Anime Your Own Anime: Sub or Dub?

[Solo Tremaine]

[COLOR=#503f86]Here's a poser for you.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=#503f86]You are creating an anime. Doesn't matter what genre or the animation budget- it's yours, and it is definitively an anime, and not an American animation. My question is: [B]Would you choose to have animated for Japanese dialogue with English subtitles, or have it made for English?[/B] I know it's a slightly moot point as lip-flaps on the whole aren't particularly English or Japanese in their construction either way, but I'm interested to know what people think. I know there'd be a lot of bizarre logistics that would have to go on (i.e. translation, re-translation, etc etc), but this is purely from a hypothetical point of view.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=#503f86]When I imagine my stories, I imagine them in English, because I am a native English speaker and I think in English. But if I were to think about making it an anime I'd at least like a Japanese theme song (or have a song with a Japanese version), and probably have the dialogue in English. Certainly I'd use a veteran anime composer for the soundtrack- I'm looking at you, Yasuharu Takanashi/Yoko Kanno. Do you think it would affect the quality if English were the original intended language of the animation?[/COLOR]

[COLOR=#503f86]I suppose another question is, [B]what would your dream production team be for an anime?[/B] Which studio would you like, which director, which composer, seiyuu/voice actor, etc etc. I would elaborate on my choices further but I need to walk meh doggies.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=#503f86]A final question, which is just as an aside, really: [B]Have there been any anime produced that were made for English dialogue?[/B] I know Moon Sang Kim's Sky Blue was animated twice- once in Korean (where it was called Wonderful Days) and once in English, and Mad House animated the first episode of Megas XLR, but is there anything else that people have seen?[/COLOR]

[COLOR=#503f86]Thank you for your time ^_^[/COLOR]

[theEND]

Hmmmm I would probably have to say a sub... I dont know why but most animes after youve seen their japanese predacesors, the Dubs seem a little... off key. Lol. :animesmil:animesmil:animesmil

[Panache]

If I had my own anime the original voice cast would be English. It would be dubbed into Japanese. I mean I speak English so it would be stupid of me to try and translate my thoughts into another language just for the sake of making it more acceptable for another culture especially one that will probably not give me as much profit as my home country. It would be a waste of time and resources.

[eleanor]

[font="trebuchet ms"] If were awesome like JRR Tolkien I'd make up a language for my character cast and have subtitles in English.[/font]

[Panache]

[quote name='Lunox'][font="trebuchet ms"] If were awesome like JRR Tolkien I'd make up a language for my character cast and have subtitles in English.[/font][/QUOTE]

YES! That would be bad ***. That would totally be worth any extra cash I had to pay. I would rather do that.

[Dagger]

I'd want an English track to be provided sooner or later, but I guess I'd like it to be written in Japanese... partly because I'm majoring in Japanese and hope to become fluent eventually (so if I'm to magically make some hypothetical anime, well, why not go for it?). But the main reason would be that I highly doubt any of the script/scenario writers I'd hope to work with know much--if any--English.

English was the original language of Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust and Afro Samurai. That's all I can think of off the top of my head.

~Dagger~

[Ender Wiggin]

if I were to create this hypothetical anime series what I would like to do would have most of the writers and animators be japanese but have two or three good americans for each and ahve it dubbed in english but simultaniusoly with a pprimary japanese version. the mediuim of anme is japanese and any work that would inspire me enough to do a show of would be heavily influenced by japanese culutre and story telling techniques. however I do not like subtitles in a that I dont neccesarly think of the characters in stories as ither english or spanish, they just are and so in my min d they would speak in the language that i think in but would still borrow a lot of inspiration from toehr cultures. plus, while I prefer dub to sub, I wouild want to keep the original version as ealsy for its intended market to consume and would want to personalyy oversee how the dubbing( in any language not jsut english) was hanlded to kepp the story and the style of the dialogue consistent between the difficulties of language. too many dubbed anime (IMO) have to meddle with the story a little to resay things that dont translate well or have different ways they couild be said, and I would want the original story creators to be allowed to keep zas much of the essence of the original possible. but overall i think it would best to make it primarily a japanese produciton.

[Nomurah!]

[SIZE="1"][COLOR="HotPink"]Well, I guess I'd go ahead and make a kickbutt English version, instead of making a kickbutt Japanese version.. Let's be honest, I could go ahead and make a Japanese version that kicked butt, but all of those later turn into Dubs for kids. So, yeah, Just to make things easier and avoid what's inevitable (because ofcourse America would want my excellent ideas, lol) I'd go for dub. But, a dub NOT for kids.

