I've TOTALLY seen crappy lip-matching work before!

For anime, I usually prefer english dubs, unless there done so horrible that it is impossible to recognize the original anime. I just enjoy listening to anime in a language I understand.

Also:
Shudders at crappy lip-matching.

Legend11 said: I don't really have a preference. One thing I've noticed though and which annoys me a little is when I'm watching an anime with subs and I find myself instinctively picking out a certain word or words and repeating them to try to get even a basic understanding of spoken Japanese only to see the same words repeated later on but have a seemingly completely different meaning.

That's because Japanese is not like English at all, you have to determine the word by it's use in the statement and then there's dialect but I won't go into those as sometimes they use the same words with completely unrelated meanings.. I.E. Hana = Nose or Flower you have to figure it out by how it's used, this is actually used as a pun a lot.(Thought written the Kanji for Nose and Flower have no similarity.) Helpful facts, Thumbs up = Boyfriend (You can give thumbs up but make sure you're understood when you do so lol) Making a loose fist but extending the pinky = Girlfriend Raise your eyebrow while doing either if you want to purpose your wish to be their boyfriend/girlfriend. Japanese people don't understand when you point to your chest to refer to yourself(as far as I know), as a whole anyway(I'm sure some do), the common sign for "Me" is to point to ones own nose.

iclim4 said: Words Of Wisdom said: Depends on the show. I've watched tons of anime and I can honestly say that there are a fair number of English dubtitles that show up their Japanese counterparts. There is also the latter. Listen to both whenever possible and then make a judgment. Agreed I liked fullmetal alchemist, Inuyasha and Full metal panic eng dubs. their voices fit so well that when i heard the japanese dubs, the jpn dubs seemed awkward. though the majority of the eng dubbings suck for other animes.

Full Metal Panic is an example of an excellent dubtitling job.

I've watched the original series and Fumoffu in Japanese and English (every episode) and TSR in Japanese only.  I can honestly say the English voice cast is superior to the Japanese one for every character except the main character (Sousuke Sagara) where I will give a nod to the Japanese VA and his excellent rendition of the line "Nan demo nai."  Despite that, Mike Kleinhenz as Kalinin and Vic Mignoga as Kurz Weber of the English cast alone put the entire Japanese cast to shame with their terrific voice acting.

Onegai Twins is another anime where the English cast is clearly better than the Japanese cast with exceptions for maybe one or two characters (Ichigo).  Read or Die OVA would another very well English cast anime.  Of course if you check the casts, you'll notice that Crispin Freeman is in both; I'd say in general that most anime dubbing he participates in turns out extremely well so his name is one to look for.

That said, I pretty much hate the anime purist who thinks that subs are always better than dubs and refuses to actually listen to any good dubs.  It's an egotistical position born of ignorance to me as I feel that most people who take this position wouldn't even know bad Japanese voice acting and line delivery if it bit them. 

Subtitles for anything, not just Japanese -> English. I'd rather watch anything in it's original language with subs, rather than a dubbed version.

English subtitles for sure!

Depends, when I sometimes hear the voiceover, I think to myself "That can't be his/her voice", it has to fit the character, both are fine for me

I would necessarily call myself an anime fan but I do hate subtitles. I hate reading my shows and I hate missing out on things because I'm reading the damn show.

twesterm said: I would necessarily call myself an anime fan but I do hate subtitles. I hate reading my shows and I hate missing out on things because I'm reading the damn show.

That's what happens when you live in Yankland. There's plenty of entertainment available in your own language.

Here in Finland most of the stuff on TV is foreign, thus subbed, and nobody even notices they're reading text half of the time they're watching telly. Same for pretty much any European country other than France and Germany. =P

Like a lot of above poster said, subs over dubs in most animes, with few exception.