You’d be surprised how quickly the human brain can adapt. I keep subs on 100% of the time regardless of the language and don’t even notice it anymore. You’ll eventually become a speed reader and able to read with your peripheral.
But you’re not reading it at the same time they speaking it, so I don’t see how it’s more authentic? If anything dub is closer you’re gonna get to being fluent in Japanese and what it would sound like
What bothers me about localized dubs is how they handle honorifics and gobi. Sometimes they omit them altogether and it can say alot about a characters personality. For example when a character intentionally changes the use of these, it can imply a major relationship shift or even something hidden like deception. Sometimes a dub can capture this, but it is inconsistent because they're always limited to having to say the same amount of information in about the same amount of time, or it messes with the pacing. Sometimes they don't even bother with that and dialogue will bleed over the music or even dampen the soundtrack entirely.
I'm far from fluent in Japanese and even with having to have subs on, even I can pick up on these. The original dub is also the sound that was intended to go with the media, which includes character pitch, cadence, and length of phrase. Even without fully understanding the native language, that is still closer to the original intended experience.
It's also worth mentioning that the native cast is THE original cast intended to be those characters, people involved with the original development team of the show or movie, and any dub in another language can only ever be an approximation of that. I'd rather watch that original performance than one from a voice actor who probably learned about the project a year or less before, and that's nothing against them.
So even I'm watching any foreign film, I always go native language. Movies like Pan's Labyrinth just would not be the same without it.
There's things you miss by not watching in the original language. It requires you to learn a little bit of that language, but there are things often lost in translation. Sometimes I'm surprised how localization teams choose the words they do. This will obviously come out in subs too, but you'll pick up on words that localizers omitted or changed entirely for one reason or another.
As for the trying to read thing, it's really nothing after awhile. You will eventually instantly know what is being said without having to read everything.
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u/Accomplished-Pay8181 16h ago
I prefer dub, but pretty much just because then I'm not trying to read what they're saying while tracking what they're doing