My 3 year old dub vs sub debate ended thanks to an 8 year old

Last week my nephew stayed over and he wanted to watch the newest shonen show with me. I always watch sub because I feel like the original voices carry the emotion better, three years ago I even wrote a whole forum post about how dubs ruin the pacing. So we put on episode one in Japanese and after five minutes this kid looks at me and goes 'Uncle Rob, I can't read that fast and I'm missing the fights.' Straight up killed my argument in one sentence. He switched it to the dub and honestly I got so into it that I forgot I hated dubs, the English voice actor for the rival character sounded way more menacing than I remembered. Now I'm wondering if I been gatekeeping the wrong thing for years, like maybe I just liked feeling superior for choosing sub. Anyone else flip their stance after watching with a kid or someone who doesn't have the patience for subtitles, or am I the only one who got schooled by a second grader?

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wyatt5131mo ago

The kid had a fair point about reading speed, but that's more about his age than about dubs being better. A 3 year old show in Japanese is the way the creators made it, and the English cast is basically doing a cover version of someone else's song. I get why you switched for him, but saying subs were just about feeling superior feels like you threw out a real argument because one 8 year old couldn't keep up.

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