Forum - View topicAnswerman - What's Wrong With Fan Translations?
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mewpudding101
Industry Insider
 Posts: 2206 Location: Tokyo, Japan |
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Reading the question in the first place makes me puzzled.
I was a regular staff member at ANN for three years. I still help out once in a while. Before that, I did translation work on dojinshi and lyrics and stuff like that, so I suppose I did fansubbing as well. I learned Japanese from watching fansubs, so of course, I've seen a range of bad and good. But where did this person get the idea that ALL ANN staffers think that fansubs are the scum of the earth or something? Now, as a disclaimer, this is my personal opinion, and does not reflect the opinions of ANN, since the team is filled with lots of different people. Back in the days I used fansubs, there were no digital manga/anime distributors, really. It was all we had. Now, there's Crunchyroll and digital manga people and stuff like that. You guys have it good. Now, with the bounty today, should we have fansubs? I believe they can be good for properties that aren't released abroad. I've definitely spent tons of money on properties I first learned about through fansubs, and I know my friends who live in Japan like me are the same. But I think there's a limit. I've heard western fans that they already got something for free, so why would they buy the paid product? (answer: so you can get more awesome products in the future) As to quality, the fact is, the fans ARE mostly the ones doing the translations on the professional side these days. Heck, I was once a fan translator, and now I work as the main English translator a game company (and one that has produced anime). So yes, it does tick us off when people who don't know Japanese criticize some changes. By not removing honorifics or not doing this and that, we alienate anyone outside of the niche audience. Though I really am against Americanization and will fight to the end to not have that happen (rice balls aren't turning into jelly donuts on my watch), translation is hard work. It's not just making a direct translation of the material. It's making it natural, like drawing in the reader into the world of the game/anime/etc. Translation is not just decoding words. It is creative writing, it is immersion, it is culture encoding. Actually, the worst English translations in my opinion are a) fans who can't speak Japanese who use machine translation b) fans who can't speak much Japanese but hold pride in what they know c) people who know Japanese but not much English but because they know the latter, they think they're the coolest thing since sliced bread and think they can absolutely do no wrong, and d) professional translators who don't care about the product they're translating. |
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SilverTalon01
Posts: 2403 |
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Absolutely. I see a lot of comments about translations treating it almost like a math equation where they see X, think X=Y, and any answer but Y is wrong. However, like you said, it is really more like creative writing. |
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DRosencraft
Posts: 665 |
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Not to get too far on a tangent, but this topic, I believe, is an extension of the prevailing anti-professional culture that is growing in western, particularly American, culture at the moment. It is the basic idea that anyone that has "professional" as a title is somehow inherently corrupted or discourteous or uninformed relative to the layman. I won't speculate on motivations, but I would say it isn't only in the question of fan subs vs pro subs. This is just the latest (relatively speaking) in a growing minutia of layman who decry so-called experts.
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reanimator
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I always roll my eyes at fans who complain constantly about translation quality when they don't know a lick of Japanese language themselves. When I was in the Navy, we called people who pretended to be expert of something as "Sea Lawyers". And those whining fans fall into that category.
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ArmyofDarkness
Posts: 68 |
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What does it matter really, the golden age of fansubs are dead. There are like 3 big options out there if you're a pirate and some tiny one man teams. Crunchy, and to a much lesser extent, Funi and Sentai, killed fansubs.
