Forum - View topicRegarding profanity in anime
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Ktimene's Lover
 Posts: 2242 Location: Glendale, AZ (Proudly living in the desert) |
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What anime has the highest swearing? For me, I counted Akira having 78. Also, why is gratuitious swearing involver in some? For example, in Akira, Tetsuo falls off his bike and says (Joshua Seth's Tetsuo) the f-word. However, in the original Japanese, it's the s-word. Anyone disturbed how unnecessary some swearing is?
P.S., in the Evangelion movies, after Shinji's "infamous scene", he says he's so f-worded up. What's more closer to the line in English? |
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omar235
 Posts: 1572 Location: Florida, Jacksonvile |
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the highest that I can remember right now would be Black Lagoon but I don't know the exact number so I am not sure.
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Code001
 Posts: 60 Location: USA |
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Disturbed? Well, the Japanese language is based 100% on context. The actual Japanese spoken voice actors may say one thing, the subtitles may say another and then the English translation may, yet again, be something slightly different. Certain words can translate into various different English swear words. Which one is chosen depends upon the translator.
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daxomni
 Posts: 2650 Location: Somewhere else. |
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As I'm sure most of us already know, the Japanese language has very few actual "swear" words, but as we all know American English has many such words and they're often used with rather alarming frequency. Despite the fact that I very rarely cuss here in the forum, I actually swear a lot in real life.
Anyway, I nominate The Ping Pong Club for the most unnecessary cussing in an anime series, by far. That's actually part of what I like about it though, so it doesn't really bother me too much that the original Japanese dialog does not even begin to approach the level of foul-mouthed language heard in the American English track. |
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PantsGoblin
 SubscriberEncyclopedia Editor  Posts: 2969 Location: L.A. |
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Actually, they often times just do that to emphisize points. There really is no "true" Japanese equivilant of that word. I've asked the question before here... And what the hell was I thinking in that thread? Urban dictionary is a horrible source for definitions. Obviously I didn't know much about the site at that time... |
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Tony K.
Subscriber Moderator  Posts: 11447 Location: Frisco, TX |
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That is absolutley correct. It's all about context. Anyone who speaks a foreign language should know what I'm talking about. Some words can be a direct translation, like "chair." I mean, you can't call a chair anything else, right? But then you have expressions and idioms that are distinct only to specific cultures. In the case of cursing, we interpret our own curse words differently from how a Japanese person might use it (Black Lagoon is a somewhat good example). Whereas English has so many ways around it, that we can turn a simple word (concept or phrase) into any number of meanings. I've seen many a fansubber and professional company translate shimata into at least a dozen different words or phrases ranging from "oh, no!" to "holy sh**!" But getting to their actual uses, I don't find cursing offensive at all if used in the proper situations. I think it helps add a sense of vulgarity in depicting just how serious/funny (Chris Rock) something is, or maybe to show the audience a certain degree of maturity in making you know full well that the current situation is "not for kids." |
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Ohoni
Posts: 3421 |
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Yeah, blame William Shakespeare for our overabundance of swear words (it also doen't help that the language evolved indepentantly among dozens of English colonies over the centuries).
Japanese is fairly light on actual curse words, but when they use them, they mean them. What matters to me when I hear a dub or read a sub is honesty. People curse. "Dirty" people even moreso. If I see an episode of Black Lagoon and Revy is saying "darn it", I know that's not an honest translation of her intent, I know that that is not what she would naturally have said had she been speaking English. She'd have said "F%$", loudly and proudly, and so to should the translation. There's a lot of wiggle room, but I favor dubs that lean towards the honest reaction of a character of that age, attitude, and background under those circumstances, over those who clearly are speaking like a PG-13 version of themselves. |
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unhealthyman
 Posts: 306 |
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Well, a common phenomenon, at least in early days of English dubs, was to stick in a lot of unnecessary swear words to bump an otherwise tame anime up to a 15+ or more just to get the kids buying.
