Brian Christiansen
2018-11-08 11:17:46 UTC
When I watch anime for just enjoyment, my preference is for dubbed
anime, but subbed anime makes for a kind of intellectual exercise. For
example, my favorite sports anime is "Princess 9," or at least the
dubbed version is. I tried watching the subbed version, and did not
make it past the second or so episode. However, one thing that kinda
bugs me is that they pronounce the name "Kanako" wrong, or at least I
think it is wrong. Instead of trying to describe how it was pronounced,
I will link to the episode, and give the time index of when it is first
said: episode 7,
time index 8:40.
It is also my understanding that in Japanese, the same set of words can
be translated, and part of the "proper" way to translate something is to
take the context and the character into account.
For example, in the show "Maria Sama ga Miteru," Yumi says "schimata"
(I hope I am at least close on the spelling, and in the official sub,
that is translated as "oh rats" or something like that. I have seen a
fansub, however, that translates it as "oh sh*t." Either one is
technically correct, I suppose, but I think the "oh rats" fits with
Yumi's character better than "oh sh*t" does.
However, when Revi from Black Lagoon says it (or at least I assume she
says that in the sub), "oh sh*t" or even "aww, f**king f**k" is
appropriate for the character.
It is my understanding that the saying "all your base are belong to us"
comes from a mistranslation of a line in a fansub of Pokemon, or at
least I think it is Pokemon, and it least to me, it sounds like a
translation that is too literal.
One I know a bit better is from Maria Sama ga Miteru. In it, when Yumi
first meets Sachiko's father, in the official nozomient version of the
dub, he says "I have been here to long." In a fansub of it, he says "I
am too relax in here." Though both might be technically correct, the
first is more correct in that it is what a native English speaker would
say. I think the second would only be said by a native English speaker
who is familiar with this particular fansub and is trying to be "funny."
Another sort of interesting thing to ponder is the difference between
newer and older dubs and how older dubs are sometimes very heavily
edited and newer ones are not, or at least less so.
The most famous example of this is the older DIC/cloverway dubs of
Sailor Moon vs. the newer VIZ dub. In the DIC/Cloverway dubs, the
names are changed, underwear drawers are changed to sock drawers, etc.,
but in the VIZ dub, it is a straight translation without the censorship
of the older dub. Heavy censorship does not make me dislike the older
dubs, in fact there are some aspects of the DIC/Cloverway dub that I
like better than the VIZ dub.
In the DIC/Cloverway dub, 2 episodes, the one where the girls go to the
"haunted" hotel and the one where Chibi-usa befriends the dinosaur are
cut. I have seen some people suggest that these were cut because the
girls are running around in swimsuits, but I do not agree. First of
all: there are other episodes where girls are running around in
swimsuits, such as the episode where Serena and Molly go to the
photography studio; the "magical girl" outfits that the girls wear are
basically swimsuits with very short skirts applied; and at least some of
the "sexy villianesses" are wearing little more than swimsuits.
However, I think a more important consideration is that those episodes
are side stories and not part of the "defeat the bad guys from the
negaverse" plot.
The last season was not dubbed at all, in some places I have heard that
it is because cloverway could not figure out how to edit around the boy
band that turns into the scantily clad ladies, in others places I have
heard that it was because of declining ratings. Whichever it actually
is, I often wonder about how they would have handled it, perhaps making
the "boy band" into a "girl band" that dresses very boyishly. VIZ
hasn't dubbed those episodes, but at least as far as I understand it,
they are not going to "handle" it, but will have the boy band be male
and the scantily clad ladies will be female, just as in the original
version.
The theme song in it's original, "Moonlight Denetsu," is quite clearly a
love song, that for some reason I will never understand, some people
think is a "beautiful" love song. The dubbed version is a ditzy little
song about how Sailor Moon and her gaggle of supergals fight bad guys
from the negaverse. Which version I like better, I don't know, but the
ditzy song about the supergals has a bit of a "head start," at least for me.
I listened to several English cover versions of the song, and I all
thought they were pretty good. They all had the basically the same
lyrics, since all 3 were translating the same song, but still different
choices were made for rhyming, etc. in English. There also might have
been some difference in the arrangement of the music, but since I am not
a expert in that field, I can not say much about that.
Finally, I would like to say that I have put a new entry on to my
4-panel comic. I think where I got the names and the character designs
will be somewhat obvious to people on this group, so I won't talk about
that. Ami's dress and shoes cover her legs so that her joints are
covered over to keep her legs from looking too "marionettish." I
colored Usagi's legs black to make it look like she is wearing black
stockings, and it worked a whole lot better than I thought it would.
anime, but subbed anime makes for a kind of intellectual exercise. For
example, my favorite sports anime is "Princess 9," or at least the
dubbed version is. I tried watching the subbed version, and did not
make it past the second or so episode. However, one thing that kinda
bugs me is that they pronounce the name "Kanako" wrong, or at least I
think it is wrong. Instead of trying to describe how it was pronounced,
I will link to the episode, and give the time index of when it is first
said: episode 7,
time index 8:40.
