Forum - View topicAnswerman - Why Does The Same Title Get Translated Differently For Anime Vs Manga Releases?
|
Goto page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Next Note: this is the discussion thread for this article |
| Author | Message | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Deynard21
Posts: 31 |
|
|||
Oh yes because that's a big problem. They should think about why manga called Shingeki no Kyojin is translated into Attack on Titan when in one of the newest chapters 進撃の巨人 is translated into "Attacker Titan" not Attack on Titan 
|
||||
|
||||
Alan45
 Village Elder Posts: 10081 Location: Virginia |
|
|||
|
It should be noted that SNAFU was a rather inspired choice to replace "is wrong as I expected". The basic meaning of SNAFU is that it is normal for every thing to be messed up. It is a military acronym with a literal translation of Situation Normal, All F.....ed Up. It has been sanitized by frequent use.
|
||||
|
||||
Bastille
 Posts: 70 |
|
|||
Isn't that exactly what the article was talking about though? The original author putting forward an English title which doesn't wind up working out when they do a name drop. There are much more accurate ways to translate it too (except they'd make for a worse series name, arguably) but the translators had to stick with something that would help the English audience at least partially grasp that they're referencing the series name at that point in time. Seriously though, which of the three would you pay more attention to? "Attack on Titan", "Attacker Titan", or "Vanguard Titan". AoT may be an awkward title due to the name drop aspect but it does work well as the series title from a marketing perspective. |
||||
|
||||
EnigmaticSky
 Posts: 750 |
|
|||
|
The other thing is that often times there just isn't a direct translation, whether it be for a title or dialogue. That way you either end up with wordy explanations of the original word from the other language, or words that are "close enough." Also you can sometimes ask 10 different translators to translate the same dialogue and get 10 different translations, for the reasons I just mentioned. I mean just look at how -san is handled. You sometimes get people replacing it with Mr., but if schoolmates are talking you wouldn't say "Hey Mr. Xyz, ready for class to start?" You sometimes keep the -san suffix and assume your audience knows how it works, you sometimes just drop it, and sometimes they just put the person's first name even if the character said their last since in most English speaking countries in that context they would have said their first name. And that's just names, think about how many words have similar meanings in English, or how you would rearrange longer sentences to have a more natural flow since Japanese and English grammar are so different.
Translation is a hard job. |
||||
|
||||
|
maximilianjenus
Posts: 2926 |
|
|||
yup, and you still did not mention how no matter what you do, someone always gets angry. |
||||
|
||||
|
sailorsweeper
Posts: 416 |
|
|||
Very true |
||||
|
||||
|
Shiroi Hane
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 7585 Location: Wales |
|
|||
|
May I present one of my favourite "official" translations: I Wanting strengthen most in the worlds.
I always liked the bit of info tossed at the back of the first Kodocha comic about how they chose the English name (Kodocha: Sana's Stage):
For the anime, Funimation just used Kodocha. |
||||
|
||||
relyat08
 Posts: 4125 Location: Northern Virginia |
|
|||
Exactly. I sympathize with the person asking the question, but phrasing things as "the right translation" or the wrong translation is misguided. There is rarely just one right translation. It depends on context and a lot of other various things. |
||||
|
||||
|
Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11689 |
|
|||
|
Attack of the Titans? Titan Attack? Either would be preferable to me.
A great example of this is Ai no Kusabe (間の楔). This has been translated as Love Wedge (wrong ai), Wedge of Interval (makes no sense, but is fairly literal), Ties of Love (again, wrong ai), and most commonly, The Space Between (ignores the kusabe altogether). The main problem is misunderstanding the word "wedge" (楔). Most people first think of it as something to drive two things apart, especially regarding relationships. In this case it refers to something more like a chock, something used to hold things together, like a keystone or a shim between two pieces of wood that don't quite fit the space. I believe the entire title can refer to this type of wedge or bond (but don't quote me, I don't know what I'm talking about). 間 can mean a space or interval or a pause, but it also can be used for relationships. But how do you translate that as a title that makes sense in English? I think it's referring to the vast gap between Riki and Iason's social circumstances being the very thing that draws them together and binds them (with a nod to the year they spent apart), but that doesn't come across in any version of the title. Ties that Bind might work, but it sounds pretty cliche. 
Last edited by Gina Szanboti on Fri Feb 03, 2017 3:22 pm; edited 1 time in total |
||||
|
||||
myskaros
 Posts: 604 Location: J-Novel Club |
|
|||
|
For those curious about "Jitsu wa watashi wa..." into "My Monster Secret," this was answered on the original license pickup article 2 years ago:
animenewsnetwork.com/bbs/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2949432 |
||||
|
||||
Shay Guy
 Posts: 2423 |
|
|||
|
My favorite case has got to be Asobi ni Ikuyo, which got three different English titles: "Bombshells from the Sky" as the simulcast's subtitle, "Cat Planet Cuties" for Funimation's release, and the more literal "Let's Go Play" for the manga.
|
||||
|
||||
|
Amaranth Sparrow
Posts: 99 |
|
|||
|
Something else to consider, at least where dubs are concerned, is lip-synching. Lip-syncing often requires brevity that a full, proper translation of the Japanese cannot convey.
For example, in Naruto, Pain has an ability called Chibaku Tensei (地爆天星). A proper literal translation, since its phrased as a yojijukugo (four-character idiom), would be something poetic like, "Earthly Devastation, Heavenly Formation." A whopping 12 syllables compared to five syllables in the original Japanese. And thus in the dub, it becomes abridged to "Planetary Devastation," which is still pretty long. Likewise his Shinra Tensei (Omnipresent God, Heavenly Subjugation) becomes "Almighty Push" and Bansho Ten'in (All Creation, Heavenly Attraction) becomes "Universal Pull," which in my opinion are two of the best, most concise translations I've seen in anything. |
||||
|
||||
zensunni
 Posts: 1294 |
|
|||
Yep! My favorite, though it isn't about a title, is the whole argument about whether the main female character of Spice and Wolf is "Holo" or "Horo". You will still see people calling her Horo on message boards because that is what the fan translations called her when the first translations came out and, everyone KNOWS that the "L" sound isn't natural in Japanese so it wouldn't be that. There were all kinds of arguments about a word that had the meaning of wolf in the language of the Ainu people or something like that being similar as well. This persisted ever AFTER the Spice and Wolf II anime came out with the clear picture on the screen of Holo signing her name and spelling it in clear, cursive letters H O L O. In the original Japanese language version... (My favorite argument was that nobody ever complained about Lawrence being Rawrence...) |
||||
|
||||
|
myskaros
Posts: 604 Location: J-Novel Club |
|
|||
I know you're being facetious here, but I really hate this argument that "Japanese doesn't have Ls, only Rs." Anglocentrism at its best, really. There is not a perfect, direct correlation between the English alphabet and the sounds used in Japanese. The entire reason the R/L debate exists is because sometimes it sounds closer to a R, sometimes it sounds closer to a L, depending on both the speaker and the listener. To shoehorn it into always being an R is to willfully ignore the fact that... as another commentor eloquently said, "Translation is a hard job." |
||||
|
||||
|
Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11689 |
|
|||
|
And there are still those who insist on Arucard (Dracura? Would he then be Brad Tepes?)...
|
||||
|
||||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group