@DreadKhan I have to agree with @booinyoureyes about FMA and FMA Brotherhood. I found them to be some of the better dubs out there. And yes, I have watched them both in sub and dub. In fact, I watched the dubbed version first, and when I saw the sub I had a hard time adjusting to Ed's voice.
I am going to make an assumption about you here now though, don't get offended if it's way off mark. I assume you're mono-linguistic, that you only speak American English.
Nah, I actually come from a bilingual household and I speak Greek and have some moderate ability in Spanish. I spoke Greek before I spoke English actually, and my grandparents lived with me for my whole life and we only communicated in Greek. However, I don't get offended by harmless assumptions!
I do agree with you that every international character in American movies speaking English (or worse, accented-English) is annoying. Same with "vague British accents" for medieval fantasy characters in EVERYTHING.. except for the "less educated" races that speak like Scotsmen. Its stupid. And even worse? The new fad that seems to be a reaction to this stupid practice, where characters speaking other languages in American films are no longer even given subtitles!
However, as a native English speaker, if a show like Vikings is already using English as its "default Nordic" then accents are fine if you want to differentiate. Entertainment is business, and Vikings targets mostly an American audience, so I have no qualms with English being spoken.
Naturally this varies for people but the best way to learn something is, generally speaking, using it. You don't think people who only ever watch anime subbed pick up parts of the language? That they're unable to detect "bad voiceacting" and that emotion can't be conveyed since fluency isn't at 100%? I do see you said "a lot of people" rather than "all", but that generalization still seems off to me. Lets put a twist on this: do you think the perceived problem exists also for us non-native English speakers in mainstream entertainment media, that since we don't understand the language fully we can't appreciate said media fully? I doubt Hollywood would be making as much money off your coasts still if that was the case.
Personally I started learning English one year before school (6) by playing/watching, and in order to enjoy, games/tv series. English education didn't start until 4th grade (age 10). While I can't prove this, I dare say I could grasp when something was supposed to be funny, sad or witty to a degree at age 8, without having to "take things at face value" because of the subtitles, and that's long before I dare say my English was fluid.
This is a fascinating issue. I'd like to first off said that the people I mentioned (mostly friend here in the States) who enjoy subs were all native speakers with no proficiency in Japanese. In fact the only person who also prefers dubs is one of my friends who is a Japanese speaker, since his parents let him watch anime only so he can learn English (irony!).
Now, I think that its fair to say (and we are all speaking in generalities here) that non-native English speakers, due to English being the most widely spoken second language in the world, have a better grasp on English than the non-native Japanese speaker.
Your story about learning English is interesting, but most people I know didn't watch subbed anime at 6 years of age. Personally I watched my first when I was 21, and most of my friends started in middle school and switched to dubs later on. You can get a basic impression, and you can understand some emotion (lets be honest... when anime is "emotional" its so over the top that a deaf and blind person can get it!), but you'll never get the same experience as when it is in your native tongue.
I think this is a different situation than non-native English speakers face when watching mainstream entertainment simply because Japanese is not used as widely nor formally taught in schools as much.
The only experience I have watching a show in a foreign tongue through subtitles, are with Spiral and Braquo. I do not speak French, never took any lessons, and my 8 days in Paris are my only immersion in the language. I remember two cases in Spiral where I had to rewatch a scene, but Braquo went by smoothly through the first two seasons. Watching it subbed wasn't a problem, per se, but it wasn't the same as watching Breaking Bad either.
NOTE: I hate dubbed live-action. It just looks silly and throws off everything.
.... Yu Yu Hakusho. Has anyone watched these dubs and found them poor?
Actually yes. Of the series I've completed, that one is one of my favs. Dubbed. The fact that the dub is so horribad, the VA sounding cheesy as hell and the characters really dumb, is what makes it good. It fits so perfectly. Because lets face it, Kuwabara and Yusuke are total dumbasses.
Agree with you, except that the voices were, I believe, as intended. They are not "bad" they are "silly" or "ridiculous" because Kuwabara (another favorite!) and Yusuke are indeed total dumbasses. The VA doesn't count because they changed voice actors and it was not watchable. I turned it off as soon as the baby spoke because it was like watching a different show (like when I watched the OVA of Full Metal Alchemist... which alone makes Brotherhood the superior version)
I actually think that Botan's voice in English is one of the greatest ever performances in voice acting!
