Answerman

BritDubs Explained

Eric Stimson asks:

"Why are there so few British anime dubs? There are several anime set in Britain (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Season 1, The Ancient Magus' Bride, Once Upon a Witch's Death) or involving British characters (Kinmoza!, Cultural Exchange with Game Centre Girl). There are also often Spanish dubs from more than one country (and maybe French too?). Why did anime dubbing never take off in Britain as it did in the US, Canada and Southeast Asia?"

The short answer? Experience and cost. Unfortunately, British producers and voice actors have very little experience dubbing Japanese animated TV series and movies.

This goes way back to the beginning of children's television in the United Kingdom and the establishment of the BBC. I may be a UK-based "anime expert" and "industry professional," but it isn't by virtue of provenance. I was born in the UK, but raised in Australia, and thankfully, we got a tremendous supply of anime on the national public and commercial broadcasting networks in the Land Down Under throughout my formative years during the 1980s and 1990s. The UK, by comparison, had almost no exposure to anime content via television broadcast ever, apart from a few exceptions.

So one explanation for why the UK voice acting industry doesn't do a lot of English-language anime dubs is that we are not very good at it, we never built an industry around it, and that is because there was never very much demand for it. The UK VA industry for animation works almost exclusively on pre-school, children's and family animation. Brands like Thomas the Tank Engine, Peppa Pig, Fireman Sam and Bob the Builder are more our cup of tea. I do not want to do a disservice to our British voice acting talent, but I believe that voicing Daddy Pig in Peppa Pig stretches different voice acting muscles than those required to match the rapid Japanese lip-syncs in a dialogue-heavy anime series like Naruto or One Piece.

The main difference is the recording methodology and workflow: British animation typically records voices first for animators to sync to, allowing natural performances, while English anime dubbing records after the Japanese animation is complete, forcing VAs to match lip-flaps, often resulting in a more stilted delivery or that distinct "dub" sound, with less overall story context for actors compared to original Japanese production where actors record together. American anime dub actors and producers have made this product their own. Just like the anime that inspired their side of the industry, these innovative creatives have leaned heavily into the limitations and friction of the medium to create something that is very much its own thing.

I speak from firsthand knowledge here. Early in my career at Manga Entertainment, I executive-produced a couple of English-language dubs. One was produced here in the UK, and the other was produced in Los Angeles with an experienced team of anime voice actors. The first film was Satoshi Kon's 2003 masterpiece Millennium Actress (2001), and the second was Ghost in the Shell: Innocence (2004). For Innocence, we worked with Richard Epcar, who reprised his role as Batou from the original Ghost in the Shell movie. Richard loved the material; it's a very heady, philosophical story where Batou takes centre stage, and in the sequel, he gets to play up all of his LA-noir, gumshoe detective instincts he likely absorbed living a lifetime in the City of Angels.

The British voice dub for Millennium Actress was produced by Village Productions in 2005, commissioned specifically for the UK market because the original US distributor (DreamWorks, Go Fish Pictures) only released the film with subtitles. This dub featured Regina Reagan voicing Chiyoko at all ages, a controversial choice compared to the Japanese original and later 2019 US dub (Produced by Eleven Arts), which used different actors for young, adult, and elderly Chiyoko.

My conclusion from that experience: the differences were stark. The British voice actors struggled with matching the mouth flaps; what we call lip sync or "flap matching" in the industry. Japanese dialogue has a different rhythm and cadence than English, and American voice actors have developed techniques over decades to handle this. They'd learned to compress words, extend syllables, and adjust pacing to match the animation. British actors, trained primarily on domestic productions where the animation was created to match pre-recorded English dialogue, simply didn't have these skills. To be fair to British-trained voice actors, it was never a talent issue; it was a training and experience gap that we have never had the opportunity to fill in the UK.

But my experience was just one data point. I wanted to understand if this was an industry-wide phenomenon, so I reached out to one of my friends who is a 20-year veteran of the localization industry expert who's worked extensively across international animation markets, and who is also UK-based.

