(Editors Note – 12/1/2025: So, it seems as though someone at Prime Video was visited by 3 Ghosts and learned the true meaning of Christmas. Per several users on Twitter, the AI “dub” of Banana Fish has been removed from the language options on their site. There’s also word that the AI “dub” for No Game, No Life has also been taken down, but the Spanish AI “dub” still remains, and another show, 2019’s Vinland Saga, now has an AI “dub”, even though it already has two other proper dubs by Sentai Filmworks and Netflix. So maybe those 3 ghosts didn’t do that good a job. I’ll update as the situation changes…stay tuned.)

Okay, guys, pull up a chair and a beverage. Your Cajun Uncle Josh needs to have a talk with you. First of all, happy belated Thanksgiving! How was your Turkey Day? I know we find ourselves in some crazy times, and some members of our family can hold weird beliefs, both political and otherwise, that can make dinner time as awkward as explaining the last 10 minutes of Horimiya Episode 7 to your parents. But know that awkwardness doesn’t last forever, and as with all things, this too shall pass. In any case, I hope you guys had a great Thanksgiving and a money-saving Black Friday, and that you go into the Holiday Season with loads of happiness and joy. Sadly, there’s very little of both going on in the anime community as of right now, and it’s all because of Amazon Prime Video.

You’ve no doubt seen on social media that Prime Video released a “dub” of the 2018 anime Banana Fish. I use the word “Dub” in quotes because there were no actors involved in this one. It was done entirely by AI. And the results were…well…horrible. How bad? Well, lemme put it this way—this “dub” makes the Pilot Candidate dub look like the Cowboy Bebop dub. There is no emotion, no inflection, and it really does come off as someone plugging in a script into a screen reader and hitting “play”.

Additionally, there’s an AI “dub” of the 2014 anime No Game, No Life. Now I know what you’re thinking: “Cajun Samurai, isn’t there a dub of No Game, No Life out already?” to which I reply, “Hey, I’ve been writing for three months over here, you can call me Josh. And yes, you are correct.” Sentai Filmworks did, indeed, put out a dub of the anime, but Amazon doesn’t have the license for it. What made them decide to put out their own AI “dub” of an already dubbed series? Your guess is as good as mine, but this was not only horrible but pointless AND horrible.

As you can imagine, this has caused quite an uproar over on the Socials. The fan community appears to be utterly disgusted with Prime Video’s decision to use AI “Dubs”, and several voice actors and directors, including Daman Mills, Zeno Robinson, Dawn M. Bennett, and Khoi Dao, have raised their voices against such a prodigious travesty, with Zeno rightly pointing out that Prime Video has put out several well recieved dubs this past year using real voice talent.

In the interests of full disclosure, I’m not one of those people who believe that AI is this big evil monolithic thing that should always be shunned. I use it for editing purposes on this very blog for proofreading my drafts, researching things like anime companies, and making sure I didn’t misrepresent anything. Trust me, were it not for Grammarly, my articles would look, well, ugly. While I do have some friends I could ask to help me with these tasks, and I know they would help me out at the drop of a dime if I asked them to, at the end of the day, this is MY blog, and I want what comes out of it to be the highest quality I can make it, using all the tools at my disposal to do so. And at the end of the day, that’s exactly what I feel AI is: a great and powerful tool which, when used responsibly and positively, can do amazing things. There are days when I believe people who overhype their hatred of using AI to the point of wishing death upon someone are either virtue signaling to a very sickening degree or are utterly ignorant of the general and multiple nuances of life and need to go outside and gently caress some crabgrass.

THAT SAID…there is a big, huge, Queen Mary 2 Sized difference between using AI as a tool to supplement original works and using it as a complete replacement for human beings and their God-Given talents. Prime Video, in their desire to bring in more viewers under the guise of “Accessibility”, has issued a Mrs. Kamiya-Level Slap to the Face to not only the voice acting community, but to the anime community as a whole. By giving this show an AI-generated “Dub” when they are more than capable of hiring a company like Bang Zoom or Pixelogic Media to deliver a high-quality production, they are telling the community in no uncertain terms that they do not care. They will take the cheaper option over the higher-quality one, put it out there, and dare you to say something about it. And the fact that they’re doing this to a show that has had widespread acclaim like Banana Fish is just adding insult to injury, and it further shows that there are very few people in the Prime Video department who legit care about anime, to say nothing about English dubs.

