English dubs versus Original Japanese or Fanboys Need to Grow up and Gtfo

Why is this even still a debate after so many years?

To preface the rest of this post, I typically watch subs, but I'm fine with watching a decent dub, or even a poor dub if the Japanese voice acting was really poor.

Some points:

1) "I want to watch the show as originally created": This is, in my mind, one of the weakest excuses I've ever heard for preferring subs to dubs. I'd like to think (add the necessary amount of sarcasm here) the creator/director/writer/studio really wasn't thinking about somebody adding a bunch of subtitles to their shows to watch them. In fact, if the creator and/or anime staff were more visually minded people, a dub would be considered better, since a dub pulls much less attention away from the action on the screen (and there have been fansub groups that were particularly bad about covering important frames with text).

2) Quality: Many fans claim that American voice acting is not as good as the original. This was certainly true 10 years ago (and we stuck to subtitles almost exclusively then). But it's not true now. There are cases when the dub is at least as good as the original audio track. Yes, there are cases when the English voice track is not as good as the Japanese, but there are also cases when the English voice track is better, which brings me to my next point:

3) Most fans can't speak/understand Japanese fluently. If you really wanted to watch a show "as the creator intended", you'd watch it without subtitles and with the original audio track. Once you make the concession to use subtitles, you have already compromised this principle. It is, perhaps, to a lesser extent than watching a dub but still a compromise. Further, because fans can't understand Japanese fluently, they can't tell if the acting is good or not. There's a range of quality (visually, orally, etc.) in anime. So, it surprises me that so many people would automatically prefer a sub of dubious quality (though many fansubs are done very well) to a well made dub produced by professionals (though many professional dubs are done poorly).

4) Anthropic principle. Although to a lesser extent than many years ago, Americans (and others) tend to get the better shows out of Japan. There is a filtering process that prevents Americans from being subjected to many of the ridiculous elements of Japanese culture. Sad but true. Try going to Asia. Any self-proclaimed expert (based on only watching the show or perhaps taking a year or two of language) would experience culture shock. So, a lot of the prejudice is based on fansubs of well acted/well produced shows compared to the full spectrum (poorly acted to well acted) of American dubbing. With the passing of time and improvements in the industry, this phenomenon is becoming less of an issue.

5) Pragmatic. Face it, most people prefer dubs. Most Japanese prefer foreign movies dubbed (Japanese voice actors also do a considerable amount of work dubbing live action movies). Most Asians prefer dubs. The countries that don't typically produce dubs (I believe one was mentioned here) are typically smaller countries that typically don't have the resources to release dubs for all these shows/movies. Dubs cost extra money. There's no financial incentive to produce them without (1) adequate resources and (2) adequate demand. There is no country in the world where demand is not adequate. There are, however, several countries where there are insufficient resources to meet this demand. In the US, there are a few shows that only also release a sub because of fanboy rancor (and they don't really even return the favor by purchasing the DVDs with as much energy as they complain about lack of subs).

6) Feeling of superiority. Like it or not, most human beings like to feel superior to other human beings. And most sub-only people fall into the category of people who want to feel superior by (1) watching anime and (2) watching anime subbed. If a dub exists but you don't watch it, why does it matter that it exists? Live and let live. It doesn't make me feel good to put somebody else down for watching a dub. They aren't illiterate or stupid (for the most part). Naming them as such is cruel and simply enforces self-important feelings.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by ArrowHead

pseudo-anime fans out there who are too lazy or stupid to read subtitles or just can't stand it.

See my point #6 above. Fans have been watching dubs (and avoiding subs) since at least the early 80s and possibly longer. I wouldn't call them pseudo-fans any more than I would call Asian Star Wars fans pseudo-Star Wars fans for watching their dubbed versions of the movies.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Neogin

Most Japanese stress out too much, they overact, whereas most American voice actors don't put enough emotion. However, few voice actors have excellent voice talents, where they suit the anime character perfectly.

I believe this is a combination of culture and fluency. Unemotional performances haven't been a problem in the US in several years (at least on average).

Asians generally don't show too much emotion in public (there being some exceptions). Since they're generally amiable, their voice actors have to be taught to bring out their emotions more.

Americans generally don't have this problem. The biggest problem in a lot of movies (and infinitely many high school drama productions) is a tendency to overact. This is compounded by voice acting, where you don't necessarily get to use your physical presence to offset this tendency. So, American actors need to restrain themselves more.

So, Japanese actors are forced to overact while Americans are forced to be restrained.

The other part is simply fluency. If you are listening to a foreign language, it's easier to identify "mood" or emotion than actual words, while you might actually listen to words more in English. So, even if the emotional content is the same, you "hear" more emotion in Japanese because that's one of the few things you can actually understand.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.