose that they could have left it and had him say it in the english version as well, but that would have been odd.

[r2vq]

[quote name='ANBU kunoichi']But then again, "dattebayo" is not an actual word. //snip// It has no real meaning (many have looked for one). What I believe it is is an accent. I've heard that Kenshin has one, too. I believe that it is something similar to a Southerner saying y'all; they don't really notice that they say it until it is pointed out to them. [/quote]Although "dattebayo" has no dictionary translation, I have to argue that there is a meaning behind it. I would even go further to say that "Believe it!" is a good translation for it.

The purpose behind "dattebayo" is simply emphasis. I can go deeper into it by talking about the "iu" verb or the te-form of "desu" or even one of the many forms of "because", but in the end, it's still just Naruto emphasizing what he just said. In the same way, "Believe it!" is just Naruto emphasizing what he just said.

Kenshin is a little different, I believe. I haven't seen much of Rurouni Kenshin myself, apart from the OVA, but from what I gather, Kenshin uses "gozaru" at the end of his sentences. This is an overly polite form of Japanese that can't be translated into English.
[quote name='ANBU kunoichi']I just find it extremely annoying to hear him shout "Believe it!" every other sentence. While you could say the same thing about dattebayo, he doesn't stress that word, it sounds much more fluid and natural than him shouting "believe it!".[/quote]It's true that the rhythm is different in Japanese, but I don't think the aesthetic value of it can be fairly judged unless you're a native speaker. We both seem to be native speakers of English, making it fairly easy to catch how annoying and unnatural "Believe it!" is, but I don't think we can say that "Dattebayo!" would be any less annoying to a Japanese ear unless we've been speaking Japanese for years.

-Arvi

[ANBU kunoichi]

[QUOTE=r2vq]Although "dattebayo" has no dictionary translation, I have to argue that there is a meaning behind it. I would even go further to say that "Believe it!" is a good translation for it.

It's true that the rhythm is different in Japanese, but I don't think the aesthetic value of it can be fairly judged unless you're a native speaker. We both seem to be native speakers of English, making it fairly easy to catch how annoying and unnatural "Believe it!" is, but I don't think we can say that "Dattebayo!" would be any less annoying to a Japanese ear unless we've been speaking Japanese for years.

-Arvi[/QUOTE]

I suppose you do have a point, though. I guess no matter what they put there, it would have bugged me. But I'm not saying this is the only reason I dislike the English version. If it were, I would just live with it. I personally think they ruined a few things that I really liked about the show.

For example:
1. The opening/ending themes. They tried to make an opening theme that would appeal more to American audiences. Instead we just got a mishmash of clips from the Zabuza fight and the first two Japanese openings. Granted R*O*C*K*S (the Japanese opening for this time) wasn't that great of a song, either, (80's J-Rock+Naruto=BAD COMBO!) but if you ask me, it better showed what Naruto was about than this one. Besides, if this was because people didn't like R*O*C*K*S, why didn't they simply choose one of the other songs to use for the opening? It's not as though this was their only choice. They had 5 (or 6 depending on when the series aired).

2. The voice actors/actresses. This may just be my personal opinion, but I feel they messed up some of the voices. Example: Gai. I understand that he's supposed ro be a funny character, and the voice suits his humerous moments, but he sounds as though he should be the voiceover on a game show. It makes me wonder if you will be able to take his more serious moments, well, seriously.

3. Reduced violence. I understand that this is meant to be a children's show, and that it was going to have to be dummed down a bit. But this is a ninja show. There is meant to be violence. It just bothers me that attacks that once looked so powerful look pathetic. Take for example Sasuke saving Naruto from Haku's attack. In Japan, the beating he took really made me think he was gonna die. Yet, during the same scene in English, I thought to myself, "You'd have to be pathetic to die from that!" If this is because parents don't want their children watching violent shows, a parent should have the intellegence to know that ninjas=violent=not suitable for small children="Little Billy can't watch this!".

Also, it didn't help that I went into watching this with low hopes for it. :animedepr

[Dagger]

[QUOTE=r2vq]
Kenshin is a little different, I believe. I haven't seen much of Rurouni Kenshin myself, apart from the OVA, but from what I gather, Kenshin uses "gozaru" at the end of his sentences. This is an overly polite form of Japanese that can't be translated into English.[/QUOTE]
That didn't stop them from trying, though--in the TV show's dub, he frequently concludes his sentences with "that I am." I don't know if it's used as often as "believe it!" in the Naruto dub, but I think the situation with the two dubs is comparable (even though the situation with the original terms is not, as you had pointed out).

I actually didn't mind Kenshin's affectations in the English dub; of course, that's partly because I liked his voice actor.

~Dagger~