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This entry is trivia, which is cool and all, but not a trope. On a work, it goes on the Trivia tab.

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No Dub for You

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https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/finalsave.png
The website's in English, but the show isn't.

"The characters appearing in this episode are voiced only in Japanese."
— Asura's Wrath Lost Episodes

When a foreign media propertynote  is licensed and released overseas—in this case the English-speaking world—you would expect a dub in the local language, right? However, that's not always the case. Sometimes, the product contains the original language, and only the original language. It is the linguistic equivalent of the Vanilla Edition, and somewhat related to Bad Export for You depending on who you ask.

There can be many reasons for not dubbing something:

  1. The prospective market is not enough to justify the cost of hiring translators, voice actors and other members of staff that work on dubs.
  2. Assets essential to the creation of a dub—namely the Music & Effects tracknote —have been lost.
  3. For whatever reason, someone at either end refuses to allow a dub to be created.
  4. The material is either too reliant on its original language to be adequately dubbed or includes situations that are illegal or otherwise too risky for overseas release. Sometimes, titles that take heavy use of the English language (or whatever language the overseas target audience generally uses) may fit into this description as well.
  5. Sometimes, certain genres themselves are usually the factor of not dubbing something simply because these genres don't sell well enough to justify dubbing (for instance, sports anime and Slice of Life titles are usually given this treatment)note . Certain themes that may turn away foreign audiences (for instance Lolicon and Shotacon anime, as well as anime with Brother–Sister Incest) may be given this treatment.
  6. The overseas distributors don't want to compromise the title's integrity (due in part to the bad reputation dubs ultimately started to get in certain countries), and feel it would be better to have it released only in its original language.
  7. The overseas distributors were simply that lazy and didn't bother with the title.
  8. Sometimes, low sales of a particular work in the work's home country would make it too risky to warrant an overseas foreign-language dub for business and financial reasons, although there are few exceptions.
  9. Labor and union issues may arise if a particular work is dubbed, since many of the original source characters have been dubbed by different studios with different union statuses. This is especially true with Massive Multiplayer Crossover video games, such as Jump Force and Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax.
  10. Works with large casts may be too tedious to get individual voice actors to voice each character (although it is certainly possible). Though, if most of that work is needed towards extras and non-speaking voices, then it could get away with using Non-Dubbed Grunts.

Because international licensing is handled by region rather than by language area (not a big deal for, say, Latin American Spanish, Italian, German or Japanese, but a HUGE problem for English or Castilian Spanish), it is not uncommon for one region to get a dub but another to lack it. For instance, this is especially the case for anime that air on the transnational English-language satellite channel Animax, which broadcasts across South and Southeast Asia; the channel produces many of its own anime dubs—often in Hong Kong or Singapore—but does not sublicense those dubs out, leading to many series that have full English dubs (a few even recorded in North America!) being released subtitled only in the U.S., Canada and other Anglophone countries.

In particular, this trope became more and more prevalent during the early The New '10s with the anime market in decline and many licensors like Bandai Entertainment, Geneon, and ADV Films falling and closing down (with English dubs being the biggest cut from the market in order to survive the declining sales). This created a negative backlash in the old Subbing Versus Dubbing where some anime fans (particularly the dub haters) putting the blame entirely on the dubs, the dub fans, and (to the most extreme extent) the voice actors involved in the dubs and claiming dub fans are not the true supporters of the anime industry. Nozomi Entertainment and Discotek Media completely refuse to dub any new unreleased anime they license. NIS America also refused to do any non-video-game dubbing until March 2014, because of what happened to Bandai, Geneon, and ADV (they stated that they were "looking into it" for the future, eventually re-releasing Toradora! with an English dub). Despite this, English dubs in anime are still largely being produced for the North American markets, but most of them nowadays are done in Houston and Dallas, and occasionally, Los Angeles, rather than New York or Canada note , and Bang Zoom! Entertainment during this time averted the All-Star Cast trope by using newer name voice actors in their anime dubs and even hold open auditions every year in Anime Expo in search for newer talents. Sentai Filmworks was a big proponent of this trope until about 2011 when they got back to regular dubbing, and only releases some of their catalogue sub-only (some of their titles that were initially released sub-only have received English dubs years later, such as Maria†Holic and Special A). They even produced more dubs than Funimation in 2013. The revival of Toonami and the introduction of Neon Alley in North America have shown that there was still a market for English dubbed anime during this time.

However, with the rise in popularity of streaming services like Netflix and Crunchyroll in the mid-2010s which made anime regain its profit in the West, English dubbing companies mostly tend to avert this since then. In addition, they also tend to release simuldubs,note  which was popularized by Funimation with shows like Space☆Dandy, and eventually companies like Netflix, Crunchyroll and Sentai (with their streaming service HiDive) followed suit with this practice. On the other hand, when Sony Pictures had brought out Funimation in 2017, this allowed them to dub more Aniplex of America titles as well (including non-action shows like Kaguya-sama: Love Is War). Because of the success of these streaming services, most anime titles tend to have an English dub and only a few shows are left undubbed.

Occasionally, a series will initially be released sub-only, but will eventually be re-released with a dub. Some examples are also highlighted below. Even more rarely, a title will receive a dub, but is re-released without it.

Lack of dubs is also very common in regions of other languages when it comes to video games. For the vast majority of Japanese games that make it to Western countries, American English is the only dub that's ever gonna be made. Meaning audiences from Europe (except the UK and Ireland, of course) and Latin America have no choice but to rely on subs only (or simply just play the game in English). The thing is, if dubs are expensive and complex in TV shows and movies already, in video games the costs go higher, since the process is much more complex and time-consuming: special recording realities, taking care of the programming, long QA procedures, etc. Even games made with English as the first language can often lack dubs, especially those published by smaller companies and/or those released in countries outside of the so-called "EFIGS" note  region.

Visual Novels localized in America usually don't get English dubs (particularly from Sekai Project) because visual novels are a very niche interest in America, and most of them don't have much voiced dialogue anyway. Usually the only visual novels to get English dubs are developed by indie developers or Americans themselves.

Sometimes this will be inverted when a title is only released dubbed. This is most common with titles aimed at younger children overseas (such as Pokémon: The Series), since the licensor believes not enough of an audience will be interested in watching the sub to justify the cost of making it. It can also happen if the creators of the title are concerned about reverse importing. Sometimes, the destination audience would rather not have a dubbed version—for example, in countries such as the Netherlands, the Nordic countries, Portugal, Greece, Romania, and Israel, dubs are generally viewed as appropriate only for titles aimed at children, and subtitles are usually preferred instead.

Note that shows that were never expected to be published overseas in the first place, naturally, do not count for this trope.

    open/close all folders 

Foreign-to-English Examples

    Anime That Have Never Received Official English Dubs 

    Anime with Partial or Region-Specific English Dubs 
See also Unfinished Dub for more information.

