Forum - View topicINTEREST: Aniplex of America Revises Translation Error in Kaguya-sama: Love is War Season 2 Episode
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Kougeru
 Posts: 5526 |
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One of the first rules of translation is to be as accurate as possible. Yes, some changes need to made for "localization" reasons so the intended audience understands what is happening but it should be kept to a minimum. It doesn't matter if it's "boring" or whatever. Jokes are for YouTube "abridged" series and such, not professional subtitles. They essentially rewrote the script, which is also disrespectful to the actual writers. First comment on this thread said it's a "perfectly fine translation". By definition it is NOT. It's a rewrite. It was a tasteless attempt to sound "hip" and "Current"
Also it was actually two lines that were rewritten. The first one was "What's the deal with the social distancing?" fixed to "Why are you so far away from me?" And one at the end: "The social distance will be set at no less than 50 centimeters". Did this one get fixed, too? Also, I agree about the flyer. I had to ask people on MAL if I missed the joke and yes, I did. Edit: Fixing auto-correct errors |
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jellybeanbandit
 Posts: 107 |
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I assume it did otherwise they wouldn't bother changing it if people didn't complain. Also oops, thought it was just another dub localization. It being in the sub makes it worse IMO. Sub should always be the accurate track and the dub can take more liberties if it wants to, at least that's how I view it. |
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Lobokendo
 Posts: 135 Location: Somewhere |
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The only thing that bothers me about this is people thinking they have a right to decide what other people get upset about. If the translation hurt people, it should be changed.
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SaiyamanMS
Posts: 302 |
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Sure, it’s a fairly loose translation of the line that unnecessarily shoehorns a contemporary reference, but it gets the idea across. Nothing is actually lost in translation.
I appreciate that people want a pure experience that doesn’t add anything to the original text, but is it really a big deal? If the translation is objectively wrong, that’s one thing, but getting angry over a little bit of (admittedly unnecessary) punching up of an inconsequential line that doesn’t really change the meaning? |
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Yuvelir
 Posts: 1545 |
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I'm kind of in the same camp.
Sure, adding a (very lame) joke to a scene that didn't warrant it is wrong. But it is also very trivial. There are far worse going on in official translations (and this series/Funi in particular) for this to be the cause of an uproar. Sure it's more memorable and easy to catch than actual translation errors but it doesn't take me away as much as missing what's going on because they skipped on translating text or a song. |
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killjoy_the
 Posts: 2459 |
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Now if only actual translation errors got this much attention and consequently got revised. I barely understand why people got so attached to this one.
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Kougeru
Posts: 5526 |
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It IS objectively wrong. That alone is is a legitimate reason for people to get angry. It does NOT get "the idea" across. There's a huge difference between standing far from someone and "social distancing". There's a huge distance between saying students won't be allowed to be near each other and "the social distance will be 50 cm". The result (people staying away) is the same but the reasoning is completely different. It's also insensitive to the hundreds of thousands that have died to the virus. No one should be writing their awful jokes about this situation in someone else's script. It's decades too early to joke about this virus to begin with. It's weird to me that people fail to understand that we PAY for this product. We expect it to be accurate. If I ordered a plain cheeseburger and they gave it to me with ice cream on it I would not be happy. Same thing here. When translations are inaccurate, even if it is rather minor, it's not what we paid for. Translations for subtitles should be as accurate as possible. So again, yes, people are allowed to be angry over a "tiny line". And it wasn't "inconsequential". It was a distasteful attempt to be "hip", funny and "current"
They do get this much attention from me and thousands of other people, we just get ignored. I'm not gonna either/or this. I wish every error/blatant mistranslation got fixed. They can afford to fix them all. We can afford to complain about more than 1 thing at a time, and we do. The reasons why people got "attached" to this one is likely because the anime is so popular but also because these (two, actually) "errors" were rather big rewrites rather than just typos like most of the actual mistakes tend to be. Maybe a coincidence but I've been keeping track since 2017 and as of today Aniplex has the most minor errors such as typos or missing words out of all the current companies. They at the least need new/better editors. Specifically editors that understand Japanese well enough to see when words are missing (leading to the subtitles saying the opposite of what they're supposed to say) and catch when scripts are being rewritten like this case. |
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TarsTarkas
 Posts: 5823 Location: Virginia, United States |
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Since COVID-19 has changed the world so much, if you are going to mention it in an anime or show, then that anime or show has to show that it is affecting the characters in the anime or show. You can't mention COVID-19 and then pretend that your characters and the world around them is somehow unaffected by COVID-19.
