History Main / TooLongDidntDub

* A series of strips on dubbing in ''Les Dingodossiers'', by Marcel Gotlib and Rene Goscinny, pokes fun at this. One scene features a man being served dinner, speaking a gibberish language where "Zklowtchug propoko matinkeljournalflotcknovschmovkapop wrtchykolpski" means "Goose!" and "Awoh" means "Chocolate cake covered in whipped cream and stuffed with green olives". The translators have to get clever and the dubbed sequence reads "I'm sure that after this goose, I will have a chocolate cake covered in whipped cream and stuffed with green olives!", then "Indeed!"

* Quite a few European languages use the English term "Big Bang" to refer to the event, even though it can be easily translated. This is possibly because the term was originally meant to sound kind of ridiculous, having been coined by Fred Hoyle, who opposed the theory (but denies meaning to sound pejorative). Languages that don't do this usually translate the term to something along the lines of "initial explosion", such as the German "Urknall," which nicely mirrors "Ursuppe" (primordial soup) and "Urmensch" (ancient human). But German has the advantage of the "Ur-" prefix, which is itself untranslatable into English, hence why Wiki/ThisVeryWiki uses the phrase "UrExample."

* Monokuma remains Monokuma in[[Creator/NipponIchi NIS America's]] official translation of ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc'', instead of using the fan preferred-and used in the first translation-Monobear ("kuma" translating literally to "bear"). This was [[ExecutiveMeddling at the request]] of Creator/SpikeChunsoft, since it's also a pun on "monochrome".

* The Latin America Spanish dub of ''Film/DragonBlade'', just like the case with ''Manga/ThermaeRomae'' in Anime & Manga, keeps the Roman names untranslated from Latin, despite having valid translations, since most of them are from historical figures from ancient Rome. On the other hand, the subbed version ''does'' translate the names, oddly enough.

* TV-Nihon, already infamous for its anime subbing, is arguably worse when translating Toku shows. Their bad habits of not translating despite being translators, are at the forefront here. They vastly expanded their definition of "untranslatable," and sometimes they wouldn't even provide a ''good'' translation in their "translator's notes." Other times, they would only put translator's notes up for the first couple of times a term appears, expecting you to learn it and remember it--even between shows. If there was a term they thought every toku fan should know like "gattai" or "hissatsu," they would ''never'' translate it. They seemed to think of translation not as a way of getting Japanese media to English speakers, but rather weeding out the English speakers worthy of watching it. Their toku subbing has been so reviled that it's led to the formation of "scrubbers"[[note]]people who take TV-N's releases, remove ("scrub") the subtitles while retaining the high-quality raw footage, then re-sub it with their own translation[[/note]] who essentially re-translate the work, and even [[CreateYourOwnVillain rival fansub groups]].

** ''[[Series/JukenSentaiGekiranger Gekiranger]]'' becomes very hard to follow because of this trope. Some important things are discussed only in untranslated Japanese terms, and what is and isn't translated is pretty much random.

*** ''Gekiranger'' is a Chinese-influenced Sentai, so there are a lot of obviously Japan-ified Chinese terms. Despite how strange they sound, TV-Nihon refuses to translate them, which leads to episode titles like ''[[http://31.media.tumblr.com/0540eb0c86eae73550b57032f81e8309/tumblr_mnw6g1E7lP1s4ltl4o1_1280.png Gowagowan no Daindain: JyuKen KyoJin, kenzan!]]'' And no, that is ''not'' the longest string of totally untranslated Japanese in a TV-N sub.

** TV-Nihon has a very bad habit of not translating UsefulNotes/JapaneseSiblingTerminology, which has a whole host of problems (as described in Anime above).

*** A similar problem in ''Series/EngineSentaiGoOnger'' led to the character Hant being called "Hanto," despite "Hant" being clearly written on the jacket he wears in every episode.
*** ''Series/KamenRiderFourze'' has the opposite problem: the main characters' secret moon base has labels on the walls reading "Rabbit Hatch," which is the name TV-N uses. Apparently the translators had never heard of a rabbit ''hutch''. This is the kind of thing that could logically be corrected in translation, but wasn't.

** In ''Series/KamenRiderGaim'' and ''Series/KamenRiderGhost'', pretty much all the Lockseeds and Ghost Driver's announcements that aren't in English are left untranslated.

