English subs for Japanese anime

[Nazi Cola]

I'm just wondering, and if this goes in General Discussion I apologize, but how accurate would you say the English subs are when watching the original version? More accurate than Viz? Less accurate? Shouldn't be relied on in discussions?

[Gaffer Tape]

For the most part, entirely trustworthy. Steve Simmons, who did Z and GT, was a big part of the fandom community (a member of the toriyama.org fansite if I recalll) when FUNimation hired him. Definitely more trustworthy than Viz. Viz isn't (always) bad, but it's obvious they were going more the "adaptation" route than the "translation" route. The original DB series was done by a man named Clive Mandelin, more commonly known on the internet as Mato and probably most famous for doing the translation for the English fan version of the game Mother 3. I find his subs satisfactory as well, although something about it seems a bit off compared to Simmons. I think that was just earlier work for him, but overall I think it's fine. The only problem is, in the translator switch, you'll get a few inconsistencies, as they created different standards for certain things, different spellings, etc.

[JulieYBM]

Clyde Mandelin, but yeah.


Something notable about Mandelin's work is his proficient use of the word 'shit', something Daimao seems to shy away from.

Well, that and 'Mega Kamehameha'.

[Gaffer Tape]

Blah. Thanks. I should know that. I do know that, as I'm a big fan of the Mother 3 Fan Translation. I just made a boo-boo.

[Herms]

The somewhat arbitrary ranking I always like to give is that Viz's translation is a 7/10 and the Simmons subtitles are a 9/10. The idea being that Viz isn't inaccurate by any means, but the subtitles are a significant step up, although no translation is ever going to be completely perfect. These rankings are strictly in terms of faithfulness to the original, mind you. Simmons' subtitles are unarguably more accurate than Viz's translation, but which translation is "better" is subjective. As has been said, Viz leans a lot more heavily towards adapting dialogue to sound as natural as possible in English, the result being that they lose some accuracy in the process. But if you aren't as hung up on accuracy and value natural-sounding dialogue more, Viz is for you. Of course then there's stuff like Viz's censorship issues and how they sometimes make seemingly pointless changes, but whatever.

Oh yeah, keep in mind that all Funi DB DVDs have two subtitle tracks, one for the dub, and one for the Japanese audio. The subtitles for the dub track are (logically enough) simply dubtitles and therefore as inaccurate as the dub.

[Savage68]

The somewhat arbitrary ranking I always like to give is that Viz's translation is a 7/10 and the Simmons subtitles are a 9/10.

He lost a point for "ReaCoom," didn't he?

[Herms]

He lost a point for "ReaCoom," didn't he?

Nah, I think that's a bit odd but wouldn't consider it inaccurate. By saying that Simmons' subtitles are "only" 9/10, I simply mean that there's always going to be some intricacies in the original that just aren't quite capable of being conveyed by a translation. And then there's little mistakes that invariably turn up every now and then in a translation of a series as long as DB ("So Satan defeated Satan huh?", stuff like that). Basically, the idea is that 9/10 is as accurate as you could justifiably expect a translation to be.

[JulieYBM]

Oh yeah, keep in mind that all Funi DB DVDs have two subtitle tracks, one for the dub, and one for the Japanese audio. The subtitles for the dub track are (logically enough) simply dubtitles and therefore as inaccurate as the dub.

Actually, as far back as the Orange Bricks they stopped doing dubtitle tracks.

[jpdbzrulz4sure]

Oh yeah, keep in mind that all Funi DB DVDs have two subtitle tracks, one for the dub, and one for the Japanese audio. The subtitles for the dub track are (logically enough) simply dubtitles and therefore as inaccurate as the dub.

Actually, as far back as the Orange Bricks they stopped doing dubtitle tracks.

They stopped including dubtitles in 2005 (except for movies 11-13, as far as I can tell).

[Herms]

Huh, well OK then. Most of my DVDs are still the original Funi singles, so I guess I'm out of touch.

[The Tori-bot]

Thought this thread might be handy to ask a little Daimao-related question: how many assistants/other translators were there for the DB stuff he did? I always see him credited as "Head Translator" on the DVDs, and was wondering if he had any help (which I imagine would be the case for a series of its length) and how much they contribute to the translation.

Hey, maybe the man himself could even chime in and let us all know...

I know you're there, Simmons.

[Puto]

The only problem is, in the translator switch, you'll get a few inconsistencies, as they created different standards for certain things, different spellings, etc.

Yeah, one thing I noticed is how they romanise attack names. For example, the Taiyô-ken is referred to as the "Taiyo-ken" in Simmons' subs, whereas in episodes subbed by Mandelin it's referred as the "Taiyou-ken". They're both valid, mind you, but it's just not 100% consistent.

[Daimao]

Thought this thread might be handy to ask a little Daimao-related question: how many assistants/other translators were there for the DB stuff he did? I always see him credited as "Head Translator" on the DVDs, and was wondering if he had any help (which I imagine would be the case for a series of its length) and how much they contribute to the translation.

Hey, maybe the man himself could even chime in and let us all know...

If I had any help, I'm unaware of it. That is, short of someone going through afterward and standardizing everything after it was submitted (going through and changing "Dragonballs" to "Dragon Balls," for example).

Oh, but I didn't translate any of the credits. (What few credits I did translate never made it to release.)

Which DVDs say "Head Translator" on them?

[The Tori-bot]

Which DVDs say "Head Translator" on them?

I seem to recall that most of the movies have you credited as that on the English Funimation credits (as opposed to the raw Japanese ones), the ones that credit Gen Fukunaga, scriptwriters, ADR directors etc., and around three members of the Japanese crew.

I'm not sure on that though, so if someone could provide a screencap then that would be just smashing, since I kinda sold those in the Great Dragon Box Money Drive™.

[linkdude20002001]

Oh, but I didn't translate any of the credits. (What few credits I did translate never made it to release.)

That would explain why the credits list Chiho Kiyooka as Chiho Kikuchi.