Why The Anime Community Is Divided Over Dubs And Subs
If you ever need to start a fight at an anime convention, shout out that subs are superior to dubs, or vice versa, then stand back and watch as cosplayers start throwing fists. Even among fans of the same anime, I’ll just randomly pick one out….say…Attack on Titan will viciously fight one another over which viewing experience is superior. In truth, so long as you’re enjoying anime, no one can really judge your choices, but why is this one so divisive?
Fans were infamous for fighting about subtitled anime over dubbed anime, and while it’s cooled in recent years, there’s a reason why it was so heated.
Back in the dark days of collecting anime in the United States, before disc formats caught on, dubbed copies were highly sought after by fans. VHS tapes only had one audio option, so companies often chose to release dubs, and fans of subs had no choice but to relent. If you think that mentioning “Sub vs. Dub” on social media today can cause a firestorm, that was nothing compared to when fans had to comb through the “technology” racks of Woolworths and hope for the best.
On the other side of the Sub vs. Dub conflict, dubbed anime can be enjoyed while multitasking, hypothetically, through a split-screen on your monitor while writing about dubbed anime.
There are good arguments for each side of the Sub vs. Dub debate, with those who enjoy subtitles insisting that it preserves the original intent of the anime, which was written with Japanese in mind. This can impact wordplay and force dubs to shorten sentences to match up with the movements of the characters. Listening to the original Japanese also gets across regional dialect differences and accents more effectively.
On the other side of the Sub vs. Dub conflict, dubbed anime can be enjoyed while multitasking, hypothetically, through a split-screen on your monitor while writing about dubbed anime. These days, most dubbed anime feature voice performances on par with the original and, in some cases, even better, with fans often citing Black Lagoon, Cowboy Bebop, and Samurai Champloo. The original creators are often still involved in the development of the English-language dub, which helps immensely with the quality compared to the early days of anime like Gatchaman (or G-Force: Guardians of Space if, like me, you were willing to hunt for any anime in the 80s).
Interestingly, Japanese anime fans will sometimes complain about the original actors and prefer an English-dubbed anime. It’s rare, but it’s happened, most notably with Code Geass. There are also some anime, such as Castlevania, that were created first for an English-speaking audience, meaning the dubbed version is the standard.
While the Sub vs. Dub debate has simmered to a boil, most noticeably only on the Crunchyroll boards beneath each episode, at this point, proponents of each side understand the pros and cons of both and ultimately can agree that so long as anime is being watched, the community wins.
Today, one of the biggest strikes against dubbed anime is the delay in waiting for it to be released. For example, Spy x Family Season 2 started airing last month, but the dubs don’t start for another three weeks, and by then, the season will be half over. Avoiding spoilers on the internet is hard enough as it is, but fans waiting for the dubbed versions have it extra hard.
While the Sub vs. Dub debate has simmered to a boil, most noticeably only on the Crunchyroll boards beneath each episode, at this point, proponents of each side understand the pros and cons of both and ultimately can agree that so long as anime is being watched, the community wins.
