A work in its native language will be a better reflection of how the author created it. But, will that hold after you filter it through your ability to understand that language? Usually, IMO, the gap created by one’s own second language skills is bigger than the gap added by a professional translator.

For most people, a good localization in your native language will get you the best understanding of the art. If you are completely fluent in the original language tho, go for that.

Not to discourage consuming media in other languages. I enjoy it for learning and challenge.

I speak and understand spoken Japanese well enough to do basically whatever I need to do. I got Stein’s Gate to try to improve my reading and it was a slog to get through anything. I gave up maybe 60 minutes in. My wife (native speaker) mentioned a lot of the words I kept having to stop and look up aren’t used with any real frequency and some of it is purely literary style. I found the same with (particularly older) young adult stuff I was trying to read to help. I’d just play it in English (or, for some games, people have created unofficial translation patches that are better than the originals) unless you really want to learn a bunch of obscure and literary stuff.

Edit: for clarity, I’m not really into anime or manga at all, which may make it more of a slog for me than someone who is into that.

If you can understand Japanese, I would say anything written in Japanese is better experienced in Japanese, because Japanese is the most alien language to English; the hardest language for English-native speakers to learn, and I think it goes both ways.

There are a good number of people who can translate Japanese to English. And as “dub” haters either know or have intuited, there are two kinds of translations. The first is a more literal translation. You listen to what the Japanese person said, and you rephrase it in English. This is going to be more accurate (depending on the translator’s skill), but something could be lost even with the best translation. The second is for an English dub of Japanese media. You do the same thing, but you also have to time the English to the cadence of the Japanese scene.

Now, the Japanese people making this stuff aren’t stupid. Like you, they enjoy being able to pay their bills. They know the international audience is a big part of how they’re able to do that. They also know that their language is hugely alien from and very different to European languages (including English). So, they will often take steps to mitigate the difficulty of localisation. They’ll use simpler words that lower the bar of translation skill. They’ll use shorter words that are easier to swap out for words in other languages. They’ll have people speaking wear masks or their lips not be shown at times so the lip flaps don’t have to be synced. They have a few tricks.

These days, virtually any commercial translation is “good enough”. If “good enough” doesn’t cut it, you might want to learn Japanese. Or have someone who knows Japanese sitting right there with you. If those aren’t options… you might have to settle for “good enough”.

Note that watching subtitled anime is still dealing with a translation, but these subtitles can be freer in their translation than a dub team can get. I would assume the same is true for VNs.

I’ve also read a few Japanese books that were translated. I’ve read all of Sword Art Online through the third season — so I haven’t started the war arc yet. (I’ve seen that, I just got reading other stuff, and I absolutely want to power through and get to the stuff that hasn’t been adapted yet — Moon Cradle, and Unital Ring.) I’ve also read No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai. I cannot say that what I read is 100% what the author intended (and it’s not like we can ask Dazai, he died before most of us were born), but Kawahara endorses the SAO translations as far as anyone is aware. I don’t think he knows English though — we take the translators at their word and Kawahara largely does the same.

I also watch anime in both Japanese and English. The deciding factor is usually “have I met the voice actors?”. I’ve met a lot of English dub voice actors, and a lot of them are cool people. If I don’t know anyone in the cast, I am 100% happy watching the Japanese dub, and there are certain cases where I prefer it that way. When I watch my favourite film, 君の名は。, it’s not a choice of “English dub or Japanese dub”, it’s a choice of “do I want subs on or off”? Because I’ve seen it so many times, I don’t need the subs. I only opt for the English dub if I’m showing it to somebody, and even then, I’m leaning toward the Japanese dub with some excellent fan subs I found online (MPMB, IIRC) that do way better than the official ones. (I have the movie digitally on all my devices, I own the Blu-ray collector’s edition with the DVD and soundtrack, and I also bought it twice on iTunes, since they sold the two dubs separately.)

I don’t do VNs, but if I did, I’d be fine with the translation.