Instigator / Con
14
1476
rating
16
debates
40.63%
won
Topic
#840

Should anime be watched in sub instead of dub?

Status
Finished

The debate is finished. The distribution of the voting points and the winner are presented below.

Winner & statistics
Better arguments
6
3
Better sources
4
4
Better legibility
2
2
Better conduct
2
2

After 2 votes and with 3 points ahead, the winner is...

King_8
Tags
Parameters
Publication date
Last updated date
Type
Standard
Number of rounds
5
Time for argument
Three days
Max argument characters
30,000
Voting period
One month
Point system
Multiple criterions
Voting system
Open
Contender / Pro
11
1402
rating
44
debates
40.91%
won
Description

For the viewers who are unfamiliar with anime, dub means watching anime in English audio with no subtitles, and sub means watching anime in Japanese audio with English subtitles. This will help in your voting decisions. I am on the DUB side (Con), and my opponent is on the SUB side (Pro). I will let my opponent make their first argument.

Criterion
Con
Tie
Pro
Points
Better arguments
3 point(s)
Better sources
2 point(s)
Better legibility
1 point(s)
Better conduct
1 point(s)
Reason:

There’s not a lot here for me to vote on.

The biggest and most compelling argument is that dub is much easier and less distracting. This seems a pretty obvious and straightforward case.

Pro doesn’t really deny this - and agrees but specifies that ease is not part of his standard.

The translation is not a compelling argument for me - I can’t see how a translator would come up with a different translation when preparing for sub/dub.

Sound, seems mostly to be depending on which example. Con uses an example of Death note where the dub provides a better context and emotion than the sub did. While this suffers from much the same issue as the issue with translation (it could be either good or bad), the same goes for the reverse case pro raised that things are lost in the original voices

The technical benefits here raised by both don’t seem massively compelling, so I’m left to cons main case of being simpler to watch. Con spells our very well the key issues here related to easy; pro didn’t do enough to spell out the technical benefits of watching subtitles despite it being harder to follow, thus does not overturn ease for me.

As a result, the only one with a key positive case is con: arguments to con.

Criterion
Con
Tie
Pro
Points
Better arguments
3 point(s)
Better sources
2 point(s)
Better legibility
1 point(s)
Better conduct
1 point(s)
Reason:

This literally was a tied debate. One side said that anime and language is about expressing things vocally (Con) while Pro retorted that it was about comprehending tone of voice but more importantly the advantages of staying ahead and as authentic to the series as is possible.

In other words, both sides literally said the other side's value system may well be correct, it just isn't to them.