Honorific Haters

Caboose said:
Some people/groups/companies prefer to do away with honorifics because keeping it them in is honestly considered sloppy/lazy translating. Translating is converting something from one language to another in it's entirety. Simply leaving things that are hard to translate in Japanese is considered poor translating in the industry so professional/official subs often end up translating or droping honorifics.

In fansubs honorifics are sometimes translated or dropped because they either aspire to be professional translators in the industry, or because they feel that doing so lowers the entry barrier for new fans. This last point also very much applies to official subs as well as they want to make a product that can appeal to as many consumers as possible as they are trying to make a profit.

Personally I am completely for keeping honorifics and certain things like onii-chan and onee-chan untranslated. While it is possible in many cases to translate or drop these and have the dialog sound natural the viewer viewer looses the insight they give into the relationships between the characters.

American English has quite often adopted words from other languages such as aloha, adios, sombrero, ect. Having a half dozen or so words that are left untranslated in anime that people have to learn seems reasonable to me considering how much they can influence the viewers understanding about what is going on.

Official subs will never stop translating honorifics as they need a product with as much appeal as possible, but i do wish that they could include a 2nd sub track as some fansub groups have started doing that included honorifics for seasoned anime fans that prefer them.

baki502 said:


Except that you need to know first what those words mean. And you never learn that if you dont see the translation first. Thats why it should be translated. No matter how many times you read and hear onii-chan you will never get its his brother, unless there is a scene showing that they live togheter or something like that. Either way, no they should translate it. I dont think they should use Ms. or anything of the sorts unless its a situation when you would use it english too tough. As in when friends talk to each other leave that shit out, just put the name without anything there.

WAD1992 said:
I'm gonna be brutally honest with you, dubbing is the WORST thing that ever happened to anime and since in almost any dub they drop the honorifics they kinda kill the mood so i kinda don't understand honorific haters, i mean seriously !!! it's part of the damn dialogue, get used to it !!!

Veronin said:
They're not at all necessary. You can even drop 'sensei' and use 'coach' or 'teacher' or something instead.

Senpai and onii-chan are difficult, though, since there's no English equivalent. Good luck changing those without it sounding completely awkward.

Caboose said:

dude that is easy, just have a translation note the 1st few times. i'm guessing that is how all of us learned all this shit.

Veronin said:
They're not at all necessary. You can even drop 'sensei' and use 'coach' or 'teacher' or something instead.

Senpai and onii-chan are difficult, though, since there's no English equivalent. Good luck changing those without it sounding completely awkward.

baki502 said:


Just put the name instead of senpai, problem solved. People that watch subs know what it means anyway. Or write "Mah nigga". Would be more fun.

As for onii-chan doesnt it mean little bro or big bro? I always confuse them so again I would like the translation.

FGAU1912 said:



no it does not ionly mean big brother

you like the of take the culture of japam form anime that came form Japan than dont wnatch anime anime thta you watc was made in japan so has Japanese lingou-cultural things ie ou want to erease thta fact


correct or not

it seas correct to me

baki502 said:


Again, translators exist for a reason. They should know what english word comes closest to it, or make a compromise. But I dont thin having the japanese word in the subs is great. Im willing to loose some of that japanese culture for it, as long as it gets some translation. I can still hear it in the audio, anyway, so nothing is really lost.

And yeah tbh for comedies Id be all for comedic and troll translations. Fuck the culture aspect in those anime, theyre comedies and if the subs can make it even more funny I am all for it.

danae17 said:
Are there many people who do prefer this? Personally, I think they should be put as they are in the subs, or not at all. After all everyone can recognize them after a while of watching anime.

Generally, I think it is annoying calling a person with a honorific all the time. Maybe that has to do with all the Kurosaki-kun/ Sasuke-kun that has stuck on my mind

I have a question for a while now, do japanese youth use the honorific -san when they talk and don't know each other very well, or is this restricted to anime? Because it sounds so polite that it is fucking weird to address each other like that.

baki502 said:


I still dont like it. It looks retarded as fuck to have the japanese words in there. Why leave them there if you can hear it anyway? Instead of writing Hyuka-chan, they can just write Hyuka and you will hear the -chan at the end anyway. Dont need the -chan in the subs, its just more ballast to read.

FGAU1912 said:

clan name san if you meat a Japanese person you will not even proper name terms with them right away and in most less westrenized asian cultres people will adress yi as sir or madam [ if you talk enlisg cause its rude to call by first name outside family [ and in smome places in japan is common to still

danae17 said:


So when high schoolers in anime use it when they call out their classmates is bullshit right? Thought so, it is way too formal.