This is of course one of the classic sources of anime flame wars...
at least the trend towards hybrid DVDs is making it less a matter of
contention in the distribution channel. If dubbing is done prior to
editing for, say, television (as was done with Sailor Moon S), the two
versions can co-exist.

(Unlike "Card Captors" and "Card Captor Sakara" which are radically
different video edits.)

Compared to some of the hack jobs that have been done for television,
the Ranma 1/2 dub is a relatively good American dubbing job. (Other
countries have done better than the USA in presenting anime on TV.)

Ranma 1/2 and Oh My Goddess! were the two series that got me started
collecting anime. I bought a bit more than the whole first season in
VHS dubs, before I'd seen a subbed version in any form.

But once exposed to the subs, I didn't want to go back. There's a
whole assortment of subtle nuances that come through in the Japanese
audio track. There are sound effects that get lost in redubbing. The
Japanese voice acting is good. After hearing the sub for a while, the
dub sounded kind of flat, and (North) American.

I'd also started trying to learn Japanese, initially to try to read
manga. I found that while it was difficult for me to even approach
being flutent in the language, even knowing a little Japanese
enhances the experience of watching subbed anime. I can hear the tone
of a speaker; the level of politeness, without actually being able to
translate every word. And these are things that are especially hard
to translate to a dub script.  With a sub, I can watch it again, and
hear things I missed the first time. With a dub I'm more limited
by the English script.

-- 
     Albert Lunde         Albert-Lunde@northwestern.edu (new address)
                          Albert-Lunde@nwu.edu (old address)