In honor of the current reckoning against poor, meme-riddled, politically-motivated Japanese-to-English translations in anime, manga, and video games, allow us to provide proof that such butchering is not rare, but rather the industry norm.
Western Localizers Upset River City Girls Zero Offers Option For More Literal Translation, Claim Their Work Is Being Disrespected boundingintocomics.com/2022/02/17/wes…
Resurfaced Interview Sees Skies Of Arcadia Translator Admit Localization Team “Rewrote A Lot Of The Dialog Completely” boundingintocomics.com/2022/04/18/res…
Netflix’s English Dub Of Tiger & Bunny 2 Changes Dialogue To Have Golden Ryan Criticize “Outdated Gender Norms”, Declare Himself A “Feminist” boundingintocomics.com/2022/05/01/net…
The House In Fata Morgana Author Pushes Back After Western Localizer Boasts Of “Rejecting” Inward-Knee Female Character Designs For Being “Unnatural” boundingintocomics.com/2022/06/03/the…
Seven Seas English Localization Of ‘I Think I Turned My Childhood Friend Into a Girl’ Changes Feminine Male Into A Transgender Girl boundingintocomics.com/2022/06/07/sev…
Western Localizer Reveals Seven Seas Always Intended To Localize Feminine Male As Transgender Female, Says Translator “Consulted Trans People” On Changing Character’s Identity boundingintocomics.com/2022/06/13/wes…
Seven Seas Apologizes For Intentional English Mistranslation Of I Think I Turned My Childhood Friend Into A Girl, Promises To Revise Script “To More Accurately Reflect The Author’s Original Intent” boundingintocomics.com/2022/07/27/sev…
English Localization For ‘Utawarerumono: Prelude To The Fallen’ Under Scrutiny Over NIS America’s Cutting Of Lewd And Gendered Dialogue boundingintocomics.com/2022/09/01/eng…
‘Don’t Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro 2nd Attack’ ADR Scriptwriter Defends Their Use Of Memes In Series’ Localization: “I Am A Storyteller, Not A Robot” boundingintocomics.com/2023/02/16/don…
Viz Media Makes Corrections To Latest ‘Jujutsu Kaisen’ Chapter After Fans Discover Original Localization Ruined A Hype Moment boundingintocomics.com/2023/05/04/viz…
Western Localizers Insert Mansplaining Reference Into English Releases Of ‘The Dangers In My Heart’ Manga And Anime boundingintocomics.com/2023/06/13/wes…
Viz Media Censors Lewd Dialogue Related To Giselle Gewlle From Global Localization Of ‘Bleach Thousand-Year Blood War’ boundingintocomics.com/2023/09/16/viz…
Of course, this is far from a comprehensive list of their poor work - after all, as a small team, we can only cover so much!
That said, special shout out to @p9cker_girl and @kabutoridermav for their ongoing reporting on the topic!
Don't let the localizers gaslight you.
Sentai Filmsworks Replaces The Term “Lolicon” With “Problematic Age Gap” In Their Localization Of ‘Dark Gathering’ Anime boundingintocomics.com/2023/09/19/sen…
Funimation Script Writer Jamie Marchi Blames Criticism Of Edited Dubs On Misogyny: “I Have A Vagina, Deal With It” boundingintocomics.com/2020/10/21/fun…
They won't.
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