Ask John: Will There Ever be an End to Dubbing?

Question:
Will there ever be an end to dubbing? If there was, would we be likely to see more anime with quicker release times since companies wouldn’t have to shell out the time and money to produce the dubs?

Answer:
This is quite a touchy subject, but I’ll try to present as objective a response as I can. Considering the present state of the American anime industry, English dubbed anime seems to be here to stay, for better or for worse. There are some fans, seemingly like yourself who bemoan the existence of dubbing either because it delay’s American release times or because it alters the artistic integrity of imported Japanese films. There are also an increasing number of native English speaking fans that demand and prefer English dubbed anime either for its easier accessibility or for its greater immersiveness.

To discuss the present and future existence of dubbed anime, I think it’s necessary to explore its origin and evolution. English dubbing originated in the 1960s, with heavily altered English language versions of shows including Astro Boy, Kimba the White Lion, Speed Racer and and 1970s releases including Battle of the Planets and Starblazers. But the modern period of dubbing that directly influenced today’s methods of domestic anime distribution began with Harmony Gold and Streamline Pictures in the early and mid 1980s. It was these companies that first brought anime to America as specifically imported Japanese film. At the time, the American television and home video market was simply not sophisticated enough or evolved enough to support the concept of Japanese language, subtitled foreign cartoons. Dubbing, for lack of a better term, was a necessary evil as the options available to legitimate distributors were either replace the original Japanese dialogue with English, or don’t release it in America at all. Theoretically, the original purpose of dubbing was to introduce English speaking viewers to imported Japanese animation. Especially hardcore anime fans in the early 1980s assumed that English dubbed anime would introduce Westerners to a new form of cinema and lead viewers to seek out the “pure,” unaltered original Japanese language versions. From a business perspective, dubbing was a marketing strategy designed to maximize sales potential.

But things didn’t quite turn out as many early anime fans had hoped and expected. Making anime less intimidating and more marketable with English language dialogue did bring in new viewers, but America’s first anime exclusive distribution companies, with the exception of AnimEigo, didn’t try to cultivate an appreciation for Japanese language or culture or art in these new viewers. There was a growing demand for anime with English dialogue, so distributors continued making anime with English dialogue. Especially with the introduction of Pioneer’s English dub of Tenchi Muyo, considered one of the highlights of the early American anime invasion, the perception of dubbing as an introduction to anime became forgotten, and its place as a mere marketing tool went overlooked by fans new to the hobby. Whether it was a justification or a legitimate artistic concern, the perception that English dubbing was an alternative and preferable means of watching anime that didn’t distract viewers with subtitles became a primary explanation for their existence. Camps of subtitle fans and dub fans arose, often harshly criticizing each other. Dub fans argued that English dubbing was less distracting and better suited the original intent of the creators to make anime that viewers could understand. Subtitle fans posited the counterpoint that dubbing was an inexcusable alteration of creative art, and anime wasn’t supposed to be “easy” for native English speakers to understand- after all, it’s Japanese.

At this point, there’s no question that subtitled only releases are far easier, faster and cheaper to produce than bilingual versions. But over the past 15 years, the domestic market has spoken. Subtitled only anime releases in America simply don’t sell well enough to be financially viable. Regardless of the fact that dubbing started out as just a tactic to sell more videos, and regardless of the fact that theoretically dubs were designed to have a limited lifetime, English dubbing has evolved beyond its origins and become not only a staple of domestic anime releases, we’re actually beginning to see English dubbing actually evolve into its own sort of art form with devoted English dub fans critiquing and supporting particular works, studios and voice actors. English dubbing is now a different species of animal from what it began life as. Speaking as both an anime fan that makes a hobby out of studying the evolution of America’s reception of anime, and as a professional personally involved in the American anime distribution business, I can state with absolute certainty that English dubbing of anime will never expire. It may have originated for the purpose of becoming extinct, but over the years its purpose has changed from introducing anime to new fans, to being the preferred method of viewing for established fans. I imagine that die-hard sub watchers and Japanese language devotees have already come to terms with the continued existence and dominance of English dubbing in the American market. For fans like yourself who are primarily concerned with lag time between Japanese and American release, I suspect that as the science of dubbing becomes more refined in America in the coming years, and the connections between Japanese production studios and American distributors becomes more intertwined, the technical process of dubbing anime will have a smaller and smaller impact on the amount of time it takes an anime release to make it from Japanese release to American store shelves.