Forum - View topicHey, Answerman! - Dub Steps
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 23762 |
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I remember watching the sub version of Strawberry Marshmallow. That show had a character named Ana Coppola, who I believe was supposed to be from England.  Anyhoo, the idea with her was she was supposed to be really bad at speaking Japanese and often lapsed into English. The seiyuu voicing her spoke in a very heavy accent, so the conceit didn't really make sense. But ya know what? I went with it. I understood what the show was attempting to do. So instead of getting my panties in a bunch and cursing the show's staff for failing to be "authentic" and I sat back and enjoyed the show. Amazing what you can accomplish when you aren't a mental defective a-hole obsessively pursing a jerkwad agenda, eh?
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Touma
 Posts: 2651 Location: Colorado, USA |
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Unfortunately I will have to wait for at least two months to find out, but I would imagine that they will just translate it normally. I see no reason for them to do anything different.
It does not seem at all odd to me. If I was blindfolded and had not seen any of the show up until that scene then it might seem odd to hear them saying that, but just from watching the video I know exactly what is happening. There is nothing odd about it.
K-On! is one of those shows were localizing it makes perfect sense. K-On! is not "Japanese" in the sense of having story elements that depend on things that are unique to Japanese culture. K-On! could be set in almost any part of the civilized world. There are a few brief scenes where something might be lost, such as when Mio wears the kimono for the shrine visit, but the meaning is clear from context: Ritsu got her again. And Yui and Ritsu are characters that I would expect to find anywhere. I do not see anything "Japanese" about them. If anything they seem less Japanese than most of the other characters. As somebody pointed out about this subject, this poor old beast has been beaten so much that it is no longer recognizable as a dead horse. So unless something requires a response from me I will be just lurking and not contributing any more to prolonging the agony. Fortunately nothing that we say here will make any difference unless we also vote with our wallets. Because of that I feel confident that the anime that I buy will not be affected. |
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Scaramanga
Posts: 134 Location: San Diego, CA |
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That may have been your intial point (and one I'd still see as contentious) but it hasn't been for like the past 5 pages or so. You've been clear that a translation is "wrong" when it isn't an exact transliteration. This isn't "wrong" it's just your opinion of what a translation should be (a nebulous proposition at best.) I've read through this entire thread and I don't think anyone has out-and-out said that fansubs are inferior, just that they aren't official. And not being official means that they are not endorsed by the original creators or have the original creators input. Which IMNSHO means they are automatically more "accurate" (whatever that means.)
You're right. Of course fansubbers also don't have much in the way of editorial oversight, or beholden to their customers to provide a quality product. And fansubbers often do as they see fit, many times to the detriment of the show they're subbing.
Uhhh EVERY market has been shrinking for the past 5 years! Or did you not notice this global economic recession? And let's be honest, the "fans" that get pissed off by even the tiniest localization are the vocal, nutty, minority. I see little way the industry could attract NEW consumers - yes, see that's the point of things, not to keep an ever stagnating, maniacal-fanbase, but to enlarge it to include some mainstream appeal - without at least a little localization. Also, do you have any hard facts backing up your claim that fansubs are growing? With the advent of simulcast streaming, I've personally seen less and less fansubs and fansub groups picking up shows. I'd also point out that the Westernization of anime in the early to mid 80s (and even into the 90s) was largely responsible for the anime boom of the late 90s to early 2000s. I think a lot of you are forgetting the point of view of people who aren't hardcore weaboo anime fans (and also forgetting that no one was BORN a Japanese cultural expert, unless they were born in Japan.) And like Touma, I think I've said all I can here. I'm pretty much done tilting at windmills. |
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samuelp
Industry Insider
Posts: 2231 Location: San Antonio, USA |
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Remember about translating yen to dollars:
English subs aren't just for the US. Those subs will get used in England and Australia and watched around the world. You can argue that the dollar is the "most" understood currency in the world but it seriously weakens any argument for "translating" currency in my opinion. Take fairy tail, for example: The currency in that show "Jewel" is clearly based on the yen since rent is ~70,000 jewel a month. By the localization logic the subs should cut that by a factor of 100 so people relate to the currency better... Which is clearly silly because you're changing one fictional currency for another. If someone doesn't know the value of the yen, then they can find out simply through context. "Oh, a guitar costs ~XXX,XXX yen!". Usually absolute prices are irrelevant anyway, and all that matters is comparison, which can work regardless of unit. To say translating it into dollars is useful to the viewer is to assume the viewer has no idea how much a guitar is in the first place. Note, that's not true when currency is used in idioms... "A yen for your thoughts" ain't gonna fly. |
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Touma
Posts: 2651 Location: Colorado, USA |
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I cannot speak for everybody but I have been talking about Region 1 English dubs (not subs, dubs). Have you not noticed how many times "North America" has been specified?
If the R1 dubs are used in R2E, R4 or any other region that is the decision of the companies that license anime in those regions. They could make their own dubs. If you have a complaint take it up with them
Which nobody has done because it is totally irrelevant ...
... and does not in any way weaken the argument.
Is your opinion still the same?
This is off topic, but do you seriousl believe that the average North American viewer will know the value, in Japan, of a Gibson Les Paul Standard Edition guitar? And did you notice that the characters in the show were expecting to pay much, much less? |
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Asterisk-CGY
 Posts: 398 |
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Well localization of anime in particular sounds counterproductive since the point of anime is that its foreign, different, and of a world not of their own. Changing that aspect is what one friend said "de-fangs the tiger." You start taking out what's interesting and you start losing its appeal.
And anime, by being a japanese product, targeting a japanese audience, will always have a sense of japanese culture, even for something as generic as K-ON. Its just how the writers think and will always be a part of it. |
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Chagen46
 Posts: 4377 |
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If an anime is interesting ONLY because it's foreign....it wasn't exactly a good show in the first place.
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TitanXL
 Posts: 4036 |
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Pretty much. You might as well cut out all the onigiri and Japanese festivals and their visits to Japanese cities like Kyoto and all that other Japanese junk out of K-ON if yen is too much for them. Actually, IIRC, they referenced a few western bands on the show. That's the one thing nice about anime, it's multi-cultural. It's not "just Japanese stuff" They have no problem injecting things of various culture into it; even sequences of them speaking another language. To Americanize the sub or dub pretty much says "America is the only culture that's important" Will the average Japanese person know who "The Who" is? Probably not, yet it's still in the script because that's what the creator wanted and a plot point involving Ritsu. If they can handle that, Americans (or more specific, anime fans, can handle yen) This isn't the 60s anymore, I'm pretty sure people have at least a general idea of foreign currency like euros, pesos, yen, Australian dollars, and stuff. And if they don't, then too bad, the writer didn't compensate for Japanese people who don't know who "The Who" are, after all. Do you think the average Japanese knows what Sanji's French attack names are in One Piece? Probably not. This kind of stuff is common in anime. |
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ArsenicSteel
 Posts: 2370 |
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Oh look we have another entry in the 'Big Book of Screwed Up Adages' by Chagen46. |
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kakoishii
Posts: 741 |
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Please enlighten me to how that's a "screwed up adage?" Before he posted it I was about to, because seriously if the only reason someone is watching an anime is because of its "foreigness," well that just says a lot about that person......here's a hint, what it says isn't anything good. |
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