How accurate are Funimation's subtitles for DBZ

[Raki]

During my break I want to rewatch the orange bricks i own with the subtitles. How accurate are the DBZ subtitles for the Japanese version?

[EricM]

Considered to be very very accurate.

[jjgp1112]

Steven J. Simmons used to write episode summaries of DBZ on his website before Dragon Ball Z came to the states, and his summaries were so accurate that Funi hired him to do the subtitles for the DVDs.

[Sun_Wukong]

Simmons did them for the original single disk DVDs. I dont know if he did them for the "Orange bricks"

[Vekurotto]

I always considered them very accurate. The only two things that have ever bothered me was "Kakarrott" instead of "Kakarrotto" and 'Saiyan' instead of Saiya-jin. Even then those two are insignificantly minor.

[Kendamu]

Kakkarotto I can understand because it's just a play on an English word instead of being an actual English work like Trunks. However, I don't see the problem with Saiyan ("sigh-an"). If there were an American on the show, I really would find it weird for the subtitles to say Amerika-jin.

That's just me, though.

[Vekurotto]

Should've finished my sentence before I posted I was going to add that those really don't bother me at all. The overall quality of the subs are very very high. Some of the best I've seen out of the anime industry.

[Kendamu]

I wasn't asking you to justify yourself. You said it was insignificant. I was just throwing out my opinion as well.

[desirecampbell]

During my break I want to rewatch the orange bricks i own with the subtitles. How accurate are the DBZ subtitles for the Japanese version?

They're done by the best in the business, Steven J Simmons. He frequents this very forum. He's so personable, he's been on the podcast too.

We could not be in a better position, as subtitles go.



PS: "Cell defeated Cell".

[Sedorna]

I thought I might mention a little something. Some of the earlier DVDs have two sets of subtitles--a subtitle track that matches that Japanese version, and a subtitle track that matches the dubbed script. Make sure you have the right subtitle track on when watching!

[FindKenshi]

So then Freeza really was saying "The one who tries the same trick twice lacks innovation!"?

[MajinVejitaXV]

Indeed.

As far as the original question goes, Daimao definitely has my utmost respect as a translator, and that means a lot given how particular I am with scripting in general. Let me explain.

I'm far from fluent, but oftentimes I will hear things in Japanese that I don't see adequately noted in the subtitles. For example: in Ergo Proxy, a show I'm watching right now, one of the characters refers to herself in the 3rd person quite a bit, i.e. - "Pino is right here." In the English subtitles, this is changed to simply be "I'm right here." Huge difference? Yes and no, to me. Her manner of speaking, to me, helps reinforce her character.

Then, of course, you have massive cluster-fucks like Advent Children, where Sony decided to basically rewrite the script instead of translating it ;p

I notice these little things a lot in anime. However, with Steven's work, my only gripes are very minor. Usually its merely the way I would say something differently in English, or the terms he chooses when a multitude of English words can technically be used (i.e. - his use of "freak" for bakemono whereas I preferred "monster"). As this is the only thing I can come up with, and rarely at that, which I ever have had problems with...I'd say he does damned near perfect translations.

-Corey

[fps_anth]

During my break I want to rewatch the orange bricks i own with the subtitles. How accurate are the DBZ subtitles for the Japanese version?

They're done by the best in the business, Steven J Simmons. He frequents this very forum. He's so personable, he's been on the podcast too.

We could not be in a better position, as subtitles go.



PS: "Cell defeated Cell".

This.

I think the only way we could be in a better position is if they added the romanji of the songs into the subtitles, as many anime DVDs do nowadays.

[Vekurotto]

I remember being turned off by Goku saying 'aint' and ending all of he's '-ing' words with "-in'". But then when I actually realized that Goku was a hick and he doesn't speak Japanese in the standard vernacular, it made sense. I believe that he's the only translator that I've ever seen that has ever touched on that aspect about Goku as well.

[B-kun]

Yeah, that's one thing I love about Steve's translations. He actually acknowledges that Goku, Chichi, and Yajirobe are hicks and speak like such. I find Japanese speech fascinating in how using certain variations of words and pronouns tells a lot about a person's personality, but subbers tend to ignore it. >:|

[Super Sonic]

They also keep the name-suffixes. Don't know any other companies that do that other than Pioneer/Geneon doing them for Ai Yori Aoshi and possibly Tenjho Tenge. (Haven't seen the latter subbed, but given that the dub had them, I would assume so).

[pledge]

pardon my ignorance, but what are 'hicks'?

[SatoSky]

Hick, a derogatory Americanism (term) for a person from a rural area.

[Jerseymilk]

Hick, a derogatory Americanism (term) for a person from a rural area.

Simply put a "country bumpkin".

[Adamant]

Yeah, that's one thing I love about Steve's translations. He actually acknowledges that Goku, Chichi, and Yajirobe are hicks and speak like such. I find Japanese speech fascinating in how using certain variations of words and pronouns tells a lot about a person's personality, but subbers tend to ignore it. >:|

Things like that ARE incredibly hard to get across in subtitles, though. When the Japanese language has 5 different words for "you", differentiaing between them when translating into a language that only has one word for "you" isn't really going to happen.

I have to admit to not being a huge fan of the use of "Kami-sama" over "God", though, but eh.