Why don't subtitles match dubbing?

What people said

cyphar · 2025-10 · Reference

I agree there appears to be very little interest in subtitles in Japan from most Japanese people, but it is absolutely not true that Japanese subtitles are as haphazard as you say. The overwhelming majority of official Japanese subtitles I have seen (having studied Japanese for more than 5 years now) are not only word-accurate transcriptions, but also include transcriptions of noises (like あああああ for screams) as well as SDH-like notations for sound effects. Most include furigana for new/uncommon words as well. This has been the case for all anime, dramas, and movies I have watched with subtitles for the past 5 years (too many hours to count). Funnily enough, the complaints you have here actually apply more to English subtitles in my experience. Modern English subtitles tend to accurately transcribe what was said, but if you look at official subtitles from the mid-2000s and earlier you'll see that most subtitles are made much shorter than the original text. Tom Scott's video on subtitling talks about this historical practice and how it is different today[1]. Are you sure that the subtitle services you used are actually using official subtitles, and that they aren't actually translations or from some other source? How old are the shows you're watching (I believe some movies from the 70s I watched were character-accurate but that might not have been as common in the past)? [1]: [VIDEO]

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horseradish7k · 2025-07 · Reference

well, auto correcting grammar happens in normal subtitles too... "Why don't subtitles match dubbing?" by Tom Scott: [VIDEO]

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throw0101b · 2024-01 · Reference

> Turn on the subtitles on any of his videos (particularly when there are multiple speakers) and you'll see the effort that goes in to it. He actually did a video on subtitles recently, "Why don't subtitles match dubbing?": * [VIDEO]

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