 It's fashionable
for some hard-core anime fans to complain about English-language translations,
saying they're not true to the original or dumbed down for a general audience.
Two men who deal with those translations had their say on Saturday at Animazement:
Scott Houle (left) of Coastal Recording, who directs dubbing projects,
and Shin Kurokawa (right), who creates translations for companies such
as Animeigo. |
 The two men
told the fans that Japanese producers pay close attention to the dubs and
translations they produce, implying that the tapes wouldn't be released
in English if the original producers didn't approve. Houle told a story
where a dub he directed changed the acting style on one series, You're
Under Arrest. Houle chose to cast an over-the-top, aggressive-sounding
performance for the character of tomboyish policewoman Natsumi when he
handled the dubs for episodes one and two of the series. Episode three
hadn't been finished when the English dubs of the first two episodes were
sent back to Japan. Houle said his interpretation of Natsumi so impressed
the Japanese producers that they used it as a model for writing scripts
for the rest of the You're Under Arrest series. |
 The two men
emphasized that translations of anime are interpretations, attempts to
get the meaning of a story across and not just the words. "The Japanese
audience is feeling something," said Houle, "and we have to get that feeling
across - even if the language has been changed. It is an artistic thing
- it's a story." |
 Kurokawa said
the most difficult part of translating anime is getting across jokes and
puns. If something is based on Japanese word that look alike - or pictograms
that look alike - it's hard to get the meaning across. When that happens,
Kurokawa has to create a new pun that makes sense in English. That won't
be an exact translation, but it works if it gets across the meaning of
the joke, he said. |
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