follow up to my anime questions

[RCBH928]

Hello again

I asked for anime recommendations and thanx to all i got a lot of them, I picked the one that most mentioned, captain bebop.

Ill have to say its a break from everything "american". Maybe most of you are americans, but if you are not, like me , then you will have an outside look to it. Not that american movies and cartoons(and about everything else) is bad, its that we only had too much of. We have memorized the disney formula(1 funny character, 1 evil character, 1 good guy and his lover, different song themes-sad one*happy one*fun one..so on) and same goes to movies. I guess we all know by now that if anything in any movie is mentioned with out having anything to do with the story line then its coming back for sure later on(like the blade travolta gives to his daughter in face/off). The world needs variety.

I watched first two episodes, and although its fine I just dont see what is TOO exciting specially that everyone is saying its supposed to be the best anime there. I am not sure if it gets better later on. I am not sure if its just simply not my taste.

Now the only questions the remains is, to dub or not to dub. To be honest, english is not my first language, and even though i can understand a full movie without subtitles i still switch it on. I am that comfortable with it. I just didnt do it with this anime, because the subtitles is different from the dubbed english! some words are missing and others are added so it gets confusing. Any one care to give me an input on this, to dub or NOT to dub?

as a last thought, I am not sure if this is considered racist, but did you ever wonder why japanese anime does not look ANYTHING from japan. I mean if it wasnt for the language used, i would be fine if they told me its russian or french even. Characters are tall, different skin color, and very imaginative. I have an idea that when people draw, they draw out of their own culture and look alike. Ever wonder why the japanese tend to do this?

in defense, Snow-white , aladdin, mulan, and many others you get sense they are american...am not sure if its in the looks of the characters or their characteristics, but you can tell. Opposite is not true. When I was younger i used to watch Korean and japanese anime dub, and I really thought it was created by my people. I can't tell its japanese. But all along I knew little mermaid, lion-king, and others were american. For example, i watched ninja turtles dubbed , yet is till knew it was american or european at least.

[thetooth]

No you should never watch dubed eps as they are normally poorly done or make the whole thing cheesy
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Also what you see in anime is not true in things like body proportions however coming from Japan my self there is a lot of levels of skin color and were not all the same :p

so you should keep an open mind about it and go watch Elfen Lied before anything else

[Pulsar_t]

Animation has always had the taboo of catering to children in NA and much of the rest of the world, but with films like Akira which debuted in 1988 and the academy award given to Spirited Away in 2001 animation is becoming more mainstream, but Disney still has a stronghold on the animation market which is why mature storytelling is scarce when it comes to western animation. It's continually changing thanks to things like the Adult Swim channel and the internet of course.

as a last thought, I am not sure if this is considered racist, but did you ever wonder why japanese anime does not look ANYTHING from japan. I mean if it wasnt for the language used, i would be fine if they told me its russian or french even. Characters are tall, different skin color, and very imaginative. I have an idea that when people draw, they draw out of their own culture and look alike. Ever wonder why the japanese tend to do this?

I don't get the bit about the 'very imaginative'.. Japan is fascinatingly unique place unlike the rest of the world, and it has its quirks, like the US and other "pseudo-isolated" countries. It takes research to get into Japanese culture and customs, and an open mind of course since many people tend to judge others based on their own prejudice, which is quite absurd if you ask me. I guess animators like variety in their characters as well. Series like Patlabor and Paranoia Agent have Japanese-inspired characters whilst shows like Neon Genesis Evangelion and Rurouni Kenshin tend to mix up their characters. Hey it's an artistic license and they're free to draw anything they want! You might this find article a good read since it answers a few of your questions (I hope)

Now the only questions the remains is, to dub or not to dub. To be honest, english is not my first language, and even though i can understand a full movie without subtitles i still switch it on. I am that comfortable with it. I just didnt do it with this anime, because the subtitles is different from the dubbed english! some words are missing and others are added so it gets confusing. Any one care to give me an input on this, to dub or NOT to dub?

Thankfully the conversation scenes in anime move at a relaxed pace allowing you to catch the subtitles without wandering your peripheral vision away from on-screen action too much.. Again as anime becomes more mainstream expect voice acting to improve. As for translation confusion, Japanese can be interpreted differently depending on the person doing the translation.. Strange but true! Which is why I advise you to seek "scene" translations (or fansubs as they're commonly known) since they tend to be more accurate and refreshing than the canned translation offered by studios. It's a shame however that they usually don't offer their subtitles as standalone downloads (apprehensive about being not credited with them I suppose)

I hope that clears things up a bit...Of course I'm not the resident expert and I hope others will present insightful answers!

