Most official subs are AI these days. Companies are feeding the show’s transcript into the machine and it’s spitting out translations for all the different markets. If it’s not dialogue, it’s not getting translated.
Why are official subs so awful, they can't even be bothered to translate character names? (Chainsmoker Cat))
Submitted 6 hours ago by themachinestops@lemmy.dbzer0.com to anime@ani.social
https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/pictrs/image/b13613c6-5fa7-4c5b-b01f-fe2fd79c2111.webp
Comments
djsoren19@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 hour ago
neuracnu@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 hours ago In all seriousness, there might be style guidelines that explicitly say to not translate proper nouns like character names that have literal translations.
And in most cases this probably makes sense. Frieren is reportedly a bit cringy for people who know German because the series uses on-the-nose German words for basically every character and place. Frieren = freezing, Himmel = heaven, Stark = strong, Fern = far/distant, Heiter = cheerful. There are probably similar examples for Japanese characters in other series, though I cont think of any at the moment.
Chainsmoker Cat is an ideal show to bend that rule though. “Thanks for the help, Chainsmoker Cat!” is legit a better line than “Thanks for the help, Yani Neko!”
It’s like that scene in Coffee and Cigarettes where GZA and RZA from the Wu-tang Clan meet Bill Murray in a cafe, and they constantly refer to him by his full name. Never “Bill” or “Mr Murray”, always “Bill Murray”. It’s not always funnier to do that, but sometimes it just is.
mo_lave@reddthat.com 31 minutes ago
“Thanks for the help, Chainsmoker Cat!”
Chainsmoker Cat?
konata_izumi@ani.social 1 hour ago There are probably similar examples for Japanese characters in other series yeah for example every name in komi san can’t communicate is a japanese pun or a play on words that describes the character and they are also better left untranslated
Unboxious@ani.social 4 hours ago
I assumed OP was talking about the white rectangle that says "Penname: Ochinpo Tatsuo (Dick Tatsuo) Real Name: (I have no idea how to read that sorry Japanese names are hard)
themachinestops@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 hours ago
Yep, I meant the white rectangle that is why I said untranslated.
- neuracnu@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 hours ago
Oh, whoops lol :3
NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io 3 hours ago
I think it's Tatsuno Saori, but don't quote me on it.
wizblizz@lemmy.world 3 hours ago
Chainsmoker cat is not a great phrase, it’s clumsy and hard to say. Yani Neko is actually her name, why is this a big deal?
themachinestops@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 hours ago
I am talking about the untranslated text bubble, not the name.
dalekcaan@feddit.nl 2 hours ago
Yeah, whether or not on-screen text is translated seems like a total crapshoot. Some translators go the extra mile and format the translated text to look like the original, but far too many just ignore it entirely.
pglpm@lemmy.ca 5 hours ago Lack of love.
Unboxious@ani.social 4 hours ago
Lack of money. I’m sure most translators would be happy to do a better job if they were given the time and money necessary to do so.
Also I’m not certain Crunchyroll’s new player can even render the subtitles while also rendering more English text for the name.
ReluctantlyZen@ani.social 1 hour ago
CR’s new player can actually do this, but Chainsmoker Cat is not done by CR. This is on Netflix
bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 3 hours ago
Lack of love by whoever paid for the translation.
Alwaysnownevernotme@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
Here to step on a landmine and say the dub is good.
vrek@programming.dev 3 hours ago
Someone introduced me to “ghost stories”… The English dub of that definitely better
hubertmanne@piefed.social@piefed.social 4 hours ago I watch dub with caption and often times the caption phrases things in a better way to me.
degen@midwest.social 4 hours ago
Ain’t no way they named the cat Yoni Neko
ReluctantlyZen@ani.social 1 hour ago
Netflix is notoriously bad at this. CR gets a bad rep, but compared to Netflix they’re a godsend.