| I've been watching anime for nearly 15 years now, and for the last 5 years I've only been watching raw. And I can tell you this, no subs are not accurate. Even before I started watching raws I had a decent level in Japanese from my years of playing untranslated galgame, and I found myself getting annoyed at constantly noticing subs being completely different from what the characters actually say. It's why I stopped watching subbed anime. |
| Called it out last night that the subs on dark gathering wasn't accurate and some words were censored and replaced.. |
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| If the subs are 50% accurate, the dubs are around 20-25%...even the ones which are highly praised like Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. |
| ^ Yup, dubs are even less accurate than subs. |
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| It depends on how localized the translator wants the subtitles to be and whether the subtitles follow the dub script or they are based on the original script although that's not as common in anime. Also sometimes perceived mistakes in subtitles are not actually mistakes but syntactical differences between languages. |
| MEA·MENTVLA·INGENS·EST |
Theo1899 said: It depends on how localized the translator wants the subtitles to be and whether the subtitles follow the dub script Also there's another source of such problems, the policies of the streaming service: newb translators being hired, impossible deadlines being given and paying "with peanuts". |
| Well, I don't remember subs of shows having memes and "muh patriarchy" in the original scripts, so there's that. If I watch dub, I'm usually finding clips to see if it has random crap like that or not, if it does, I'm staying away. |
| "Well, she's flatter than a pancake" -Mimi Alpacas "Woof" -Tobiichi Origami "Are you trying to turn the dormitory into a strip club!?! -Atena Saotome |
| Subs from Cr are more than 70% accurate while subs from hidive have an accuracy that is less than 40% Generally speaking, if it’s Cr then watch the anime without worrying much about accuracy, but if it’s hidive you really want to be cautious |
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| subs are accurate in a sense. they are not the literal translation of what is being spoken and i've noticed this numerous times especially in seasonals. some subs are outright outrageous. the subs give us a westernised version of what is being spoken and many times what is being said in japanese like something culturally specific is many times missed out. this problem can be solved by watching fansubs but that is only possible with non currently airing animes. personally what i do is take subtitles as a reference but i have my own translation going on at the back of my head while watching unless the spoken japanese is too hard for me to understand or i've never enocuntered words like that ever, of course this means i'm still reading inaccurate subs but what can be done?once you watch like 2k or 3k episodes of anime you automatically start learning the meaning of words. obviously there will be some subtitles which will be accurate and you can learn from them and now that all depends on your luck. i was lucky in that department and watched all my animes from trusted sources all this time unless they are seasonals so i know the subs i'm watching are accurate for most of the part. i use release moe personally or you can just search for a torrent with most positive comments on nyaa. |
 The end of an era. Thank you Wit, Mappa and Isayama. Feeling half happy, half sad. Kawaii waifus and precious best girls <3333 |
Reply to Toneworks
I've been watching anime for nearly 15 years now, and for the last 5 years I've only been watching raw. And I can tell you this, no subs are not accurate. Even before I started watching raws I had a decent level in Japanese from my years of playing untranslated galgame, and I found myself getting annoyed at constantly noticing subs being completely different from what the characters actually say. It's why I stopped watching subbed anime.
| @Toneworks How do you get to learning enough Japanese to be able to watch anime raw? I would like to do this someday, but I can't find the proper places to learn Japanese. |
| Fansubs on Japanese drama are accurate enough, Anime Fansubs used to be fun. They came with translators note, which I miss.. Anyone remember a subbing group called horrible subs? |
| |
Reply to ForgotEyeWasHere
@Toneworks How do you get to learning enough Japanese to be able to watch anime raw? I would like to do this someday, but I can't find the proper places to learn Japanese.
| @ForgotEyeWasHere Doulingo and Lingodeer are good places TO START. Can't stress that last part enough. |
Reply to ryo-san
Fansubs on Japanese drama are accurate enough, Anime Fansubs used to be fun. They came with translators note, which I miss..
Anyone remember a subbing group called horrible subs?
