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I started to notice it consistently happening.

For example, in _Durarara!!_ , a character communicates through text messages.
In the English dub (or, at least the version I watched), these are left
untranslated, which is really not good seeing as these are important messages.

In the sub, they were translated into English just like everything else.

Other dubs I've noticed that do this are _Inu X Boku SS_ and _Steins;Gate_ ,
just off the top of my head.

Is there some reason for this?


CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-10-29T03:14:21.210
14725
2017-01-30T14:33:01.600
2015-05-10T10:44:57.013
1398
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question
anime-production
Why do some English Dubs leave untranslated Japanese Text?


Dubbing is expensive; subbing is much cheaper to do. Anime translation
companies usually want to dub because they have no shot at getting it aired on
TV outside of Japan if there is no dub, so they usually sell the subbed DVDs
etc. for about the same amount of money as the dubbed ones, in order for the
sales of the subs to to offset the larger cost of dubbing. Neither dubbing nor
subbing requires editing/adding to the artwork (dubs are an audio track; subs
are a separate text file that can be overlaid over the art).

In contrast, usually text messages and other text shown in the artwork itself
often moves as the "camera" pans; it is not usually static and flat on the
screen. Covering it up would require the company to overlay art that moves:
essentially, **to animate over** the Japanese text with text that can move
along with the "camera" panning motion, to avoid scrolling the overlay over
the character's fingers, to tilt at the same angle as the cell phone screen is
being held at, etc. In other words, it is a different endeavor than either
recording audio or typing up subtitles: one that requires more work which is a
different type of work.

If the company has managed to land the series airing on TV in the country
they're licensed for release in, the amount of money they expect to make off
of it would cause them to be willing to re-animate those text messages. They
would not have a large motivation to add that animating work on top of their
dubbing expenses if they do not expect to make a lot of money from the series.
If the text message is read aloud in either the voice of the sender or the
voice of the recipient, it does not require the re-animating work for the
viewer to understand (assuming the dub script is accurate, which is a whole
different can of worms). Using the dub voice actor they've already hired to
orally take care of the viewer getting the gist of the message saves money.

An alternative would be to add a subtitle track which subtitles only the on-
screen text messages, book covers, signage, etc. which would be inexpensive to
do. However, when you compare the dub script with the subtitle script from the
same company, there are often differences because the dub is 1) attempting to
match animated mouth movements and 2) attempting to sound more colloquial
(i.e., "What would this character say if this character were talking naturally
in English/Chinese/whatever language is being dubbed?" rather than repeating
awkwardly in said language a translated phrase that a Japanese person would
say in this situation but which a native speaker of said language would never
think to say in this situation) as compared to the sub which is more concerned
with 1) fitting in the physical space of 1~2 lines of text on the screen at
once and 2) just translating more simply (what the character said). So when
the dub and sub scripts do not match, it would cause more confusion to add
that sub script they already made into the dub copy, because then the dub
actor's voice reading the Japanese text message and the sub at the bottom of
the screen would not match. It is likely that the company doesn't want to make
a separate subtitle file for the dub copy unless it is necessary, again to
save on costs.


CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-10-30T09:36:31.510
14743
2014-10-30T09:36:31.510
8134
14725
answer