Lost in Translation: The Two Akira's

Many, many, many, many years ago (in the mid 90s) a friend of mine introduced me to the wonders of anime. Movies like Fist of the North Star, Ninja Scroll, Lily C.A.T., Vampire Hunter D, Ghost in the Shell, and Wicked City captured my attention and shifted my expectation of what animation could be while introducing me to the twisted side of Japanese animation. Some of the movies (all on VHS) were subtitled, but most of them were dubbed in English. Although I was no stranger to watching foreign films (as my mother was a movie fanatic), but these were the first dubbed films I had encountered, and having never had a problem understanding subtitled foreign language films, I assumed dubbed versions would be that much easier to follow! At least, that's how I felt before my friend brought over a dubbed version of Akira. Never have I been more determined to understand a film that seemed to refuse to be comprehended, and as a result, there might only be one movie I've seen more times that the dubbed version of Akira.

For anyone who's not watched anime from that time period, or maybe not seen Akira, there's a ocean of difference between watching, say Fist of the North Star, where there's gore abound but the animation quality is lower, and watching Akira. Comparing the two would be akin to comparing John Carpenter's Halloween and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon; the only real direct comparison being their both live action genre movies. Akira considerably raised the bar on what animation could achieve through both storytelling and visual effects.* But if you'd only seen the dubbed version, you'd only agree with the second half of that statement.

Akira has some of the most intricate, resplendent cell animation you'll ever see, but the dubbing is akin to most Americanized anime TV shows of the time, with "ahhhhhhhh"ing and "huuuuuuhhhhh"ing peppered into sparse and disconnected dialogue. The only logical conclusion I could draw from that disconnect was that I was missing something in the dialogue, some key phrase somewhere that pulled all the disconnected ideas together. And on one level I was correct; on another, more immediately important level, I was too trusting of the ability of dubbing to effectively communicate the nuances of plot and character development.

In all I probably watched the dubbed version ten times before giving up all hope. And then, a few months later, someone gave me a bootleg of the subtitled version. Not only was the dubbed version missing LOADS of plot nuance, it was missing key bits of the main characters relationships, backstory, and most importantly, it was missing the poetry of the story. Up to that moment in my life, I had never felt more vindicated: this glorious visual feast of a movie ACTUALLY HAD A WELL THOUGHT OUT PLOT, WELL DEVELOPED CHARACTERS, AND LAYERS OF DEEPER MEANING. This was indeed the masterpiece I had always felt it must be, and for years after that, if someone wanted to watch a dubbed version of something, I opted to not watch the film at all.

Sometimes you just have to read a movie to get the intended experience. Next time you're deciding between dubbed and subtitled, see if you can watch both at the same time, and see for yourself the difference. (Or watch the dubbed version so many times you accidentally memorize the dialogue and compare them that way...)

*(If you want to know more about Akira's cultural impact, Karla Clark's article on the subject is a pretty good place to start.)