** Please note that this article extensively refers to VHS. While the arguments over dubbing and subtitles is still relevant, DVDs have made arguments of cost obsolete as they now provide dual audio tracks and subtitles on the same disk. In its historical context you may better understand why to some extent the DVD is like a savior to the anime industry in North America. **

I first should bring up the point that Anime is a foreign entity imported from another country, and in order to view it in it's purest form, it must be viewed in it's native language: Japanese. This isn't just applicable to Japanese animation, but any foreign film. The barrier is in that quite often the audience in a foreign country does not speak the language. Not understanding the language of a program that you watch for the most part defeats the purpose of movies / television, and almost completely detracts from the enjoyment / or learning through viewing these formats. I speak from experience having seeing a few foreign untranslated programs in my time, ranging from Korean soap opera's, to German TV news. The language barrier is overcome by three methods.

1. Learn the language
2. The film is subtitled
3. The film is dubbed

I'm sure that most people would agree that learning a language is overkill for watching TV, although you might be surprised by the number of people that take up Japanese just so they can watch anime. Understanding can also be bridged though subtitles. This in fact is not uncommon for foreign films, as it is cost effective, and easy to do. Most American films exported to other countries, are in fact subtitled. Even with this distraction, many people in foreign countries enjoy American films, yet the reverse does not seem to be true. An American watching a subtitled film seems to be a rarity at best. Whether this is because foreign languages sound strange to Americans, Americans don't like to read, or they simply don't want to see foreign films I cannot say, although I do admit that it seems Americans are for the most part oblivious to the happenings in foreign countries. Ask an American how many subtitles movies that they've seen, and I'd be surprised if the answer was even as great as one. Yet everyone knows of the Godzilla movies which happened to be dubbed (terribly I might add). Thus subtitling is mostly viewed as a venue for fanatics

But of course where are you going to find a larger group of fanatics, than in the following of Japanese animation? Anime, you could say, is in a bind. It isn't popular enough to be considered mainstream, yet it's too popular to be ignored. This creates a problem for distribution companies, which are naturally interested in the largest profit possible. Distribution companies seem to believe that the best way to increase their profit margins is by dubbing anime. I believe this to be both true and false at the same time. It does expose people to anime who would not be interested in it otherwise, but at the same time it alienates those of us who would rather not see a horribly done dubbing job which more or less wrecked the entire film.

The other problem with dubbing, is that it is often times not a direct translation, or the story was actually changed by the distributor (for various reasons). Most people know of what happened to Sailor Moon (dubbed by DIC), which changed not only the dialog, but also dropped episodes which were deemed "inappropriate" for American target audiences, and even went as far as to change the sex of a character. I cannot say if this is entirely good or bad considering the circumstances. North American culture dictates that "cartoons" are for kids, which automatically translates into "anime" ( well Sailor Moon anyway ), is for kids. Although I think it's practically a crime that a show like Sailor Moon was butchered by abominable dubbing, and the original story redone; I also doubt that mainstream American culture is ready to accept children watching a show in which there are homosexual relationships, men turn to women, and there are indirect "satanic" overtones ( keep in mind that the Japanese don't view it as being satanic - that is just the American perception ).

This also brings up the debate about what is "appropriate", but that depends on who is defining appropriate. But often times even "mild" dialog is changed. Ah! Megami sama (Oh! My Goddess) is a good example of this. In episode 1 Keiichi says "dammit" in the original Japanese version of the show (which natural when your frustrated), yet this was left out of the dubbed version. Is the word "dammit" such a horrid word that it cannot even be included in anime? Japanese is also a difficult language in that it is extremely indirect and the tone and gravity of words can significantly change them. For instance one way to say "you" in Japanese is kisama, this is however extremely impolite in a society whose language is structured around how polite you are. This is often translated to "You Bastard!" but may very well be omitted in translation. Without knowing a little bit about Japanese, and hearing the word spoken you may not really understand the context of what is being said.

The primary defense against subtitles, seems to be that a person loses focus while reading, which diminishes the enjoyment of the film. I'll admit, that even I have had occasions in which I missed some action because I was reading subtitles ( a rare occurrence, but it happens ), but it is also true that my attention is drawn away by horrid dubbing, in which I was thinking more about how bad the dubbing or voice acting was, and I wasn't paying much attention to the story. I've also heard the defense that "it would be wrong to cover up beautiful artwork with subtitles". Perhaps this is just me, but I also think that it's wrong that an extremely talented voice actor in Japan who is practically worshiped, and is meticulously chosen for the part, has their talents wiped out and replaced with a third rate English voice actor, with bad direction.

Even with all that is wrong with dubbing, I am still not against it entirely. Especially with the increase in popularity in North America; dubbing has significantly improved. It also has it's place in introducing people to anime. If they simply can't tolerate subtitles, and never wish to view films which are, that is fine with me. But more often than not, anime fans do eventually get into subtitles. I myself am a prime example of this. When I first (truly) got into anime, I always watched dubbed videos. Eventually however, it came down to me wanting to watch a certain title very badly which was only available subtitled, and in which there were no dubs available. After a few weeks debate and visiting the video store, I decided to rent the film. At first I found it rather hard to follow, but within a minute or two I got fairly good at keeping track of the action on the screen and reading the subtitles. The largest surprise to me was how much I enjoyed the film, which I mainly accredit to subtitling. Listening to the characters tone in which they speak, and reading the equivalent on the screen, is to me as equivalent as if the character had said it in English. I found this to be much more appealing than listening to a poorly acted dubbed version. Soon I found myself seeking out the subtitled films instead of the dubbed. I've actually found my own story to be fairly common in the anime world.

