Long answer for this one, if you don’t want to read short answer is sub generally, but here it really makes sense to go sub.
Certain jokes don’t land the same, the main one that comes to mind is in episode 4 when they fight turbo granny, and momo says a bunch of loaner words (外来語) which are essentially just english. Turbo Granny being hundreds of years old means she doesn’t understand those words, the subtitles said something like “modern language” or but the actual word she used was English (英語). I remember seeing the dub scene, which goes the “slang” route, which has a different connotation. While i think this is a relatively minor example, it’s flourishes like that which ultimately get lost in translation. The way both of them soeak and identify as “I” as interesting as well “うち” meaning house, and “自分” meaning myself. Uchi typically is used by women (mainly kansai) but it’s more casual, and the literal meaning also connects to her pride in her house, the accent she gives it makes it more assertive. Jibun by contrast is very introspective and reflects an obvious self-consciousness. They also pick different grammar structures and levels of formality that show aspects of their character.
A lot of the great aspects benefit from some knowledge of Japanese, but even aside from that, translations can be more literal in subtitles, compared to trying to match mouth flaps.
End of Dandadan answer and more about dub/sub generally.
Sub is generally just better because of the more competitive market, and the infrastructure to foster good voice actors in Japan.
The voice actors in the US typically go to video games or US animation where there is more work, and i’d assume more money than with dubbing foreign animation.
I don’t know the numbers specifically to back that up, but anime around 2010 and before was generally just an advertisement for the manga. The only things that used to get second seasons were typically action Jump shows, and other action shounen. Anime brings in younger audiences, so the series that make the most money and most marketable towards the demographic watching anime used to be the ones getting longer anime adaptations. |
