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Hajimemashite (hi!)
Is it cold in here?:
I studied it for a while, but no, not really.
pwhodges:
A very few of us are interested in anime, though, and there's a thread on that. I speak no Japanese (though I once sold some of my software there); but I know enough background to be able to comment in the (largely inane) recent arguments about the English translation of 好き (suki) as "like" or "love" triggered by the new translation in the Netflix release of Neon Genesis Evangelion.
The inanity is the claim that having a particular character say like in the new translation when in a previous one they said love - to another character of the same gender - is "gay erasure". Apart from anything else, this displays an appalling lack of appreciation of what their interaction means to the characters concerned.
mahlernut:
--- Quote from: pwhodges on 29 Jun 2019, 01:16 ---A very few of us are interested in anime, though, and there's a thread on that. I speak no Japanese (though I once sold some of my software there); but I know enough background to be able to comment in the (largely inane) recent arguments about the English translation of 好き (suki) as "like" or "love" triggered by the new translation in the Netflix release of Neon Genesis Evangelion.
The inanity is the claim that having a particular character say like in the new translation when in a previous one they said love - to another character of the same gender - is "gay erasure". Apart from anything else, this displays an appalling lack of appreciation of what their interaction means to the characters concerned.
--- End quote ---
Hoo boy...I haven't watched anime in years (though I used to be pretty heavily into it in the late 90s and the naughts), and back then, the biggest arguments were things like whether it was a good idea to actually use "Duck" as Ahiru's name in Princess Tutu :laugh: Though that got pretty heated sometimes...for some reason.
The use of 好き is awfully...nuanced, maybe?...to makes that kind of argument though. We just don't have the right words for it, nor the various specific kinds of relationships that are peculiar to Japan. No translation is ever going to satisfy, and using it as a "window into the soul" of the translators is a little troublesome. So yeah, you're absolutely right that the meaning of the interactions to the characters is what you always need to come back to. Getting a least a slightly better window into this sort of thing isn't why I started studying the language (wanted to read Haruki Murakami without the translatoin barrier), but it was definitely a happy side-effect.
I'm glad that Evangelion is back out there though! It seemed to disappear completely for a long time...maybe we'll finally get a decently cleaned up release of End of Eva? The Manga Entertainment release could've used some serious, serious remastering.
pwhodges:
The new English translations have been overseen by Khara, and so can be assumed to be pretty reliable, even if inevitably unidiomatic at times. This is not so for other languages, though - indeed, I hear that Netflix have withdrawn their new Italian translation, and say they will redo it immediately.
--- Quote from: mahlernut on 29 Jun 2019, 11:23 ---things like whether it was a good idea to actually use "Duck" as Ahiru's name in Princess Tutu
--- End quote ---
I haven't watched Princess Tutu - but I assume the issue is similar to whether to call the secondary protagonist in No.6 "Nezumi" or "Rat" - I have versions with each.
mahlernut:
--- Quote from: pwhodges on 29 Jun 2019, 12:07 ---The new English translations have been overseen by Khara, and so can be assumed to be pretty reliable, even if inevitably unidiomatic at times. This is not so for other languages, though - indeed, I hear that Netflix have withdrawn their new Italian translation, and say they will redo it immediately.
--- Quote from: mahlernut on 29 Jun 2019, 11:23 ---things like whether it was a good idea to actually use "Duck" as Ahiru's name in Princess Tutu
--- End quote ---
I haven't watched Princess Tutu - but I assume the issue is similar to whether to call the secondary protagonist in No.6 "Nezumi" or "Rat" - I have versions with each.
--- End quote ---
Being a translator was probably always a little anxiety inducing, but it's gotta be downright terrifying in the days of instant feedback. And I'd probably jump off a cliff before trying to translate a comedy. gads...
Princess Tutu's amazing - though being a classical musician, I'm partial to its heavy and essential use of 19th-c orchestral music. But yeah, you've got pretty much the right idea; the biggest issue in translating names is really the relationship in a given language between names and the meaning of the name, though I tend to come down on the side of aesthetics at the end of the day.
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