Re: Reminder: Miyazaki Month on Turner Classic Movies

On Thu, 12 Jan 2006 23:40:30 GMT, Abraham Evangelista
<daken@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

*snip*
>It's more than just being able to read, or being used to subtitles.
>There are plenty of times where the subtitles distract from what's
>happening on screen. Subtitles to be visible must be of contrast to
>the surrounding image, so they're going to draw your eye's attention.
>Like it or not they DO cover portions of the animation, and for many,
>they take a not-insignificant amount of concentration to follow.
>
>I love to watch the Oyasumi fansubs of Pani Poni Dash, but there are
>times where cultural notes can cover nearly 1/3 of the screen. and
>this is with a font that's less than 1/2 the size of the speech sub
>font. Expecting me to read that, AND the speech subs before they
>scroll off is asking too much. I do 1400WPM at full speed, and
>sometimes I still can't keep up.
>
>It's even worse when more than one person is talking on screen at the
>same time. During the spaceship scene with the scrolling headlines,
>animation, and the character speech, following the subs for the
>headlines in the background, AND what the characters are saying at the
>same time, for me at least, was nearly impossible without mutiple
>viewings. MANY multiple viewings.
>
>Anime is ENTERATINMENT. That's not to say that it should all be so
>easy to absorb as to be culturally and mentally dismissable, (although
>to be fair, much of it is...) but bottom line, some of us like to
>RELAX when we watch anime. Subtitles can get in the way of this.
>
>The way I see it, there are two ways to get around this.
>
>1) Learn Japanese. I'm picking this option, and enjoying it, but
>it's not an option for everyone, and in terms of allowing you to just
>"kick back and watch", it's more mentally exerting than hearing it in
>english, and is far from ideal. Obviously this is NOT the method most
>Americans pick.
>
>2) Watch Dubs. While not as accurate as subtitles, they allow you to
>process more of the VISUAL information on the screen. Anime is a
>VISUAL medium, so IMNSHO this is a GOOD thing. For those not familiar
>with japanese cultural, and specifically speech inflection vagaries, a
>properly done dub allows the viewer to amass MORE of the thoughts and
>feelings of the characters speaking.
>
>All of this of course goes out the window if the dub is poorly
>produced, but that's an issue of quality control, not an indictment of
>the dubbing process and it's respective merits. Too often I find
>sub-snobs believe subs to be superior based on the lack of merit for
>BAD dubs, (and let's face it, there's no lack of bad dubs to point to)
>without examining the merits of the dub medium itself.

This is my reasoning too... the argument is often made that if you're
watching anime subtitled, you're not watching and hearing it as it was
meant to be watched and heard... but anime was made with a Japanese
audience in mind, which speaks Japanese... so the anime was not
actually meant to be watched subtitled, but instead was meant to be
watched with a dub that is the same language as the target audience
speaks.

So, if the English dub is good... it's all good. But as you said, if
the English dub sucks, then it sucks.
--
Email: aevernon at bellsouth dot net

"It's nearby!"
"Where?"
"I found it! That pink alligator!"
"All right! Special bonus!"
.

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