History Main / GoodBadTranslation

* Karl Marx wrote poetry when he was young. One of his poems was [[http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1837-pre/marx/1837-wil.htm "The Fiddler" or "The Player"]]. It may be dark, but it's not funny. Meanwhile someone wrote [[http://www.scribd.com/doc/38017685/Was-Karl-Marx-a-Satanist a religious tract]] alleging Marx was a Satanist, in which a bit from the poem was "translated":

* There is an English sub of ''Anime/FruitsBasket'' in which the opening song contains the lines 'we cannot be born again but...', referring to wanting either to start over your life, which you cannot do, or make it better, with the friends you do have, which you can. The wording captures it better than the sub which comes along with [=YouTube=] opening clips of the same series, and it is the only translation which references being born again. So the song is a bit choppy in this version, it comes across as a lot more meaningful.

* ''VideoGame/{{Persona}}'' received a remake in the PSP which overhauls the dialogues. One line from the original remains: [[NarmCharm Mark danced crazy!]]

->''Its tale begins like so: "In each town, under a keeper's control, the time flow was correctly kept with a time key. But, a bad man appeared and stole the time key to stop the time flow. The towns were attacked one by one, the time flow was stopped and they received damage." Apparently, so did the English language. Tragically, it would never recover.''
-->-- ''Website/HardcoreGaming101'', [[http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/pulirula/pulirula.htm article on]] ''VideoGame/PuLiRuLa''

* WebVideo/GoogleTranslateSings will take the text of a song (typically from a Disney movie) and applies several layers of translations via Google Translate and then translates that into English and sings it to the tune of the original song. It results in lines like "[[Disney/{{Frozen}} Do you want to build a Yeti?]]"

* The Chinese subtitles for ''Film/TheTwoTowers'' features plenty of these. In addition to the understandable Ents being "tree man," Orcs are "bitch man," Elves are "evil," and wizards are "magic man." And none of the names translate properly. Meaning that Alarwang has to tell his girlfriend that he cannot love her because she is Evil, just before being told that "bitch man come!" by Grey Magic Man Gandofu.

* The instruction manual for ''VideoGame/ThunderForce VI'' shows a prototype continue screen: "DO YOU WANT TO CONTINUE? PLEASE SELECT YOUR MIND." (The second sentence was [[ILikedItBetterWhenItSucked changed to "PLEASE SELECT YES OR NO"]] in the final release.)

* A Vietnamese [[JustForFun/PokemonVietnameseCrystal bootleg translation]] of ''[[VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver Pokémon Crystal]]'' made famous in a LetsPlay by LetsPlay/DeliciousCinnamon [[https://www.youtube.com/user/DeliciousCinnamon on YouTube]]. Among other things: Professor Oak claiming that everyone call him ''[sic]'' "ELF MONSTER", the player character's mother preparing "VOLCANO BAKEMEAT", "put in" being translated as "fuck", nonsensical Pokémon names such as "OUD" (Sentret) and "LAP" (Pidgey), Totodile using scratch being displayed as "Croc scrah", Silver's dialogue making absolutely no sense, and a Pidgey saying "LITTLE STRAWBERRY ME BABY" if you talk to it.

** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'', when Tellah fights [[SpoonyBard Edward]], the original featured Tellah calling out Edward for taking the sage's daughter away. The original English script featured, instead, the line "You spoony bard!". "Spoony" here is an obscure word meaning "foolishly or sentimentally in love" -- ''technically'' correct, but hilariously awkward to use. This line proved to be so popular that it's in every single English re-release, even if other lines have been translated more appropriately. The DS remake even has a DevelopersRoom where one of the translators says they fixed the erroneous translations, but "the bard was spoony -- we checked!"

* ''Keitai Denju VideoGame/{{Telefang}}'' was a {{mon}}ster-fighting game released in Japan only. Bootleggers "translated" the game into English and packaged two versions of the game under the names Pokemon Diamond (not to be confused with [[VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl the game released for the DS in the mid-to-late '00s]], which is a real ''Videogame/{{Pokemon}}'' game) and Pokemon Jade. The translation contains lines like "For the clever opponent, Injure increase!!", "Let us go to see the ball!", "Shit! Remember it!" and "I will use my strength to LET YOU SHUT UP!". Even the ''battles'' have their share of Engrish: "Some points of [number] lost!" Other than that, though, it wasn't a bad game.

