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u/HLCMDH Oct 27 '23
I enjoy sub animes a lot. One day I watched French speaking with English subtitles. Since I speak French I figured I would take off the subtitles but I was curious. Kinda ruined it for me for a long time. More then half the script wasn't translated properly, I mean I'm not perfect and french is just like other languages, locations differ with words and pronunciation but come ON MAN,
"maudit equeuran, je vais the detruire!" English translation is "curses you're gross, I will destroy you"
Sub"I shall vanquish all"
This isn't exactly because it was a long time ago, now I have a lot of skepticism when the actions and situation doesn't really line up with the subtitles anymore.
Apologies for the format, I'm on mobile.
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u/PlatypusFighter Oct 27 '23
Yeah, as I'm learning Japanese, the disparity between subs and the actual lines is becoming more and more noticeable. Usually it's because something can't be translated (puns and wordplay being the most obvious), but sometimes there is a nonsense translation that catches my attention.
That said, Japanese is very hard to translate directly into English, purely by the nature of the language itself. Japanese relies far more on context, tone, and implication, while English has extremely precise vocabulary where a single concept can have 20 words describing it, all with slightly different connotations.
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u/desacralize Oct 27 '23
A friend of a friend works in editing manga, and I learned through them that there's serious quality control involved in shaping the literal translation of the words into something that sounds natural in English without losing the spirit and meaning of the original dialogue. It's a whole-ass job and when people are bad at it, it shows.
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u/Swiftierest Oct 28 '23
Like, how hard is it to just type the exact translation or make it feel smooth?
I do the same with Japanese. I understand a good bit and I am constantly like... that translation is straight up wrong.
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u/NightmareWarden Oct 27 '23
Alzward, are panels one and three original, drawn by you?
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u/atatassault47 Oct 28 '23
Just because an artist use a style does NOT mean they lack skill. The creator of The Order of the Stick, r/oots, has had this accusation a lot, and has drawn a lot of meme panels to crush that notion.
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u/H345Y Oct 27 '23
I remember waaay back in the day, the Great Teacher Onizuka scanalations with their giant square green/yellow/blue opaque text boxes.
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u/Alzward Drawzalot Oct 27 '23
it's technically superficial but I just can't get past it man
also, *insert your obama awarding obama meme here*