I first watched the anime dubbed, when watching it again in Japanese I was amazed by how different the feel of the characters were - it was almost like they had completely different personalities!

The first time I watched it with my boyfriend, who prefers watching dubbed anime.

The second time round I watched it in the original Japanese.

I was immediately surprised by just how different of a feel the different voice acting gives the characters. Especially Anya.

In the English dub, she sounds like a bratty cartoon 6 year old. In the original however, she genuinely sounds like a toddler (4-5 years old0. To be honest, I think I prefer it that way though, not only is it far cuter, it also makes her character far more realistic and thus relatable.

I was also immediately caught off guard how the subtle difference in language, but mainly the voice acting, changed the character of the show as a whole. The English version's voice acting feels a lot more 'cartoony' and fake/exaggerated - especially with Anya. I notice that the English voice actor puts a lot of... smugness? into her voice sometimes (I don't think smugness is the right word. You know when she talks, mostly to her classmates, and her voice deepens a bit and she gets an almost lisp like quality? That). The Japanese version is a lot more cutesy in those moments, which I also find more realistic and less cartoony. I don't think a real kid would ever put on the kind of voice the English voice actress does in those moments.

It changes how I perceive the characters of the show a lot, in a way I cant quite put my finger on, I just know it feels different.

I'm sure many of you think this is really obvious, but this is the first time I've experienced something like this. I've seen shows in both English and Japanese before but no matter if the voice between the versions are extremely different - the personality of the character that I imagine always stays the same. This time that does not seem to be the case, Japanese Anya and English Anya seem too different to me. English Anya is like a child from a western cartoon, Japanese Anya acts more like a real child her age.

Perhaps it changes as the series goes on, and I simply forgot how she was in the beginning. That could also be it. I will continue watching and will report back if I notice anything else about it.

What do you guys think? Do you prefer the English or Japanese version? Do you get the same feeling I do with Anya where the two seem very different?

I do like them both, but I think in the end I would say I prefer the Japanese voice actors so far. I may change my mind though, when I've watched the whole thing in both languages.