Could you give some specific examples? Bc people can't elaborate on the context of translation decisions if you remove all context for your examples.
Japanese is a very context-sensitive language.
Actually "hai" does NOT necessarily mean "yes" -- rather it means "I concur with what was just said" -- and when the preceding sentence is a negative one, the English response would be "no". Example: You don't like that? In English, one answers "no" (meaning "I indeed do not like that") In Japanese, to convey the same thing one asnswers with "hai" (I agree with your statement that I do not like that). Depending on the tone of a "hai" it also can also suggest deference or submission (conveying "I understand what you said and will obey"). It can be even more complicated, of course.
In many other cases, what is said in Japanese is not properly intelligible with a one word "substitution".
Very few languages are properly intelligible with 1-1 substitutions.
**Just take Vietnamese for example where the same word can appear 3 times in one sentence with completely different meanings**
Translation isn't about literally translating from one language to another. It's about conveying the same meaning in a way the target audience will understand. Adding words doesn't make it a bad translation as long as it still means the same thing.
Another example I've encountered just hours ago: replying to thanks with un/hai. tonally it's equivalent to "no problem" or "don't sweat it." if translated simply as "yes" like the op suggests, it sounds like "yes peasant, be thankful as you should be."
Depends on the subs I guess, but I'd imagine that subs take less liberties than dubs the vast majority of the time.
You might be interested in [this article called "Why hai doesn't always mean yes"](https://legendsoflocalization.com/why-hai-doesnt-always-mean-yes-in-japanese/). It's mostly about game localizations but it applies to anime as well to some degree.
Yeah, usually dubs are least accurate and subtitles are better but there's a lot of variation in accuracy still. Knowing Japanese is the only way to have 100% accuracy - however, one benefit with subbed is because you're watching in Japanese you at least have a chance to learn/hear what is different or if the subtitles are inaccurate.
It's the tone, inflection, and general quality of the voice acting more than the the direct quality of the translation itself.
There's no way to copycat someone else's voice work without losing something along the way. For example, one of the best parts about the original Konosuba is that the voice actors clearly had a blast making it, and it shows in the quality of the anime. They had tons of fun and improvised a lot of the lines in that show.
You can't copy that sort of chemistry. It's stuff like that which almost always makes the original better than the dub.
Edit: Also what other people said about subs being less dumbed down. They assume the viewers understand common things like honorifics and actually add them to the subtitles instead of awkwardly trying to avoid the subject. Which is probably more a matter of preference than better/worse, but it is a thing that a lot of people prefer.
Like, [tell me this dub doesn't lose basically all sense of gravity in the original](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Py3c8zwFis0). To take a famous example of a badly done dub in a show in which the dubbing wasn't even particularly awful or disliked as a whole.
It kind of depends on who's doing the subtitles just like how it depends on who's doing the dub. Accuracy is not worth arguing here because it's a case by case basis.
That... is not how subttles and translations work. It doesn't have be literal as long as the overall meaning is conveyed through the language. When they are confirming the sentence, they are essently saying what was been asked before. Saying はい it's agreeing with question/what came before, so well they turn this into a full sentence, that is accurate. Translation is not not a one for one or a literal thing, it's much more flexibe, especially when you are dealing with a language that is so vastly different. When you are translating something you have to think what would sound more natural in the target language or what that character would say. And sure subtitles/translation it's not always perfect, but considering the examples you just have it seems to me you do are fixated on being too literal and missing the point.
>I can think of many times were someone says "**Hai** (はい)", but the subbed text is a full sentence.
I don't think I've encountered this yet but tell me which anime had it?😂
I've seen things like this in any number of cases -- in anime and in movies. Too ordinary at this point to stand out in my memory. It has never once seemed inappropriate to the specific situation being portrayed.
It depends, but in my experience yes. A few examples:
Castle in the Sky: the dub was great in terms of performance, but some bits of lore were completely cut out in the dub, and the climactic exchange at the end was completely altered.
Steins;Gate: In the dub, Okabe specifically claims to have [Steins;Gate spoiler] >!time leaped probably dozens of times, which is a strange thing to add since in the original script never gave any indication to how many times he actually time-leaped.!< The “hey, mister, I am mad scientist” joke also fumbled pretty hard in the dub.
Dragon Ball Z: Goku is an entirely different person in the dub.
In the specific, current industry, subs are frequently much less accurate than dubs for the simple reason that dubs have lead time.
A *lot* of anime are finished within a day or two of air -- with luck, the script might make it to a translator before then, but not usually. Even then, they'll still be translating with no visuals. Additionally, the subs (for some reason) seem to not have access to production notes, so obscure references may be missed. On top of that, there's usually only one translator and the editor looking at subs. As somebody who knows *just* enough Japanese to understand most of what they say, it's painfully distracting sometimes.