Anyone remember a subbing group called horrible subs?
| @ryo-san HorribleSubs were never a fansubbing group; they were a ripping group. And guess where all their subs originated: legal sites like HiDive, CR, Funimation, Netflix, or whoever else had the license. Same with their successors like SubsPlease and Erai-Raws, among others. So anyone who watches and likes subs from those release groups (or the lower-quality re-encodes of them on bootleg streaming sites) is putting their stamp of approval on the official translations. @BrolyTheLegend -- What I think you're encountering here is a difference between Japanese and Western languages like English. Japanese speakers generally don't use the words for "you" in normal conversation. Many of them are considered to be either too intimate or too rude. So they use the name of the person they're speaking to instead. However, rendering those patterns literally in English would read terribly and be unnatural. It'd be as if characters were talking at each other, instead of to each other, like a character speaking to one named Kaede saying, "Does Kaede-chan want to walk home with me?" instead of "Do you want to walk home with me?" So a lot of the time, subs will replace the names with "you" where we'd expect English dialogue to use it. Some will add "you," as in "Do you want to walk home with me, Kaede-chan?", though that can make subtitles too long for the time they're on screen. In my experience and from knowing Japanese to a pretty good degree, official subs are generally accurate, far more than 40-70% of the time. More like 95%, if not higher. They might make localization decisions that some would disagree with, but that's not the same as inaccuracy. |
Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but not their own facts. Everything that connects to MAL |
| I will need specific examples before I can tell whether a sub is accurate enough or not. The most egregious example I recall is in Spy Classroom season 1. The official HiDive sub translates the dialogue as something along the lines of "She thinks she is right because she knows she is right". The actual dialogue is something else entirely, as I have shown in the forum thread for the series. |
| You can buy lossless digital music from your favorite Japanese artists on https://ototoy.jp/. The songs are all DRM-free and you can re-download your purchased albums as you wish. Show your support to your favorite artist if you can! ps. if you are looking for Japanese albums, you have to search it in Japanese (not romaji). Just copy and paste the name. For those who want to learn Japanese through anime Resources for learning the language |
| Subs on pirate sites are... certainly questionable. |
| If you reply back to me and I never respond, I lost interest and don't care. Sorry about that. |
| Yeah I have also noticed that subs aren't 100% accurate but I guess the real meaning of the dialogue is still there so its not completely out of place at least. |
If you enjoyed the time you wasted, then its not a waste of time.  |
| Depends on what youre watching and who is subbing it really. An easy recent example for me since i just read both while not anime, the dialogue is voiced, is the fan translation of Tsukihime being pretty much on point. Then you have The Mahoutsukai no Yoru official translation that has alot of localizing going on and rearranged/added sentences that really just amount to mostly the same thing anyway but its clear as day when youre hearing them talk about a barrier being perfect yet in the translation its just along the lines of "so there was nothing wrong with it?". |
Syrian187Sep 4, 2023 10:36 AM
| Subs sometimes get censored like replacing skank with thot in lv1 maou anime. Sadly official subs can't always be trusted. Dubs go further I'm changes though. Like BNHA removing Minetta scenes. |
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| The thing is tranlating languages into english is more interpreting what is being said into an understandable way in English. Especially for a language like Japanese that is very contextual based, trying to translate 1:1 to english will come out sounding awkward a lot of the time. so really the translations themselves are usually pretty accurate when it comes to translating what is being said, but how they choose to interpret them is where it becomes debatable like FF7R for instance (or Re:life when honoka says YOLO lmao) |
 'On-Hold' is another way for a completionist to say 'Dropped' |
| Subs are usually pretty accurate but are rewritten to sound natural in the target language so sometimes wording, some details, or other things may be modified, removed, or changed to flow more naturally. Character-per-line limitations also have to be taken into account so things may need to be truncated a bit further as well as only a certain amount of words should be on the screen at a time for professional standards. |
This post is brought to you by your local transfem gamer goblin. Will not tolerate bigotry and will fight against "anti-woke" sentiment to make the anime community a safer place.  |
Reply to rohan121
Subs sometimes get censored like replacing skank with thot in lv1 maou anime. Sadly official subs can't always be trusted.
Dubs go further I'm changes though. Like BNHA removing Minetta scenes.
Dubs go further I'm changes though. Like BNHA removing Minetta scenes.
rohan121 said: Subs sometimes get censored like replacing skank with thot in lv1 maou anime. Sadly official subs can't always be trusted. That is just a different use of word choice. Skank and thot have a very similar meaning |
| This post is brought to you by your local transfem gamer goblin. Will not tolerate bigotry and will fight against "anti-woke" sentiment to make the anime community a safer place. |
| Subs are not 100% accurate, but your example isn't a good one, that's more because of japanese not using pronouns the same way english does, so they tend to use the name in sentences that would sound weird if you did the same in english. |
Reply to rohan121
Subs sometimes get censored like replacing skank with thot in lv1 maou anime. Sadly official subs can't always be trusted.
Dubs go further I'm changes though. Like BNHA removing Minetta scenes.
Dubs go further I'm changes though. Like BNHA removing Minetta scenes.
