Bad examples: Lost In Translation

This page needs a lot of work. It's supposed to be about culture-specific and language-specific nuances that don't translate well. A lot of examples use it for any bad translation.

Bumping so we can get to work.

I don't see to much misuse, actually...

• The first episode of Gundam Wing has one of Zechs' subordinates suggest firing a warning shot at the Wing Gundam, with Zechs replying to the negative. The dub renders his response as "No machinegun for him!" You can imagine what sort of jokes were made about this one.
  • Bad translation
• In a French fan sub of Rozen Maiden, it became very obvious the sub was based off an english sub when Kanaria said she was going to play a requiem "pour la sorciere perdue" (for the witch that was lost), which is a mistranslation of what she said in the English sub: That which was lost.
  • Lazy/bad translation
• The closed captioning for the English dub of Spirited Away labels Yubaba's baby's rat-form's "chu" (Japanese onomatopoeia for a mouse's squeak) noises as "[sneezes]".
  • Bad/lazy translation
• This slightly glaring example from the Love Hina manga. The Christmas themed banners on the bottom right panel say "Satan" instead of "Santa"
  • Engrish

(just to list the first few misuses I spotted)

The Yubaba one is a good example, as far as I can tell. It's for the English closed-captioning, rather than the English Subtitles... so it's someone unfamiliar with the nuances of Japanese (where "Chu" is a rodent-squeak) misinterpreting something as what it would be in English. (Namely, an abbreviated form of "Achoo", a sneezing sound in English)

The Christmas banners are not likely to be a bad translation as much as simply a typo —Rouge Angles of Satin