This old argument? Seen and fought all over the net by anime fans everywhere. Well I've had plenty of time to consider it, so I'll bite.
Personally I have come to the conclusion that Undubbed is an acquired taste for most people. If you've only ever watched tv and films in your own language and rarely hear other languages in real life outside of school, then listening to other people speak a completely different language when you're trying to understand what is going on just sounds like meaningless noise and trying to read subtitles and watch what's happening on screen at the same time is troublesome and irritating. I used to really hate it when I first watched foreign films and the like.
I started watching anime properly back in the 90s (not counting the stuff like robotech they converted into cartoons for kids), and had to buy them on vhs. No dual audio for us, and sure as hell no brand new anime streamed online within 24 hours of showing in japan. You kids don't know you're born!
So yeah, it cost a bloody fortune and can clearly remember my first encounter with an undubbed anime when I bought one of the few copies they released alongside the english dub for the sake of giving people the option. And due to the cost and low popularity of anime back then meaning that they didn't have any dubbed copies left for me to trade it for, I just had to make do.
To do this day I can clearly remember how cheated I felt. It was a good one that I'd been waiting ages for, and it was half ruined for me because I had to put up with listening to weird oriental voices and squinting to read subtitles. I really felt that way at the time. It really was good though and anime good anime was hard to come by, so I ended up watching it again and again. A few years later a sequel to that anime came out and that time I made damned sure to get the English one and was expecting a big improvement. Imagine my surprise when I was left with a puzzling feeling that something just wasn't right. And it's not like the dub was bad. As far as dub goes, it was actually quite decent. I just couldn't understand why I felt that the characters sounded much more interesting with the japanese voices.
A few years after that I finally began getting anime on dvd and discovered that all the new stuff came with the choice between english and japanese. At first I stuck with the dub out of habit, but after noticing the option and having too much free time back then, I decided to watch them both ways and compare the two, and slowly realised I was generally liking the undubbed better. Soon after that I actually began listening to the undubbed half because I liked it, and half out of some sense that it made me better than those who didn't. Got into the whole sense of elitism for a while before I grew out of it. And since broadband became the norm and I discovered free and easy anime online, I not only watch undubbed as a preference, but strongly dislike dubbed. To the point that I've actually put off watching some anime I otherwise would have, simply because I couldn't find anything but the dub online, as sometimes happens with older series.
These days I've had a chance to think it other objectively, and don't feel the need to look down on people who prefer dubbed. Because I remember feeling the same way when I first started out. I think the reason undubbed is so popular now is just because an anime fan who wants to watch the brand new stuff that's showing currently, simply has to watch the undubbed because the dubbed won't be out for some time. And as a result of this they get used to listening to japanese and discover that a character can be defined as much by the voice, tone and feeling in their words, as much as what is being said. And unfortunately it's hard for english voice actors working for the western publishers who have had nothing to do with the making of the anime, nor likely had any interaction with the creators themselves, to do the same thing the seiyuus do. Especially when voice acting is a much bigger industry over there, with a much larger pool of talent to pick from. It's just hard to compete. To get that, having to endure the inconvenience of subtitles is a small price to pay. In fact, I've been urging myself to learn japanese for years now to bypass that little problem, though haven't managed to get round to it so far. Someday I guess.
Sorry for the rather long winded explanation, but I wanted people to know exactly where I'm coming to on this.
If all that is too much trouble to read though, all I'm saying is that I personally love undubbed to the point of not wanting to watch anything that's been dubbed, but I respect anyone who feels differently, and believe that they might very well changed their minds with enough exposure to the former. And that's everything.
