Ask John: Could Switching to Subtitles Only Save America’s Anime Industry?

Question:
Dubbing costs a lot and many people (myself included) don’t even listen to dubs. We prefer watching a work in its original language. How many people care about dubs? Would American anime distributors make more profit if they released subbed-only anime DVDs?

Answer:
There are no reliable, nationwide statistics that reveal exactly how many American consumers watch or prefer watching anime with English dubbed dialogue; however, any casual observation of America’s anime consumer market reveals that the audience for English dubbed anime is significantly larger than the audience that prefers anime in its original Japanese language. It’s impossible for me to estimate any percentages, but consider that subtitled anime is rarely ever broadcast on American television, including even anime exclusive networks The Anime Channel and FUNimation Channel. Furthermore, consider how few anime titles are released on American DVD in subtitled only format. The number of subtitled only anime titles released in America accounts for probably less than five percent of all anime titles licensed for American release.

Presently, American anime distributors DreamWorks and Bandai Visual release subtitled only anime on American DVD because they’re motivated to present an authentic, unaltered, original Japanese presentation of anime. Media Blasters, AD Vision, ImaginAsian, and Right Stuf International have released subtitled only titles that they didn’t expect would sell enough copies to justify the expense of dubbing. These situations reveal that the vast majority of anime released in America which is expected to appeal to a large American commercial audience consistently gets dubbed. As I’ve mentioned in a prior “Ask John” article, dubbing is absolutely necessary for typical American anime releases. The American consumer interest in dubbed anime is many times larger than the American audience for subtitled anime, and many of America’s anime viewers will not watch anime with Japanese spoken dialogue.

The cost to produce a quality English dub for a standard 26 episode television series can easily top $300,000. With as many as possibly 50 new bilingual series released in America each year, an industry wide movement to eliminate dubbing would save America’s anime industry millions. However, the decrease in sales and the associated decrease in exposure that would come with eliminating dubbing would cost even more. A collective elimination of dubbing could cause a massive majority of America’s anime consumers to suddenly stop purchasing anime DVDs. An insistence on Japanese language releases only would result in anime entirely disappearing from significant American television broadcast exposure.

Many Americans love Japanese animation, but they adamantly reject anime with Japanese spoken dialogue. I’ve lost count, over the years, of how many times I’ve encountered a potential consumer that refused to purchase an anime DVD because it didn’t include optional English dubbing. In effect, even though eliminating dubbing on new American anime releases would result in tremendous savings for American anime distributors, it would also result in tremendous decreases in profit. Dubbing costs a lot, but it’s absolutely necessary to make an anime title commercially viable in America. The number of genuinely hardcore American anime fans willing to watch authentic, unaltered Japanese animation is not large enough to support even America’s relatively small anime distribution industry.