Dubbed anime has always been a very polarizing topic among fanbases. In fact, some fans look at dubbed anime as the absolute worst way to experience a series despite some of these dubs being well-done.
However, some of the earlier examples of great dubs in the world of anime had many flaws fans overlooked. While these old-era dubs may have been praised once upon a time, upon a rewatch, it would be easy to see how poorly they've aged as the medium has grown.
10 The Original Dragon Ball Z Funimation Dub Isn't The Best
The biggest surprise to many anime and Dragon Ball Z fans — upon a rewatch of the original Funimation dubbed series — is that it isn't as good as they remember.
While the Funimation team has cleaned up its delivery and become a lot more well-versed in dubbing, it's clear that this first jump into the big dub scene with Dragon Ball Z was very experimental.
9 The 4Kids One Piece Dub Was A Mistake
When it comes to absolutely horrible dubs, 4Kids stands on top of the mountain of trash due to their poor care and high-level of censorship of the series they gained licenses to.
Sadly, the amazing shonen juggernaut of a series, One Piece, was caught in the crossfire and got one of the worst dubs of all time. This dub was so bad that it even set back the series in the West for quite a bit.
8 The Classic Speed Racer Dub Is Just Too Much
Speed Racer's dub is one that fans can forgive. After all, this series was brought over to the West pretty early on by a three-person team, but that doesn't stop anyone from cracking jokes on how bad it is.
For some reason, the voice actors of this adaptation felt the need to record their lines as fast as possible, making it come off as more of an anime abridged parody instead of a real localization.
7 The Devilman OVA Dub Is A Laugh Now
Another anime dub that can be thought of as more of an abridged parody than an actual dub is the original series of Devilman's original video animations that are laughed at nowadays.
Honestly, this is another horrible dub whose delivery and lines are just laughably bad, with a few even becoming very popular memes.
6 Naruto Can Be A Bit Grading
This is yet another dub that hasn't aged the best that may come as a surprise to many. While most of the dub is great, Naruto has a voice and lines that can really grate the ears.
At times, his voice is done well but the choice to give the main character such an annoying voice and to constantly yell his "Believe it!" catchphrase was poor judgment.
5 Sailor Moon's Dub Had Issues
The first dub of Sailor Moon was full of issues that ended up ruining the mood of the voice actors that had been hired to bring the Sailor Scout heroes to life in the first place.
While there were many bad casting choices, a lot of the fault comes from the actual voice directors who gave horrible directions and barely knew what they were doing.
4 Initial D's Dub Just Isn't Initial D
Initial D is another show that doesn't really have a truly horrible dub, but one that is very flawed due to the fact that it lacks a key feature of the Initial D series.
That key feature is the Eurobeat-filled soundtrack, which is the reason that many fans got into Initial D in the first place. The dub instead inserts its own soundtrack.
3 Macross Became A Mess
Macross is a series that got very messy as soon as it was brought over to the West in the form of the mech anime, mixed with other anime, Robotech.
While Robotech managed to be entertaining in the end, Macross's sequel became Clash of the Bionoids, which was given a horrid — which aged poorly as well.
2 Dragon Ball GT Went A Bit Too Far
Much like the original Funimation dub for Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball GT's classic English dub really feels like an experiment for the early team to find its footing.
The real issue with this dub, however, wasn't the bad delivery, but rather the constant tampering with the dialogue, which made the characters, especially a very changed Goku, much cornier.
1 Yu-Gi-Oh! GX May As Well Be A Parody
Yu-Gi-Oh! as a series is actually supposed to be taken quite seriously, which is pretty ironic considering the basis of the series is a bunch of kids playing a big card game.
However, the English dub for Yu-Gi-Oh! GX takes that and throws it away, basically becoming a parody of the series filled with goofy and unintentional gags instead.
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