Hot take: subbed vs dubbed isn't even a real debate anymore with how good dubs have gotten

2 comments

2 Comments

The real issue nobody talks about is how subs let you catch things like honorifics and wordplay that just don't translate well in dubs. Even the best dub script can't save every cultural joke.

paul_webb455h ago

Yeah I read this article recently about how Japanese has all those layers of politeness built into the language. Honorifics like -san or -chan tell you so much about the relationship between characters, and dubs just have to drop all of that. @patricia905 is spot on about the wordplay too. There's a whole episode of Gintama that centers on a pun, and the sub version just makes sense because you can see the kanji and understand the joke. The dub tries to rewrite the joke entirely but it never hits the same. I don't think you can ever fully replace the feeling of hearing the original language either, because the actors put specific emotions into those untranslatable words. It's not just about accuracy, it's about the whole experience feeling complete.