General

i feel like the original japanese VAs are varied enough (and i can only recognize like two VAs out of every existing one) that i don't feel like i'm hearing the same five people all the time. japanese VAs also seem to convey emotion better in their tone of speaking...or it might be easier to process the emotion because i'm reading the dialogue and matching it with the noise (and subsequently emotion) of what they're speaking. with a US dub, i'm preoccupied listening to the content more than getting any emotion. though i honestly feel a lot of english dubs just have the same pool of VAs doing very flat and disinterested voices for things.
i like a few dubs for nostalgia, a couple for quality, and they can be nice for multitasking...but overall it's usually an inferior experience for me. especially because so many shows don't get dubbed anyway.

because no one else likes it. otherwise they feel out of the social loop. even though it hardly matters. nerds.

There are some really good dubbed anime's , Dragon ball Z , anything that was on toonami , cowboy bebop is very good , the irresponsible Taylor has great dubs too

Its the same situation as Japanese dubbed English cartoon. Have you tired watching Japanese dubbed spongebob? </3 </3 </3 </3 </3 </3 </3

If you'd rather look away from the screen, then the anime is probably not worth watching in the first place. Unless you understand the language (or have some understanding), all voice actors will probably sound the same and appear to have less emotional depth (since they all sound like gibberish to you).
Having said that, i prefer the original dub (most of the time) because of the voice actresses that i particularly like, and because you can notice the difference in speech between the characters, which reflect their social standing in the series and/or their origin (ex. someone from Kansai region), neither of which can be translated to English language. (edit: the different forms of speech also reflect the character personalities, something which is impossible to replicate in English)

[quote=sparkshooter]Because it's what you're used to hearing. If you watched Spongebob or Arthur dubbed in Japanese with English subs, you'd think it sounds ridiculous.[/quote]
Gravity Falls isn't half as bad as you expect it to be in [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgB_is_DSVU]Japanese... [/url] xD

OT: It really depends on what you think. Personally, I like subbed better because... well... I'm Japanese. I don't have the problem of "if I look away, I'll miss something they say." And when I'm watching a series with puns or jokes in it, it's just that much funnier because they make more sense. A great example is when I was watching Eureka 7 in anime club. One of the characters, Moondoggie was really happy, and he started talking in the most stereotypical rural Japanese dialect you can think of. It was hilarious. I almost fell off my chair. But nobody else got it, because it dOESN'T TRANSLATE WELL INTO ENGLISH. It's not like he started talking all southern, no, you actually couldn't understand half the things he was saying.
Sometimes dubs are just bad, though, like [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJ0GqT5qr08]Princess Tutu[/url], case and point. They took a really dramatic scene, and just... "If I give up, I'll only go back to being a duh(duck)!" "I want you to show me your smiiiile. I want you to dANCE with me!" "But if I have you, I can transfORM!" Ahiru just sounds so... irritating...

And that is why I like subbed better than dubbed. [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxJ4VWoeOzs]Unless it's this dub.[/url]

It depends on the anime. For example in something like Code Geass I actually prefer the dubbed, whereas for Naruto I wouldn't be able to stand the dubbed.

Short simple and straight to the point, there are a few reasons.
A.) When people hear the things they hear in English in anime, it brings light to how stupid or silly a situation can actually be, breaking immersion and maybe making the viewer think to themselves "Wow am I really watching this?" This isn't true at all for most animes, but there are certain things that are way out of the ballpark that we may be watching and love, but know how silly it really is. For instance, in oreimo, hearing sibling romantic love related things in English probably would instantly take away from it for the average viewer, even if you're into it, which a lot of people who watched the series were.
B.) Because we're not used to hearing Japanese, we can't really compare what we're hearing to what people normally sound like, so it makes everything sound a lot more enthusiastic, and finally, probably the most important and impacting reason for how a dub goes out..
C.) Animes tend to be mangas that have enough backing to be turned into an anime, that means that there's a lot of backing for it, which means a large budget. When it's dubbed, the budget for voice actors is most likely significantly smaller. Really big animes like Attack on Titan, which had a huge backing will naturally have a big budget for voice actors, so if you watch the anime dubbed, you'll notice that it's actually very respectable and well done.

There's also herd mentality, people hate things other people hate without really giving it a try to fit in. I personally prefer watching almost everything subbed, but that's because of the whole budget thing. The voice actors definitely aren't as good, but I'm willing to give credit where credit is due when there is a truly well done dub out there, like in Garden of Words.

Because it's what you're used to hearing. If you watched Spongebob or Arthur dubbed in Japanese with English subs, you'd think it sounds ridiculous.

I don't mind either. I usually look for the dubs because I'm too lazy to read and would be able to focus on what's happening on screen more (usually miss out on minor details with subs but eh, still lazy to read). But if I can't stand the dub, then sub. Simple as that.
I can usually switch between the two quite easily (takes an ep or 2 to adjust to the different voices) but there are some shows that are a must to watch in dubbed/subbed.

