Manga and anime are full of translation inaccuracies.
Some of them are hilarious, while others can make a series unwatchable.
Translation inaccuracies can even ruin big reveals.
The translations of manga and anime have been an issue for quite some time. While these are things that you don’t really pay great attention to because you often understand that some of the translations are made by fans, it can become mildly infuriating when you constantly see weird things in manga or anime subtitles.
It’s not a huge issue, we have to admit. And official sources and streaming platforms usually try to pay attention to details, but mistakes happen, and they can vary from hilarious to very puzzling.
Bad translation is good for memes
Season 2 of Jujutsu Kaisen brought the fandom one of the best possible gags, when Crunchyroll’s subtitles translated the name of Sukuna’s Domain Expansion, Malevolent Shrine, as “Malevolent Kitchen”. It was a good day for Jujutsu Kaisen fans because it allowed them to put away their tear-soaked tissues to create a couple of dozen memes. So thank you, Crunchyroll!
It’s not the first time Crunchyroll did something like that. And while the Jujutsu Kaisen thing was pretty hilarious, the first episode of The Yuzuki Family's Four Sons (Yuzuki-san Chi no Yonkyoudai) was simply unwatchable because of translation mistakes. We’ve already discussed that here if you want to see the scale of the issue.
Pronouns and honorifics in anime have also suffered enough as well as some of the famous catchphrases (yes, Pokémon, we’re looking at you).
Change of meanings
Sometimes even a slight alteration can change the meaning of an entire scene. In Chapter 83 of Attack on Titan (Shingeki no Kyojin) there was a moment when Zeke reveals that he was Eren’s brother. He tells him “you don’t look a thing like your father”. Why is that a reveal, you might ask?
The thing is that Zeke doesn’t really tell Eren that it’s his father. He just says “father” but he uses the exact same wording as he used in Chapter 81 while speaking about his own father. That was the first hint at him being related to Eren, and the translation missed it entirely.
And the name of the series itself, Attack on Titan, turned out to be a wordplay that actually meant “Attack Titan”. This mistake wasn’t clear until pretty late in the series when Eren says that the name of his titan is the name of the series itself, Shingeki no Kyojin.
Going back to Jujutsu Kaisen, Malevolent Kitchen is not everything we’ve got. Fans have also noticed a weird suggestion of Sukuna to “compete with feet” in one of the recent manga chapters, which, of course, generated more memes and made a number of fans joke about foot fetishism.
What’s a “Malevolent Kitchen”?
Summary:
Manga and anime are full of translation inaccuracies.
Some of them are hilarious, while others can make a series unwatchable.
Translation inaccuracies can even ruin big reveals.
The translations of manga and anime have been an issue for quite some time. While these are things that you don’t really pay great attention to because you often understand that some of the translations are made by fans, it can become mildly infuriating when you constantly see weird things in manga or anime subtitles.
It’s not a huge issue, we have to admit. And official sources and streaming platforms usually try to pay attention to details, but mistakes happen, and they can vary from hilarious to very puzzling.
Bad translation is good for memes
Season 2 of Jujutsu Kaisen brought the fandom one of the best possible gags, when Crunchyroll’s subtitles translated the name of Sukuna’s Domain Expansion, Malevolent Shrine, as “Malevolent Kitchen”. It was a good day for Jujutsu Kaisen fans because it allowed them to put away their tear-soaked tissues to create a couple of dozen memes. So thank you, Crunchyroll!
It’s not the first time Crunchyroll did something like that. And while the Jujutsu Kaisen thing was pretty hilarious, the first episode of The Yuzuki Family's Four Sons (Yuzuki-san Chi no Yonkyoudai) was simply unwatchable because of translation mistakes. We’ve already discussed that here if you want to see the scale of the issue.
Pronouns and honorifics in anime have also suffered enough as well as some of the famous catchphrases (yes, Pokémon, we’re looking at you).
Change of meanings
Sometimes even a slight alteration can change the meaning of an entire scene. In Chapter 83 of Attack on Titan (Shingeki no Kyojin) there was a moment when Zeke reveals that he was Eren’s brother. He tells him “you don’t look a thing like your father”. Why is that a reveal, you might ask?
The thing is that Zeke doesn’t really tell Eren that it’s his father. He just says “father” but he uses the exact same wording as he used in Chapter 81 while speaking about his own father. That was the first hint at him being related to Eren, and the translation missed it entirely.
And the name of the series itself, Attack on Titan, turned out to be a wordplay that actually meant “Attack Titan”. This mistake wasn’t clear until pretty late in the series when Eren says that the name of his titan is the name of the series itself, Shingeki no Kyojin.
Going back to Jujutsu Kaisen, Malevolent Kitchen is not everything we’ve got. Fans have also noticed a weird suggestion of Sukuna to “compete with feet” in one of the recent manga chapters, which, of course, generated more memes and made a number of fans joke about foot fetishism.
