Prison School Dub problems

[Nanya]

Yes, I know, haven't posted in awhile, and most of you probably hate dubs, but who's been paying attention to Prison School that's been dubbed?

https://twitter.com/Klashikari/status/647038987991953408 - You can listen to the line in question, which doesn't make sense in the context of the scene, where the guy is speaking too casually to the girl in question and she's supposed to go "you're speaking too casually to me, speak with more respect, I am your senior".

https://twitter.com/FluffehDarkness/status/647136318808453120 - A more accurate line.

Honestly, I don't care if they want to poke fun at something in culture,but they should at least keep it relevant to the scene at hand, this just pisses fans of the series off.

Even worse, the fucking writer hack is trolling everyone on twitter about it and dismissing any criticisms that are directed his way about it.
https://twitter.com/AttackonTyson/status/647096708472553473

Figured that it's a good enough of a reason not to watch anything Funimation, that I don't already own, for awhile.

Sadly, this includes DxD, can't trust Funimation to do a dub properly right now.

 

[NuitTombee]

Even if they hadn't changed the lines it would probably still sound terrible if that example was anything to go by.

 

[Rising Dragon]

Still pretty aggravating that they're using, of all things, an anime dub to push an agenda. Especially one as poisonous as the modern feminist movement.

 

[da_fox2279]

Here's what Funimation has to say about it, via ANN:

In creating English dubs over the past 20+ years, FUNimation has always modified each Japanese script to appeal to Western audiences. This ensures that North American audiences can enjoy a high-quality viewing experience regardless of their familiarity with Japanese culture.

Neither the dialogue in our shows nor the personal statements of our actors or writers reflects the views or opinions of FUNimation. Official statements from FUNimation are only released via company owned channels (i.e., website and social media profiles) or newswire.

I do kinda understand where they're coming from, and I don't think their 'pushing an agenda'. They did the same thing with other releases; for instance, recording the OP and ED songs in English (YuYu Hakusho).

I've always liked their dubs, even if I didn't always like their voice actors, so I'll probably keep buying Funimation's stuff. But I do think they should have left Gamergate the fuck out of the dub, even for a joke. There were other ways to make that 'creepshow' joke; that wasn't it.

 

[Rising Dragon]

One of the problems with their "joke" line is that it has the complete opposite meaning of what's intended in the original line. Even if you ignore the botched political statement and dated humor, the line doesn't work.

 

[PCHeintz72]

Hmmm... they need to be reminded not all anime fans are gamers... in fact, while I remember there being a scandal of sorts a while back, I'd actually have to look up what exactly Gamer Gate was to remember.

I got out of the gaming scene a *long* time back as I disliked the philosophy of playing my games on-line and paying monthly installment fees to do so.

 

[Contrabardus]

I really can't bring myself to care.

Yeah, it's a bad translation of a joke, yes it's probably in poor taste, sure it will quickly be dated, but it's one line of off color humor. Even well translated anime have tons of lines like that. Japan isn't the most sensitive of countries, especially when it comes to humor. I completely agree that this line is terrible in every sense it can be.

There's no way I could give enough of a shit to boycot Funimation for attempting to localize an anime with a topical one line gag no matter how badly it was done. People who are sensitive about it need to grow the fuck up and get thicker skin. Sure, it wasn't funny and was off the mark on the translation, but that happens all the time. It's part of the nature of translation, it's going to happen sometimes. Funimation is overall decent as far as their translations go, it's hard to get mad at them for landing off the mark sometimes.

I get why some people are mad, but I think those people are immature and overly sensitive. Especially for Anime fans. Seriously, I recently watched a scene where a guy helped his friends steal his tween sister's underwear so they could wear it like masks and sniff the crotch. In another a guy stopped a group of bullies by ripping off his clothes revealing women's underwear and crotch thrusting at them to scare them away while implying rape threats. Neither of those was in an 'adult' anime either, it was stuff aimed at the tween-teen market.

Are we really expected to get mad because a gamergate gag fell flat? How is that the line exactly? Considering some of the other stuff I've seen in anime that's not even really adult in nature I have a hard time buying that I should be outraged and that the company is worthy of a boycott.

This is worth a groan and an eyeroll and nothing more. It's also one of the many reasons I prefer subs as things like this are less frequent. They tend to be more in tune with the culture of Japan and make less attempt to localize humor.

It's one bad joke in a relatively obscure anime. Get over it. This would have annoyed me for all of ten seconds before I forgot it ever happened, and I don't see why it's worthy of more attention than that.

 

[NuitTombee]

In another a guy stopped a group of bullies by ripping off his clothes revealing women's underwear and crotch thrusting at them to scare them away while implying rape threats.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jquq_Bd1340

Also, I don't really care about the Gamergate thing, but their dubs were terribly voiced imo.

