Translation Style Choices: Difference between revisions

m
Mass update links
m (Mass update links)
m (Mass update links)
Line 8:
{{examples}}
 
* Just about any anime dubbed by [[4Kids! 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.
* ''[[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|Genesis Climber MOSPEADA]]'') whose adaptations defined the term [[Macekre]].
** 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.
Line 17:
* 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 ''[[Science Ninja Team Gatchaman (Anime)|Science Ninja Team Gatchaman]]'' series (with the exception of the ADV dub), including ''[[Battle of the Planets]]'', ''G-Force: Guardians of Space'', and Saban's ''Eagle Riders''.
 
----
'''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.
 
=== Examples: ===
Line 27:
* ''[[Genocyber]]''
* ''[[Cyber City Oedo 808]]''
* ''[[Akira (Manga)|Akira]]''
* ''[[Angel Cop]]''
* ''[[Violence Jack]]''
Line 39:
 
* ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]''
* ''[[Chrono Trigger (Video Game)|Chrono Trigger]]''
* The ''[[Ace Attorney]]'' series.
* The ''[[Paper Mario (Video Gamefranchise)|Paper Mario]]'' series.
* 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 [[Mario and Luigi (Video Game)|Mario & Luigi]] Series not only has this, but Fawful speaks in [[Intentional Engrish for Funny|Engrish,]] an obvious [[Take That]] to the original language.
* ''[[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!
Line 49:
* 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 ''[[Castle in The Sky|Castle in the Sky]]'', contin some additional pieces of music; the latter of which was done by, interestingly, the original composer himself, [[Joe Hisaishi]], to Miyazaki's personal approval). Of course there are fans who insist that the Japanese versions and/or previous English translations are the only way to experience his films... but there are others who have responded otherwise.
** Come to think of it, didn't [[Word of God|Miyazaki himself]] say that the ideal experience for any viewer is in their own language--i.e. dubbed?
* 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.
Line 63:
** 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".
* ''[[Death Note (Manga)|Death Note]]'''s dub drifts into this direction. The public's name for Light ("Kira", an [[Gratuitous English|Engrish]] rendering of the English word "killer") is left intact, as is [[The Grim Reaper|shinigami]]. The [[Translation Convention]] also appears to be in full effect, with no attempt at a whitewash. This is sort of necessary: consider how often tiny details that involve language (especially [[Hollywood Spelling|how names are written]]) can be extremely important. However, the literal translations can make things confusing sometimes; at one point Misa notes that Light's name also means "moon". Unless someone knows Japanese (and as a result knows that the symbol used for Light's name can, with a different pronunciation, mean "moon") this line is likely to confuse them.
** The sub does this at times too -- notably, a saying that we would consider equivalent to "an eye for an eye" is literally translated to "one time is one time", leaving some members of the audience scratching their heads.
*** The Viz manga does that too, as "once is once!" Members of the audience on this very wiki were still confused.
Line 71:
* ''[[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 manga -- the American translators decided to randomly give Father Anderson a Scottish accent and had the Major speak with an exaggerated German accent even when he was supposedly speaking in German.
* Although a less extreme example of this type, ''[[Star Ocean the Second Story (Video Game)|Star Ocean the Second Story]]'' for the PSX was widely derided for its bland, overly literal translation, resulting in conversations that barely made sense and stripped out most of the entertainment value in favor of literalism.
* ''[[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 Stay Nightnight]]'' hovers along the sliding scale here; the anime drifted more toward Woolseyism, while the otherwise appreciated fan translation by Mirror Moon erred on the side of a [[Blind Idiot Translation]].
** 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 ''[[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.
Line 82:
=== Examples ===
 
* 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 (Animeanime)|Excel Saga]]'' in the anime, though the notes were deleted from the collected edition [[wikipedia:Price discrimination|to encourage fans with more money to buy the more expensive one.]]
** The [[Excel Saga (Mangamanga)|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]].
* ''[[Anim Eigo]]'' was well-known for this, and actually had paper liner notes in the days before DVDs, but has also adapted references at times.
* Common with notes on the top of the screen among [[Fan Translation|fansubs]].
* Towards the end of its individual novel run, ''[[Azumanga Daioh (Manga)|Azumanga Daioh]]'' had 'Translator Notes' in the back to help explain a few things; they did admit to dipping into method 2 for a couple of very language-dependent jokes. Note that the anime actually kept the jokes as is, for the most part. ''Yotsuba&'' seems to be adding the comments in the gutters between frames in the manga.
* 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 ''[[XXX HolicXxxHolic]]''.
** 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").
* ''[[Lucky Star (Anime)|Lucky Star]]'' technically falls under this one due to its American release. Considering the abundance of many of the anime and cultural references, Bandai Entertainment had the foresight to include a 4 page pamphlet of liner notes for any particular volume. While some of the references are incredibly obvious and don't need mentioning (they do it anyway), they go so far as to include things that can only be noticed when watching the show with the Japanese language track, even if the dub had used language in such a way that none of the original context was lost.
** 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 Iliad (Literature)|The Iliad]]'' or ''[[The Odyssey (Literature)|The Odyssey]]'', for example, though often the translators choose a more pragmatic (Woolseyist) than literal approach.
* The legal translation of ''[[RinRIN-NeNE]]'' is this out of necessity, as it is being translated and put online a very short time after the Japanese publication. They don't have enough time to even replace visual sound effects, so everything is explained in the margins, and what can't be there is explain on the section of the translators' blog noted.
* The English version of ''[[Sayonara, Zetsubou Sensei-sensei]]'' (manga) features several pages of notes at the back of the volume, and even with that they make a point of saying that there are so many references and details, they don't have enough room to explain them all.
----
'''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]]...