  • Ah! My Goddess - All of this franchise got English dubs from various studios except for the final OVA, Fighting Wings (which never even made it out of Japan)
  • Angel Beats! - One of the OVAs was left undubbed by Sentai Filmworks.
  • Anpanman:
    • Pogo TV produced and aired an English dub of the series in India.
    • One of the films, Soreike! Anpanman: Fly! Fly! Chibigon, actually had an English dub produced in an attempt to pitch the series to American networks. Unfortunately, the series was never picked up by any networks, most likely due to lack of interest.
    • Cinar produced 156 episodes of an English dub of Anpanman that eventually went unaired. Several foreign dubs of the series, including the Thai and Sinhala dubs, retain the title cards from this dub.
    • In 2020, TMS Entertainment revealed that six Anpanman movies, dubbed into English and Spanish, would be shown on Tubi TV.
  • Armored Trooper VOTOMS - Central Park Media did dub the first episode as a pilot, but decided not to go through with dubbing the series due to not wanting to risk the cost.
  • BanG Dream! - Season 2 only. Season 1 was produced and released during the franchise's growing pains early days finance- and popularity-wise; while no official reason was given for all animated productions from Season 3 onwards being released sub-only, it is telling that the Season 2 dub was largely received negatively by the series' fanbase.
  • Big Windup! - Only Season 1 was dubbed by Funimation; they passed on the second season due to low sales and it was later released sub-only by Nozomi Entertainment.
  • Bikini Warriors - The 12 episodes were dubbed by Funimation, but the 7 OVAs were not.
  • Black Magic M-66 - A dub was produced by Animaze and Manga Entertainment for their original VHS/DVD releases and showings on Encore Action. Maiden Japan (sister company to Sentai Filmworks) rescued the OVA and released it sub-only because they "didn't get" the English dub from Bandai.
  • Black★Rock Shooter - The original OVA (2009) remains subbed only, the 2012 & 2022 series both got dubbed.
  • Bunny Drop - Animax did dub it in English for their channel but the North American release is sub-only
  • Captain Tsubasa - Only the 2018 series received a US English dub and had a very low-key release on Primo TV. The previous three series have never been released in North America, but apparently had Asian English dubs made for Animax Asia, but they're virtually impossible to find these days.
  • Case Closed - All episodes after 130, and movies after 6 thru 18, due to Funimation giving up on the series after it underperformed on TV and video, also considering the apparent high costs of the license. TMS Entertainment USA and Bang Zoom! Entertainment resumed dubbing movies (beginning with movie 22 onward, and working back to movie 19), the Episode One TV Special, and Lupin III vs. Detective Conan: The Movie (which got dubbed as part of Discotek's Lupin tranche).
  • Chibi Maruko-chan - Nickelodeon India and Animax each produced and aired their own unique English dub of the 1990 anime series, and there was also an unreleased Canadian dub called Maruko, Next Door. An updated dub is on YouTube here.
  • Corrector Yui: The English dub only covers the first 18 episodes. Further episodes didn't even reach North America, let alone get dubbed.
  • Cyborg Kuro-chan - Received an Asian English dub made in either Hong Kong or Singapore that was released on VCD in Malaysia.
  • Some Fujiko Fujio anime had English dubs that were produced and aired in Asia.
  • D4DJ The first series was dubbed, the 2nd series is subbed.
  • Dallos - An English dub was produced for the abridged movie-version for the original home video releases by Celebrity Home Entertainment and Best Film & Video Corp. Discotek's release of the full uncut OVA series did not include this dub, which was another South-East Asian dub, and not very good anyway.
  • Di Gi Charat is a messy mix of this trope and No Export for You:
  • Dirty Pair - The TV series was sub-only. The ten OVA episodes, the spinoff, and all three features have dubs however (the latter each with two)… Nozomi held a successful Kickstarter in 2022 to fund an English dub for the main TV series, but as of this edit it has yet to see commercial release
  • Dr. Slump - The first episode was dubbed in the late 80's by Harmony Gold on VHS, but no further episodes were dubbed due to them being unable to find an interested TV station. When Tubi TV added the 1997 anime in 2021, the series was sub-only.
  • Eat-Man - Only the first VHS volume release including the first two episodes of the '98 series were dubbed and the rest of the series and original received sub-only.
  • Eyeshield 21 - A dub was released by Viz Media on the streaming service Toonami Jetstream of the first five episodes, perhaps as a test run. After Toonami Jetstream shut down, the episodes disappeared, and Sentai Filmworks' North American DVDs of the show do not have the dub.
  • The nine OVA's for Fairy Tail (including the Rave Master crossover) have never been dubbed, despite Funimation dubbing all other material in the franchise. Its speculated that since they were exclusively bundled with limited edition manga volumes in Japan, some prexisting licencing agreement prevented them from getting an interational release.
  • The Familiar of Zero - The first season has a dub, but seasons 2-4 do not.
  • Fist of the North Star - The 1986 movie, the first 36 episodes of the original TV series, the New Fist of the North Star OVA trilogy and Legends of the Dark King were all dubbed in English by various different companies. Everything else is either subbed-only or, in the case of the Legends of the True Savior movies, never even licensed for the Anglosphere at all.
  • Galaxy Angel X - Only the first 8 episodes were dubbed due to Bandai USA's collapse.
  • GaoGaiGar - the first half was dubbed, but the second half was not due to poor sales
  • Girls und Panzer - Clip Show episodes 5.5 and 10.5 only; the main episodes of the series itself were dubbed.
  • Golden Bat - An English dub of the series, produced by Frontier Enterprises, was aired in Australia in the late 1960's and early 70's before disappearing off the air. It was created with the intention of airing in America as well, but for unknown reasons, the series was never released in American territories. This dub is now considered lost.
  • Hayate the Combat Butler - Only an Animax dub. The series was released sub-only in the US.
  • Heidi, Girl of the Alps apparently has two English dubs; one made in the Phillipines in the late seventies and one made in India in 2003 for their division of Cartoon Network. The closest the United States (and the United Kingdom, for that matter) is the 1985 movie-fied VHS edit named "The Story of Heidi", despite that, if dubbed well enough, the series could've saved Heidi's reputation in the U.S.A., since it was rather screwed by the NFL's "Heidi Game" incident that created Sports Preemptions as we know it today.
  • Hell Girl - Second and third seasons only; The first season has a dub (before Funimation dropped the license).
  • Hetalia: Axis Powers - The only episode not to be dubbed in English was "Hetalia = Fantasia".
  • Higurashi: When They Cry: Despite Season 1 being acclaimed and already dubbed, the other two seasons were released sub-only by Sentai Filmworks after Geneon's collapse. When Funimation acquired the rights to the series, they began dubbing new episodes with their own cast, starting with Gou. Kai, the second half of the original story, remains sub-only.
  • Interspecies Reviewers - Funimation only dubbed the first episode before dropping the license, making it likely Right Stuf's upcoming Blu-ray would be sub-only.
  • The Irregular at Magic High School: Second season only dubbed by Funimation.
  • Kaiketsu Zorori - Animax produced an English dub that aired on Cartoon Network Philippines.
  • Kamisama Kiss - The first two seasons were dubbed but the OVAs, including the ending of the series, remain undubbed aside from a fan dub with a different cast.
  • KanColle The first series has an English dub, the film and the 2nd series are subbed only.
  • Kemono Friends - The second series wasn't dubbed.
  • Kodocha - The English dub only covered the first half of the anime due partly to low sales and also Funimation running into rights issues in the second half. Years later, Discotek released the whole series but the second half is sub-only.
  • Laid-Back Camp The main series (seasons 1-3) got an English dub, but the Heya camp specials, the three OVA's, plus the film remain subbed.
  • Lucky Star - OVA only; the TV series was dubbed
  • Lupin III - This one is complicated… TV series 1, 4, 5, 6, and Fujiko Mine are dubbed in their entirety; Series 2 has slightly over half its episodes (81/155) dubbed; Series 3 is sub-only; 9 of the 10 theatrical films are dubbed (including Castle of Cagliostro twice and Mystery of Mamo four times); about half the TV Specials are dubbed, as is one of the OVA's (Fuma Conspiracy). MANY of these were handled at different times by different studios with different casts
