Translation Style Choices: Difference between revisions
→Formal Equivalence: replaced: [[Lord of the Rings → [[The Lord of the Rings
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{{trope}}
Translation is something of a difficult process. When translating from one language to another (Japanese to English or vice versa being an example
So, there are basically five ways translators go about their work (and three in which they hopefully don't):
'''1'''. [[Cut and Paste Translation]]: It shouldn't be too hard to guess what method this is. This can be fairly advantageous for the viewer who is otherwise unfamiliar with the source material (hey, no cultural changes for you to appreciate/[[Values Dissonance|go "what the blank" over]]!), but hardcore fans of the original will feel violated to say the least (and if done without the consent or knowledge of the original producers, ''[[Flame War|they]]'' can feel rather violated as well).▼
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{{examples|Examples}}▼
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* Just about any anime dubbed by [[Four Kids Entertainment|4Kids Entertainment]]. This still leaves out stuff like ''[[Funky Cops]]'' and the more recent ''[[Dinosaur King]]'', both which are perfectly faithful to the original. ▼
== Cut and Paste Translation ==
▲* Just about any anime dubbed by [[
* ''[[Robotech]]'', the original anime example.
** In order to reach the 65 episodes needed for syndication, ''Robotech'' combines a fairly faithful adaptation of ''[[Super Dimension Fortress Macross]]'' with two other series (''[[Super Dimensional Cavalry Southern Cross]]'' and ''[[Genesis Climber Mospeada
** Some more snobbish anime fans often forget that the airing of ''Robotech'' was the single reason many people became interested in anime to begin with, let alone [[Real Robot]] anime, and could very well be one of the catalysts for anime's popularity in the U.S. twenty years later.
* Outside of anime, there are far fewer examples of this. One of note, however was Eric Thompson's translations of ''[[The Magic Roundabout]]'' for [[The BBC]], in which only the visuals of the original French versions were used. Thompson made up his own storylines which were conveyed by the dubbed narration.
* Like ''[[The Magic Roundabout]]'', the UK dub of ''[[Insektors]]'' abandoned the original French lines for brand new lines with lots of regional accidents. The US dub was less creative.
* ''[[Samurai Pizza Cats]]'' fell into this by necessity, since Saban was not given scripts along with the footage. The staff made up their own names, stories and dialogue. As with the previous example, very few people even know or care about the original, and the English version is considered quite good in its own right.
* The DiC dub of ''[[Sailor Moon]]''.
** Cloverway's dub of S and Super S wasn't as bad. It did, however, try to continue where DiC left off (using their terms and names) as well as trying to be faithful to the original. It didn't mesh well.
* Every dub of the original ''[[
▲'''1.5'''. [[Streamlined]]: Somewhere between [[Cut and Paste Translation]] and [[Woolseyism]]. With [[Streamlined]] dubs, the plot is usually kept intact, although almost all dialogue is thrown out the window and replaced. [[Akira (Manga)|Sometimes]], this works [[Woolseyism|quite well.]] [[Streamline Pictures]], the [[Trope Namer]], and Manga UK were very famous for this style of dubbing.
== Streamlined ==
* ''[[MD Geist]]''
* ''[[Genocyber]]''
* ''[[Cyber City Oedo 808]]''
* ''[[
* ''[[Angel Cop]]''
* ''[[Violence Jack]]''
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* ''[[Dead Leaves]]'' is either this or the single greatest Woolseyism ever.
== Woolseyism ==
▲'''2'''. [[Woolseyism]]: Named on TVTropes after Ted Woolsey, who was known for his more pragmatic translations of games. This approach is formally referred to as ''dynamic equivalence''; the general idea is that the translation should give the foreign audience the same experience as the original, even if some details have to be altered and some aspects that would [[Values Dissonance|cause]] [[Unfortunate Implications|controversy]] or fail to translate sensibly just have to be left out. The general guideline when using this method is that the work needs to be self-contained; if the script contains references or connotations that wouldn't be obvious to the target audience, those elements should probably be left out or changed. It's probably the best tool for a ''localization'': the purists get their original storyline intact (more or less), but you don't need an introductory lesson in a foreign language and culture to understand what's going on. Of course, the ''hardcore'' purists will still hate it. But when you get right down to it, [[They Changed It Now It Sucks|the hardcore purists hate everything]] -- they should probably stick to the original language of the production in question.
* ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]''
* ''[[
* The ''[[Ace Attorney]]'' series.
* The ''[[Paper Mario (
* The Spanish translation of "[[Phineas and Ferb]]" has a lot of this. One of the songs translated goes like this "ornitorrinco, australiano, mamífero, semi-acuático, agente." (a platapy australian, mammal, agent) instead of a "semi-aquatic egg laying mammal of action". This, for the hispanic audience avoids the [[WMG]] of, is perry a girl? or else, why would he be egg laying? (and makes it rhyme)
* The [[
* ''[[Naruto]]'''s dub probably qualifies. The character names and general setting are left intact, but all the jutsu names and other general terminology are translated, not literally at times.
** Case in point: When Jiraiya comes to the rescue with a giant toad to crush a three-headed snake, the name of the Ninja Art Summoning Jutsu in Japanese is Yatai Kuzushi no Jutsu or Food Cart Destroyer Technique. The English version (Whoo, David Lodge!) has the name rendered as Bring Down the House Jutsu. While just being plain funny for an attack name, it's also very appropriate given Jiraiya's hammy personality. The fact that the toad itself could very likely actually smoosh a house helps too!
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* The ''[[Asterix]]'' series. Although faithful to the general plots and spirit of the originals, many of the jokes and puns are completely changed in the English version. Notably, a lot of afficionados feel that the [[Punny Name|punny names]] are even better in the English version.
* ''[[Vagrant Story]]'', ''[[Final Fantasy XII]]'' and the PSP version of ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics]]'' (the original PSX version was an [[Engrish]] wonderland).
* Any of the Disney-[[Studio Ghibli|Ghibli]] dubs. The character's names, stories, and overall plots remain true to the originals, even though the translations are often liberal (and in the case of ''[[Kiki's Delivery Service]]'' and ''[[
** Come to think of it, didn't [[Word of God|Miyazaki himself]] say that the ideal experience for any viewer is in their own
* Brazilian translation for Harry Potter uses it. The character's and the four houses' names were changed, probably due the age of target public of the books when they were published. But most Brazilian fans dislike these translated names, and they're usually not used.
* Most games translated by Working Designs, particularly the ''[[Lunar]]'' series.
* Most translations of ''[[Discworld]]'' novels. The first edition of ''The Discworld Companion'' has a piece about the Dutch translator, trying to figure out the Dutch equivalent of comparing Granny's [[Flying Broomstick]] to "[[The Alleged Car|a split-window Morris Minor]]".
▲'''3'''. Formal equivalence: Some productions, however, decide they're going the direct route. The story is getting straight-up translated, [[Values Dissonance]] be damned, and no pesky [[First Name Basis|honorific changes]], [[Kansai Regional Accent|dialect jokes]], or [[Useful Notes/Japanese Culture|cultural variations]] are going to get in the way. This is the most ''literal'' of the methods, typically translating only dialogue and [[Too Long Didn't Dub|leaving anything that doesn't directly translate fully intact]]. The downside to this is that a lot of the necessary elements for full understanding don't make the journey overseas with the dialogue; as a result, J. Random Viewer (lacking proper context) is left scratching his head, as some lines will [[Dub Induced Plot Hole|sound strange]] or seem to come out of nowhere. In the worst cases, some figures of speech may be translated literally, instead of going with an equivalent from the vernacular language or simply translating the meaning. The hardcore purists will probably hate it, too; they'll just use it as another example of "[[Subbing Versus Dubbing|how dubbing is the devil's work]]," for instance.
