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Inconsistent Dub: Difference between revisions
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(Import from TV Tropes TVT:Main.InconsistentDub 2012-07-01, editor history TVTH:Main.InconsistentDub, CC-BY-SA 3.0 Unported license) |
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{{quote|'''Sailor Moon''': ''Moon Tiara Vaporize!''<br />
'''Luna''': ''Serena, weren't you supposed to say "Moon Tiara Magic"?''<br />
'''Sailor Moon''': ''Yeah, but apparently [[Viewers
When a dub uses inconsistent naming or story telling in translation. Usually done either because of poor translation, [[Spell My Name With an "S"|tricky romanization]] or because of [[Executive Meddling]].
Unlike [[Dub Induced Plot Hole]], this doesn't include changes in a [[Cut and Paste Translation]] that later don't make sense because of either cultural/language differences or new developments in the plot. This just changes the exact same thing over and over because the localization team can't seem to decide. There may not even be anything wrong with the last name they came up with.
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Inconsistent fansubs exist, but are much rarer; while it may have been a problem when hardsubbing (making the subtitles an actual, permanent part of the video) was the norm, the growth of softsubbing (which entails using subtitles that can be freely turned off in the manner of a DVD's) has made it a simple matter to correct and re-release an episode to keep terminology consistent.
{{examples
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
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*** ...which was most of the time. Great Tornado was ''never'' given its merchandise name, so when his [[Evil Twin]], ''Black''WarGreymon, showed up, his Black Tornado attack was no longer named after the attack it was the [[Evil Counterpart]] of.
** In later dubbed series, this occurs ridiculously often between the dub of the television show and the US merchandise - for example, Dynasmon is referred to as Dunasmon in the card game, while Crusadermon retains his original name of LordKnightmon. As of ''[[Digimon Frontier]]'', it's clear that Bandai of America [[They Just Didn't Care|simply stopped caring]] - of all the Digimon introduced in ''Frontier'', absolutely none of them are listed as having the same attacks in the merchandise as they do in the anime, or in the Japanese media for that matter! Then there are the name inconsistencies - aside from the aforementioned Dynasmon and Crusadermon, Bandai also makes mistakes about "Lanamon"<ref>Ranamon in the dub anime and Japanese material</ref>, "Sephirothmon"<ref>Sakkakumon in the dub anime, Sefirotmon in Japanese material</ref>, "Velgrmon"<ref>Velgemon in the dub anime, Velgmon in Japanese material</ref> and most annoyingly of all, "Kerpymon"<ref>Cherubimon literally everywhere else, [[Macekre|and for good reason]]; this name is unfortunately as old as ''02''</ref>. The kicker here? According to ''Adventure'' dub director [[Jeff Nimoy]], Bandai actually gave the dubbers what names to use for things, at least in the ''Adventure'' days, so either they stopped caring and doing that... or they were deliberately fucking with the dubbers by changing names after giving them.
** In ''Tamers'' and ''Frontier,'' the show writers seemed to be much freer to go their own way with terminology. Characters often get new names and attacks, or retain their Japanese ones, when [[The Merch]] was totally different. This is often seen as a good thing, though - the folks who'd made the trading cards had ''no'' idea what the animators would go on to make the attacks ''do'' when brought to television. Once things were left to the writers, we saw the end of the oddities that came from using the Bandai names sight unseen in season one, such as attacks that could not possibly have been named with the eventual onscreen actions in mind (Twin Fang = Saber Leomon firing ''his hair.'') and seemingly meaningless names that were actually [[Engrish]] for straightforward ones (Kurisarimon = Chrysalimon.) or even [[And the Fandom Rejoiced|keeping the Japanese ones]] where the Bandai merch ones were lackuster or [[They Changed It, Now It Sucks|just different]].
** Ironically, in Japanese episode 33 Blitzmon says "Lightning Topper" when using "Golden Thunder."
** Meanwhile, in ''[[Digimon Data Squad]]'', Falcomon's dub-Ultimate form, given the name Crowmon in the show, is inconsistent with the name it had been given in previous games: Yatagaramon. In addition, the aforementioned Crusadermon was - [[Executive Meddling|allegedly at the behest of]] [[Toei Animation]] - renamed [[Narm|LoadKnightmon]] - not Lord, ''[[Engrish|Load]].'' However, they're actually [[She's a Man In Japan|letting him be a guy this time]].
