Video Breaking down the whole dub will be out in the next few days. But in the meantime, did anyone else notice this scene back when it aired?

"I can't hold my ears and my belly button at the same time! Do you really need to brainstorm for that?" "Brainstorm? Is she using that in the right context?" Did you mean: train storm? THE TRAINS ARE STOPPED BECAUSE OF THE STORM

I like the "Brain Stoppage" suggestion. Because it's dumb enough that Chika would say it but it's also not SO wrong that Shirogane wouldn't bother to look it up. Japanese puns are always fun to look out for in anime and I always like to see how they decide to translate them!

I actually got paranoid that this was gonna be a discussion about how the Kaguya dub did something wrong, but this was way better than I thought it'd be since this scene was almost impossible to make work in English.

"Are you suffering from brain stoppage?" is perfect. Brain stoppage train stoppage is a great way to solve it, and stoppage sounds weird enough for Chika to say it and for Shirogane to be confused about.

I think 'Brain Stoppage' would've been the best choice. It's something Chika would actually say in her ditziness and Shirogane would actually look up because it just sounds so cobbled together, AND it would be plausible for wonky voice detection to mishear it and change it to 'train stoppage'.

I think one of my favorite homophones is also from the people who made Wallace and Gromit “ ma’am the chickens are revolting” “ finally something we can agree on”

You are not immune to Kaguya's dub

If Chika had just said, "My train of thought couldn't be more obvious", "he then could have googled the phrase "Train of thought".

Chika: it’s not weird! Everyone knows it can stop the lightning! That guy: everyone knows? Siri, google Stops the lightning. Oh no the lightning storm stopped the trains!

This is really interesting. Fun to learn.

I think I would've gone with "Is there a delay with your brain?!" which he mishears as "train", leading to him checking for train delays.

These videos always increase my respect for how difficult translating & adapting can be, makes me appreciate the people who do it more

The 5:25 edit was a god edit. It broke me

Having not been familiar with the anime, and having enough Japanese knowledge to understand the joke once explained, this is wild. Honestly I do feel like this was an instance where a less liberal translation would work better. At least as I'm reading it, the character is concerned as to whether he is normal and less about the looking up of that word's normal meaning, and that doesn't come across in a lot of the translations when understood literally. In that sense, I think Aaron actually misunderstands the context, since 'futsuu' is not an unusual word. His train alternative is definitely preferable since it preserves the humor; I think 'train of thought' might work too in the sense of "Why can't you understand it's a perfectly normal train of thought!" "Train of thought? Is that really normal? Train of- WHAT THE TRAINS ARE STOPPED!" I think the more interesting question is how we get to the point where the dubbers (and subbers) were basically unable to find a pursuable alternative that did make sense in some way - how can translators identify those instances beforehand and immediately pursue a path of either notated literalism or liberal translation, rather than this weird unnotated intermediary. Would love to hear more thoughts of translators coming across this and what pressures are leading to them not being able to have discussions like this one.

I’ve just accepted translations are going to be imperfect and try not to get too worked up about it. Dub makers have finite time to make dubs. Thus they have to get stuff done in a timely manner. They have deadlines and other scenes to do. Sometimes “good enough” has to do. Even if in this instance it isn’t good enough.

It probably would have made more sense for him to check the phone to see how long the thunder would last, then finding the thing about the trains. It's a bit removed from the direct translation, but it helps the flow of the dialogue.

1:59 the real crime is that somebody translated 告らせたい as, "wants to be confessed to" 🙃🙃🙃

Now that the Monogatari series has been licensed by Funimation there is a possibility that it might get a dub so I am interested how they will handle the localization because conversation is filled with very specific Japanese wordplay that may be as difficult or even more difficult to adapt than this scene

6:25 tangential off that side note in the top of the screen, but can we talk about how many dubs (and even some subs) don't translate plot relevant (even sometimes plot critical) on screen text? Seriously, I've seen otherwise well-done shows not translate (via text or speech) things like really important conversations over text message. Wtf is up with that?

That Yu Yu Hakusho scene was amazingly dubbed

Great vid as usual. Have considered doing a video about anime that could use english dubs but don't have any.

