Videogamer555
10-15-2010, 04:43 AM
I saw this from Wikipedia (bolded the important parts)
The US and UK DVD releases have both the English and Japanese soundtracks, together with subtitles for both the English dub and a more literal translation.
At Miyazaki's insistence, the film was uncut for the English release, so that only the soundtrack was altered. The English dub of Princess Mononoke is a translation with some adaptation by Neil Gaiman, author of The Sandman. The main changes from the Japanese version are to provide a cultural context for phrases and actions which those outside of Asia may not be familiar with. Such alterations include references to mythology and specific names for groups, such as Jibashiri and Shishigami, that appear in the Japanese version, which are changed to more general terms, such as Mercenary and Forest Spirit, in the English version. The rationale for such changes is that the majority of non-Japanese viewers would not understand the mythological references and that the English language simply has no words for the Jibashiri, Shishigami and other terms. However, some critics (Michael Atkinson, Mr. Showbiz) have said that the translation from Japanese to English and the alterations in which it has resulted have weakened the film somewhat.
The English dub received mixed reviews from critics. While most of the reaction was positive, others criticized the dub for most of its casting choices, notably Billy Bob Thornton as Jigo and Claire Danes as San, claiming that they detracted from the experience. Despite this love-hate atmosphere, the dub has been hailed as one of the best ever done alongside Spirited Away, which has been met with the same criticism.
The film has also been dubbed in Mandarin, Cantonese, Czech, French, German, Italian, Korean, Norwegian and Spanish.
This leaves me wondering, was only the English dub "Americanized" by changing the terminology to something more familiar to Americans? Or also did they do the same inaccurate* translation for the English subtitles?
*Inaccurate because the names of Japanese mythological characters have no English counterpart, so even an English sentence containing the name of such a creature should (if translated correctly) leave that one untranslatable word in Japanese (just like with the names of human characters that are Japanese names because the people in question are Japanese so they are meant to not have an English translation).
For example I could have character called Yakosaki (Japanese name I just made up for the example) and in sentence that is CORRECTLY translated to English it might say "Then Yakosaki ran to attack the enemy", but incorrectly "Americanized" it might be "Then John ran to attack the enemy" (an English name picked at random to take the Japaneseness out of it to pretend it was written in English to start with). Now I can almost certainly gauranty this "Americanization" has been used on dubs (dubs useually are messed up), but I'm not sure if the subtitles (not fan subs, but OFFICIAL subs) are also messed up along with the dub (I'm not sure if subs are useually on an official/nonpirated basis designed to match the dub word-for-word or not, but usually pirated/bootleg copies have subs very different from the dub in order to be more accurate in translation).
To sumarize, I just want to know if the OFFICIAL subtitles do a better job of translating that the OFFICIAL dubs (don't care about the fansubs right now, because I'm actually looking to BUY this anime and want to know if I should just stick with the fansubed pirated copy I already have [such as if the official subs the same as the dub and therefore are much worse than the fansubs], or if I should buy the real thing [such as if the official subs are better than the dub and about the same as the fan subs]).
Please let me know the know how accurately the official subs are compared to the official dub.
Thanks in advance.
The US and UK DVD releases have both the English and Japanese soundtracks, together with subtitles for both the English dub and a more literal translation.
At Miyazaki's insistence, the film was uncut for the English release, so that only the soundtrack was altered. The English dub of Princess Mononoke is a translation with some adaptation by Neil Gaiman, author of The Sandman. The main changes from the Japanese version are to provide a cultural context for phrases and actions which those outside of Asia may not be familiar with. Such alterations include references to mythology and specific names for groups, such as Jibashiri and Shishigami, that appear in the Japanese version, which are changed to more general terms, such as Mercenary and Forest Spirit, in the English version. The rationale for such changes is that the majority of non-Japanese viewers would not understand the mythological references and that the English language simply has no words for the Jibashiri, Shishigami and other terms. However, some critics (Michael Atkinson, Mr. Showbiz) have said that the translation from Japanese to English and the alterations in which it has resulted have weakened the film somewhat.
The English dub received mixed reviews from critics. While most of the reaction was positive, others criticized the dub for most of its casting choices, notably Billy Bob Thornton as Jigo and Claire Danes as San, claiming that they detracted from the experience. Despite this love-hate atmosphere, the dub has been hailed as one of the best ever done alongside Spirited Away, which has been met with the same criticism.
The film has also been dubbed in Mandarin, Cantonese, Czech, French, German, Italian, Korean, Norwegian and Spanish.
This leaves me wondering, was only the English dub "Americanized" by changing the terminology to something more familiar to Americans? Or also did they do the same inaccurate* translation for the English subtitles?
*Inaccurate because the names of Japanese mythological characters have no English counterpart, so even an English sentence containing the name of such a creature should (if translated correctly) leave that one untranslatable word in Japanese (just like with the names of human characters that are Japanese names because the people in question are Japanese so they are meant to not have an English translation).
For example I could have character called Yakosaki (Japanese name I just made up for the example) and in sentence that is CORRECTLY translated to English it might say "Then Yakosaki ran to attack the enemy", but incorrectly "Americanized" it might be "Then John ran to attack the enemy" (an English name picked at random to take the Japaneseness out of it to pretend it was written in English to start with). Now I can almost certainly gauranty this "Americanization" has been used on dubs (dubs useually are messed up), but I'm not sure if the subtitles (not fan subs, but OFFICIAL subs) are also messed up along with the dub (I'm not sure if subs are useually on an official/nonpirated basis designed to match the dub word-for-word or not, but usually pirated/bootleg copies have subs very different from the dub in order to be more accurate in translation).
To sumarize, I just want to know if the OFFICIAL subtitles do a better job of translating that the OFFICIAL dubs (don't care about the fansubs right now, because I'm actually looking to BUY this anime and want to know if I should just stick with the fansubed pirated copy I already have [such as if the official subs the same as the dub and therefore are much worse than the fansubs], or if I should buy the real thing [such as if the official subs are better than the dub and about the same as the fan subs]).
Please let me know the know how accurately the official subs are compared to the official dub.
Thanks in advance.