Translation Battles In The Anime Fansubbing Community

Hmm, on the “-sama” translation I’d say it really depends on how its being used. “Prince” generally doesn’t feel right (esp since it can be taken too literally) — “lord” or “sir” might be a little better in many situations where there is a sense of rank. In the example you show, though, the character is actually referring to himself as -sama, so “the Great” gives a bit of the haughty tone that implies.

Another factor that can come in play for subtitles is how to render the translation in just a line or two of text that can be read quickly. That can require a bit of creative or loose translation, otherwise you end up with an entire screen of “subtitles”. English and Japanese often don’t match up too well on how long something is when rendered in the other language. This is a good site to see how different groups approach this.

Anyways, very interesting idea, especially if they’d expand it to some of the pro translations as well. I know I’ve seen good and bad on both sides, and fansubs that directly contradicted each other’s translations (“fondly” remembering Hecto’s subs of Escaflowne vs anyone else’s…).

I’d go with “the Great” for ‘sama’ in this case: anyone calling themselves “sama”, even if tongue-in-cheek, is deliberately flouting the rules of honorifics, and is making himself out to be rather arrogant.

The top one is obviously a translation of “naku ko mo damaru” and the second translation, while not perfect, is far better than the first. Although personally I’d have tried to substitute something equivalent in English – perhaps “hear my name and tremble!” He might also be referring to himself as ‘sama’ actually.

The middle one, with the school girls, would depend on the character, at least for the “make him pay” part of it.

Concerning how to translate, I saw an interview once with Toda Natsuko, the grand dame of subbing for English films released in Japan (check your videos: if it’s at all major, chances are she did the subs) talking about the difficulty in getting the meaning across in sentences short enough to be read. It’s far from an exact science, and even an expert like Toda sometimes fails to get it right.