* On toku shows in general, pretty much every translation uses the terms "Super Sentai" or "Kamen Rider", even though they could easily be rendered "Super Squadron[=/=]Taskforce" or "Masked Rider", respectively. Part of it is brand name recognition (and in the case of ''Kamen Rider'', it also avoids association with ''Series/MaskedRider'', the [[{{Macekre}} much-hated]] first attempt at an American adaptation). There are a few other words which are often, although not always, left untranslated on account of being either iconic, such as the Kamen Rider's transformation cry of "henshin", or completely unique, such as ''{{youkai}}'', but these are starting to go out of fashion. Oddly enough, the ''Japanese'' version will sometimes translate words into English that the subtitles do not; "Masked Rider" appears frequently in writing though [[InconsistentDub with no real pattern]].

** The Sacred Scriptures Bethel Edition translation of Literature/TheBible does this deliberately, refusing to translate [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacred_Scriptures_Bethel_Edition#Quotations a number of words from the original]] and even rendering God's name as "Yahweh".

** "Allah" is simply the Arabic word for {{God}} - with a capital G, constructed from "al-", a prefix used to make words definitive (e.g. "al-Asad", the lion), and "ilah", the Arabic word for deity. It is perfectly translatable in English and other languages, but most Muslims, regardless of ethnicity and language, use it in everyday speech to call the all-powerful, monotheistic God, while appropriating their language equivalent of the term as a junior synonym. Sanctity is the usual reason posited for its usage, but scholarly studies often leave it intact to prevent confusion (the phrase "There is no god but God" makes more sense in Arabic, basically stating that you believe in the inherent oneness of God). As it is technically an ethnic word, the usage is not restricted to Islam; Arabic-speaking Christians and Jews also call their God "Allah" since possibly centuries before the dawn of Islam.

* Since April 2014, foreign translations of Creator/GamesWorkshop products stopped translating the names of factions and units in other languages, leaving them in English. For the first two years, ''TabletopGame/WarhammerAgeOfSigmar'' left untranslated multiple keywords (such as Hero, Wizard, Monster and the names of the Grand Alliances), all the statline terms (such as Wounds, Save, Bravery, Movement and Rend) and even all the weapons names, but this was rectified in 2018 with the release of the second edition rulebook. Later subverted, as in late 2020 the release of the 9th edition of ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' featured the return of translated names, and ''Age of Sigmar'' followed suit one year later with its 3rd edition.

*** While not technically official translations, ''all'' the Western fan-covers of the main song ''Suteki da ne'' keeps the Japanese name in the lyrics, maybe because it's impossible to translated it without screwing with the tempo and lip-synch of the song. On the other hand, the official Korean version of the song did translate the phrase in Korean, mostly because, at least at the time the game was released in South Korea, [[EnforcedTrope it wasn't allowed to include Japanese lyrics in a Korean song]].

** Similar to above, in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' all of the Samurai attack names are left in Japanese for stylistic reasons, though this has a consequence of making the mouthfuls (their "Midare Setsugekka" skill is the longest attack name in the game) or confusing (all of their spells that spend Kenki start with "Hissatsu" before leading on). This is a pragmatic carry-over of the Japanese version, where the attacks are in kanji while the rest of the skill names are in katakana.

* ''VideoGame/BlazBlueCrossTagBattle'' is a bizarre example due to the inclusion of the characters from ''VideoGame/Persona4'' and also overlapping with InconsistentDub: Due to very likely Creator/{{Atlus}}'s ExecutiveMeddling, the game was forced to respect their speech idiosyncrasies of each one of the characters from that game, up to leaving the Japanese honorifics intact, while the rest of the other franchises that appear in the game, due to their respective corporate policies regarding translations from Japanese to English, either translate the honorifics or aren't included at all, making some character interactions really awkward, especially in the English dub. One of the most egregious examples involve [[VideoGame/SenranKagura Yumi]], a character which is a declared YamatoNadeshiko, her honorific speech is translated to English, compared with the rest of the characters from that franchise, which does not. Keep in mind both characters are supposed to be speaking in Japanese in-universe:

[[caption-width-right:330:Yeah... WhatHeSaid.[[note]]Ryuketsu or "dragon holes" is a feng shui term referring to a geographical location where spiritual energy (or ''qi'') converges[[/note]]]]

** ''VideoGame/MegaManX6'' barely translated any of their boss names, which leaves amusing names such as Infinity Mijinion (from ''mijinko'', or water flea) and Commander Yammark (from ''yanma'', a type of Japanese dragonfly). They were, however, able to come up with [[AwesomeMcCoolname Blaze Heatnix and Blizzard Wolfang]].

