The English Dub Appreciation Thread

[CyberAthlete]

Is there a list of Anime where watching it in English does not take away from the integrity of the dialogue, the voice acting is top notch and of same caliber or better than the Japanese? And the dialogue translates extremely well from Japanese?

I know it's a lot to ask for but which ones?

[zenpai]

DEFINITELY better dubbed (imo):
Code Geass
My Hero Academia
Soul Eater
Fullmetal Alchemist
Death Note
InuYasha

[veritas]

well that is opening a can of worms. Personally I prefer the dub for rurouni kenshin, yuyu hakusho, dragon ball, dragon ball z, cowboy bebop, spice and wolf, hellsing ultimate, black butler, fate zero, fma brotherhood, and digimon. I can name some other good dubs but i haven't heard the Japanese version so i cant comment on which is better.

[LordCrumb]

Originally Posted by veritas

well that is opening a can of worms. Personally I prefer the dub for rurouni kenshin, yuyu hakusho, dragon ball, dragon ball z, cowboy bebop, spice and wolf, hellsing ultimate, black butler, fate zero, fma brotherhood, and digimon. I can name some other good dubs but i haven't heard the Japanese version so i cant comment on which is better.

Can be a very touchy subject for sure.

I quite often watch Anime in English, with the Subtitles on.. bit of an odd choice you'd think, but it's quite interesting seeing how certain things are translated or adjusted for English audiences.

Yu Yu Hakusho seemed to be pretty accurate from my recollection, and the English actors felt like they really suited their characters.

Fairy Tail hasn't been too bad either, but the last several discs I haven't been able to turn the Subtitles on with the English audio, comes up with a 'Operation Blocked by Disc' message. But the previous ones, yeah not bad... not bad at all.


I think the newer the Anime, the more likely they translated it better. Older stuff from the 80s/90s, probably not so much?

[zenpai]

Originally Posted by LordCrumb

Can be a very touchy subject for sure.

I think the newer the Anime, the more likely they translated it better. Older stuff from the 80s/90s, probably not so much?

Despite being newer, I would say a majority of Sentai Filmwork’s dubs suck BIG time. They mostly use the exact same voice actors, most of the time in roles that do not suit them or their voice at all. I don’t know how well they actually translate it though; maybe they are good in that sense.

I have also heard Spice & Wolf, Black Butler and Cowboy Bebop are generally better in dub, but cannot confirm since I have never watched them sub. But the dubs are definitely good!

[Clark Kent]

Black Butler is definitely better in English. Spice & Wolf is probably my favorite English dub.

[Kyle15]

FLCL and Cowboy Bebop are equal. Ghost Stories has an hilarious joke dub. Other than that, I give a pass on the rest.

[Lambadelta]

Originally Posted by Clark Kent

Black Butler is definitely better in English

Maybe if your tone deaf with how awful a majority of the fake accents where in that.

[CyberAthlete]

I have most of the anime you folks mentioned. I'll give Cowboy Bebop and Wolf & Spice a shot. thank you for all the responses!

I understand that this can be a divisive subject but I was wanting to know that there have to be some English Dubs that are actually pretty good and enjoyable.

[Dragon Ranger]

Dominion Tank Police was the first anime I ever owned on VHS and the dub has a special place in my heart and will always be my preferred way of watching it. Just the first four acts though as some of the voice cast changed when they started releasing New Dominion Tank Police and it put me off.

[Dragon Ranger]

And it's gotta be the dub for this one too "motherf**kin hangover"

[sandman slim]

Cowboy Bebop is the gold standard for dubs. Especially the movie.

[Naiera]

Originally Posted by LordCrumb

Fairy Tail hasn't been too bad either, but the last several discs I haven't been able to turn the Subtitles on with the English audio, comes up with a 'Operation Blocked by Disc' message.

The subs are for the Japanese language track and thus wouldn't match the English dub. The discs won't let you switch them on because they lock those subtitles in now, thereby also blocking you from switching them on when they're not supposed to be on.

[LexInHD]

The original Bubblegum Crisis has a gold-standard dub.

[PissedOffPeoN]

No one said Fullmetal alchemist Brotherhood yet :O.

[professorwho]

The ones I like are:
FMA/Brotherhood
Yu Yu Hakusho (only one of two I like more than its Japanese counterpart)
The Castle of Cagliostro
Baccano
Cowboy Bebop
Hellsing Ultimate
DBZ
Ghost Stories (this is the only objectively better one, as it’s too damn funny)

And that’s about it. I might be forgetting some, but it’s a short list. There are some other tolerable ones, but they have some questionable elements (Death Note- L’s dub actor is better, but Light kinda sucks).

With the exception of Ghost Stories, which is a special case, I cannot think of any dub Better than it’s Japanese counterpart.

[One-Eye]

As Naiera pointed out this is very subjective. I prefer not to think of it in terms of which language option is superior but which one I enjoy the most. Personally I would like to watch all anime dubbed (never in live-action), but unfortunately I find most dubbed anime to range from mediocre to bad. Still there are some anime dubs that I think are very good and I enjoy equally or more than the Japanese version.

Baccano! - Its not perfect, but enjoy the English version a lot more.

Black Lagoon - used to alternate sub/dub on rewatches because I preferred some of the performances in Japanese and others in English. Lately I gravitate more towards the dub.

Code Geass - dub all the way, never needed to touch the sub.

Cowboy Bebop - I've watched several episodes subbed and it just sounds so much stronger to me dubbed.

FLCL - I've watched the whole thing in both languages and I found it fairly equal, but I enjoy the English dub more.

Ghost in the Shell SAC1 & SAC2 - Watched the whole thing in both languages and prefer English cast. Mary Elizabeth McGlynn is Major Kusanagi. Her voice oozes confidence and charisma in the role. Richard Epcar is Batou and its hard to hear anyone else play these roles for me.

Hellsing Ultimate - I just have a whole lot of fun listening to it in English.

Michiko & Hatchin - I thought both languages were pretty decent (IIRC they used non-anime actors for some of the Japanese roles?), but I found the dub to have more energy in some of the acting which made it better for me.

There's probably 3 or 4 other dubs that if I really thought about it I might consider decent to good. Out of probably the hundreds of dubs I've encountered, maybe only 15-20 really work for me or have grown on me.

[Ajc228]

In terms of newer dubs, I thought the Mob Psycho 100 dub was quite good and all the recent Stuff NYAV has been doing for the premium Gundam franchise like Origin, Unicorn and Thunderbolt were great. 0080 is older and somewhat underrated but a excellent dub in my personal opinion.

[Jeo]

I don't watch many dubs, but the most recent one I've seen that I thought was good was Kill La Kill. That is a show that has a lot of very high energy shouting in it, and the English voice actors do a pretty decent job of matching the intensity of the Japanese performances.

I'm also a fan of Hellsing's English cast mostly because of the only explicitly Scottish anime character that I'm aware of, in Father Alexander.

[Ajc228]

Almost forgot- ROD the tv was a great dub that utilized actual British talent and a child for one the main roles. I personally think it is a better dub than the Japanese language track.