* ''Creator/{{CAVE}}'' games have long started with legal warnings against playing the games outside Japan, ending with "Violator and subject to severe penalties and will be prosecutedt to the full extent of the jam." When ''VideoGame/{{Mushihimesama}}'' and ''[[VideoGame/DonPachi DoDonPachi: DaiFukkastu]]'' received Steam ports, it was reworded into more proper English, replacing Japan with Earth, while keeping "Jam" in the last line.

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]

*** At one point, Reno tries to slap some sense into Elena by telling her "You're a Turks!", which did lead people to wonder if "Turks" actually was the title fora singular member.

* ''WebVideo/BackstrokeOfTheWest'', a Chinese BlindIdiotTranslation of ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'', is an excellent example. "Do Not Want!" indeed.

* ''VideoGame/StreetFighterII'' gave us Ryu's boast: "You must defeat Sheng Long to stand a chance!" This gave rise to a persistent UrbanLegendOfZelda (and AprilFoolsDay joke) that there was a secret boss character named "Sheng Long". In fact, "Sheng Long" is the Chinese name for Ryu's ''Shōryūken''; more accurately, the quote should have been, "Until you can overcome my ''Shōryūken'', you cannot win!" The SNES port fixed this translation, but it further muddied the waters by claiming [[AllThereInTheManual in the manual]] that both Ryu and Ken were disciples of a "Master Sheng Long". It even inspired Akuma's appearance in ''VideoGame/SuperStreetFighterIITurbo''. It came to a head in ''VideoGame/StreetFighterIV'', where Capcom announced that Gouken was "really" Sheng Long, and one of his win quotes was "You must defeat me to stand a chance!"

* In the original French version of Cinderella, the slipper was ''ver'' (fur). When the tale got translated to English, this was mistaken as ''verre'' (glass).

* There is an English sub of ''Anime/FruitsBasket'' in which the opening song contains the lines 'we cannot be born again but...', referring to wanting either to start over your life, which you cannot do, or make it better, with the friends you do have, which you can. The wording captures it better than the sub which comes along with YouTube opening clips of the same series, and it is the only translation which references being born again. So the song is a bit choppy in this version, it comes across as a lot more meaningful.

* The ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'' English dub has Sayaka's "You're [[AddedAlliterativeAppeal mine, Madoka! Mine, mine, mine!]]" and Hitomi's "Girls can't love girls! Girls can't love girls! [[RuleOfThree Girls can't love girls!]]", both of which are in accidental LesYay moments between Madoka and Sayaka. The lines are a lot more unnatural-sounding and [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment repetitive]] than the originals, but the scenes are ''supposed'' to be awkward and silly, so it works...[[MemeticMutation a little too well]].

* ''VideoGame/Persona3'' mistranslated "Ceylon tea" (as in, tea from Sri Lanka) as "[[Franchise/BattlestarGalactica Cylon]] Tea", which made people giggle.

* In ''VideoGame/ValkyrieProfile'', a single vowel misheard led the incantation of the heroine's main attack being changed from the original "I shall annihilate your soul!" to "It shall be engraved upon your soul!" This translation proved so popular that ''four'' different characters say a variant of it in the prequel, ''Valkyrie Profile: Silmeria'', and in ''VideoGame/RadiataStories'', she repeats it as a [[BonusCharacters Bonus Character]].

