When i was growing up, your preference for subbed or dubbed anime was an identity, a lifestyle choice, something you wore emblazoned on a button pinned to your backpack. Because back then, subbed anime was hard to find.
Back then, the only ways to get subbed anime both took lots of time and effort. You could save up with allowance or part time jobs to buy three episodes per VHS tape at Sam Goody. Or you could download it, over days or weeks, on Kazaa. Or you waited until Otakon rolled around and everybody crowded into the video rooms to actually watch the anime we couldn’t get. Can you remember a time when the video rooms were as packed as panels are today?
If you weren’t picky, however, dubs were easy. You could just turn on Toonami. We pretty much all started out on dubs. Moving on to subs was an expression of your anime devotion.
Today, subs vs. dubs isn’t the black-and-white debate it once was. Just about every anime DVD comes with a choice, so you don’t have to invest in one or the other. And dubs are far higher quality than they once were, featuring stellar English performances.
I usually watch my anime subbed, since that’s typically what legal streaming sites offer. But when I’m browsing my own anime library, here are the ones I always watch dubbed:
This just might be everyone’s favorite dub. We recommend it to our friends who are looking to get them into anime because they can watch it in English just like that Miyazaki film they tentatively tried. I love Wendee Lee as husky Faye Valentine, and Melissa Fahn’s bright, loopy wordplay as Ed. Even background characters show high quality performances in Bebop.
Spice and Wolf
Brina Palencia is sly and seductive as the wolf goddess Holo and J. Michael Tatum as an understated and businesslike Kraft Lawrence is her perfect foil. Lawrence and Holo have a complicated relationship that is more than platonic, and the nuances of their verbal banter were made more clear to me when I watched it dubbed the second time around.
Excel Saga
Jessica Calvello famously voice-acted herself hoarse after mimicking Excel’s over-the-top enthusiasm halfway through the series. While no performance is worth an injury, Calvello’s is spectacular, channeling Excel’s turned-up-to-eleven eagerness with laser accuracy. Most of the other voice acting in this show is so-so, but Calvello makes it worth a listen.
Rurouni Kenshin
When is a dub that I think is good not really a good dub? When it’s a nostalgia pick. This dub is always going to sound good to me because of my memories of watching it with my friends in middle school. Rewatching now, I still think Richard Hayworth makes a great Kenshin; sometimes goofy, sometimes with an edge of something deadly.
Nerima Daikon Brothers
Longtime readers know that this wacky musical comedy is inexplicably my favorite. I love having the opportunity to turn it on dubbed and sing along. More than any of the voice actors’ performances, I love how director Chris Ayres’ adaptation of the songs into English maintain both meaning and rhyme. I’m fortunate to have had the chance to tell him so!
Now tell me: what’s YOUR favorite anime dub?
Top photo by naniwear, who has it for sale in her Etsy store.