Why I Watch English Anime Dubs

 

Why I Watch English Anime Dubs

Alright, I have been pretty vocal about my English Anime Dub defending and like with the Full Metal Alchemist write up I did back in December, with certain Anime topics I feel passionate about, I will most likely write a blog of some kind as a piece to keep on the record. In case I wanted to sum up everything I feel about that said topic.

 

First, I want to go over my experience with Anime Dubs. In the early to late 00s, I watched a lot of TV, in fact, I watched more TV than I did playing video games. It's the opposite now, and in fact I don't watch TV at all and while I watch shows, it's not on TV. The point is, I watched lots of cartoons and anime in the early to late 00s. And guess what? My method of watching anime in that type period was? You guessed it English Dubs, and this comes to my first point. English Dubs are pretty much made to expand the audience of an anime. Guess what? Not everyone enjoys reading subs and do you really expect kids too? Kids hated reading at school so do you expect them to go on their TV and expect them to read subtitles when watching TV? Yeah exactly. It doesn't even end there either, I remember years ago, that my cousin watched Gantz O on Netflix and he refused to watched it subtitled and this made me realize there are lots of people like him that English Dubs' markets are basically made for. I am pretty sure Netflix anime wouldn't be half as popular, if the service didn't have a dub and sub available at the same time. It opens a wide audience for a series, movie or OVA. Dub haters can keep insulting Dubs for their supposedly terrible acting but do you honestly think, the average person who wants to be entertained watching anime and hates reading subs really goddamn cares? They overlook this and it annoys me to no end. Then there is people who have visual disabilities which just gives English Dubs more of a reason to exist.

 

I get complaining about what 4Kids did with their Dubs and they changed a lot of the stuff and while not everything they did was a hit, their Dub of the original Yugioh series was a huge hit and made the series way more popular. You can talk about censorship sure, but really what matters is that a show becomes more popular through Dubbing and while their method was questionable, in the end they made the series way more popular. I am willing to bet a good majority of people probably heard of Yugioh was because of the 4Kids Dub. And goes into the bigger picture here, Dubs regardless of quality, if they expand a show's audience is what matters. If they did that, I consider the Dub to fulfill its purpose.

Now another reason why I watch English Dubs is because in some ways, I find it hard to concentrate when reading especially on a digital screen. I find it hard to get through novels and I have a hard time going through comics that have walls of text, so I dislike the idea of watching a visual medium in motion where I have to read subtitles. I find it hard to pay attention and I find it boring because I don't even have to watch the damn show, I can mute audio entirely and read the bottom two inches of the screen and I am getting the mostly the same experience. In fact, listening to the anime's background music could ruin my concentration in some ways, I could miss lines, and I always have to play a game of, "please don't miss that line, please don't". And why would I want to read subs during an action sequence? I want to enjoy the action and the spectacle. Reading subs would just ruin that and make me look at the bottom two inches of the screen instead of viewing the action. I can imagine kids watching Dragon Ball Z or a shounen and they have to worry about not missing some random line while the characters are duking it out or any show with action. Some shows like Legend of the Galactic Heroes, literally have the subtitles literally overlap with the characters' names, is this supposed to help in anyway? I will make it clear, I do watch subbed anime but that is because there are some great anime with no English Dubs like the before mentioned Legend of the Galactic Heroes, Rose of Versailles and Ashita No Joe. That is a different topic though.

Now I want to address the arguments Sub fanboys use. The first one being, they are Japanese, having them speak English makes no sense and isn't "realistic". First of all, anime characters have a race neutral look and the characters don't look like their nationality to begin with. That and I wanted to say this for some time, but if you were theoretically in Japan and heard two people speak Japanese, would you really for the life of you, see words pop up in front of you translating what they are saying? No. Them speaking English is unrealistic but seeing words pop up and an invisible translator pop up isn't my definition of "realism" either. Next they like to act like the subtitles are the be all end all and it's the most true to the "original" script? And my response to this is? How do you know this? Unless if the director of an anime disproves of the Dub or unless if there is general distain by the production team, I doubt some random dude translating Japanese words, is "God" and isn't someone that isn't fallible. It all feels too vague isn't specific enough, and seems like a case by case basis. "Japanese actors have more nuance". I hate this one. I feel like you need to actually speak the language to understand something like this, and it really feels like weebs are just trying too hard to sound smart. What annoys me is that they never explain how they are nuanced. What on Earth are the Japanese actors even doing that are so nuanced? Every time, I hear subbed anime I think everyone is voiced by the same 3-5 people. I must be missing these nuances because I don't get them. These guys can barely go into detail as to why English actors are so "terrible" and I am supposed to be believe you are voice acting experts now? Sure, yeah. I will also mention an argument they like to mention is that characters are less "annoying" in Japanese. What annoys me is that they never explain this and I am always end up being like, "no shit". Reading something annoying and not understanding what they are saying is going to be tolerable than understanding what they are saying by default. Hearing someone say stupid crap will always be more grating because depending on how good your memory is, and depending on how it's said, it will pop out more. Hearing an insult towards you won't hit as hard as reading one because the stuff being heard is right around you is harder to ignore. Would Jason's terrible fear monologues from Resident Evil Infinite Darkness be better in another language? Reading the words isn't going to be as cringe and actually hearing him say out loud since he is saying it and you would have to plug your ears to ignore him.

