Subbed anime is more widely available

The argument

Usually only very popular anime are chosen to be dubbed because they are more likely to be profitable. Dubbing costs more, as voice actors need to be hired to do the voiceovers as well as translators to translate the scripts. On the other hand, subbing hardly costs anything and is more easily accessible to audiences everywhere, making it a more viable option to enjoy lots of different anime. Even if official subtitled versions of more niche anime are not offered, fans can make their own subbed versions and make them available on the internet (which is aptly termed “fansubbing”). This is especially true for OVAs (original video animations), which do not go through a television broadcast; they are instead released directly on the video market, usually along with manga volumes as promotion material. Older and lesser-known anime might not receive dubbed remakes either, but it would be more logistically possible to find fansubbed versions for viewers' enjoyment. As such, making the choice of watching subbed anime can open viewers to a plethora of genres of anime, and not be limited to the select number of dubbed shows that might not fit every viewer’s taste.

Premises

Counter-arguments

Availability is a fact about distribution, not about which viewing experience is better. The question asks how a viewer should watch; this argument answers what a viewer can watch. For the case that actually arises — a title released in both forms, and a viewer deciding between them — it offers nothing at all, which is a substantial gap for a position claiming that subbed anime is better as such. The economic premise also describes an earlier era. Dubbing costs were prohibitive when the market ran through physical media and licensed television slots; the major streaming services now commission dubs at scale, frequently in multiple languages, and increasingly release them simultaneously with or within weeks of the subtitled version. Back-catalogue dubbing has expanded correspondingly. 'Only the most profitable are dubbed' was a reasonable description of the DVD market and is a poor description of the current one. The fansub argument cuts against the position it is meant to support. Fan translations range from meticulous to unreadable, with inconsistent terminology, mistranslation and, in the practice's older forms, on-screen translator notes competing with the animation for attention. Invoking unofficial, unedited work as evidence for subtitles concedes the sibling position's principal charge — that subtitling quality is variable and that reading pulls the eye away from the image — in exchange for a point about breadth. And the conclusion does not follow from the premises even granting them. That more titles exist in subtitled form establishes that subtitles are more available. The position asserts that subbed anime is better, which is a claim about the form itself, and no amount of availability establishes it.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] The premise describes the economics of an earlier era: streaming services now commission dubs at scale, often in several languages and released simultaneously with or shortly after the subtitled version, and back-catalogue dubbing has expanded substantially. [Rejecting P2] Fan translations range from meticulous to unreadable, so invoking unofficial, unedited work concedes the rival position's principal charge about subtitle quality in exchange for breadth. Availability is in any case a fact about distribution rather than about which viewing experience is better, and offers nothing to a viewer choosing between two existing versions of the same title.