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** ''Energon'' couldn't even bother to keep things consistent between lines of ''dialogue'', let alone from episode to episode. In addition, for multiple episodes, no one could decide which Autobot was Cliffjumper or Downshift. It boggles the mind, really: production was rushed, and the translation that was incomplete, true, but an incomplete translation explains only times when a line didn't match the ''Super Link'' original. Here, there were times when the lines made ''no sense whatsoever'' as a response to what had just been said, or ''directly defied'' what we were witnessing onscreen at the same time.
** Energon takes it [[Up to Eleven]], but that doesn't mean Armada is guilty only of reverting [[T Idal]] Wave to his Japanese name once or twice. Megatron's partner Mini-con is named Leader-1, in homage to the main ''good guy'' from [[Challenge of the Go Bots]]. However, the name Leader-1 would be applied to almost ''any'' Mini-con at least once. Also, many a Mini-con reverted to the Japanese name (Swindle gets called Grid once, etc.) Rush-job applies here, too, though that's usually not enoguh to get the shows forgiven: ''[[Transformers Robots in Disguise]]'' was ''also'' rushed to the States... and is a ''splendid'' example of how [[Woolseyism]] is done best, becoming more popular in US than the original ever was in Japan. You have to find a ''highly'' dedicated weeaboo to insist on the Japanese names in RID.
** This mostly fell by the wayside by the time ''Cybertron'' rolled around, chalking this up to [[Screwed By the Network]]. However, ''Cybertron'' had a few inconsistencies with ''Energon'' due to ''not originally being a sequel'', which makes this particular example straddle the line between this trope and [[Too Long; Didn't Dub]]. There is, however, a straight-up example in Crosswise, who was called Smokescreen in the first few episodes he was in, though this was fixed for later broadcasts of said episodes. (He was ''going'' to be a new Smokescreen, you see, but once they decided Cybertron would be a sequel to Armada and Energon... well, Armada Smokescreen looks nothing like Crosswise, acts nothing like Crosswise, and ''existed'' too much to have actually been frozen in Arctic ice for millennia prior to Professor Suzuki discovering him in Cybertron, which is Crosswise's origin.)
** In a subtitle example, one fansub group making ''[[Transformers Headmasters]]'' English subtitles at first used the Japanese names for characters and factions. About halfway through, they switched to the American names.
** The Hungarian dubbing of ''Armada'' and ''Cybertron'' topped the faults of the English version by making absolutely sure that at least one character in each ''Armada'' episode would deliver a line in another character's voice, and confused the Mini-Con names even further (for instance, Sparkplug didn't get a name for 10+ episodes). ''Cybertron'' (dubbed years priorly and by completely different people) also kept changing its voices around a ''lot'', and handled the infamous [[She's a Man In Japan|Override]] gender-switch by having the character be male at first, then suddenly changing "him" into a female with no explanation.
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* The ''[[Shaman King]]'' Brazilian dub suffered from this in spades; the only attack that got a consistent renaming was Ren's Chuuka Zanmai ("Golden Tower in Action" in the dub), every other had a different name per episode. For example, Yoh's trademark attack (Shinkuu Budda Giri) was called Budda Slash, Budda Attack, Amida Style Attack, Amida Attack, Shinkuu Budda Giri, and "Haaaryyyaaahhhgggh!".
* ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (Manga)|Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' has a joke of sorts wherein characters generally believe that May Chang's pet miniature panda is [[I Am Not Weasel|some kind of cat]]. Some of the English dub episodes had it be correctly identified as a panda, whereas a later episode used the cat confusion.
** I'm still not sure whether the place should be called Ishval or Ishbal, and I seem to remember them trying to stick an R in there somewhere once. See the series' [[Spell My Name With an "S"]] entry for further giggles.
** Some number of episodes into the dub of ''Brotherhood'', the characters abruptly start referring to the Gate (as it had been called not only up to that point in the show, but throughout the entire [[Fullmetal Alchemist (Anime)|2003 anime series]]) as "the Portal" for no adequately explained reason.
** While the Australian translation is generally quite good with consistency and manages to translate most names correctly, it can't decide whether the name of the lizard chimera working under Greed is Bido or Pete. Also Xerxes was called ''Lebis'' the first time it was mentioned but was changed appropriately in every subsequent mention. The American version is supposed to be much worse but I can't vouch for it.
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* The ''[[One Piece]]'' manga was affected by the 4Kids dub starting up, changing Zoro's name to Zolo. Considering there was also copyright problems with Zorro, it probably would've had to happen eventually, and it's been that way since, making this a relatively minor example.