I'm not well versed in authentic Japanese swearwords, but quite often just any old English swear word is used in a translation due to laziness. I do know that, as a totally general generalisation, the Japanese tend to use less swearwords than we do. A lot of Japanese discourse is about avoiding offense even when offense is intended. These kinds of things tend to pass over me anyways - I don't exactly take notes on anime with large amounts of swearing. Nowadays it almost always seems fairly in line with what is intended. |
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Riyousha
Posts: 817 |
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Well I know these shows had cussing in it.
Ghost In The Shell- The s-word was used while the soldiers were in battle in this one scene. [adult swim] had to censor it because you can't say that word on TV. Fist Of The North Star- The red-haired bad guy said to the old man "I HEARD ENOUGH OF YOUR SH*T!" because he was sick of him talking. However, fansubbers always put in explicit words in whatever they sub. They would change "Screw you!" to "F*ck you." I know why they do this. They're just a couple of crazies who like to use R-rated language in their translations. |
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Enjeru
 Posts: 221 |
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_as stated above, the Japanese language doesn't have a lot of swear words. Also, thw words that they consider to be swear, isn't like ours, same the other way around. For example, one of the worst things you can say is busu, which means ugly woman. Another one(which I can't quite remember how to say in Japanese) translates into a poor person or begger from in our term of years would be around the 15th century.
So from both fansubbers and american companies, most of the time there is swearing, it isn't really swearing in the anime itself, rather sadly....the english language has been limited over the years to mere cursing to show various emotions. |
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one3rd
 Posts: 1818 Location: アメリカ |
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Actually, it is permissible on cable television because the content isn't regulated by the FCC like it is on regular network TV. How do you think Comedy Central airs its "Secret Stash" and aired this episode of South Park without fines. Several shows on FX also have more than the usually excepted profanities. The cable networks generally just choose to limit this so they don't scare away advertisers. |
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Kruszer
 Posts: 7994 Location: Minnesota, USA |
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Unless the series themselves actually swear in the English language which has been known to happen in series such as Gantz for instance. Rather badly put togather swearing I might add. I would have to agree with Omar235 on Black Lagoon having the highest curse count that I've noticed aside from the afore mentioned Gantz. I hope Geneon keeps the cursing in Black Lagoon when they dub it too. It's just the kind of series where it would fit in nicely with the whole underworld criminal/pirate atnosphere. I don't mind any cursing as long as it's appropriate to the situation and not just random. It offen enhances the experience. Some others I can remember as being particular foul mouthed were Bio Hunter, Demon City Shinjuju, and Psycho Diver. Elfen Lied and Gantz were dubbed with their share of swear words as well by ADV. |
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Azathrael
 Posts: 745 |
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And how unnecessary is profanity in everyday speech? I hear more curse words out on the streets than in a MMORPG game. And some individuals seem to speak it like it's some kind of natural language. Compared to that, curse words in anime don't really bother me. That, and the fact that I know literally what every Japanese curse words mean and that it's usually completely different from the English translation. But not only is it different, it's usually exacerbated when it's translated to English.
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unhealthyman
Posts: 306 |
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Well, I'd say that common English speech has devalued very nearly all of our swear words to the point where they are almost meaningless. I am not innocent from this all myself, as I swear fairly often without even thinking of it, and in the safety of my own home, I swear like a pirate but not even meaning it in a truly offensive way. There is a big difference between casually uttering a swear word (as is often done in anime as well as real life,) and using it in a meaningful and personal way towards another person. |
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penguintruth
 Posts: 8503 Location: Penguinopolis |
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The translators do use some swears to translate for "Oh no!"-type remarks, but let's face it - many times it's called for.
Take DBZ for a second. Especially the dub. If you get thrown into a mountain, do you think you'll be shouting "Darn!"? Krillin getting his ass handed to him and saying "darn" is absurd. Let's take Gundam 08th MS Team. Do you think soliders, mid-battle, are likely to say, "Darn!" or "Heck!"? No, they say, "Shit!", and the DVDs reflect this in the dialogue in the dub. Adults use adult language. Sometimes gratuitously. Compare that to children characters. You don't see many of them spouting off the f-word and the s-word too often, even in anime. |
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