by Jinzo Ningen » Fri Jul 12, 2019 1:52 pm
English dubbing for some languages is easier, to a degree. German for instance is likely the closest. The dub for Das Boot is a great one and the mouth movements are almost identical because of the language similarity; not only the cadence and word themselves, but the general sentence structure as well. Spanish, French Chinese, etc. are much more problematic. Japanese is a real pain because it isn't just the word pronunciation; their entire sentence structure is the reverse of ours. As such, dubs will almost never match mouth movements.
But it isn't just dubs. Transliteration from Japanese to English is in itself a nightmare. Just look at the inconsistencies and variation in the various fansubs of one show. A lot of Japanese is more about ideas and generalizations; it leaves a HUGE amount of what's said open to personal interpretation. Heck, even a show's written episode titles can be interpreted in many different ways. See the Kamen Rider wiki vs. Wikipedia vs. other sites. Similar but almost all slightly (or in some cases, greatly) different. Then you must take into account the fact that some sentences which are a few words in Japanese translate into several sentences or even a whole paragraph in English (with occasional explanations needed with regards to humor, folklore or customs, etc. for the non-Japanese viewer on top of the spoken translations). Therefore subtitles, too, must often be edited or generalized or shortened in order to keep multiple sentences from overlapping each other. Ideally you want to be able to read what the person talking has said before the next person begins talking, otherwise it can be extremely confusing and frustrating. So even the purist's insistence on subtitles only isn't absolute or perfect.
So dubs versus subs is often a case of six of one, a half dozen of the other. It's personal preference and no one person is right or wrong. As such, it's in the best interests to attempt to appeal and placate the largest audience possible - and that means offering BOTH options whenever possible. Which is my point entirely about the Ultraman dubs.