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ANNCast vs. That Anime Show


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corinthian



Joined: 20 Feb 2009
Posts: 264
PostPosted: Fri Aug 17, 2012 7:34 pm Reply with quote
This is going to be good. I'm a big fan of both ANNCast and TAM, as different as the two shows are.
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neocloud9



Joined: 06 Oct 2008
Posts: 1178
Location: Atlanta, GA
PostPosted: Fri Aug 17, 2012 8:25 pm Reply with quote
This has been one of my favorite episodes in ages! Really perfectly encapsulated why I love Terri and Tatum and their podcast so much, thanks for having them on this week!
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penguintruth



Joined: 08 Dec 2004
Posts: 8458
Location: Penguinopolis
PostPosted: Fri Aug 17, 2012 8:54 pm Reply with quote
"If the Japanese line is to make the audience laugh then the English line should be, accuracy be damned" is way too dismissive. If you're not going to be able to do an accurate translation of a show because it doesn't translate well, then you shouldn't have licensed the show to begin with. Otherwise what you're doing is basically overwriting the show itself with something you've made up on your own, and it stops being the show you licensed and starts being a new show altogether.

The whole "well some lines don't translate well/don't sound natural in English", I'm willing to give it some leeway (especially in comedies, since they're such different beasts), but if you're just making up entire scenes worth of dialogue, then you're not doing a dub for that show, you're making a new show out of the intended show. It loses its identity. In which case, repackage it as another show and sell the real one on the side.

Name these dubs that are too accurate and thus sound strange. Most of the best English dubs are 90% accurate to the original Japanese version. Your Cowboy Bebops, your Spirited Aways, your Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complexes, your Baccanos. If you find too much difficulty translating the Japanese script into an English script that works, you need to hand the project over to somebody more competent.

You know, even though comedies are difficult, it's possible to do a mostly accurate comedy dub. Look at the ADV dubs for comedies like Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi and Excel Saga. Sure, they had to water down some thing, and in the case of the latter, use different terminology where it didn't translate at all, but for the most part were pretty faithful.

An English dub should ideally be as much of an English version of the Japanese show as possible. It's the representative of the Japanese show in English. It's the ambassador. If the ambassador misrepresents the show, it's not a very good one.

If a studio's desire is to make completely different shows out of existing ones, they should instead open up their own animation studio and make their own cartoons. Don't take a dump on existing ones because you feel the need to be "creative". I'm not looking for "creative" English dubs. Creativity should start and stop with trying to get the translated dialogue fit the mouth flaps right. You want to be creative? Write your own show. The Japanese already wrote these. Just translate and be happy you can take part in it.


Last edited by penguintruth on Fri Aug 17, 2012 9:09 pm; edited 1 time in total
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darkchibi07



Joined: 15 Oct 2003
Posts: 5459
PostPosted: Fri Aug 17, 2012 9:06 pm Reply with quote
So Tatem really liked working on Steins;Gate, huh? That level of enthusiasm makes me excited to hear more of that dub!
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Setis



Joined: 05 Jun 2007
Posts: 25
PostPosted: Fri Aug 17, 2012 9:39 pm Reply with quote
It's funny how Zac pretty much gets them to talk about Anime more than they do on their own show Smile
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Hypeathon



Joined: 12 Aug 2010
Posts: 1176
PostPosted: Fri Aug 17, 2012 9:40 pm Reply with quote
darkchibi07 wrote:
So Tatem really liked working on Steins;Gate, huh? That level of enthusiasm makes me excited to hear more of that dub!

I don't know if this helps explain much of anything since I haven't seen Steins;Gate myself, but J. Michael Tatum is a big Doctor Who fan.

Setis wrote:
It's funny how Zac pretty much gets them to talk about Anime more than they do on their own show Smile

Laughing Laughing Laughing Tha-that is true! That is very true! Then again, most of the other stuff they talk about is also why I personally like tuning into their podcast so much.
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Ojamajo LimePie



Joined: 09 Nov 2007
Posts: 762
PostPosted: Fri Aug 17, 2012 9:43 pm Reply with quote
An unnamed show with a memorable female character in the mid/low vocal register? Would you consider the show to be fabulous? Perhaps even Fabulous Max? Wink

I love both old and new Who. You should try it, Zac.
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lostrune



Joined: 09 Jun 2012
Posts: 313
PostPosted: Fri Aug 17, 2012 10:14 pm Reply with quote
penguintruth wrote:
"If the Japanese line is to make the audience laugh then the English line should be, accuracy be damned" is way too dismissive. If you're not going to be able to do an accurate translation of a show because it doesn't translate well, then you shouldn't have licensed the show to begin with. Otherwise what you're doing is basically overwriting the show itself with something you've made up on your own, and it stops being the show you licensed and starts being a new show altogether.

The whole "well some lines don't translate well/don't sound natural in English", I'm willing to give it some leeway (especially in comedies, since they're such different beasts), but if you're just making up entire scenes worth of dialogue, then you're not doing a dub for that show, you're making a new show out of the intended show. It loses its identity. In which case, repackage it as another show and sell the real one on the side.

