Since spring 2025, Amazon’s streaming service Prime Video has been offering several films and series whose synchronization was generated using artificial intelligence – and the first anime titles have now been added, which has triggered some violent reactions in the industry. We summarize.
First anime AI dubbing
With “Banana Fish,” the first English AI dub of an anime series was released on the platform today – after the title received a Spanish AI dub along with “Vinland Saga” a few weeks ago.
The corresponding language versions are marked “AI Beta” in the Prime Video video player, so that users are transparently informed that it is an automatically generated audio track.
Although it is planned to only use this technique for productions that would otherwise not receive any synchronization at all, the approach is still causing considerable criticism in the industry. For example, the US voice actor Daman Mills, who has already been involved in numerous anime dubbing, spoke up.
Criticism from the industry
In a post on X that has now been viewed more than two million times, he said: »For years, fans have been hoping for an English dub of “Banana Fish” – and you give us AI-generated garbage?
This is incredibly disrespectful. Was a queer trauma narrative simply left to a machine because it was “too difficult” to pay real actors? Fix that or I personally will never work on any of your dubs again. This is not ‘the future’. This is extinction.”
The AI-generated English dubbing of “Banana Fish” can also be viewed in Germany on Prime Video. A German AI version, however, is unlikely to follow, as peppermint anime has already confirmed that the series will be released on Blu-ray in this country – including a classic German dubbing.
More on the topic:
Via X/Daman Mills
© Akimi Yoshida, Shogakukan / Banana Fish Production Committee
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