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Greed1914
 Posts: 4420 |
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On a technical level, it works, but the context isn't there for that particular translation. An anime scripted a while ago based on pre-existing source material isn't going to be that topical. Maybe we'll see it later on, but it sticks out right now because you know that isn't what they meant.
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lossthief
ANN Reviewer
 Posts: 1388 |
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..."hurt people"? I can get thinking the subtitle was eye-rolling or wouldn't age well, but saying a single, wholly benign line like "why the social distancing?" is hurting someone is...I don't even know what to call that. 
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bennyl
Posts: 123 |
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A translator's job is to translate, not editorialize, embellish, or simplify. I think the swapping of idioms are okay, but I prefer when they use the literal translation and then explain the idiom. It's like gaining a little extra knowledge and insight into the language and culture.
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Rentwo
 Posts: 184 |
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To be fair there's people who say that every time people object to a translation, even big ones that fall into the territory of outright censorship. People said the same thing about 4Kids dubs back in the day and asked who cared about some silly kids show. To some people translation changes will never be a big deal. But to those that do care, it's clearly an issue for them.
I believe people are willing to forgive honest mistakes in translations. I've noticed plenty of official subs that misheard one word for another, or misread one kanji for another, or simply had a typo in the subs. It's a mistranslation but I can totally see why someone would make that honest mistake. But stuff like this is an obvious, intentional change for the sake of making a joke or point that wasn't there originally. It's especially irksome in an industry where people both on the professional side and the fan side constantly go out of their way to demean piracy and fantranslations when people decide to make their own translations when they find the official translation lacking. I get it's generally frowned upon to criticize fellow industry people, which is why people always rush to defend translators when criticisms like this pop up, but companies really shouldn't continue to allow or do stuff like this and then get also upset when people find alternative ways to consume their product when people get fed up with it. |
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Spastic Minnow
 Bargain HunterExempt from Grammar Rules  Posts: 4609 Location: Gainesville, FL |
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Actually, it would age wonderfully. In the future, when it's not necessary, "social distancing" will be a permanent addition to our vocabulary and it will a punchline. It'll be that thing people did when it was necessary. If you're doing it in the future it will become a joke. It doesn't work NOW specifically because it's contemporary. The only way it ages badly is that it will be overused. |
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Shar Aznabull
 Posts: 236 |
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This is getting off-topic but the House in Fata Morgana localization makes perfect sense, it's specifically supposed to be an insult from one character to another and not a typical use of the word "tsundere", leaving it as is would confuse people who only know it as a character trope (as it clearly did). It works perfectly within the context of the game which is why nobody who actually played the VN in the four years since its released has complained about it and it only raised a fuss when it was taken entirely out of context. Even the creator and writer of the original, who is bilingual, agreed with the localization. |
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Lobokendo
Posts: 135 Location: Somewhere |
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Perhaps "hurt" was the wrong word. My meaning is that if someone who lost a loved one to covid-19 saw that joke, I don't believe they would be happy to see it. Even before it being a dated and poor joke. Imagine if a translator put an arson joke in their translation in response to the KyoAni fire. These things are terrible tragedies that shouldn't be joked about lightly. I would go so far as to say that being a dated unfunny joke is far less a reason to change the translation. |
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