I finally sat through an entire 26-episode dub and it felt wrong the whole time

I've always been a sub-only guy for like 15 years but decided to watch Full Metal Panic dubbed since I was working in my shop and couldn't keep reading subtitles. By the end of the second episode I realized I was missing half the character tone shifts because the voice actors sounded like they were reading a manual. Has anyone else tried switching formats and immediately regretted it?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_drew14d ago

Dubs rob you of lip flap timing, which kills the comedy.

iris_barnes8714d ago

Man i feel this so hard. I tried watching one of my old faves dubbed recently too and it just felt off the whole time. Like you said about missing tone shifts, that's exactly what got me. @the_drew mentioned lip flap timing and that's a huge part of it too, the comedy just doesn't land when the words don't match the mouth movements. I made it through like 8 episodes before i gave up and switched back to subs. Some dubs are better than others but once you're used to the original voices it's almost impossible to switch. The acting just sounds flat and lifeless compared to what you know the characters actually sound like.

brian_hart14d ago

Oh man, I gotta be that guy but Full Metal Panic actually has one of the better dubs from that era. The old ADV stuff was hit or miss but Chris Patton as Sousuke is pretty solid. But yeah I get what you mean about tone shifts, some dubs just flatten everything out. Try something newer like Space Dandy or Cowboy Bebop, those dubs actually have directors who care about matching the original energy.