Lost in Translation on Ice - Translation Mistakes in Episodes 1-6
Hi! I’m that person who wrote that post with the lost-in-translation innuendo from episode 6. After that, some people said they want to know about the rest of the ‘lost in translation stuff’ from the rest of the episodes……so, hey, I’m crazy, so I went and did it.
This post aims to collect and explain as many translation errors, emphasis changes and things that just can’t make it through the language barrier as possible from the Yuri on Ice official subs, through episodes 1-6.
I want to preface this by saying that I have the utmost respect for Crunchyroll translators. Theirs is a tough job : parsing everything by ear, running on tight deadlines, having no context for future episodes and needing to make sure everything sounds like a real conversation. It’s hard, and I don’t envy them their jobs.
But even the best translators could make mistakes.
Let’s get started, shall we? Episode 1’s going to be a little dry, but rest assured that there are some juicy, tasty stuff down the line in further episodes! This is also going to be very long, so please bear with me. A short count of issues :
Episode 1 - 17 issues
Episode 2 - 15 issues
Episode 3 - 9 issues
Episode 4 - 23 issues
Episode 5 - 26 issues (!!!!!)<– this one is important
Episode 6 - 20 issues
(This is going for maximum accuracy, so there will be some splitting hair and some throwing conversational flow to the winds when it becomes necessary.)
The subs translated this line into present perfect tense, but it’s actually in the past perfect tense. Correct version : Ever since I first saw his skating, it had been an unending chain of surprises.
You know, in case we don’t have enough ‘describe Victor in the past tense’ things to freak out about!
The subs missed a word here, simplified the sentence and removed the tiny personal touch of the announcer to make it more like English language sports commentary. The announcer also described Victor’s skating, not just the state of his competition. The original line is 「いや、フリーも驚異な強さで圧倒しました！」(いや means ‘no’, but in cases like this it’s often used to show awe at something you half-expect anyway.) When you add the missing bits back in, the line would be like : I’ll be damned, he also crushed the FS with a miraculously strong performance!
‘Seems to lay such rumors to rest’ is a rather mild way to put what the announcer is saying. He sounds quite excited in the Japanese commentary, but that’s not how English sports commentary works, so….anyway, the original line is 「そんな噂を吹き飛ばすかのような圧巻の滑りでした」, which would make the whole sentence ’Some speculated that he might retire this season, but that was a masterful performance to blow any such rumors out of the water!’
The actual meaning doesn’t change much, but the emphasis has been shifted quite a ways.
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