[RCBH928]

I guess my comment about "very imaginative" only reflects my point that we get too much american stuff. I am not used to see half human/half animal characters, with spaceships roaming green lands, robot fights and more.

yet no one told me which is best, keep the english dub, or turn into the original japanese conversation with english subtitles

[Pulsar_t]

It's hardly right for us to judge on your behalf.. everyone has their own preferences. But I strongly suggest you give subs a fair chance.. You might get used to them and never have to look back again! *wink* *wink* But look at it this way: A fansub is superior to official dub because as fans of the show the subbers put more effort and passion into their work as compared to studio material (since creators of the anime seldom work on subbing themselves). If you turn on subs on a DVD you'll notice the dub and subs are easily comparable whereas a fansub might differ greatly when delivering the lines on-screen, at least from my own experience.

Edit - I updated the link to the article in my post above I hope you read it sometime!

[lordofduct]

No offense to the Japanese language, and this is from a guy who grew up watching foreign films from Africa, India, and Europe across several different languages, but I can't STAND listening to Japanese.

I prefer dubbed when it comes to anime... that an anime to me is usually background video that I don't put much emotion into, so having to read makes it useless... I'm already reading something else most likely.

And the ones I have watched... well the English dubbed seemed adult enough as is. If the Jap one is so much cruder or less tame, I don't really need to see that.

[opticledilusi0n]

try watching bleach

www.dattebayo.com

it's the first anime my girlfriend has liked (in the past two month's we've watch ~180 episodes)

[Funk, E]

To note, the Cowboy Bebop dub is uncommonly good.

[Haruspex]

English is not my first language too, if i watch an English dub i can understand about ~80% of what they are saying, so subtitles is my only option. And i find the English dub in most cases cheesy, mistranslated (if i watch a subtitled version) and also it's not in sync. The japanese voice acting is far superior especially in recent anime and it's also in almost perfect sync in most times. Plus if the fansubbers did a good job translating it you can get the most authentic experience if you can't speak Japanese. Some things simply can't be translated properly in the dub version especially the ridiculous attacks in shounen anime and/or puns. So i recommend watching always with Japanese audio with English subs.

Don't forget also that you can watch the anime you want usually some days later after they are aired in Japan, it depends in the fansubbing group and how fast they are, you can't do this in Dub versions.

Yet another advantage of fansubbing is that most recent anime air in Japan in HD and they are f@cking awesome. Most fansubbers do 720p but they are some anime even in 1080p. I don't know where you watch them but if you have the appropriate hardware is another plus for fansubbing.

True, the Japanese language might be sound weird at first but give it some time and you are going to like it (probably)

Anyway, I always recommend these two anime in newbies

GTO (Great Teacher Onizuka) and Death Note. They are also the three big ongoing shounen Naruto, Bleach and One Piece. If you liked Dragonball and you think you want more of this stuff chances are you might like at least one of the above three.

Other recommended anime

Akagi and Kaiji (Watch them only if you liked Death Note)

Hajime No Ippo

Black Lagoon (Season 1 especially)

Elfen Lied

[MrPopo]

To answer youre question about the spoken dialog being different from the subtitles, this is due to the subs having the freedom to be more accurate. When you are dubbing, you have to match the mouth movements, which is a painful constraint at times. That's one of the biggest reasons I prefer to watch anything in the original language with subtitles. Since the subtitles are just text, they can be as close to the original as possible.p

Personally, I prefer a fansub version to an officially licensed sub version for a couple of reasons. The first is that the fansubs tend to be closer to the original japanese, even going so far as directly translating the idioms (and including notes as to what the idiom really means). The second is that the fansubs tend to do a much better job of formatting their subtitles to be both easily readable while at the same time being non-intrusive. The fansub groups also tend to get a lot of the more "Japanese" titles than the American licensors pick up, though they're slowly trending in that direction. Shows like Cowboy Bebop, Bleach, and Fullmetal Alchemist are relatively region-agnostic, while shows like Azumanga Daioh and Lucky Star are focused on the daily life of Japanese teenagers, so they have a very Japanese flair to them. And it's those type of shows that I tend to enjoy the most, because it's very different from the TV we get here.