Dubbed anime that doesn’t translate well

[Lance Uppercut]

I don’t want to get into a huge subs vs dubs debate but usually my problem is hearing everything in English that either makes everything sound awkward. Due untranslatable words, mixing English and Japanese, or it just exposes how silly the dialogue is when you hear it in your native language.

One that sticks out to me is Kenshin. Aside from all the character being super Japanese, so English itself coming out of their mouths is strange, but they use a lot of words that aren’t easily translateable.

Rurouni itself is a made up word
Hitokiri they translate to man slayer or Slasher
Yet they didn’t try to translate Battousai
It’s a sticking point that they refer to each other as Kaoru dono, yahiko chan, ken san, hittokiri Senpai
The whole calling out the name of every attack before every fight is so awkward. I don’t mind in Japanese, but when I heard it in English, I felt so cringe. That not even counting when they replace the word ryu with Style.

I only watched a handful of episodes of English Naruto when it started on Cartoon Network, but that was kind of weird. I can’t imagine how the rest of the series went considering the names of some of those moves. I just remember,ver they changed Naruto’s catchphrase from Dattebayo to BELIEVE IT!

[Cyno]

Samurai Champloo's dub is mostly solid. But the baseball episode loses a lot in translation. Mostly because a lot of the humor in that episode is the Japanese voice actors for the American characters speaking horrible English.

Regarding Kenshin, hitokiri does literally translate to "man slayer." Battosai is more of a name than anything else reflecting Kenshin's mastery of battojutsu, and doesn't really translate to English. Kenshin was also dubbed in the early 00s when no one really dubbed Japanese honorifics. That didn't become more common practice until a few years later.

[Sephiroth]

As beloved as it is, the original Voltron. Being produced before the popularity of anime in the US, the s in stirs weren’t considering a possible English dub and it shows in how frequently the mouth movements don’t match the words. The writers for the English dub also weren’t very good at how to translate strain situations; heavy or grim moments get underwritten by some dubbed in line, like Sven’s death death being changed to “Get me to a doctor!” even as the scenery makes clear what’s really supposed to be going on. The fact they did a cheesy job censoring graphic violence is also distracting, even as a kid I could tell at cards in parts where they had cut material out.

[dav]

The many, many references to Japanese culture, older and more recent (At the time), actually required Excel Saga to put in a special feature on the DVD's that had a pop up appear during the episodes to explain them.

[chrom]

Jan 10, 2023 15:51:56 GMT -5 Sephiroth said:

As beloved as it is, the original Voltron. Being produced before the popularity of anime in the US, the s in stirs weren’t considering a possible English dub and it shows in how frequently the mouth movements don’t match the words. The writers for the English dub also weren’t very good at how to translate strain situations; heavy or grim moments get underwritten by some dubbed in line, like Sven’s death death being changed to “Get me to a doctor!” even as the scenery makes clear what’s really supposed to be going on. The fact they did a cheesy job censoring graphic violence is also distracting, even as a kid I could tell at cards in parts where they had cut material out.

Sven being put out of action due to injury made more sense and believable then him conveniently having a twin brother that nobody knew about.

[Cyno]

Voltron isn't even a Japanese dub. It's like Robotech where they basically wrote their own show using a bunch of mashed-up Japanese shows as the base.

[Ultimo Gallos]

Oddly while I have seen and enjoy the three series that make up Robotech,I prefer Robotech. Same with Voltron. Seen the two shows they used ot make it and they aint bad. But Voltron for me is better.

Really no idea on Dubs. Haven't watched many or really much anime since about 96.But even back then lots of what I was watching was fansubbed stuff. So I have no clue how accurate the subs were.

[Saiyanic Panic]

Kenshin? Are you talking about Bang Zoom's dub? If so I liked it a lot. Loved the outtakes and Steve Blum as Shishio. That's one of my favorite roles by him. Owned everything from Media Blasters save one DVD that was solely filler up to the end of the Christian Rebellion arc - also anime filler, but ehhhh. I found it okay.

I did not take the reveal that the original author had a hundred or so DVDs of child porn near as well. I ended up giving the lot to someone who was could divorce their enjoyment of the series from the manga creator. I couldn't and still can't.

