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I've been thinking about the topic of English dubbing for quite some time. Arguments rage on about which is better. I personally am in the middle. If a dub sounds good I'll watch it. If a show has a bad dub or doesn't have a dub, I'll just watch subbed. On this website, people are generally sub only. I'm not going to say that all people who watch subs only are evil. For some people, it's just their personal preference to watch subbed anime. I can see where they're coming from and understand their reasoning most of the time. If you just don't like dubs but respect other people's opinions, that's fine. This isn't aimed at you.This is more about the people who think that the original Japanese track is infinitely superior no matter what.

I can understand why people wouldn't want to watch dubs. Doing something you don't want to do by choice isn't very bright. However, the people I'm talking about are the ones constantly insult dubs despite the fact that the only dubbed anime they've seen is a 30 second clip on Youtube. For example, the Madoka Magica dub by Bang Zoom is lumped as unlistenable solely because of its crappy trailer. Ask pretty much anyone who actually watched the dub and their opinions will be very different. The Madoka Magica dub is one of the best I've heard in quite some time. I'd even go so far as to say it's about on par with the original. Sure, Christine Cabanos might not be as good as Yuki Aoi. But Cassandra Lee's Kyubey is amazing. Even though the voices don't sound too much like the Japanese counterparts, it's a more than watchable dub.

However, there are shows that I believe don't work in English. Bang Zoom's K-On dub has some good voice acting with a cast comprised of veteran voice actors (Stephanie Sheh, Karen Strassman, Laura Bailey) and newcomers (Cristina Vee, Christine Cabanos, Cassandra Lee). With a good cast and competent voice acting, how can it possibly go wrong? The translation. The dub doesn't take many liberties. Almost everything stays as is for better or worse. Mostly for worse. There are some translation choices that would confuse even the most experienced of anime watchers. But the main flaw with the dub is that it sounds awkward. It feels like it shouldn't have been dubbed in the first place. They're speaking English but I don't buy it. The characters don't sound realistic. They're stuck awkwardly in the middle of Japanese and English. I won't insult you for liking the dub. But that's just my opinion.

As you can see, opinions are highly subjective. You can't say that the original is infinitely superior when you haven't even given it a try. There are some people who like to watch dubs. People have different opinions to you.The only thing that can make an opinion invalid is ignorance. How can you form an opinion on something you don't know anything about? Can you even call it an opinion? It's simply a fear of the unknown. I can predict the questions that some people are going to give me. No, the voice acting isn't as terrible as you think it is. No, 4kids don't dub any more. No, dubs are very faithful nowadays (for better or worse). I'm not better than you for being indifferent and you're not better than me for liking subs. If you don't like dubs, that's fine by me. Just don't go around acting like you're superior to dub watchers. Because quite frankly, you're not.

PS. My favourite dub is Beck just in case you're asking