Lost in Translations

Accuracy vs. context Before I begin, I’d first like to say that I am rather comparing the fan subbed anime and official manga rather than picking a side. I just found it quite interesting, so I thought it’d be nice to share. If you have seen both the fan subbed anime and have either a subscription to shounenJUMP or the English manga, you probably already know what I’m talking about. In the official English manga, there are a few changes, probably the most significant being the “bunshin no jutsu” being changed to “shadow dopple-ganger”. Frankly, I have no problem with that change (it’s fun trying to pronounce it anyway xD). Even though shounenJump/VIZ hasn’t released many mangas, there’s still one part that interested me. In episode 3, Sakura tells Sasuke about how she thinks Naruto is spoiled and selfish because he has no parents. Obviously, because Sasuke has no parents as well, it get him angry. According to a few fan subs I’ve seen, he tells her “you’re annoying”, which isn’t such a big shock because he says that same thing about a bunch of fan girls earlier (“how annoying”). However, in the English manga, he offensively tells her “You… make me sick”, and then they show a panel of Sakura becoming shocked. Even though it isn’t exact translation, the context is much more stronger in words. When it came to something like this, I was glad the staff at shounenJUMP made this sort of decision. For example, a book is written in Spanish and meant to be read by a Southern American audience, strong and inappropriate words are usually blasphemous. However, when translated to English, those strong words are replaced by scatological and sexual words. This way, it’s just as offensive as it is in Spanish. Saying something like “You make me sick” that “you’re annoying” is better choice of words, and displays a larger amount of hatred. It may not be exact translation, but in terms of how verbally strong the word is, it’s something that should be taken note of. ← turn around