I find it deeply disturbing @booinyoureyes that you could say FMA is good dubbed compared to subbed. How much of a chance did you give the sub? Ed and Al both have very childish voices, even when Ed is a teen, and Al is... Al, with his very resonant body, which should be making his voice substantially less piercing. The Dub I gave a few chances sounded like shrieking children. TBH, I found most of the characters to have voices more fitting of their characters in the original, most notably the Strongarm Alchemist, who sounds as huge as he needs to, which the English voice definitely did not.
I don't think I've ever disagreed (ever!) with anything (anything!) more in my entire (entire!) life.
The Dub I gave a few chances sounded like shrieking children.
Well, Edward's age range goes from 12 to 16, and Al lost his body at 11, so... So, yeah. They are shrieking children. -_-;;
2. They sound like squeaking teens in the original as well... I tried it. Al's voice was possibly more squeaky... but that is okay because he is going through puberty. I think people constantly make the mistake of thinking certain shows (particularly cartoons) are "for adults" and overestimate the ages of the characters. The Elric bros are kids, and should sound like kids. If they had adult voices they would sound possessed Also... what does his armor have to do with his voice? They never said that the voice somehow originated from inside the armor. 3. Armstrong is THE BEST CHARACTER EVER and his voice in English is perfect. Absolutely hilarious guy, and certainly my favorite character from the series (Al is a close second) What about this sounds small? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSCmfIl-sHg
I guess this is just a matter of taste, but I find the FMA dubs to be excellent, and probably the best dubs of all.
I also disagree that you can't appreciate the emotion and inflections of a character if you are reading a subtitle, but I DO admit that you need to be a very fast reader to still get the full experience, IE be able to effortless go 'Zen', reading without reading, to the point where you aren't even actively aware you're hearing a foreign language.
I never have a problem keeping up with subtitles, though it does get tiring when you are like me and constantly multitask. I'm like @cmk24 in that regard. I'll never watch a live action dub (they look utterly ridiculous) because the disturbance that comes from the voices not synching with the video feed outweighs the convenience of dubs. And thats the key issue. I think you do miss out on some things, but the main reason I prefer dubs is the convenience of having full comprehension of the spoken language. Unless a dub is exceptionally bad, there is little reason as far as I can see, for an American viewer with no experience with Japanese to choose subs instead.
(Many times I suspect its so they can be like "I only like the original because I'm a super-cool hipster". Its kind of like how you know someone does Crossfit... they won't stop telling you about it!)
The Dub I gave a few chances sounded like shrieking children.
Well, Edward's age range goes from 12 to 16, and Al lost his body at 11, so...
So, yeah. They are shrieking children. -_-;;
@Nonnahswriter By 16 most boys have lost their 'shrieking child' voice, they won't be fully deepened, but they'll be deeper than they were a few years earlier, even if they were slow developers. His voice IMO is more age-appropriate in the original, and Al's was better too, still clearly a child, yet not an annoying one.
I STRONGLY suspect you're messing with me on this, nobody could possibly prefer the dub of FMA to the sub. It's not humanly possible. Thats like saying Nickleback is a better rock band than Led Zepplin. I'm not even a fan of either to be honest, but I can say confidently that Led Zepplin has more artistic merit at this point. You might prefer one or the other, but you can't fail to acknowledge artistic integrity.
1. Answered above, at 16 most boys have dropped an octave or 2 in speaking voice, even if they have maintained their high register, and Al's massive EMPTY body WILL greatly affect the sound of his voice, deepening it and smoothing it out. Now, I can accept personal preference on Al, but Ed hurts my ears in the dub.
2. Rrrriiiggghhhttt... I think we can all agree both voice sets are childish, dubbed and subbed for Al and Ed, with the Sub 'young adult' Ed sounding like a 15-20 yo. I would say the 'young adult' Ed sounds like he's 12 in the dub, and I have no fondness for the voice of boys. Personal opinion, but he sounds lame when he's angry, and Ed gets angry often enough for this to matter.
3. No, sorry. His Subbed voice is bad to me. He sounds like he's a 5'10 schlub, not a 7' 300lb adonis. The dub lacks all the nobility and unconcious arrogance so key to his character... he's incredibly earnest, despite telling people the most inane facts about his family history. For example, in the sub, his first real appearance, vs Scar, thats one of the greatest bits of voice work I've ever heard. Every gram of emotion, arrogance, confidence just pours out in the subtitled edition. You don't even need to read the subtitles to know how flipping ugly things are about to get for Scar, how odiously confident Armstrong is despite knowing this man easily killed a General who was a legendary fighter. I think we'll end up agreeing to disagree, but for the love of all that's holy, watch that short fight between him and Scar in it's original format. I'm certainly no purest when it comes to dub vs sub, but that scene... gives me the chills how well delivered. It's like looking into the eyes of the Diablo!
