252: imagine all the tags sitting neglected in inboxes for this

[ryanongosling]

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Comments

[(Anonymous)]

everything but the original language is inaccurate

play entirely in japanese or perish

da

[(Anonymous)]

is this baby's first non-western canon? you talk as if fan translations (or poor quality official translations) haven't altered the way an entire fandom perceives some characters, to the point where the japanese side has an entirely different (more accurate) view of them.

Re: da

[(Anonymous)]

no...? you've entirely misinterpreted my comment

i speak japanese. i am aware of how shitty translations, official or otherwise, often are

Re: da

[(Anonymous)]

yeah so do i, that's why i was baffled. it sounds like you're defending the shitty translations.

Re: da

[(Anonymous)]

nah, it was just a joke about how there will always be some degree of inaccuracy in any translation because that's the nature of translating a work

obviously the degree of inaccuracy varies, though - trust me, i'm annoyed about particularly shitty ones too. the video game industry in particular is inundated with translators who don't seem to even have basic japanese comprehension, and it's deeply depressing. i've given up on getting any castmates who aren't very off due to only being exposed to the english version

Re: da

[(Anonymous)]

for me it's annoying when the official translation is actually fairly accurate and people put it aside to use the inaccurate fan versions. drives me up the wall.

[(Anonymous)]

there is a huge amount of this with Japanese media and people who are just dangerous enough with the language to think that good official translation is wrong and opt for something more literal.

that's not to say there aren't things with bad localization, but bad official localization is generally a lot less common then some weebs who passed N2 on the internet will convince you to believe because they don't know how to translate for meaning.

[(Anonymous)]

lol that is very true

[(Anonymous)]

as someone who has in fact passed the n2 for real, yeah, it's this. i have consumed many, many canons in both languages, and for probably 95% of them the differences between languages are either nonexistent or so minimal as to be functionally irrelevant. this isn't 20 years ago, localizations these days tend to hew quite closely to the original source and when they don't, there's usually a reason for it.

[(Anonymous)]

a lot of times i notice people who complain about official translations fall under two camps: people who are mad that the translations aren't written by native english speakers (often the case with gachas) or those who have good english but take liberties with the localization by adding flavor text (so making a character sound more verbose than they are or use more poppy dialogue instead of direct ones)

While I get the issue with both (sometimes it's jarring to listen to localization when you can understand the original voice language, or non-native translations get spelling or word usage wrong) but I agree that functionally they are close enough to the original not to bother me. It is rare to see translation so bad it is unreadable or loses that much of the original meaning to be significant for me.

da

[(Anonymous)]

"so making a character sound more verbose than they are or use more poppy dialogue instead of direct ones"

to get an authentic translation due to context often something will feel more verbose in another language because it doesn't always have the same context that Japanese culturally will have. you have to provide that context or you end up with shitty direct translations.

ayrt

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, exactly! I'm playing a game now that got a lot of flak for the localization due to that, and while I agree some of the choices aren't perfect, overall the additional dialogue actual gets the mood across very well and the 'corrected translation' patches are so lifeless in comparison and loses some of the character personality as a result.

[(Anonymous)]

i feel like you've had better luck than me because i run into translators who just aren't proficient in japanese far more often

like, on the level of incorrectly mistranslating shit like おめでたいヤツ into "auspicious fellow," シャコ (in the context of sushi) into "giant clam," etc. just things that make it seem as if they just plugged words into a dictionary and picked the very first definition that popped up rather than understanding or considering the greater context

[(Anonymous)]

Are you sure it wasn't AI translated?

[(Anonymous)]

i'm talking about official translations by companies like atlus and nisa, so i would hope they weren't ai translated

ayrt

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah those are bad. I physically recoiled with シャコ because I actually eat that so I was all giant clam???

I wouldn't say I'm luckier, maybe just more tolerant? I'm ESL so I guess I am more forgiving of translations at times since my grammar isn't the best either.

I admit I have only ever played (and never finished) P5 from Atlus and I hear a lot of complaints about the localization for that one too. I will say I have seen really bad ones for gachas (for example, Ensemble Stars have some real issues with inconsistent terminology, some stories are just unreadable, and they have frequently spelled names wrong) but they are probably far less frequent than others encounter since I didn't see issues with other games that people I know had plenty to complain about translation-wise (usually some stilted grammar use but still understandable).

[(Anonymous)]

Remember when the new Evangelion dub came out and it was extremely literal and thus awkward to listen to and so almost everyone disliked it.

People are clueless about localization.

ayrt

[(Anonymous)]

oh, completely agree. also, i don't take my frustration out on rpers who only have the localization and stick closely to it, as i understand that's really their only version of canon. but sometimes, i do feel caught between a character's speech and mannerisms in japanese vs. the english adaptation...the latter probably reads as more in-character to a western crowd, but there's so much that gets lost in translation that i can't overlook in my personal interpretation of the character. sometimes the english version changes or adds too much, so i have to choose which version i want to follow more closely, and usually i end up with a concoction of both. i wonder if other people have this issue and what their thoughts are

ayrt

[(Anonymous)]

damn, i almost could've written this word-for-word. i think about this often as well - i'm sure that from the pov of a player who's only experienced the localization, my characterization choices must also seem off and grate on them

in the end, i opted to just leave a note on my journals that i base my interpretation mainly off of the japanese version and that i'm not as familiar with the localization, but i do worry about how it comes off

it's a relief to hear that i'm not the only one who frets about this sort of thing

Re: ayrt

[(Anonymous)]

the disclaimer isn't a bad idea! i do worry about this, so it's good to know others feel the same. i'm sorry to anyone who's confused or thrown off by my portrayal. that said, i'll continue leaning more on the japanese characterization because that is generally the one i prefer.

Re: ayrt

[(Anonymous)]

i remember feeling this during the first few years i rped because i was into digimon and the US dub just sounded incredibly different from the JP version (and the dub I grew up with) that it was nigh impossible for me to overcome the differences.

disclaimers definitely help for this. if i know a canon i play has a localization that is quite liberal, i would note which version i play in my journal so people are aware. sometimes it can also be fun mixing both a little (like using dub names as nicknames) if you get a cast.

[(Anonymous)]

fucking zoomers

you do not know what a bad translation is until you've watched something localized by 4Kids

[(Anonymous)]

ultimate muscle was way better than kinnikuman nisei. it got canceled in japan and 4kids commissioned the animation studio to finish the show.

da

[(Anonymous)]

Wild, always thought that franchise was more popular in Japan than america.

Re: da

[(Anonymous)]

original kinnikuman is basically revered as a classic anime (hence the revival manga and new anime this summer) but nisei is a little bit more divisive although the first nisei manga did well enough to get a sequel. the problem was that nisei originally ran in a magazine that was basically playboy and had a lot of raunchy content, but when they adapted it to a anime they decided to air it as a shounen aimed at a younger audience like the original kinnikuman was. they did some changes to tone it down and essentially turned into a generic children’s anime, when the manga audience was adults.

4kids on the other hand absolutely embraced the campiness, which is exactly what the anime needed because it’s a fantasy wrestling show where the main character has weaponized his farts during several matches. they still made heavy localization edits such as removing nearly all japanese writing, but a lot of it turned was for the better. it helps that the dub was also overseen by eric stuart, who voiced brock, james, and seto kaiba in the 4kids dub.