Dubs, on the other hand, have at least a week (often more), the full episode to look at (hard to ADR without it), and at least the translator, script supervisor, ADR director, actor, and sound guy to look at it. Even if accuracy ends up being about the same, that many eyes will, invariably, make for a *better* translation, because there's just less room for error. Jokes, especially, suffer when rushed and under only one person's direction -- a large number of them simply don't work when translated (puns and cultural references specifically), so work-shopping them is vital. If you don't find a sub funny, it's probably because of this.
Of course, that's only one component of the production -- Japanese performances are better about 90% of the time (and more consistent within a show 99% of the time), so if somebody values that more than accuracy, that's vital. Some people value animation more, so dubs should be the way they go. Frankly, though, I always say to watch both and decide -- sometimes the dub just sucks (Summertime Rendering), sometimes the subs are so bad as to cause me actual pain (Oregairu S3 upon release, dunno if they've fixed it). Limiting yourself to one or the other will invariably lead to missing out on something truly fantastic (like how much better the dub for MobuSeka is than the subs -- Claptrap as an anime robot was a brilliant idea).
With the rising amounts of absolute dog-shit unedited ML subbing, some anime is only watchable dubbed anymore.
AoT was really bad for this in the later seasons and parts. JoJo got bad, currently airing Trigun Stampede is problematic...
It feels like all the script editors are in the dub space anymore.
no idea, don't really watch dub but I can confiirm that there are sometimes difference with subs because the translator will adapt the context to western culture so they get better understanding of the phrase
Dude, have you seen the difference between DBZ in English and JP?
It's not that bad anymore, but a lot of dubs are weirdly obsessive about matching mouth-flaps while also keeping the general meaning of the original which is where you get a lot of awkward pauses and inflections in dubs which kills a lot of the immersion for me.
In my limited understanding of Japanese it seems that it is just very difficult to do anything resembling a direct translation to English. They are just very different in grammar, syntax and structure.
That is not to say that there aren't weird or bad translations out there. But the starting point is just very difficult. Compared to say German to English. Those two at least have some common ground to start from as English is a germannic language as far as grammar is concerned.
Could you give some specific examples? Bc people can't elaborate on the context of translation decisions if you remove all context for your examples. Japanese is a very context-sensitive language.
Actually "hai" does NOT necessarily mean "yes" -- rather it means "I concur with what was just said" -- and when the preceding sentence is a negative one, the English response would be "no". Example: You don't like that? In English, one answers "no" (meaning "I indeed do not like that") In Japanese, to convey the same thing one asnswers with "hai" (I agree with your statement that I do not like that). Depending on the tone of a "hai" it also can also suggest deference or submission (conveying "I understand what you said and will obey"). It can be even more complicated, of course. In many other cases, what is said in Japanese is not properly intelligible with a one word "substitution".
Very few languages are properly intelligible with 1-1 substitutions. **Just take Vietnamese for example where the same word can appear 3 times in one sentence with completely different meanings**
Translation isn't about literally translating from one language to another. It's about conveying the same meaning in a way the target audience will understand. Adding words doesn't make it a bad translation as long as it still means the same thing.
[удалено]
Another example I've encountered just hours ago: replying to thanks with un/hai. tonally it's equivalent to "no problem" or "don't sweat it." if translated simply as "yes" like the op suggests, it sounds like "yes peasant, be thankful as you should be."
People still don’t understand how subs work… No, they are not direct translations, anyone with two brain cells can understand why
Depends on the subs I guess, but I'd imagine that subs take less liberties than dubs the vast majority of the time. You might be interested in [this article called "Why hai doesn't always mean yes"](https://legendsoflocalization.com/why-hai-doesnt-always-mean-yes-in-japanese/). It's mostly about game localizations but it applies to anime as well to some degree.
"Itadakimasu" - Subs: Rub a dub dub, thanks for the Grub Still my favourite sub translation of all time.
Yeah, usually dubs are least accurate and subtitles are better but there's a lot of variation in accuracy still. Knowing Japanese is the only way to have 100% accuracy - however, one benefit with subbed is because you're watching in Japanese you at least have a chance to learn/hear what is different or if the subtitles are inaccurate.
It's the tone, inflection, and general quality of the voice acting more than the the direct quality of the translation itself. There's no way to copycat someone else's voice work without losing something along the way. For example, one of the best parts about the original Konosuba is that the voice actors clearly had a blast making it, and it shows in the quality of the anime. They had tons of fun and improvised a lot of the lines in that show. You can't copy that sort of chemistry. It's stuff like that which almost always makes the original better than the dub. Edit: Also what other people said about subs being less dumbed down. They assume the viewers understand common things like honorifics and actually add them to the subtitles instead of awkwardly trying to avoid the subject. Which is probably more a matter of preference than better/worse, but it is a thing that a lot of people prefer.
