Anime What annoys you about anime translations?

[Rydia]

Couldn't think of a better title.



What are some things that the translators do that annoy you? It can be for dubbed or subbed anime.

One thing I can't stand is only including the translation of Japanese text if the subtitles on. So if you watch it dubbed, you will have no idea what any of the Japanese text says unless you turn on the subtitles. This can also be annoying because often the subtitles do not match up to the dubbed lines. You could say, "well just don't read the subtitles." I've tried, but my attention always goes to the bottom of the screen when there is words.

Another thing I hate is in dubbed verisons, they feel the need to add dialogue when there is supposed to be silence. As if we do not have the attention span to keep watching if there are a few seconds of silence
It's annoying because it often ruins the mood of the scene.

I also hate when stupid dialogue is added because the translator was having too much fun. This happened a lot in the End of Evagelion movie. They thought it would be funny to add silly dialogue when everyone in NERV was being massacured. The scene was meant to be serious and their stupid "hit him again" just had me rolling my eyes.

And needless to say, any spelling or grammar mistakes in the subtitles. Seriously, a professional company shouldn't make stupid typos.

 

[AddleBoy]

I'll use this topic to also extend to manga translations. Is that okay?

Well, this first complaint may only happen in fan translations. I hate it when a translator decides to leave some random word in Japanese when it has an equal word in English. There's an infamous example in a fan translation of an episode of Death Note where Light's line is translated to "Just as according to keikaku." and at the same time there's a translator's note that says "Keikaku means plan". It's completely redundant to leave the word in Japanese. Why not just translate it as "Just as planned." or something? I don't think the official translation made the same mistake, though I see it happen way more than it should.

Another thing that I find annoying is when they change the character's names to and Americanized version, especially when it's obvious that the anime takes place in Japan. One of the only acceptions to that would be the localization of the Phoenix Wright games, since each character's name was either a pun or had some special meaning in Japanese which wouldn't translate over to English very well. The localization team came up with all new names for the characters, trying to have a similar meaning.

 

[GalaxyFlare]

One thing kind of urks me is when you watch 2 different versions of the same episode and there are 2 different translations........not much but its a start.

 

[Discordius]

I don't like when the translators keep the honorific sufixes, as that is a poor job at localization. Also hate when they swap "r" for "l" in all proper nouns for no reason.

 

[Silver Shadow]

Twas wondering if there was a thread like this...

Anyways, a few subtitles I have come across (not many, but a few) have a time lag. Basically, you see the subtitle, and then hear the words being spoken after, or vice versa. It get's really confusing at times O.O

Also, I kinda have to agree with Rydia about spelling mistakes. I normally don't care, but after watching anime for a while, seeing those mistakes just irks me to no end.

 

[BretHudson]

OH! I hate when the mouths don't match at ALL. That drives me insane! I find it fine when they don't match the words perfectly, but when they're really off, and they stop moving their mouths but theres still words, I just wanna rip out my hair. Fun to make fun of though ^^
-Bretboy129 ~ Bret Hudson

 

[Madaraki]

I don't like when the translators keep the honorific sufixes, as that is a poor job at localization. Also hate when they swap "r" for "l" in all proper nouns for no reason.

For me, the suffixes vary from series to series. It works in Higurashi or other series where there's a culture-heavy environment (In this case; Hinamizawa) but it's totally unnecessary in series like One Piece and perhaps Yotsuba as well.

Also hate when they swap "r" for "l" in all proper nouns for no reason.

Again, depends on the series. "Zolo" just doesn't sound as right as "Zoro", but by the same token, "Alucard" makes a heck of a lot more sense than "Arucard".


Somewhat on that; am I the only one annoyed at "Light" instead of "Raito"? I dunno, maybe "Light Yagami" was the proper way of doing it, but "Raito" just sounds more natural, especially when the rest of his family had names like "Soichiro", "Sachiko", and "Sayu".

Bwergh, one of my friends even thought the character was called "Lighto" after reading the english translation and hearing Ryuk speak in the anime.

 

[alicehana]

when the translation dont suit with the scene or is it too slow...

 

[Grunt]

Thatannoying grown woman who never grows past the size of a child with a really high pitched 'cute' voice they all have for the 'Kawaii' factor. Just about every anime I've watched so far has one.

 

[Saints&Storms]

one thing I hate is when they explain way too much as a interlude to a transitioning scene, they'll explain something or have 2:00 minutes worth of flashbacks :wtf:

I don't like when the translators keep the honorific sufixes, as that is a poor job at localization. Also hate when they swap "r" for "l" in all proper nouns for no reason.

I like when they do that, personally I hate when they make characters call others by first name when calling them unfamiliarly has meaning to it.

when the translation dont suit with the scene or is it too slow...

I hate that too, especially when its during a fight scene

 

[Espurr]

Subbed: The main thing I can't stand is when subbers make the text itself hard to read. That just ruins the purpose of subbing an anime when you can't even read it.

Dubbed: In a dubbed anime the one I can't stand is when they completely change what a character originally says. Sure rephrasing something is fine but saying something completely different from what they originally said is what really annoys me. Thankfully this problem is more common in older anime dubs.