ANIME WATCH #3: Anime Watch is a news column about Anime (Japanese
Animation) by Jay Scott Raymond originally published by the Fabulous
Fiction Bookstore in Worcester, Mass. The reviews herein are the opinion
of the writer and in no way reflect the opinions of those not smart
enough to love Anime.
Good eeeeevening. Welcome to Anime Vampire Theater, Bwa-ha-ha-ha-haaaaa. Tonight I will be reviewing "Vampire Hunter D" and "Vampire Princess Miyu" and thereby opening a can of worms in the process. "What can of worms is that?", the uninitiated might ask; I'll tell you.
"Vampire Hunter D" is an excellent movie translated for us by Streamline Pictures; it is dubbed. "Vampire Princess Miyu" is an excellent series of OVAs translated for us by Animeigo; it is subtitled.
Old Anime fans will recognize the conundrum immediately; the old dubbed vs. subtitled debate.
First the dubbers' position: Those that prefer dubs say the subtitles distract from the feature. It is annoying to have to keep reading the bottom of the screen while trying to keep an eye on the action on screen. If the show is dubbed you can just watch it as you would any other video and not have to worry about rewinding periodically to catch the rest of a subtitle you weren't quite quick enough to read all of.
Now the subtitlers' position: Before this hobby started to catch on; a mere 3 or 4 years ago; the only translated Anime available was stuff brought over for American TV. As I've said before most American TV and movie producers see animation as suitable only for morons and small children. Although this attitude has lessened somewhat it is still quite prevalent. Remembering these "bad old days" most old Anime fans still equate dubbing with seeing their favorite shows edited into drek with second rate voice actors and third rate dubbing. While Streamline Pictures, the primary company doing dubs, has done an excellent job overall, most of their tapes have at least one voice which doesn't fit the character or some alteration in the dialogue which leaves the old Anime fan who has seen the show in the original screaming "Aaaaaaagggghhhh, NO,NO,NO,NO,NO; its letter bomb time!". For this reason most old fans and many relatively new fans who've gotten into Anime enough to go to a convention and see these shows in the original prefer subtitles to bashing their heads against a wall over an inappropriate voice actor or the insertion of dialogue that doesn't belong there.
Now, most importantly, MY position: As you may have been able to tell by the way I wrote up the two positions, I tend to be more in the subtitlers' camp. I am one of those old fans who remembers seeing my favorite shows edited into drek and screams over bad voices, etc., etc.. I can well understand the dubbers' position; even though I am used to subtitles and read very, very fast I still have had to occasionally back a show up to read the subtitles. If the companies doing the dubs learn to resist the urge to muck with the dialogue and get more top quality voice actors (and fit the voices to the characters better) I will have no problem with dubbing. Until that day, however, while I don't particularly dislike dubs; I tend to prefer subtitles. That day may not be at all far off. As I have said Streamline has done an excellent job overall. None of their tapes has had more than one voice I seriously disliked and several have had no voice problems at all. I have only seen one of their tapes where they have noticeably (to me) altered the dialogue.
Anyway, that is my intellectually stimulating discussion for this issue. I'm sure, since it comes from me, you will all take it as gospel. On the other hand you may think I'm full of post-consumer, semisolid, organic waste (a politically correct euphemism for crapola).