Let me be clear about this: AI can do many things, and when employed non-maliciously and adequately, it can improve the quality of life for all of us. But it can never, I repeat, NEVER replace the nuance and subtlety of flesh and blood actors. No machine can simulate the love and emotion of two queer lovers like Jessie James Grelle (Credited as Josh Grelle) and Justin Briner in The Stranger by the Shore, or reflect the absolute horrors of battle like Spike Spencer in The End of Evangelion. Show me one AI-generated voice that can reflect the absolute manic bundle of energy that is Radical Edward from Cowboy Bebop, like Melissa Fahn, or the absolutely perfect blend of cool logic yet childlike innocence that is Koushiro “Izzy” Izumi from Digimon: Digital Monsters, like the LEGENDARY Mona Marshall? And I dare you to find me one computer that can both sing and act like the amazing Greg Ayres has done time and again in shows like Nerima Daikon Brothers and Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad. No matter how many samples you feed it or how many data points you input, you can’t replace actors with machines, and the fact that Amazon genuinely thought they could do so and didn’t bat an eye when posting this SEVERAL times is disturbing.

So, all that said, what should we do? Frankly, I don’t know what the correct answer is. I’m seeing people talk about boycotting Amazon Prime Video. Do I think it will work? I’m leaning toward “no”. Now, before you start commenting passive-aggressively, lemme explain. If this were Crunchyroll or HIDIVE pulling this, it would be different; these companies are all about their streaming viewership, specifically their anime viewership. Boycotting can work in that case. Amazon, on the other hand, is a JUGGERNAUT with its fingers in many honey pots, generating income from Retail, Cloud Computing, Third-Party Seller Fees, and Advertising. Roughly 2% of their revenue comes from streaming, and even less comes from anime streaming. I would bet my last two dollars that Thursday Night Football on Prime Video draws more viewers in a single showing than the anime Sanda has drawn over its entire run. I said that to say: if you decide to boycott Prime Video, make sure it’s a well-informed decision based on what you feel is right, not necessarily what others around you tell you is right. Think for yourself using that grey matter between your ears.

As for you, Amazon, I know we’re in a post-shame world where people in high power are more brazen with their foolish activities, but you should REALLY be ashamed of yourselves. You have every single resource at your command to put out quality anime dubs, and a stable of talent that is chomping at the bit to tell these stories and who are literally ready to bleed for their craft. And yet you choose the cheaper way out. You decide that this is “good enough” for the anime fans of the world. I have some news for you: “good enough” is not enough for this fanbase. You bring your best, or you don’t bring it at all, no matter how old the show is or how popular it is. If this is the work that you’re going to put out—if you’re going to continue putting out these AI “dubs”, it would be best if you got out of the anime streaming game and let others who respect the genre do better. You’re not going to lose any substantial money, and anime fans can rest assured that they’ll get proper dubs done by people who actually care about the work they put out.

In conclusion, I’m reminded of an episode of the original series Star Trek titled “The Ultimate Computer.” In that episode, Starfleet Command decided to test a new computer system called “M-5” on the Enterprise, which uses human engrams to run an entire starship with only 20 people and, if successful, could even replace starship captains. The tests initially go off without a hitch, and after some unfortunate comments made by the higher-ups, Captain Kirk begrudgingly admits that there might be a practical use for it. However, Spock, being the most prodigious first officer in the fleet, reminds the good captain of one thing:

“Practical, Captain—Perhaps. But not desirable. Computers make excellent and efficient servants, but I have no wish to serve under them. Captain, a starship also runs on loyalty to one man, and nothing can replace it or him.”

That’s how we should be approaching AI—an excellent servant, but one that can never replicate or replace humans—especially those who have been blessed with the ability to breathe new life into our favorite characters.

I’m Josh, the Cajun Samurai, That’s the Way I See It. Have a Good Evening.