This of course makes me wonder why some anime fans are so ardently against dubbing all together. Yes it's often badly done, and I agree that it is not as good as subtitling, but it does have it's place. Keep in mind that the problem with bad dubbing almost always results from a small budget. Since anime is not extremely popular, companies can ill afford to pay voice actors a lot, which often leads to employment of poor voice actors, and often poor direction. Another thing I've found to be quite annoying is recycling voice actors excessively.

I think that perhaps the biggest debate is over cost. I'll admit that this manages to irritate even me. Distributors have somehow come up with the idea that dubs sell better. This comes as no surprise as the subtitled version is often $8 (or more) than its dubbed counterpart. Small wonder that the dubbed version sells better. Apparently the marketing theory is that if the film is dubbed and marketed at a reasonable price, that it will sell more. Did people have to go to college for 8 years to figure this out? I mean, ANYTHING reasonably priced, will sell more. But lets look at the facts.

Alright, now that we have everything laid out plainly before us, can anyone else see something odd going on here? Let's look at what's involved. Note that a more typical pricing scheme is for the dub to cost $19, and the sub to cost $26.

Dubbing:

First the story needs to be translated. Once the translation is completed, appropriate voice actors need to be found. The voice actors probably need to rehearse the script a lot (I should hope anyway), and the director needs to work with them to at least attempt a reasonable output. While this is going on, someone has to re-work the translation to find equivalent English translations, so that the English voices will match well with the images of anime characters. This does not include any additional add-ons, such as English versions of soundtrack songs, or English logos (both of which are somewhat optional).

Subbtitles

First the script is translated. Then the translation is transposed in text on the film (which occasionally involves making the colors right so that they contrast, and are readable).

Okay, which costs more to make, dubbed or subtitled? Dubbed quite obviously. So WHY is the subtitled more expensive? I'm willing to bet it's because greedy executive types are willing to bet hardcore anime purists will actually pay more for subtitles, and that the dubbed will market better to "not so dedicated" audiences. This might actually be true, but what they don't seem to realize, is that there are a lot of disgusted people like ME, who will then just avoid the title all together. Few titles are worth close to $30 in my humble opinion, and if I hear the dub was bad (which often times it is), I'll just avoid it all together. So the company and I both lose. Except that I usually find something else subtitled and end up just as happy in the end. There is a lot of great anime out there, so I don't feel the need to trouble myself with debating over a title which is a lose / lose situation.

There's an easy way to rectify this. Make dubs and subtitles the same price. I'm willing to bet that if the price of dubs went up one or two dollars, and the subtitles went down in cost to the same as the dub, that they company wouldn't lose money, and could quite possibly gain money. Then people would be free to choose. Selling one cheap dub, and one expensive sub, does not make as much money as 3 videos sold at the same fair price.

So all in all, I suppose there is a little lesson for everyone in this. The hardcore subtitle anime junkies, shouldn't be so hard on dubbing. Everyone was a newbie at some point, and it introduces people to anime. People into dubbing should give subtitles a try. Believe me, once your used to it, it really IS better (and you might pick up some Japanese too!). And the corporate people should try to be a bit more understanding, and fair. Please price everything the same fair price, then every anime fan can be happy.

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Amendment 1

Recently I've heard something quite different about the cost gap between subtitles and dubbing. Most people are probably aware that a company has to obtain rights for the anime itself when it is commercially distributed. I've also heard that when a subtitle is released that the rights for the Japanese voices must also be obtained. As is the case for most things in Japan, paying for the rights to the voice actors voices is rather pricey, which is supposedly where the price hike comes in. Many companies find it more profitable to pay English voice actors, and dub over the original Japanese voices, rather than pay for the rights to the Japanese Voice actors. If you want my opinion, this does sound plausible, but the facts still remain, that the price gap between the dub and sub is still FAR too big.

Amendment 2

A voice actor (or at least someone supposing to be a voice actor) mailed me with the following points. First of all that there IS no rehearsal. Second that typically the first time they see the script is when they are in the studio and about to do their part. And finally, that they do not have any other input on how the other voice actors will sound since they are not even present. I won't speculate on if this is typical in the world of anime dubs, but I will suppose it is more the exception than the rule. This would however explain atrocious dubbing such as the latest installments of Sailor Moon, which is beyond bad. I would be willing to bet, that this is probably how dubs are done for places such as Anime Works.

Amendment 3

Another person mailed me asking about a different scenario. In France apparently subs and dubs go for the same price (between £6 and £12). I can see why subtitles would be more common in France, as I'm willing to bet that the French are far more willing to watch subtitles. It is interesting in that subs and dubs are the same price. If amendment 1 held true, this wouldn't be the case. Of course then again some distributors do price the same for some subs and dubs. I believe Disney does (did). And thus the plot thickens. Of course with bilingual DVDs coming out all of the pricing debate could become pointless. But that brings up a whole new topic with region codes and why I cant buy a Japanese DVD and play it on my DVD player...