Times where the dubbed version is better?

skykiii

kiwifarms.net
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Jun 17, 2018
So on this forum we often talk about dubbers fucking things up, especially nowadays.

But I remember a time when you could occasionally be surprised or find the dub better.

NOTE - When I say "dub" I'm not just talking about English. One of my examples is gonna be Italian. A dub is a dub no matter what language its in.

By that same token, though I imagine this will be a mostly-anime topic, there's no reason not to also bring up other animation or even live action movies.

Here's some of my picks:

In General, the "TV Series-turned-Movie" Dub

In the 1980s there was a strange trend of an anime series being picked up.... and turned into a movie.

Which to me was often for the best. Things like Thumbelina: A Magical Adventure or Serendipity the Pink Dinosaur might be interesting to watch for an hour or two... but I can't see dedicating myself to a full TV series. And very often these movies are made just by editing out filler episodes, which is always a plus.

Apparently this is something that even Japanese creators used to do, and I kinda wish it was still a thing.

Better Foreign Music

As much as we all love J-Pop, you gotta admit... after awhile it can get kinda tired, and very often I wind up liking foreign music more.

Hot take but probably my most controversial example will be Sailor Moon--while admittedly the Japanese music grew on me, I'll always prefer the DIC music. Compare: Japanese Transformation. DIC Dub Transformation.

Another place this often pops up is theme songs.

Compare:

Manga Sarutobi Sasuke (Knack Studios version) - Japanese OP. vs English OP.

Sei Juushi Bismarck: Japanese OP vs English OP.

Robin Hood no Daiboken is practically the ur-example here: If you were marathoning this show, which intro would you like to hear: the Japanese OP, or the Italian OP? (That's not actually the OP animation but it IS the music).

Italian OPs in general are one of those weird rabbit holes I stumbled down by accident in the early days of Youtube and honestly, yeah, Italian kids got all the good music. Here's the Italian OPs for Detective Conan, and for a non-anime example, Batman the Animated Series.

Gag Dubs

Okay, you knew this had to pop up, in fact I guarantee people responded and said "Ghost Stories" and/or "Samurai Pizza Cats" before they finished reading.

Right, so there's occasionally times the dubbed version turns a mostly-serious-but-unremarkable anime into a comedy. And it always gets a good reaction. FWIW I found Ghost Stories kinda obnoxious (not because its a rabbit, but because its black) but I love Samurai Pizza Cats.

(Just gonna say this now, I don't think things like Yu-Gi-Oh The Abridged Series should count for this topic. I'm sure people will debate the nuances, its just.... for me those feel like they're an entirely different thing from something like Samurai Pizza Cats.)

Aaaaaannnndd....

So there were more I was gonna name, but this OP has already turned into "Skykiii spergs about rare instances he preferred a dub for some anime most of you probably don't even remember" and I feel like if I keep going on, responders won't have anything to say.

I'll add this hot take:

I haven't seen Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid, maybe its a better show than I expect.... but I strongly suspect that in ten years, all anyone will remember is "its that show that was controversial for inserting politics into its english dub script."

TL;DR - Name some times you thought a dub/localization improved on the original version. It doesn't need to be limited to just anime/Japanese works either.
 
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The Initial D dub (by funimation) will always hold a special place in my heart, shame they never finished it
 
Shin Chan, but only because I watched it a lot on Adult Swim and they tried to turn it into South Park.
 
I always change the language to English for this boss.
 
Always preferred this dub to the original.
 
Dub is best, especially the old ones. Subs sound like shit 9/10 times. DBZ's dub went above and beyond, even replacing the shitty jap music.

Funny thing is, this is one of those dubs I didn't like back in the day but now its kinda grown on me.

And some aspects of it have become iconic and things I forever associate with Dragon Ball even if they're not strictly speaking canon. HFIL and "Another Dimension" just for an example. Likewise I always associate "Shadow Realm" with Yu-Gi-Oh even though that's a show where I prefer Japan's, where there is no equivalent concept.

Lupin part II (red jacket). The dub adds alot of character and humor to the show. Can't imagine watching it without the dub.
While I don't care for some of the dub's rewritten lines (I recall some of them being kinda clunky), their voices for the characters were spot-on. To the point where whenever I see a dubbed movie that doesn't use this cast, it just sounds wrong.

One of my friends feels a similar way about Goku--he doesn't care much for Japanese Goku's voice. Personally it never bothered me but I can understand why people prefer any of the dub voices.

DBZ abridged by Team 4 Star is king. Without it, I never could’ve gotten my wife to watch DBZ.
Eeeehhhh.... with regards to the theme of this topic I'm not sure we should be counting youtube parody edits.
 
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Black Lagoon's English dub. Hearing all of the accents of the characters is fun, even if you don't get to hear the funy engrish. Also Hellsing Ultimate. Not the abridged version, fuck that.
 
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It's genuinely hilarious to me how butthurt One Piece fans got when 4kids put lollipops and super soakers in their cartoon about a stretchy pirate man. I'll always prefer it for that reason.
 
Eeeehhhh.... with regards to the theme of this topic I'm not sure we should be counting youtube parody edits.
It’s like pseudo-parody. The main plot is still there, just with a bunch of jokes that hyberolize certain character aspects.

Anyways you can be sure or not sure of whatever, I wrote what I wrote. If you don’t count it, it’s still my answer
 
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