Forum - View topicSub-watchers: do you prefer honorifics?
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CrowLia
 Posts: 5505 Location: Mexico |
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With this I agree so much. In AoEx, Rin is called a variety of things from Nii-san by Yukio, Rin by Shiemi, and Okumura/kun/san by most of his classmates and the subs change them all to "Rin". I didn't watch the official subs for Bleach, but I can imagine something like that being a problem too, since Ichigo is called a thousand different things (Ichigo, Kurosaki/kun/san, Ichi-nii, Icchi, Ichigo-chan etc.) and he himself has a thousand different ways of addresing different people that ellicit different reactions and mark his relationship with these people (How Byakuya or Hitsugaya are enraged to be called by their first names or how he calls Urahara and Yoruichi with "-san" out of respect.) Recently, while watching Uchouten Kazoku I was reminded of how important this actually is, when I heard thespoiler[ mother calling Benten with "-sama" -which everyone in tanuki society seems to do-. This shows how much they respect and fear her] and this is lost in the official subs that have decided to rid of the honorifics |
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pws_37
Posts: 15 |
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I totally agree (seems like most do) that subs should have honorifics. Names should match what I'm hearing as much as possible. It is also annoying when the subs reverse the name order. I have watched dubs hardly at all since a) dubbing actors are at a disadvantage compared to original voices (dubbed version of Das Boot for instance) b) I could not get past the cognitive dissonance of Texan accents (Funimation) in a show with Japanese customs. (I'm from Texas FWIW.) Yeah, just sounds out of place to me (would not say "stupid"). Still, words like sensei and sempai have no direct English equivalent, so I don't know what else a dubbed version is supposed to do if a character is addressed just as "Sensei" or when the dialogue is itself discussing what honorific is proper or was used unexpectedly--not all that infrequent dialog topic. People can easily look up the honorifics in Wikipedia and get a good idea of the subject. The rules for the Prince Yuki Club (right name?) in Fruits Basket helped me with the honorifics vis a vis high school. 
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shiranehito
 Posts: 793 |
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I prefer to have the honorifics mentioned because it holds importance to character relationship.
Non anime example, but in the published comic of Detective Conan a.k.a. Case Closed in my country, almost all the characters call each other with given name. In one arc, there was a case when the little girl Ayumi (Amy?) tried to get closer to Haibara (Anita Hailey in English release, I believe) by calling her her given name "Ai". Before, she called her "Haibara-san" in the original Japanese, and after the chapter she calls her "Ai-chan". This is outright ridiculous in my local language version since Ayumi has been calling her "Ai" even before the chapter started, and then it holds no meaning for the arc at all. At the end of the arc, Haibara who was always being called "Ai" doesn't like it when the boys called her so, even though it was always that way. |
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stardf29
Posts: 171 |
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Eh, I know enough about honorifics that I can catch them from just listening to the Japanese track itself, so it's not a big deal to me. Same with name order. I suppose I prefer them to be left in on principle, but I don't care about it much.
But yeah, the real problem is when one name is said in the Japanese track and the subs use an entirely different name. |
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Ambehr79
Posts: 16 |
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Names are everything, and honorifics attached to that name must be as well. True, they show the relationship between two characters, but it can also add to the 'closeness' of characters. Read what you're hearing -- sounds good to me. >w<
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t-Roy
 Posts: 17 Location: Lancaster, PA |
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Yes. Even the slightest Westernization of any Japanese anime script thoroughly ticks me off, so I always want the subs to be as true to the original language as it can - and that goes even for scenes or story lines that take place outside of Japan... that's one reason I won't ever listen to an English dub unless I'm forced to (no subs available). For me, watching anime is as much a cultural experience as it is entertainment, so I wish to keep it completely true to the original.
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18210 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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Even when the characters are clearly not Japanese and operating in cultures that are clearly not Japanese?
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Tuor_of_Gondolin
 Posts: 3524 Location: Bellevue, WA |
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*If* appropriate for the culture portrayed in the anime, then yes, show them. If *not* appropriate, then *don't* show them. Seems pretty simple to me.
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st_owly
 Posts: 5234 Location: Edinburgh, Scotland |
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So, hypothetically, if a dub for Victorian Romance Emma was available, you'd still prefer to watch it in Japanese despite the fact it's entirely set in Victorian England and the creator did absolutely loads of research to make it as authentic as possible?
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t-Roy
Posts: 17 Location: Lancaster, PA |
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Well, hypothetically, yes - I would still want to read the script as a Japanese viewer would hear it in their own language - I'm not saying it would be better that way for everyone, it would just be my preference. I guess I'm just a purist - I feel I'm westernized enough to get the gist of most of what they are talking about, and if it is a word or idea that is specific to Japanese culture, and foreign to westerners, I would still prefer to figure the meaning out on my own or look it up - I think being confronted with a translation issue like that is a fascinating learning opportunity about another culture. |
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Alan45
 Village Elder Posts: 9849 Location: Virginia |
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@st_owly
If that is what floats his boat I don't see anything wrong with it. That is the joy of DVDs etc. is that both versions are available. For me, the only shows I normally watch dubbed are those such as Baccano and Black Lagoon where the characters are supposed to be speaking English. |
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