Translations quality has been spiraling downwards since last 6 or 7 years. At this point I’m even more motivated to learn just so I can disable subs completely. Fan subs are not going back after all.
I still suck at reading but last time I picked up some raw Japanese manga I was surprised how different the characters seemed compared to translations. The subtle differences in characters speech make a really huge difference.
BillyClark@piefed.social 3 days ago
Well, watching the old episodes of this anime on crunchy roll, some of the subtitles from earlier seasons are almost unforgivable.
IIRC, Myne’s name was originally subtitled as “Mine”, which made it unnecessarily confusing. But my biggest beef is that, instead of the “high priest” and the “high bishop”, the subtitles, I think all the way until the previous season, used “high priest” and “head priest”. I got those confused so easily, but “shinkanchou” and “shindenchou” sound very different from each other, to me at least.
NineSwords@ani.social 1 day ago
Names are generally a problem in this series. Myne used to be Main (Ma-I-n, an analogue to the Japanese マイン), but I guess the English audiences were too confused with the word “main” so they had to change it. (No such consideration for the German audience in Frieren).
And then there is the whole Eustachius/Justus situation.
BillyClark@piefed.social 1 day ago
I am of the unpopular opinion that the spelling of English character names should always be as close to the Japanese pronunciation as English can get, even when they are English loanwords or foreign names. I still remember people insulting me and telling me how stupid I was when, right after she was first introduced, I claimed that Sasuke’s daughter in the Boruto manga should be called “Sarada” and not “Salad”.
I don’t even think Eustachius is a great way to spell the name, despite definitely being the spelling that the Japanese came from. We just don’t pronounce that name like the Japanese pronounce it. Kazuki-sensei has admitted that Damuel was originally a typo of Samuel. Why not just call him “Eustocks”, “Yustocks”, or something similar? The only important thing in a translated name is the pronunciation.
hypertown@ani.social 3 days ago
Yeah it’s confusing but not surprising coming from a company that now pushes AI translations and subdubs. Profits above anything else.