  • Lyrical Nanoha - The first two seasons were dubbed, but the rest of the series remains sub-only
  • My-Otome 0~S.ifr~ - The other titles in the franchise (My-HiME, My-Otome, and My-Otome Zwei) all received English dubs. Sifr, a prequel OVA to My-Otome, was a sub-only release.
  • Maria Watches Over Us - Animax dubbed the first three series, series four wasn't dubbed.
  • Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid - The first series, the second series, and the 2nd series OVA all got dubbed, but the 1st series OVA 'Valentines and hot springs' remains subbed only.
  • Miss Monochrome - The first season was dubbed by Bang Zoom! Entertainment and exclusively placed on Crunchyroll, but the second and third seasons remain undubbed.
  • Mushishi - The first season was dubbed by Funimation at the time of release (2008). The sequel series, Mushishi Zoku-shou, released six years later, remains undubbed, as does the TV special.
  • Mobile Suit Gundam - The movie trilogy was dubbed for the VHS market in the late '90s by Bandai's short-lived mail order division AnimeVillage.Com, but these dubs were absent from the later DVD releases.
  • Mysterious Joker - Season 1 and 2 had an English dub air on Disney XD Southeast Asia.
  • Neo Human Casshern - the 1973 TV series was not dubbed, though the 1993 OVA and the 2008 Casshern Sins incarnations were dubbed.
  • New Dominion Tank Police - An English dub was produced in the 90s by Manga UK and released to DVD in the US by Central Park Media and shown on Encore Action and the Sci-Fi Channel's "Saturday Anime" block. Maiden Japan's DVD was sub-only because Bandai felt the quality wasn't up to standard. Maiden Japan tried to produce a redub, but by that point, the music and effects tracks had been allegedly lost.
  • Nintama Rantarou - An English dub was produced and aired in Singapore. Due to the lack of documentation of the dub and its extreme rarity nowadays, it's unknown which network it aired on.
  • Nodame Cantabile - An English dub was produced for the first season but the rest of the series remains undubbed.
  • Noragami - The OVAs have not been dubbed though the main series has been.
  • Ojamajo Doremi - 4Kids only dubbed the first series in the US.
    • There was also a Cloverway dub that aired in Australia that was only comprised of the first two seasons.
  • One Piece - Leaving aside the abortive 4Kids dub that only covered the first two seasons before they let the rights expire, Funimation rescued the TV series and began releasing its redub in 2008. As of this edit, the TV series dub is past Episode 1000. However, neither Funi, Crunchyroll, nor Toei have shown any desire to dub any of the pre-2009 theatrical movies except The Desert Princess and the Pirates: Adventures in Alabasta.
  • Patlabor The New Files OVA: Only the first 4 episodes (the conclusion of the Griffon arc from the TV series) were dubbed. (All other Patlabor animation has been dubbed.)
  • Pretty Cure from Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash★Star onwards:
  • Pretty Series: All of the Pretty Rhythm series, with the exception of All Star Selection, got English dubs that aired on Animax in Asia, PriPara only has two pilot episodes dubbed into English by William Winckler Productions and Idol Time PriPara as well as Kiratto Pri☆Chan were released sub-only by Crunchyroll. No complete PriPara dub has been made yet, and there's no news on a dub for any parts of the King of Prism spin-off franchise yet.
  • Pretty Sammy - TV series only; the original OVA series was dubbed, but poor sales resulted in the TV series getting the sub-only treatment. It remains the only piece of the Tenchiverse not to be dubbed.
  • Psycho-Pass - Season 3 and First Inspector have not been dubbed, though the first movie, two seasons, the Sinners of the System movies, and Providence of the series have been.
  • Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai — The anime series remains undubbed, though an English dub for the films, Rascal Does Not Dream of a Sister Venturing Out and Rascal Does Not Dream of a Knapsack Kid have a March 2024 release date.
  • Reborn! (2004) — Three selected episodes (1, 20, and 77) and a OVA episode were dubbed for a special fan disc Blu-ray release by Discotek Media. However, there's completely no plans for dubbing in full even if did sell well. It was fully dubbed in Spanish (TWICE! European and Latin American) and Italian, nonetheless.
  • Red Photon Zillion - The first five episodes of the 31-episode TV series were released on VHS by Streamline Pictures.
  • The Saga of Tanya the Evil - The first series was dubbed, the spin-off film (2019) remains subbed only.
  • Science Ninja Team Gatchaman - While the first series has produced two edited dubs as well as ADV's uncut version, Sentai Filmworks decided to release the uncut versions of II and Fighter sub-only, meaning that only the episodes of those shows that were used for Eagle Riders will ever be dubbed in any form.
  • Sgt. Frog - Only 78 episodes were dubbed before it was put on hiatus, probably due to the show's length being difficult to support on a home video-exclusive release – they tried and failed several times to get it on TV. The dub had already come out of an earlier hiatus at episode 51. FUNimation had the license to the first 104 episodes but dropped it again due to low sales. With Discotek Media gaining the home video license to all 358 episodes in 2021, chances of episodes 79-104 being dubbed have dropped to "null". The Animax dub has over 100 episodes dubbed.
  • Shounen Hollywood — Both seasons licensed for English release by Funimation, but only subbed.
  • Sound! Euphonium - Ponycan USA released both seasons of the main series sub-only, but the spin-off film Liz and the Blue Bird and sequel film Our Promise: A Brand New Day were licensed by Eleven Arts instead, and received English dubs for their theatrical runs.
  • Space Adventure Cobra - The original movie was dubbed however (twice), as was the Sega CD game (which was actually a port of the second PC Engine game). A pilot episode was created for English markets in the early '80s (with Michael Bell, B. J. Ward, and Neil Ross doing the voices), but it didn't amount to anything. The TV series and OVA sequel both received sub-only releases, though Discotek Media made an experimental dub for the TV series' first two episodes.
  • Speed Racer X - Originally titled Mach GoGoGo '97 in Japanese, an English dub was produced by DiC in 2002 which aired on Nickelodeon's short-lived SLAM block, but only 12 of the show's 34 episodes were dubbed.
  • Strike Witches - The entire series (including the mini episodes) recieved an English dub, except the three episode OVA series: Strike Witches Operation Victory Arrow (2014).
  • Super Gals - Only the first season was dubbed by ADV, and didn't perform well on DVD... to the point where ADV cut out the next episode preview in episode 26 to obscure the presence of future episodes. When Nozomi picked up Season 2, they released it sub-only. (Nozomi later went back and license-rescued the first half, and re-released it with ADV's dub.)
  • Tokyo Mew Mew (original series)/Mew Mew Power - Only the first half was dubbed due to 4Kids not getting a merchandise deal for the show. This also meant that many European and Latin American dubs also didn't get to the second half (because they were based on the English dub).
  • Toward the Terra got an Animax dub, but not one for the rest of the Anglosphere.
  • Urusei Yatsura - 1981 TV series. The movies did all get dubbed (mostly by AnimEigo, but Central Park Media handled Movie 2). AnimEigo also had previously dubbed the first two TV episodes with a different cast as Those Obnoxious Aliens, but the project fell through due to very low sales and negative reception. Animax did air an English dub titled Alien Musibat, but it is unconfirmed how much of the series was covered. In addition, a Gag Dub of a few episodes aired in the UK. However, the 2022 TV series is dubbed in English in its entirety.
  • Virtua Fighter - The initial 24 episodes were dubbed by Media Blasters and Coastal Carolina during the early 2000's and released on VHS and DVD. The last 11 episodes were never dubbed. The dub itself was self-aware enough to see the writing on the wall, and referenced it's impending cancellation in later episodes.
  • ×××HOLiC - The first season and the movie received dubs while the rest of the series remains undubbed.
  • Yakitate!! Japan got an Animax dub, but was released sub-only in North America.
  • Yona of the Dawn - The OVA has not been dubbed though the main series has been.
  • You're Under Arrest! - Second and third seasons only; the original series, TV specials, and Movie were dubbed (with great results too)
  • Yuki Yuna is a Hero - Series one got an English dub, series two & three are subbed only.
  • Yume no Crayon Oukoku had a Cloverway dub under the name of Crayon Kingdom that aired in Australia.