I will admit I'm not familiar with the My Hero Academia franchise, but I find this kind of censorship to be extremely improbable. I checked the first episode where Minoru Mineta appears (S1 ep 05, according to AniDB), and there are numerous dual-audio rips out there. In fact, all the versions of ep 05 -- from web/TV and disc sources alike -- clock in at 24:34, +/- 4 seconds. And some of the versions with English audio have longer runtimes than versions without. If "the dub" really did cut some scenes, there'd have to be separate releases, or complex .mkv files with multiple video streams. Do you know of any episodes where these removals have occurred, or any site that purports to list them? Maybe there exists an edited version for US TV that removes some of those scenes. But that shouldn't be considered to be "the dub," as the streaming and DVD/Blu-Ray versions likely contain the uncut edition alongside the Japanese audio. |
Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but not their own facts. Everything that connects to MAL |
| Sometimes. A 1-to-1 translation would sound pretty garbo and unnatural in English so changes are made to make dialogue flow better |
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| You can never force direct translations on any languages. Changes has to be made, to allow the subtitles a more natural tone in the translated language. If you are comparing English and Japanese, you should note at least half of the sentence structures are reversed. Even for subtiles, those sentences might be broken down to multiple parts, which may appear as something completely different from what the characters are speaking of. |
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| No they're not accurate, but they're much better in terms of viewability because some native english speakers probably beta'd the subs. Unedited raw subs are.. raw. Very raw. Sometimes you don't understand without japanese cultural context kinda raw. It happens with chinese subs too. Unbeta'd chinese sub would be a paragraph long for every four chinese words lol. |
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| They never are. Annoys me anytime I hear some name or a noun(untranslatable), expecting the subtitles to reflect that, only to find out they omitted the word. Sometimes characters speak english albeit a little incorrect, what do the subs do? They fix what they say. This is rare but it still happens. Subs these days have no life. They even go to the extent of translating umu! to yes or anything but that. They say it's to keep the flow of sentence natural but anime is the farthest thing from anything "natural", it just makes it seem they hate anything non-american. |
❝Kabo-chan is ran by the MAL staff team and does not respond to individual comments made on her profile.❞ I was immensely devastated. |
Reply to karrotStick
They never are. Annoys me anytime I hear some name or a noun(untranslatable), expecting the subtitles to reflect that, only to find out they omitted the word. Sometimes characters speak english albeit a little incorrect, what do the subs do? They fix what they say. This is rare but it still happens.
Subs these days have no life. They even go to the extent of translating umu! to yes or anything but that. They say it's to keep the flow of sentence natural but anime is the farthest thing from anything "natural", it just makes it seem they hate anything non-american.
Subs these days have no life. They even go to the extent of translating umu! to yes or anything but that. They say it's to keep the flow of sentence natural but anime is the farthest thing from anything "natural", it just makes it seem they hate anything non-american.
| @karrotStick "Never," really? Previous posts in the thread have addressed the issue of why names don't always appear in the subs every time they're spoken. And the reason that subs "fix" English words spoken by Japanese speakers is that Japanese has adopted a variety of English loanwords, sometimes in ways that don't line up with English speakers' usage of those words. Given that reality, it is perfectly acceptable for English translations to make adjustments to make English subtitles read like English. And how do you expect subs to handle "umu!"? Just leave it untranslated? Once again, this isn't a problem with inaccuracy, it's translators making localization decisions that purists disagree with. And since "umu!" is apparently some sacred untranslatable word now, maybe the issue lies with purists constantly moving the goalposts and making ridiculous, impossible demands. |
Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but not their own facts. Everything that connects to MAL |
| us english-speaking sonic fans have been getting a bit crapped on for years because the original japanese scripts are often slightly better written than their localized counterparts. as pointed out by bilingual fans, english sonic game scripts tend to lose a lot of subtext and depth of emotion present in the original, but some have even blundered character traits, plot-beats and tonal cues. sonic himself is characterized differently too. japanese sonic is more chill, free spirited and even a little aloof, while western sonic has been largely confined to a wise-cracking, 90s "cool guy" archetype (excluding frontiers). i dont know how common inaccurate subs are in anime, but if the other comments are any indication, english subs can be very hit or miss. another big example is the fact that monogatari doesn't have an english dub because it might not even be possible to translate it correctly. the subs do their best, but the conversations in that are so complex, fast paced and reliant on japanese-specific wordplay that it probably doesn't come close to the intended meaning at all. |
MoonlavaNov 17, 2023 4:34 PM
