I’m essentially an exclusively sub guy. Almost every anime I watch I do with subtitles and Japanese voices when I have a choice and prefer it that way. The only exception is Dragon Ball, because I find Goku’s Japanese voice annoying.

My question is, if you prefer sub, why. For me, I prefer it because:

1. Subtitles tend to have less changes. Especially with older anime, there are less egregious changes in what characters say from the original Japanese script in subbed anime than dubbed. By changes I mean changes in meaning. Obviously there will be changes because Japanese and English don’t translate directly, but I’m talking about when the meaning of a line is changed. The best example that I would point to is one in the Buu saga where the old Kai says Kid Buu is the “Ichiban Yakai” of all of Buu’s forms. This phrase translates more to “the most dangerous/troublesome” but it was dubbed as “the strongest”, leading people to (very illogically) think that Kid Buu was stronger than Buuhan. That’s a small example but there are others that can be more severe. EDIT: another example that fits in with the Dragon Ball theme is how characters names can sometimes be completely changed when dubbed. Kuririn is the best example, they just outright gave him a new name.

2. Somethings just aren’t meant to be translated. A lot of things when translated from Japanese to English and then said out loud can sound so cringy. The example that I’ve always used for this is one from Naruto. I got this example from playing Storm 3 back in the day. Kage Summit Sasuke’s ultimate is Enton: Susano’o Kagutsuchi. In English, they translated it to Inferno Style: Susano’o Flame control. You really have to hear it said to understand what I mean, but it just sounds so cringy to me and it really loses the cool factor when it’s translated. That makes sense, phrases are meant to sound cool in the language they are conceived in, so naturally it won’t sound as cool in English. For that reason, since I do still listen to the anime even though I’m reading subtitles, I prefer to watch anime in Japanese and likewise when I talk about things in anime I’ll use their Japanese name where I can. Another example from Naruto is that Edo Tensei sounds way cooler than Impure World Reincarnation. That also fits into point one, because Edo Tensei is more indicative of reanimation than reincarnation. It’s not just anime that has this issue, I watch pretty much everything in its original language for that reason. I watch this German show called Dark in German, I watch Money Heist in Spanish, I watch Lupin in French. I think it also helps with the voice acting delivery. The scenes feel more real when in their original language, whether you can understand the words you hear or not. Another example is Ghost of Tsushima, just to not make you think I just like Japanese or something. It’s a game about Japanese culture, but it’s script was originally written in English and the game was made to be consumed in English originally, so I played it in English throughout, the language that the game was originally conceptualised in.

So yeah that’s my explanation for why I prefer sub. What about you guys?