I've found North American voices have a hard time with the more extreme voices... people that are supposed to sound like boring, everyday people they tend to do REALLY well, better than the original, which ends up overacted a bit, but over-the-top voices are not often well done in the West, even high budget stuff. As such, an anime like Cowboy Bebop does just fine dubbed, while Trigun had voices that didn't work out so well (though again, the totally normal people sound great).
I think the main reason that people hate dubs is because they automatically assume that the dub is going to to be horribly censored or even more horribly dubbed. However true for earlier animes it isn't true for the most part today. Lets hit dubbing first, when people tell me about the really bad dubs they mainly talk about dubs of animes that were done in the late 80's and 90's. This is before anime caught on the west so dubs were done on a shoe-string budget and they always went for the lowest bidder. Obviously the quality suffered. But today when dubs are professionally translated and voice acted I really don't see a point to read tiny text squished at the bottom of a screen while there's epic fights and drama that I have to either rewind or ignore. Honestly, have you seen the Funimation Dub of One Piece? That is simply phenomenal voice work there. Robin's I want to live scene still gives me chills. There are tons of great dubs out there. Whenever anyone talks about censorship in anime they're talking about 4kids and the handful of animes that they horribly butchered. Thing is is that 4kids took anime made for the late-teens early-twenties audience and tried to make it appropriate for 8 year olds. The obvious happened but 4kids is now out of buisness so I don't see how its a big deal.
I've found North American voices have a hard time with the more extreme voices... people that are supposed to sound like boring, everyday people they tend to do REALLY well, better than the original, which ends up overacted a bit, but over-the-top voices are not often well done in the West, even high budget stuff. As such, an anime like Cowboy Bebop does just fine dubbed, while Trigun had voices that didn't work out so well (though again, the totally normal people sound great).
Funny, because my Japanese friend, when I asked him if anime was less over-dramatic and cheesy in Japanese ("Angry Edward" in particular), said no, its just as over-done in Japanese. Being SUPER DUPER OVER THE TOP THIS IS THE END OF THE WORLD DRAMATIC is apparently part of the medium, and has been so forever. This is what I mean by people who don't understand a language just projecting their own desires for good voice acting onto the product. If you don't understand it you might as well pretend its good!
People need to understand its campy, both in English and in Japanese. People just like to ignore it in Japanese, which leads them to find the English versions "cheesy" or worse- "for kids". This is what I mean when I say that many (at least American) anime fans seem to overestimate the maturity of the content. Oftentimes they mistake "blood and sex" as being "for adults" while ignoring thematic content. If sexual content and violence are what make adult art rather than complex conflicts and meaningful characters, then there is little difference between Telly Tubbies and Downton Abbey. I've heard multiple people say absurd things, like "Full Metal Alchemist is for 18 and up" or "Gundam Wing is for adults".
Nah, Full Metal Alchemist is Japan's answer to Harry Potter... it really targets the mid-teens more than anyone else, but is great enough to be enjoyed by audiences of all ages.
I mean honestly, you can spend your entire life honing your craft, spend years preparing for this one moment, but you could never, ever, ever over-act when voicing scenes like this.
Its in-con-ceivable!
And no matter what language you speak, or how serious you take your voice acting, any, and I mean any, voiced content that matches this picture will be nothing other than loveably cheesylicious
I STRONGLY suspect you're messing with me on this, nobody could possibly prefer the dub of FMA to the sub. It's not humanly possible.
I do.
I guess I'm not human.
I think most people who dislike the dub of FMA just dislike Mignogna's voice in general. That's where we get the whole "Ed sounds so shrill and whiny in the dub!" Which is fine; Vic has a very distinct voice, and it won't appeal to everyone. Just remember that you in-turn don't speak for everyone either.
Actually, my friend Jay (the Japanese guy who watched dubs growing up) always thought that Armstrong should have been voiced with an overly-exaggerated Austrian accent in the English dub so that he can sound like Arnold Schwarzenegger (Ah-nold).
