Retaining honorifics in English adaptations of manga & anime: yay or nay?

[Relish in Chaos]

Just what the title says. Do you think English translations of manga and anime should retain the honorifics used by certain characters with other characters to signify their relationships? Or do you think that defeats the purpose of a translation and/or the most equivalent honorific in English should be used? Whatever your stance, detail your reasons below.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

You mean like always referring to acquaintances by their last name, or using 'san'/'chan'/'sama'?


Eh, the latter is a little jarring for me, but it's not a deal breaker.

 

[StriderShinryu]

Given that honorifics often are in place to help define a character's place in the world, and they're not exactly tough to learn anyway, I don't see any issue at all with keeping them. As long as they fit thematically, they should stay.

 

[Lieju]

It very much depends on the kind of anime/manga it is, and how important the honorifics are.

If it's about the human relationships and it's a big deal leaving them out would change the story. (I remember one human relationship-manga where using the right honorific was a big plotpoint)
But if it's focused on battle(adventure like Dragon Ball and the honorifics don't play a big role, leaving them out fits better and you can translate them to the way the characters talk., like making the character talk in a formal way.

 

[SaetonChapelle]

For some reason in manga I don't really care, only because since the characters aren't speaking in some form of noise, I have to figure out everyone's relationship to one another via text. Honorifics just make this easier. But when the anime is dubbed into English, and the English voice actors still use honorifics is bugs the nonsense out of me. Only because I'm supposed to assume that although these people live in Japan (shows like Hellsing and Saiyuki are a deviation from this, insert place of origin here), they are speaking English. So no, I don't expect honorifics. I don't mind when they make a mention of status, but otherwise...

Example: English version of Ouran Host Club when Hunny kept calling Haruhi "Haruhi-chan". /shudder.

 

[Maxtro]

First off, I never watch dubbed anime.

Though if I did, I wouldn't want them to use the san/chan/kun/sama/sensei words in English. It doesn't work to keep them.

What they should try to do is convey the relationship type using similar English words or context.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

Personally it bugs me more when they try to translate the honorifics. People in English speaking countries don't constantly call people their own age miss or mr., nor.do youger siblings refer to older siblings as "hey, big brother." I'd rather they (and other words that don't have a good one word translation) be left alone with a translator's note explaining them, or barring that, dropped entirely if possible.

I mean it's not like half the words in the English language didn't get there that way in the first place.

 

[tilmoph]

No, it just doesn't fit. English doesn't have the same honorifics in day to day life as Japanese, but it still has ways of communicating relative status and respect. I would rather English voice actors try to express the relation between two characters using the methods available in English than shove bits of Japanese into the conversation, since it's a bit jarring.

 

[TehCookie]

Yes, I'm watching a Japanese show so I don't mind Japanese culture in it. How do you translate two friends dropping the honorifics to each other's name? In Japan that signifies them becoming more intimate, the west doesn't have anything like that. In bad localizations where school friends call each other Mr or Miss is weirder to me than using kun or chan. I can understand dropping them in a fully localized changing rice balls to doughnuts series, but if you don't go that far I don't see it necessary.

 

[shrekfan246]

If the show is set in Japan then it works okay, but doing it just for the sake of doing it is awkward. For example, something like FLCL has an almost direct translation from Japanese to English as it's a very Japanese show. But in shows like Baccano! or Fullmetal Alchemist it would be incredibly out of place as it doesn't fit the setting.

Personally, I've found that I prefer watching very 'Japanese' shows actually in Japanese, because the English dubs always feel just a little out of place. By a similar token, I think it's a little out of place for English dubs to use Japanese honorifics, but I agree that it can work just fine if the show feels decidedly 'Japanese' in the first place.

So yeah, I think it depends, though in a general sense I guess I would prefer that English dubs don't carry them over, unless they don't pull a Digimon Adventure and practically rewrite the entire script on the dubbing.

 

[The Wykydtron]

Depends. It works in stuff like Persona 4 where they keep stuff like "sempai" (probably one of the most used words in the game, maybe after "case" or "moider") They can't localise it completely because it is so steeped in Japanese culture and honorifics and that are a huge deal over there. They can't do a Phoenix Wright and rename everything.

For the record, the Ace Attorney games have the best localisation I have ever seen. They had to take an entire sense of humour, comprised of a lot of play on words and puns and bring it over to English. You know how hard that is? Everyone has joke names that need to be renamed without losing the joke. I can explain that Phoenix is originally Naruhodo-Kun because naruhodo is Japanese for "I see/understand" so it's a joke on his truth seeking stuff. Explaining puns is just not funny though so they have to change it.

If I have to explain the joke behind Phoenix Wright...

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

Uh. No. What's wrong with calling a guy who is also a teacher Bernstein or whatever? Why throw in "Teacher Bernstein" or "Bernstein whom I respect" or "Bernstein who is older than me". The cultures don't mix that well.

But I'm not going to stop watching or reading because of that, I'm just going to shout 'DESU DESU UGUUUU~!' whenever the need arouses me.

EDIT:

 

[freaper]

First off, I never watch dubbed anime.

Though if I did, I wouldn't want them to use the san/chan/kun/sama/sensei words in English. It doesn't work to keep them.

What they should try to do is convey the relationship type using similar English words or context.

^This.

I understand it would require A LOT of effort on the translator's side of things, but it would make for a more natural and smoother conversation.

 

[The_Echo]

In a translation, yes, keep the honorifics.

In a localization? No, because that's not quite how English-speaking cultures work.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

As long as it has dual audio (so that you can hear it in Japanese but read it in English) keeping honorifics is fine.


I never watch dubs of any kind (in either anime or kung fu movies or french films, etc.) so I don't really care about what they do with their english voical version.

 

[Irridium]

Eh, either one works for me. Though if the setting is somewhere other than Japan it could be a bit odd, but it's not really a deal breaker.

It's just a thing, that's sometimes there, and I don't mind all that much.

I watch dubs, by the way. Because I'm a filthy, uncultured foreigner who can't read text and watch the show at the same time.

 

[Cloudydays]

Given that honorifics often are in place to help define a character's place in the world

I'll agree with this. Aside from being little add-ons to names, they help define relationships between characters, personalities, and help understand their place in society. Japanese culture works, obviously, very differently from any western culture so with a bit of understanding of Japanese society placings you can help understand how a certain person fits in.

So yeah, absolutely, they should stay. It also just feels weird for a manga/anime to NOT have honorifics. Too westernized for me.

 

[SonofaJohannes]

I don't have a problem with the honorifics in manga, they're good when establishing a character's relationship with someone else. When they use it in dubs it feels a bit weird, but since I rarely watch dubs (or anime in general these days) it doesn't really matter to me.

 

[Korten12]

EDIT:

What... I am so confused- what is this!?

 

[[Kira Must Die]]

It depends. Some dubs can pull them off, like FLCL or K-ON!, but it depends on if it adds anything to the experience or if the actors/actresses can pull them off and make them sound natural and authentic. Preferably, I prefer just not using them, as most of the time they sound odd or misplaced in dubs, and it kinda takes me out of it, like in all of Sentai Filmwork's dubs. Yeah, they define a character's relationship to another, but that kind of verification is unnecessary as the story and character interactions should already have that covered. I can't recall a time where I needed honorifics to confirm whether this character is close to that one or that character is older than this one. The story should tell you all you need to know.