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This Week in Anime - What is the Anime Localization Controversy?

They don't want translators fired they want localizers to do their jobs better. Translation and localization are two different jobs. It is the localizers people have issues with.

PS: even without this controversy, their replacement is imminent, why you may ask? it's cheaper and getting better, English is not my 1st language i don't know chinese,japanese or korean but with simple translation app i can read 4/10 quality of translation and with something like chat gpt around 7/10, it'll probably keep improving. also AI is already being used quite well in china on some niche things.

It sucks! I'm just venting here, too. But one day, it would be nice if adults could have a nuanced online discussion about localization without fearing that the worst posters on the planet will hijack it.

I've seen Fire Emblem come up as an example quite a few times in this thread.

I think one thing a lot of people are overlooking is the context in which something like this is coming up: it's a property under Nintendo.

Nintendo is quite possibly the most corporate of corporate entities out there and has a lot of control over how they want the brand represented in each region. Without doing any research, I have to assume that they give people in the roles of bringing the thing to another language extensive guidelines on how everything should be done and accuracy is probably very low on the list. It might exist in the pipeline at some point in production, but it is probably not the endgame.

These dudes are walking on water because I cannot think of many large AAA entities in the videogame space that probably have a very large margin relative to investment. If profit motive was the goal, it's hard to argue that Nintendo is not hitting it this far into the Switch's life. I'm not necessarily saying I like this, but I am saying that they are not incentivized to cave in to two people barking at each other online.

Even if you go on your crusade and pull everyone out of the matrix by being noisy on social media, there's a good chance a lot of people like these style of localizations for Nintendo products. You have more bargaining power if something is niche, but Nintendo is obviously not niche.

A prime example is to just look at the Fire emblem series. Even outside the very questionable censorship changes sometimes they just out right remove dialogue and leave "..."

in its place or entirely change the personality of characters like Effie by putting more emphasis on character traits that were minor ones at best before.

I don't think that's particularly accurate since there's other Nintendo properties that have much better translations and no censorship.

Here's the thing about being "adults". If you make a product for public consumption and you receive legitimate criticism regarding your product you can do two things: 1) be an adult, take the criticism to heart and make a better product OR 2) act like a child, ignore the feedback, and stupidly insist you didn't make a crappy product. Who makes the final call on whether a product is good or bad? The consumer.

For years now, these localization companies have often employed rouge translators/localizers who have done things like add English memes with no context, add unnecessary slang, insert political language, censor the source material, skip translations, or straight up mistranslate the source material. When fans/paying customers

I don't think that's particularly accurate since there's other Nintendo properties that have much better translations and no censorship.

DKL wrote:

I've seen Fire Emblem come up as an example quite a few times in this thread. I think one thing a lot of people are overlooking is the context in which something like this is coming up: it's a property under Nintendo. Nintendo is quite possibly the most corporate of corporate entities out there and has a lot of control over how they want the brand represented in each region. Without doing any research, I have to assume that they give people in the roles of bringing the thing to another language extensive guidelines on how everything should be done and accuracy is probably very low on the list. It might exist in the pipeline at some point in production, but it is probably not the endgame. These dudes are walking on water because I cannot think of many large AAA entities in the videogame space that probably have a very large margin relative to investment. If profit motive was the goal, it's hard to argue that Nintendo is not hitting it this far into the Switch's life. I'm not necessarily saying I like this, but I am saying that they are not incentivized to cave in to two people barking at each other online. Even if you go on your crusade and pull everyone out of the matrix by being noisy on social media, there's a good chance a lot of people like these style of localizations for Nintendo products. You have more bargaining power if something is niche, but Nintendo is obviously not niche.

I don't think that's particularly accurate since there's other Nintendo properties that have much better translations and no censorship. From what I've read Fire Emblem's localization is handled by 8-4 who are fairly infamous for their censorship policies. They were also the company in charge of localizing Xenoblade X which also had a lot of censorship. Xenoblade 2 was not handled by 8-4 so while some of the dialog was still altered there were no visual edits like X had when it came out revealing outfits and costumes.

You'd also think if it was that big a concern for Nintendo they would do what some other companies have done and self-censored their content to begin with so the Japanese and English versions match up and fit a global standard from the start. The fact the creators of series like Fire Emblem and Xenoblade still put this kind of content in the series seems like they're fully supportive of it being there regardless if their western branch or another company choose to censor it in the west.

Hm... when it comes to these kinds of issues, there is so much bad faith being thrown around on both sides. Are there people who don't understand translation, think that literal is the best, and just hate all translators/localizers equally? Yes. Are there people who deliberately insert their politics or agenda into their translations or do a bad job at localizing anime? Yes.

However, ignoring or defending the latter by making all fans out to be the former is just really deceptive and dishonest in my opinion. Sometimes, the criticism is legitimate, and turning a blind eye to it doesn't help anyone. After reading through the article, none of the controversy with Jamie Marchie was even touched on, and that was a significant reason why this issue blew up as big as it did.

TL;DR: Nintendo is probably signing off on the Fire Emblem changes and they're not being tricked into them since you can barely get anything past these people and Nintendo's style of localization is probably not representative of the industry, that extends beyond anime and games and perhaps even the United States, as a whole.[/b]

Like how Hollywood doesn't care how China or other countries alter or change their media

It sucks for us as a consumer, but it is what it is. We've long since known Japan has had a low opinion of America since the days people were getting Final Fantasy Mystic Quest and other games that were scaled back in difficulty for American audiences.

Except for the many that intentionally had their difficulties upped or switched to be harder because American & European children of the 1980’s and 90’s needed to be reduced to tears and swearing at impossibly difficult games.

Here's the thing about being "adults". If you make a product for public consumption and you receive legitimate criticism regarding your product you can do two things: 1) be an adult, take the criticism to heart and make a better product OR 2) act like a child, ignore the feedback, and stupidly insist you didn't make a crappy product. Who makes the final call on whether a product is good or bad? The consumer.