What are your guy's thoughts on Japanese Game Developers on using AI translations?

[Ikagura]

Well "biased" can be used like that too, 4kids-tier may be lost on ppl under 24, at least with woke in this context most ppl know what you mean

Oh Ive seen that one but you can go more way more recent
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Wow... Which game btw?

Also funny how the person who wrote that probably have many things they own.

 

[Lee__Kanker]

This! AI tools for tons of projects from translation to upscaling can produce solid work but it /needs/ humans overseeing it for those results to be worth anything. I've seen people on twitter try to argue for or against certain translations or localizations purely off of AI translations when the user themselves doesn't know the language. It almost always ends up in someone who does know coming in and having to explain why the original user is wrong or misinformed.

The idea of someone with no knowledge just throwing it into an AI and then using the output without the ability to verify or refine anything makes me sad lol

Oh I still read the stuff I threw into the AI, thats why I said "90%"
It struggles with the word "bitch" because it doesn’t have a direct equivalent in italian or the husband in When the wind blows calling his wife "ducks" as a way to say "dear"
So there should be someone to see if its gramatically correct

 

[Somnia]

Well "biased" can be used like that too, 4kids-tier may be lost on ppl under 24, at least with woke in this context most ppl know what you mean

Oh Ive seen that one but you can go more way more recent
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Honestly in that example if you look at the context of the line and how other translations like the Chinese one handled it, it's clearly just a different attempt at the same joke. The "who knows, really" is a response to being accused of stealing a bow. It's a cheeky response that I think works well in English too so I'm not sure why the localizers changed it. Regardless, it's not /that/ bad since the tone and purpose of the comment is trying to remain the same. 4Kids just straight up changed tons about the tone, characterization and plot of shows they localized so these just aren't that comparable imo.

This is probably the first time Ghostwire: Tokyo was ever brought up on this forum lol

 

[Lee__Kanker]

Wow... Which game btw?

Also funny how the person who wrote that probably have many things they own.

Ghostwire Tokyo
A patch quietly removed it after fans complained

Btw @Gorse mentioned fire emblem fates but really Awakening has massive script changes too, to the point they're practically different characters
For example Henry was hated by his parents and dropped into a horphanage, which turned him into an empty husk that fakes emotions to fit in

In the international version he's a happy go lucky crazy murder who makes a lot of puns and got dropped to an "elite magic school"

So much nuance

Post automatically merged: Mar 5, 2025

Honestly in that example if you look at the context of the line and how other translations like the Chinese one handled it, it's clearly just a different attempt at the same joke. The "who knows, really" is a response to being accused of stealing a bow. It's a cheeky response that I think works well in English too so I'm not sure why the localizers changed it. Regardless, it's not /that/ bad since the tone and purpose of the comment is trying to remain the same. 4Kids just straight up changed tons about the tone, characterization and plot of shows they localized so these just aren't that comparable imo.

This is probably the first time Ghostwire: Tokyo was ever brought up on this forum lol

I know the scene, they couldve easily went with "I have no idea!" instead of a twitter meme thats one step below "there's no such thing as private property"

 

[Strategist's iconStrategist]

I know the scene, they couldve easily went with "I have no idea!" instead of a twitter meme thats one step below "there's no such thing as private property"

I have no idea if the personality they were trying to give the character fits, but non-literal translation is often necessary to give the localization the feel of Western people in conversation. You just can't translate Japanese directly and expect it to sound natural to Americans. If you think that is possible, all I gotta say is: "You know nothing, Jon Snow Lee_Kanker."

 

[Lee__Kanker]

I have no idea if the personality they were trying to give the character fits, but non-literal translation is often necessary to give the localization the feel of Western people in conversation. You just can't translate Japanese directly and expect it to sound natural to Americans. If you think that is possible, all I gotta say is: "You know nothing, Jon Snow Lee_Kanker."

Behold! Magic!

 

[Skeetos]

I don't like saying woke because like many other things on the Internet many are calling anything they don't like as such and other overused terms but I'll say that Crunchyroll and Funimation's ""translation"" gave me a bitter taste.

I don't care the slightest about MKDM nor Slice of Life but this is not professional at all.
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This is 4kids level of change.

That show is funny without the new age college girl humor damn it. Funimation has always kinda blown chunks though.

 

[Gorse]

Funimation has always kinda blown chunks though.

I danced a little jig when I heard they were going out of business a few years back. The only dubbing company I ever had any respect for in the slightest was 2000s-era ADV.

 

[Strategist's iconStrategist]

I danced a little jig when I heard they were going out of business a few years back. The only dubbing company I ever had any respect for in the slightest was 2000s-era ADV.

Funimation has always sucked, even before they were "woke". Their DBZ dub was a noticeable drop in quality from the early 90s version.

I insist that a lot the things that people call "woke" are mostly bad attempts at zoomer reddit style humor.

 

[J.F.C]

If you guys think Japanese to English translations are bad, just wait until you see the shit that they used to pull here in Portugal (This Dragon Ball dub is 100% real btw, I've seen it airing on TV several times).

 

[Gorse]

Funimation has always sucked, even before they were "woke".

