Ask John: Can Sub Fans Honestly Enjoy Japanese Language Anime?

Question:
One of the most popular debates among American anime fans is sub versus dub. The harcore sub people I talk to argue that they want to view anime in the form it was meant to be shown in. The problem I have is that I don’t speak Japanese. And I would bet that a lot of anime fans don’t speak Japanese very well either. So I don’t understand how one can truly enjoy the emotion of a Japanese actor without fluently knowing the language. Now, I know that a lot of English dubs suck. So that’s why I try to watch both audio tracks on a DVD and make my own decision. Am I the only one that tries to this more objective approach? I feel that I am “middle of the road” on this debate. But I don’t understand how a hardcore sub fan can prove a good argument without fluently knowing Japanese.

Answer:
I’d like to attempt to answer your question without turning this into a diatribe. Basically, it’s not entirely necessary to understand Japanese language in order to appreciate anime in its native Japanese dialogue. Setting aside the principle that “sub fans” condone the idea of appreciating unaltered art, there are two other aspects to the preference of watching anime in Japanese. Watching subtitled anime is educational and intellectually stimulating, and intuitive viewers can appreciate the pure audible art of Japanese language anime.

First, watching anime in Japanese encourages and develops familiarity with Japanese language. While watching anime dubbed in English may be entertaining, watching anime in Japanese is entertaining, and educational, and culturally stimulating. I’m certainly not trying to claim that it’s possible to learn Japanese just by watching anime, but viewers who routinely watch Japanese language anime are typically more knowledgeable about Japanese language and culture than viewers that exclusively watch English dubbed anime. It’s difficult not to watch a lot of Japanese language anime and not become familiar with nuances of Japanese social relationships and courtesies, and familiar with common Japanese phrases and terms that are not translated or not conveyed in English dubs.

But beside the minor benefit of subtitled anime contributing to a novice familiarity with Japanese linguistics, much of the preference for Japanese language anime is based upon pure aural appreciation for the acting and expression conveyed by the Japanese language dialogue. In other words, it’s not necessary to understand what’s being said to appreciate the emotion and intent expressed by the dialogue. To many fans that prefer subtitled anime, Japanese voices and Japanese voice actors just sound natural and believable as the voices of the characters on screen while English voices simply do not sound convincing as the “real” voice of the characters. While Japanese voices sound like the characters themselves speaking with natural inflection and rhythm- and with voices the seem natural and believable, English voices frequently sound like actors reading from a script. Allow me to cite an analogy. There are millions of music lovers that appreciate opera. Yet many of these opera afficianados are not fluent in French and German and the romantic languages opera are performed in. What’s beautiful is the emotion, and the musical quality of the voices, and the mood the opera creates. For a fan of genuine Japanese animation, the same principle applies. The viewer that prefers Japanese dialogue appreciates the mood and atmosphere that Japanese language anime creates- not only because the language is foreign, but simply because its sounds more natural and believable and convincing than English voices do.

It’s frequently argued that English speaking fans cannot truly appreciate Japanese voice acting because they can’t tell the difference between good and bad Japanese voice acting. I don’t believe that’s honestly true, and I also don’t believe that’s even relevant. In my personal opinion, if a voice actor becomes the character, and makes me forget that I’m listening to a voice actor, the actor has succeeded. Personally, I have never heard an English language dub that convinced me that I was listening the characters talking naturally, instead of an actor reciting lines. Furthermore, in the same way that the average listener expects a certain degree of professional quality and reliability from an opera singer, I believe that it’s reasonable to presume a certain degree of competence from Japanese voice actors. There’s enough evidence available, from the relative fame and respect attributed to Japanese voice actors, to the care and consideration that anime directors take in choosing voice actors, that Japanese anime voice acting maintains at least a reasonable minimum quality standard. So it’s irrelevant to say that English speakers can’t apprehend subtle variances in the quality of Japanese performances because basically all Japanese voice actor performances live up to at least a certain minimum standard.

Being able to assume that the original Japanese voice actors are skilled and talented performers eliminates the validity of the argument that English speakers can’t distinguish good and bad Japanese voice acting. Some Japanese voice actors may be more talented than others, but evidently genuinely bad Japanese voice actors don’t get employed in major anime roles. So it’s left to English speakers to critique Japanese voice acting purely on the inflection and emotion expressed by the voice acting. Literally, American sub fans are listening to voice acting, not the script or dialogue; it’s the tone and performance of the spoken dialogue that subtitle fans critique and find preferable from native Japanese speakers rather than English speaking voice actors.