Dub vs. Sub Anime
The fandom war that means nothing if we're being honest
Whether you’re new to anime or you’ve been watching since Akira was released in the 80’s, this is the argument people get into. “You don’t actually watch dubbed anime, do you?” As someone who has been in anime fandoms (on and off) since the mid-90’s, I’ve come across variations of that.
Let’s face facts. Dubbing doesn’t have a very good reputation. Dubbing was always cheap voice over work done with minimal effort. The quality of the results showed exactly how little was put into it. Many of you who grew up with bad dubs of Japanese kaiju and Chinese wuxia (aka Kung fu) movies from the 60’s and 70’s know exactly what I’m talking about.
The 80’s and the 90’s weren’t any better if I’m being honest. I remember watching anime on tv. I thought the dubbing was okay, but nothing amazing. This just encouraged purists in the foreign (aka non-Japanese) fandoms to trash on dubs. And yes, there were sub purists gatekeeping fandom as usual.
However in the mid-90’s, the dubbing work actually started getting better. In fact I enjoyed watching dubbed anime on many occasions. Why? Simply put, I just like watching anime and not reading it all the time. Don’t get me wrong, I watch PLENTY of subtitled shows and movies. However it would be nice to periodically watch something and not read subtitles.
Translation is an art
Here’s a fact. Subtitles aren’t always correct or the best either. I’m not 100% fluent by any stretch of the imagination, but I do know 3 different languages. Aside from English (obviously), I grew up speaking Cantonese, and I had learned a bit of Latin American Spanish while in school. It’s exactly because I have familiarity with other languages that I know how tricky translation work is.
One of the biggest lessons I learned is there are limitations to subtitles and translations. You only get a limited amount of space to explain what characters are saying from Japanese to English. Sure a lot of things in the dialogue can be translated in a fairly straightforward way.
However there are times when it won’t be easy to translate and you’re actually losing quite a bit of the meaning. One classic example are honorifics. Honorifics don’t exist in English outside of things like calling men “Mister.” Honorifics are important in the Japanese language and culture. This difference means as an English speaking audience, we’re missing a lot of social/cultural cues in the dialogue. This can be pretty important in establishing the dynamics in a relationship.
Dubbing is voice acting on another level
Dubbing is actually a lot more difficult than you’d expect. I still remember a few years ago, I had attended an anime convention and went to a dubbing workshop. I even tried voice acting at that workshop!
First and foremost you need to be an actor. It sounds like “well… duh!” However many people unfamiliar with dubbing for some strange reason don’t seem to understand this.
You need to know how to act. And voice acting is a whole other animal from on screen/on stage acting. After all, you’re trying to establish characters, emotions, etc. just using your voice. As an actor, you have no other tools available to you when you’re not visible to the audience.
Dubbing work also requires the technical skill of matching mouth flaps. The animation you’re working against was pre-made. This is in contrast to traditional animation voice work where the vocal tracks are recorded first. And then animators draw characters facial expressions and mouth movements based on the voice work. This is why you sometimes will see videos of actors in the recording booth. These are the visual references for animators. Past criticism of dubbing is a huge reason why voice actors have to master matching mouth flaps.
And so…
I think more people should rethink their attitudes about dubbing. Sure you might not love dubbing. And you’re perfectly fine with choosing subtitles only. That’s a preference thing. But let’s cut the crap and stop the gatekeeping. Give credit where credit is due. Voice actors that do dubbing work let anime fans who don’t want to read their anime enjoy the same stories you do. And isn’t that what ultimately matters?
Do you agree with me? Disagree with me? Have your own stories about dub vs sub? Leave a comment!
There are exceptions like Dragon Ball and Kaguya Sama, but 99% of the time I prefer the sub over the dub. Still, that's just a personal preference and I don't judge people who watch dubs.
Also, what are your thoughts on fan dubs? I recently got into Dragon Ball Z Abridged and I'm really enjoying it.
I agree with you. Dubbing requires a lot of skill and talent and it's much better these days then it used to be. There can be problems with subtitles, depending on how well they're done. Anything subtitled by billibilli in my experience, tends to be poorly done and that can make it difficult to follow the story... sometimes you have to pause in places to have time to read a big chunk of dialogue that only appears for 2 secs on screen, which really disrupts the experience... so I usually prefer the dub in that case.
Since I've had chronic fatigue I've watched more dub, simply because I often don't have the energy or brain function to follow subtitles for long, so I think dub allows anime to be accessible for people with those sorts of issues. And sometimes I just want to give more attention to the images and art and little details I miss whilst I'm reading subtitles. But that really depends on the anime too.
If I'm really enjoying a series I'll watch it in both dub and sub. I like to compare the two, and see what the differences are... I feel like the sub and dub of My Hero Academia give a completely different vibe, for example... and sometimes dub VAs are too good a performance to miss. There are some great voice actors out there in all languages. Also, I think it's harder to enjoy a dub after you've watched an anime in sub first, but not so much the other way round? And there are of course dubs that have become pretty iconic in their own right now, like the 4kids Yu-gi-oh dub, even though they made some hilariously dumb censoring choices to make the series more accepable for western kid's TV 😂
I find dubbing of live action programs tends to be much worse. I always watch Korean dramas in sub because I find it too weird to watch in dub if the voices seem completely out of sync with the character (not just out of sync with the lip movement). The exception is Squid Game and Physical 100, because the former is done impressively well, and the latter is easier to follow in dub since there are often so many people speaking at once.