Subtitles in Film-making

The primary defense against subtitles, seems to be that a person loses focus while reading, which diminishes the enjoyment of the film. I'll admit, that even I have had occasions in which I missed some action because I was reading subtitles ( a rare occurrence, but it happens ), but it is also true that my attention is drawn away by horrid dubbing, in which I was thinking more about how bad the dubbing or voice acting was, and I wasn't paying much attention to the story. I've also heard the defense that "it would be wrong to cover up beautiful artwork with subtitles". Perhaps this is just me, but I also think that it's wrong that an extremely talented voice actor in Japan who is practically worshiped, and is meticulously chosen for the part, has their talents wiped out and replaced with a third rate English voice actor, with bad direction. Even with all that is wrong with dubbing, I am still not against it entirely. Dubbing has it's place in introducing people to anime. If they simply can't tolerate subtitles, and never wish to view films which are, that is fine with me. But more often than not, anime fans do eventually get into subtitles. I myself am a prime example of this. When I first (truly) got into anime, I always watched dubbed videos.

Eventually however, it came down to me wanting to watch a certain title very badly which was only available subtitled, and in which there were no dubs available. After a few weeks debate and visiting the video store, I decided to rent the film - Iczelion. At first I found it rather hard to follow, but within a minute or two I got fairly good at keeping track of the action on the screen and reading the subtitles. The largest surprise to me was how much I enjoyed the film, which I mainly accredit to subtitling. Listening to the characters tone in which they speak, and reading the equivalent on the screen, is to me as equivalent as if the character had said it in English. I found this to be much more appealing than listening to a poorly acted dubbed version. Soon I found myself seeking out the subtitled films instead of the dubbed. I've actually found my own story to be fairly common in the anime world. This of course makes me wonder why some anime fans are so ardently against dubbing all together. Yes it's often badly done, and I agree that it is not as good as subtitling, but it does have it's place.

Keep in mind that the problem with bad dubbing almost always results from a small budget. Since anime is not extremely popular, companies can ill afford to pay voice actors a lot, which often leads to employment of poor voice actors, and often poor direction. Another thing I've found to be quite annoying is recycling voice actors excessively. A.D. Vision is notorious for this. Rio in Burn Up W is sort of a 'valley girl' type of character; Saki Asamiya in Sukeban Deka, is a tough girl in prison who's led a harsh life; should these characters have the same voice actor? I say no. I don't think A.D. Vision can hire voice actors which are capable of acting out such totally different roles well, but the theme at A.D. Vision seems to be "one voice actor can go a long way". I think that perhaps the biggest debate is over cost. I'll admit that this manages to irritate even me. Distributors have somehow come up with the idea that dubs sell better.

This comes as no surprise as the subtitled version is often $8 (or more) than its dubbed counterpart. Small wonder that the dubbed version sells better. Apparently the marketing theory is that if the film is dubbed and marketed at a reasonable price, that it will sell more. Did people have to go to college for 8 years to figure this out? I mean, ANYTHING reasonably priced, will sell more. But lets look at the facts. Subtitled- Shoujo Kakumei Utena Cost $29.99 Dubbed title Revolutionary Girl Utena Cost : $24.99 Alright, now that we have everything laid out plainly before us, can anyone else see something odd going on here? Let's look at what's involved. Note that a more typical pricing scheme is for the dub to cost $19, and the sub to cost $26. Dubbing First the story needs to be translated. Once the translation is completed, appropriate voice actors need to be found. The voice actors probably need to rehearse the script a lot (I should hope anyway), and the director needs to work with them to at least attempt a reasonable output.

While this is going on, someone has to re-work the translation to find equivalent English translations, so that the English voices will match well with the images of anime characters. This does not include any additional add-ons, such as English versions of soundtrack songs, or English logos (both of which are somewhat optional). Subbtitles First the script is translated. Then the translation is transposed in text on the film (which occasionally involves making the colors right so that they contrast, and are readable). Okay, which costs more to make, dubbed or subtitled? Dubbed quite obviously. So WHY is the subtitled more expensive?

I'm willing to bet it's because greedy executive types are willing to bet hardcore anime purists will actually pay more for subtitles, and that the dubbed will market better to "not so dedicated" audiences. This might actually be true, but what they don't seem to realize, is that there are a lot of disgusted people like ME, who will then just avoid the title all together. Few titles are worth close to $30 in my humble opinion, and if I hear the dub was bad (which often times it is), I'll justavoid it all together. So the company and I both lose. Except that I usually find something else subtitled and end up just as happy in the end. There is a lot of great anime out there, so I don't feel the need to trouble myself with debating over a title which is a lose / lose situation.