This was a bit of a more recent question but I felt this one really needed a more immediate answer so it jumped the queue a little bit. As always if you have something to ask you can send the question my way by filling in the simple survey at the end of the post or you can use this link to the inquiring minds survey.
Do you think someone who only watches dubbed anime could write an anime blog?
anon
This one could have a really short answer and be done: Absolutely.
While I personally prefer subbed anime and tend to watch in subs with a very small handful of exceptions (or when watching with a friend who won’t read subs), that doesn’t make me any better at writing an anime blog or reviewing anime than someone who watches dubbed. Both subs and dubs are translations, some subs are great and some are terrible, some dubs are great and some are terrible.
Looking at the anime community, there are quite a few bloggers who watch and review dubbed anime because they prefer it. The only downside they really face is that if they review seasonal anime there’s often a delay between a release of the episode in subbed form and dubbed form meaning those who watch the episode subbed will have their reviews out first.
Still, that minor issue isn’t something that should stop you wanting to write about anime if you want to write about anime. If you love it, or are at least really interested in it, and you want to write an anime blog, go for it.
However, I would suggest thinking through what sort of a blog you want to build. Are you wanting to review seasonally, write articles about the industry, review older anime, more researched pieces, opinion based pieces, etc? I kind of started my blog without having a real plan and I very much had to figure out what I wanted to write on the go and if I could do it over, I probably would like a do-over of starting my blog with everything I learned over the last couple of years because I’d definitely waste less of my time and be a bit more focused.
Given I don’t really want to open up the subs vs dubs argument again, this week I’m going to ask my readers a nice simple question: What do you think you need in order to write an anime blog?
At bare minimum, the inclination to want to write and means to put it out into the universe.
Really that simple.
“At bare minimum, the inclination to want to write and means to put it out into the universe.” – That needs to be on a T-Shirt or a bumper sticker.
Lol i’ll keep that in mind.
I think people need to understand that anime dubs have improved SIGNIFICANTLY since the 4kids era. Yes… the time when 4kids was at the height of its power was a very, very dark time for anime in the west. The dubs were horrible, cutting out a vast swath of character motivation and development, or just showing a clear disrespect for the intention of the Japanese creators, and things just sucked
But that was over 15 years ago, things have gotten so much better. Funimation improves each year, as does Sentai and Aniplex. Frankly, there are more and more shows that I am starting to prefer dubbed than sub, though yes, I, like many others will always gravitate to the sub.
Still though, let’s not lambast one part of the industry that has done hard good work to improve. The 4kids era is dead and never coming back. There is too much excellent work being done to continue to hold old grudges.
Definitely. Dubs and subs have improved fantastically over time. I still remember the early YouTube days trying to watch Bleach through fan-subbed efforts. Wow, let’s not return to that.
Let’s not return yes. But the fan-sub era pretty much laid the groundwork for the rise and seriousness that Crunchyroll and Funimation take to anime distrubtion. We all owe fansubs so, so much for keeping anime alive in the early 2000s. Even if the quality was all over the place.
Agreed. I couldn’t have become an adult anime fan without access and fansubs were a big part of that in the beginning.
Your response is spot-on!
The will and desire to write a blog.
I don’t think you really need anything more. Being able to write helps, but that can develop over time. Like you said, there’s any different number of ways to approach the topics.
I watch more dubbed than subbed so I’m always a little behind the live posting. That just means that more people may have seen it by that point, which is a good thing.
For seasonal anime, I tend to review in blocks of four. I am doing episode reviews of The Promised Neverland but I’m watching that one subbed so I’m current with that, plus I’m just trying to avoid spoilers.
For non seasonal shows, I review on a series basis. Occasionally, I’ll do episode reviews for special occasions like when I rewatch Highschool of the Dead. That was a popular set of posts and the series is eight years old.
Basically, you can do whatever you want with your blog. It helps to have an idea what you want to do, but you can change and evolve over time too, so don’t worry too much about it. If it’s something you want to do, do it!
Yes, blogs do tend to naturally evolve over time as their writers find what works for them, tries new things and finds their voice.