Subbed vs Dubbed for emotional scenes: which actually hits harder?

I watched the big death scene in episode 20 of Cyberpunk Edgerunners in both subbed and dubbed to see which made me feel more. The subbed version had that raw voice acting that felt more real to the characters, but the dubbed let me actually watch the animation without reading. I ended up sticking with subbed because the Japanese voice actor's delivery was just too good, but now I wonder if I missed some visual details. Has anyone else done a side-by-side comparison for a key moment in an anime?

3 comments

3 Comments

sethm5811d ago

Totally feel you on this one, I did the exact same test with the final scene in Violet Evergarden and the subtitles just wrecked me way more because the voice felt so authentic. You definitely didn't miss much visually since your eyes get used to scanning the bottom of the screen pretty fast.

oliviabutler10d ago

Getting used to reading subs fast just makes the emotional gut punches hit harder somehow.

michael80310d ago

Didn't used to think that way about subs but this changed my mind for sure. Remember watching A Silent Movie and feeling like the dubbed version lost something in the translation of voice tone. So I tried it with subs on a rewatch and man, the raw emotion in the Japanese voice acting hit way harder. Now I'm one of those people who actually prefers subs for most anime, especially the heavy stuff.