I’ve wanted to write about this for a while.

Two years ago, you may remember one such individual posted a video that criticized the fansubbing community, mentioning that it was in a period of decline for various reasons.

I’ll be blunt. This video made me quite angry. I love translation with a passion, and for someone to say that there is a “correct way” to translate anime just sounds arrogant to me. Sure that guy pointed out some legitimate errors that fansubbers have made, but consistently referring to translation “experts” and claiming that there is a law of translation is quite infuriating.

I have a preference for translation:
-I like honorifics maintained (-san, -sama, -chan, etc)
-I prefer the family names to come first, as it is pronounced in Japan.
-I prefer cultural references to be maintained.
-I like translation notes.
-I like little signs and other things translated.

So yeah, maybe I’m very particular. But I do not go to each fansubbing group and say to them: “GODDAMNIT DO IT RIGHT”, because
1. I acknowledge that each person wants to translate it in their own way
2. Fansubs are free, you shouldn’t bite the hands that feed you.
3. It would be just plain rude.

The screenshot above is from episode 5 of Nyankoi by [gg]. Which featured Nagi being ultra enthusiastic and yelling about how she wants to make the Junpei and Kaede “lovers”, she literally says “lovers” in engrish so it comes out “ravaas”. The fansubs however dictate that she is saying “koibito” which is the equivalent Japanese word for “lovers”.

At this point I say: Wait what?

A few seconds later, the Junpei asks what “ravaas” means, and of course Nagi responds in Japanese as “koibito”, which the fansubs translate as “lovers”

At this point I say: Oh….a reverse translation.

I’m not a big fan of reverse translations, but I understand what the fansub is trying to do
Conveying the following information:

Nagi says something foreign. Junpei does not understand. Nagi repeats the Japanese equivalent so he can understand.

Only the way it is conveyed to me is confusing because I for one pay attention to both the subtitles and the spoken dialogue. But as I said, I don’t dislike [gg] for translating this way, cause I don’t think it’s right of me to enforce the way I would translated onto other people, and obviously it would just be rude.

Also. My Japanese is amateur at best, but thats another story.

Another thing, is that their translation is not “wrong”. There was huge “annoyance over a.f.k. localizing tsundere as bipolar as one is a mere character trait, whilst the other is psychological disorder.

There you go. My feelings on translation

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