Sub vs Dub

I feel like it’s time for me to talk about one topic that has totally never been talked about before. A question that was totally never asked by anyone in the anime community before:

Sub or dub?

Dubbed anime

Story time. I actually started my otaku career by watching dubbed anime.

Death Note, Psycho-Pass, Erased, Your Lie in April – all of them are series I’ve seen dubbed.

Almost joining that list was Toradora. But fate had intervened.

Your Lie in April has left my heart shattered. It was actually my first ever romance anime. Wasn’t it just a happy start?

Hell no it wasn’t! Filled with this huge sadness I wanted to watch something that would heal my heart. A cute romance, and preferably, without a tragic ending.

I picked Toradora and I started watching the first episode dubbed.

But something was bothering me. The main character’s voice. It was too familiar and it reminded me of Your Lie in April for some reason.

I finished the first episode and I checked who is the English voice actor for Ryuuji. It turns out it was Erik Kimerer, the same person who voiced Takeshi in Your Lie in April.

Realizing that continuing to watch Toradora dubbed would remind me too much of the thing I wanted to recover from, I switched to subs from episode 2 onwards.

It’s fair to say it’s a decision I do not regret. That was the last time I’ve seen an anime episode dubbed.

Except that one time I watched a Madoka Magica episode in German dub to see if it’s a good way to practice German.

My verdict

I think it’s simply a matter of habit.

If you watch a lot of dubbed anime, it’s normal that you will feel it’s the better way to watch than with subs. The same goes for the other way round.

I started off watching dubbed anime. It felt more natural I guess, since I grew up watching cartoons in English.

Until I discovered the beauty of the Japanese language. I was always a big language nerd, and one of my proudest achievements is self-teaching myself Italian to the level of being able to hold a conversation with a group of natives.

Japanese was different than anything I’ve learned before. Challenge accepted. My love for anime grew into general love for Japan, the culture and the language, and I’m proud to say that I can now read hiragana and katakana. Kanji is still a lot of work in progress, but one day that will be completed too 😉

The Japanese language just seems made for cute things. I can’t explain what it is, but it just works so well. It’s that special charm each language has.

Sure, reading subs can at times be overwhelming, especially when more characters talk at once, but it’s again another thing of habit.

As the priestess from Goblin Slayer would say…

What is your preferred way to watch anime? Is it with the subs or is it the dub?

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