I do think that is an interesting suggestion, though I'm not sure if I'd like it. It would have been cool to see though!
You're all wrong about FMA, and you know it, and someday, you'll deal with it and admit it. You're not very convincing, and the FMA dubs are a hard sell, IE bicycles to fish level difficult.
@booinyoureyes I agree with your friend that Japanese anime voicing tends to overact, which is why I think voices more warranted a toned down sound are better done in English. However, there are voices where hamming/over-the-toping things up as is appropriate.
The Japanese voices comes across as extremely aristocratic, and is a pretty powerful voice, but if you DID go English, he definitely should be Prussian. He's one monocle away from the stereotype even!
Depends on the anime I guess. I'd rather watch Rurouni Kenshin dubbed, just as I'd rather watch the subbed version of Vampire Knight and Vampire Knight Guilty.
Does the anime contain the almighty lord of voice acting and hero of my heart, Steve Blum? Oh, it does? WATCHING THAT DUB FROM NOW UNTO ETERNITY!
Usually I watch the sub unless it has specific voice actors I enjoy. I love Steve Blum and Lisa Ortiz. When I watched Record of Lodoss War as a child I was in love with Deedlit. Later when I heard the same voice actress, Lisa Ortiz, in other stuff I was like WHAT!? HOW DOES ~X CHARACTER~ HAVE DEEDLIT'S VOICE?!
Also, while I haven't played all the way through NWN2 I've done the character creation and one of the voice actors you can have for a male character is Steve Blum Needless to say my Drow characters are all voiced by him.
Edit: I also watch the 1979 Mobile Suit Gundam (Favorite anime ever) and Char's Counterattack in dub but watch all of the others in sub. I really like Amuro and Char's English voice actors. They didn't use the same voice actor in Zeta so I watch the sub of it.
You're all wrong about FMA, and you know it, and someday, you'll deal with it and admit it. You're not very convincing, and the FMA dubs are a hard sell, IE bicycles to fish level difficult.
I do like certain English VAs. It's a growing industry, and it should be allowed to grow. Compared to what dubs sounded like back in the day, the dubs of today sound alright, and they'll only get better with time, assuming that people let them.
You could say "Just learn the language," but many people aren't interested in learning a language just to understand a TV show. They'd rather spend their time with things that they can already understand, like dubs, and limiting Anime to one not-well-known language will not help the industry, as those people won't even give it a second glance.
In the USA, at least where I live, animation is considered to be for kids. It doesn't matter what the content of the show is about, if it's animated, it's a kid show. Naturally, this means that the industry doesn't get much attention already, and the dubbed versions aren't considered very good because the audience that they target is much smaller than in Japan, and there is simply little point in spending tons of money just to please a comparatively small audience. That's how it is where I live, anyway. Are these people wrong? In my opinion, hell yes. Will that opinion change? Probably, but not anytime soon. It's getting there, but it's still far from a widely accepted medium.
Interest in Anime is growing, however, and because of that, dubbing is becoming a respectable industry as well. I can see it being even better in the future, so I try to support it however I can.
Comments
I do agree with you that every international character in American movies speaking English (or worse, accented-English) is annoying. Same with "vague British accents" for medieval fantasy characters in EVERYTHING.. except for the "less educated" races that speak like Scotsmen. Its stupid. And even worse? The new fad that seems to be a reaction to this stupid practice, where characters speaking other languages in American films are no longer even given subtitles!
However, as a native English speaker, if a show like Vikings is already using English as its "default Nordic" then accents are fine if you want to differentiate. Entertainment is business, and Vikings targets mostly an American audience, so I have no qualms with English being spoken.
This is a fascinating issue. I'd like to first off said that the people I mentioned (mostly friend here in the States) who enjoy subs were all native speakers with no proficiency in Japanese. In fact the only person who also prefers dubs is one of my friends who is a Japanese speaker, since his parents let him watch anime only so he can learn English (irony!).
Now, I think that its fair to say (and we are all speaking in generalities here) that non-native English speakers, due to English being the most widely spoken second language in the world, have a better grasp on English than the non-native Japanese speaker.
Your story about learning English is interesting, but most people I know didn't watch subbed anime at 6 years of age. Personally I watched my first when I was 21, and most of my friends started in middle school and switched to dubs later on. You can get a basic impression, and you can understand some emotion (lets be honest... when anime is "emotional" its so over the top that a deaf and blind person can get it!), but you'll never get the same experience as when it is in your native tongue.
