Almost a month ago, an article came out about the manga Ancient Magus Bride getting simultaneous English release and many localizers became instantly mad. The article clarifies that AI is used to create the translation and then human review is done to make sure that the translation is correct. The localizers or translators in the West were offended by this action but most of the fans were not on their side due to the quality of their translations in the past. I had an idea to write up this post after reading this post by @gadrian because it made me think about AI again.
Localizers and their work
The image shows the most outrageous example and I got it from here. If you look at the difference between the subs and the dubs, they changed the actual translation by changing the words to "pesky patriarchal societal demands". If you don't believe me, you can watch the clip where this happens above.
https://twitter.com/SlaveOfSuzumiya/status/1318191937183207426
The same person who voiced that line was confronted once in 2020 about the quality of the translation. The clip is only 2 minutes long so feel free to listen to it but she avoids the question. Rather than answer anything about the translation quality, she said she has a vagina and deal with it. She is also hinting that anyone who has a problem with their translation is a nazi.
Another outrageous example is a manga called "I Think I Turned My Childhood Friend Into A Girl" where the love interest is a feminine, cross-dressing male but the localizers decided to change that into transgender women. The localizers and their friends all said that transgender was right while the fans were complaining about the wrong translation. A month after that controversy happened, Seven Seas apologized for the incorrect translation and revised the script to be more in line with the author's original intent. The article can be found here.
So at this point, the problem that a lot of the anime or video game fans have with their translation is that it does not respect the source material and they will insert their intentions into video games, manga, or anime. Most of the fans want a faithful translation or as close to a faithful translation of the source material, but the localizers don't want to do that. In the above video by Rev, the script adaptors might not even speak Japanese. This is making me wonder what they are doing because it looks like they get a literal translation then they adapt it to whatever they feel like. I would prefer the literal translation over some translator or localizer changing it to whatever they see fit.
Honestly, I am a bit surprised to see how well AI did to fix the Dragon maid dub. The above video showed the original dub then the AI fixed version. AI has progressed pretty far and I couldn't even tell that it was fake as
Conclusion
Localizers are adapting the script to whatever they see fit and they do not care about the original author's intent. The fans want a faithful translation of the source material and the localizers don't want to do that. So when AI started coming for their jobs, the fans were not on the side of the localizers and
That is the basis for the drama going on and why even though there is a lot more going on. There was a lot of stuff such as Asmongold response to this and Jamie attacking Asmongold back. There are more examples in games where things are wrong such as in the Kiseki (Trials) series where some of the localizations also have issues. I think I made the right choice of playing the Geofront version so I am kind of glad that I didn't go back to the official version of Zero/Azure. In the end, as a fan of video games, anime, and manga, I would prefer faithful translation so I do not feel sorry for the localizers either. I am glad that more people are learning about this issue as even Japanese people are finding out.
What do you think of this? Should localizers be faithful to the source material or should they do whatever they feel with their script?
Feel free to leave a comment if you read my post. If you have any questions, feel free to ask and I will do my best to answer.
Posted Using InLeo Alpha
Posted Using InLeo Alpha
