Why does nobody mention how often anime subs get character names wrong

I was watching a new season of One Piece last night and noticed the subtitles kept calling Zoro "Zolo" again. Looked it up and turns out it's been that way for years in the official translation because of some copyright thing with Zorro. But then I checked a fansub from a group I used to follow back in 2010 and they had it right. How do official releases still mess up basic names when random people online have been getting it straight for over a decade? Has anyone else caught other characters getting renamed weird in the official subs?

2 comments

2 Comments

tarar2711d ago

Man, the Zolo thing still gets me every time. I actually forgot and texted my friend "Zoro is killing it this arc" and they had no idea who I was talking about for a minute because of the sub. It's like the translators saw a vaguely similar sword-wielding name and just said "good enough, let's go with Zolo." I keep catching weird stuff in older subs too, like how in some early Naruto dubs they called it "Naruto" but then switched to "Naruto" halfway through like nobody would notice. I guess fansubbers have more time to actually watch the show and care about details, while official guys are probably just speedrunning it to meet a deadline.

the_wren10d ago

The Zolo thing is just laziness plain and simple. It's not like the name was some obscure reference nobody could figure out. They knew it was Zoro and just didn't care enough to check their work. Fansubbers get paid nothing and still manage to get it right every time. Official groups have budgets and teams and somehow mess up basic character names. That says everything about how much the official companies respect the audience honestly.