    Anime That Were/Have Been Re-Released with English Dubs 
  • Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day - The NIS release was sub-only, but Aniplex USA re-released it in 2017 with an English dub. The recap/sequel movie has yet to be dubbed.
  • ARIA - Initially released sub-only on DVD by Right Stuf; a dubbed Blu-ray release for 2018 was funded via Kickstarter with a very successful campaign at that. To wit, it raised more than half a million dollars.
  • Blade of the Immortal - Sentai Filmworks rereleased the 2019 adaptation with a dub on home video in 2021.
  • Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-chan - Media Blasters made a dub after strong preorder sales.
  • Blue Drop
  • Blue Exorcist - Aniplex USA released the show in cheap sub-only singles before going back and dubbing it for Neon Alley and Toonami. Their DVD and Blu-ray releases contain the dub as well.
  • CLANNAD - Originally released sub-only on DVD, Sentai Filmworks later commissioned an English dub for both seasons due to strong sales; the DVD Complete Set and Blu-ray release have the dub
  • Code Geass: Akito the Exiled - Originally was sub-only, but they later made a dub in 2017 with the original cast.
  • Den-noh Coil - Originally received a low-quality Region 4 DVD from Siren Visual and an equally poor iPhone app. Later rescued by Sentai Filmworks in 2016 under their Maiden Japan label on Blu-ray with an English dub.
  • Dog & Scissors - Given a relatively early sub-only DVD release before being dubbed for Blu-ray in January 2015.
  • Dororo - Sentai Filmworks rereleased the 2019 adaptation on home video and digitally with a dub in 2021.
  • Emma: A Victorian Romance - Originally released sub-only in the United States, an Animax dub was produced for the Asian markets. In October 2018, a successful Kickstarter campaign funded an English dub for North America, complete with period-appropriate accents.
  • Free!: Discotek Media's home video release of Season 1 is sub-only (Crunchyroll currently has a dubbed version of it on its website, using FUNimation's cast, with all but the first episode being premium-only), but FUNimation's home video release of the second season, Eternal Summer, has a dub. Crunchyroll's home video release of Season 1 does have the dub.
  • Ghost Hound - See Clannad above.
  • Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence - Originally released in North America by Dreamworks without a dub (and with a very poorly-done subtitle track), over the objections of the established US fanbase. Manga licensed it for the UK and Australia and commissioned a dub using the American cast from Stand-Alone Complex. Years later, Bandai got the North American license away from DreamWorks and commissioned their own dub with the Stand-Alone Complex cast.* Both dubs ended up on Bandai's release. Confused? You should be.
  • Gintama - Sentai Filmworks released the first 51 episodes of the TV series sub-only back in 2010, but dubbed the first movie in 2011 as a test to see if the show was worth dubbing after all. It didn't help much. Crunchyroll (and to an extent, Funimation), picked up the license to the third series, and released the series on Blu-ray and DVD with an English dub. The English dub of the TV series was produced by The Ocean Group instead of Sentai's cast, and begins at episode 266.
  • Gurren Lagann - ADV Films originally had this show and was working on the dub when they suddenly lost the rights during their early-2008 implosion. Bandai Entertainment picked it up and decided to redub it from scratch to air on TV. However, as there were already thousands of disgruntled fans who had preordered ADV's canceled set, and the new dub would take months to complete, Bandai decided to give it a quick sub-only release in order to placate fans while their dub was being recorded.
    • The compilation movies, Gurren-hen and Lagann-hen, were initially sub-only. However, the English dubs of these would eventually be released over a decade later in 2024.
  • Golden Time: re-released with an English dub in 2019
  • GunBuster - The OVA was released sub only by various distributors, including Bandai. The original split audio tracks were lost, making a dub unlikely. However, Discotek Media, upon announcing its acquisition of the license, also announced an English dub.
  • Haikyuu!!: Originally released sub-only, Sentai Filmworks re-released the series with Limited Special Collector's Ultimate Edition and an English dub, due to large fan popularity.
    • Averted in the UK; Manga Entertainment (under their Animatsu label) has the first season in two parts, but they were released before the dub ever happened.
  • Kaiji: Originally released sub-only in 2021 by Sentai Filmworks, a dub for the first season came out in 2022 via Sentai's streaming service Hidive and the second season's dub announcement is currently TBA as of now. Although a home video re-release for both seasons with the dub will be announced eventually.
  • Kämpfer (and its OVA)
  • Kashimashi: Girl Meets Girl
  • Kimi ni Todoke initially had a sub-only release by NIS America. It wouldn’t be until 2024, when Netflix announced, following their announcement of streaming the third season, that seasons 1 and 2 would be dubbed.
  • Legends of the Dark King (a.k.a. Ten no Haoh) - A spinoff of Fist of the North Star, the initial 2009 DVD release by Sentai Filmworks was subbed only, but it was later reissued in 2010 (on both, DVD and Blu-ray) with an English dub included.
  • Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions! - This series was originally released sub-only by Sentai Filmworks in 2014. However, due to massive internet uproar (noting that it happened to be one of the most popular anime series in Japan that would receive a sub-only treatment) and feedback from some of their surveys, Sentai Filmworks later decided to offer a Limited Special Collector's Ultimate Edition with an English dub in 2015.
  • Loveless
  • Love Live!: Originally released on home video as a Japanese sub-only release in September of 2014, NIS America re-released Season 1 as a Standard Edition Blu-Ray with an English dub included in February 2016. The subsequent series/films have all been dubbed, with a couple of exceptions; undubbed are the five original ONA's (2010-2013), and the first series OVA (2013). Love Live! Sunshine!!'s four ONA's (2016) are also subbed only. Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club's brief ONA (2020), and its OVA: Next Sky (2023) haven't been dubbed either. And to date, the 2nd series of Love Live! Superstar!! remains undubbed.
  • Lovely★Complex: Originally released on sub-only DVD release in 2013, but with surprisingly announcement by Discotek Media that an English dub of the 24-episode series (for an small company who usually doesn't dub titles that long) is being produced for a Blu-ray release in 2024.
  • Love Stage!!: Initially released as sub-only in 2016, Sentai Filmworks re-released it with an English dub.
  • MM!
  • Magical Witch Punie-chan
  • Maid-Sama! - Originally with an Animax dub. The Sentai dubbed re-release was released in January 2015.
  • Maria†Holic (Originally released sub-only in 2010, got an English dub in 2014)
  • Mayo Chiki! (Originally released sub-only, an English dub was released in August 2014)
  • Millennium Actress - Manga UK released a dub in Region 2, but the Go Fish Pictures North American release was sub-only. Shout! Factory would acquire the home video rights for the U.S. and release it with a brand new dub in 2019.
  • My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, as I Expected (Originally released sub-only, the first season was confirmed for a dubbed re-release through an April Fool's joke)
  • Natsume's Book of Friends: NIS America's (now out-of-print) releases are sub-only, but Crunchyroll went back and dubbed it in 2022, a rare feat for 10+ year old anime in general that doesn't already have a dub, let alone a 74-episode anime from 2008.
  • Nichijou: Originally released without an English dub, Funimation decided to release a complete collection of the series with an English dub due to the immense fan popularity.
  • The Night Is Short, Walk On Girl was originally released in Blu-Ray in early 2019 sub-only. It was later announced to be released on HBO Max with a new English dub by NYAV Post.
  • Nyan Koi!
  • The Pet Girl of Sakurasou - Originally released in 2013-2014 sub-only by Sentai Filmworks, and later announced to be rereleased with an English dub in 2020.
  • Princess Resurrection- An English dub was in production initially from ADV before they went under. Sentai released the show sub-only the following year before going back and dubbing it for a bilingual release another year later.
  • A Place Further than the Universe didn’t receive a dub during its initial 2018 release. It wasn’t until 2022 that it would receive one.
  • Rio -Rainbow Gate!- - Was initially released sub-only by Media Blasters in 2014, but the company announced two years later that it was working on dubbing the series.
  • Saber Marionette J - The obscure 1999 VHS release, though J Again's VHS release in the same year had a dub produced by Animaze, as well as R's Mail Order exclusive release. The DVD release was trilingual, containing both an English dub by The Ocean Group, (the same company that dubbed R, it even featured some of the same voice actors) and the Latin American Spanish Dub.
  • Sailor Moon - When ADV released the uncut versions of the original series and Sailor Moon R on DVD, they were released without an English dub (a rarity for ADV), due to the show being sub-licensed from DiC, producers of the edited dub. When Viz Media got the license to the entire series (including the later three shows: S, Super S, and Sailor Stars), they were able to dub the uncut versions of the original series. To this day, that dub has only been streamed on Hulu in the United States and AnimeLab in Australasia, so those who are living in the UK and Canada are out of luck...
Or at least those living in Canada were out of luck, until September of 2020, when Viz Media's dub suddenly appeared on Crave... only for it to disappear from there a mere three years later.
  • More directly, the fifth and final season of the original series was never licensed/dubbed in North America until Viz re-licensed the entire series. The theories regarding this vary from the English censors not wanting to release a season that features three Gender Bending characters due to the trans-implications to the excessive violence when compared to previous seasons. However, the most likely reason is simply that Toei charged way too much for the investment to be worth it.

