If you’re a big fan of anime, then chances are that you have encountered some hilariously bad English anime dubs.
Many teams working to localize dubs do their best to give the dialogue a natural feel and stay true to the original content, but some stray far away leading to some less-than-enjoyable cringe moments.
If you want to experience seven of the worst, here is a small list (in no particular order of cringe-worthiness) of some laughably bad English anime dubs.
One Piece
One Piece follows the adventures of Monkey D. Luffy, a guy aspiring to be the King of all pirates. He meets and befriends multiple characters throughout the course of the series– not that you’d get a good feel of their personalities with the dub we’re thinking about.
The 4Kids dub of One Piece is so poorly executed and censored; it makes us wonder if they realized that the show was innately kid-friendly without such interference.
An otherwise very successful series, One Piece is not brought any justice through this sad dub.
Dragon Ball Z
Dragon Ball Z follows Goku and his team of Z Warriors, who defend the Earth against all sorts of evil forces. It is a great series to teach and instill qualities like teamwork, loyalty, and trust. This dub, however, makes us lose faith.
The AB Groupe dub, more commonly known as the “Big Green” dub of Dragon Ball Z, is hilariously bad.
The characters sound bored and lack the personality they are well known and loved for. We also need to mention that in this English dub, Piccolo is known as “Big Green,” and every bit of dialogue sounds forced. Yeah…
Speed Racer
The Speed Racer anime is about a teenage boy aspiring to be the world’s greatest race-car champion. He works to achieve this goal with the help of his friends, family, and his father’s insanely powerful car– the Mach 5.
This dub was done by a team of just three people who apparently favored fast communication seeing as the characters seem just to talk as quickly as possible.
The script only took them a few days, and the actual voice acting took even less– you can figure out how well that went without even hearing it.
Angel Cop
This anime follows an elite anti-terrorist agent who works to fight off the terrorism that threatens Japan. However, a mysterious figure is involved. The dub removes all the mystery and replaces it with ridiculous, vulgar dialogue.
Take a shot every time you hear a swear word while watching the English dub of Angel Cop– you might die, though.
Just how much awkward profanity can you fit into a dialogue? Check out the Angel Cop dub to find out.
Garzey’s Wing
Garzey’s Wing is a three-episode anime following Chris, who gets whisked away into a parallel world while his physical body remains in his homeworld. He is thrust into a rebellion and given a magical power known as “Garzey’s wing” that gives him giant wings of light.
This poorly translated dub from the 90s has become a comedic classic. You won’t find any convincing voice acting here– the people behind the dub also seem not to know pronunciations for any of the fantasy terminology, which ups the cringe factor even more.
Captain Harlock
Captain Phantom F. Harlock II is an archetypical Romantic hero– a space pirate with an individualist philosophy of life. This dub wouldn’t really let you catch onto that as much as it would cause some major confusion.
Searching for some ridiculous 70s English dubbing? The dub to Captain Harlock is just one of many old, bad English anime dubs.
From de-synced audio to ridiculous voice acting, watching this will make you wish you didn’t understand the English language. The sync is so bad a little girl’s voice plays while Captain Harlock’s mouth moves– yikes.
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni
Higurashi tells a story of a group of friends living in Hinamizawa, a rural village cursed by a bloody legacy. The dub for Higurashi When They Cry is a heavily opinionated matter of discussion.
Many fans feel that the voice actors did try very hard to fit into the characters and their personalities, but many others feel that they were far too overly dramatic and silly.
There you have it, just a few of the bad English anime dubs out there (trust us, there are too many to list). If you enjoyed this list, have a look at some of these anime recommendations or some fun anime memes.