* Monokuma remains Monokuma in both the FanTranslation and [[Creator/NipponIchi NIS America's]] official translation of ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc'', instead of becoming something like "Monobear" ("kuma" translating literally to "bear"). In the latter case, this was [[ExecutiveMeddling at the request]] of Creator/SpikeChunsoft, since it's also a pun on "monochrome". The fan translation also left Hope's Peak Academy as Kibougamine Academy.

-->'''Fansub''': [[PrecisionFStrike Fuck you]], Sasuke! Ore[[labelnote:Translator's Note]]Ore = I[[/labelnote]] am [[SirSwearsalot fucking]] sick of your [[SpiceUpTheSubtitles fucking]] attitude! You are my [[TrueCompanions nakama]],[[labelnote:Translator's Note]]nakama is a word that means your closest friend like in Manga/OnePiece and there really is no English equivalent to how powerful that word is so we have decided to keep it as nakama[[/labelnote]] and nothing will [[OverlyLongGag fucking]] change that you [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment fucking]] bitch!

-->'''Fansub''': [[PrecisionFStrike Fuck you]], Sasuke! Ore[[labelnote:Translator's Note]]Ore = I[[/labelnote]] am [[SirSwearsalot fucking]] sick of your [[SpiceUpTheSubtitles fucking]] attitude! You are my [[TrueCompanions nakama]][[labelnote:Translator's Note]]nakama is a word that means your closest friend like in Manga/OnePiece and there really is no English equivalent to how powerful that word is so we have decided to keep it as nakama[[/labelnote]], and nothing will [[OverlyLongGag fucking]] change that you [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment fucking]] bitch!

* The video "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KF76tyWIA98 Steamed Hams but its a 90's Anime Fansub]]" parodies the low quality of fansubs, including leaving words untranslated and [[GratuitousJapanese inserting "desu"]] into several lines.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'': In the Latin American Spanish dub of the short "I'm Mad", Wakko's line "Gotta use the potty, better stop the car!" is translated into "Tengo que ir al baño para la potty"[[note]] "I gotta get to a bathroom soon to use the potty!"[[/note]]. This is justified, as the Spanish word for "potty", "orinal", also happens to be the word for "urinal".

* In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'', Volgin's "Kuwabara, kuwabara" CatchPhrase was an obscure mythology reference which Japanese gamers would have picked up on immediately, but which went straight over the heads of Western gamers. [[note]]Specifically, it comes from an old legend where a vengeful spirit killed a man with lightning. The spirit owned the land of Kuwabara, and so the phrase is essentially saying "Hey, I'm one of your subjects, please don't shoot me with lightning"--it's a stock phrase whenever it seems like storms are coming. [[spoiler:No points for guessing how Volgin ultimately dies.]][[/note]] Annoyingly, the game retained conversations where Snake would radio back to base to ask about the significance of the names "ADAM" and "EVA", which Western gamers picked up on immediately but Japanese gamers would require an explanation for. This could be chalked up to the localizers being afraid to take many liberties with the original Japanese text.

* The Latin America Spanish dub of ''Film/DragonBlade'', just like the case with ''Manga/ThermaeRomae'' above, keeps the Roman names untranslated from Latin, despite having valid translations, since most of them are from historical figures from Roman story. On the other hand, the subbed version ''does'' translated the names, oddly enough.

*** In the original, some of the Core Medal animal names are in English, and some are in Japanese. That was good enough for TV-N, who would leave any subsequent mention of an animal in Japanese unless it's got a Core Medal named for it in English. Translator's notes are few and far between. In one scene, Eiji mistakes the Candroids for [[WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes snakes]], only for Goto to correct him by pointing out that they're actually "unagi". If you don't know what that means, good luck; they didn't put this in a note either. [[spoiler: It means eel.]] The strange thing is that it's not even something you'd be familiar with by watching a lot of anime or toku (although you might if you like Japanese food). At least the form names are mashups of the medals they consist of.

** In ''Series/KamenRiderFourze'', they refuse to fully translate Gentaro's CatchPhrase, subbing "Uchuu kitaaaaaa!" as "Space kitaaaaaa!" instead. It's hard to translate because it's very flexible; depending on context, it can mean "Space time!", "Space is here!", or "Space is awesome!" But while different fansubbers have different translations, they at least ''try'' to translate it. TV-Nihon not only refused to, they would also refuse to translate ''any'' subsequent appearance of the word "kita", no matter where it is, even when they're not homaging ''Fourze''. It's like a "secret club" mentality, only using Japanese words instead of in-jokes. The worst part, is that "uchuu kitaa" isn't even a unique made-up phrase, it's just '''two normal Japanese words''' and thus should have been fully translated.
** In ''Series/KamenRiderGaim'' and ''Series/KamenRiderGhost'', pretty much all the Lockseeds and Ghost Driver's announcements, that are not in English, are left untranslated.

