Sub Vs. Dub: Which Should I Watch?

There’s a common debate among anime fans about which is better – subbed or dubbed anime. I thought I’d give my thoughts on the matter.

A majority of the vote seems to go to the subbed anime simply because that is its original form. There’s something more special about that, not to mention there are things in this version that don’t always work in translations. Translations themselves sometimes differ slightly from the original version. I’ve also been told it’s good if you want to learn Japanese. I’ve only picked up a few words from it myself but I’m sure it can work.

One of the things that make some people prefer the original language to the dubbed language (English in my case) is that they find dubbed voices to be either annoying or inappropriate for the character. The same is true for why some prefer the dubbed versions. I find it’s true both ways, where I won’t like a voice in a particular language. Usually I find whichever language I first hear an anime in, I’ll find the other version doesn’t work as well. Although sometimes when I’ve watched something only in English or Japanese there will still be times I don’t like certain character’s voices. Either way, I get used to it after a while so this isn’t a big issue for me.

Some people prefer dubbed versions because they don’t like to, or find it hard to, read subtitles while trying to watch the show. I don’t find it hard, though it is easier to just have to focus on what I happening. The main reason I prefer English dubbed is that I don’t need to focus on watching the screen every minute. I don’t like to look away anyway if I’m watching it for the first time, but if I do need to or it’s something I’ve seen before, having it in my language makes it easy to keep track of what’s happening while doing something else. I like putting some of my favourites on while working.

Of course, another big reason for watching the subbed version is that often a dubbed version may not be available. I prefer that to waiting for an English version, if an English version is to come at all.

I watch a mix of subbed and dubbed anime. Usually, as said above, I use subbed for those that don’t have an English version, or that I can’t find the English version of. I prefer dubbed where available just for what I said about simplicity.

I don’t want to say that one is better than the other, which is best to watch depends on the individual and which of these (and other) reasons they agree with.

I will also add that while I've been using anime as a focus in this post due to the nature of this blog the same is also true for films or anything else like this.