* The Hungarian dub of ''[[Dragonball Z]]'' had trouble with the name of the Kamehameha, going through at least six different names, including "Lifeforce Wave", "Highest Power", "Magical Force", "Magic Ray", "Personality Beam" and the simple "Lightning", and switching back and forth between them, sometimes within the same episode. Since Hungarian dubs are usually pretty good compared to most, it's possible that this was a quirk carried over from the French dub.
** It probably was, since the Spanish dub is also based on the French one and also has that issue ("Cameame Waves"? "Vital Wave"? "Infinite Light"?). The opposite also happened, with "Vital Wave" (The "normal" name for the Kamehameha) also being used for the [[Dangerous Forbidden Technique|Kikouhou]], the [[Blinded By the Light|Taiyou-ken]], the [[Heroic RROD|Kaioh-ken]], several unnamed ki attacks, and more. The Taiyou-ken (Solar Fist) also went by several names, such as "Solar Beam", "Solar Fist" (Gasp!), "Photoelectric Waves" (Said by [[Idiot Hero|Goku]], go figure) and the crowner, "Final Flash". By Cell. One episode BEFORE Vegeta used the ''real'' Final Flash. Not even the titular [[McGuffin|McGuffins]] are safe, being "magical balls" (Most things are simply "magical X" on this dub for [[Viewers
** The Mexican dub had also its own share of inconcistencies: First, in early episodes, both Pilaf and Shen Long had no name (they were referred to as "The Emperor" and "The Dragon God", respectively), until the Red Ribbon saga when their names were finally said. Uupa on his first appeareance was called Nube (lit. "Cloud") and was a girl; by the next episode he was aptly renamed Uupa and got a gender change. Later, in the Z series, Dr. Gero was strangely called Dr. Maki and after a few episodes he reverted to his Japanese name. But maybe the worst offender is planet Namek, which during the Saiyan and Freezer sagas was named "Planeta Namekusei" ("Planet Planet Namek", in a weird case of Gratuitous Japanese). After the arc had ended the planet got renamed as Planeta Nameku. Also, secondary characters changed voices every now and then.
** In the English version of ''[[Dragonball Z]]'', Piccolo went by the pseudonym "Ma Junior" at the World Martial Arts Tournament, with his reasoning that it was what he used last time he entered the tournament. In the ''[[Dragonball]]'' dub, he went by the name "Junior" (No "Ma") instead. Also, in the [[Bowdlerisation|edited version]] of ''[[Dragonball Z Kai]]'' he uses the "Special Beam Cannon" on Raditz, only for it to be the "Makankosappo" in the next episode's flashback. This was averted in the uncut dub in that case, however was later invoked when Goku uses the "Solar Flare" and Krillin does the "Taiyou-ken".
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* The Icelandic translations of Disney comics, while keeping the names of major characters consistent, regularly change the names of all minor characters who only pop up here and there, the different translators seemingly not bothering to check if this character's name has been translated before. This happens now and then in Swedish editions too.
** When [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Carl_Barks_Collection The Carl Barks Collection] were published in Sweden, exisiting translations were used wherever possible, but the editors did go back and make sure that things like Scrooge's money bin and Number one dime had consistent names throughout.
* The Hebrew translations of the ''[[Tintin (Comic Book)]]'' series are inconsistent both within and between albums as to what Captain Haddock is called. This applies to both his title -- which bounces between the anglicism "Kepten" and Hebrew translation Rav haḤovel -- and his name, which is usually a straight translation of the word for the haddock fish (Ḥamor haYam -- literally "sea donkey"), but is sometimes written phonetically as "Hadok".
== Film ==
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** In both the French and Italian versions of the original ''[[Star Wars]]'' movies, most characters and vehicles received a [[Dub Name Change]]. However, in translations of the prequels and later Expanded Universe material, most of these changes were reverted.
*** In the case of French, [[The Dragon|Darth Vader]] is a unique case; both France and Canada share one dub of the original movies, made in France, in which Vader's name (the only "Darth" character at that point) is changed to "[[Gratuitous English|Dark]] Vador". Although later translations in France kept this change and carried it over to new characters ("Dark Maul", etc.), the French-Canadian versions of the new movies, series and packaging blurbs on merchandise not only kept "Darth", but also used Vader's original English name. This actually happens a lot in French Canada when new entries to old movies and TV series are dubbed. Before the 1990's, most French translations were done in France. Nowadays, most of them get a local dub in Quebec; series that got early instalments dubbed in France can have later ones dubbed in Quebec (''[[Indiana Jones (Franchise)|Indiana Jones]]'', ''[[The Lion King (Disney)|The Lion King]]'' and ''[[Family Guy (Animation)|Family Guy]]'' come to mind).