** ''Series/KamenRiderZiO'' finally has a fairly straightforward translation job, save for a few terms still being left untranslated. In particular, sibling terminology is translated more often. Except, being a massive crossover thing, whenever something from a prior series that was left untranslated is said, it's also untranslated in ''Zi-o''; ''Den-O'''s "ore sanjou" and Fourze's "Space kita", for example.
* On toku shows in general, pretty much every translation uses the terms "Super Sentai" or "Kamen Rider", even though they could easily be rendered "Super Squadron[=/=]Taskforce" or "Masked Rider", respectively. Part of it is brand name recognition (and in the case of ''Kamen Rider'', it also avoids association with ''Series/MaskedRider'', the [[{{Macekre}} much-hated]] first attempt at an American adaptation). There are a few other words which are often, although not always, left untranslated on account of being either iconic, such as the Kamen Rider's transformation cry of "henshin", or completely unique, such as ''{{youkai}}'', but these are starting to go out of fashion. Oddly enough, the ''Japanese'' version will sometimes translate words into English that the subtitles do not; "Masked Rider" appears frequently in writing though [[InconsistentDub with no real pattern.]]

* A European Spanish fansub of the Korean TV series ''Series/{{Poseidon}}'' has a strange one, where they leave the phrase "plea bargaining" untranslated from English with a translator's note. Plea bargaining has a perfectly serviceable Spanish translation ("negociar los cargos").

* This is common in translations of philosophy works. The subtleties of a word in one language might be lost if the closest equivalent in another language is used. In this case, it may be better just not to translate it and define it a footnote. This practice is well-executed, though, and it's led to a number of loanwords being adopted by another language. This is how English got the word "angst", for instance -- or, for that matter, "philosophy".

** UsefulNotes/FriedrichNietzsche did this with the French word "ressentiment", for which he couldn't find a German word that adequately expressed the concept as he understood it. The English use the word "resentment" (having derived it from the French), but English translations of Nietzsche's work still use the word "ressentiment".

* It's also common in scientific works. In some instances, one language has a much better term than another. In others, scientists will prefer to leave terms in English -- even if it's not their native language and there's a perfectly serviceable translation -- to ensure that any reader around the world will get the same idea. Many researchers just give up and write the whole thing in English anyway.
* Quite a few European languages use the English term "Big Bang" to refer to the event, even though it can be easily translated. This is possibly because the term was originally meant to sound kind of ridiculous, having been coined by Fred Hoyle, who opposed the theory (but denies meaning to sound pejorative). Languages that don't do this usually translate the term to something along the lines of "initial explosion", such as the German "Urknall", which nicely mirrors "Ursuppe" (primordial soup) and "Urmensch" (ancient human). But German has the advantage of the "Ur-" prefix, which is itself untranslatable into English, hence why Wiki/ThisVeryWiki uses the phrase "UrExample".
* Werner Heisenberg also preferred the English term "Uncertainty Principle", finding the original German lacking.

** '''A'a'' and ''pahoeho'' (Hawaiian) are, respectively, sharp, jagged lava and smooth lava. It's called "'a'a" [[AgonyOfTheFeet because that's what you say when you step on it.]]

* The five basic flavors are sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and ''umami''. ''Umami'' is a Japanese neologism that means "delicious taste", but contextually translates well as "savory". Despite this, it's left untranslated in food science and gastronomy in honor of its discoverer, Kikunae Ikeda, who invented the word. Like the other flavors, it is triggered by specific types of chemical - glutamates and nucleotides.

* The video "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KF76tyWIA98 Steamed Hams but its a 90's Anime Fansub]]" parodies the low quality of fansubs, including leaving words untranslated.

They also [[GratuitousJapanese leave in "desu"]] in several lines.

* Many English translations of French literature, such as ''Literature/LesMiserables'' and the works of Creator/AlexandreDumas leave in the ''monsieur/messieurs'', ''mademoiselle/mesdemoiselles'', and ''madame/mesdames'' (or at least their abbreviations), instead of translating them into Mr., Mrs., etc. It works well, because other honorifics, such as ''Monseigneur'' (which indicates particularly high status) don't translate effectively into English. \\
\\
The practice of leaving titles unaltered is common even in English-language works with foreign (especially French) characters: even if every other male character is called Mister, the Frenchman will be called Monsieur.