    Foreign-Language Non-Japanese Animated Works with no English Dubs 
  • Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf:
    • This show aired outside of China on Nickelodeon Asia, but it was kept in the original Chinese.
    • This show was put on the dimsum.my streaming service in Malaysia, but it was kept in the original Chinese.
    • The Flying Island: The Sky Adventure season has been made available on the official English Pleasant Goat YouTube channel, but it's an English-subtitled version rather than the English dub. The English dub of episode 5 is available on the official Chinese channel, but hasn't been reuploaded on the official English channel. And a select 30 episodes of the season were put on Netflix, but only for Taiwan, Hong Kong and parts of Southeast Asia, but with the original Chinese dub instead. Brunei and Myanmar viewers got an English-subtitled version as well.

    Foreign-Language Live-Action Series with No English Dubs 

    Foreign-Language Video Games with No English Dubs 
  • 428: Shibuya Scramble
  • 7th Dragon III: Code VFD — Then again, one of the major elements of creating a character is picking a seiyuu to voice that character.
  • Aoi Shiro
  • Arcana Heart — Only the first and third games were released outside Japan, and both kept the Japanese voices.
  • None of the Attack on Titan games have English dubs, in spite of the anime having one.
  • The Atelier Series used to have dubs produced starting starting from Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana, with Atelier Annie: Alchemists of Sera Island as the sole exception, until the release of Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings. Since Lydie & Suelle, every title since then has been sub-only. According to a Youtuber who spoke with a Koei Tecmo PR manager during the release of Nelke and the Legendary Alchemists: Ateliers of the New World, the publisher stopped dubbing the Atelier games because internal data revealed a vast majority of players use the Japanese voices. Due to this, they decided to stop dubbing the games altogether to speed up the releases and save money. Notably, even before Koei Tecmo acquired series developer Gust and subsequently cut out NISA from the localization process in favor of their internal staff, the dubbing itself had already become very low-budget and left much of the voiced dialog silent to cut production costs, leaving this series already a partial example of this trope even when dubs were still being produced. Eventually, Atelier Lulua: The Scion of Arland and Atelier Sophie 2: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Dream, despite being sequels of games with dubs, were never dubbed.
  • Azure Striker Gunvolt Series — The first three games (Azure Striker Gunvolt, Azure Striker Gunvolt 2, and Luminous Avenger iX) lack any English dub, and not until Luminous Avenger iX 2 and continuing to Azure Striker Gunvolt 3 would it become an option. Though the OVA has an English dub utilizing American voice actors residing in Japan.
  • Azur Lane
  • Battle Arena Toshinden — The original and Toshinden 3 had partial English dubs (optional in Toshinden 3), where all of the non-Japanese characters (Ellis, being of Japanese birth but raised in Turkey, is the only exception) spoke in English. Toshinden 2 and Toshinden Subaru (aka Toshinden 4, which was only released in Japan and Europe) were kept in Japanese.
  • Berserk and the Band of the Hawk has no English voice dub upon its North American release, meaning that Sword of the Berserk: Guts' Rage is still the only Berserk game to have ever gotten an English dub.
  • BlazBlue: Central Fiction. Notably the first game in the series to not be dubbed at all (excluding XBlaze; see its entry below).
  • Blue Archive, mostly for the colossal size of its cast. Only the Mainland Chinese server received a dub in its own language.
  • Bushido Blade — The original game was sub-only, while the sequel was dubbed.
  • The Caligula Effect and its sequel
  • Code of Princess is an odd case. The original 3DS version has an English dub, yet the Steam and Nintendo Switch re-releases are sub-only. note 
  • Corpse Party
  • Criminal Girls and its sequel.
  • Dead or Alive — Most of the games prior to DOA5 only featured Japanese voices with a few exceptions. DOA2: Hardcore was the first game in the series to feature an English voice track, as well as the only version of DOA2 to have one. Xtreme Beach Volleyball was undubbed for its Western release, with the exception of Zack, who was voiced by Dennis Rodman. DOA3, DOA4 and Ultimate were also undubbed (although Nicole-458 spoke with an English voice, even in the Japanese version). Xtreme 2, Dimensions, 5, and 6 were all dubbed for the Western market, although 5 does have partial exceptions: Virtua Fighter guests Akira Yuki and Pai Chan speak in Japanese only due to recycling old voice clips and the same applies to Sarah and Jacky Bryant, except in English. The King of Fighters guest note  Mai Shiranui also speaks in Japanese; the difference being that Ami Koshimizu recorded new material. Tamaki, a Guest Fighter from 6 who appeared in the Asia-only spinoff Dead or Alive Xtreme 3, is only voiced in Japanese.
  • Death Smiles IIX — The game was left completely untranslated when it was released on Xbox Live Games on Demand.
  • Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax — Though many of the series represented have English dubs for their animated adaptations (Sword Art Online, Shakugan no Shana, Durarara!!, Toradora!, etc.), the crossover video game does not.
  • Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth and its spin-off Hacker's Memory
  • Digimon Survive mostly for its loads of voiced dialogue.
  • Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia — Although a good number of characters had appeared in games with English dubbing as far back as Final Fantasy X, the massive crossover cast rendered it impractical to bring the dub actors back to record new dialogue.
  • Some Dragon Ball Z games like Dragon Ball Z: Attack of the Saiyans, Dragon Ball Z: Extreme Butōden and Dragon Ball: Fusions. Additonally, both Dragon Ball Z Raging Blast 2 and Dragon Ball Z Kinect has a special anime who are not dubbed.
  • Dynasty Warriors — The original game (which was a one-on-one fighting game) and some spinoffs (namely DW 7 Empires, DW 8 Empires, DW 9 Empires, Samurai Warriors Chronicles 1 and 3 [2 wasn't released outside of Japan], SW 4, SW 5 and related games, Warriors Orochi 3 and 4note  and Warriors All-Starsnote ) have no English voice tracks. However, Naotora Ii, was voiced in English in her apperance in Dead or Alive 5.
  • Dynasty Warriors: Gundam Reborn — The previous three games had Japanese and English voice tracks, with most of the original cast (in both languages) reprising their roles from their respective anime series.
  • Endless Frontier
  • Fairy Fencer F: Refrain Chord, despite the original game having a English dub. This is the first game by Compile Heart and Idea Factory to not have one.
  • Fairy Tail (2020) - Despite already having an English dub by Funimation, Gust opted to keep the original Japanese audio only.
  • Far East of Eden: Kabuki Klash (Tengai Makyou Shinden) - This was the only Tengai Makyou game released internationally, and all the Japanese voices were left intact, including the Title Scream.
  • The Nintendo Switch remakes of the Famicom Detective Club duology consisting of The Missing Heir and The Girl Who Stands Behind were released worldwide with Japanese voice acting only.
  • Both Fate/EXTRA and their sequels Fate/Extella: The Umbral Star and Fate/Extella Link (though the anime of the first game did get a dub).
  • Fate/Grand Order — Subverted by the First Order anime, which was dubbed by Aniplex USA, who also distribute the gamenote , Fate/Grand Order - Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia, the Camelot movies and the VR spin-off mostly because it only has two characters (Mash Kyrielight and Saber, played respectively by Erica Mendez, Mash's voice actress in the GO anime, and Kari Wahlgren, Saber's English VA from Zero and onwards). This is justified for very good reasons.
  • Fate/Samurai Remnant
  • Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage — The first game featured an English voice track, which was included in the later Japanese re-release titled Hokuto Musou: International. However, Ken's Rage 2 only featured Japanese voices in order to cut down localization cost, which resulted in the PS3 version becoming a digital-only release in North America (it still had a physical release on the Xbox 360).
  • Flower, Sun and Rain — Originally a PS2 game by Grasshopper Manufacture released exclusively in Japan, it was later ported to the Nintendo DS and localized for the West. While the dialogue of the game was translated, the game kept its Japanese voice acting and rather than deciding to translate the in-game guide, they made a split menu in which a translation was given.
  • Freedom Wars
  • Fuga: Melodies of Steel — only released internationally with subs. All voice acting in the game remains in Japanese, with a French dub by the same cast due to the game's wartime France-inspired setting.
  • Gal*Gun: Double Peace and its sequel.
  • Granblue Fantasy — Though the game technically hasn't been released outside of Japan yet (the "official" international release is actually an English language patch that still uses the Japanese servers). The Anime of the Game and it's fighting game spinoff did get an English dub, though.
  • Guardian Heroes — All of the voice-overs remained in Japanese while the in-game dialogue menus was translated.
  • Guilty Gear — Started to receive an English dub with Guilty Gear 2: Overture, but the case with Xrd is a bit strange - Only the first version, -SIGN-, received a dub, and the updated versions of Xrd, -REVELATOR- and REV 2, didn't. Curiously, a promotional trailer for Guilty Gear X featured English voiceovers for all the non-Japanese characters, though this didn't carry over to the actual game.
  • Hakuouki — The visual novel only has a Japanese voice track, but all of the seasons of its animated adaptation (distributed by Sentai Filmworks) feature both Japanese and English voice acting.
  • The Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA games released in the West.
  • JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Heritage for the Future, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Eyes of Heaven — The characters from the franchise didn't get official English voices until after these games were released.
  • J-Stars Victory VS and its pseudo-sequel Jump Force did not receive any dubs for international release, mainly due to union and labor law issues that would arise (since many of the characters come from different anime titles dubbed by different studios) and the tons of characters in the games.
  • Katamari Damacy had a dub for its original PS2 release, but the Reroll re-release was sub only.
  • The King of Fighters — Only KOF XII and the second Maximum Impact game have dual voice tracks. However, Wolfgang Krauser in KOF '96 was voiced by Michigan native B.J. Love (who also voiced him in Real Bout Special and Real Bout 2).
  • Langrisser - The mobile game initially came out with an English dub, but they stopped shortly after. Other games which were released overseas (such as Re:Incarnation and Langrisser 1 & 2) only include Japanese voices.
  • The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero and Trails to Azure -Both games received a sub-only release in the west from NIS America. This is in contrast to the other games in the Trails Series to date which received proper dubs.
  • Like a Dragon — The first game was dubbed in English for its western release. For Yakuza 2, Sega kept the Japanese voices and simply added subtitles, the official reasoning for this decision being "significant fan outcry" (but most likely this was a cost-cutting localization measure as a result of the first game's lukewarm sales in the West). This remained true in all subsequent Yakuza entries until Lost Paradise, a Fist of the North Star-themed spinoff game which features both Japanese and English voice tracks. The spinoff Judgment also features dual voice tracks for the western releases, going as far as to make separate subtitles for both voice tracks in order to avoid using dubtitles. This trend is likely the result of the series' increased popularity in the west after the surprise success of Yakuza 0, which resulted in Sega going an extra effort in their Lost Paradise and Judgment localizations and ultimately resuming dubbing of the mainline games starting with Yakuza: Like a Dragon. The only post-Yakuza:LAD game that did not receive dub so far is Like A Dragon: Ishin!.
  • Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time was released only in Japanese while the anime installments of the franchise all have English dubs.
  • Every Love Live! video game. '
  • Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story — The game was released without an English dub because of the large amount of voiced dialog in the game (especially during the cutscenes).
  • Maken X— Although the Dreamcast original was released with an English dub in the west, the PS2 remake has a Japanese-only voice dub, likely due to being translated and released by a different company.
  • Some Mega Man games were only released with Japanese voice tracks:
  • Money Idol Exchanger — The international Neo Geo version (Money Puzzle Exchanger, the version that was released as part of Hamster Corporation's Arcade Archives series) replaces some of the graphics but not the voices. The PlayStation version was later released on PSN as a wholly untranslated import.
  • Mr. Driller — The arcade version of the second game was not dubbed into English. The Game Boy Advance port was, however.
    • The official localization of Mr. Driller: Drill Land on Nintendo Switch and PC didn't receive an English dub either.
  • My Hero One's Justice — Which is odd since My Hero Academia has a massive following in America, with a great dub to match.
    • While the sequel initially followed suit, an English dub was eventually patched in, with the Funimation cast returning, both playing and subverting the trope straight.
  • Neptunia series:
    • Neptunia Virtual Stars is the first title in the Neptunia series to not be dubbed into other languages. This is likely due to the fact that real-life Virtual YouTubers are part of the cast, though the COVID-19 Pandemic making English dubbing harder may have also been a factor.
    • Neptunia x SENRAN KAGURA: Ninja Wars didn't get a dub either, though as an Intercontinuity Crossover game this can be more easily excused by the Senran Kagura games historically not being dubbed (see below).
  • Nights of Azure and Nights of Azure 2: Bride of the New Moon.
  • Onechanbara — Onechanbara Z2: Chaos and Onechanbara: Origins (an Updated Re-release of the first two games) are the only games in the series with an English dub.
  • One Piece — Any game released after Unlimited Adventure was left undubbed due to the gap between the Japanese and English dubs of the anime.
  • The original Onmyōji (2016) only has a Japanese voice track regardless of localization, but the MOBA spin-off Kessen! Heian-kyō has Japanese, Chinese and English options.
  • Oreshika: Tainted Bloodlines
  • Panzer Dragoon Saga — The original Panzer Dragoon and its sequel Zwei, also used subtitles, but all the dialogue was in a fictional language anyway.
  • Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth — Although the first Persona Q was dubbed overseas, this one keeps the original Japanese audio, making this the first Persona game to not be dubbed in any capacity. Given the ginormous cast - consisting of the casts of three games - and the fact the Nintendo 3DS was being increasingly superseded by the Nintendo Switch at the time, it's possible that Atlus decided a dub wasn't worth it in this case, and that, given what happened with the PSP remake of Persona 2: Eternal Punishment, international audiences are lucky to get it at all. Another potential factor in the game not receiving an English dub is that the musicals in the fourth dungeon are heavily reliant on the Japanese language and would need to be rewritten entirely if the game was dubbed.
  • Princess Connect! Re:Dive — The global server only had Japanese voices only, while the anime (which was aired for Western audiences before the global server's launch) was left undubbed. However, Pecorine's apperance in Dragalia Lost gave her an English voice actor. Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising also received English voice actors for Kokkoro, Karyl, and Sheffynote , with Pecorine's voice actor from Dragalia Lost reprising the role.
  • Princess Maker — The Refine versions of 1, 2, 3, and 5 on Steam.
  • Project × Zone — Both games in the series hit the Americas dubless, no doubt due to the large amount of characters featured in the game.
  • Radiant Silvergun — The HD re-release for Xbox Live Arcade, which includes the cutscenes created for the Japan-exclusive Sega Saturn release, has all of the voices in Japanese, with an option for English subtitles.
  • Record of Agarest War and its sequels
  • Saint Seiya: Cosmo Fantasy
  • Sakura Wars (2019) — The Western release of the game retains the original Japanese voice-overs with German, French, English and Spanish subtitles, in contrast to So Long, My Love, which had an English dub (with Japanese VO limited to PS2-exclusive launch edition copies). Its Sequel in Another Medium, Sakura Wars the Animation, however, was eventually dubbed in February 2021.
  • Senran Kagura — A strange cross-media example. The games only have Japanese voices with English subtitles, but the anime adaptation, which Funimation released in North America between the releases of Burst and Shinovi Versus, has its own English dub. Also, the previously Japanese voice-only Yumi got an English voice actress for her appearance in Blazblue Cross Tag Battle. The series has since continued to only use Japanese voices for its own games, even after Funimation returned to give the anime's second season, Shinovi Masters, an English dub.
  • Shadowverse — This one is an interesting case since the game itself has dual audio and the guest characters from Rage of Bahamut, Granblue Fantasy and One-Punch Man have English dubs as well, but the guest characters from Fate/stay night, Re:Zero and Love Live! appeared only with Japanese voices despite those series having English dubs. They also got a collab with Princess Connect! Re:Dive but the original game was not dubbed.
  • Shenmue — Subverted by Shenmue II, which was scheduled to be released in North America at the end of 2000, but with the Japanese voice track kept. This was done in order to fasten the localization process, as Sega had already announced the discontinuation of the Dreamcast console by that point and intended Shenmue II to be the last game for the console in North America, thus dubbing the game to English would've been too time-consuming. However, Microsoft ended up picking up the publishing rights to the North American version as an exclusive for their newly-launched Xbox console at the last minute, giving Sega extra time to make an English dub for the game in the process. Europe ended up receiving both, the Dreamcast version with Japanese voices and the Xbox version with the English voices.
  • Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey: The 3DS version has Japanese voice acting only. note 
  • Soulcalibur — All the games since Soulcalibur II had dual voice tracks, but the original was strictly Japanese voices only. Its precursor, Soul Edge, was ported to the PlayStation and released in the West as Soul Blade, receiving a partial dub in the process: all the Asian characters kept their Japanese voices, while the European and Native American characters were voiced in English.
  • Steins;Gate and Steins;Gate 0 were never dubbed as visual novels, but their anime adaptations were dubbed by Funimation.
  • Stranger of Sword City
  • Street Fighter — The series didn't start receiving dual voice tracks until the console versions of Street Fighter IV. This was never much of an issue in prior games due to their arcade nature though, as voice work mostly amounted to grunts, kiais, special moves yells and the occasional simple phrases during victory animations, while endings and post-match quotes were always text-only. However there were some cases where voice clips were changed between regional releases:
    • Street Fighter changed the voice clips for Ryu and Ken's signature moves for the export versions. So instead of saying Tatsumaki Senpū Kyaku, Shoryūken and Hadōken, they yell "Hurricane Kick", "Dragon Punch" and "Psycho Fire". Despite this, all the other voice clips in the game, including the post-match speeches (which were already in English), were unchanged.
    • In Super Street Fighter II, Cammy's Spiral Arrow and Cannon Spike techniques became the Cannon Drill and Thrust Kick respectively. They reverted back to the original names in later games.
    • A different Title Scream is used for the Japanese and Asian versions of the Street Fighter Alpha games, as the series is titled Street Fighter ZERO in those territories.
    • For games in which the announcer mentions the names of each fighter (such as X-Men vs. Street Fighter or the console ports of Alpha 2), different voice clips are used for characters whose names were changed between regions (specifically Charlie and Akuma, who are known as Nash and Gouki respectively in Japanese). In the case of Capcom vs. SNK 2, the export version removed the name calls because the announcer refers to the "boxer" character as "Mike Bison" in full rather than just "Bison", as has been traditionally done since Super Street Fighter II, making it impossible to switch around the voice clips.
    • Some of the characters in the Street Fighter III series were voiced by actual English-speaking actors in lieu of the usual Japanese actors, giving them natural sounding voices free of the usual Engrish accent. In New Generation and 2nd Impact, Michael Sommers voiced Alex and Necro, while Bruce Robertson voiced Dudley and Gill. For 3rd Strike, Patrick Gallagan and Francis Diakewsky took over as Alex and Dudley respectively, Len Carlson voiced Hugo and Q, and Lawrence Bayne voiced Necro, Gill, Urien and Twelve.
  • Super Puyo Puyo Tsuu and Panel de Pon were left in Japanese when released internationally on the Nintendo Switch's Super NES Online, probably because they were never released in English before (technically Panel de Pon was, but...) and translating them would mean dredging up the original source code or paying fan translation groups royalties, which wasn't guaranteed to be cheap or even possible.
  • Super Smash Bros.: Due to both characters hailing from the Fire Emblem series that was originally exclusive to Japan, Marth and Roy were only voiced in Japanese in all regions when they first appeared in Super Smash Bros. Melee. Marth retained his Japanese voice in overseas versions of Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U (and also Roy in the latter game only due to his absence from Brawl). Averted in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, where Marth and Roy are now fully voiced in English.
    • More infamously however, Cloud Strife and Sephiroth are exclusively voiced in Japanese in their playable appearances in Smash Bros., despite both characters having English voice acting in various Compilation of Final Fantasy VII and Kingdom Hearts titles. In the case of Cloud, this is because Cloud's voice actor prior to 2020, Steve Burton, is an union member while the game's dub is an non-union project (other union actors got around this by using pseudonyms or not appearing in the credits); and Burton's contract (a) prevented anyone else from voicing Cloud in English, and (b) he had to be credited using his real name in any project he appears.
  • Both Sword & Fairy 6 and Sword and Fairy 7 are released in the west with chinese voices only.
  • All of the Sword Art Online video games released in the West.
  • Nearly all Taiko no Tatsujin games that were released outside of Japan keep their Japanese character voices. The only exception is Taiko: Drum Master for PS2.
  • Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars — Only one character, the console-exclusive Frank West, has an English voice actor.
  • Tales of Destiny (though it was limited to Calling Your Attacks, as the skits were excised from the US version)
  • Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE — According to Bill Trinen of NoA, this game does not have a dub in order to match the Japanese feel of the game. The game containing many vocal music tracks, which would have significantly increased the difficulty of dubbing, as well as the fact that the game and the system it was on, the Wii U, sold poorly, might have also have been factors in the decision not to dub the game. However, the collab banner in Fire Emblem Heroes gave the characters who appear in it English voice actors.
  • Tokyo Xanadu — Aksys chose to not dub the game. Instead it was released in the west subbed only. This also applies to its Updated Re-release, Tokyo Xanadu eX+.
  • Toukiden
  • Touken Ranbu
  • Touhou Genso Wanderer never received an English dub. Why? Lots and lots of dialogue, making it a case of Too Long; Didn't Dub. The same could be said of all the other Touhou Project fan games licensed for Western release like Touhou: Spell Bubble or Touhou: Lost Word (the official Touhou games are all voiceless).
  • The Turbo-Grafx 16 Mini recieved criticism for including several former Japan only games such as Snatcher and Castlevania: Rondo of Blood and leaving them in Japanese. Sometimes, this extended to games that got localized on original hardware such as Bonk's Adventure.
  • Virtue's Last Reward — Applies to the European version only.
  • XBlaze Code: Embryo and its sequel, XBlaze Lost: Memories.