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'', when Tellah fights [[SpoonyBard Edward]], the original featured Tellah calling out Edward for taking the sage's daughter away. The original English script featured, instead, the line "You spoony bard!". "Spoony" here is an obscure word meaning "foolishly or sentimentally in love" -- ''technically'' correct, but hilariously awkward to use. This line proved to be so popular that:
** It's in every single English re-release, even if other lines have been translated more appropriately. The DS remake even has a DevelopersRoom where one of the translators says they fixed the erroneous translations, but "the bard was spoony -- we checked!"
** It pops up in other ''VideoGame/FinalFantasy'' games as well, such as the PSP remake of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'' or in a somewhat obscure ShoutOut in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII''.
** It pops up in other franchises entirely, like in ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney: Trials & Tribulations'', whose translator was apparently very enamored with the phrase.
** ''Creator/NoahAntwiler'' named one of his D&D characters Tandem the Spoony, and then his website ''WebVideo/TheSpoonyExperiment'' in reference to this line and his character. He is also known as The Spoony One, or simply Spoony.
** It [[TropeNamers named]] a [[SpoonyBard trope]] on Wiki/ThisVeryWiki.
* In ''VideoGame/ValkyrieProfile'', a single vowel misheard led the incantation of the heroine's main attack being changed from the original "I shall annihilate your soul!" to "It shall be engraved upon your soul!" This translation proved so popular that ''four'' different characters say a variant of it in the prequel, ''Valkyrie Profile: Silmeria'', and in ''VideoGame/RadiataStories'', she repeats it as a BonusCharacter.
* Most of the spelling and grammar mistakes that appeared in the first ''VideoGame/WildArms'' game were corrected in its rerelease, ''Wild Arms Alter Code F''. However, the {{Artificial Human}}s in the game were still called "Holmcross" instead of the correct "Homunculus" because fans felt it was emblematic of the series.
** The remake also made some new errors. Jack van Burace was originally supposed to be Jack Vam Brace, to reference his past as Knight of the Vambrace. The remake kept his mistranslated name, and then changed his former title to Knight of the ''Gauntlet''.
** ''VideoGame/WildArms2'''s translation is also seriously flawed, but at least one "mistake" turned into accidental genius. The game's GoldfishPoopGang, Liz and Ard (who happen to be aliens), are turned into {{Cloud Cuckoolander}}s whose dialogue is both [[YouNoTakeCandle incomprehensible]] and hilarious. They were already comic relief characters in Japan, but translating Liz's "poetic" dialogue literally produced something much more entertaining than it has any right to be.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' wasn't really cerebral, but it graduated into an outright MindScrew in the English version because of the dodgy translation. This may have been one of the reasons Western fans found the game so fascinating (and funny). The PC edition corrected some of the more obvious mistakes.
** It all starts in the credits, where the head guy is credited as "Executive Produce". Cue jokes from the fanbase about how Hironobu Sakaguchi is secretly a vegetable.
** While not ''exceptionally'' mangled, the phrase "This guy are sick" was so hilariously out of place that it's become something of a shibboleth amongst ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' fans to [[FanDumb identify the newcomers]].
** The Gold Saucer Arena had an error in the punctuation of the quit option. When asked if you want to continue, you get "Off course!" for yes and "No, way!" [sic] for no.
** Now that's a typo that will poque even your interest.
** Look for something called "Secret"!
** At one point, Reno tries to slap some sense into Elena by telling her "You're a Turks!", which did lead people to wonder if "Turks" actually was the title fora singular member.
** One bewildering exchange has Cloud announce, "...Hmm. That's how you'll fool them", and Aeris respond, ".........Hmmmmmmm. So that's how you fooled them." The original exchange was supposed to be more along the lines of: "Looks like I have to go in to the brothel to complete my disguise." / "Oh, so that's your excuse?", but Aeris' line was translated incorrectly, ''then'' accidentally duplicated and assigned to both characters, after which another localizer adjusted the lines to suit Cloud and Aeris's established speech patterns without fixing the problems.
** The gag where Tifa becomes concerned that Barret's looking up her skirt is so garbled as to be lost entirely, instead giving the impression that she suddenly freaks out about his height for no reason.
** There are a few moments where unnatural construction gives the dialogue a sort of poetry. One example is when Sephiroth attempts to explain that Jenova is a shapeshifter, instead phrasing it as "The power to change one's looks, voice and words; that is the power of Jenova."
** The German version went one step further and didn't translate a few lines of text at all. This leads to Yuffie starting a sentence in German, changing to English mid-sentence, and then switching back to German.
** The French version didn't want to be left out, so aside from generally being full of grammatical mistakes, typos, and just plain awkward sentence structure and choices of words, some sentences are repeated for no reason; or, at the other end of the spectrum, just stop halfway through
** The Spanish version fares no better, having typos where Cloud is a she (ella) and Aeris a he (él); and a scene when Cloud is going to join the "party" upstairs--"party" as in a group--translated into Spanish as "fiesta".
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyI'' gives us "I, Garland, will knock you all down!" which was kept for the GBA rerelease. The line did not, however, make it into the [=PlayStation=] version, ''Final Fantasy Origins''. ''Origins'' came first, which means the line was removed, then put back in for the GBA version. The line also made it into the PSP 20th anniversary edition.
* ''VideoGame/SecretOfTheStars'' has a laughably bad translation possibly caused by little faith in the game's success in the United States or Creator/{{Tecmo}} simply not caring. This gave us such lines as "SCATT THE DOG-PILL," "CHAINMALE," AND "WHAT? YOU'RE SO ANYTHING! GO TO THE CIRCUS NOW!"
* ''VideoGame/{{Persona}}'' received a remake in the PSP which overhauls the dialogues. One line from the original remains: [[NarmCharm Mark danced crazy!]]
* ''VideoGame/Persona3'' mistranslated "Ceylon tea" (as in, tea from Sri Lanka) as "[[Franchise/BattlestarGalactica Cylon]] Tea", which made people giggle.

