Westernised translations in anime

ayase

ayase

State Alchemist
D1tchd1gger said:
One annoying thing I noticed, which is down to Sentai I guess, in episode 2 when talking about money they kept referring, both subtitles and dub, to dollars instead of Yen dispite the show itself showing Yui counting Yen coins and a sign showing the price in Yen!
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This always annoys me whenever it crops up in translations. When a show is obviously set in Japan and clearly they are not using dollars, the currency they're using should never be referred to as dollars. I imagine the argument is "People watching might not understand the exchange rate" but context usually provides reactions to hint at whether something is a bargain or ludicrously expensive. It doesn't even solve the issue in English speaking countries that don't use dollars, where people might be just as clueless about the exchange rate of their local currency to the dollar!
 
ayase said:
This always annoys me whenever it crops up in translations. When a show is obviously set in Japan and clearly they are not using dollars, the currency they're using should never be referred to as dollars. I imagine the argument is "People watching might not understand the exchange rate" but context usually provides reactions to hint at whether something is a bargain or ludicrously expensive. It doesn't even solve the issue in English speaking countries that don't use dollars, where people might be just as clueless about the exchange rate of their local currency to the dollar!
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But American's are more important so it doesn't matter about other countries, at least I imagine that's the mentality in these cases. K-On does use honorifics properly which is a refreshing change though.
 
Adam-M said:
K-On does use honorifics properly which is a refreshing change though.
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I don't know, I find it weird that Ui calls Yui big sis all the time in the dub, if they are pretending it's America with the money then it would be a bit more natural as just sis or even Yui. I know that's the literal translation and should be how the subtitles read. EDIT: She has used just sis several times in the next episode!

I do find it weird when watching subbed stuff when a character says Sensei when talking to a teacher, but the subs say the name of the person they are talking to instead.
 
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D1tchd1gger said:
I do find it weird when watching subbed stuff when a character says Sensei when talking to a teacher, but the subs say the name of the person they are talking to instead.
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Agreed with the big sis thing but with each other sometimes they'll say"chan" and other times just drop it entirely denoting how close they are.
 
Adam-M said:
Agreed with the big sis thing but with each other sometimes they'll say"chan" and other times just drop it entirely denoting how close they are.
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Another thing which is odd in the dub, especially in this show (I have seen it in others), is that when they sing they switch to Japanese! I guess it's either because English VA aren't as multi-talented as the Japanese VAs or the lyrics wouldn't work as well in English. Although on the 2nd disc one of the extras is a video of their first song with clips, but its in English!
 
Something that annoys me is that a character will be called by their family name but their given name (first name) is subbed instead.
 
D1tchd1gger said:
One annoying thing I noticed, which is down to Sentai I guess, in episode 2 when talking about money they kept referring, both subtitles and dub, to dollars instead of Yen dispite the show itself showing Yui counting Yen coins and a sign showing the price in Yen!
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Yui: dollar dollar! Dollar dollar dollar!
Bystander: but yui you're Japanese!
Yui:while taking a bite out of a rice ball I'm loving this cheeseburger!

Aren't sentai Aussies though? That would mean the exchange to dollars is different, every drink, including saki, is fosters and everything from rice to squid is "a shrimp on the barbie".
It is quite annoying when exchange rates are localised, I've seen in watamote when tomoko goes to the photo booth, it reads like ¥500 and she's like "It's four dollars?". No. Pit your kangaroo pouch purse away, tomoko, your money isn't good here
 
Sentai are very much an American company, formed from the ashes of the old AD Vision. Splitting this discussion off now ;)

R
 
I mean isn’t adapating for your audience part of localization okay the dollars thing is stupid but honorifics are confusing when FUNi says “mr” X when the JP says “San” I understand why they did it. Not everyone buying a release will fully understand what honorifics are.
 
I'm not bothered about honorifics being dropped from subtitles, as you can still hear them in the dialogue. But dollars for yen does bug me, as well as English words being translated for other English words because Americans don't understand the first lot. 'Rucksack' in Bakemonogatari replaced by 'Backpack' is a significant annoyance.
 
Just Passing Through said:
English words being translated for other English words
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There was a hilarious one in Violet Evergarden where the English word Intense is used as a place name. There's a scene where she spots it from far away and the Japanese VA says it in a tone of remembrance (because stuff happened to her there in the past), but the dub changed it to "beautiful"! 🤣
 
I basically don't consider myself as being part of the typical western audience; one of the reasons I watch anime is to experience and learn about Japanese culture, rather than just watching anime like a Western cartoon strictly for entertainment. I tend to prefer watching a lot of anime that is heavy on Japanese culture and history, those are some of my favorite genre of anime. Especially with anime like Mushishi, Miss Hokasai, historical era and Samurai anime, it is more than just annoying to see the script westernized, dub or sub; it feels totally wrong or even offensive to me to have an English dub even created for them. I vastly prefer to view my anime strictly in Japanese, with subtitles that aren't bastardized with westernization - so dropping honorifics, using Western names or terminology, or completely changing the meaning of a character's line of dialogue is pretty much an act of heresy to me. But since I'm not the typical western viewer, my preferences don't really count too much, I suppose.
 
