It’s worth noting right off the bat that I watched
the entirety of One Punch Man --
well, the first season of its anime, anyway -- in its official subtitled form
on Viz’s website. I’m at peace with
that. I don’t regret it. With that said, I have seen clips of the
dubbed version. As someone who’s always
had an appreciation of dubs, I’m glad that One
Punch Man got the treatment it did.
I know that it’s easy and common to hate dubs, and there are legitimate
reasons for it. But they aren’t bad by
default. And when they’re done well,
they bring something special to the table.
Doing
that post the other day on Mumen Rider (the best hero) got me thinking
about subs versus dubs. Obviously you
want to stay true to the source material/creator’s vision, so taking the anime
in as “pure” a form as possible is 100% understandable. But seeing the cyclist for justice take on
the Deep Sea King in both the original Japanese and the alternative English
highlighted the potential both have -- namely, that they’re two different yet
valid interpretations of the same moments.
In the Japanese
version, Mumen Rider sounds like a professional hero -- someone who knows
what he’s getting into, but ultimately starts letting the cracks show and his
emotions spill out when things get desperate.
In the English
version? He starts by sounding impassioned, desperate, and even scared -- but
the end result is that the emotions that come out hit with the force of a
tsunami. One scene, two interpretations,
both valid and enjoyable in their own way.
That’s rad.
…This is a weird way to start a post on One Punch Man. Maybe that’s because I’m tempted to write
about Mumen Rider again. So let’s start
again -- and start off right.