This video had broken me earlier today. It was... an experience! 😅

I just tried out Google's speech to text function to search for something, and unless I spoke clearly and articulate, it NEVER got it right. Knowing this the dub could've easily justified the speech to text search coming up with something unrelated, but also *kinda* related given that Shirogane appears to be whispering for some reason, I would've accepted "straightforward" being mistranslated by his phone as "Train yard", or "Freight forwarder" (Google actually gave me the latter one when I said 'straightforward' so it could work even using that word). And if they did this it would still come across as if he accidentally learned of the delayed trains. It still doesn't work entirely, but this way, the dub could've gotten away with blaming the speech to text function on Shirogane's phone in order to justify how he went from searching for 'straightforward' to learning the trains were delayed.

I thought there may have been a banner/warning on the phone when he opened google to notify of the trains stopping. Still a really interesting video!

I'd say "brain stoppage" is the best suggestion so far.

Whilst I would have appreciated a good play on words, I also assumed it was a notification rather than a search and he got distracted from the search by the notification

This wordplay nonsense reminds me... I still have to check out your guys's hour-long Nichijou video lol. Localizing it must've been like living this nightmare over and over for 26 episodes

randomly i stumbled upon one definition of futsu (futsu ressha) that roughly translates to "regular train" or "local train" using that, everything makes sense

@5:40 am i stupid or was that bring me the horizon?

Congrats, you broke me too

Super late, I just assume when he was looking up the world, he notice an announcement update in his phone. I get mine for weather and such. I also get them for the public bus I take, as it send through the payment app i use. I would assume he got the same, and so checking his phone made him notice it. Also yeah, it was mention in the video too, hehe

I think the "thunderstorm" solution seems really good

Translations and meanings is hard to explain or fully grasp. In inuktitut, ullaakku is a way of saying your doing an action in the morning amd good morning, but its said along with other words in a sentence for it to make sense, but its used to say good morning if its used alone but still doesnt make much sense as it needs to be used along with other words. If what I said makes sense. Along with ullukku and unnukku being afternoon and evening.

Late to the party, but I've been watching Kaguya-sama for the first time, and immediately thought of this video when I reached this scene! It turns out European anime streaming service Wakanim had their own translation for this series. Here's how they handled this scene: Chika: "How can I hide my belly-button and cover my ears at the same time? Think normally!" Shirogane: "What is "normal" anyway? (searches "normal") The typhoon's caused the train service to stop running normally!" It's fine, I guess? My first thought was that Shirogane is so bored he's just googling his half-thoughts, which kinda works for me since the scene in question has a pretty relaxed rainy day atmosphere (well, as relaxed as these characters can be). I absolutely love the brain stoppage suggestion, though! I feel like it leads a lot better into Shirogane finding about the trains than searching normal does. Really enjoy all this talk about various translations, it really drives home the fact that there are always so many ways to handle translations. Makes me appreciate the work that goes into them, too.

I legit didn't even realize that season one had been dubbed yet!!

I haven't seen this show, read the manga, or anything. But this is interesting to me so I also decided to look into it. Something fun to note that could've worked in a way, 普通 (Futsuu) the one that means "ordinary" is also a very common abbreviation for 普通列車, a word that means "the train that you usually get on". Saying futsuu into your phone very well might give you local train times for this very reason. Obviously this doesn't work as though, because of the anime switching it to 不通 (Futsuu) meaning "Stoppage". The interesting part is that in the manga panel you showed in video doesn't have pictures of the kanji at all, his phone is just symbols (I assume this isn't the case in the Japanese version of the manga? Unless they just dont use kanji in text bubbles to keep it ambiguious for those panels). Either way, the fact is that the anime intentionally shows 不通 on his phone, and I gotta assume that change was made with the author's agreement, so it has to be the joke that was intended. I personally really dont like the idea of "Brain stoppage" because it sounds so bad an unnatural to me, but again I haven't seen the show and maybe that's just something Chika would say. I think the example with the Thunder God you brought up would work well though.

5:26 well, that escalated suddenly

hey i need help remembering an anime i dont know what it was called, but there was a scene with an old women and a younger one that i remembered. they were in a cabin pass a bridge and a bunch of spirits came and scared them. then the old women went into the river to join them. anyone know what anime it was from?

I can't wait for Season 3

Could you do an episode on aging and retirement? Like Simpsons actors sound so old.

