Really depends. Anime like Guyver, Dragonball series, Trigun, Cowboy Bebop, Ghost in the Shell stuff have at least decent dubbing, so I don't mind watching the dub. Sc-ry-ed & other titles that have nails on chalkboard dubbing or are just easier to get subbed, I watch subbed.

Sometimes I just default to whichever version I saw first, regardless of having the option of one or the other. When I first saw Evangelion, for example, I was watching English dubbed vhs, so I only watch the English dub.

Subbed, not a single exception. Every now and then I hear that something is good dubbed, and I go "nope" every time I start watching it.

What if subbed doesn't exist?


Also Dragonball Z. Annoying as @#$@ subbed. Dubbed is just average but can't stand subbed so ..... eh.

Are you talking anime that somehow exists only as Eng dub? I've never seen an anime that doesn't at least have fansubs.

Now that I think about it, yeah. It's the McDonald's effect.

I'm fluent in Japanese. I think that should answer your question

Subbed all the way.
There's nothing in my native tongue anyway, so I'm used to reading subs really fast and not miss anything on screen

Not sure if I should bother watching SAO just so I can follow the second season.

The second season of SAO is crap. The first season was really really good but....... there is nothing you should be doing if your sole motivation is "just so I can watch the second season of SAO".


I ...... somewhere we already discussed this. No one can stand the main villain, they got rid of most of the interesting side stories and interesting characters, and ..... it's just nowhere near as good.

I mean..... the main female lead from the first season, who was probably in the running for THE strongest character, is a damsel in distress the entire time. Most of the other strong characters never bother to play the second game. And ..... I know I enjoyed watching it, but I also know for a fact that I enjoyed the first season 3 times as much.






That being said, you should watch the first season so that you can say you have seen the first season. Because it actually was really good.

Second season, not the second cour. As in, the one that starts airing in a few days.

Ok I call bs. Alfheim online was season 2.

And yes, Jack knows they are now calling GGO season 2.
That being said, no. It is probably not worth watching Alfheim Online in order to watch Gun Gale Online. Just go back and watch the Sword Art Online part because that was good, if you are so inclined, and skip the second game.


That being said, Gun Gale Online would be very very very different from what the series had done before. I haven't heard good things about the manga portion on it, but who knows?




Edit:


It seems they are just calling the new anime Sword Art Online 2.

When it comes to subtitles, in movies and shows not just anime, I always find myself focusing on them rather than the actual content for some reason even when the spoken language is English is the spoken language. So I think even if I understood Japanese I'd prefer no to have the words drawing my attention.

The SAO manga sucks something bad, so I wouldn't touch it.
Personally, I didn't like GGO in the novels, but I've had others tell me it was the best SAO arc up to that point, so.
Personal preference.

I am going to try to elaborate a little.

So. SAO had three things AO did not.

1. A strong female protagonist.

And no, I do not count Leaf on the same order as Asuna. The first is too close to a stereotype and they didn't bother to develop her much further. The second is an extremely well-developed character they spent an entire season working their noses off to develop.

2. A real sense of danger or tension.

SAO has permadeath hanging over everyone's head. It's a massive story that involves every character in the world. The first episode ends with telling us how 1000 people died in the first month.

AO on the other hand ... Yes there is a bad guy. And yes when he is in your face you hate his guts and there is tension. But for the most of the time they are on an awesome adventure fighting minor bad guys and there is as much danger to Kirito as Mario experiences in world 1-3. The whole "we are racing to save the princess" thing really doesn't work here, and as mentioned before they don't really have strong characters to fill in the void.

And

3. Side-stories. From the Christmas episode to hunting down a wyvern for its crafting materials, SAO actually had side stories that were entertaining in their own rights. AO has nothing resembling that at all.

So. New poll.

What annoys you in an opener for an anime?



For me, there are two things.

1. Really bad music.

2. The opener did not show up. At all. Until after a character died. And the opener is still showing scenes prominently featuring that character from when they were alive (i.e. like a third of Future Diary's opener).

1.
Also includes music that doesn't fit with the series... like Log Horizon.

I don't see why 2 is bothersome.
There was also Kimi ga Nozomu Eien (Rumbling Hearts) which didn't show an opening until the biggest event in the series, which was several episodes in.

Since I already mentioned it, let's use future diary as an example for number 2.

18 characters show up in the second opener to future diary. Each has their own complicated scene.

6 characters, each with their own 5-10 second piece in the opener, are all long dead by this point. And it's showing scene from when they were alive. Two more die within two episodes of this too.

So the opener is like a minute and a half to two minutes. Within two episodes of it showing up, like 50 seconds of the opener are dedicated solely to characters we will never see again.



Now. I know that those characters were really interesting. But wouldn't it make sense for more than half of the people in your opener to be in your show at some point? It would be like Dragonball Z showing Freiza in their opener 10 episodes after his death scene. It might be cool.... but the character is never going to show up again.

Then don't want to waste money designing new opening animation for every episode, obv.
And they couldn't rightly leave off the already dead characters. They deserve to show up in the opening at least once, right?

*I generally skip the opening except the first time around/I really, really liked it, so my opinion on this matter probably isn't the most useful.

By the way, anyone watching Beware the Batman?

I tend to skip show openers after watching them once or twice unless it changes. What annoys me is long openers. I guess the average is only 2-3 minutes at most, but that can feel like forever when I don't care about it. Stand Alone Complex & Donganronpa are the only ones that spring to mind that I watched just about all of them.