xena373•1mo agoMost Upvoted

Wasted $80 on a Blu-ray box set that had dubtitles instead of a real translation

Last year I picked up a collector's edition of a mecha show I love for $80 because the regular streaming version had weird translation choices. When I popped in the discs, the subtitles matched the English dub almost word for word instead of the original Japanese script. So characters were saying stuff that didn't match their lip flaps or the actual scene context. Has anyone else run into this "dubtitle" problem with physical releases?

3 comments

3 Comments

patriciap521mo ago

Honestly, I read about this exact thing happening with the Gundam: The Origin Blu-ray set. Some fans were saying the subtitles on the discs were just the English dub script pasted in, so characters like Char would say "I'm going to settle things" when the Japanese audio has him saying something totally different about revenge or whatever. It really sucks because you're paying extra for a proper translation and you get this lazy shortcut instead. I feel like the people making these releases think nobody will notice or care, but it totally ruins the experience if you're trying to watch it in Japanese.

-1

hollyg591mo ago

Wait they literally just copy pasted the dub script? That's wild.

hugo_bennett1mo ago

Ugh that's seriously frustrating. I got burned by something similar with the Fist of the North Star movie blu-ray where they clearly just had someone who didn't speak Japanese write the subs based on the dub. The main character literally says "You are already dead" in both versions but the whole emotional buildup gets lost in translation because the timing and tone don't match the Japanese voice acting at all. It feels like a betrayal when you spend good money expecting a faithful product.