English-to-foreign Examples

    English-Language Games Without Non-English Dubs 
  • Baldur's Gate III is only voiced in english despite the previous games in the series being multilanguage.
  • Bayonetta - The first game only had English voices for its initial release on the Xbox 360 and PS3. The later ports added a Japanese voice track featuring the same cast from the animated movie.
  • Bloodborne and Dark Souls, despite being developed by a Japanese developer. Bloodborne later did have Japanese voice acting as DLC.
  • BROK the InvestiGator was released with only an English voice track, despite being developed by French studio COWCAT Games, as the game's large script and small budget precluded recording dubs in multiple languages.
  • Bully
  • Castlevania: Lords of Shadow was released with a Japanese voice track directed by none other than Hideo Kojima himself (who has cameo as the Chupacabra). However, Lords of Shadow 2, which was produced entirely without Kojima's involvement, did not have a Japanese dub at all (despite the sequel going back to the Akumajō Dracula branding traditionally used in Japan).
  • Contra - Neo Contra, as well as Hard Corps: Uprising, only featured English voice tracks, even in their Japanese releases. The opening demo of Super Contra was also voiced in English with Japanese subtitles.
  • DanceDanceRevolution's iconic announcers are all English-language announcers, despite the overwhelming majority of games being Japan-only releases; two of them have one or two lines of Gratuitous Japanese but that's about it.
  • Devil May Cry — Much like Resident Evil (see below), the first three games only had English voices despite their Japanese origin. It's only until Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition which added a Japanese dub featuring Toshiyuki Morikawa as Dante (who previously voiced him in the anime series, as well as in Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and Project × Zone). Devil May Cry 5 was also released with Japanese and English voice tracks.
  • Divinity: Original Sin and Divinity: Original Sin II were only dubbed in english despite being made by the belgian Larian Studios, where french and german are two of its main language.
  • Dragon's Dogma — The game was given a Japanese voice track for its expanded edition titled Dark Arisen. The original was strictly English only.
  • Dragon Quest XI was first released unvoiced in Japan and got English voice acting for international releases a year later. The Updated Re-release Dragon Quest XI S added a Japanese voice track as an option.
  • Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions — The FMV sequences were unvoiced in the Japanese release, but received an English voice track for North American and European releases.
    • For most of the 2000s, Square Enix had a habit giving out a Japan-exclusive Updated Re-release of certain titles, which featured bonus content added in said games' international releases that were absent from the original Japanese launch, as well as brand new content. Such games like the Final Mix versions of various Kingdom Hearts games as well as the Universal Tuning update to Dissidia Final Fantasy re-used the English voice acting but primarily had Japanese text.
  • Front Mission 4 and Front Mission Evolved only have English voice tracks, even in their Japanese releases (though it's understandable that Evolved was developed by an American game studio). Front Mission 3 has some voices in Japanese or Russian in some cutscenes, and Front Mission 5 has the cutscenes voiced in Japanese (and it stayed in Japan). The rest of the games are unvoiced.
    • Left Alive, despite being developed by a Japanese studio, only has an English voice track.
  • God Hand
  • Gradius V is a polar opposite of Radiant Silvergun when it comes to this trope, despite being developed by the same company. The voice tracks were only in English and the non-English versions simply have the dialogue subtitled.
  • The Grand Theft Auto series and by extension most if not all games produced by Rockstar Games are only voiced in English. Often this is due to the games' contents being extensive enough to preclude a foreign-language soundtrack due to technical or budgetary constraints.
  • Legion — This PC Engine Shoot 'Em Up by Telenet Japan was only released in Japan. It's not clear who provided the voiceover monologues, but they're all in English.
  • KaBlam! might have seen dubs in some countries, but when Nicktoons aired it in the Netherlands they had the original English dub with Dutch subtitles put on the screen.
  • MadWorld
  • Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle — Has only a English voice track. Business as usual for Super Mario Bros. as their characters do only vocal grunting (with one notable exception listed below), but a divergence for the Raving Rabbids side of things with two Rabbids-associated characters in this game having fully-voiced proper dialogue when one considers that Rabbids Go Home and Rabbids Invasion, the previous Rabbids media to have full dialogue, have both been dubbed in their home country's French.
  • Max Payne 3 was only released with an English voice track, despite the fact that the first two games were voiced in other languages too. This was likely due to the switch of developers from Remedy to Rockstar Games, since Rockstar never makes foreign language dubs for their games (see the Grand Theft Auto example).
  • The first Metal Gear Solid was dubbed in six different languages (Japanese, English, French, Italian, German and European Spanish), but from the second game onward only Japanese and English voice tracks were produced. Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snake in particular (the GameCube remake of the first Metal Gear Solid), was only released with English voiceovers, even in Japan.
  • Metal Wolf Chaos, a where players control the President of the United States in a Humongous Mecha, is voiced entirely in English, which makes it even more ironic that the game was Japan-exclusive until the remaster 15 years after the initial release.
  • Mighty No. 9 was going to be an example of this trope — the developers only had enough in their budget to produce one voice cast, so they held a vote regarding if the voices would be in English or Japanese, and over 20,000 voters weighed in. According to the development blog, English won by less than 1,000 votes. Eventually, Deep Silver agreed to publish the game, and gave the developers a bigger budget that allows them to not only afford both languages, but a French dub as well, thus averting this trope twice over.
  • Ninja Assault - The game was released with English voices, even in Japan, the country of the game's origin (where the dialogue was subtitled). This is very bizarre for a Japanese game made by a Japanese company, set in Feudal Japan and features Japanese motifs like Yōkai. See for yourself.
  • Pepsiman - Even though the game was released in Japan only, the whole game was voiced in English (with Japanese subtitles) and featured a portly American man in its FMV cutscenes.
  • Resident Evil - The newer games in the series have been getting multiple voice tracks (in Japanese, French, Italian, German and Spanish in addition to English), starting with Resident Evil: Revelations and then with Resident Evil 6 (with the Japanese voices being available as DLC on the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions). Prior to that the games were voiced only in English with subtitles for spoken dialogue in non-English versions, even in its native Japan.note  When the Resident Evil remake and Resident Evil 0 were ported to PC and non-Nintendo consoles, they were retroactively given Japanese voice tracks for these new releases.
  • In spite of its status as an official installment of the Kunio-kun series, River City Girls has English-exclusive voice acting and vocal tracks. This is because it was developed by the American Wayforward Technologies. This results in a somewhat surreal experience where English-speaking characters make reference to events in a franchise that's rarely left Japan, complete with in-jokes playing off of the dissonance. The sequel adds a Japanese dub.
  • Saints Row series.
  • The first Sin and Punishment was only ever voiced in English, despite the game's Japanese developer and setting and the Nintendo 64 version being Japan-only (with a worldwide Virtual Console release in 2007). The sequel, Sin and Punishment: Star Successor did get a Japanese dub, though.
  • Strider (2014): Despite being published by a Japanese publisher and unlike the PC-Engine port of the first game and Strider 2, the two that had Japanese voice acting, this game was only released with an English voice track. This was because it was developed by the American Double Helix Games.
  • Super Mario Sunshine - Same case as Ninja Assault above. As a matter of fact, every major game in the Super Mario Bros. franchise with voices are voiced only in English, but mostly were just voice grunts; Sunshine is the first and so far only time the series has attempted full voice acting. Interestingly the Japanese version uses a slightly different voice track from the international version, including a few mistakes that were corrected in the latter version.
  • Time Crisis games, despite being developed by a Japanese developer, were not given Japanese voice tracks until Time Crisis 4.
  • Vampyr (2018) despite being developed by a French studio, the game's voice acting is only in English.

    English-Language Works with Partial Foreign-Language Dubs 
Again, see also Unfinished Dub for more information.

  • Animaniacs only had 13 episodes dubbed in Japanese, which were the first 12 episodes and episode 49.
  • Only the first two BIONICLE Direct to Video films were dubbed into Japanese, as the franchise's media stopped being localized there around 2005.
  • The last two seasons of Dora the Explorer haven't been dubbed in Japanese.
  • Several foreign dubs of Blue's Clues — including the German, Polish and Russian dubs — skipped over the Joe era.
  • Ed, Edd n Eddy: Only the first two seasons were dubbed in Japanese.
  • Garfield and Friends only had the first three seasons dubbed in Japanese. They also didn't dub the U.S. Acres segments.
  • G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero - Only 34 episodes from the first season aired in Japan, although there were plans to dub the series until Serpentor's introduction. G.I. Joe: The Movie would later be released on VHS, but dubbed by a different company.
  • Goosebumps (1995) - Only 50 episodes from the first three seasons were dubbed in Japanese.
  • Highlander - Only Season 1 was dubbed in Japanese.
  • Magic Adventures of Mumfie only had 13 episodes dubbed in Japanese due to the closure of the company that produced the dub and Kei Tomiyama's death.
  • Marvel vs. Capcom 3 - Marvel's characters only speak English as a creative decision on Marvel's part, but Marvel obviously holds no sway over the representation of developer Capcom's characters, so the Capcom cast is dubbed in both English and Japanese as a creative decision on Capcom's part, and you can choose what language each character speaks individually. According to Word of God, director Ryota Niitsuma agreed with Marvel's side not having Japanese voice acting despite initial attempts to have work done on it, as he felt it would clash with their distinctly Western origins.
  • Power Rangers - Only the Zordon era note , Lost Galaxy, SPD, Mystic Force and Samurai seasons were fully dubbed into Japanese, with the rest being skipped.
  • Total Drama: When Disney XD aired the show in Fall 2011, only the first season (Island) was dubbed into Castilian Spanish.
  • The Simpsons Movie is currently the only piece of Simpsons-related media to have been officially dubbed into Danish, Norwegian, Finnish and European Portuguese. The actual show itself is only offered with subtitles in those languages.
  • An odd case happened with The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie. The film was initially only shown theatrically in arthouse theaters in Japan with subtitles only. A year later, a dubbed version of the film was released Direct to Video.