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ArmyofDarkness
Posts: 68 |
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The problem is what most people on earth do. You know a little bit about something and think you know more than you do. I mostly only get upset over censorship, or memes in my subs. Under no circumstances should either of those be present. Also, inconsistencies between the dub and sub tracks. Ben-to used different monikers for the characters for subs and dubs, and I can only imagine that would cause confusion for fan discussion. The only other time I can think I got seriously pissed was Sentai's handling of Girls und Panzer with calling the StuG III an Assault III. They called it a Panzer once too, which is confusing. That started a personal Ban on Sentai for me. Do 5 mins of research to figure out there is no tank called an Assault III. |
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mewpudding101
Industry Insider
Posts: 2206 Location: Tokyo, Japan |
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Pissed? At something like that? That sounds something to be... slightly irritated at. Not pissed. The fact is, a translation team's not going to have a full military specialist team. Or an aquatic sports team. When translating (and I have translated military terminology before), I do a lot of research to keep things accurate, but sometimes things fall through the crack. Honestly, if the subtitles make you so mad, just turn them off. Problem solved! |
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SilverTalon01
Posts: 2403 |
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You can't always do that. I'd be really happy if I could just turn off the trash subs on my Railgun blurays, but the only way I can do that is if I switch it to english audio. |
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ArmyofDarkness
Posts: 68 |
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Thank you, Japanese Anime Industry! But seriously, Im a consumer, im not here to coddle and baby the companies that offer goods. Do it right or I'll go somewhere else. Sentai did nothing right with GuP, wrong tank names, no license for Katyusha, bland dub, specials sold separate. I feel strongly because it was my favorite show to come out in 2012, and it didn't get the love it should have. |
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reanimator
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It could be perceived arrogance from professional side that rubbed laymen wrong way. Example: Young doctor throwing in complex medical terminology to a patient while diagnosing, thus confuse or belittle the patient. Even worse, certain professionals who stopped working ethical way. Other is advance of technology that allows laymen to perform certain tasks only could done by professionals in the past. While Do-It-Yourself is great for people with plenty of free time to "play around" with inexpensive easy-to-use tools, but it's not practical when there is tight time schedule, high demand, or great expertise involved. Also knowledge, experience, ethics, and accountability of professional still put them apart from laymen. What laymen tend to underestimate that professionals are accountable for what they do in their respective professions. I surely wouldn't put my life on hands of "fan" doctor or ask "fan" lawyer to handle my legal matters. If I wanted my legal documents to be translated from Japanese to English, I wouldn't ask fan translator to translate them. Last edited by reanimator on Thu Nov 19, 2015 12:04 am; edited 1 time in total |
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BadNewsBlues
Posts: 5950 |
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I think you underestimate the stinginess (and stubbornness) of some anime fans
If you lost your fiber go get you a bowl oatmeal problem solved 
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18210 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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Actually, Sentai releases have included on-screen translation notes on many occasions over the past few years. I've remarked on this numerous times in DVD/BR reviews. And let's not forget the famous Pop-Up Notes option that ADV used on Excel Saga and (IIRC) one or two other titles back in the day.
Sorry, but the bolded part is grossly inaccurate. Just because simulcast streams usually don't subtitle OP/EDs doesn't mean that this is done across-the-board for official subs. OP/EDs are nearly always translated on official VHS/DVD/BR releases, and that has been true for pretty nearly as long as anime has existed in those formats. |
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_Quasar_
Posts: 51 |
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Though I just hate seeing stuff localised to the point that its Japaneseness is all filled off. Its especially true of shows that are set in Japan or about Japanese people. Dropping how people greet each other and what things/people are called are important there. I don't want to see kotatsu simply called heaters. Or foods all renamed to something non Japanese. Being somewhat new to anime/manga I feel like disputing the whole 'it makes it easier for newbies' argument. I certainly didn't find the use of Japanese terms a barrier, if anything it got me more interested and led me down the rabbit hole of reading books about Japan. Last edited by _Quasar_ on Thu Nov 19, 2015 12:49 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Dr. Wily
Posts: 272 |
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Some of those are assuredly fake/photoshops, but I can totally see some, like that "calf means baby cow, not leg" being real. |
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AnimeLordLuis
 Posts: 1626 Location: The Borderlands of Pandora |
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In my opinion another reason that fans complain about the official translations is that they're just out there looking for a fight, whether they are having a bad day or they think that their intellect is superior to the professionals they are just asking for trouble.
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