The conversation was illuminating. They mentioned that the question came up during production of Ronja, the Robber's Daughter, the Studio Ghibli-produced series with Polygon Pictures. The global rights agent for the series was keen to produce a UK dub. I am presuming that they possibly had interest from the BBC, and perhaps because they hoped that the finished product would sound more cultured and befitting of the show. I had the same thought when I commissioned Millennium Actress's original English-language dub.

They were advised that anime series had traditionally been dubbed in the US, and that it was part of the DNA of anime in the West because fans were so accustomed to it. The US was an early adopter and had become a larger, more established market. Despite this advice, they went ahead with a UK dub, and I am pleased to report that it is a delightful finished product. However! I don't believe it made it to the BBC. When I asked my contact about other notable UK anime dubs, they couldn't recall any.

The economics tell an even more discouraging story. When I asked about pricing, the answer was blunt: "UK dub prices are definitely a blocker, notoriously expensive here."

Most major, long-running kids' anime series that are big business in the West are being dubbed at SAG union rates in Los Angeles, and they are "hefty.” Roughly on par with UK rates. But in the US, you can also dub non-union for considerably less. I have since been involved in producing dubs for other anime series and movies since my Millennium Actress misadventure, and using suppliers based out of LA at reasonable rates, outside of union pricing structures. I have also seen quality anime dubs produced in Miami that are even more cost-effective. The UK doesn't have that flexibility. It's expensive across the board, which means commissioners are already starting from a cost disadvantage before considering the experience gap. The union structures differ, too. In the UK, performers under Equity receive "repeat fees" or "royalties" depending on the medium, rather than the automatic, open-ended residuals that SAG-AFTRA members get in the US. While both systems add costs, they're structured differently enough that budgeting and negotiations follow different patterns. For producers trying to decide where to dub, these complications add another layer of complexity to an already expensive UK proposition.

So Eric, the answer to your question is really a perfect storm of factors: lack of experience, high costs, and the self-reinforcing cycle these create. The US became the default for English-language anime dubbing in the 1990s and early 2000s because it had the infrastructure, the voice talent pool, and increasingly, the specialized expertise. Once that ecosystem was established, it became nearly impossible for the UK to compete.

Could this change? Theoretically, yes, if a major British broadcaster made a sustained commitment to anime and was willing to invest in developing local talent over multiple productions. But given current economics and the global nature of streaming, it's hard to see the business case for it.

The irony is that some of the best anime is set in Britain, as you noted. But authenticity in accent apparently isn't worth the premium in price and the deficit in experience. Perhaps that's the most British outcome possible, being too expensive to voice our own fictional countrymen.

Though something interesting happened at the start of 2026. The Korean vampire webtoon adaptation, Dark Moon: The Blood Altar was dubbed by Sound Cadence Studios with a cast drawn almost entirely from British and Scottish talent, including Scottish actress Elsie Lovelock (Hazbin Hotel) and English actor Kieran Flitton (MF Ghost), who also adapted the English script. The studio used remote recording to bridge the Atlantic, meaning the production infrastructure remained in Texas while the accents were very much genuine. The reason? The show is set in a prestigious boarding school, and the creative team decided, not unreasonably, that the register of a cool, refined British accent suited the material. Vampires, it turns out, may be the one genre guaranteed to keep the UK in the anime dubbing game.

Do YOU have a question for the Answerman?

We'd love to answer your questions and especially encourage questions inspired by recent news and headlines. However, READ THIS FIRST:
● CHECK THE ARCHIVES. Over the years, we've answered THOUSANDS of questions and might have already answered yours!
● We cannot tell you if or when a show will get another season, nor can we help you get in touch with any producers, artists, creators, actors, or licensors.
● Only submit your question once.
● We take questions by email only. (Tweeted questions get ignored!)
● Please keep your questions within a paragraph length.
●The email address is [email protected].

Thank you!