Traduttore, Traditore

That means 'translator, traitor' in Italian. Today I thought I'd talk about linguistics: specifially, translation conventions for Japanese, as they apply to manga and anime.

First, it's one thing to leave the honorifics—"-san" and "-kun" convey information about a relationship that you need paragraphs of English to get across. But it is not necessary to leave "okâsan" untranslated—that's "mom", folks.

Now, there is something of an exception for people who talk weird, people like Kenshin or Armstrong. Basically, there's so much happening in Japanese that you pretty much need to use multiple dialects of English to cover it.

For instance, people who talk like Armstrong, or for that matter Teika in Kyouran Kazoku Nikki: there's not really any need, nor is there really a way, to properly render their "wagahai" and "de aru"; Armstrong, especially, chews enough scenery to adequately convey his (endearing) pomposity. But Teika's "haha-ue-dono" does need to be rendered, I feel, because most people don't call their mother "Lady Honored Mother". Fortunately, in subtitles that don't have to match lip-flap, the English (who've historically been just as oligarchical as the Edo period) have given us the answer. Plainly, Teika is calling Kyouka "mater"—tell me he isn't a Public School man through and through (whelps of the lion and all that rot...). In general, their style of speech can be adequately conveyed by having them talk like Edwardian toffs whose parents dropped them off at Eton when they were 13 and picked them up at Oxford when they were 21—though both are cool enough that you might want to throw in a dash of mid-Victorian gunnery sergeant, to keep them dignified. On the other hand, you might try having them talk like Virginia gentry, à la Robert E. Lee—there's a similar vibe there.

One thing that makes me apoplectic is Osaka dialect. For some bizarre reason, translated manga often renders it by (what they take for) Brooklyn (it's usually closer to Jersey, but whatever), while dubbed anime renders it by various Southern things, or grotesque approximations thereof. It's not always bad; the dub of Mahô Shôtengai Abenobashi turned out pretty good. But then there's the various "southern" accents in Kenshin, made all the more inexcusable by the fact Funimation is based in Texas.

Personally, I'd render Kansai accents by British. Kyoto can be Estuary shading into Received Pronunciation, depending on the class of the speaker (tell me those ancient clans who run everything in manga don't speak perfect RP), while Kobe (with all its yakuza) can be a scary sort of Cockney (think Snatch). As for Osaka? Normal Cockney. See, Osaka is more Cockney than Southern, because though both have an "unsophisticated" image, Osaka is still urban—and Osakans aren't laid back enough for a southern drawl (the Osaka is, but she's a deliberate subversion of the stereotype). Also, unlike the New York accent, Cockney has a very strong association with comedy—like Osaka. Is it too weird to render comedians' godawful fake Osaka accents as music-hall Cockney?

Another thing that'd be better conveyed by British dialects is humble speech. Kenshin, for instance, talks like a samurai. Rather than clumsily ending every sentence with "that it is", or, worse, not translating the "de gozaru", plainly, make him talk like Jeeves.

And it almost maps one-to-one. When he talks like a samurai, it'd be this (imagine Stephen Fry):

There are times, I fear, that despite one's best efforts one fails to convey one's meaning to one's young charges.

And then, when he switches to talking like a (Kansai-accented) thug, when he goes back to battôsai mode (imagine Jason Statham):

If any of you are lookin' to die, 'ere I am.

It occurs to me that Tokyo accents (which are often rendered by New York accents, if Kansai is southern) could be Midwestern. Don't look at me like that; think about it. The standard Japanese that's basically simplified Tokyo dialect, is Broadcaster American, which is a similarly sanitized Midwestern variety. But that more colloquial, rolls-its-Rs accent? Working class Chicago.