* The novella collection ''Wasabi for Breakfast'' by Foumiko Kometani leaves several Japanese expressions untranslated, and most of them are the kind that people who don't speak Japanese can't be expect to know. The dialogue tags give certain clues, but no actual translation is included anywhere in the book.

* TV-Nihon, already infamous for its anime subbing, is arguably worse when translating Toku shows. Their bad habits of not translating despite being translators, are at the forefront here. They vastly expanded their definition of "untranslatable", and sometimes they wouldn't even provide a ''good'' translation in their "translator's notes". Other times, they would only put translator's notes up for the first couple of times a term appears, expecting you to learn it and remember it -- even between shows. If there was a term they thought every toku fan should know like "gattai" or "hissatsu," they would ''never'' translate it. They seemed to think of translation not as a way of getting Japanese media to English speakers, but rather weeding out the English speakers worthy of watching it. Their toku subbing has been so reviled that it's led to the formation of "scrubbers"[[note]]people who take TV-N's releases, remove ("scrub") the subtitles while retaining the high-quality raw footage, then re-sub it with their own translation[[/note]] who essentially re-translate the work, and even [[CreateYourOwnVillain rival fansub groups]].
** ''Series/SamuraiSentaiShinkenger'' exemplified this when Takeru is [[TheReveal revealed]] to [[spoiler: be a decoy for the real head of the Shiba house and child of the previous Shinken Red, who was off perfecting the sealing technique.]] They refuse to describe it this way, instead insisting on the word [[spoiler:kagemusha]]. They define it by giving the literal translation of the two halves of the word -- which explains absolutely nothing -- along with a note that they made a movie by that name in TheSeventies and ''telling you to watch it'' to get the translation. You shouldn't have to do ''homework'' to get the sense of this reveal. Eventually, other dialogue gives you a better sense of what's going on, but this isn't how a dramatic reveal is supposed to work.

*** It has the same problem as ''Shinkenger'', but rather than failing to translate [[CallingYourAttacks attack names]], here they fail to translate the first part of the morph phrases, apparently because they rhyme. They value this fact over actually being able to understand what they're talking about.
*** ''Gekiranger'' is a Chinese-influenced Sentai, so there are a lot of obviously Japanified Chinese terms. Despite how strange they sound, TV-Nihon refuses to translate them, which leads to episode titles like ''[[http://31.media.tumblr.com/0540eb0c86eae73550b57032f81e8309/tumblr_mnw6g1E7lP1s4ltl4o1_1280.png Gowagowan no Daindain: JyuKen KyoJin, kenzan!]]'' And no, that is ''not'' the longest string of totally untranslated Japanese in a TV-N sub.
*** RaisedByWolves hero Jan's use of Japanese onomatopoeia (along the lines of HulkSpeak or BuffySpeak) was left untranslated, without any indication as to what it was. Viewers were left to believe he was just making up words.

*** Perhaps the worst is from ''Magiranger'', where one of the villians calling the Rangers idiots was rendered as "O-baka-chan-tachi". A close second is Natsuki referring to the Boukengers who'd been active before she and Masumi arrived as "Natsuki-tachi's great senpai-tachi."
*** In ''Series/KamenRiderDenO'', Ryotaro's sister runs a cafe and very cutely refers to the coffee beans as "coffee-tachi". This was left untranslated and has become the butt of many a joke.
--->"The coffee-tachi are doing their work!"
** ''Series/UchuuSentaiKyuranger'' has this weird case of TV-Nihon insisting on using the names they thought up as the translation, even after it is revealed they are wrong. One good example of this is insisting to use "Hame" even though her name have been revealed to be "Hamie". "Hame" isn't even close to how the characters (and Hamie herself!) pronounce her name, which clearly has an "i" vowel sound. Furthermore, all the Kyutama's names are left untranslated.
*** TV-Nihon also keeps translating "Say the Change" as "Seiza Change", even though this has been revealed to be wrong. As revealed in magazines (more than once!), the wrist changers are saying "Say the", ''as a pun'' of "Seiza" (constellation). Furthermore, with how the characters are announcing "Star Change!" afterwards, it was clearly meant to be "Say the", as in, the changers are asking the rangers to "say the changing phrase". It's like TV-Nihon thinks if it sounds Japanese, then it is a Japanese word, despite Japan being rather famous for their love of puns.

