About Dubs and Subs

When I went to visit my friend and drop off that stuff the other day, a conversation came up regarding anime, in particular, the ongoing debate about the merit of dubs versus the original Japanese version subtitled.

You basically have a group of anime fans that say dubs suck and a group of anime fans that say dubs are good. My position is that I enjoy both, if they are done well. I like a good amount of dubs such as Cowboy Bebop, Tenchi Muyo, FLCL, Fruits Basket, Spirited Away, and Excel Saga among others. Some of these dubs are even better than the Japanese versions. However, I have seen some awful dubs too. I enjoyed Sailor Moon when it first came on, as it was one of the first anime series I saw. However, watching that dub now is difficult. I’ve seen some of Sailor Moon in Japanese, and the original is leaps better than English dub, if only because it doesn’t sound like the English dub.

I think there are some inherent problems in automatically saying that subs are better than dubs. For one thing, many anime fans don’t know Japanese. I certainly don’t. How can someone who doesn’t know the language accurately judge the acting? It’s a little bit different in the case of live action, as you can actually see the actor. Visuals are as important as vocals in the case of live-action acting. However, if I can’t understand a word the people are saying, how can I truly tell if they are actually saying something well? However, we can actually judge English dubs well because we know the language and its nuances. It’s clear as day if someone says a line without feeling.

However, I’m not completely for dubs only. Dubs often make changes from the Japanese version. Most of the time, these changes are necessary, such as changes in wording to make dialogue flow more naturally (and to make it fit the lip flaps). Also, sometimes dubs have to make changes because of cultural things that can’t be translated into English (like puns that depend on Japanese wordplay) or wouldn’t make sense to American viewers (like a joke about Japanese pop culture). The problem with dubs comes in when unnecessary changes are made. A good example of this is the first season of Orphen. The dub and the sub don’t even remotely match, especially in the earlier episodes. Lines upon lines of dialogue are completely changed, and the changes weren’t exactly great. It was so bad, ADV felt a need to poke fun at it in a hidden extra on one of the DVDs. Cases like this (not to mention the edited dubs of various shows such as Yu-Gi-Oh) give dubs a bad name.

Let’s face it, subs and dubs need to (and should) coexist. Not everyone can handle subtitles. Many people want to enjoy anime but have vision that isn’t the best or can’t focus on what’s happening when they have to read subtitles. Dubs let people watch and enjoy anime that may not be able to deal with subtitles. A subtitled version is good to have, so that people can see the original version. It’s also good because some dubs are horrible. I really dislike the Escaflowne movie dub, so I watch the subbed version and enjoy the movie. The fact is, the minute DVDs came out, the subbed/dubbed debate should have ended. DVDs let you have multiple audio tracks and subtitles, without compromising video quality. And you don’t have to watch any version you don’t want to.

So, I say...don’t be an elitist on either side. America actually has damn good voice actors, even if a good portion of them aren’t working in anime. Japan does too, even if I can’t really tell if they are actually giving good performances much of the time. The quality of acting is getting better all the time (especially in English voice acting). Be open-minded, and enjoy both subs and dubs.