Dubs or Subs?

Dubs or Subs?

Written by Caleb Madden

There is a hot-button issue surrounding watching Miyazaki films: 

Dub or Sub.

 Of course, this is referencing whether you should watch the movie with the English audio dub or with the original Japanese audio and English subtitles. There are a lot of opinions about this on the internet from both sides of the argument so I want to try and give a fair view on both sides here, to help you decide how you want to watch these films. 

First, if you speak fluent Japanese then clearly just watch the originals. But if you don’t then here are a few things you should know. Typically the dub version of Miyazaki movies have an absolutely INSANE voice acting cast. We are talking Christian Bale, Billy Crudup, Billy Crystal, Jean Simmons, Daveigh Chase, Noah Cyrus, and so many more! However, these performances can be mixed at best. For instance the Billy Bob Thornton performance in Princess Mononoke sounds like he woke up just before every line reading. It’s pretty awful. But when it comes to the original Japanese voice acting it's always spot on. Miyazaki does an excellent job of casting people that know exactly what to do and exactly how to play these characters. Not to mention that the subtitles often do a much better job of capturing the original intention of the dialogue. Often when being adapted to English there are a lot of ideas that get confused or muddled.

So what does this all mean? Well, ultimately, I think there are a few things we should think about when deciding how to watch these films. First, Miyazaki films are visually stunning and often overwhelming. If you don’t speak fluent Japanese it can be hard to fully watch the movie and read the subtitles at the same time. The visual pace of his films is rarely very slow and you may miss a lot of the action so to speak. Second, as mentioned before, the English performances can be a mixed bag which may detract a lot from your viewing experience whereas the Japanese performances are always keyed in. 

Great! I have given an argument for both and not really said which is better one way or the other. Ultimately you should do whatever you are most comfortable with. These masterpieces deserve to be watched. They all deserve to stand alongside any of the great live-action films but are often overlooked due to them being animated and being written in Japanese. So, if you feel like you would be more comfortable watching the Dub then go for it! I honestly encourage everyone to watch the dub of Miyazaki movies at least once so they can just take in all of the glory. But I also would encourage everyone to watch the sub at least once as well. Even if you don’t understand what they are saying you can catch the energy of the Japanese performances. And of course the subtitles are more accurate to the original script. 

I hope this helps in your decision on how to watch these films!