| No.. they never are.. But, in all these years of my watching anime, movies, listening to songs, poems in different languages, I have noticed that Japanese translators do translate very well, compared to other languages.. (translate to English).. I think they're probably more or less than half-accurate though :) But, a lot is lost in translation, as explained on this thread.. no matter how good the translator is, the nuances of expressions are lost unfortunately (suppose - a character would say something short, something in a local slang, or something that is even peculiar to him/her but is understandable in their language, but for us it is subbed in a way that is meaningful in English and thus the translated dialogue doesn't retain the "character" of the original dialogue spoken, others on this thread have explained better).. and, some things are beautiful in the very framing of the sentences/expression that only a native speaker or a person well-acquainted with both language and culture/literature would be able to relish and enjoy (better). |
silentviewSep 26, 2023 6:56 PM
| subs can sometimes be pretty inaccurate, even for recent shows. and this is not because of things being lost in translation. sometimes, the official subtitle replaces the original dialogue with something else entirely in order to add humor, even though no such humor was present in the original. the reasoning, it seems, is that the one subbing the episode feels it will enhance the experience for people watching the show. I already gave the example from Spy Classroom. Another example is Spy x Family. When Loid is preparing Anya and Yor for the interview, at some point he gets exasperated and says something along the lines of "let's change the subject" (it's been a while since i watched it, so the exact phrase might be slightly off). The official subtitle translated this scene as Loyd saying "kill me now". You can probably find more examples like this here and there, but unless you know the language you probably won't know (until someone points it out). This only goes to show that you shouldn't rely on English subs if you want to learn Japanese. |
| You can buy lossless digital music from your favorite Japanese artists on https://ototoy.jp/. The songs are all DRM-free and you can re-download your purchased albums as you wish. Show your support to your favorite artist if you can! ps. if you are looking for Japanese albums, you have to search it in Japanese (not romaji). Just copy and paste the name. For those who want to learn Japanese through anime Resources for learning the language |
| They're more accurate than if someone ate at a Japanese restaurant once and decided he was now fluent in the language. As far as I'm concerned, as long as I get whats happening, that's all that matters. I'm never going to expect a one to one exact translation of every single thing. |
Reply to alshu
If the subs are 50% accurate, the dubs are around 20-25%...even the ones which are highly praised like Cyberpunk: Edgerunners.
| @alshu Accurate as in meaning, or in verbage? From dub, what I typically look for is the meaning to be translated in an understandable way, rather than word for word accuracy. |
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| Unfortunately most of the contemporary English fansubbing groups (and the official subbers, who often poach from this community) prioritize smooth readability and digestion over all other factors. If there's a hint of a culturally tinged turn of phrase or reference, it is simply unacceptable for them to include any notes by their rules (or god forbid an assumption of intellectual curiosity on the part of the viewer), and will choose to interpret it via a Globally known cliché or dead metaphor for easy consumption by their intended audience of 'everybody who speaks English'. In my opinion, this often shortchanges those with more of an interest and appreciation of the unique Japanese tone present in most anime. They will implore you to "Just watch it in Japanese", if you offer an opinion in favor of less localization. |
| only fansub where almost accurate in terms of the whole context of some sentences even modisms and a large etc. dubs are ever worse. |
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Heavenly47 said: Accurate as in meaning, or in verbage? Like it depends. There are some very literal nonsensical subs and some dubs which go way off course...but usually the subs give me a better idea what the author wanted to say (not to mention I can hear some original VA intonations and expressions in japanese I know). What I dislike about the dubs, aside of loosing the original VAs, is that they frequently discard some of the original ideas and push their own under the guise of adapting. Like they hijack somebody's else IP to put their thing. |
| I have as much Japanese knowledge as someone who watched as much anime as I did, so I understand some words, but in no way I can watch it raw. I am currently watching Seitokai Yakuindomo, which is filled with puns, and even I, on my little knowledge, was able to pick up some of those puns that translators didn't even put some TN, however it is not like the translators didn't explain some of the jokes in the anime, I just find odd how some simple puns aren't explained. |
| No, subs is normally rather wrong. Onii-chan = is normally translated to the male charact ers name etc. It exist a lot of cases like this |
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| I see a lot of claims about subs and dubs but hardly any actual examples. If you want to say they are inaccurate, provide an example. If you want to say dubs are bad or worse- example. There are a lot of phrases in Japanese that do not translate directly to English very well. I see a lot of times the people who complain are pointing out that a single different word was used, without understanding the context of the whole sentence might be the reason. But examples really help with this kind of thing. |
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