I can't wait for the breakdown of the Kaguya-Sama dub. Honestly one of the animes where I actually prefer the dub over the sub because of the liberties taken.

Can you do a review of Central Park Media dub of the slayers?

"I CAN'T COVER MY EARS BECAUSE I NEED TO PROTECT MY BELLY-BUTTON FROM THE THUNDER GOD RAIJIN!" (Wait, do kids still believe stories about Raijin at our age?) "Raid-" (Miyuki pronounces the "J" slowly enough that the "D" sound (voiced alveolar plosive) comes out separately from the "ZH" sound (voiced post-alveolar fricative)) (Phone: Train rides are delayed) "THE TRAINS HAVE STOPPED!" And yes, I am stretching the pun across two languages and some dubious phonetic stuff just to annoy y'all.

Great 👍🏻 video nice 👍🏻 hype!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gokudo had word play that dub translated differently to be even funnyier

Whether and weather maybe. I don't know. Brain stoppage sounds like the best one honestly.

9:30 this is the way I would've gone with if I was in their shoes.

I'm glad I finally get a face to a name.

Why tf the video is buffering so hard. This ain't happening with anyvids huhhhh?????

Yeah that scene didn't outright confuse me when I first watched it. It was more like a short "huh."in my brain ticked off and then I just moved on. As someone who used to have a job in listening and correcting customer service calls and now even studying as a literature major, I have confidence in whether or not I can spot if a line or sentence was cohesive or felt awkward but I didn't give this one that much mind maybe because of wanting to immerse myself in the show that time. Personally if I would translate this I would have localized the homophones aspect of the joke since it could still be just as funny especially if you play into the fact that siri/alexa typically gets voice recognition very wrong. I think the brain stoppage to train stoppage was a good example but I also think English has a lot more homophones we could play with for this joke to land and it's just all about trying them all and see what lands harder.

Maybe chika could have said " I could not be more straightforward with my train of thought". And maybe that leads him to searching for the meaning.

He guys, remember translation notes?

As a non Japanese speaker, I think I get it within the original context, considering the guy having 18 int and 3 wisdom in dnd terms. This is a turnaround from her unusual behavior to a misunderstanding of shirogone to a misunderstanding of the phone of him. Multilayered punnery

So it is a Shin-chan moment, something that English speakers won't get. So best we can do is something equally as confusing that English speakers won't get. Seems bout right, these things happen and from the other things I have seen/read, it could be worse so feh~

Derp

I love that you include the Koe no Katachi example, because that is my go-to one for explaining this topic. Personally, i think the best way to handle situations like this is to just be honest with the audience and either use a TL note or just keep it in japanese even if it feels awkward (as in, have chika say futsuu). Even the show’s official English title kept the honorific. Part of the fun of engaging with foreign media is encountering differences in culture and language, and finding these untranslatable situations just adds to the experience, in my opinion.

the fact that in this video alone you brought five alternatives to the original dub from a couple of different people(far more better suited if I may add) tells me it all came down to a really bad job on part of the translator. I myself am part of a translation team from japanese and we happen to come across a lot of cases like this and we hold meetings sometimes spending couple of hours on a single pun or line and how to translate it and although I don't know the translator something tells me there weren't more than one set of eyes on the translation and that's a shame since "official translation" has a bad rep already without instances like this.

I love Kaguya dub it goes absolutely buck wild

Here’s my idea: ‘Of course I have to cover my belly button so it doesn’t get stolen! What, did your train of thought stop just now!?’ ‘Train of thought stopped? Why that specific metaphor. WHAT!? ALL TRAINS HAVE STOPPED FROM THE STORM!?’

There’s a modern fansub for Kaguya-sama? Interesting

I don't think the thunder god one really needs an explanation for western audiences, because it could just be something silly and quirky that fits Chika's character, and since this is a comedy, could just be a one-off gag.

I hate it when dubs don't translate on-screen Japanese. This happens quite often like a character will get an urgent/important message which triggers x scene and this and that. But it's not translated so your just left wondering what the fuck did that message say.

Japanise misteries are unbeatable to me. All of them depend on kanji for some reason.

hmmmmmmmmmmmm mom

At least half the jokes in Gintama don't make any sense if you're not very familiar with Japanese pop culture or language.

MHA

Imagine watching dub