 

[Contrabardus]

In another a guy stopped a group of bullies by ripping off his clothes revealing women's underwear and crotch thrusting at them to scare them away while implying rape threats.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jquq_Bd1340

Also, I don't really care about the Gamergate thing, but their dubs were terribly voiced imo.

 That I can understand. I don't like dubs in general. I have come across some decent ones, but I still prefer subs even when the dub isn't bad.

I get the idea of not buying anime from a company that just doesn't do good work with your preferred method of watching, such as consistently poorly translated subs or low quality VO work. That's an objective opinion and I can respect that reasoning. Not liking Funimation's dubs and not watching them isn't the same thing as calling for a boycott either. It's something I get and can respect as a matter of opinion.

However, throwing a fit because of one poorly translated, badly localized, throwaway joke line? Especially in something like Prison School, which is a goofy irreverent delinquent school comedy that's barely a step up from Cromartie High. That's just petty and not worth the outrage this is getting. Even if it was in poor taste and just plain awful, it's ten seconds of mild irritation in an otherwise halfway decent show.

The rage this is drawing over one badly localized line is stupid. I have no sympathy for anyone who is dumping impotent rage at the translator over it as if it was a personal insult directed at them. To be perfectly honest, if it was me, I'd be trolling the idiots pitching a fit at me over it on social media too. I'm kinda on his side here, even though I don't find the joke funny, it wasn't an unreasonable attempt at localizing the sentiment, even if it did fall flat in the end. From what I've seen the show has been pretty well received otherwise, so it's hard to side with the people bitching about it, and equally hard to say that he's not justified in trolling them for losing their shit over something so stupid.

 

[da_fox2279]

Speaking of dubs vs subs, are most of Sentai Filmworks' releases sub-only? 'Cause I've been looking at prices for some of their stuff, and it seems like it. I can understand, it keeps the manufacturing cost down, but I prefer dubs.

Not that I won't watch subs, it's just not my preferred thing, y'know?

 

[Antimatter]

I couldn't care less if it offended the goobers, i'm just against inserting dated pop culture references in dubs that aren't present in the original. It reminds me of all the times they tried to localize cultural puns/references with western ones in the early days of anime.

It just, doesn't work.

 

[Contrabardus]

I couldn't care less if it offended the goobers, i'm just against inserting dated pop culture references in dubs that aren't present in the original.  It reminds me of all the times they tried to localize cultural puns/references with western ones in the early days of anime.  

It just, doesn't work.

It's still very common. Less so with Subs than Dubs, but it's completely normal to try to localize humor and pop culture references in any translation. This is just a poorly done example of it, but it's not something that faded out of practice since the early days of Anime.

Most shows that are translated do it at least a little bit, especially dubs, which also often alter dialogue or references to fit with the speaking animations of the characters. Sometimes it's just something a simple as adapting slang, other times it's switching out pop culture references to more familiar things in the translation language's region, it depends on the context and some translations try to be more 'pure' than others.

The truth of the matter is that directly translated anime, even with perfect grammar, just sounds weird to western audiences and much of the humor is lost. I think you'd be surprised how much of dubs, and even some subs, are localized to sound right for an English speaking audience. Direct translations are more common in Manga format, as it has the benefit of being able to put translation liner notes in the margins between panels so that the gag or reference can be explained.

Cultural expressions are a good example, and are probably the most common localizations. They sound batshit crazy when directly translated. For example, a Japanese person might say "My hand is coming out of my throat!" This makes no sense as a directly translated line, but it would be localized as "I need that thing so bad!" or "I must have it!" Japan has a ton of phrases like these that make no sense if directly translated and they are very common in casual speech.

It didn't work -this- time, but it's usually done well enough that most English speaking audiences don't notice because it sounds natural to them.

 

[AJ_Katon]

I get why some people are mad, but I think those people are immature and overly sensitive. Especially for Anime fans. Seriously, I recently watched a scene where a guy helped his friends steal his tween sister's underwear so they could wear it like masks and sniff the crotch. In another a guy stopped a group of bullies by ripping off his clothes revealing women's underwear and crotch thrusting at them to scare them away while implying rape threats. Neither of those was in an 'adult' anime either, it was stuff aimed at the tween-teen market.

It's one bad joke in a relatively obscure anime. Get over it. This would have annoyed me for all of ten seconds before I forgot it ever happened, and I don't see why it's worthy of more attention than that.

Daily Life with High school boys and Shimoneta?

And meh. I don't know what gamergate is but if this was supposed to be a joke, then thumbs down.