* ''[[Bleach]]'' is particularly [[Egregious]]. Only three recurring terms in the dub were translated: [[The Grim Reaper|shinigami]] (to Soul Reaper, likely to distance itself from the western conception of the idea); the Gotei 13 (to the 13 Court Guard Squads); and "[[Mana|reiatsu]]" (to "spiritual energy" or "spiritual pressure"). Everything
▲* ''[[Bleach]]'' is particularly [[Egregious]]. Only three recurring terms in the dub were translated: [[The Grim Reaper|shinigami]] (to Soul Reaper, likely to distance itself from the western conception of the idea); the Gotei 13 (to the 13 Court Guard Squads); and "[[Mana|reiatsu]]" (to "spiritual energy" or "spiritual pressure"). Everything else -- shikai and bankai, [[Empathic Weapon|zanpakuto]], spell names and incantations, even wordplay gags about the proper usage of one's first name and philosophical metaphors regarding old parables -- was left pretty much completely intact.
** "Soul Reaper" is creator Tite Kubo's preferred translation of shinigami. It even appears on some Japanese ''Bleach'' merchandise.
** In more recent episodes you can move that down to two: reiatsu is it at least part of the time left untranslated now.
* ''[[.hack|.hack//]]'', even to the point of characters being unsure of how a character's written name is "read".
* ''[[
** The sub does this at times
*** The Viz manga does that too, as "once is once!" Members of the audience on this very wiki were still confused.
** The original work goes out of its way to point out Kira is derived from the word killer, so it's extremely likely that having them keep the name Kira was in respect for that.
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* [[Older Than Print]]: Most early translations of Latin poetry into the vernacular.
* ''[[Hellsing]]'' provides another example. A proper translation taking into account English names and titles would have resulted in "Dame Integra" (a female knight, as opposed to "Sir Integra").
** Then again, Hellsing is not a proper example, at least in the
* Although a less extreme example of this type, ''[[
* ''[[Persona 3]]'' kept food and place names intact, along with Japanese honorifics like -chan and -san. Did not cause undue confusion, as most fans of the game would understand what those mean anyway.
** The sequel ''[[Persona 4]]'' did the same thing. Atlus went as far as including a glossary including all the non-translated terms.
* ''[[Fate/stay
** For one example, Mirror Moon often literally translates the expression, "the time the date changes", which Western viewers would understand clearer as simply "midnight".
* Pretty much most, if not all, non-English versions of the ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' series was rooted into this. Tolkien was a [[Onmiglot|polyglot]], and so he himself provided translated names for places, characters, artifacts and so on.
▲'''3A'''. The same, but with footnotes, liner notes, or captions to explain the details. Widely used by fansubbers of anime. [[Don't Explain the Joke|Explaining a joke may make it not be very funny]], but some cultural references work a lot better this way:
== Formal Equivalence with Explanations ==
* The Finnish translation of the ''[[Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin]]'' manga uses footnotes for the translations of the different [[Special Attack|Battougas]]. They are seldom used otherwise.▼
* Done with the translation of ''[[Excel Saga (
▲* The Finnish translation of the ''[[Ginga Nagareboshi Gin]]'' manga uses footnotes for the translations of the different [[Special Attack|Battougas]]. They are seldom used otherwise.
** The [[Excel Saga (
▲* Done with the translation of ''[[Excel Saga (Anime)|Excel Saga]]'' in the anime, though the notes were deleted from the collected edition [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_discrimination to encourage fans with more money to buy the more expensive one.]
▲** The [[Excel Saga (Manga)|manga translation]], on the other hand, mostly goes the [[Woolseyism]] route. But each volume does have translation notes in the back.
** The anime translation did resort to [[Woolseyism]] when absolutely necessary, however, such as adjusting [[Gratuitous English]] jokes in the "Animation USA" episode, and the names of [[Toku|Municipal Force Daitenzin]] from reference to Japanese stores like IMS and Tenjin Core to stores likes Macy's and [[Evil Dead|S-Mart]].
* ''[[
* Common with notes on the top of the screen among [[Fan Translation|fansubs]].