* As noted above in the Fighting Games folder, ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'' famously translates one of Zell's moves as "Meteor Barret" instead of "Meteor Bullet." In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyBraveExvius'', when a vision of Zell was added to the game, not only did the move keep its ''[=FF8=]'' name, but Squall (also originally from the same game) gets four different moves that all have "Barret" in them. This is certainly intentional; several other characters (such as Amelia and Lucille) have moves with the same katakana in their names but properly translated as "Bullet" (such as "Killer Bullet" and "Stun Bullet").
** ''VIII'' is downright weird when it comes to the French translation. Between the times where Squall and other characters keep BreakingTheFourthWall, item names that make no sense (for example, the "screw" item became ''enclume'' ("anvil")) or have been invented out of nowhere (Phoenix Downs are "MT-Psys"), ''characters'' that switched titles, etc., the whole experience feels quite strange.

* ''Creator/{{CAVE}}'' games have long had a legal warning on them which ended in the sentence "Violator and subject to severe penalties and will be prosecutedt to the full extent of the jam." When ''VideoGame/{{Mushihimesama}}'' received a Steam port, it was reworded into more proper English, but they left the word "jam" in.

* ''Franchise/MetalGear''
** The NES port of ''VideoGame/MetalGear'' gave us "The truck have started to move!", "I feel asleep!", and "Contact missing our Grey Fox".

** It pops up in other ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' games as well, such as the PSP remake of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'' or in a somewhat obscure ShoutOut in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII''.

* Inverted in the English dub of ''Anime/ExcelSaga''. One episode features Excel going to America. The original dialog contains poorly used English, while the dub contains poorly used Spanish and ghetto slang. However, the original audio of people's reactions to Excel popping out of a sewer is left the same. ("JEEEEEEEE-SUS!")

* In the second season of ''Manga/BlackLagoon'', Revy goes to Japan, where she doesn't speak the language (even though her character has been speaking it throughout both seasons) because she's American. Even though the grammar and word choice is good, her diction and pronunciation is so far off it's impossible to believe she's ever been around a native speaker. Balalaika speaks similarly throughout the story arc, but she has the excuse of being native born Russian -- and while Revy's attempts to sound tough in English come across as cute, Balalaika actually manages the intended menace.

* In ''Anime/TransformersHeadmasters'', Sixshot's title of ninja commander was infamously translated as "ninja consultant" in the English dub. This became so well known that it even found its way into the subtitles. Another beloved mistranslation resulted in a bad guy gloating that "Fortress Maximus has come himself." (By which we mean "Fortress Maximus has arrived.")

* ''JustForFun/BackstrokeOfTheWest'', a Chinese BlindIdiotTranslation of ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'', is an excellent example. "Do Not Want!" indeed.

This kind of translation becomes popular with the fans, either because it is [[{{Narm}} unintentionally hilarious]], or because it's [[MemeticMutation memorable and amusing to repeat]] -- it's SoBadItsGood. It becomes so popular that fans will insist on it; the developers, under fan pressure, won't correct the mistake after the fact, and reprints and sequels will keep the mistranslation.