Watching Agatha All Along in German is honestly kind of an irritating experience.
There are so many lines that just don’t land, and it makes me wonder what the experience is like for people who only saw the German dub. I watched it with my parents, and I’m pretty sure a lot of nuance got lost because the dubbing just wasn’t accurate.
One example is in episode 4: the English line “Can she bring some Advil?” is an anagram of Vidal. Such a clever little detail but in German it just became „Kann sie ne IBU mitbringen?“ (“Can she bring some ibuprofen?”). It works as a painkiller joke, but the intended wordplay is gone. Probably because “Advil” isn’t really a brand people here know.
And it’s not the only time this happens. In episode 7, when all of Lilia’s fragmented lines from earlier episodes come together, the whole payoff just… doesn’t make sense in German.
In English, in episode 3 she says to Agatha: “Save Agatha.”
In episode 4 she says to Alice: “Alice, don’t.”
And in episode 7, those two fragments combine into: “Alice, don’t save Agatha.”
Perfectly clear, perfectly chilling.
But in German:
In episode 3 it’s: „Versuch Agatha zu retten.“ (“Try to save Agatha.”)
In episode 4 it’s: „Alice, lass den.“ (“Alice, stop that.”)
So in episode 7 it merges into: „Alice, lass den Versuch Agatha zu retten.“ (“Alice, stop trying to save Agatha.”)
It technically makes sense if you analyze it, but when you’re just watching, it feels clunky and doesn’t land at all. They really should’ve gone for a different phrasing.
Stuff like this makes me wonder if the dubbing studios only ever get the episodes one by one instead of the whole season at once. Because otherwise, how do you miss these things that only pay off later?
