ARE JAPANESE ANIME THAT ARE SUBBED TRUE IN THE WORDS THEY SAY??

[Anbu Kuronai]

I have been wonder while I have been watching Naruto in Japanese is the sub titles the real and exact words that are translated from the Japanese Voice Actors.

[holy_jumbo]

Could you stop making the same threads in different sections?
Like I told you in the other thread, if it's fansub 99% it's the exact thing, if it's from the TV 50% of the times it could be translated better.

[EricDent]

OK maybe I just still don't get it.

One one hand you have amatuer people who subtitle a show, that is in Japanese to English. Do any of these people actually know enough Japanese AND English grammar to translate properly? I have heard several fandubbers like to add stuff like bad words to a scene (when they are not present in the show), change the story to suit their needs/wants (IE rewrite the actual plot), etc.

One the other hand you have professional translators, who mind you do sometimes have to change the meanings of a phrase to better convey it to a largely English speaking audience.

Yes I do know that in the past, some companies did do "Dubtitles" where they used the English dub script as the subtitles for the Japanese version.
Also some companies do re-write the scripts (and even tone down the violence) in certain shows.

The main problem with the US network stations, is that they think that no matter what, a cartoon is for kids. Which is why some shows are edited, changed, etc. Because the shows in question, were designed for young males/females in Japan. Who are a bit more sophisticated than the average US kid.

However, in almost every case that I can think of, the DVD of the show has both the Japanese, and English version. Is always un-cut and uncensored (although sometimes you do have to buy that version).

[Bakaneko93]

I very much agree with what the poster above me has stated.

Another thing is, even if the Fandubbers keep true to the original text, they would have to make some form of altercations to them, due to the fact that Japanese does not translate cleanly into English. If they did only what was there, you would have to decipher a whole lot of broken and mangled statements. Incomplete sentences, incorrect grammar, and so on. Since I imagine that not many people want that sort of hassle, I would infer that the people dubbing the series would make some effort towards adding or subtracting words to make it more comprehensible, but without changing the original meaning.

[Kayro Shin]

One one hand you have amatuer people who subtitle a show, that is in Japanese to English. Do any of these people actually know enough Japanese AND English grammar to translate properly? I have heard several fandubbers like to add stuff like bad words to a scene (when they are not present in the show), change the story to suit their needs/wants (IE rewrite the actual plot), etc.


Yes, most fansubbers (the good ones at least) know Japanese and English quite well. Most of them have been learning Japanese for several years (in fact, that's one of the requirements when a fansub group tries to recruit a translator)

Also, can't the same be said about professional translators? What guarantees me that they do a better job than the "amateurs" (some of the translations I've seen on TV here, are actually pretty bad. An example is, the character clearly says "Sorry", yet the in the sub you read "Are you ok"). You really can't say that fansubs are inaccurate, just because they're done by people who do it for free.

On topic: Most of the time, and depending from fansub to fansub, what the seiyuus are saying, is what you can read in the sub.

[holy_jumbo]

If anyone thinks that Kayro is making stuff up I can say that most of the time I can translate better than professional subbers when I'm watching TV.
English to Portuguese of course, I haven't learned japanese yet.
So just because they're professioal translators doesn't mean they're that good, I think that since people can't probably understand the original audio they think that they can put what the hell they want.
Fan subbers on the other hand like to be sure that their work is accurate and most of times, if they make a mistake they say it in the next episode and change it.

[Th3DarkCloud]

Almost all good fansub groups have subtitled translation notes at the top. This alone pretty much guarantees that their versions will be more accurate, as they are thus able to stick to the original language more closely.

A great example would be the use of the Japanese word "nakama" in One Piece. While dubbers will translate that as "friend" (which technically, isn't incorrect), the subbers will keep the word "nakama". "Nakama" is more accurately described as "comrade" but it has a wider range of meanings than that. Luffy refers to his crewmates as "nakama", but his friends like Coby will be referred to as his "tomodachi", which is another word for friend, but entirely distinct and separate from his nakama.

There's other shows, like Rental Magica that would be utterly impossible to watch in English without translation notes and explanations if you don't completely change all aspects of it.


Oh, and while I'm not fluent in Japanese (my dad is, if that means anything), I do know a little bit that I've picked up from various places (books, Japanese club, anime, etc...). I can confidently say that almost 100% of the time, the subs will be more accurate and true to the original than the dub.


And while this next bit is a tad bit off-topic, I'd like to say I much prefer the original seiyuus to the American VAs who are often poorly chosen. True, there's some dubs with good voice acting like FMA and DeathNote, but those are rare and few.