I think this is a different situation than non-native English speakers face when watching mainstream entertainment simply because Japanese is not used as widely nor formally taught in schools as much.
The only experience I have watching a show in a foreign tongue through subtitles, are with Spiral and Braquo. I do not speak French, never took any lessons, and my 8 days in Paris are my only immersion in the language. I remember two cases in Spiral where I had to rewatch a scene, but Braquo went by smoothly through the first two seasons. Watching it subbed wasn't a problem, per se, but it wasn't the same as watching Breaking Bad either.
NOTE: I hate dubbed live-action. It just looks silly and throws off everything.
Agree with you, except that the voices were, I believe, as intended. They are not "bad" they are "silly" or "ridiculous" because Kuwabara (another favorite!) and Yusuke are indeed total dumbasses.
The VA doesn't count because they changed voice actors and it was not watchable. I turned it off as soon as the baby spoke because it was like watching a different show (like when I watched the OVA of Full Metal Alchemist... which alone makes Brotherhood the superior version)
I actually think that Botan's voice in English is one of the greatest ever performances in voice acting!
"Go for the kidneys!"
I don't think I've ever disagreed (ever!) with anything (anything!) more in my entire (entire!) life.
1. 2. They sound like squeaking teens in the original as well... I tried it. Al's voice was possibly more squeaky... but that is okay because he is going through puberty. I think people constantly make the mistake of thinking certain shows (particularly cartoons) are "for adults" and overestimate the ages of the characters. The Elric bros are kids, and should sound like kids. If they had adult voices they would sound possessed
Also... what does his armor have to do with his voice? They never said that the voice somehow originated from inside the armor.
3. Armstrong is THE BEST CHARACTER EVER and his voice in English is perfect. Absolutely hilarious guy, and certainly my favorite character from the series (Al is a close second)
What about this sounds small?
I guess this is just a matter of taste, but I find the FMA dubs to be excellent, and probably the best dubs of all. I never have a problem keeping up with subtitles, though it does get tiring when you are like me and constantly multitask. I'm like @cmk24 in that regard. I'll never watch a live action dub (they look utterly ridiculous) because the disturbance that comes from the voices not synching with the video feed outweighs the convenience of dubs.
And thats the key issue. I think you do miss out on some things, but the main reason I prefer dubs is the convenience of having full comprehension of the spoken language. Unless a dub is exceptionally bad, there is little reason as far as I can see, for an American viewer with no experience with Japanese to choose subs instead.
(Many times I suspect its so they can be like "I only like the original because I'm a super-cool hipster". Its kind of like how you know someone does Crossfit... they won't stop telling you about it!)
I STRONGLY suspect you're messing with me on this, nobody could possibly prefer the dub of FMA to the sub. It's not humanly possible. Thats like saying Nickleback is a better rock band than Led Zepplin. I'm not even a fan of either to be honest, but I can say confidently that Led Zepplin has more artistic merit at this point. You might prefer one or the other, but you can't fail to acknowledge artistic integrity.
1. Answered above, at 16 most boys have dropped an octave or 2 in speaking voice, even if they have maintained their high register, and Al's massive EMPTY body WILL greatly affect the sound of his voice, deepening it and smoothing it out. Now, I can accept personal preference on Al, but Ed hurts my ears in the dub.
2. Rrrriiiggghhhttt... I think we can all agree both voice sets are childish, dubbed and subbed for Al and Ed, with the Sub 'young adult' Ed sounding like a 15-20 yo. I would say the 'young adult' Ed sounds like he's 12 in the dub, and I have no fondness for the voice of boys. Personal opinion, but he sounds lame when he's angry, and Ed gets angry often enough for this to matter.
3. No, sorry. His Subbed voice is bad to me. He sounds like he's a 5'10 schlub, not a 7' 300lb adonis. The dub lacks all the nobility and unconcious arrogance so key to his character... he's incredibly earnest, despite telling people the most inane facts about his family history. For example, in the sub, his first real appearance, vs Scar, thats one of the greatest bits of voice work I've ever heard. Every gram of emotion, arrogance, confidence just pours out in the subtitled edition. You don't even need to read the subtitles to know how flipping ugly things are about to get for Scar, how odiously confident Armstrong is despite knowing this man easily killed a General who was a legendary fighter. I think we'll end up agreeing to disagree, but for the love of all that's holy, watch that short fight between him and Scar in it's original format. I'm certainly no purest when it comes to dub vs sub, but that scene... gives me the chills how well delivered. It's like looking into the eyes of the Diablo!
