Dubs have always been good

One thing that annoys me as a Fan of Anime Dubs is when an apparent ally in that cause says something to imply it’s only modern Dubs they’re really defending.  When they talk about Dub haters being stuck in the past and not respecting how they have “gotten better”.

First of all given the growing overlap between vocal Dub Haters and the Gamer Gate Style Neoreactionaries of the Anime Community I think these people might be underestimating how many of those hating on current Anime Dubs like old ones, they’re Nostalgic for when Localizers made Anime less Politically Correct like the infamous Ghost Stories Dub.  Not to mention plenty of these people are Vic supporters.

Even in the 90s and early 00s there were plenty of Dubs that didn’t Censor all gender non conforming stuff and try to pretend the show wasn’t set in Japan.  Plenty of Classic Dubs for Tenchi Muyo and Neon Genesis Evangelion and Serial Experiments Lain are still what those characters sound like in the heads of a generation of Western Anime fans.

Maybe some of you will dismiss that as Nostalgia Blindness, people will like what they saw as a kid no matter what.  Well the three specific examples I just listed I didn’t watch till within the last decade when I was already well past 25, and I will actively defend them against any haters as vigorously as those with Nostalgia for them.  Meanwhile with Sailor Moon I have fond Childhood memories of the old DiC localization but have no illusions about how wrong some of those voices sounded.  Once the Viz Dub became available all of its Voice Actors were able to override the old ones in my mind.  Meanwhile with Detective Conan and Fate/ we have different voice casts who I like enough that they can coexist. 

And even with the “Hack Dubs” I can consider a Dub good if I like the Voice Acting, maybe not great and certainly not perfect but good enough.  I can tolerate the cringiest of localization changes if I like listening to the voices.  I principally feel this way about the 4Kids Pokémon Dub, those performances still hold up so I still love that Dub, Jelly Donuts and all.

There are old Dubs with voices I don’t like, the worst of them usually aren’t in Kids Show Hack Dubs but edgy OVAs released directly to the bargain bin.  And voices I don’t like still exist, though it’s usually actors I do like being cast incorrectly.

But looking at issues other than voice acting.   I have my own reasons for preferring a lot of older Dubs to newer ones.  It kind of feels like Dubs including Honorifics have become less common in recent years.  And I can’t imagine a Dub made with 90s Nerds in mind refusing to use the word Paladin.

There is a duality to my personal localization philosophy.  When it comes to Honorifics and the use of Otaku Lingo I want the Dubs to just use the same words they’re using in the Japanese.  But as far as writing the full script goes I’m fine with Creative Liberties and feel like modern Dubs don’t take enough actually, they play it too safe.  I also like when they incorporate Meme references like "Sus" and wish there was even more of that.

Update May 20th: Not long after I made this the Toonami Rewind announcement happened and people hating the VizDub out of their Nostalgia for the DiC Dub came out of the woodwork.  Which proves some of the points I made above considering they accuse the Viz cast of not being good Voice Actors which is absurd.