The mass market has already responded that they want dubbed anime. It doesn't make sense to invest into subtitles. Maybe it's time to accept that you are not the target audience anymore of western anime distributors.
The mass market has already responded that they want dubbed anime. It doesn't make sense to invest into subtitles. Maybe it's time to accept that you are not the target audience anymore of western anime distributors.
Quality typesetting is just as important for dubs as it is for subs, actually! All that on-screen text will be there regardless of which audio track you are using.
Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle just set records for western anime distribution, and 55% watched it subtitled.
https://deadline.com/2025/09/box-office-demon-slayer-infinit...
The market has spoken, indeed.
It baffles me how this is a thing. Not just regarding anime but any non-English language show or film. I've never come across a dub that wasn't at least five times worse in every way.
After hearing it from multiple different people, I've discovered that apparently many people are watching video content in background. And I don't mean music or podcasts style content with no graphics, but actual TV shows, anime, movies etc. And apparently they do that while doing something else demanding attention, like work, gaming, reading(!) etc. I have never managed such a feat, but it seems it is popular nowadays. That may be the reason, I guess.
Very odd. I definitely do that with podcasts and miscellaneous YouTube videos (like the latest LegalEagle video or whatever) but the idea of doing it with a show/anime/movie is unthinkable to me.
Dubs can be good in shows where there's a lot of fast dialog; it's hard for subtitles to keep up. The loquacious protagonist of Steins;Gate benefits _significantly_ from a dub, for example. I watched the show twice when I realized the subs had skipped half his dialog.
Period accents are another place dubs can have an advantage, particularly in shows like Baccano! where the characters are ostensibly speaking English to start with.
It can also vary by localization studio. I didn't care for the English Spy x Family dub, but to my ear the Chinese dub is just as good as the original Japanese. For some reason the actors in many English dubs seem to have a hard time "really going for it" when a scene requires an over-the-top outburst of emotions.
Apologies if this seems snarky or rude but I would be very, very, very surprised if any part of the dub for Steins;Gate sounds better than any part of the original audio.
My Spanish friend was explaining how some dubs can be better than the original - because the voice actors are good. I think anything with Jeff Goldblum could be easily improved.
The voice actors become well known and some were popular . . . although they can really change the tone of a movie (for good or bad) which they said was sometimes jarring when watching the movie in the original language.
I remember them saying they Manuel in Fawlty Towers is cast as Mexican, which is darkly humorous to me.
I suppose I can't say it's impossible. It just seems very very uncommon, and it has to be a case where the original has unusually bad voice actors and the dub has unusually good voice actors. Most of the things I would want to watch will have good acting/voice acting in the original; that will tend to correlate with the overall thing being good, and I try to only watch things I find good.
If you're a native English speaker, then you would lack the cultural context.
Most everything in Spain was dubbed, which lead to common cultural outcomes that are very different from English dubbing.
I'm sure they had a lot of awful dubbing, but apparently the results were regularly an improvement (voice actors changing the outcome to be more Spanish in a way that worked well).
My second hand opinion, based on a conversation from years ago, so I can't be that clear about it.
I am willing to believe it. Just in my own experience as a native English speaker, English dubs of non-English anime, shows, and movies are generally awful, and the non-awful ones are still significantly worse than the original. It's possible non-English dubs of English things tend to be good, for some reason.
I like watching anime, as opposed to reading anime, and I don't know Japanese. Every dub I've watched has been fine for me, I haven't noticed it being bad. Sure, if I knew Japanese well enough to keep up with the dialog, and watched both versions, I'd probably notice a difference, but for me, it comes down to whether I want to listen to an anime in English, or read an anime in English. I also sometimes want to do something while watching anime that means I can't devote my entire time to looking at the screen, and I don't want to have to keep rewinding so I can read what I missed. With an English or dubbed show, I can do things like put it on a second monitor while I'm playing a game, but that doesn't work with a subbed show. Yes, I know the solution is just to learn Japanese, but I've always struggled with learning languages and I barely have time to watch anime these days, let alone learn another language
But... people who only speak English and no other languages watch shows and films in other languages all the time. That's what the subtitles are for. I would guess 99% of anime watchers who listen in the original audio don't know any Japanese.
I'm sorry but it's so strange to me. To me it's like putting on your favorite song, but it's in Spanish so it's dubbed by a much worse singer who sings it in English.
I also don't understand why one would watch a film or show on one screen while playing a game or something on another screen. Either the film or show is so boring and trite that you need something else to distract you - in which case why ever watch it at all? - or you're missing out by not focusing on something good.
If it's a 4-hour podcast or a random infotainment YouTube video, sure, it makes sense to put that on while playing a game or programming or whatever. But an actual polished show? I don't get it.
If something is my favourite song, I will listen it in the language where it is my favourite song. I generally don't have favourite songs in other languages.
I have ADHD. I struggle to concentrate on anything. I would rather have the ability to be distracted for a bit and still be able to follow the show, than have to rewind it constantly or force myself to concentrate on something (which my brain doesn't enjoy). I don't need a distraction from a boring show, I need something else to keep me engaged.
I'm not sure why you are putting infotainment youtube videos in their own category, I treat them just the same. If it has visuals that I want to see, I'll put it on my second monitor and watch it while I'm doing something else. Not while programming, because that requires its own focus, or a narrative game, but more a sandbox game like minecraft or factorio
Infotainment YouTube videos, and most YouTube videos in general, are just kind of mildly interesting or mildly entertaining content. Television shows are usually things production crews have toiled away at for years to complete an artistic vision. They're very different kinds of media.
It's like going to watch The Godfather in a movie theater and you scroll HN on your tablet the whole time during it.
I have severe ADHD as well and am distracted very easily and am constantly playing content while doing other things. But there's a difference between "content" and "art".
That number varies depending on who you ask, with CR being one of the sources that claims a heavier share of dub watchers, but half their business is now dubbing/localization (by way of Funimation merger) so it may not be the most objective source.
Either way it’s bad business to throw some of your most loyal customers under the bus, regardless of how big of a portion they represent. Dub viewers tend to be more casual and fickle and will largely evaporate once the zeitgeist of popular media moves from anime onto something else.
you still need to subtitle the japanese text in signs, chat messages and other places that appear on the screen.
I am saying that they can get away with lower quality subtitles in such places because the average user does not care that much about it. The target audience is not the same as when they first started doing subtitles and it doesn't make business sense anymore. Anime is not special. If the rest of the video streaming industry can get away with simpler subtitles, then Crunchyroll can too.
People that are into anime are into anime because it is special. JoJo's Bizzare Adventure is cool when Marvel movies aren't because JoJo was made by one mangaka and a Marvel movie is made by a committee of committees.
Those who only want dubbed anime will be limited to a smaller catalog of shows. Their loss.