Unicorn Overlord demo turns into a localizer's creative writing class.
(media.scored.co)
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I speak Japanese. To be fair on at least this translation, there are many nuances to Japanese being conveyed here that aren’t entirely in the translation on the left for the first one. Most of them have no literal translation because even the tenses and word choice and tone you use in Japanese, or don’t use in some contexts, conveys a great deal about the relationships between characters and emotional states. The second one is far more forceful in what they added, but it’s at least conveying something. For all I know the next line of dialog could have had the info they added, which is also common.
Stupid translations are common, but a lot of times it’s not as far off as you’d think, and they are trying. Sometimes it’s actually better, like the Dragon Ball Z Dub vs original. The Dub is what’s popular and generally what made the franchise what it is and what it became.
There are a few things that played into that though, which have nothing to do with translation. Probably the biggest factor is the absolutely phenomenal soundtrack that Bruce Faulconer composed for it, vastly surpassing the original Japanese score. Then, the voice acting for the dub was uncommonly superb, especially in an era where English voice acting was typically terrible. The last major issue I can think of is that it was popular before the Internet was, so most people like myself only had access to the dubbed version, either by watching it on TV or buying the VHS.
The DBZ dub actually improved one pivotal scene so much that I was disappointed when DBZ Kai revealed the real lines.
Mr. Satan takes it upon himself to fight Kid Buu directly, and in the original dub, this was an act of massive bravery, one that really made me respect the character more.
Then DBZ Kai revealed that, in truth, he thought it was all a dream, and his life wasn't really in danger. Thus greatly diminishing the moment.
Yeah, it's more accurate, and what the author intended...but that's less awesome.
HOWEVER. That is a rare, rare exception. Most changes suck, especially now.
Depends on the series I guess. With Naruto, they were working with a bad situation but I can’t watch the Dub. With My Hero, the Dub’s as good or better since they’re all pretending to be super heroes and for someone like All Might he makes more sense that way. A million different series so hard to judge them all.
Worst I can recall in history is the 4Kids One Piece. Set the franchise back decades.
And then there's Samurai Pizza Cats, which was reportedly never even given a script to translate (and this is referenced in the new opening and ending themes), so a whole new script was written from scratch to match the visuals...and somehow, some way, it wound up so entertaining that it's still loved to this day.
You could do that with 999 other series and it would fail every time.
Lightning in a bottle. Could never happen again--certainly not now.