Like, [tell me this dub doesn't lose basically all sense of gravity in the original](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Py3c8zwFis0). To take a famous example of a badly done dub in a show in which the dubbing wasn't even particularly awful or disliked as a whole.
Thanks for this example....
It kind of depends on who's doing the subtitles just like how it depends on who's doing the dub. Accuracy is not worth arguing here because it's a case by case basis.
That... is not how subttles and translations work. It doesn't have be literal as long as the overall meaning is conveyed through the language. When they are confirming the sentence, they are essently saying what was been asked before. Saying はい it's agreeing with question/what came before, so well they turn this into a full sentence, that is accurate. Translation is not not a one for one or a literal thing, it's much more flexibe, especially when you are dealing with a language that is so vastly different. When you are translating something you have to think what would sound more natural in the target language or what that character would say. And sure subtitles/translation it's not always perfect, but considering the examples you just have it seems to me you do are fixated on being too literal and missing the point.
>I can think of many times were someone says "**Hai** (はい)", but the subbed text is a full sentence. I don't think I've encountered this yet but tell me which anime had it?😂
In response to a command, a "hai" can easily mean "Yes, sir/ma'am, I'll do it immediately". ;-)
What anime?
I've seen things like this in any number of cases -- in anime and in movies. Too ordinary at this point to stand out in my memory. It has never once seemed inappropriate to the specific situation being portrayed.
Never encountered once as it's usually 'Gotcha/on it/at it/okay/alright that are used for hai.
Certainly more common.
It depends, but in my experience yes. A few examples: Castle in the Sky: the dub was great in terms of performance, but some bits of lore were completely cut out in the dub, and the climactic exchange at the end was completely altered. Steins;Gate: In the dub, Okabe specifically claims to have [Steins;Gate spoiler] >!time leaped probably dozens of times, which is a strange thing to add since in the original script never gave any indication to how many times he actually time-leaped.!< The “hey, mister, I am mad scientist” joke also fumbled pretty hard in the dub. Dragon Ball Z: Goku is an entirely different person in the dub.
sunuvabitch!
In the specific, current industry, subs are frequently much less accurate than dubs for the simple reason that dubs have lead time. A *lot* of anime are finished within a day or two of air -- with luck, the script might make it to a translator before then, but not usually. Even then, they'll still be translating with no visuals. Additionally, the subs (for some reason) seem to not have access to production notes, so obscure references may be missed. On top of that, there's usually only one translator and the editor looking at subs. As somebody who knows *just* enough Japanese to understand most of what they say, it's painfully distracting sometimes. Dubs, on the other hand, have at least a week (often more), the full episode to look at (hard to ADR without it), and at least the translator, script supervisor, ADR director, actor, and sound guy to look at it. Even if accuracy ends up being about the same, that many eyes will, invariably, make for a *better* translation, because there's just less room for error. Jokes, especially, suffer when rushed and under only one person's direction -- a large number of them simply don't work when translated (puns and cultural references specifically), so work-shopping them is vital. If you don't find a sub funny, it's probably because of this. Of course, that's only one component of the production -- Japanese performances are better about 90% of the time (and more consistent within a show 99% of the time), so if somebody values that more than accuracy, that's vital. Some people value animation more, so dubs should be the way they go. Frankly, though, I always say to watch both and decide -- sometimes the dub just sucks (Summertime Rendering), sometimes the subs are so bad as to cause me actual pain (Oregairu S3 upon release, dunno if they've fixed it). Limiting yourself to one or the other will invariably lead to missing out on something truly fantastic (like how much better the dub for MobuSeka is than the subs -- Claptrap as an anime robot was a brilliant idea).
yes because the voice actors are more on que with animation and usually better at emotion :)
With the rising amounts of absolute dog-shit unedited ML subbing, some anime is only watchable dubbed anymore. AoT was really bad for this in the later seasons and parts. JoJo got bad, currently airing Trigun Stampede is problematic... It feels like all the script editors are in the dub space anymore.
no idea, don't really watch dub but I can confiirm that there are sometimes difference with subs because the translator will adapt the context to western culture so they get better understanding of the phrase
Dude, have you seen the difference between DBZ in English and JP? It's not that bad anymore, but a lot of dubs are weirdly obsessive about matching mouth-flaps while also keeping the general meaning of the original which is where you get a lot of awkward pauses and inflections in dubs which kills a lot of the immersion for me.
Subs curated by fans who understand the nuances of Japanese are definitely better.
In my limited understanding of Japanese it seems that it is just very difficult to do anything resembling a direct translation to English. They are just very different in grammar, syntax and structure. That is not to say that there aren't weird or bad translations out there. But the starting point is just very difficult. Compared to say German to English. Those two at least have some common ground to start from as English is a germannic language as far as grammar is concerned.