> So, that is how my teenage self wound up pirating a lot of anime: because the fansubbing was extremely good and I could pick up on Japanese vocal intonation. I could actually tell what was a joke, and what was anger, instead of wondering when someone would have feelings at all in their English monotone!
This seem to hold for classic cinema and television as well, which is why I avoid dubbing like the plague. Not only people who get paid for the job can't get translations right (which is a problem with subtitles as well, but at least if you know even a little of the language of the movie, you have a secondary reference to sort out translation errors on the fly), they often also can't convey the emotions, so you get a severely degraded experience.
This seem to hold for classic cinema and television as well, which is why I avoid dubbing like the plague. Not only people who get paid for the job can't get translations right (which is a problem with subtitles as well, but at least if you know even a little of the language of the movie, you have a secondary reference to sort out translation errors on the fly), they often also can't convey the emotions, so you get a severely degraded experience.