Since Anime is produced in Japanese, it must be translated to be consumed by the international market. There are two ways of going about displaying the translated content, with written subtitles or through a new dubbed audio.
Some anime snobs may prefer subtitles so they can hear the original voices while others prefer to get the story in their native tongue. Either way, everyone has their preference and it sometimes comes down to the quality of English voice actors.
Getting The Plot Without Focusing Your Eyes
Some people that like to watch TV like to multi-task and listen to the audio so they can get the plot without focusing on the screen. If you don’t know Japanese, this is the only viable option for this type of viewer. Also, some people are not visual learners, so they prefer to listen to the audio anyway to follow the story.
Sometimes, Dubs Are Awesome
I get why some anime fans are disgusted by the awkward, low-quality voice actors used in some anime shows. Some studios just don’t have the budget to hire great voice actors for the English market, so they might have not bothered to have it dubbed in the first place. This is why users come to Dubbed Anime HQ, to find which anime has quality English dubs.
On the other hand, there have been cases where the English dub was just as good or better than the Japanese actors. One case is Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood, where English speaking characters fit the European characters well, unlike when English is dubbed over Japanese characters.
Another good example of dub is Trigun, in which voice actor Johnny Yong Bosch did an amazing job as a leading role. The good quality dub in this series is probably why it was so popular on the international market.
Getting Lost in Translation
The point of having an anime translated is so that the viewer gets a clear picture of what’s going on. If the translation is mucked up at any point, it can ruin the whole experience and the audience may form incorrect conclusions.
It is not uncommon for those in charge of doing the English dubs to change the audio text to make it flow better during speech or to correct errors. If a Japanese translator did the subtitles, don’t be surprised if some of the text is off in the eyes of a native English speaker.
People doing the dub may reform the script to change the tone of the anime, sometimes for the better. For example, raw translated text may give an anime a serious or robotic feel, which isn’t the intent of the anime at all. Instead, the English writers may add in some humor that is relatable with English speakers so that some event become cheeky rather than dry.
Final Thoughts
There is no real winner between which type of anime you want to watch, especially considering there is variance in quality between dubs or subs. If you choose to give dubbed English anime a try, at least sort through the ones with good reviews so you don’t end up with an awkward watching experience.