Simmons' subtitles

[Tatsunoboshi Horoko]

Mr. Simmons' subtitles display that line accurately. It's just that the thing with Japanese is that it's not a literal language in the least. It's more interpretive than anything. Now, in my opinion, see, if Mr. Simmons used "What...?" for that line, then some people would maybe percieve it as Vegeta having some sort of problem hearing Nappa, since it was used in a way different than if someone had insulted Vegeta and he let out a tempered "What!?"

Um...I hope my explaination makes some level of sense.

[Olivier Hague]

Yeah, it's a difficult job to translate from one language to another and keep a good 'flow' about it. Personally I'd rather a more literal translation (even so far as preferring "Vegeta... help me!" over "H-Help me, Vegeta!" for {Vegeta...t-tasuketekure!} ) but Steve is trying to reach a wider audience, and thus a more 'loose' translation is probably better.

No, he's simply making sense.
Again, you don't seem to realize how the translation process from Japanese to English works. There's no 1:1 equivalent of "suman" in English. It's not the Japanese "sorry". There's no "literal translation" (and there rarely is, generally speaking).

The idea if "suman[ai]" is something like "this is a debt I'll never be able to repay you", i.e. it's both "sorry" and "thank you". So, when you translate that, you have to pay attention to the context in order to tell which one would be more fitting in English.
Here, Nappa doesn't apologize as much as he thanks Vegeta for his help, and Vegeta's reply makes that even more obvious: "oh, you don't have to thank me [as I'm about to kill you, actually]".

[Obi-Wan]

So...what is the correct translation for this line? I realize that there are many interpretations, but in the context of the style used for rest of the subtitles, which one fits most accurately? Is it able to be determined, even for Japanese speakers?

Steve's is probably the best interpretation. The thing about Japanese is sometimes there is going to be more than one way to translate or interpret a sentence. Especially in anime, because more than just the dialogue you have to look at the context of the scene and so forth. So in this case, there are basically two ways to go about interpreting this scene, and it all hinges on how you would translate "suman ne". As I mentioned earlier since Nappa is using "suman ne" to show his gratitute for Vegeta extending his hand, it should be translated as "Thank you," so the way that Steve translated it is correct.

[SonEric84]

Did "Daimao" do the subtitles for the old DVD's as well or is this exclusive to the new season sets?

[Conan the SSJ]

Did "Daimao" do the subtitles for the old DVD's as well or is this exclusive to the new season sets?

The Pioneer DVDs of DBZ movies 1-3, the Madman release of original DragonBall episodes 1-13, all of original DragonBall after the Tournament saga, and the 10th anniversary movie are the only previous FUNi DB releases Daimao didn't translate. He's done original DB's Tournament saga episodes, DB movies 2 and 3, all of the DBZ movies (including the rereleases of movies 1-3) with the specials, every DBZ DVD release prior to the first season set, and the entire GT series and its special. He's also done work for the Ps2 games Budokai, Budokai 2, Budokai 3, and Sparking!/Budokai Tenkaichi. The translations he did for the previous DBZ DVD releases are to be present on the DVD season sets, already evident with season 1, as well as never before seen translated work for the Namek saga and possibly a new translation job for the Ginyu episodes in season 2. Hopefully I covered everything.

[SonEric84]

Did "Daimao" do the subtitles for the old DVD's as well or is this exclusive to the new season sets?

The Pioneer DVDs of DBZ movies 1-3, the Madman release of original DragonBall episodes 1-13, all of original DragonBall after the Tournament saga, and the 10th anniversary movie are the only previous FUNi DB releases Daimao didn't translate. He's done original DB's Tournament saga episodes, DB movies 2 and 3, all of the DBZ movies (including the rereleases of movies 1-3) with the specials, every DBZ DVD release prior to the first season set, and the entire GT series and its special. He's also done work for the Ps2 games Budokai, Budokai 2, Budokai 3, and Sparking!/Budokai Tenkaichi. The translations he did for the previous DBZ DVD releases are to be present on the DVD season sets, already evident with season 1, as well as never before seen translated work for the Namek saga and possibly a new translation job for the Ginyu episodes in season 2. Hopefully I covered everything.

Alright, thanks for clearing that up as I am probably just going to end up getting the old funimation DVDs cause I don't think I'm a fan of this widescreen stuff.