Blade3dge said:
It's not really that, while it's true that there are some poor dubs which in fact censor the original script the reason people watch subs or better yet fansubs is.
Culture and linguistics.
Any study of linguistics or culture differences will immediately indicate strange speaking patterns, catch phrases which mean very little etc. When an Anime is dubbed and even to some extent subbed it is being changed for a new culture, the idea of calling somebody "bald" as an insult for example is lost because in English it makes less sense. Sentences are rearranged and some phrases which would make no sense in English are changed completely. Changes to the script such as this are a huge change to characterization and epic speeches for example when translated to English may sound cheesy, so instead of an Anime about epic speeches it seems like an ironic laugh at cartoon culture. By changing the cultural and linguistic context of the original material so much is changed and it can not be consumed as it was originally intended which believe it or not is important to some people. Often high quality writing really can be lost in translation, it is for this reason subs, particularly fansubs try to retain Japanese culture and the context of the original script to do justice to the original writers.
The point is translators are not award winning writers like the original script writers of the anime so when they rewrite it to make sense to western culture too much is lost so subs and fansubs are seen as a way of retaining the original material... Evin if it requires some study of Japanese culture =P
I'm glad you told me to read your post back here cause you're definitely right. I missed it in my eagerness to scream about my crappy Berserk scanlations XD
Translators aren't the best writers in the world, and they have a hell of a job in trying to relay a story into a completely different language and for a completely different audience. And so much can be lost in translation that some anime just will not translate into English at all. Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei comes to mind...
That said, I just feel like fansubbers' pursuit of accuracy sorta has the same effect as the one you said about dubs. I don't feel like I'm getting award-winning writing when I see an almost-literal translation. In a professional dub I may be getting a less detailed account of a story, which isn't as detailed as the original. But in a fansub I feel like I'm seeing a more linguistically accurate, yet less dramatic version of the story, which is just as bad IMO.
Again, I'll use Spanish. A woman screaming at the top of her lungs, screaming "Salte de mi vida, maldito hipocrita, nunca te quiero volver a ver." sounds heartfelt...IN SPANISH.
When you translate it into "Get out of my life, you damn hypocrite! I never again want to see you!" (which is as close as I can give you without seriously wrecking the sentence.) you're still not getting the full range of emotions because honestly, the language is STILL too soft to convey it. You have to consider context IMO. Consider that this woman is distraught, heartbroken, and angry. Is she likely to use such...well-organized language were she speaking in English? The above sentence, in Spanish, I would translate as "You goddamn hypocrite, get the hell out of my life...I never wanna see you again!" I'm no professional, but I think that adding the stronger language and the extra fluff goes a bit of a longer way in retaining the intent of the character's emotions. No, it's not linguistically accurate, but it works better for me.
Another example...I was up last night while looking at this site playing Yakuza 2. At one point, Kiryu said "Sonna no bodigaado desu." or something close to that. I immediately knew that he was referring to the woman on the ground, being accosted by a group of men. The game chose to use the phrase "I'm her bodyguard." instead of "I'm that woman's bodyguard.", which is the more literal translation, and the one I expect fansubbers to choose. No, the former is not completely accurate, but it also doesn't insult my intelligence and wreck the tension of the scene, unlike the latter.
And your mentioning of "bald" as an insult...Perhaps I don't understand the true level of such an insult in Japan, but if a dub used the same insult, I will understand that it's an insult, and that's ENOUGH. I don't NEED to know that it's a seriously wounding insult in Japan; I already understand, by the sound of the speaker, that he didn't mean it in a nice way. Intonation is key. I don't feel like I lost anything out of it. Yeah, I'll think it's a bit juvenile to use that as a jeer, but then, I think anyone who's wounded by that word, be they Japanese or Western, is juvenile as well.
So I guess my point is that I'll prefer the original Japanese once I can SPEAK Japanese fluently. That way, I can get absolutely everything undiluted, without overly literal subs or truncated dubs wrecking everything. But for now, I'll take drama and fluidity over linguistic accuracy. Again, all of this assumes the dub is good to begin with, hahahah.
