Anime dubbing and distribution company, Funimation, has once again been caught altering the context of Japanese anime in their dubbed version.
Just about a week ago, Funimation was previously caught altering the dialogue in the anime Bofuri, which One Angry Gamer covered.
Now, as mentioned, they have been caught again – this time altering the dialogue of a joke in episode 6 from the cat girl anime Nekopara.
The altered scene features the character, Vanilla giving another character, Coconut, a riddle.
The answer to the riddle, in the original Japanese context is acquaintance with a play on words, turning it into a pun and the answer being; “asscquaintance.”
The answer to the riddle in Funimation’s dub is; “hipster”.
So, still a pun kind of, and I say kind of because Vanilla wasn’t talking about hips in her riddle.
Apparently Funimation even altered this scene in a subtitled version which Sankaku Complex noted, claiming the subtitles had the text “hipster”.
They also wrote this interesting bit in their segment;
Finally, here is a clip of the scene from Funimation’s dub;
Video discussion for this topic;
19 Response Comments
I Don’t think it’s Just Neko’s I think it’s furries they, hate in general.
I actually can’t see the problem with this one. It’s a joke that I don’t think would have translated well into English, so they’ve made a joke that does work.
And before you say it doesn’t make sense in context, remember that the series Keijo!!!!!!!! is translated as “Hip Whip Girl” in English.
>Dubbing company changes line due to possible translation issues or how the line may not do well in the the translation. They fix it in a way to make it work especially with the lip-sinking.
>This is apparently criticized now? When it happens all the time??
Believe me even within the english language itself, jokes are changed due to the audience at hand. An American audience may not understand jokes that a British audience would. A joke that makes sense in Japan might not make sense in the US.
I literally see no problem here…
-Connie
I dont see the problem. it is not like every anime dub ever have changed the context of jokes, riddles etc. Now it just seems like you are nitpicking everything to find a flaw, and it is getting old. to be honest it just seems like you are butthurt (pun intended)
What?! A Japanese joke does not translate well into English?! Who would’ve thought… but seriously why is this categorized as news?
I agree with everyone here this is pretty much a case of “I don’t like Funimation I am gonna make them look bad with every chance I possibly get.” They did the right thing about changing the riddle in the dub as well as the sub. In the dub it would not make any sense without an explanation and in the sub they technically could have added one of those annoying explanations on top of the screen but when you have to stop the anime and read 3 lines of text to get the pun… Well I don’t know what to tell you, but if you have to get a joke explained for you to get it its not a joke anymore, it is dumb… This happens all the time with dubs and subs in the west. And just because you have a grudge against Funimation does not make this “News” it makes it an opinion piece.
I dislike funimation as much as the next person but aren’t you reaching In this case? HIPster is actually pretty good considering when it came from something that can only be pulled off in its original format, a play on words using the Japanese language is difficult as hell to get properly translated.
If it were along the same lines of “pesky patriarchy” then yes I’d agree but in this case, it’s just click bait my dude 🙁
“It’s perfectly fine!”, shout the commenters who apparently don’t notice how extremely obvious the ass focus in this scene is.
Oh, and to the person who was all “Some publications of Keijo got retitled Hip Whip Girl so that means this is okay”, no, that was stupid too.
It honestly would have been fine as
“If two people standing next to each other is called a row, what do you call two butt cheeks next to each other?”
Seeing as Coconut is supposed to be a little weak in the intelligence department in this scene she would answer “A row of butts!” while doing a butt tackle.
Vanilla would then say the answer is “a pair of buttocks”.
I see no harm if the dialogue was that. It’s straightforward, has the closest implication to the original wordplay in Japanese, and presents the whole context properly that Vanilla used her brain while Coconut missed the point and lost the match.
From my POV the whole joke about a hipster flew right over my head when I heard it…And I’m supposed to have a C2 in English.
Routine reminder from somebody who has been involved on the technical side of subbing and dubbing: You replace untranslatable puns with a decent equivalent in the dub. YOU DO NOT CHANGE A WORD IN THE SUB. You might choose the word order to help viewers catch that there’s a pun, but the sub should be more literal. This is in part because subs are pretty commonly watched by people who speak the language to some extent–some of us are even pretty fluent and just watching with people who aren’t.
So, yes, your viewers can be relied upon to notice this sort of thing with the sub, and more importantly, this sort of thing gets you suspected of dubtitling–where you don’t actually care enough about the quality of the product you’re presumably charging money for to actually put the time and money in to do a half-oshiri’d job of it. (Plus at least one if not both will be a trainwreck because the requirements for subs vs dubs on the script are different on a technical level.)
Feels to me like a lot of the Anti-SJW likes to accuse the SJWs of: making a big deal out of nothing. If you want people to take your anti-Funimation agenda seriously, then maintain a strong standard of what and how you accuse them.
@Potato
If you just want a translation that is coherent and faithful to the original? Sure. But the challenge here is in making it fit to the length of the scene, the lip flaps as well as the other visual aspects. That’s the real challenge of anime dubbing. IMHO overall it’s better to have a translation that isn’t too flavorful but raises no eyebrows – I have an issue with Funi’s previous dubs because it doesn’t fit the character, circumstance, or the original dialogue. As far as this one goes, it’s a valid if imperfect translation choice. Perhaps the best out of bad choices but I’m not a professional so all I can say is that it’s not a malicious choice like the article implies.
I agree with the dub situation, but don’t agree with changing context with sub and getting rid of the translator’s note. That is one thing I myself personally love about most fan and a few official subs, as it teaches me more about the language and culture. I love animes like Detective Conan even if the puns fly over my head as I don’t speak the language.
I knew there was something wrong with that scene when the subtitles made a joke about a hipster. That just felt off and made no sense to me when I watched it. I knew the Japanese wouldn’t be making a joke like that. Now I can’t even trust funimation sub’s to be accurate to the source material.
Anti-SJWS complain about SJWS blowing thing our of proportion.
Anti-SJWS processed to make a big deal out of this little thing.
Tbh I am loving the hypocrisy, both sides are dumb so here it a tips for all of you. Get over it its not a big deal.
This is such a reach but what makes it funny is that “hip” in Japanese actually refers to the butt. Look up ヒップ and see for yourself.
@Josh
What, you didn’t notice something was up when they were supposedly comparing one girl’s “hips” to a big ripe peach?