It is also my understanding that in Japanese, the same set of words can
be translated, and part of the "proper" way to translate something is to
take the context and the character into account.
For example, in the show "Maria Sama ga Miteru," Yumi says "schimata"
(I hope I am at least close on the spelling, and in the official sub,
that is translated as "oh rats" or something like that. I have seen a
fansub, however, that translates it as "oh sh*t." Either one is
technically correct, I suppose, but I think the "oh rats" fits with
Yumi's character better than "oh sh*t" does.
However, when Revi from Black Lagoon says it (or at least I assume she
says that in the sub), "oh sh*t" or even "aww, f**king f**k" is
appropriate for the character.
It is my understanding that the saying "all your base are belong to us"
comes from a mistranslation of a line in a fansub of Pokemon, or at
least I think it is Pokemon, and it least to me, it sounds like a
translation that is too literal.
One I know a bit better is from Maria Sama ga Miteru. In it, when Yumi
first meets Sachiko's father, in the official nozomient version of the
dub, he says "I have been here to long." In a fansub of it, he says "I
am too relax in here." Though both might be technically correct, the
first is more correct in that it is what a native English speaker would
say. I think the second would only be said by a native English speaker
who is familiar with this particular fansub and is trying to be "funny."
Another sort of interesting thing to ponder is the difference between
newer and older dubs and how older dubs are sometimes very heavily
edited and newer ones are not, or at least less so.
The most famous example of this is the older DIC/cloverway dubs of
Sailor Moon vs. the newer VIZ dub. In the DIC/Cloverway dubs, the
names are changed, underwear drawers are changed to sock drawers, etc.,
but in the VIZ dub, it is a straight translation without the censorship
of the older dub. Heavy censorship does not make me dislike the older
dubs, in fact there are some aspects of the DIC/Cloverway dub that I
like better than the VIZ dub.
In the DIC/Cloverway dub, 2 episodes, the one where the girls go to the
"haunted" hotel and the one where Chibi-usa befriends the dinosaur are
cut. I have seen some people suggest that these were cut because the
girls are running around in swimsuits, but I do not agree. First of
all: there are other episodes where girls are running around in
swimsuits, such as the episode where Serena and Molly go to the
photography studio; the "magical girl" outfits that the girls wear are
basically swimsuits with very short skirts applied; and at least some of
the "sexy villianesses" are wearing little more than swimsuits.
However, I think a more important consideration is that those episodes
are side stories and not part of the "defeat the bad guys from the
negaverse" plot.
The last season was not dubbed at all, in some places I have heard that
it is because cloverway could not figure out how to edit around the boy
band that turns into the scantily clad ladies, in others places I have
heard that it was because of declining ratings. Whichever it actually
is, I often wonder about how they would have handled it, perhaps making
the "boy band" into a "girl band" that dresses very boyishly. VIZ
hasn't dubbed those episodes, but at least as far as I understand it,
they are not going to "handle" it, but will have the boy band be male
and the scantily clad ladies will be female, just as in the original
version.
The theme song in it's original, "Moonlight Denetsu," is quite clearly a
love song, that for some reason I will never understand, some people
think is a "beautiful" love song. The dubbed version is a ditzy little
song about how Sailor Moon and her gaggle of supergals fight bad guys
from the negaverse. Which version I like better, I don't know, but the
ditzy song about the supergals has a bit of a "head start," at least for me.
I listened to several English cover versions of the song, and I all
thought they were pretty good. They all had the basically the same
lyrics, since all 3 were translating the same song, but still different
choices were made for rhyming, etc. in English. There also might have
been some difference in the arrangement of the music, but since I am not
a expert in that field, I can not say much about that.
Finally, I would like to say that I have put a new entry on to my
4-panel comic. I think where I got the names and the character designs
will be somewhat obvious to people on this group, so I won't talk about
that. Ami's dress and shoes cover her legs so that her joints are
covered over to keep her legs from looking too "marionettish." I
colored Usagi's legs black to make it look like she is wearing black
stockings, and it worked a whole lot better than I thought it would.
--
My Yonkoma: https://www.flickr.com/photos/brian0908/albums/72157680223526176
The E-mail associated with the account is a "spamcatcher" account that I
got to every couple of months to empty out, and anything sent to it will
not be seen for probably several months, if it is seen at all.
Brian Christiansen
My Yonkoma: https://www.flickr.com/photos/brian0908/albums/72157680223526176
The E-mail associated with the account is a "spamcatcher" account that I
got to every couple of months to empty out, and anything sent to it will
not be seen for probably several months, if it is seen at all.
Brian Christiansen