Girls wIth Guns said:
I basically don't consider myself as being part of the typical western audience; one of the reasons I watch anime is to experience and learn about Japanese culture, rather than just watching anime like a Western cartoon strictly for entertainment. I tend to prefer watching a lot of anime that is heavy on Japanese culture and history, those are some of my favorite genre of anime. Especially with anime like Mushishi, Miss Hokasai, historical era and Samurai anime, it is more than just annoying to see the script westernized, dub or sub; it feels totally wrong or even offensive to me to have an English dub even created for them. I vastly prefer to view my anime strictly in Japanese, with subtitles that aren't bastardized with westernization - so dropping honorifics, using Western names or terminology, or completely changing the meaning of a character's line of dialogue is pretty much an act of heresy to me. But since I'm not the typical western viewer, my preferences don't really count too much, I suppose.
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A bit of the opposite for me, I'm more entertained by anime than most western shows. I do enjoy if I can learn something about culture though, and well, I'm a slow reader I prefer a dub. I don't mind honorifics being dropped as when someone is speaking English they are barely used, terms I don't mind as long as the term is difficult for English speakers, otherwise it's pretty easy to learn what the terms mean. Completely changing the meaning though is absolutely my bane, the original story is good enough don't completely change things! Shows that the team are too lazy to translate the actual meaning of most of the original. I did hear before though that the sjw types invaded the dub for dragon maid, and there was nothing that stood out as "feminist" or "inclusive" when I watched it on CR, but apparently some lines are changed to mention misogyny or something, urgh, stick to the script!
 
Captaaainuniverse said:
A bit of the opposite for me, I'm more entertained by anime than most western shows. I do enjoy if I can learn something about culture though, and well, I'm a slow reader I prefer a dub. I don't mind honorifics being dropped as when someone is speaking English they are barely used, terms I don't mind as long as the term is difficult for English speakers, otherwise it's pretty easy to learn what the terms mean. Completely changing the meaning though is absolutely my bane, the original story is good enough don't completely change things! Shows that the team are too lazy to translate the actual meaning of most of the original. I did hear before though that the sjw types invaded the dub for dragon maid, and there was nothing that stood out as "feminist" or "inclusive" when I watched it on CR, but apparently some lines are changed to mention misogyny or something, urgh, stick to the script!
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If I remember correctly the dub for Dragon Maid had Lucoa mention something about the patriarchy as well as some other pretty sjw stuff in other scenes. If I remember correctly that also had the same scriptwriter as Prison School which apparently mentions gamergate at some point because yeah that was totally in the original -_-
 
Captaaainuniverse said:
A bit of the opposite for me, I'm more entertained by anime than most western shows. I do enjoy if I can learn something about culture though...
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I totally agree on this, though - I get way more entertainment out of an anime than most Hollywood movies, even. I host monthly movie nights in my projection theater at home, and I find it hard to even find 12 worthwhile newly-released live action movies over a year's time to even want to show to my guests. I seriously am thinking I should start showing them some anime instead for the monthly movie, even though they are all an older crowd, mostly over 60. I have already shown my regulars most of the Studio Ghibli movies during 6 Sunday afternoon Ghibli Marathons I've hosted over the last few years, with 3 movies back to back for each marathon, so I guess some regular, more standard anime could work with them, too. The only drawback for me is that I have to show the anime with an English dub to my guests... Gah! o_O
 
I remember that scenario happening a lot with Phoenix Wright, when it first released game wise. Maya would say that hamburgers where her favourite thing to eat, in actual fact the japanese iteration was ramen. though they did then pick fun at this in a later game with her saying she wanted ramen with a burger on top, it was a fairly big thing how much it differed with the japanese case. I guess it also fits in the case that when the anime released, it had two sets of subtitles, one based around game translations, and one around more literal translation, keeping the names and actual tastes in check.
A good example where it catered to two different kinds of fans, but a lot of subs ignore the fact it's easily picked up and questioned. If the series has "dollars", then sure, keep it, but don't change yen or another currency to it. It's not always ideal. It's certainly come a long way to how it was before, i just remember watching Violence Jack and shacking my head. but there we go.
 
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