Went back and forth between sub and dub for Fist of the North Star, finally made a call

I spent like 3 years telling myself I'd watch the OG Fist of the North Star anime, but I kept putting it off because I couldn't decide which way to go. The dub has that cheesy 90s energy with the voice actors hamming it up, and the sub has the raw Japanese performances that just hit different. After watching the first 5 episodes in both, I went with the dub because I wanted to laugh at the ridiculous one-liners while doing concrete work in the background. Honestly, it was the right call for me. The English voice for Kenshiro sounds like he's trying to be a gravelly action hero from a B-movie, and it makes the over-the-top violence way more fun. Has anyone else had to commit to one version of a show and regretted it later, or found it made the experience better?

2 comments

2 Comments

martin.paige25d ago

My buddy Sam had this exact problem with the original Ghost in the Shell movie. He watched the first ten minutes of the dub and the first ten of the sub and went back and forth for like two weeks. He finally picked the dub because he said the English voice for the Major sounded way more cold and robotic, which fit the vibe of the movie better for him. Then he watched the whole thing and loved it, no regrets at all. A couple months later he tried the sub just to compare and said it felt completely wrong, like he was watching a different movie. So I guess sometimes your first gut call just sticks and that's fine.

margaret9925d ago

That's a good point about the voice fitting the vibe, but I wonder if Sam would have felt the same way if he'd watched the sub first.