Why Are There So Many Strange Anime Translations?

I’ve been enjoying the new anime season, which has something for everyone: an over-the-top romantic comedy with 100 girlfriends, a time-travel otaku story, the tale of an immortal elf in a fantasy world, and the continuation of my favorite racing anime. But I keep noticing bizarre and overly “creative” subtitles showing on screen lately. What do you think of these strange anime translations?

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Strange Anime Translations 16bit Sensation

The Agony of Overly-Creative Anime Translations

Although I’m fluent in Japanese, I always watch with subtitles so I can grab interesting moments to share with J-List customers on Facebook and Twitter. I love it when posting screenshots from an emotional or humorous scene piques the interest of a fan, causing them to watch the anime and report back to me on how happy they are that they came across my post.

But when translators get overly creative at adapting the lines spoken by the characters, it can be jarring, especially if they’re adding elements that aren’t in the original dialogue. If nothing else, it pulls us out of the story we’re enjoying and makes us aware that a translator has been tweaking what we’re reading.

Kanojo Mo Kanojo Strange Anime Translations

“Flat-chested girls should be friendly with each other!” (Source: Kanojo mo Kanojo.)

What Do Fans Want from Anime Translations?

While different fans might have different preferences, I think we fall into two camps: fans of subtitled anime, who likely want to enjoy anime in its original form, with the original voice actors, and dub watchers, who have various reasons to prefer watching English-dubbed anime.

Why are Fans So Passionate About Dubs vs Subs? Read responses from J-List customers in this blog post!

What do anime sub watchers want? I believe we want translations that accurately reflect what’s being said, with the same “feeling” as the original. This means that the level of formality or informality should be approximately the same.
If creative slang words show up in an English translation, it makes us wonder what word is being translated from Japanese. We might be compelled to stop watching and Google what the word might be.

While fansubs have a lot more leeway to have fun with subtitles, I believe fans want official subtitles from the likes of Crunchyroll to be “invisible.” The translators should be seen and not heard.
Fans are often uptight about any change to subtitles that seem politically motivated. Naturally anime licensors should make sure fans never feel this way, as it’s a turn-off for everyone.

Some Examples of Bizarre Anime Translations

“My person-of-destiny? I’d love to [sample her] taste…” (The translator bent over backward to add “chick” into this segment when he was just talking about his “soulmate.”) (Source: 100 Girlfriends.)

“English men don’t have the image of being cool [or handsome].” (Source: MF Ghost.)

“Oh, this is so upsetting, so upsetting! It’s super hard [to accept].” (Source: 16bit Sensation.)

“This old computer is running! I swear, wow!”

“[Here is your] breast milk [to drink].” (Source: My Life as Inukai-san’s Dog.)

Youve Been Acting Sus The Whole Time Nagatoro San

This one is a little more complex. The Japanese line was さっきから挙動不審ですけど sakki kara kyodou fushin desu kedo, which translated as “acting suspiciously.” But because it’s a slang word, it’s not entirely unreasonable for a similar word to be chosen for the English subtitle. So I have to give this “overly creative” subtitle a pass. (Source: Nagatoro-san.)

Another challenging situation. Virtually every word out of Marin’s mouth is gyaru speech. Should the translators pick an English slang word for every non-standard word she uses? Or perhaps keep her speech fairly normal, peppering in a few slang words to represent that her speech is not standard Japanese? What would you do? (Source: My Dress-Up Darling.)

In the end, while there’s nothing to be gained by nit-picking every line of every anime, it would be nice if subtitles tended to be “more accurate” and with less unnatural speech inserted. If the writers want to get creative, there’s always the dub, where they can “pog!” away to their heart’s content.

(image source)

Japanese People Hate Changing Translations, Too

J-List’s ero toy buyer Tomo is the biggest Beatles fan in the world. Toshiba EMA releases an expensive boxed CD set of Beatles’ music annually, both in stereo and monaural editions, and Tomo dutifully buys one of them for his collection. But if you ask him about Hiroyuki Takashima, the record executive at Toshiba EMA who first managed the Beatles releases in Japan, he’ll give you an earful about how this self-important man ruined the band for Japanese fans by needlessly changing song titles. Some examples:

Takashima changed the official title of “Hard Days Night” to “Beatles ga Yatte Kuru Ya! Ya! Ya!” for no reason.
“I Wanna Hold Your Hand” became “Dakishimetai” (“I Want to Embrace You”). Not exactly the same thing.
Most problematically, “Norwegian Wood” became “Norway no Mori” (“Norwegian Forest”), despite it being a song about some unique furniture John Lennon saw at a girlfriend’s house, causing millions of Japanese fans to misunderstand the song.
Movie titles are often changed willy-nilly. The Japanese title of Forest Gump is Forest Gump ~Ichigo Ichie~ (Once in a Lifetime), which had movie purists up in arms.
“Queen of Movie Subtitles” Natsuko Toda got in trouble with fans when she translated the subtitles for the Lord of the Rings films without referencing the Japanese translations of the books. Fans already had an accepted translation for a line like, “Not idly do the leaves of Lórien fall,” something any translator should be aware of going in.

Thanks for reading this blog post about strange anime translation. Do you have any other examples you’ve noticed recently? Tell us about them in the comments below!

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