I think this latest chapter of Spy x Family is my new fucking favorite, look at these fucking panels:
The localization just feels kicked up a notch? Usually its damn good, but this chapter just feels... different? And I mean diffirent good, like they let the localizer have more freedom with the writing
What I mean is, ok so buckle in:
so one of my big gripes about modern day localization of japanese games/anime/manga is how weeaboos from the 90s, who grew up worshiping japan, now get to have control over the translation/localization industries. Back in the 90s when shows like Pokemon, DBZ and Sailor Moon were airing outside of japan for the first time, all of them were severely altered/censored
Yes theres the obvious stuff like covering up boobage and removing blood and gore, but then there was whats called the removal of "Cultural Odor" (heads up, that link is litterally someone's thesis, it is LONG)
Thats a fun name for the thing they did with Phoenix Wright back in 2005:
And so because of all this obscuring of the original "pure" japanese versions of all these media, baby weeaboos (i know, i was one of them) became downright fanatic and obnoxious about how THEY (the ominous they) ARE CENSORING THE CREATOR'S ARTISTIC VISION! THEY ARE KEEPING THE REAL VESRION OF THIS THING FROM US! THEY ARE CHANGING THE ORGINAL DIALOG! THEY ARE REWRITTING THE PLOT! THEY ARE DUMBING IT DOWN AND HANDING US A MUTILATED VERSION!
so we've gone from localization that takes media from japan and figures out how to best make it vibe with westerners and their culture, smoothly and naturally...
...which often means obscuring japanese things that the normie mainstream has no knowledge of, and would just leave them confused. Or outright rewriting certain dialog, because differences in cultural norms could alienate westerners who can't vibe with the original, but still trying to keep the spirit of what the og source material what going for...
with how they talk english during a nintendo direct. You know, that perky unnatural, fluent english speaker trying to copy the exact vocalizations of a japnese va?
Or what I call "Anime Voice" which is the same as "Nintendo Direct" voice: They have the english va listen to the japanese va's audio and go ok now sound just like this, but in english!
That, in tandem with the the localization (often run by the grown up outraged baby weebs) now aggressively keeping the translation as close to the original japanese as possible, results in a new type of headache inducing media experience that makes listening to modern day english dubs in anime and games sound like listening to somthing that aliens wrote and voiced
The best example of the above?
This is the best damn example of "They just had the english va listen to the japanese va and said do it like this!" but the thing is? In Japan, a cool calm stoic hero who shows little emotion, even in times of duress? Thats whats cool over there, thats how we got fucking Squall Leonhart, mr "i don't care" teen supreme. Being in control of your emotions is seen as a sign of strength, as icy and calm as the frozen surface of a lake
but westerners don't vibe with that very much, we want our main hero to get mad, to express joy, to cry, to feel. To holler!
westerners couldn't vibe with Samus in this game because to us that voice acting came off as robotic, like she was some kind of unfeeling alien. This is somthing that localizers back in 2009 probably had huge arguments about with the devs, and if there was ever an example of how important it is to listen to the people trying to bring your game to a foreign audience, other m is it baby
One of my best examples of a smooth and natural english localization? So this part from the start of Lunar: Eternal Blue at 2:56-
that line didn't really stick out to me until I replayed the game 4 years ago (on the ps1, which has some differences from the og sega version). It struck me, after years of imbibing dialog from recent rpgs(like Fire emblem Fates or Persona), how natural that line sounded in english
for an evil villain who just stripped a woman of her powers forcefully, whom had violated her, it was the exact perfect awful thing to say (in english) because of course "was it good for you" is a phrase associated with sex. the implied rape, the casual cruel and mirthful way its said, all of this perfectly informs the player of what kind of villain Zophar is in a way that is quickly noted
In fact that line and pretty much every thing that Ronfar's va says is very devoid of faithfulness to the japanese (as in the line readings, not the actual plot, just how things are said) and more of "hey lets make these characters sound natural and understandable to english players" (which is wat localization is supposed to do duh)
wat i'm trying to articulate with all these wordz here is that I've reached an point in my life where the stringent adherence to the exact writing/vocalization of the source material is now impacting my enjoyment of the things, because of how fucking aware i am of them. The unnatural line delivery, the jarring statements that don't fucking work in english because people don't talk like that-
-and serious scenes becomes absurd >:/
I don't want to go back to the 1990s/2000s era of localization, but i do want a return to the mindset of "how can we make this more natural sounding while still keeping the spirit of what the original is conveying"
I wrote all this because that latest chapter of Spy X Family fucking quenched that want, thats how i want to see it done!
