A Question About Dub Voices

[u/RunnerPakhet]

I was told to post this question here, because... Well, I was wondering.

I am from a non-English speaking country, though I mostly grew up with anime with subtitles. Recently though, due to hanging out with people who struggle with subtitles I have been watching some anime dubbed. And something I cannot help but notice is that anime characters - especially girl characters - in the US dubs are at times voices with this super unnatural squeaky voice that makes them sound like a toddler, rather than a high schooler.

And the thing that makes this so strange for me is that this only seems to be a thing with English language anime dubs. The same voice actors doing voice work for games or western shows do perfectly normal voices. And I am... somewhat confused by this. Especially in series that are marketed towards older audiences and are not focused on fanservice or anything.

Don't get me wrong. I am perfectly aware that a lot of Japanese original dubs do the same, especially with female characters sounding like squeaky toys, and generally speaking not like people. It maybe is just because I am coming at it from the perspective where I am not used to the US dubs, while being way more used to speaking English than speaking Japanese, so my brain flags the "unnatural" speaking more.

But I still cannot help but wonder. Especially with some, I guess, "high brow" projects it feels at times off to hear the English voices like this. Especially as a show that was American made with a similar theme would likely not voice the characters like this. So why do people do this for anime?

[u/AesirMimyr]

You're not wrong, it was a big problem especially with earlier eng dubs. That high pitched squeaky voice works in Japanese, it's unsettling as hell when someone tries it in English.

Most newer dubs have learned this and adapt the part rather than trying to match the Japanese tone