Comment by looperhacks | Hacker News Reader

Comment by looperhacks | Hacker News Reader

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To readers that do not understand the joke: in a fan translation of the anime Death Note, the translator decided to translate the line "Just as planned" as "Just according to keikaku" with a translators note above it, saying that keikaku means plan. While back in the day, japanese words were often included with translators notes, this wasn't needed here and obviously a joke. This was only done when the word carried special meaning that couldn't be accurately translated using english words. Honorifics like -san or -sama were prominent examples.

(I kinda miss the times when common japanese words were not translated. Current translations often look weird (esp honorifics) and since the rise of Crunchyroll and subsequent demise of fansubs, there isn't much choice left for different translations)

> This was only done when the word carried special meaning that couldn't be accurately translated using english words.

Or when the translators or fans were weebs. E.g. many Death Note translators didn't translate "Shinigami", even though not only is "Death God" a perfectly valid western cultural concept, the Japanese cultural concept is actually directly derived from the western one.

> and since the rise of Crunchyroll and subsequent demise of fansubs, there isn't much choice left for different translations)

Two of the biggest names in ripping Crunchyroll have both shut down, one very unexpectedly, and I've noticed a small increase in fansubs since then. I'm kinda hoping for a resurgence now.

Some translators that still insist on localizing honorifics is funny, stuff like using Sir or making up a nickname for a character. I wonder what the Japanese do when translating English source to Japanese, do they insert honorifics where it doesn’t exist in the source?

Correct me if I'm wrong but usually honorifics are not used with non east-asian sounding names.

Source https://youtu.be/5rOHpkpYMIM

As somebody who never followed the fansub scene, the rise of japanese words in common English web-lingo (like desu or senpai) was really weird to observe.

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