I’m not ashamed of the fact that I love anime. If you’re selective about the anime you watch, you can clearly see its superiority to American animated shows. Good anime is chock-full of amazing plots, wonderfully complex characters, memorable fight scenes and real character development. But I’m not arguing Japanese shows over American shows. The real debate is whether to watch anime with the original Japanese voice cast while reading the subtitles, or to save yourself the reading and watch in English dub.
Personally, I prefer English dub. But I know others who’d rather watch it in Japanese. Honestly, how you watch anime is a matter of opinion but here’s my logic behind why I think dub beats sub.
With English dub, you can really lose yourself in the story. Without the language barrier and stopping to read the subtitles, you start living with the characters and it makes long speeches more investing.
I'm not sure I could have followed the monologues if I had watched them in subtitles.
You can really hear the emotion behind a line in an English dub. Sometimes the strength and power of a line is lost because of the language barrier. But in English, one single sentence can give you chills every time.
Voice actors are amazing! Professional English dubbers have to work extra hard to translate lines to synchronize with the animation in anime. Can you imagine the stress voice actors go through especially with the action-heavy roles with lots of screaming?
The best ones have a range of character voices that sound young, old, silly, serious and work across all genders. Plus, it's always nice recognizing the different roles my favorite voice actors play.
My favorite voice actors are Todd Haberkorn (whose roles include Death the Kid from "Soul Eater," Natsu Dragneel from "Fairy Tail," Italy from "Hetalia"...to name a few) and Colleen Clinkenbeard (whose roles include Erza Scarlet from "Fairy Tail," Monkey D. Luffy from "One Piece," Yuuko from "XXXholic"...to name a few). Those two are enough to sell me on any anime.
Speaking of voice actors...when casting for English dub voice actors, they usually try to match personality with the voice. I find that English voices tend to be more suited to the part then the Japanese cast. But it might be a matter of opinion and which version you watch first.
Take "Ouran High School Host Club" for example.
I've watched it both in Japanese and English, and found the English dub superior mostly because of the voice actor of Haruhi. Caitlin Glass has a more gender-neutral sounding voice, perfect for Haruhi, who needed to sound both masculine and feminine in the anime. But Japanese voice actor, Maaya Sakamoto, has a flute voice that gives away the gender of Haruhi right away. Caitlin Glass is just a perfect fit.
Lastly, translations are usually on point. I know that's the biggest reason why people watch the subtitles--to get the best translation--but unless you're watching a poor quality dub, writers do their best translating Japanese to makes sense to American audiences. American writers try to get the best translation, without sacrificing information, character, or story. Besides, English subtitles tend to be awkwardly worded and it makes writers like me cringe.
I guess, ultimately, it doesn’t matter how you watch anime. As long as the translation stays on point, then the story will always be memorable. Subbed or Dubbed, anime is freaking awesome.
