On: Why do all these 20-somethings have closed caption...

[Entinel]

I grew up watching anime with subs and at a certain point it just became natural to have subtitles on even when the content is in English.

[CoastalCoder → Entinel]

For the longest time I couldn't follow anime with subtitles, it kept me from watching the action.

I think practice helped, but so did reducing the size of the video frame. Turns out having the whole frame in my field of view was a big deal.

[dylan604 → CoastalCoder]

Depending on the title you're watching, the subs are easier to read. Like one of the episodes from DBZ.

Goku: AHHHHHH!

Vegeta: ARGHHHH!

Goku: OOOMPH!!!

Vegta: HMMMMM!

The visuals were just as simple. For like most of the episode

[PuppyTailWags → CoastalCoder]

I think it depends on your reading speed and ability to skim. If you can read faster than people can talk, subtitles aren't really distracting because you can glance down and then go back to reading the visual expressions and background details of the dialogue.