Name these dubs that are too accurate and thus sound strange. Most of the best English dubs are 90% accurate to the original Japanese version. Your Cowboy Bebops, your Spirited Aways, your Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complexes, your Baccanos. If you find too much difficulty translating the Japanese script into an English script that works, you need to hand the project over to somebody more competent.

You know, even though comedies are difficult, it's possible to do a mostly accurate comedy dub. Look at the ADV dubs for comedies like Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi and Excel Saga. Sure, they had to water down some thing, and in the case of the latter, use different terminology where it didn't translate at all, but for the most part were pretty faithful.

An English dub should ideally be as much of an English version of the Japanese show as possible. It's the representative of the Japanese show in English. It's the ambassador. If the ambassador misrepresents the show, it's not a very good one.

If a studio's desire is to make completely different shows out of existing ones, they should instead open up their own animation studio and make their own cartoons. Don't take a dump on existing ones because you feel the need to be "creative". I'm not looking for "creative" English dubs. Creativity should start and stop with trying to get the translated dialogue fit the mouth flaps right. You want to be creative? Write your own show. The Japanese already wrote these. Just translate and be happy you can take part in it.


So no bad Sarah Palin or Britney Spears jokes? Laughing
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penguintruth



Joined: 08 Dec 2004
Posts: 8458
Location: Penguinopolis
PostPosted: Fri Aug 17, 2012 10:27 pm Reply with quote
lostrune wrote:

So no bad Sarah Palin or Britney Spears jokes? Laughing


If it's in the original script. Or (I guess) if some Japanese celebrity's mentioned in the original script and they need to find an American equivalent as to not confuse the twelve remaining people who can't use Google.

Otherwise it's annoying. Especially if the show takes place in Japan and they're making references to things Japanese people normally wouldn't. Or if it takes place on an entirely different world (how would the characters of Those Who Hunt Elves even know who Brittany Spears is?).

I don't want to hear Goku talk about how much he loves Pawn Stars.


Last edited by penguintruth on Fri Aug 17, 2012 10:46 pm; edited 1 time in total
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TitanXL



Joined: 08 Jun 2010
Posts: 4036
PostPosted: Fri Aug 17, 2012 10:37 pm Reply with quote
Sket Dance is probably the best way I've seen an official company (Well, CrunchyRoll) translate a comedy anime. A little note here or there to explain anything they think needs to be explained, and that's that. I don't want them to replace celebrity or Japanese things; afterall, this is a Japanese show. It makes sense for them to be talking about it. Whenever I see that things are replaced takes me out and I just spend more time wonder "Why are these Japanese kids talking about American historian figures? I wonder what it was originally, because it's clearly not that"

Otherwise, I agree with the 'if they want to change something so much, just make your own show' statement. Shin-chan comes to mind. It got a much more faithful dub in many other countries, but here it got turned into a Family Guy-lite show.
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Hypeathon



Joined: 12 Aug 2010
Posts: 1176
PostPosted: Fri Aug 17, 2012 10:41 pm Reply with quote
TitanXL wrote:
A little note here or there to explain anything they think needs to be explained, and that's that.

Personally, I find that distracting since I'm not going to prioritize pausing the video to get the reference as much as watching the show for the story.
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samuelp
Industry Insider


Joined: 25 Nov 2007
Posts: 2228
Location: San Antonio, USA
PostPosted: Sat Aug 18, 2012 1:44 am Reply with quote
Hypeathon wrote:
TitanXL wrote:
A little note here or there to explain anything they think needs to be explained, and that's that.

Personally, I find that distracting since I'm not going to prioritize pausing the video to get the reference as much as watching the show for the story.

The alternative translation without a note would be
to use "old man Benjamin Franklin", but that's an americanization.

Sket Dance streams to many countries around the world, we try to avoid americanization in our translations. Here a note was the best option without a complete rewrite of the line.

Currency is always a tricky translation issue, but when doing a translation for a worldwide audience the best choice is just to leave it in the original currency.
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superdry



Joined: 07 Jan 2012
Posts: 1309
PostPosted: Sat Aug 18, 2012 1:54 am Reply with quote
samuelp wrote:

Currency is always a tricky translation issue, but when doing a translation for a worldwide audience the best choice is just to leave it in the original currency.


Bandai should have gotten you to do the translation for K-On. I had no clue that Japan uses USD as their currency. haha...
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Hypeathon



Joined: 12 Aug 2010
Posts: 1176
PostPosted: Sat Aug 18, 2012 1:58 am Reply with quote
samuelp wrote:
The alternative translation without a note would be
to use "old man Benjamin Franklin", but that's an americanization.

Or you could just put in parenthesis within the sentence on the bottom of the screen, "man on the 10,000 yen bill." I don't understand why because I said I found a translation note distracting, that automatically means we can assume I want Americanization instead.
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Maidenoftheredhand



Joined: 21 Jun 2007
Posts: 2632
PostPosted: Sat Aug 18, 2012 3:18 am Reply with quote
Steins Gate dub was excellent, I heard it at Otakon.
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