[Equus]

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So basically what we're getting is that it's simply harder to dub than it looks. That's interesting. I thought you just roughly translate the language and simply dub it out on the mic. I honestly believed anyone with a right voice could do it. Ignorance on my part I guess?
 
Still, despite the "disconnection" and other difficulties, can't the actors just speak like how they do in their daily lives? With the exceptions like Cowboy Bebop (pretty much only dub I enjoyed) I feel that American actors are taught with certain standards which literally tells them not to speak naturally for the sake of viewers. I can't really explain it, but like the above poster said, everything just comes off as goofy to me.

It's not quite so easy as to just speak like you do everyday...otherwise everyone would be a great actor, let alone dub talent. 

  And yes, as a generalization, there's a certain "bad school" of acting that tends to emphasize a melodramatic or overly emotive style.  My instructor from college would call it "cranking".  It's basically when someone just acts with their head and face without any support, emotionally or physically.  What you get is sometimes someone who emphasizes things with their head, or someone who just is a little over-amped and comes across as...well...acting.  Sometimes, boiling things down to their simplest level is the most effective way to communicate, and too often actors choose to over compensate rather than be truthful.  One example may be if someone simply asked you, "You believe me, right?"  as opposed to "You BELIEVE me, RIGHT?!?"  Unless the person is overwrought because they're being attacked by aliens, I'd be more prone to someone who delivered the line simply and honestly.
 
Also, I think the good actors on stage or screen are the ones that really make you believe that they are somehow connected to what is happening and what they are saying, and doing the voice over work in a studio, I would think, removes the actor even more from what one would consider natural and easy.  It makes the actor have to compensate in other ways...either by working at understanding the specifics of the situation at hand and suspending their own disbelief, having a very clear and honest motivation, or some other method.
 
Personally, I also think that there's a disconnect in Western thought when people think about mind versus body.  To me, they inform each other and can't really be disconnected, but so much of our theater teachings make a big thing about working from the outside in, or the inside out, or from the mind and thinking.
 
Sorry...probably more than anyone really needs to think about, but I've had a lot of training in the theater so I've often thought about things like this.

 

[MorbidToaster]

I prefer Azumanga subbed, even though the dub was good. It's my #3 anime of all time. Such a good show.
 
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The English dub of Azumanga Daioh is one of the few good ones, along with Bebop.
 
I don't really know why English dubs usually suck so much, especially because all the voice actors that do both the (few) good ones and the bad ones are all part of the same small stables that work for the American distribution companies.

 
 

 

[maverickronin]

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I prefer Azumanga subbed, even though the dub was good. It's my #3 anime of all time. Such a good show.

 
I do prefer the sub too, but the dub is still great in its own right because goes far beyond the normal standards by not only capturing the character's personalities in their voices properly but doing such a good job of transliterating the jokes and puns.  The jokes get changed slightly, but maintain the same theme and mood and that's extraordinarily clever compared to the treatment that most other shows get.
 
Even if the English voices weren't good it would still be worth watching to appreciated all the thought that went in to tweaking the script for English.  I think that's pretty amazing for something of Azumanga's genre.  In something like Bebop where there's not nearly as much specific to Japanese culture that is best expressed in the Japanese language pretty much all you have to do for a good dub is get the right voice actors together.

 

[marvin]

The elephant in the corner that no one's mentioned yet is money. Anime dubbing, if union, pays about a third of what American animation voicework does upfront and residuals are significantly worse. If it's not a union job, and many productions aren't, the payscale is even worse. Voice actors are also expected to crank out lines at a higher rate than in other productions due to budget constraints.
 
Takeaway: The paying audience for anime in America just isn't large enough to support a uniformly high quality of voicework.

 

[Equus]

marvin speaketh truth.  You run into the same problem with voice overs on smaller budget video games, and it's probably why a lot of the American VA pool, no matter how prolific they are, don't do a lot of stuff outside of voice overs and work for the studio directing or whatever.  They're not union, and even if they were to become union, from what I understand of S.A.G. and Equity, they'd have a difficult time going back because of union regulations.

 

[HiGHFLYiN9]

Back when I initially started watching anime, I bought the dubbed tapes because they were $5 cheaper than the subbed tapes for whatever reason. Back then, I don't remember the dubs being so cheesy. As soon as DVDs came around, I switched to subs and never looked back. It seems that dubs are doomed to get worse, as most anime has moved to a paid subscription to stream model, which will likely further remove the control from the major players that dub anime here in America as consumers have the option to watch a series immediately from Japan, or in 2 to 3 years with the option of dub. 
 
There have been a number of times where I went to a convention and a company was providing the dub of an anime and it sounded terrible, it tends to really lessen the experience to the point that I'd rather not watch the series at all. The worst thing I'd have to say is when an American voice actor is attempting an accent like British or Australian for a main character; truly a painful experience