*** For the Italian versions, there was actually a poll to determine whether Darth Vader (known as "[[Spell My Name With an "S"|Dart]] Fener" in Italian) would use his original name in the ''[[Revenge of the Sith]]'' dub. "Fener" won with 55% of the votes, although "Darth Vader", for some reason, is still used in most Italian merchandise blurbs. (Not to mention the fact that other Sith Lords would use "Darth" rather than "Dart" as a title.)
** The German [[Star Wars]] franchise has some serious problems with consistency. Sometimes english titles like captain and lieutenant are swapped with the german versions, sometimes not. Sometimes Poggle the Lesser is Poggle der Geringere, sometimes not (even within some episodes in The Clone Wars). Sometimes Tarkin is a Grand Moff, but sometimes it gets woolseyisted to Mufti (made up word by a translator). Even the comics, full of a staff of promoted fanboys it is not safe to say if the Home One is Heimat Eins or not. Jango is called with english pronounceiation everywhere except for The Clone Wars where it is Ijangoh.
** Same for the Hungarian translations. Nobody is sure whether the Millenium Falcon's name should be left in English, or if the dubs (there are several) of the Original Trilogy are correct by naming it "Ezeréves Sólyom" ("Thousand Year-Old Falcon"). Light sabers also get to be referred to as "Laser swords" a lot, and although the dubbing studio made an effort to keep the voices and name translations of the Prequels and the cartoon shows consistent, they still switched them around needlessly. The dub of ''[[The Clone Wars]]'', for instance translated the clone nicknames at first, then decided to go with their English names, only Rex is voiced by the "standard" clone voice actor from the movies, and the voices of secondary characters also keep changing depending on the episode.
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* The first episodes of ''[[American Dad (Animation)|American Dad]]'' in Spain translated Snot's nickname, but after 10 episodes or so they kept in on English for no reason.
* The Mexican dub of ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'' translated OWCA- Organization Without a Cool Acronym, accurately as OSBA- Organización Sin un Buen Acrónimo for the Summer Belongs to You special. Later mentions, where the accronym's meaning isn't mentioned, it is just OWCA. At first it can be considered a good thing when OWCA's logo appears, (saying 'OSBA' when a sign clearly says OWCA can be a bit confusing), but it's still jarring, since in the nineties Disney used to edit signs on their movies and cartoons to fit the language it was done for, an action which with current technology is even easier.
* ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'' was first localized in Hungary on promo DVDs. When they started airing the show on television, a completely new dub got produced, using mostly different voice actors and translations (though there is some overlapping). Fans are still arguing over which one is better/worse, as not all of the changes seemed to have been actual improvements.
* The Hungarian ''[[Family Guy]]'' dub, which apart from the problems listed below is one of the best dubs currently running on TV, has an annoying habit of changing around the voices of many second or third tier characters, only keeping the more prominent voices consistent. What's also strange is that although they often manage to get the original voice actors of various [[Cameo]] guests from different shows (including actors you rarely hear on TV nowadays), they often fail to do the same for in-universe characters from ''[[The Cleveland Show]]'' or ''[[American Dad (Animation)|American Dad]]'', whenever they have a [[Crossover]]. An explanation for this might be the fact that ''AD'''s dub is handled by a different studio, and the people dubbing ''FG'' simply don't recognize its characters, and so don't check whether they already have actors attached to them or not.
* In the German dub of ''[[Recess]]'' the Diggers start out as twin brothers, then become identical best friends, and switch back to being twin brothers. In the original version, they were only best friends who happened to look identical ([[Rule of Funny]]).
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* [[Transformers]] in Hungarian is screwed beyond comprehension, just from the sheer amount of different people and studios its comics, cartoons and movies have gone through, without the slightest trace of cooperation having taken place between them.
** For years, the only TF media available were the Marvel comics, which introduced classic name translations that the fans grew to be familiar with (although some, like Wheeljack, Blaster or Powerglide did switch their names around a bit).
** [[The Transformers|The G1 cartoon]] never got dubbed, only [[Transformers the Movie|the movie]], ''twice''. Neither used the Marvel names, and [[So Bad
** Then, ''[[Transformers Energon]]'' rolled around, and also made up new names for the characters (most infamously "Optimus, the First" and "Robotika" in place of Decepticon).