    List of media that only gets dubbed into some languages 
  • The 2000 children's film Thomas and the Magic Railroad was only dubbed in Latin Spanish (which actually has two different versions), Brazilian Portuguese, Canadian French, Serbian, Russian (voice-over translation), Greek, Hebrew, Dutch, German, Korean, Chinese, and Japanese. It is unknown if it was ever dubbed into Arabic, Catalan, European French, Slovak, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Thai, or Czech.
  • For some unknown reason, the Fireman Sam 60-minute specials were never dubbed nor released into Castillan Spanish, Latin Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, nor European Portuguese.
  • Most movies, TV shows, anime and video games that are aimed at mature and/or general audiences generally get this treatment too in certain countries (including the Netherlands, Portugal, Nordic countries, Dutch-speaking areas of Belgium, Greece, Romania, Poland, former Yugoslavia, Israel, etc.) The local audience prefers it that way; several of these countries also have good knowledge of English, and the localizers' preference for subtitles has a stake in this.
    • Most Japanese LaserDiscs of Hollywood films are issued sub-only. Pulp Fiction was already out on Laserdisc in Japan when it was in theaters in Europe, resulting in the disc being a common import in Europe.
  • Most anime adaptions and mangas from Fujiko F. Fujio get this treatment too, including Doraemon, Kiteretsu, Perman, Chimpui etc., despite most of Fujio's work being for children. Interestingly, the Doraemon animes have received more international dubs than the others, since it was the author's most well-known work.
    • As an example, only very few Fujiko F. Fujio anime were dubbed in Italian (the Doraemon animes (twice for the second anime), Perman, Ninja Hattori, Mami the Psychic, and Kaibutsu-kun); the rest of them were never released nor dubbed there.
    • The 42th Doraemon film, Doraemon: Nobita's Little Star Wars 2021, was only released in Malaysia, Mauritius, Philippines, Singapore and South Africa in the original Japanese version with English subtitles. It was also subtitled in Arabic, Azerbaijani and Greek for the Arabic, Azerbaijani, and Cyprus releases of the film (in addition to English subtitles).
  • The Ruby-Spears Mega Man animated series was never dubbed in some countries, likely due to the show's Hurricane of Puns nature.
  • The Passion of the Christ was only released subbed, given that it's spoken in the long-dead languages of the time for realism. Yet a home video re-release in 2017 led to dubs in English, Spanish and Portuguese.
  • The Noddy Shop was limited with its dubbing. As of now, the only dubs of the show that were confirmed to exist are Latin Spanish, European French, Castillan Spanish, European Portuguese, British English (Noddy story segments, 1st season only), Hebrew, and Polish.
  • Lupin III: Part 1 also suffers from this too, as it was only dubbed in Latin Spanish, Castilian Spanish (twice!), Italian (twice!), German, Korean, Brazilian Portuguese, European French, and Valencian Catalan.
  • The Redwall animated series suffered from this as well. The only dubs that have been confirmed to exist are European French, European Portuguese, German, Hungarian, Russian (twice!), and Arabic.
  • The 2009 Korean cartoon series YooHoo & Friends doesn't have that many dubs as isnote , but the 2012 Gag Dub series by David Feiss only has two dubs (Brazilian Portuguese and Venezuelan Spanish, both aired on Cartoon Network and Boomerang). The series was planned to be distributed into more countries in Europe (including France and Germany), but was unfortunately cancelled and forgotten in favor of the original 2009 series.
  • Between the Lions has only one dub confirmed to exist, being the Japanese dub.
  • The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius wasn't dubbed into Hebrew by itself; only Planet Sheen and (by way of The Fairly OddParents!) The Jimmy Timmy Power Hour were.
  • The only Dexter's Laboratory-related stuff that gets dubbed in Hebrew is the "Chicken Scratch" short; the show is only subtitled in Hebrew.
  • The Israeli animated series Mikmak only has one episode dubbed in English and was available on the official YouTube channel for free.
  • Even Puppy in My Pocket: Adventures in Pocketville isn't safe from this treatment. It is only known to be dubbed in Italian, English (thrice!), French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Greek, Arabic, Turkish, Bulgarian, Danish, Slovene, Russian, Romanian, German, Swedish, Polish, Hungarian, and Tagalog. It's unknown if there ever was a Japanese, Korean, Thai, Norwegian, Hindi dub, or any dub from one of the North and South American languages (except for US English).
  • Director Bong Joon-ho, who firmly declared himself as a staunch supporter of subtitles during his Golden Globe Award acceptance speech, didn't want his 2019 film Parasite to be dubbed outside its native Korean and made sure this requirement was written into contracts for international theatrical releases. It was only dubbed for the handful of European countries where it's required by law. However, later there were dubs made in Brazilian Portuguese and Japanese for streaming and television releases.
  • Similarly, the creator of Bluey forbid an American English dub of the show to ever be made, since it would feel weird and take away from the Aussie charm. Therefore, the series still airs in its Australian English dialect in the U.S. However, the series is still dubbed in many other languages, so it's not much of a loss.
  • Speaking of Australian TV shows, Neighbours was only dubbed in some languages (including French, German, and (possibly) Japanese), possibly because the show wasn't popular in some overseas countries. The series only aired in 60 countries.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog never received any foreign dub in the games beyond English and Japanese before Sonic Generations in 2011.
  • Metroid Dread was only given European-language voice tracks worldwide despite the game being co-developed in Japan, with the Japanese, Korean and Chinese versions translating the English voiceovers via subtitles. This was presumably to keep it in line with Super Metroid's approach to having Japanese subtitles underneath the "original" English text in the original Japanese version. Though this only applies to ADAM and the computer voice for Samus Aran's ship — the other three characters that speak do so in the Chozo Conlang, which wouldn't need to be redubbed anyway.
  • The first Fist of the North Star anime series from the 1980s has a French dub. The second series isn't so lucky.
  • The 25th Anniversary Edition Re-Cut of Bedknobs and Broomsticks was only dubbed into French (and in turn necessitated a redub to dub the scenes that were not present in the 1972 theatrical French dub).
    • Likely due to this, the 25th Anniversary Edition cut would be phased out from 2009 to the late-2010s, starting with the 2009 DVD releases from the United Kingdom and Australia, and in 2014 with the Blu-Ray release (with the scenes from the 25th Anniversary Edition cut confined to being deleted scenes and the French 2003 dub being modified to match the length of the theatrical cut) and ending with its exclusion from Disney+.
  • Akazukin Chacha has only had a couple of foreign dubs, likely due to being reliant on mostly-untranslatable Japanese puns.
  • While both films got proper foreign language dubs, neither Coco nor Encanto got Castilian Spanish dubs. In these cases it was justified because of the strong Latin American setting of both films, the former in Mexico and the latter in Colombia, and being voiced by local voice actors from both countries, and also to avoid having the odd situation of European voice actors voicing Latin Americans from rural backgrounds, like those from both films.note 
  • Two specific endgame scenes in Kirby and the Forgotten Land were given voice acting in all the languages the game was translated in... except for the Traditional and Simplified Chinese versions, which keep the audio in English (though the on-screen text is translated accordingly).
  • The Harry Potter films were originally not dubbed into European Portuguese, resorting to just using the original English audio with subtitles. A dub was later made for Cartoon Network, broadcast on the channel in mid-2022.
  • RWBY: The show has an international release, but has only been dubbed into Japanese. There appears to be no plans to dub it into any other language.
  • gen:LOCK was released internationally on Crunchyroll, but without dubs. Season 2 on HBO Max earned a dub on both Latin American Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese.
  • The Sesame Street spin-off Kids' Guide To Life only got dubbed in Spanish, Chinese and Japanese.
  • Mexican films and related media rarely gets foreign dubs. This is partly due to a combination of lack of interest from foreign distributors, a perception of Mexican films being of poor quality, and also some Mexican directors and actors not allowing foreign dubs of their work.
  • As of March 2024, Inai Inai Baa! only has dubs in Chinese (before China decided to air a co-production instead), English and Spanish.
  • Only the first two Trolls films were dubbed into Arabic.

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