I wasn't surprised when they jumped off Mt. Woke without a parachute, but I'd actually disliked them loooooong before that because their English scripts were atrocious, their VAs were insufferable and basically used the same voices for everything (young male/young female/adult male/adult woman), and, at least in the late 2000s/early 2010s, they gobbled up otherwise strong IPs and released abhorrent versions of them that were heavily censored and lacked all the charm and decorum of earlier releases. YOU SUCK, FUNI

 

[Lee__Kanker]

I have no idea if the personality they were trying to give the character fits, but non-literal translation is often necessary to give the localization the feel of Western people in conversation. You just can't translate Japanese directly and expect it to sound natural to Americans. If you think that is possible, all I gotta say is: "You know nothing, Jon Snow Lee_Kanker."

And since you went out of your way to say the teacher knows nothing, I will now illustrate 5 different ways you can translate a cheekily said "Who knows, really" into italian since it also has no literal equivalent

-"Ma chissa!" (Who knows!?)
-"Boh, non so" (I dunno)
-"È un mistero" (its a mystery)
-"Non saprei.." (I wouldn't know...)
-"E chi lo sa.." (who would know..)

Post automatically merged: Mar 5, 2025

If you guys think Japanese to English translations are bad, just wait until you see the shit that they used to pull here in Portugal (This Dragon Ball dub is 100% real btw, I've seen it airing on TV several times).

The italian dub of naruto is so bad I remember that as the series came out there were fan compiled documents of script changes, the first 10 episodes had 30 pages

Also ita vegeta says "It's over 8000, gosh darn it!" like the badass that he is

 

[Strategist's iconStrategist]

Behold! Magic!
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Well, that's a particularly egregious case, but its hard to say what was the reason for that. Whether it was a translation error, or a bad attempt to insert humor into the script. But the knee-jerk reaction is always "mah woke localizers ruining mah gamez!".

 

[Lee__Kanker]

Well, that's a particularly egregious case, but its hard to say what was the reason for that. Whether it was a translation error, or a bad attempt to insert humor into the script. But the knee-jerk reaction is always "mah woke localizers ruining mah gamez!".

When they so many changes use political or twitter-tier language you can notice a pattern

 

[Strategist's iconStrategist]

When they so many changes use political or twitter-tier language you can notice a pattern

I mean, it isn't a pattern when it is one line out of a game with tens of thousands of lines. The way people act is as if they were inserting the Communist Manifesto into modern AAA games.

 

[Lee__Kanker]

I mean, it isn't a pattern when it is one line out of a game with tens of thousands of lines. The way people act is as if they were inserting the Communist Manifesto into modern AAA games.

One line here, one line there, the whole show..

 

[Gorse]

Friggin' JelloApocalypse. Lovely Complex is an absolutely wonderful show that didn't deserve that treatment at all – I'd absolutely recommend watching the Japanese version, and hate that it now has this moron's millstone around its neck.

 

[Lee__Kanker]

Friggin' JelloApocalypse. Lovely Complex is an absolutely wonderful show that didn't deserve that treatment at all – I'd absolutely recommend watching the Japanese version, and hate that it now has this moron's millstone around its neck.

I learned recently (well 2013 feels recent to me!) they censored Samurai Pizza Cats of all things, not even old shows are safe!

 

[Strategist's iconStrategist]

Anime has been censored since the 90s (aside from direct to video releases), that's just American society not accepting sexuality in young adult media. It has nothing to do with woke.

 

[Mago]

If you don't want woke translations is it really that hard to just find people who wont do that or put in stipulations that force a more accurate localization?

Gonna be honest I hate hate the idea of localizers sticking weird unnecessary political shit in games but I imagine this has less to do with fear of woke translations and more to do with saving cost.

 

[Strategist's iconStrategist]

One line here, one line there, the whole show..
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I don't know if I'm understanding this correctly. They made a transphobic character not transphobic because the localizer morally objected to it?

 

[AnonymousCookieMonster]

As it stands....

AI translation as a starting point is fine.

Using AI Translation will result in activists not shoving their own agenda into games or animes or movies. This is a main reason i'd approve over disapprove of using AI rather than localizers.

So long as it's say 90-95% correct AI translations will do outright. Though as time goes on i'm sure re-releases of audio and subtitles will happen like patching a game.

 

[Gorse]

They made a transphobic character not transphobic because the localizer morally objected to it?

Lovely Complex had what we would now consider a "trans character" (a boy that dressed up as a girl and considered himself as such) in its main cast. The fact that the character presents as a girl is joked about heavily throughout the series, and is the crucial comedy climax of an early episode. The guy in that screenshot was the English dub's localizer, and rewrote the series' script heavily to alter anything having to do with that character, completely changing the show's dialogue and plot from the original.

When fans rightly complained about it, he threw the shit-fit you see there, was promptly fired and disowned by Discotek Media (who had no idea these changes were being made), and a public apology was issued to the audience. I think the entire situation makes the perfect mocking point for these ego-driven wokies in the Japanese entertainment industry.

 

[Lee__Kanker]

I don't know if I'm understanding this correctly. They made a transphobic character not transphobic because the localizer morally objected to it?

Yes he changed it because he personally didnt like the content on top of many other changes they bragged about, many such cases

I can send you the list of changes but its many walls of text

 

[Skeetos]

If you guys think Japanese to English translations are bad, just wait until you see the shit that they used to pull here in Portugal (This Dragon Ball dub is 100% real btw, I've seen it airing on TV several times).

Wasn't this like 3 people in total dubbing it with a comedic twist? I think I read that somewhere. Funny as hell.