In March 2025, Amazon announced that initial pilot projects using artificial intelligence would start on Prime Video. Now the first anime have been released, utilizing full synchronization with AI.
Which anime has been affected? According to anisearch, 2 anime have so far been affected in Germany, which have received English AI synchronization: Banana Fish and Pet. In other countries, No Game No Live: Zero and Journal of Mysterious Creatures are among the titles offered with AI dubbing.
The surprising part: Some of these series already have professional English dubbing but are not offered with it on Amazon. Instead of providing the human-done dubbing, Amazon has decided to create its own AI dubs.
High School of the Dead, Karakuri Circus, and Vinland Saga are also said to have been released with AI dubs, but in Spanish. Again, there is already a human-made dubbing available.
Anime fans prefer silence over this AI translation
How good is the result? A clip on X is going around, showing some moments from the anime Banana Fish. It is noticeable that the AI voice hardly works with highs and lows. Rather, it seems like a nervous student is reading their presentation from slides and wants to quickly return to their seat.
This comes across as particularly emotionless in a very emotional scene. A character is dying. Yet the protagonist Ash Lynx only utters a neutral “Please don’t leave me.” A human voice would likely have screamed, whimpered, or whispered here to express shock and sorrow.
How is the AI dubbing received by fans? To sum it up: not well at all. On Reddit, numerous fans are complaining about how bad the AI dubbing has turned out. They say that the anime deserved better.
One user even claims that the dubbing is so bad that they would rather hear only silence than the machine-generated voice. Fans are asking companies to stop using AI because no one wants that.
Even streamer and YouTuber penguinz0, nominated as Content Creator of the Year, has stepped in. He released a video on YouTube titled “Unwatchable Trash”. It accurately reflects his opinion.
In some cases, professional voice actors even have the problem of their voice being used by an AI for other content. A German dubber expressed their frustration: Professional voice actor surprised to find that their explainers voice is everywhere on social media: “I want to decide what to give it for”