* Towards the end of its individual novel run, ''[[
* Del Rey Manga seems to go this route often, including translation notes (including two pages on name suffixes like "-san" and "-kun") in ''[[Negima]]'', ''[[Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle]]'' and ''[[
** Too bad the people who adapted the dialogue for the first few volumes of Negima [[Gag Dub|didn't get the memo]]...
* The fansub of ''[[Pani Poni Dash!]]'', a [[Widget Series]] with so many in-jokes you have to freeze-frame to get all of them, had a PDF file accompany each episode explaining the references. These files often ran to ''a page a minute'': over 20 pages for a 22-minute episode.
** In the ADV Films release, there's a separate subtitle track where all the writing in the background is translated as well as pop-up cultural notes. Trying to read the extended subtitles and the cultural notes ''and'' see the action is nearly impossible (all the extra information covers a lot of it up anyway, and is really only meant for a second or third watchthrough).
* The translated ''[[Naruto]]'' '''manga''' does this... [[Talking Is a Free Action|during the]] [[You Are the Translated Foreign Word|characters' speeches]]. For example, Sasuke would say, "Katon! Gokakyu no Jutsu! The art of the Fireball!" which sounds awkward.
** Also done in the Brazilian edition of ''[[Bleach]]'' with the Zanpakutou of the Espadas when they perform the Ressurrección - even though they came in Spanish names, which would be easy enough to understand, the translating team always appends the meaning of the kanji provided by Tite Kubo for the name (for example, Ulquiorra's would be "Murciélago, Great Demon with Black Wings").
* ''[[
** They're "incredibly obvious" ''to anime fans''. For everyone else, they're [[Just a Face and a Caption]], and thus need explaining.
** Bandai's translation of the manga is the same way.
*** And the first two volumes were a pain to read for anyone who cares about English sentence structure and grammar. Whoever was supposed to be doing the translating (i.e. the anime's translator) wasn't doing a particularly good job, even with the notes at the end, making it almost impossible to know what the joke was supposed to be. The third volume had much better English, and probably because the translator was replaced according to the credits at the end of the three volumes.
* The official translations of ''[[Harry Potter]]'' into Chinese have notes explaining jokes like "it's getting blacker every day" and other things that don't translate very well in Chinese. It gets a little silly, however, when they have explanations for things that shouldn't even be explained. For example, in the sixth book, when there are only three people in potions because of Apparation lessons, there is a footnote explaining that they are all turning seventeen after the lessons, or something like that.
* Also common for modern translations of older works, especially classics -- ''[[
* The legal translation of ''[[
* The English version of ''[[Sayonara, Zetsubou
▲'''4'''. [[Blind Idiot Translation]]: What happens when the people responsible for the translation [[They Just Didn't Care|just don't care]]. Grammar rules will be violated and homonyms may have the wrong meaning translated. Fortunately, the vast, vast majority of serious commercial releases rarely fall into this category, but there are a depressing number of 1980s video games that were translated in this manner. And let's not even [[Translation Train Wreck|get started on]] [[Blind Idiot Translation|bootlegs]]...
== Blind Idiot Translation ==
* ''[[Zero Wing]]'' cannot be forgotten to be mention.
* The original translation of ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'' [[Memetic Mutation|are sick!]]
* The first ''[[The Legend of Zelda]]'' game lost some [[Guide Dang It|vital clues]] thanks to this.
* The English subs on the Hong Kong DVDs of ''
* SNK were imfamous for this.
▲'''5'''. [[Recursive Translation]]: The exclusive domain of Hong Kong bootleggers. Want to translate something but don't know any English? Translate it into your language and Babelfish it into English! Better yet, if you don't even know the language you're translating it ''from'', you can Babelfish it into your language and then Babelfish ''that'' translation into English! Now you too can translate anything from any language into any other language without understanding either!
== Recursive Translation ==
* Every single Hong Kong bootleg DVD that doesn't just rip the R1 subtitle track or download an existing fansub script off the Internet.
** [[Memetic Mutation|Do not want]]
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[[Category:Language Tropes]]
[[Category:Videogame Culture]]
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