There is an eternal debate among anime fans about whether the works should be consumed in their original Japanese with subtitles or dubbed. If anyone needs to know, it would be the legendary director Hayao Miyazaki.
Who is it about? Hayao Miyazaki is the co-founder of the legendary Japanese animation studio Ghibli. His films such as Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away are considered absolute masterpieces and have given the director titles such as “the Japanese answer to Walt Disney”, “Godfather of Animation” or simply the “God of Anime” (via BBC).
With his latest film The Boy and the Heron, Miyazaki even achieved something that no anime has ever achieved before. But the director is also considered extremely critical and does not shy away from expressing his opinion. He criticized a trend in anime 20 years ago during an interview with the Guardian.
Is the synchro better than its reputation?
What was the director’s point? When Miyazaki spoke about the English cast of his film Howl’s Moving Castle, he praised Lauren Bacall, the voice of the “Witch from No Man’s Land”. She is a “fabulous woman”.
At the same time, he talked about a development that he thought he was seeing among Japanese voice actresses. Because the local speakers all have voices that are very flirtatious and want to attract men’s attention. That’s exactly what they didn’t want for this film, says Miyazaki.
Like other Ghibli films before it, Howl’s Moving Castle was offered in two versions: once in the original Japanese audio with subtitles and once with an English voiceover.
Whether it’s best to enjoy anime in the original or dubbed is an eternal topic of debate in the community. Many consider the version with subtitles to be more authentic and criticize the quality of the dubbing.
However, the legendary anime director had a completely different opinion in the interview: “If you watch the version with subtitles, you’ll probably miss just as much. There are layers and nuances that you just don’t understand. Films cross so many boundaries these days. Of course they will be distorted.” (via The Guardian)
It turns out that native speakers may perceive the dubbing in anime very differently than purists in this country, who consider the German voice acting to be completely terrible. MeinMMO demon Cortyn explains why this could be the case: Why German dubbing in anime is so bad