As an older fan, because historically, dubs were utter crap. Until about 20 years ago, only kids anime got dubbed and when it was that version would be edited and censored. Some companies would also put out a parallel uncensored release and if one was available, it would be subs only.
Even when you started to get older teen anime dubbed, the voice casting tended to be pretty bad.
In my opinion most western voice actors can’t really convey the expression of anime character the Japanese VAs can bring to life.
This is caused by a lot of factors not inherently about voice acting performance, but the language differences. A lot of high pitched expressions are simply non-existed in most other languages, for example. Even if you imitated the tone completely, the language itself as a lot of people know and speak will make the aptly toned expression sound very very weird or creepy within the utterance of the target language.
So for most people dub is simply not on point, or a lot of the times even jarring to match the visual expression to the voice. Subs perfectly keep that distinction.
Most of the time people in western culture finding youngsters imitate anime stuff weird because of this distinction, not because they simply heated expressions, which the target language already has but in other tones and forms.
Because it doesn’t feel like extra work once you’ve gotten used to it, and it still feels like I’m watching a Japanese anime as intended by the original creators.
There’s a reason why Japanese voice actors are treated like A-tier celebrities and 'murican anime voice actors are a bunch of nobodies. The chasm between their skill levels is too big.
American voice actors definitely get treated like stars and have fans. Source: Ive been to plenty of conventions. Also, another reason Japanese seiyuu are treated with such high praise is because many of them do other media, particularly music.
But seriously, American voice actors have fan groups. Anime and American animation voice actors, and video games actors. There’s a lot of overlap there. There are very passionate fandoms.
Many of the most celebrated seiyuu do nothing but voice acting.
Absolutely not true. There may be some, but seiyuu work is extremely hard. They work their asses off in a cutthroat competitive world doing many things on the side and making money from many more angles that just their voice acting.
How exactly tf do you know how good a voice actor is if you can’t understand their language, accent, or inflections? Do you reckon maybe American voice actors aren’t treated well has more to do with the elitist attitude weebs have regarding them than their skill levels?
if you can’t understand their language, accent, or inflections?
I understand all of those things, and I’m a second language speaker for both English and Japanese, so there’s no favoritism there.
Do you reckon maybe American voice actors aren’t treated well has more to do with the elitist attitude weebs have regarding them than their skill levels?
No, I don’t. That’s a fairly senseless hypothesis.
I prefer subs but as a person who has to be doing something I tend to watch dubs so I can multitask. My husband thinks I’m a monster but that scarf didn’t knit itself ya know?
I have watched anime for quite some time now and started watching subbed, when I realized that the animes I liked were way ahead in the original version. Like a couple of hundred episodes for One Piece as an example. I got used to reading the subs in my peripheral vision. There may be some instances where I have to do a double take if there is an unusual word, but that’s very rare. English isn’t my first language, but english subs are more easily available. Outside of anime, I always choose the original version with subs as well because it feels more natural to me and I’m used to reading subs anyway. One good example is Sopranos, where the dub in my language doesn’t have any Italian accent whatsoever. The great mafia atmosphere of the original gets totally lost that way.
That aside I totally get watching the dubbed version. Today in times of simul-dubs you don’t have to wait for years at a time. You can watch dubs as background noise. The voice actors are usually great, even if not as consistently incredible as the originals. I always watch dubs with my family and friends, often shows or movies I already watched subbed. Watching something together for me isn’t about the show alone but more about experiencing it together. Watching subbed would defeat that experience as you couldn’t talk to each other as easily as with the dubbed version in your native language.
TLDR: alone I watch subs for the original experience, with others I watch dubs for the experience of watching together.
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