Hallelujah.[/COLOR][/SIZE]

[Panache]

[QUOTE]Well, I guess I'd go ahead and make a kickbutt English version, instead of making a kickbutt Japanese version.. Let's be honest, I could go ahead and make a Japanese version that kicked butt, but all of those later turn into Dubs for kids. So, yeah, Just to make things easier and avoid what's inevitable (because ofcourse America would want my excellent ideas, lol) I'd go for dub. But, a dub NOT for kids.[/QUOTE]
Dubbing really has nothing to do with the target audience. If you make a kids show it's gonna be dubbed in a kid friendly way.

And a Bad *** kid's show would be 10xtimes as bad *** as a bad *** regular show.

[The Spectacular Professor]

I suppose it would depend on my target audience and the country I am working in. If it's something planned for American release first, I'd animate for the english speaking audience. It seems a bit silly to make something in Japanese if it's not going to be shown in Japan first.

[inactive]

Hmmm... That's a really good question.

Well, putting aside technicalities (like that it has to be in Japanese or shown in Japan to ACTUALLY be considered a valid anime--or however people feel about that) I'd say I'd definitely have my anime done in English. This is because, well, I speak English, and it would be important to me that my anime would appeal to English speaking audiences, and so I could make a statement about animation NOT being only for kids in the western world (and this would also avoid a potentially crappy dub later on). It would also be very important that the animation of the characters be lip-synced to the voices--in English. And to do that I couldn't possibly have it in Japanese first.

I'd definitely like to have someone like Yuki Yajiura do music for my anime. Yeah, I'd like there to be Japanese music, or at least something kind of in J-Pop style or something. I'd want it to have a really unique sound--something like what was achieved with the kind of music in Akira (I watched it recently and am really impressed with the score).

I definitely do not think that language should affect the quality of an anime at all, or anything else for that matter. If it's good quality, it's good quality. What's important is the story, the writers and the voice actors, and so long as these things are done well, I think that it should be of equal quality, no matter what language it's in. It's not like certain languages are able to express certain things better or anything, right? They're just different ways of saying the same thing. Unfortunately, we still get crappy dubs because of cultural differences and bad translation or whatever... But I guess that existing works will always be better in their original language. That's another thing--there's no way I'd be able to create something in the right way by doing it in a language I don't fully understand--literally and culturally.

As for anime made for English dialogue, I'm not sure if this counts, but there's a Canadian show called "Cybersix" (made from an Argentinean comic book) that was animated by Tokyo Movie Shinsha for Canadian audiences, and was later dubbed in Japanese and other languages. I'm not entirely sure that the style of this show could be considered anime, but it was definitely made by a Japanese animation studio.

[Nony]

I'm seeing a common theme here. People keep saying they would have their anime in English first to basically avoid a crappy dub later. However, under the "guidelines" set by the original question, he said "if you had an unlimited budget." That would likely include dubbing, if you so wished it.

I really wouldn't care if I dubbed any imaginary anime of my own into English or Japanese first. The exciting part would be actually creating the story itself. I would put a lot more effort into that area, rather than worrying about localization. If I could pick [i]any[/i] animation studio, I'd likely go for Madhouse. I just like their stuff.
The other important thing would be the music. I wouldn't pick Kajiura, simply because all her work ends up sounding the same to me. Kanno would be a better choice.

I might add more to this later. Very interesting question, I must say.

[The Spectacular Professor]

[quote name='Miss Anonymous']I'm seeing a common theme here. People keep saying they would have their anime in English first to basically avoid a crappy dub later. However, under the "guidelines" set by the original question, he said "if you had an unlimited budget." That would likely include dubbing, if you so wished it.[/QUOTE]

Seems pretty paranoid, too. Ever since I stopped watching Fox Saturday mornings a few years back the only bad dub I've ever experienced was that Spider Riders thing on WB a year or so ago. I'm thinking of tracking down some subs of that one to see if the original's any good. (And, of course, I discovered not too long ago that WB sold out to 4Kid$ a while back, too, so that explains a lot.)

[Endymion]

If I did create my own anime,(and had unlimited financial reservoirs for it) I would create it in Japanese. During production, I'd have a concise and believable dub version for the release.

[MaskedRider]

I'd make it in Japanese, and let fansubers do the rest. I find dubs can ruin a series, but the fansub creators generally do a good job. I have got to the point where I can hardly watch dubbed Japanese programs.

[Guest theblackbride]

I'd go with it in English...

