Don't trust the translation of this anime.

Im amazed that you think this isn't happening all the time. That this is a special case.
No need to single it out, like this. Most English Subs are like this.

@Merve2Love
No.
"the withdrawal of permanent members from the Security Council."
"multiple member countries of the UN withdrawing from the assembly."
These are very different situations and the translation is obviously intentionally mistranslated. I have never seen the same situation in any other anime.

@bourrasque



I get what you're saying. It seems like a bit of censorship, the thing with the UN.
It's probably just politics. Fear of a shitstorm or legal actions. It happens. I don't think it's a big Deal. It doesn't matter, really, imo.

It's annoying. I agree.
But it's not a "Trust" Issue. It's just legal stuff or simple fear of backlash, most likely.

It's along the same lines as Jojo Characters beeing censored, when smoking, because characters are underage, or Sailor Moon characters sexuality beeing changed. I also remember a lot of symbols changing for various Anime, like One Piece or Yu Yu Hakusho.

There are tons of these things happening. It's really not a big Deal.

ngl bro that is not nearly enough of a difference to detract from the show

Plus for episode 2 we saw counties like China and USA standing up and leaving during the speech. There will always be slight differences in translation but nothing crazy has happened in my opinion.

I do see what you’re saying and I’m not saying you’re wrong. I guess, to me, it doesn’t seem like that big of a difference in translation.

@JamesAim Whether a permanent member of the Security Council withdrew from the UN is not important to you in the plot of this anime, and the horrible inconsistency between the Japanese audio and the English subtitles doesn't bother you?

@bourrasque
I see the Japanese Dub to be more specific, and the English Translation to be a bit broader.
However, to me, both versions showcase the same goal with this scene. All this scene was trying to do, in my view, was showcase that UN members gave up in some sense on this matter after his speech.

The English translation, however, does make it seem as if the members withdrew entirely from the UN or this meeting specifically.
In actuality, the Japanese dub you mentioned states more specifically that the "permanent members" left the Security Council Branch of the UN.
In real life, the permanent members, or Big Five, are just some of the big world powers (China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States) who remain as a part of the Security Council throughout each cycle of its 15 members. (the other 10 being picked from the General Assembly)

If I am incorrect, do respond or correct me :D
(Honestly, I didn't really know that there are subsections to the UN until this, and looking into it a bit further.)

You werent thinking there wasnt a biological involvement when you heard that hapna "mutated" into a poison? Why you need the hint of the word vaccine is beyond me

2nd episode literally first scene they mention corruption of FDA and negligance on side effects because the drug is considered a miracle drug

@Merve2Love
No.
"the withdrawal of permanent members from the Security Council."
"multiple member countries of the UN withdrawing from the assembly."
These are very different situations and the translation is obviously intentionally mistranslated. I have never seen the same situation in any other anime.

I'm seeing it in this season's Witch Watch. A scene in episode 2 has the characters flying in the shape of a fish. While the Japanese version says they're acting out a picture book, the subs say they're "getting along swimmingly." The original Japanese is a deliberate reference to the book "Swimmy."

It would be a biologic (<-- used as a noun).

The difference only matters if the majority of viewers can spot the difference.

Same for the implications of vaccine v cure. Since it is delivered after the fact and not prophylactically, cure actually makes more sense as a vaccine to a mutation they haven't identified that would have to be administered before hand wouldn't make sense. Even if they found a vaccine with 28 days left, everyone is screwed. But again, if the MAJORITY of viewers do not resolve that or other differences, they don't matter.

There is no 1:1 translation.

If you watch anime regularly in Japanese with English subtitles (and presumably also in subs for all other languages that the anime is available in), you don't even need to be able to speak Japanese to recognize that this happens to some extent across all anime (and it happens with translated versions of media in other languages in other mediums too), because you can pick out the exact same phrase by ear, especially common expressions you've heard said by characters a thousand times, and then see it translated multiple different ways in English. Because it's not exactly always literal and there are no 100% correct exact substitutions for each word.

Often they just try to stay as close as possible and capture the "spirit" of the statements and conversations, but obviously it's a matter of degree. Some translations in some subbed anime are more sticking to the literal as possible while still being intelligible and coherent translations, while some try to jazz it up a little. Generally all or almost all the subbed versions take less "creative" liberties with the translations than dubbed versions though.

I don't consider the examples you pointed out particularly egregious. "Vaccine" and "cure" are not literal synonyms and the more scientifically and technically-minded understand well the distinction, but in colloquial/popular speech they're often used interchangeably or as "close enough" substitutes.

"Withdrawing from the assembly" versus "withdrawal of permanent members from the Security Council" does give the wrong impression that the national ambassadors to the UN attending Skinner's speech simply walked out of the speech in diplomatic protest the way regularly happens in UN meetings over geopolitically contentious issues and among the top representatives of countries from opposing geopolitical camps. As opposed to a withdrawal of any of the P5 from the UNSC, something that in my view would never ever happen in real life unless they were also prepared by implication to leave the UN as a whole as well, so that is more specific, dramatic, and consequential. It would represent a dramatic change to the state of the UN and the post-1945 international norms and precedent of diplomacy. It would herald the UN going the way of the post-WWI League of Nations.

But, with all due respect to the series, I just kind of assume that this is more of a blockbuster-style action adventure spectacle where the geopolitical backdrop is going to be moreso used as framing to not make it seem like the main characters are existing in a bubble or vacuum and instead show a little of the ramifications on the broader world and international affairs, but I seriously don't expect it to get that in-depth with it in this kind of show. So I doubt that change of wording will be too consequential to any plot developments either (or at all).

I do wish with this series that they would stick to as close to the original wording as coherently possible with the subtitling while allowing for some variation of word choice when English, say, has three or five or 10 words with the same or very similar meaning to the one word in Japanese used repeatedly. And that's what I wish for all series.

But this seriously isn't unprecedented and a very commonplace phenomenon.

In my opinion, hapna is a fake thing in a fake world made to establish the stakes of a story. Is it not that for you?

Because, as I mentioned, even though they aren't synonyms, the words sometimes are colloquially used interchangeably like that. Some people don't know any better and some do know better but still use "cure" just as like a slightly briefer/abbreviated version of vaccine (one syllable versus two when speaking, fewer letters when writing or typing) even though they and those they are addressing know that it is a vaccine being referred to. There is a distinction, but it's not a huge deal.

And some translators have stated that they like to make certain sentences "flow better", "sound more natural to conversational English", or "represent English with a decent personality", so sometimes like to vary up the word choice when the original words and meanings are close enough.

reading this thread makes me wonder. are you clinically paranoid?

like seriously, no one is scheming anything. so far as i can see, the plot of the show is practically the same. a vaccine is a type of cure, so thats completely pointless, and the UN part may have been slightly politically motivated with all the shit happening right now—but neither of those really affect anything other than a few background details.

you should probably focus your energy into something else for now.

@zombecca So I have a question. Why would a translator translate the word vaccine, which is clearly pronounced "waku-tchin" in Japanese audio, as cure? Can you explain?

"one syllable versus two when speaking, fewer letters when writing or typing"?