Woolseyisms That Should Have Been

So, I had this thought about instances where in an official translation or scanlation, the translator missed out on an opportunity to make a good pun, local reference, etc.

Two examples off the top of my head:

1. While I don't think the "one hell of a butler" woolseyism in Black Butler was bad, it strikes me that "a damn good butler" would be even cleverer. While damn was offensive in the Victorian era, so was hell and the series isn't really big on realism anyway.

2. I was thinking that it would be cool if the translators of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei mirrored the original in having chapter titles which punned on famous literary works.

If this kind of thing was done, I have what is IMO a really good suggestion- The chapter where Commodore Perry shows up is titled as "Your Hair Swept Back for the First Time", but I think it could have been loosely translated as "The Bangs That Launched A Thousand Ships" and totally fit the chapter.

edited 19th Mar '11 8:45:59 PM by Jordan

I'm of the opinion that Woolseyism is never a bad thing so yeah.

edited 19th Mar '11 8:46:23 PM by toalordsothe

Man, I came up with some of these but I don't remember any of them now.

"A damned good butler" might be better. But then, he's probably the one doing the damning, not the one being damned. I actually like "one hell of a butler" better.

True, but he could be a "damn good butler" in the sense that he's good at damning people.

Edit- Although I do agree that "one hell of a butler" gets across the threatening undercurrent better.

edited 19th Mar '11 10:21:51 PM by Jordan

In Puella Magi Madoka Magica the episode 8 wham line was clearly meant to be a pun, but the dub translates it literally. It just ends up sounding really ackward.

Instead of "Females in this country who haven't reach maturity yet are called 'girls' right. So it is only logical that those who are destined to become witches should be called magical girls." It should have been "It's only logical that magical girls would become magical women. And magical women are called witches."

edited 15th Nov '12 6:30:48 PM by supermerlin100