#Anyway the way Zombieman speaks is adorable please don't make him annoying in English??? X_D

[byebyedonewitheverythingbye]

Fan-traslations of Zombieman’s speech goes “too American”?

I’m only writing this post because some people were super annoyed at the way Zombieman was fantranslated and they were wondering where this all came from, if the fan-translators were taking LOTS of liberties or what.

First of all: most manga/anime fans depend on fan-translations and seriously these people are amazing for providing this service. In many cases, they are better than official translations, too. Take into consideration as well that translating and localising goes hand in hand... and it’s very difficult sometimes, because of linguistic and cultural circumstances.

That said: Zombieman does have a “particular” speech pattern in Japanese, HOWEVER making him sound like some ridiculous Californian "too punk and cool for life” cop from a 60s movie in the fantranslations was not the best way to go about it, and yes I also find it makes him sound really obnoxious. To be fair, the way I see it in Japanese, he IS supposed to sound like a parody of a hard boiled agent-ish guy although it’s precisely because he’s also somewhat “gentle” -or rather, considerate- for a tough guy that he chooses euphemisms over more exact but “violent” or “disgusting” terms when he refers to things such as “execution”.

I don’t know how up to date with the webcomic the manga fantranslators are, but let me tell you Zombieman just NEVER SHUTS UP during the Monsters Association arc, so it’s not like you only have the latest manga chapter to catch on Zombieman’s speech pattern and quirks. He’s got a lil “accent” too, if you listen to the drama CDs... localisation work is always tricky and it’s difficult to transfer the way he talks to a language like English but seriously you don’t need to have him say Yo’ and Ya’ every two lines either.

And yes obviously I’m super interested in him which is the reason why it’s easy for me to put together all this info to discuss a better way to “localise” the way he speaks,  but I’m still really surprised that, somehow, 2 of the fantranslations I saw around today managed to make him sound like your typical American asshole who can barely talk, instead of sweet but rough and silly with his overuse of cops’ anime terminology and incessant inner monologue. Like I said, it seems clear to me he’s supposed to sound like a City Hunter or Detective Conan character parody (much like Child Emperor actually) but my god there is quite the stretch from that to “annoying stupid overacted presumptuous American cop with annoying accent”. The guy talks in a way that could put babies to sleep and you make it sound more obnoxious than Tatsumaki lmao way to go.

 I shouldn’t be surprised though? This comes from the same people who somehow “translated” Senkou no Flash to “Lightspeed Flash” and then there is actually insulting and degrading stuff like *translating* Okamaitachi to “Sheman” and fans who defend that “translation” even after being told why it’s so so so WRONG AND DAMAGING.

So yeah, always remember that you must take everything with a grain of salt in these cases. Fantraslations are just that: fantranslations.

#Anyway the way Zombieman speaks is adorable please don't make him annoying in English??? X_D #zombieman #one punch man #this been another pointless essay by yours truly #opm reference #zombie man #opm