[Solo Tremaine]

[quote name='medafunk']I definitely do not think that language should affect the quality of an anime at all, or anything else for that matter. If it's good quality, it's good quality. What's important is the story, the writers and the voice actors, and so long as these things are done well, I think that it should be of equal quality, no matter what language it's in. It's not like certain languages are able to express certain things better or anything, right? They're just different ways of saying the same thing. Unfortunately, we still get crappy dubs because of cultural differences and bad translation or whatever... But I guess that existing works will always be better in their original language. That's another thing--there's no way I'd be able to create something in the right way by doing it in a language I don't fully understand--literally and culturally.[/quote][COLOR=#503F86]Very well said- I agree completely. I guess one of the problems with trying to construct an actual 'anime' (as opposed to an animation in anime style) is that the culture is intrinsically embedded in the series whether you notice it or not. It's in the script, the setting, the characters... trying to create something that emulates it would take a lot of work.

[quote name='MaskedRider']I'd make it in Japanese, and let fansubers do the rest. I find dubs can ruin a series, but the fansub creators generally do a good job. I have got to the point where I can hardly watch dubbed Japanese programs.[/quote]

But at the same time, if you're creating a script from scratch in English then you wouldn't have the initial translation issues that make some dubs a bit dodgy (i.e. odd intonation, lip-flap and untranslatable phrases and jokes). I'd love to hear something I created in Japanese and watch it with subtitles, but I think I'd create it in English first. Besides, it's not as if all Japanese dubs are amazing. Some of the high-pitched female voices really grate with me. Certainly, with Outlaw Star I much prefer the English dub to the Japanese. It has a weightier feel to it.

The problem is that because, generally, when you watch a subbed anime it'll be the first time you see it, and you'll automatically associate that voice with that character; and secondly, not being Japanese, your ability to empathise with the voices will be somewhat impaired in comparison to your well-honed abilities to detect genuine emotion in English voices. So the English dub has to work twice as hard to win you over if you've already heard the Japanese one.

[quote name='Miss Anonymous']I wouldn't pick Kajiura, simply because all her work ends up sounding the same to me. Kanno would be a better choice.[/quote]Yeah, I think so. Which is a shame, because Kajiura's music is very nice, but having the same themes appear over and over again does get a bit uninspiring. Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle was definitely her high point.[/COLOR]

[Rachmaninoff]

[quote name='Solo Tremaine;804873][COLOR=#503f86]You are creating an anime. Doesn't matter what genre or the animation budget- it's yours, and it is definitively an anime, and not an American animation. My question is: [B]Would you choose to have animated for Japanese dialogue with English subtitles, or have it made for English?[/B] I know it's a slightly moot point as lip-flaps on the whole aren't particularly English or Japanese in their construction either way, but I'm interested to know what people think. I know there'd be a lot of bizarre logistics that would have to go on (i.e. translation, re-translation, etc etc), but this is purely from a hypothetical point of view.[/COLOR][/QUOTE]It would depend, if the cultural references in it are clearly of my own origin or rather American, then I would stick to the native language that fits it, I don?t know enough about the Japanese culture to really get it right unless I had help. So I?d stick with what I know. And my opinion is that with a good cast, dubbing can be as good if not better than the subbing.[quote name='Solo Tremaine;804873][COLOR=#503f86']Do you think it would affect the quality if English were the original intended language of the animation?[/COLOR][/quote]No. I do not. Like I said, I am not Japanese so doing it in the language that I understand is better than trying to fit into something I don?t. It would in my opinion flow a lot more naturally than if it was in Japanese. [QUOTE=Solo Tremaine'][COLOR=#503f86]I suppose another question is, [B]what would your dream production team be for an anime?[/B] Which studio would you like, which director, which composer, seiyuu/voice actor, etc etc. I would elaborate on my choices further but I need to walk meh doggies.

A final question, which is just as an aside, really: [B]Have there been any anime produced that were made for English dialogue?[/B] I know Moon Sang Kim's Sky Blue was animated twice- once in Korean (where it was called Wonderful Days) and once in English, and Mad House animated the first episode of Megas XLR, but is there anything else that people have seen?[/COLOR][/QUOTE]I have no idea really, I?d probably have to look into it to see which and who I would like, if I was to ever be in this position that is. Heh. As for stuff made for English dialogue? I?m sure there is, but I?m not familiar with any.

[Nelo]

[COLOR="Sienna"]I prefer sub IF the dub is not good.

it helps me too if its sub 'coz im self-studying japanese language.[/COLOR]