I was perusing twitter the other day and noticed that the argument of Sub Vs Dub had cropped up again. I have stated in the past that neither is superior and that it is up to the viewer to decide which they prefer in their anime. However, I thought it might be interesting to discuss my own thoughts on the matter and why I watch some anime dubbed and others subbed.
When I began to watch anime around 2008/2009, I chose to watch everything I could watch dubbed. Occasionally I would watch an anime subbed if I heard that the dub was poor or if there was no dub at all (looking at you Ocean Waves and, at the time, Only Yesterday!) but I would guess that I watched around 90% of my anime dubbed back then.
As time passed, I found myself becoming less interested in modern, popular anime and more enthused by the classics. As I began to dig into these series, I realized that I would end up watching the vast majority of these series subbed. Firstly, most older anime have never been dubbed into English with gems such as Dororo (1969), Lupin the Third (1971) and Space Pirate Captain Harlock (1978) having never received dubs (or at least not a proper dub). Secondly, older anime dubs suffered from censorship, restrictions in technology and a lack of talented actors and ADR directors.
Returning to my personal tastes, most of the anime that I have been watching recently has either been Lupin the Third or Gundam. Both incredibly large anime franchises that began in the 1970s, the two have seen a fair share of their releases subbed only or with dubs of questionable quality. Recent dubs for these franchises have been of good quality but I still choose to watch these franchises subbed only for consistency’s sake (it still weirds me out that Richard Epcar plays Daisuke Jigen in a dub of Lupin and then plays Inspector Zenigata in another dub).
It is also worth mentioning that I am more likely to pick a sub over a dub if the anime in question has been animated in CG. Depending on how this CG was done, trying to dub it may be as difficult as dubbing a live-action property. This might result in lip-syncing issues where the sounds the characters are making don’t match the movement of their lips. This is more applicable to CG anime films where the animation is far more detailed but I have noticed it as a problem in some CG series as well.
These days I still tend to watch modern (generally 2000s onwards) anime with their dub rather than their sub. That is how I have chosen to enjoy series such as Ping Pong the Animation, Yuri!!! on Ice and Hellsing Ultimate.
While I do watch a lot more subbed anime these days than in the past, I still pick and choose which anime to watch subbed and which to watch dubbed in order to maximize my enjoyment. Ultimately, the Dubbed Vs Subbed argument comes down to taste and opinion rather than anything impartial and I encourage you to make your own decisions when it comes to whether you watch anime subbed or dubbed.
Hopefully you have found this article interesting and informative and, if you wish to seek any of the works I mentioned, don’t hesitate to use amazon.co.uk or amazon.com for all of your needs!
This is always an interesting conversations online where it can get really hot in a matter of seconds. 😂
Since English is not my native language, I never watch anime dubbed. I mean, there are a few dubbed in Portuguese airing right now like My Hero Academia but I don’t watch the show anyway. Actually, I don’t watch tv. Of course I’ve watched Dragon Ball and Samurai X dubbed on portuguese television back then and that was fine. It was a time where I didn’t really care about “anime”, I was just enjoying those shows.
Once I started to get into anime, around 2003/2004, then I’d always stick to japanese audio. For me, that would make the experience better because I was hearing the way those character were suppose to sound. Actors are picked for a specific reason, or at least for the main characters, and I’d always believe that’s the best way to see the show. The original dub might not be the best dub but for me, that’s the way to go. I don’t wanna sound like those guys that just watch dub because its better, that’s not what I meant. I watch because hearing Japanese its also music to my ears anyway. 🙂
Going back to Dragon Ball or Samurai X, I’d actually prefer to watch in portuguese because I grew up with those series that way but that’s really hard to get. Anime physical media in here doesn’t exist at all so only on youtube and not all episodes for sure. Probably only through the illegal ways. Dragon Ball dubbed was insane around here where they made lots of references to portuguese culture and we all know that wasn’t the true “translation”, but it was fun as hell. I don’t know why they did that but it’s still famous today for that.
PS: By the way, we need a “like” button in here 🙂
I’ve always found it strange that there isn’t any company that releases anime on DVD/Blu-Ray in Portugal. Have there ever been companies devoted to anime in Portugal?
I’ve added a like button on your suggestion (it’s a good suggestion). Let me know if it works!
Yeah the button works! 🙂
There was this company once called Dynamic-PT, I think this is was a company that existed in other European countries, though I couldn’t really find any information now. They released here Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, Evangelion, Excel Saga, Golden Boy and others. From them I only have Cowboy Bebop though I’d like to sell it and get the UK BD version. There was another non anime companies that would release asian stuff including anime. I bought from them Samurai 7 with original and portuguese dub, which was quite cool at the time since the anime wasn’t that old back then. I still got those dvds.
Then there was a company that was distributing all Ghibli movies but just dvd version. This was ages go, never a blu-ray release over here. I’m fine with UK releases, though I barely buy these days. I’m focusing more in streaming because it’s cheaper and less physical stuff around, though I will buy something if is one of my favourite anime or if it’s really cheap.
There was a time when Selection Vision, a big anime distributor in Spain, would release their stuff here but with portuguese subtitles. To be honest, the subtitles weren’t great but at least it was something. They had a few good names, but not anymore. They’ve just announced that they will release My Hero Academia here with the portuguese dub, which is nice. This company is still acting and insanely big over there releasing all major titles including blu-rays, but I wonder why they don’t get someone to do portuguese subtitles and release over here. I’d probably buy it.
Long story short, that’s it. 🙂
Wow! Thanks for all that info!