*** A similar problem in ''Series/EngineSentaiGoOnger'' led to the character Hant being called "Hanto", in spite of "Hant" being written on the jacket he wears in every episode.
*** ''Series/KamenRiderFourze'' has the opposite problem: the main characters' secret moon base has labels on the walls reading "Rabbit Hatch", which is the name TV-N uses. Apparently none of their members has never heard of a rabbit ''hutch''. This is the kind of thing that could logically be corrected in translation, but it isn't.
** In ''Series/KamenRiderDenO'', when protagonist Ryotaro unlocks his SuperMode, his allies press him to [[CallingYourAttacks name his finishing move]] -- while he's in the middle of performing it. Confused and pressed for time, he blurts out "Train Slash!" which everybody dismisses as terrible and spends the rest of the episode (and part of the next one) making fun of him for it. Except TV-Nihon rendered the name as "Densha Giri!", with no translation, not even a translator's note -- and thus, no hint whatsoever as to what's the characters find so funny/lame.
** Fans will usually let TV-Nihon get away with not translating ''Den-O'''s Momotaros' CatchPhrase, "Ore, sanjou!" It roughly means "I've arrived", in a very rough and badass way; as such, it's difficult to get the meaning across in English. The only problem is that it's only too awesome for English if you already knew what it meant. You've got to translate it at ''some'' point. Furthermore, TV-N would also describe something as "the opposite of sanjou" without ever explaining what a "sanjou" is to begin with. The English version of ''Kamen Rider: Climax Fighters'' translated it properly as ''I'm... finally... HERE!''

[[caption-width-right:330:Yeah... WhatHeSaid.[[note]] Also, they didn't translate Ryuketsu...[[/note]][[note]]Ryuketsu or "dragon holes" is a feng shui term referring to a geographical location where spiritual energy (or ''qi'') converges[[/note]]]]

* The original ''[[VideoGame/{{Metroid1}} Metroid]]'' had the "Maru Mari", whose literal translation was approximately "to make round". This made no sense, so they left it untranslated originally. Later versions called it the "Round Ball". Later ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'' games would give it its current commonly accepted name, the Morph Ball. The remake ''VideoGame/MetroidZeroMission'' also calls it the Morph Ball, but ports of the original don't change it.
* In the Japanese version of ''Franchise/{{Castlevania}}'', the whip-wielding skeletons were called "Shimon", a play on Simon Belmont's name which literally translates to "gates of death", which was what the enemy was called in the English manual of ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaIIIDraculasCurse''. In ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaHarmonyOfDissonance'', Shimon was called "Simon Wraith". It would eventually be translated to the equivalent pun in English: "Hellmont".

* In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3'', Volgin's "Kuwabara, kuwabara" CatchPhrase was an obscure mythology reference which Japanese gamers would have picked up on immediately, but which went straight over the heads of Western gamers.[[note]]Specifically, it comes from an old legend where a vengeful spirit killed a man with lightning. The spirit owned the land of Kuwabara, and so the phrase is essentially saying "Hey, I'm one of your subjects, please don't shoot me with lightning"--it's a stock phrase whenever it seems like storms are coming. [[spoiler:No points for guessing how Volgin ultimately dies.]][[/note]] Annoyingly, the game retained conversations where Snake would radio back to base to ask about the significance of the names "ADAM" and "EVA", which Western gamers picked up on immediately but Japanese gamers would require an explanation for. This could be chalked up to the localizers being afraid to take many liberties with the original Japanese text.
* [[VideoGame/OnimushaDawnOfDreams Kaijin No Soki]], in ''[[VideoGame/TatsunokoVsCapcom Tatsunoko vs. Capcom]]: [[UpdatedRerelease Ultimate All-Stars]]'', although previous promotional videos for ''VideoGame/TatsunokoVsCapcom: Cross Generation of Heroes'' had shown his name as Souki. Probably to avoid confusion with S'''a'''ki Omokane from ''Quiz Nanairo Dreams'', who is listed as just "Saki."

** The series as a whole has the Odin summon's attack, ''Zantetsuken'' ("iron-cutting sword"). Only ''FFVI'' and ''FFVII'' ever bothered to translate it ("[[SharpenedToASingleAtom Atom Edge]]" and "Steel Bladed Sword", respectively); it's been left alone in every other incarnation.
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'': Squall's ''Renzokuken'' (which roughly translates to "[[SpamAttack Continual Sword]]") is left in Japanese, which is kind of odd considering the amount of trouble the localizers went through to rename everything else in the game, and the world has no {{Wutai}} to HandWave the change in language. Stranger still, [[PreviewPiggybacking the demo disc included with]] ''VideoGame/BraveFencerMusashi'' actually ''did'' translate the name as "C. Sword".

