The debate over sub vs dub got heated at my local anime club meeting last week

I go to this small anime club at the library downtown every other Thursday. About 12 people show up. Last week a guy named Mike said dubs are just as good as subs now, and this girl Sarah went off on him for 5 minutes straight. She said dubs ruin the original voice acting and the emotion gets lost. Mike pushed back saying he can't read subtitles fast enough. Who do you think was right in that argument and why?

3 comments

3 Comments

dakota_taylor394d ago

bro honestly i gotta side with Mike on this one lol. @margaretj40 said it right that its about what you want out of the show but cmon dubs arent just "as good" now theyre flat out better in a lot of cases. i cant stand when people act like subs are some sacred art form when half the time the english voice cast puts more soul into it than the original japanese VAs who are just reading lines for a paycheck. Sarah probably never watched a good dub like FMAB or Death Note cause those are fire and the emotion is totally there. reading subtitles takes away from the actual animation and action scenes, you miss stuff when youre staring at the bottom of the screen. plus not everyone can read fast or has good eyesight, so acting like subs are the only "real" way to watch is just gatekeeping nonsense.

hollym824d ago

Sarah's complaint about losing emotion is COMPLETELY overblown when shows like Cowboy Bebop have dubs that beat the subs in delivery.

margaretj404d ago

Mike really kicked a hornet's nest there... It's not really about who's right or wrong though, it's about what you want out of the show. Some people just can't keep up with subs and that's fine, but Sarah had a point about the original voice acting carrying the intended emotion. My thing is, why does it have to be a fight at all? You can like both or one or the other without it being a whole debate. I'm curious though... did Sarah have any specific examples of dubs that she thought were bad? Or was she just going off on general principle? Because some dubs are genuinely good now, like Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood or Cowboy Bebop. But there's also some trash dubs out there that deserve the hate. So what was her actual evidence besides just "dubs bad"?