Serious question: subbed or dubbed for emotional impact?

I was at a con in Atlanta last weekend and caught two screenings of the same episode from a new sad anime. First was subbed with a big crowd, then dubbed with a smaller group. The subbed room was dead quiet at the heavy parts while the dubbed room had people laughing at a delivery that felt off. I think the voice acting changed the whole tone of the scene. Which one do you think hits harder when the story is supposed to make you cry?

2 comments

2 Comments

dianagreen19d ago

That part about the dubbed room laughing at the delivery is exactly what I'm talking about. The subbed crowd being dead quiet tells you everything. Subbed voice actors are usually way more dialed into the original director's vision. With dubs you get a translation that might be technically correct but the emotion gets all scrambled. The timing and pauses that make a scene hit are just different. Plus reading subtitles forces your brain to slow down and actually process every word. Dubbing is convenient but it strips out all the raw feeling for me.

abby_chen19d ago

Dead quiet room? That's actually kind of terrifying.