** Similar to above, in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' all of the Samurai attack names are left in Japanese for stylistic reasons, though this has a consequence of making the mouthfuls (Their "Midare Setsugekka" skill is the longest attack name in the game) or confusing (All of their spells that spend Kenki start with "Hissatsu" before leading on). This is a pragmatic carry-over of the Japanese version, where the attacks are in Kanji while the rest of the skill names are in Katakana.
* ''VideoGame/DotHackGU'' has two untranslated attack names: ''Rengeki'' ("chain attack") and ''Hangeki'' ("counter-attack"). Even stranger, in Vol. 1's localized version, Haseo will yell out "Rengeki!" even when performing ''Hangeki'', causing further confusion.
* The localizations of the ''Franchise/{{Persona}}'' series, other than the infamous CulturalTranslation of the first game, leave most specific Japanese cultural references untranslated. ''VideoGame/{{Persona 3}}'', ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{Persona 5}}'' even keep the UsefulNotes/JapaneseHonorifics, albeit sometimes inconsistently. The main reason is that it gives the games a distinctly Japanese cultural flavor, particularly with its use of SenpaiKohai to illustrate the relationships between students. Conveniently, calling the player character "senpai" also allows the voice actors to avoid having to [[HelloInsertNameHere use his name]]. ''Persona 4'''s English manual included a brief glossary of Japanese cultural aspects that players might be unfamiliar with (such as several honorifics, differences in high school structure and schedule, etc.), but there is otherwise very little explanation in the games themselves.

** All of Zero's (or Layer's) moves were left untranslated starting in ''VideoGame/MegaManX4''. The only exceptions were the English localizations of ''VideoGame/MegaManX5'' and ''[[VideoGame/MegaManXCommandMission Command Mission]]''. This was probably because of RuleOfCool; it may also be in reference to the fact that Megaman's weapons were in English (though spelled out in [[UsefulNotes/JapaneseRomanization Romaji]]) in the original Japanese.

** In ''VideoGame/MegaManX1'', one of the bosses is named Boomer Kuwanger -- ''kuwagata'' means "stag beetle" in Japanese, befitting the boss's appearance and movements. [[{{Woolseyism}} But it sounds better this way]].
** ''VideoGame/MegaManX6'' barely translated any of their boss names, which leaves amusing names such as Infinity Mijinion (from ''mijinko'', or water flea) and Commander Yammark (from ''yanma'', a type of Japanese dragonfly). They were, however, able to come up with [[AwesomeMcCoolname Blaze Heatnix and Blizzard Wolfang]].

* Interestingly, technical limitations meant that {{Fan Translation}}s of older [=RPGs=] tend not to do this. This trope tends to expand the amount of text in the work, and where space is at a premium (especially with late-UsefulNotes/{{SNES}} era games such as ''VideoGame/TrialsOfMana''), it would be very inefficient to be adding honorifics and such everywhere. One of the most notorious exceptions was Chrono Compendium's translation of ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'', and it was actually quickly derided in the fan translation community for that.

-->'''Yumi''': You're... ask me on a date? Um... I'm flattered, '''Mr.''' Teddie, but I must decline.
-->'''Teddie''': Nooo! My poor little heart... But it's okay! I know you'll ask me out someday, Yumi-'''chan'''.
* ''VideoGame/SoulCaliburIV'' averts this with Maxi's ''Rising Dragon of the Zodiac'' Critical Finish. He ends up saying it so fast and unnaturally that it serves as a good example of why this practice or {{Woolseyism}} tends to be used in translation: because direct translations often result in {{Narm}}.
* ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}}'' makes an attempt to translate foreign names of the characters' moves in earlier games. They are less and less inclined to do this as times goes on, however. Jun Kazama's moves from ''Tekken Tag Tournament 2'', for example, are almost exclusively in Japanese.

* Since April 2014, foreign translations of Creator/Games Workshop products stopped translating the names of factions and units in other languages, leaving them in English. For the first two years, ''TabletopGame/WarhammerAgeOfSigmar'' left untranslated multiple keywords (such as Hero, Wizard, Monster and the names of the Grand Alliances), all the statline terms (such as Wounds, Save, Bravery, Movement and Rend) and even all the weapons names, but this was rectified in 2018 with the release of the second edition rulebook. Later subverted, as in late 2020 the release of the 9th edition of ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' featured the return of translated names, and ''Age of Sigmar'' followed suit one year later with its 3rd edition.

