Why subbed anime is important

Alright, after last week’s post, I’m gonna go turn around and play devil’s advocate. As it stands, there are many undeniable advantages of watching an anime in Japanese with English subtitles over watching it with an English dub.

1.)    Horrible Dub: The first and most obvious reason for choosing to watch a sub over a dub. Sometimes you listen to a dub and just go “Wow, are they reading this off of the script?” or “Do they even believe what they are talking about?” A good dub won’t do this, but if it does, you should probably be watching the sub

2.)    It fits better: While this is not always the case, when I’m watching something like Rurouni Kenshin, or another show that takes place in early Japan, it just makes perfect sense for the show to be in Japanese. This adds an extra level of immersion, because you very well know they didn’t speak English in ancient Japan, That is, unless there was some conspiracy and Japanese is just a made up language they created to screw with foreigners. That WOULD explain why it’s so hard to learn.

3.)    It’s closer to the source material: Most anime is written with a Japanese audience in mind. This means the show is written with Japanese voices in mind. Hence, dialogue and character movements were made with the intent to have Japanese voicing, meaning that the entirety of the show was based around having a Japanese dub, meaning the show flows more naturally with Japanese voice acting

4.)    Suspension of disbelief: Some stuff is just so cheesy that you can’t say it with a straight face. This is especially prevalent in fantasy series, where the concept is just so out there people have trouble saying it with a straight face. Meanwhile, with a sub, you don’t actually HEAR them say it, so it blends in with the plot better. At least in my experience.

Out of all of these reasons, I believe that number 3 is most impotant, followed by number 1. This is due to the original artist having the most impact on how the voice actor performs. This however, does not always prove to be the most important factor, as shown by Cowboy Bebop, where the original voice actors just get one-upped by the English cast. Of course, I believe that the most important thing is to remember that the best time for a sub of a dub is based entirely on the series, and that generalized statements cannot be made in this field.

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Why dubbed anime is important

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