Archived Discussion Main / DubInducedPlotHole

This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.

Working Title: Rename Errors Through Localization: From YKTTW

Ethereal Mutation: This is a good title. It says exactly what it means and can be used in a sentence. Only issue is that there is a broader spectrum of other types of translation attracting plot holes through minor changes, but this works in the sense that it's mostly dubbed works that attract this sort of thing.

Rebochan: Right, I'm confused. The YKTTW shows a consensus to go back to the old name and use this a redirect and that was the decision proposed...the exact opposite has happened. I mean this name is a good compromise because it actually suggests what the original trope was in the first place, but if it's happening for the same reason the original conflict happened at all, it's still a problem.

Bein Sane: Eh, I figured it wasn't worth it to open up that can of worms again.

Rebochan: Ugh...but I understand your headache. The current title is not a pile of suck. That is enough for me.

* The English dub of the first Tenchi Muyo OVA series misidentified Tenchi's dead mother as his grandmother when she appeared in a flashback. This led to confusion, as Tenchi's issues about his mother's death became more important. And some fans became really confused when Airi introduced herself as Tenchi's grandmother mother's mother in Tenchi Muyo! GXP.
** In fact the mother/grandmother confusion was not a dub error, but was in the original Japanese: in the episode 5 flashback, young Tenchi called her “baa-chan” (grandmother). There have been persistent claims that he really said “kaa-chan”, a possible form of “mother”, but careful listening reveals that this is definitely not so. Fans are still awaiting a satisfactory explanation.
** The original show had its own name trip up, as we didn't learn the given name of Tenchi's mother until well after hearing the same name given to a novel character for the TV series.

* Haruhi Suzumiya, before her Important Haircut, ties her hair with bows of colors corresponding to the Japanese names of the weekdays. In the dub, these colors become a complete non-sequitur when she lists them, apparently pulling these colors from nowhere (which isn't exactly out of character).
** This is actually part of a more general pattern where the dub was a very direct translation that often chose to be vaguely Japanese rather than adapt references and events to American culture. For example, Golden Week was maintained as-is.
* The Slayers has a scene where Lina Inverse appears with a whip saying "Call me Queen..." and commenting that she doesn't need to explain every stupid gag. This is not a generic bondage joke, but a reference to the character Tira Misu in Sorcerer Hunters; in Japan, both characters were voiced by Megumi Hayashibara. In the dub they have different voice actresses (Tira: Tamara Lo, Lina: Lisa Ortiz), making the joke meaningless.
** Mind, that Breaking the Fourth Wall is actually a pretty funny way of getting around an untranslatable joke.
* A similar case about a Sailor Moon parody was lampshaded in the dub of Excel Saga, which changed Excel's (whose Japanese VA was Sailor Moon) line from "Well that was a long time ago!" to "No fair! I wanted that part, but it was dubbed in Canada!" They also averted this in another Actor Allusion where Hyatt suddenly started talking like another character her Japanese VA did, which the dub just changed to a different character her English voice did.
* In a bit of an Averted Trope, many of the jokes in Lucky Star that relied purely on the fact that the main character was also played by the voice actress of the character's favourite anime icon, Suzumiya Haruhi (of Suzumiya Haruhi No Yuutsu fame) have been kept for the English Dub, because the same English Voice Actress is also playing the two. A few other jokes still don't make any sense, though. (References to other characters or by different voice actors, for instance...)
** They also have voiced by the same guy that voiced Taniguchi as Minoru.
** To be more exact, thanks to this episode 16 has every single meta-joke intact. Konata cosplaying as Haruhi, A Kyon lookalike ordering soup from a Nagato waitress (including their Next Episode banter as well), and even the small song that Minoru hums at the end of Lucky channel being the same one hummed in Suzumiya (specifically the one Taniguchi hums when he bumps into Kyon and Nagato).

• Voltron is a very rare case where changing something in the dub actually works in the dubbers' favor. The character Sven dies a few episodes into the series — in the Japanese version. In the US version, this was censored into him getting "badly injured" and having to leave the Five-Man Band to heal. Over in Japan, his character's death caused such an uproar that the writers clumsily re-inserted him by having his (identical) cousin join for an episode. All the dubbers had to do was claim the original Sven had at last recovered.
  • I very much doubt that is true. I would think it was always planned that way and given the fact that both Ideon and Gundam (both of which had significantly more deaths than this series in terms of main characters not to mention countless other series that had occured prior to this as well) had aired prior to this series I would think the fans would be used to it by that point.