** By the time of ''[[Transformers Cybertron]]'', fans had gotten into contact with the translator and persuaded him to change some names to their original Marvel counterparts, but this only happened to a select few characters. And even those that had their Marvel names reinstalled got to be called by their ''Energon'' names at times. Oh, and Landmine received a new name for just the intro, which differed from both his ''Energon'' name and the one the actual ''Cybertron'' series used. Yes, the dub was dreadful, and besides the name screw-ups, it kept changing the voices (even the ''genders'') around far too much for comfort.
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** "[[Transformers (Film)|Bayformers]]" is another example. Although the dubbing was still [[Hong Kong Dub|very low-quality]], border-lining incomprehensible at times, it finally used the Marvel names! (Save for a couple of instances when they accidentally left in English terms.) A more serious inconsistency kicked in when the man voicing Optimus Prime, renowned Hungarian voice actor Tibor Kirstóf, [[Author Existence Failure|got sick and died]] around the release of ROTF. For the record, he was the second Hungarian Optimus Prime voice actor to have passed away (the other being the equally famed Lajos Kránitz from the first dub of the '86 movie).
** Titan Magazines released a series of comics based on the Transformers movie franchise, and when these were imported to the country, they got the [[Blind Idiot Translation|cheapest translation job]] imaginable. Inconsistent terminology, name changes, the dialog not making ''any'' sense... yeah, the works.
** ''[[Transformers Animated]]'' just very nearly avoided inconsistent dubs. Yes, the show itself never got dubbed, but the single toy commercial that aired on TV and the [[
** Then, ''[[Transformers Armada]]'', Masterfilm's latest attempt to [[Ruined FOREVER|ruin Hungarian TF media forever]]. The dub was made completely independently from its sequels, ''Energon'' and ''Cybertron'', thus had a wholly different voice cast. And despite the live-action movies having made the Marvel names household terms, ''Armada'''s dub still opted to start from scratch, and continued to give new names for each of its characters. What more, this dub has a lot more mix-ups than in the English dubbing, and even the characters themselves don't know whose voice they should be speaking in at times.
** ''[[Transformers Prime]]'''s dub is a step in the right direction, but it again falls flat. On a positive note, for the first time in the dub of a TF animated series, they refer to the Decepticon faction by its original Hungarian Marvel name, and a chunk of the terminology introduced in the movie dubs, heck, even some of the voices (for the first time ever) have also [[Shown Their Work|remained intact]] after the medium-shift. However every other name is left in English. This ''could'' be justified: perhaps they thought toys would sell better if kids learned the names that are on the packagings -- same thing happened to ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'', whose dub is full of English terms, whereas the dubs of the earlier shows translated the names.<br /><br />Problem is, with the two languages being so different, the [[No Pronunciation Guide|pronunciations]] are ''very'' clunky. Had the higher-ups not intervened to keep the translator from using the now-famous [[Dub Name Change|Hungarian names]], this might well have been the first ''aversion''... were it not for the sorry fact that even within the cartoon's own boundaries, inconsistency reared its head in the form of sound editing bloopers regarding Soundwave's synthesized audio snippets and other miscellaneous effects, as well as the varying translations of Ratchet's [[Catch Phrase]]. It also appears that the translator didn't do the research on some less prominent movie trilogy names and terms, and so left a few in English and made up new translations for others -- most noticeably, the character known as the "Fallen" went from being called "Bukott" to "Ördög" (Devil). Allegedly this can be traced back to an older name-list that a fan put out for an eventual translator to use.
* A rather harmless, but interesting example: There is no consistent way to pronounce [[Donald Duck]] in Germany. Early dubs and the first hosts of the TV show ''Disney Club'' pronounced Donald's first name like a german name (you can listen to this pronounciation [http://www.forvo.com/word/donald/#de here]). Sometime in the mid-90s, the dubs of the cartoons and [[Quack Pack (Animation)|Quack Pack]] changed it to the english pronounciation, maybe to sound more modern. Some of the new hosts of ''Disney Club'' changed also to the english pronouciation, but others would keep saying "Donald" the german way. Since the time of [[Mickey Mouse Works]], the dubbers switch all the time between the german and the english prononciation. Well, at least not during the same episode, but some shows say it this way, other cartoons and ads the other. And some fans even insist on pronouncing "Duck" like if it were a German word. But these fans are a [[Vocal Minority]]. *phew*
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