That one guy who insisted subbed is the only way to watch anime

Ran into a guy at a comic shop who told me I was 'watching anime wrong' because I prefer dubs for my commute. He went on for 10 minutes about voice acting purity while I just stood there holding a DVD. Has anyone else had a fellow fan try to gatekeep how you enjoy a show?

2 comments

2 Comments

sage527d ago

That "watching anime wrong" bit is something I hear way too often, and it kinda ignores that a lot of people don't have the luxury of staring at subtitles during their commute. To each their own I say, as long as you're enjoying the story that's what counts.

matthewp527d ago

My buddy actually works as a freelance subtitle translator for a big streaming service, and he told me even the subbed versions have major issues. He said they'll sometimes intentionally translate things wrong just to fit the character limit on screen, or to sound more natural in English even if it changes the meaning entirely. So the whole "purity" argument falls apart when you realize both dubs and subs are translations with compromises. There's a scene in one show he worked on where the Japanese line was a subtle jab at the main character's cooking, but the English sub just said "this is bad" because they ran out of room. You're basically getting a filtered version either way.