Dragon Ball Super has finally come to American Television;
normies rejoice! But in all seriousness the western syndication of Dragon Ball
Super is something to celebrate. It means a renewing and growing of the fan
base which will in turn help spur the creation of more and better content. But
now fans face a choice between watching the new English dub, or the original Japanese version with subtitles. English dubbing has improved in the last
decade, but as a rule I almost always go with the subbed version. Dragon Ball has a storied history in the west
and the English dub by Funimation is clearly an act of love so it deserves
special consideration due to its history and the huge English speaking fan base.
Judging by the first episode, The Dragon Ball Super dub is
well done. With the exception of some background characters the voice acting is
at least on par. In some ways the dub voices sound better, at least to those
who were raised speaking English. Japan has this odd rule about always using
the original voice actors. Thus Goku is played by Masako Nozawa, the octogenarian women who played Goku as a child in the
original Dragon Ball back in the 80’s. Nozawa is a pro; she is an excellent voice
actor but many westerners find her high pitched Goku jarring. Sticking with the
original voice actor can be limited as characters age. It could be argued that
the English dub, with different voice actors for adult and child version of
characters is superior in this regard.
The subbed Japanese can be hard to get use to for those who
grew up with the dub. Many of the characters have drastically different voices.
While many westerners may not like Masako Nozawa’s Goku, I feel she captures
his spirit better than most others who have voiced him. That said some of the
Japanese voices are truly grating to my ears, and the choice to have Nozawa
voice Goku, his children, and Goku black can get old as they all have similar
voices. Over all however the Japanese voices are good and often capture the characters in a way that is hard for a western voice actor.
There is a reason why many prefer to enjoy famous books in
their original language. There are many cultural memes and nuances that cannot
be readily translated. For instance Bulma often calls Goku “Son-kun”. This would normally be a polite way to refer
to a young man much younger than Goku, but in this case implies their long and
deep connection. It doesn’t really translate into English in a literal or
figurative way. Translation is an art, but even given wiggle room, the dub is
not a literal translation. It would be impossible to do it that way: matching a
literal translation to the mouth movements would look wrong; like a badly dubbed Kung Fu movie.The
subtitles on the simulcast are far from perfect either, but they are closer and
the knowledgeable can compare the spoken Japanese to the translation.
There is a flip side to the accuracy argument however; there
is a reason why so many famous works are more popular in translated form. Most
western anime fans cannot speak Japanese, and perhaps do not even care about
the difference between a “-kun” and a “-sa”. Many fans would prefer to hear
things in their own language rather than read subtitles. (Weird right?) For
these fans the dub is a welcome development. As someone who was-at least in my
youth-a hard core anime fan, I often find this perspective jarring. But it
is a popular one, and it helps promote anime worldwide.
Another argument is that a translation does not have to be
super accurate to be good or even better than the original. The King James Bible is littered
with translation errors but as a work of art it far surpasses more accurate
translations. While Dragon Ball Super might not quite compare to the bible, the
same rule applies. There is a case to be made that the dub is better than the
original Japanese.
I encourage everyone to take the time to watch both the
subtitled and dubbed version of Super. I prefer the subtitled version myself,
and since it is father ahead anyway I will watch it. I’ll probably catch the
dub too on occasion, but whichever you choose, Dragon Ball fans win.
-Gedaemon
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