It turns out that complaining about AI online does work… but for lower-stakes controversies, such as Amazon Prime’s decision to give the job of dubbing an anime to artificial intelligence, rather than real-life humans. Shows like Banana Fish, No Game, No Life and Vinland Saga were recently hit with Amazon’s “AI beta” tag. The results, if you haven’t heard ’em yet, are… not good. We’d even call them bad. And now, they’re gone. Mostly.
Bottom banana
For now, anyway. The emotionless, and often simply incorrect, AI-generated dubs — which only appeared on series that had never previously received a dubbed translation — have now disappeared from Amazon Prime. Strangely, an AI-generated Spanish dub for Vinland Saga survived the purge, but nobody is quite sure why.
The idea of shooing away human voice actors to save a couple of bucks is about par for the course in 2025, but it’s made worse when you realise that several of these shows had been out for years without any dubs, AI-generated or otherwise. As Daman Mills, a prolific voice actor, pointed out in the wake of Amazon’s bizarre decision:
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“Using AI for a dub of a show that released nearly 8 YEARS AGO AND HAD NO RUSHED SCHEDULE just spits in our faces, has infuriated the consumer, and completely destroys the art. Voice Actors deserve the same level of respect as on camera performers. Anime already pays talent very little. Dub production costs shouldn’t make a dent in these companies’ pocket books.”
Now, unless you’re fluent in dispassionate Spanish, you’ll have to make do with the Japanese audio and subtitles. Until Amazon inevitably tries to pull this again, and eventually charges customers more for the privilege of a feature nobody wants. We’re not sure what’s scarier — Amazon reviving AI-generated dubs, or nobody noticing.
