#french dub is hilariously bad historically like they censored a lot of stuff and City Hunter became a meme

[randomnameless]

To that anon about sub and dub :

I’m sorry I accidently deleted your ask (:’( )

Short story long story, I prefer sub because FR dub isn’t up to par, i can only remember RD and cry (and in a way, for people who don’t use english as their maternal language, US!Dub is also some kind of sub?)

Also I feel like sub - which is a translation - allows you to understand the meaning by reading, but having a better understanding or feel about the characters hearing them. Like I know shonen protagonist with a gratting/childish voice is annoying, but when he suddenly becomes serious you know something big is going to happen or happened. Protag stopped being the carefree doofus. But if the dubbed version gives the protag a more serious voice since the beginning, you won’t be able to make him “more serious” to show shit hit the fan. Or it would have less impact.

I wanted to illustrate with FE16 since the datamine is now fully voiced but, hey, I noticed the script, even for small things like support or battle quotes, has been altered in the localisation so of course the dub feels different, they’re not talking about the same thing !

Like, lizard wise : 

When Flayn disappears, localised!Rhea’s goes :

I think of your...sister as family as well. You know that. 

Leigh!Rhea marks a very very small pause between “your” “sister” and “as”.

JP!Rhea?

あなたの大切な……妹は、私にとっても かけがえのない家族のようなもの……

which gives, with google translate some sort of : “your precious sister... is like an irreplaceable family to me too...”

Inoue!Rhea marks a defined pause between “precious” and “sister”.

From JP!Rhea, I get that she casts more shade on the “sister” bullshit but she’s also more emotional and calls Flayn irreplaceable. She shares his grief. Localised!Rhea added a “you know that” which wasn’t in the og script and I don’t feel like it’s supposed to add or translate something ? (but then i only use GT as my translator so...). 

When Seteth tells Cyril he’s totally not like Rhea’s family nope not at all :

Localised!Seteth goes :

But she and I are actually very old friends. In fact, we think of one another almost like family.

Whitten!Seteth doesn’t pause (save at the end of the sentence) at all and delivers in a straight... line.

Jp!Seteth script goes :

だが本来、レアと私は同志…… いや、家族のような間柄なのだよ

GT : But at the origin, Rhea and I are comrades ...... No, we're like family

There’s that gap marked with the “....” which isn’t present in the localised script.

Koyasu!Seteth adds another pause after the “no” (comma?) when Whitten!Seteth, who also has the comma, gets a much shorter pause.

I feel like Jp!Seteth delivered the usual bullshit he had to learn when someone would ask him why he is so close to Rhea, but then, he reconsidered while still being careful, marked by his pauses. 

He trusts Cyril with this info (not with the full beans though, they’re still “like” family). Interesting enough, maybe it’s only because this convo happens in their B support, but Seteth pulls the “comrades” card with Catherine, without revealing, like he does to Cyril, that they’re closer than that.

Localised!Seteth feels like he adds a precision to what he said earlier when Jp!Seteth’s like checking right and left and up and down to see if anyone isn’t spying on them to reveal what was obvious since the beginning.

Also useless tidbit, but the localised script went with “ I am, of course, Rhea's servant. So, in a more formal context, I must maintain a deferential distance “ to translate the jp “ かつての私は、レアに仕える者として 立場を弁えた言動を取る必要があった”  which, google translated, means “ In the past, I had to speak and act as a servant of Rhea” - suggesting that there used to be a period where he didn’t have to act or speak as a servant of his younger sister! 

It blows me away that this important (one day i will stop kidding myself) tidbit was erased!

Anyways, it’s not a case of difference between voice actors here because I can’t reproach to Whitten!Seteth to feel different from Koyasu!Seteth since they don’t even have the same script to begin with...

OTOH, Rhea remembering Willy in CF is more or less the same thing (per google translate, as always) in the localised or the og version :

Localised!Rhea goes :

He saved me. Supported me. Gave his all to the cause of defeating Nemesis.

That I should find myself here at Tailtean, striking down his scion... 

Even if it’s not marked with “...” like the above lines about Flayn, Leigh!Rhea makes a pause between “Supported me” and “Gave his all”.

Jp!Rhea goes :

私を助け、支えてくれました。 ネメシスの討滅に尽力してくれたのですよ。

その裔を、このタルティーンの野で 我が手にかけるとは……。

Translated with the bestest tool ever goes :

Helped and supported me. He was instrumental in eradicating Nemesis.

To get that seed in my hands in this Tarteen field ...

I’m sure a more accurate translation would be “scion” and not “seed” rhea isn’t recalling her kinky days during this battle

So it’s roughly the same stuff, there’s no hidden intel like Seteth’s backstory with Rhea or something. However, Inoue!Rhea marks a longer pause between “supported me” and “he was instrumental”. Inoue!Rhea catches her breath during that pause, something Leigh!Rhea doesn’t. 

When Leigh!Rhea delivers her “ That I should find myself here at Tailtean, striking down his scion” in a monotone voice (still a small pause after tailtean with the comma), Inoue!Rhea catches her breath again between uh, what was translated as “that seed” (again thanks to the comma), after the “tailtean plains” (no comma here!) and the rest ; at the end of the sentence her tone breaks.

IMO, with Leigh!Rhea’s performance you get that she remembers Wilhelm as Edel’s ancestor who helped her, but now she has to end Wilhelm’s descendant. It’s a sad twist of irony but I supposed she’d be “it’s regrettable, but oh well.” Leigh!Rhea’s sad but will live over this.

Inoue!Rhea remembers more fondly Wilhelm (longer pause?) and catches her breath several times, maybe to focus but it fails because her voice cracks at the end - Inoue!Rhea isn’t only sad or inconvenienced, she’s legit upset and shaken (maybe she’d apologise to wilhelm’s memory or the golem after the fight?).

I know the general meaning is the same “Rhea faces Edel and is saddened by having to kill her first friend’s descendant” but the tone is different. Even if the Google Translate Sub gave me random handjobs, comparing Inoue!Rhea’s tone to the dubbed Leigh!Rhea’s tone was worth it.

As one of my old uni teachers said, if you want to write about something, check the primary source. If you can’t, learn the language. And if you can’t learn, don’t write.

Google translate is a far cry, i know, from a professional translation, but I’m not writing an academic paper and I still have enough material to look at the secondary sources and spot the differences in interpretations.