Was against dubs until my buddy made me rethink it

I used to be one of those people who would only watch subs. Thought dubs never captured the original emotion. But my friend Mark was over last week and put on the English dub for Cyberpunk Edgerunners. He said something like 'you're missing out on the performance because you're reading the whole time.' At first I rolled my eyes but I gave it a shot. The voice actors really brought their own energy to it and I caught a lot of visual details I missed before because I was glued to subtitles. I still prefer subs for most shows but I'm not as closed off now. Has anyone else had a similar change of heart about dubbing after a specific conversation?

3 comments

3 Comments

jesse_fisher1mo ago

Yeah Mark makes a solid point actually. My buddy Dave did the same thing to me with the Cowboy Bebop dub years ago and I felt like a total idiot afterward when I realized how good the voice acting was. The worst part (and this is embarrassing) was when I rewatched Dragon Ball Z which was my first anime and I realized I only liked the sub because of nostalgia not because it was actually better. Now I try both before picking sides.

kelly_nelson9529d ago

Did you ever read that thing about how the DBZ voice actors actually had to match the lip flaps from the Japanese version for the Ocean dub? It's wild how much work goes into picking the right actors for the roles. I swear, I got halfway through watching FMA:B dubbed before I looked up the cast list and saw it had the same vocal director as Cowboy Bebop. Makes total sense why it hits different. Now I just default to dubs for shows like that and only switch to sub if the voices bug me lol.

skyler431mo ago

Man Mark's out here converting anime snobs one dub at a time like some kind of voice acting evangelist.