i found this on reddit when i was trying to find out if this was indeed an actual thing. it seems pretty relevant. link to the page:
https://www.reddit.com/r/skiesofarcadia/comments/apwf9w/thoughts_on_localization_changes/?rdt=51981
the relevant quote:
mr_plopsy
•
6y ago
Personally, I think SoA has one of the best translations out there, bar none. I read an interview with some of the translators and editors, and they talked about how they basically gutted all the original text and re-wrote dialogue from scratch to get the same point across, as opposed to a literal word-for-word translation. This is how ALL translations should work, because Japanese and English are extremely incompatible, not just in structure but in terms of culture.
So many of their words, phrases and terms have no proper analog in English. Sure, there are words that mean the same thing on a technical level, but due to being so isolated from the west, much of the culture behind their language tends to lend things a different flavor or coherency that simply doesn't exist in our hemisphere. That's why so much anime and JRPG dialogue comes out sounding stilted, awkward, or just plain stupid; it's not because of bad translations, it's simply because the dialogue sounds good and makes sense in Japanese culture but not in European/North American. When you're dealing with two languages that were born and evolved over thousands of years in cultures completely isolated from each other, it's not hard to imagine. Compare to other European languages which can not only be easily translated, but often share root words, history and even some exact phrases.
In terms of censorship, I would like to see all of that stuff reverted, though, especially the cigars/cigarettes. Once I started noticing so many characters doing smoking animations without cigarettes in their hand, I couldn't unsee it.
x.com
