Japanese is considered to be the most alien of languages to native English speakers, and vice versa. That said, it has been done, and it doesn’t exactly take a rocket scientist to learn Japanese as a native English speaker. What it takes is time and dedication.

I actually know a few dozen words in Japanese, but I don’t know Japanese.

As for dubs, I prefer some anime dubbed in Japanese and some anime dubbed in English. Generally English is more accessible in that I don’t have to read as well as listen, but there are some animes I don’t want to be distracted by subtitles.

Anyway, it’s a common misconception in anime that “the language I don’t understand has better voice acting.” It’s because you don’t understand it. If you understood it, you’d likely come to the conclusion that some actors are just better than others, in either dub. The difference is, English dubs pay more and they have a wider pool of talent. But as you learn Japanese, you’ll find the same is true in Japanese dubbing, some of the actors are actually good, and others are just phoning it in, same as anywhere.

I do feel like if you’re familiar with Chinese languages, you probably know that Japanese evolved from Chinese (I’m not sure on the specifics here), like how they have the same numbers. So it’s a good starting point. You can probably read the symbols, or at least know what they sound like. I can read romaji passably enough. But the symbols? Haha nope.