if you were to compare a Japanese and an English dub of an Indian movie, there's no real reason that one would be better than the other.
I agree with you. Both will be worse because... no, I won't repeat myself once again.

Finally, I do think there's something to be said for dubs allowing people to focus on the visuals more. I tell my Japanese friends to watch movies with subs most of the time, but for Citizen Kane, I would insist on a dub.
Yes, that might be a problem - not everybody can watch the visuals and read the subs. But I have no problem with that.
Why don't we dub songs?
We do. It's just usually not very practical. There has to be a separate vocal track that you can remove, and reworking the lyrics so that they still fit is tough.
But if that's the original group's work, than it's OK. I'm just taking it as another version of the song. I was talking more about translated words being sang by different people.
People translate poetry all the time, though. It's imperfect, but unless you learn the language, it's all you're going to get.
And that's quite understandable. With written words properly translated I don't feel like I'm missing something.
Besides, I like Akio's (Ryotaro Okiayu's) voice, he's a very famous seiyuu. He (or that Baltier of yours) sounds awful as her father to you?
I meant the voice "type" that Ryotaro Okiayu--thank you for supplying the name, by the way--uses for Akio Furukawa doesn't fit coming out of Balthier of FFXII's mouth. I thought, actually, he was a perfect fit as Nagisa's father.
See? You said it.

And as a side note, I'm pretty sure Ryotaro Okiayu doesn't actually voice Balthier in FFXII's Japanese original release, but I'm too lazy to look it up.
I'm also sure and was too lazy too to check it out. Used Balthier's name just for reference.
I suppose I should go on to mention that Japanese voice acting, as well as all other voice acting, is like everything else in the world: there's a lot of grimy stuff, but there are some gems in between the grout. This can be applied to JRPGs, good food, toys, live-action TV shows, manga, anime--hell, even people.
I agree. In my mind it all comes just to listening to the show in original language it was made in. You can call it my private deviation.
cpt. Misumaru Tenchi: All you're doing is repeating yourself. Your first or second post pretty much sums up your position on dubbing.
I'm afraid you're right, I've got carried away a little and I'm sorry for that. But sometimes it's good to repeat something to make others understand.

I watched all of BGC back in the day subbed. The english dub is horrible.
Yes, it is.
And even if it was great, I was exposed to the original so much that an English one will never compare. That's unfortunate IMO. Because I don't actually understand Japanese (yes, I can read subs without problems just fone. But if you can't understand the language, even if you can hear the emotional infliction in the spoken language, you're still not getting the full experience).
And that's why subtitles are there.
Many other shows I watched in English dub first and have no problem not watching them in Japanese original dialogue. Cowboy Bebop, Ghost In the Shell series, Paranoia Agent, Mushishi, etc. Not only do I prefer the English dub, I can also put the series on and just listen to it while doing other stuff (like coding, etc). I don't even have to watch it (or always be looking at it).
I rather prefer to always look at the screen while watching.
That and my sons can at least enjoy the shows/movies too.
That might be a good argument, but for me it's not. Personally I prefer to teach the children how to appreciate cultural stuff in it's original form. I take accustoming them to dubs as harming them. Yes, I know it firstly might be hard for them to watch and read at the same time, but practice makes perfect.
So he actually was able to remember and recognize some of the japanese kana words. As in what they corresponded to, without my help. I was impressed. The young learn fast.
One of the reasons I would show my children only subbed shows or games. I've learned english just from... watching subbed anime and english voiced shows or playing the games