I pitty the tone deaf.

I like to read more than listen, yes I watch everything with subtitles. Also jokes/puns work out better in the original language.

Well dubbed anime gives me cancer, and I'm not even biased.
Simply put, a voice actor can make or break a character because the voice is character's soul itself, which makes the character unique. Different voice = different character = different anime. Plus it's language matter, you just cannot translate perfectly everything, so it sounds forced somehow.
I don't say dub voice actor is bad, because some of them are good. But, you can't expect some random foreign elements can mix well with a completed anime.
It's not just about anime. English is not my mothertongue, I hate to watch dubbed movies and cartoon too. It's just wrong.
And you say seriously. You watch anime and turn away somewhere, it's not serious. If you watch enough anime then even if you don't know japanese you still can understand what they are talking about, not fully but a part of it. Like oh, I know this word, then yeah I know this word too... You don't need to read all the time to enjoy the anime. My advise is if you don't want to miss anything about the anime you are watching then just sit down, relax and focus on it.
Finally about emotion. Japanese voice actor puts more emotion into character than you think, as many people will agree with me. Put the overrated SAO and AOT aside, try K-ON, even one season is enough. Then try the dubbed version and tell me how you feel.(spoiler: or don't try the dubbed version at all, it's toxic </3 )

In my opinion, English dub voice actors are literally recycled like crazy and ruin the overall image of each character, except Avatar/LoK(not even a dub lol).

You also have to consider that some fans would not only look at an anime's plot but also the voice actors involved. So to them, even with subs they would prefer to watch the Japanese dub just to hear their favorite VA's and such. While some on the other hand just prefers to see subs like myself. Even with English dub movies and series I would prefer to see subs while watching. It helps me understand what they're saying more and vice versa.

i feel that japanese voice actors are more emotional. But i do agree that it is a pain in the butt to read the whole time but it's worth it to me

Well there's a lot of reasons why the more hardcore anime fans hate dubbed. Most of it is just lack of knowledge about the Japanese language. Just a few things

One of the biggest tricks to great voice acting is trying to make the characters and script sound natural. Dramatic dialogue works better in the Japanese language due to the original scripting fitting perfectly for that language since it's who it was written by. Basically it sounds more natural in Japanese. In English though they have to localize it and try to think of our own dramatic dialogue. Some writers are smart and try not to sound too ridiculous while others get sick of it and do a rather half-assed job so the script just sounds stupid. Sadly, a lot of "bad voice acting" actually comes from melodramatic or cheesy lines the English writers wrote down.

If you've ever met and heard Japanese people, Japanese voices [i]in general[/i] are much different than English voices. Probably due to their heavy accented language, their vocal chords just sound much different, even if they speak fluent English. It's also because of that that they can't always perfectly find the right person to match the voice of their Japanese counterpart, and when that happens (which is most of the time)... people get angry.

The power of words and imagination. I can't say for certain, meaning this is nothing but a theory, but I think that we start using our imagination when we read subtitles. Somewhat like a book, when you read things, your brain has to visualize the setting and the voices and sound effects. In reading subtitles, your brain tries to fit their Japanese voices with what the text says on screen and it seems to sound good, even though you really don't have a clue what they're actually saying in their language. I personally have rewatched some scenes that sounded awesome with subtitles, then gone back and watched the raw, textless version and it sounds campy and stupid. Though that's only sometimes, may or may not be the case.

Lastly, one thing I can say for CERTAIN is that the Japanese voice acting you guys all hear is just as campy as our English voice actors. But you don't know that because you've never been around Japanese people lol. Though, no one's at fault for just simple ignorance.

But what do I know? I'm just some loser who can have a good time watching dumb shows like SAO and Fairy Tail.

Subs puts actual feeling into the character.

This isn't always the case, but to put it simply, the voice acting is often superior in the original Japanese version compared to the dubed version(s).
Beyond that, its just a matter of preference. Personally I always go for subbed because Japanese just kind of sounds cool (no weabb doe)

I just prefer being closer to the original source, I guess
puts things in context better.

A lot of English dubs are train wrecks.
Can't stand hearing corny jokes and bad voice acting, especially since it's in English. Makes my brain cringe.
Also some English VA's don't develop a feel for the character well enough to produce a solid, convincing voice.
Also, since there are a LOT of generalizations/ over used character personalities in anime, the Japanese dub fits fine/"perfectly"(perfectly meaning you expect some tsunderes to sound tsundere; there's a distinguished voice for some personalities.). So when an English dub is attempted, things often just don't go well.

Subs, in most cases, work for me. Naoki Urasawa's Monster anime adaptation is an example, for me, of pretty bad/boring/lame sounding Japanese dub yet awesome English dub.