DBZ - FUNI and Japanese Episode Comparisons and Opinions

[Puto]

I'll save your missing post from inexistence!

Well, in any case, next Episode, we have Ginyu finding out that Goku won't hurt him, and Freeza laying the pwnsmacking on the last remaining remnant of the Namekian Warriors. It starts with Goku powering up, and ends with Ginyu laughing about how he wants Goku's body. So, if you guys could tell me, which scenes do you want to be up on the video comparison? I don't want more than a half hours worth of footage, for fear of getting in trouble for copyright, and also because it's probably tedious for viewers to have to see all the script changes rather than just reading the transcripts I put up, so, I want to know, which scenes do you want and not want to be put up?

[Fionordequester]

Thanks Puto! But, how in the world did that even happen?

[Adamant]

Forum glitch. Happens every now and then.

[Fionordequester]

I see. Well, in any case, feel free to make your requests.

[Fionordequester]

Ok, guys, I need your opinions on something. Now, for whatever reason, whenever I tried import the Japanese videos into Windows Movie Maker, or anything else, the subtitles disappeared, even when didn't even need to convert the file. So, I have downloaded Aegissub, a program that allows me to add in subtitles to the video, so there's that problem solved...however, I'm having a bit of a creative dilemna here...

As you might've noticed, some of the subtitles in the videos I've provided have dialogue that is somewhat stilted and literal, so here's my question. Should I not only copy and paste the subtitles, but actually clean up the dialogue here and there, so that the sentences flow more naturally? For example, Vegeta's....

"It sickens me with how utterly lenient you are..."

would become...

"It's sickening to me how softhearted you are..."

So should I do that for all of the more awkwardly written lines in the subs, or should I just keep to keeping the subtitles exactly the way they are presented in the videos I have?

[VegettoEX]

If you don't actually know Japanese and what the original line is and have a background/education in this stuff, I would highly advise against altering the translation of someone who does.

[Fionordequester]

Well, yeah, I'd certainly not make drastic, story altering changes, just clean up some of the grammar here and there so it doesn't sound awkward. That's more what I mean. That's what I'd like your opinion on. Should I do even that, or not?

[VegettoEX]

Well, yeah, I'd certainly not make drastic, story altering changes, just clean up some of the grammar here and there so it doesn't sound awkward. That's more what I mean. That's what I'd like your opinion on. Should I do even that, or not?

You may think you're cleaning up grammar and making it sound less awkward, but you don't know the why behind what you're doing. You're basically playing the telephone game with someone else's translation, which itself is already inherently taking some sort of liberty just to get it into another language.

Unless you plan on going back and doing an original translation all on your own, I would recommend against altering someone else's translation.

The line may actually just be terrible and lifeless in Japanese. This ain't Shakespeare that we're reading, here!

[Fionordequester]

Well, oke doke then, if you insist.

[cRookie_Monster]

Well, yeah, I'd certainly not make drastic, story altering changes, just clean up some of the grammar here and there so it doesn't sound awkward. That's more what I mean. That's what I'd like your opinion on. Should I do even that, or not?

You may think you're cleaning up grammar and making it sound less awkward, but you don't know the why behind what you're doing. You're basically playing the telephone game with someone else's translation, which itself is already inherently taking some sort of liberty just to get it into another language.

Unless you plan on going back and doing an original translation all on your own, I would recommend against altering someone else's translation.

The line may actually just be terrible and lifeless in Japanese. This ain't Shakespeare that we're reading, here!

I think this is how Funi did their script writing originally ^^. What I heard was they'd get someone (a Japanese speaker) to translate, then they had another person "Americanize it".

[Fionordequester]

Of course, I heard that in Season 4, they finally just settled for hiring a competent translator, though they still took many liberties with the script since it's been working for four seasons now.

[cRookie_Monster]

I dunno, I think they saw it as two separate skills.

1) Script writer
2) Translator

Which meant two different people.

and btw my understanding was that the translations came from Toei, and they were barely intelligible ^^

*of course my memory is based on small talk I had over ten years ago.* so take that how you will.

edit again. I think I was chatting with an actual script writer at a cast party.

[Pokewhiz7]

They also had someone just for "punching up" the script, 'nuff said.

[Fionordequester]

Guys...I just realized I've been incredibly dumb. You know how in my comparison of Episode 68, I posted a video comparison between the two? I just realized I completely forgot to post the link to the comparison of the one I just did. So, if you're curious, go back to that one and check out the newly added link.