I will address a small point here. It may feel like I am talking in the wind, but it's vocal minority anime fans who hate English Dubs. Going to cons and going to voice actor Q&As and seeing lots of people there is enough to remind me that people who hate English Dubs are an extremely vocal minority.

I also have an attachment to dub actors, not as people, no, but their craft. I really enjoy hearing them despite how overused some actors are. I really enjoy Crispin Freeman, Steve Blum, Jay Michael Tatum, Jameson Price, Wendee Lee, Kari Whalgren, Richard Epcar, Robert MacCollum and so on. I generally tend to enjoy hearing them in anything they are in which will not transition to my next point. I notice Dub haters tend to attack them for overusing the same actors but I also notice western cartoons getting a free pass. I don't get why. Cartoons use the same actors as much as anime dubs do some actors even overlap like Crispin Freeman and Steve Blum. It just feels like a weird double standard to me. Phil Lamarr, Kevin Michael Richardson and Karry Payton voice almost every black person in a cartoon. Cartoons use the same female voice actors a lot as much as anime dubs as well. Jennifer Hale, Tara Strong, and Grey Griffin are pretty much almost in everything. Laura Bailey and Kari Whalgren even overlaps with both as well. It's just bizarre. That and weebs like to act like cartoon voice acting is way better than anime dub acting but never go into detail. Is it because cartoons aren't recorded in Japanese first so they are just better by default because there's no Japanese actors? Ugh. I think it's best to just say that, that voice acting in America isn't super popular unless if it's a big project and despite Netflix's best efforts to try bringing in new VAs that no one ever really gives them enough credit for. On a side note, as obnoxious as I find anime shoving in cute stuff in everything particularly with girls, I always felt Kari Whalgren, Cristina Vee, Laura Bailey, Tara Platt, and Luci Christian to me pull it off  better than when Japanese women voice teenagers but I consider that to be a personal preference as much as I want to spend time explain why this already a long write up as it is.

Here is another thing that English Dubs get overlooked for: Bad Dubs and entertainment value. If you want to watch a bad show, is good voice acting really going to save it? It's best if the dub and voice acting also be bad to add to the entertainment value. Hearing bad voice acting and makes the awful anime more fun to go through than reading it. Cyber City 808 isn't half as fun without being as stupid as it is. Do I need to remind you of the "bite off your fuckin dick" line. Like, it's fucking gold. Hell, all though not terrible on a technical level Dragon Ball Z Super Android 13 is much more entertaining with the English Dub than without. Android 13 is a boring villain but giving him that fun cowboy character elevated him a good deal. It just made a boring movie, really fun because they made everything so dumb with trash talk lines like, "don't you lecture me with your $30 dollar haircut, Goku dies". Or that weird part where the series gets philosophical with a line where Android 13 is like, "Free will? Pitiful humans, war, segregation, hatred is that what you done with your free will, boy" which is weird but funny.

Dubs with certain franchises and settings is the next point I want to make. I like funny accents in almost anything which is probably why I like Black Lagoon and Baccanno's dubs as much as I do. They are so over the top that they elevate shows that I deem to be mostly decent. Hellsing's dub is the best thing about it, the show is nothing special is just dumb entertainment at most but the dub elevates it. Crispin Freeman is great but the Major's War monologue is quite good. Jameson Price's performance really makes the Count of Monte Cristo in Gankutsuou really standout as a larger than life charismatic character. Average and boring adaptations like Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood are elevated with the late Ed Blaylock's performance as King Bradley. He steals every scene in that series and makes Bradley even cooler. I also like to watch certain franchises like the before mentioned Dragon Ball in English and this might be something lot of people agree with me on but I am not exactly big on Goku being voiced by a 50 year old woman. It just really seems out of place and weird, I get the guy is a kid at heart but the guy is a full grown adult, and it doesn't suit him because women usually tend to voice little boys and it just seems obvious that a 50 year old is voicing Goku. What really annoys me is that she voices male character in Goku's family including Goten, Gohan and Bardock. This isn't a Metal Gear Solid situation where Big Boss and Solid Snake are clones, the former are completely different characters and how does she even remotely fit Bardock in any way? I don't see it.

In conclusion, I have covered mostly everything I wanted to say about English Dub in anime for a very long time and I now have some kind of recording to put it on.