* Since April 2014, foreign translations of Games Workshop products stopped translating the names of factions and units in other languages, leaving them in English. For the first two years, ''TabletopGame/WarhammerAgeOfSigmar'' left untranslated multiple keywords (such as Hero, Wizard, Monster and the names of the Grand Alliances), all the statline terms (such as Wounds, Save, Bravery, Movement and Rend) and even all the weapons names, but this was rectified in 2018 with the release of the second edition rulebook. Later subverted, as in late 2020 the release of the 9th edition of ''Warhammer 40,000'' featured the return of translated names, and ''Age of Sigmar'' followed suit one year later with its 3rd edition.

* Both the Latin American Spanish dub and sub of the Tamil film ''Kabali'' suffers of this regarding Indian honorifics, as "anna", an Indian honorific for respect towards elders, is kept in both instances. No one's sure why they would do this, and [[UsefulNotes/TheOtherwoods Kollywood]] is a very niche thing in Latin America, so no one should be expected to know what "anna" means, and there's no attempt to explain it to the audience. The eponymous Kabali is a criminal boss, so they could just use "boss" or "chief" with no problems.

-->'''Fansub''': [[PrecisionFStrike Fuck you]], Sasuke! Ore[[labelnote:Translator's Note]]Ore = I[[/labelnote]] am [[SirSwearsalot fucking]] sick of your [[RuleOfThree fucking]] attitude! You are my [[TrueCompanions nakama]][[labelnote:Translator's Note]]nakama is a word that means your closest friend like in Manga/OnePiece and there really is no English equivalent to how powerful that word is so we have decided to keep it as nakama[[/labelnote]], and nothing will [[OverlyLongGag fucking]] change that you [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment fucking]] bitch!

* The Mexican Spanish dub of ''Dragon Blade'', just like the case with ''Manga/ThermaeRomae'' above, keeps the Roman names untranslated from Latin, despite having valid translations, since most of them are from historical figures from Roman story. On the other hand, the subbed version ''does'' translated the names, oddly enough.
* Both the Mexican Spanish dub and sub of the Tamil film ''Kabali'' suffers of this regarding Indian honorifics, as "anna", an Indian honorific for respect towards elders, is kept in both instances. No one's sure why they would do this (as Mexicans tend to hate using this trope), and [[UsefulNotes/TheOtherwoods Kollywood]] is a very niche thing in Latin America, so no one should be expected to know what "anna" means, and there's no attempt to explain it to the audience. The eponymous Kabali is a criminal boss, so they could just use "boss" or "chief" with no problems.

* Since April 2014, foreign translations of Games Workshop products stopped translating the names of factions and units in other languages, leaving them in English. For the first two years, ''TabletopGame/WarhammerAgeOfSigmar'' left untranslated multiple keywords (such as Hero, Wizard, Monster and the names of the Grand Alliances), all the statline terms (such as Wounds, Save, Bravery, Movement and Rend) and even all the weapons names, but this was rectified in 2018 with the release of the second edition rulebook. Later subverted, as in late 2020 the release of the 9th edition of ''Warhammer 40,000'' featured the return of translated names (albeit ''Age of Sigmar'' still keeps all the names in English, something that will probably be fixed in the next edition)

It can also be a [[PragmaticAdaptation useful escape]] if a concept is considered to be too touchy to escape [[ExecutiveMeddling censorship]]; a BilingualBonus may be enough to [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar sneak past the radar]], and the fandom will just treat it as jargon (and sometimes go too far [[note]]*cough*[[Manga/OnePiece NAKAMA]]*cough*[[/note]] and consider it a unique, untranslatable concept). Sometimes it can also just be that, given the context of the work, leaving it untranslated just ''sounds'' more right--shows about martial arts have a particular tendency to not translate the names of techniques, because it lends them a sense of mystique where a literal translation would just sound dorky.

* Most foreign dubs of the ''WesternAnimation/DespicableMe'' movies leaves the word "minion" in English, with the result that the term is thought to be a species name, rather than a generic word meaning "henchman". This worked out surprisingly well in hindsight, since [[{{WesternAnimation/Minions}} the spinoff]] revealed it really ''is'' their species name.

* The European Spanish dub of the ''WesternAnimation/DespicableMe'' movies leaves the word "minion" in English, with the result that the term is thought to be a species name, rather than a generic word meaning "henchman". This worked out surprisingly well in hindsight, since [[{{WesternAnimation/Minions}} the spinoff]] revealed it really ''is'' their species name.