[Lizuka #BLM]

One of the shorts in Squid Girl season 2 basically had to be completely rewritten to dub it. Whole thing is about the characters trying to learn how to speak English, with the central crux of the humor being mixing up various words; they wound up changing it to being about trying to speak in British accents, which 1), makes way less sense because they're asking an American for help with this, and 2), just comes out really cringy and awkward, though they at least include subs for the original scene as an extra on the Blu-ray.

Offhand also a bit in Steins;Gate with them trying to get information out of a random black guy. In English they turned it into a scene kind of like the bit in Airplane, with Okabe speaking in jive trying to communicate with the guy until the dude just tells him to talk normally, but in Japanese it's way funnier.



Is probably about the best you could've done, and I think Steins;Gate has a great dub in general, but English version isn't nearly as funny.

[Saiyanic Panic]

Azumanga Daioh, depending on "translated well". Really, really remember liking it. Got the ADV box that I haven't watched in years. Dub IMO is very listenable with actresses and performances I think were great. That said - the show is CRAWLING with Japanese culture and language puns that aren't easy to understand without liner notes or a wall-of-text explaining the joke.

So there's a lot of weird stuff.

... OK. It's weird regardless.

[Lizuka #BLM]

Jan 11, 2023 7:55:52 GMT -5 Saiyanic Panic said:

Azumanga Daioh, depending on "translated well". Really, really remember liking it. Got the ADV box that I haven't watched in years. Dub IMO is very listenable with actresses and performances I think were great. That said - the show is CRAWLING with Japanese culture and language puns that aren't easy to understand without liner notes or a wall-of-text explaining the joke.

So there's a lot of weird stuff.

... OK. It's weird regardless.

Shout out also to the manga where in the early goings of the translation they can't make up their minds if Yukari teaches English or Spanish.

[Deleted]

The Singapore dubs of the Japanese exclusive 80's Transformers stuff.

[Dr. T is an alien]

Honestly, I’d expect a lot of anime to struggle with any western dub. Ignoring the utter difference in language structure. The real struggle can be cultural.

Let’s consider Persona 5 (the game, not the anime). The game has a distinctly Japanese culture that is dumb Americans just don’t get. As a result, while still an engaging story Americans miss a lot of context.

- First, Joker’s life was damned near completely destroyed by having a single assault charge in his history. While it’s possible for a teenager to ruin his life with one bad choice in the US, simply decking a stranger would not be one of those life destroying choices.
- Ryuji and Futaba both start as outcasts as children of single parents, while most Americans would think little of it.
- Ann is an outcast for racist reasons (which Americans would not consider for her) while also being lusted after due in part to stereotyping.
- The notion that Haru was being sold off for marriage is completely foreign to Americans.
- Most Americans would find the backstories of Akechi and Hifumi to be inspiring while they feel it necessary to hide it due to Japanese culture.

There’s a few others, but I’d like to take time to point out some differences in gaming choices between the two regions. Americans tend to play Joker as having only 1 girlfriend. Playing the harem route is the most chosen route in Japan. I’m not entirely sure why there is that difference, but it exists.

[Johnny B. Decent]

Jan 11, 2023 12:10:12 GMT -5 Dr. T is an alien said:

Honestly, I’d expect a lot of anime to struggle with any western dub. Ignoring the utter difference in language structure. The real struggle can be cultural.

Let’s consider Persona 5 (the game, not the anime). The game has a distinctly Japanese culture that is dumb Americans just don’t get. As a result, while still an engaging story Americans miss a lot of context.

- First, Joker’s life was damned near completely destroyed by having a single assault charge in his history. While it’s possible for a teenager to ruin his life with one bad choice in the US, simply decking a stranger would not be one of those life destroying choices.
- Ryuji and Futaba both start as outcasts as children of single parents, while most Americans would think little of it.
- Ann is an outcast for racist reasons (which Americans would not consider for her) while also being lusted after due in part to stereotyping.
- The notion that Haru was being sold off for marriage is completely foreign to Americans.
- Most Americans would find the backstories of Akechi and Hifumi to be inspiring while they feel it necessary to hide it due to Japanese culture.

There’s a few others, but I’d like to take time to point out some differences in gaming choices between the two regions. Americans tend to play Joker as having only 1 girlfriend. Playing the harem route is the most chosen route in Japan. I’m not entirely sure why there is that difference, but it exists.

Also, Shido was a pretty blatant send-up of Shinzo Abe, and not a flattering portryal, either.