Thursday, October 11, 2018

Anime, Mistranslation Correction


I'm not sure who translates and put subs on anime but, I can say there are a lot of mistranslations. I know it's inevitable since they have to do in a limited time and there can be bunch of new words and broken Japanese. This time I'm trying to correct some mistranslations which I found in anime from this season.


Run with the Wind (風が強く吹いている Kaze ga Tsuyoku Fuiteiru) EP.1

around 20m00s

聞かれる前に言っておく。やったのは高校時代だ。もう少しで全快する。
Before you ask, I'll tell you. I ran in high school. I'm almost back at full speed.

"やったのは高校時代だ" should be translated into "I injured my leg in my high school," so it's followed by "I almost make a complete recovery."

The point here is "やった, or yatta."  Yatta is a past tense of Yaru(やる), it's a verb means "do." So literally he says "I did it in my high school," but the word "やった" reminds me of a broken Japanese phrase "やっちまった," this can be used when someone has done something one regrets. For example, when I cause an car accident, I might say "やっちまった!."

Ms. Vampire who lives in my neighborhood. (となりの吸血鬼さん Tonari no Kyūketsuki-san) EP.1

around 9m30sec

その家の人に、常識のない奴だなと思われてしまう。最悪不法侵入で捕まる。そんな普通の理由なの?
The people who lived there would think we were conpletely rude. We'd be consumed by guilt. That's such a nomal reason.

It seems the translator took "最悪, or Saiaku" as an exclamatory expression but here, "最悪" is an abbreviation of "最悪の場合, saiaku no baai" which means "in the worst case." This expression is of course a casual, spoken language. So, this should be "In the worst case, we will be arrested for trespassing."

around 15m03sec

どんな子なの? 一人暮らし? 日に当たると灰になる? ヒャッホー、日光だぜ!
They live all alone? Who is this friends? They turn into ash in the sunlight? Oh yeah, I love the sun
Here they are playing with words "灰になる" which means "turn into ash" and "ハイになる" which means "be in high, get high (on drugs or something)"

around 23m40sec

Looks like I don't have a lot of type O left. I'm going to go buy some. Go buy some...? Like hunting?!

Here too, they are playing with words "買ってくる" and "狩ってくる." I think those are not mistranslations, they maybe intentionally ignore those wordplay or "ダジャレ." Translators are often troubled by those kind of wordplays.

No comments:

Post a Comment