I've found North American voices have a hard time with the more extreme voices... people that are supposed to sound like boring, everyday people they tend to do REALLY well, better than the original, which ends up overacted a bit, but over-the-top voices are not often well done in the West, even high budget stuff. As such, an anime like Cowboy Bebop does just fine dubbed, while Trigun had voices that didn't work out so well (though again, the totally normal people sound great).
Whenever anyone talks about censorship in anime they're talking about 4kids and the handful of animes that they horribly butchered. Thing is is that 4kids took anime made for the late-teens early-twenties audience and tried to make it appropriate for 8 year olds. The obvious happened but 4kids is now out of buisness so I don't see how its a big deal.
People need to understand its campy, both in English and in Japanese. People just like to ignore it in Japanese, which leads them to find the English versions "cheesy" or worse- "for kids". This is what I mean when I say that many (at least American) anime fans seem to overestimate the maturity of the content. Oftentimes they mistake "blood and sex" as being "for adults" while ignoring thematic content. If sexual content and violence are what make adult art rather than complex conflicts and meaningful characters, then there is little difference between Telly Tubbies and Downton Abbey. I've heard multiple people say absurd things, like "Full Metal Alchemist is for 18 and up" or "Gundam Wing is for adults".
Nah, Full Metal Alchemist is Japan's answer to Harry Potter... it really targets the mid-teens more than anyone else, but is great enough to be enjoyed by audiences of all ages.
Its in-con-ceivable!
And no matter what language you speak, or how serious you take your voice acting, any, and I mean any, voiced content that matches this picture will be nothing other than loveably cheesylicious
I guess I'm not human.
I think most people who dislike the dub of FMA just dislike Mignogna's voice in general. That's where we get the whole "Ed sounds so shrill and whiny in the dub!" Which is fine; Vic has a very distinct voice, and it won't appeal to everyone. Just remember that you in-turn don't speak for everyone either.
I do think that is an interesting suggestion, though I'm not sure if I'd like it. It would have been cool to see though!
@OneAngryMushroom I think that's a pretty good position to take.
@booinyoureyes I agree with your friend that Japanese anime voicing tends to overact, which is why I think voices more warranted a toned down sound are better done in English. However, there are voices where hamming/over-the-toping things up as is appropriate.
The Japanese voices comes across as extremely aristocratic, and is a pretty powerful voice, but if you DID go English, he definitely should be Prussian. He's one monocle away from the stereotype even!
< /controversy>
@Silverstar : Evil
Usually I watch the sub unless it has specific voice actors I enjoy. I love Steve Blum and Lisa Ortiz. When I watched Record of Lodoss War as a child I was in love with Deedlit. Later when I heard the same voice actress, Lisa Ortiz, in other stuff I was like WHAT!? HOW DOES ~X CHARACTER~ HAVE DEEDLIT'S VOICE?!
Also, while I haven't played all the way through NWN2 I've done the character creation and one of the voice actors you can have for a male character is Steve Blum
Needless to say my Drow characters are all voiced by him.
Edit: I also watch the 1979 Mobile Suit Gundam (Favorite anime ever) and Char's Counterattack in dub but watch all of the others in sub. I really like Amuro and Char's English voice actors. They didn't use the same voice actor in Zeta so I watch the sub of it.
...
*runs*
You could say "Just learn the language," but many people aren't interested in learning a language just to understand a TV show. They'd rather spend their time with things that they can already understand, like dubs, and limiting Anime to one not-well-known language will not help the industry, as those people won't even give it a second glance.
In the USA, at least where I live, animation is considered to be for kids. It doesn't matter what the content of the show is about, if it's animated, it's a kid show. Naturally, this means that the industry doesn't get much attention already, and the dubbed versions aren't considered very good because the audience that they target is much smaller than in Japan, and there is simply little point in spending tons of money just to please a comparatively small audience. That's how it is where I live, anyway. Are these people wrong? In my opinion, hell yes. Will that opinion change? Probably, but not anytime soon. It's getting there, but it's still far from a widely accepted medium.
Interest in Anime is growing, however, and because of that, dubbing is becoming a respectable industry as well. I can see it being even better in the future, so I try to support it however I can.