Engrish subtitles on Japanese TV

TV Asahi aired a neat program　（世界が選ぶ日本アニメ傑作20） on Sunday night　educating Japanese viewers about specific anime movies and series that are very popular outside of Japan. It was particularly cool when it contrasted the titles, script translations, and voice acting casts of Japanese and foreign versions of the anime.

[A Japanese YouTuber has uploaded the show in its entirety. Watch it here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10.]

I have only one complaint about the program. During the segments containing English language versions of anime, TV Asahi provided English language subtitles of the lines being spoken by voice actors. Much to my annoyance, almost all of the subtitles were garbled Engrish that made little or no sense and did not match the words being spoken. It was pretty obvious that whoever TV Asahi hired to translate the the clips didn’t have the slightest idea what the English language actors were saying.

Here are two examples:

1. Japanese Fist of the North Star anime vs. Hollywood Fist of the North Star live action movie

It’s hard to imagine “tickle me to death” becoming “take the minute down,” but their translator wrote it that way!

2. American Speed Racer

Speed Racer was never really known for having clear and natural sounding voice work, but that’s no excuse to just make up fake English when you don’t understand what’s being said.

A major Japanese TV network should be able to deliver better than bootleg DVD quality English subtitles. What’s wrong with you, TV Asahi?