Somehow if I think that the old Russian granny knew exactly what she's wearing and does it intentionally, it's better. Let's pretend it's that. She's just that badass.
I kind of like that "off" feeling sometimes if they better capture the feel/meaning/style of its source. Of course sometimes it's just sloppy translation, but other times it's just an expression that doesn't work naturally in the target language. For example, take the lyric "Yasashii kimi no koe." I'm going to bet for the sake of fluency, most people will translate that as "Your gentle voice." However, the placement of yasashii (gentle) before kimi (you) means it's moditfying 'you' not 'voice' (koe). So the more accurate translation would be "The gentle you's voice.' That's ripe with that "off English scent." But I think the difference is important enough to be worth it. Many disagree the difference is significant, and thus why I suspect *most* people prefer fluency over accuracy. But in fact we don't have a way to express that different sentiment "naturally" in English, so why don't we just hijack it and make it our own after all? Translated works have the potential to influence the culture they're being translated for as much as any work in that culture's native language(s), given any living language is going to be changing. We adapt foreign-isms all the time. Is it that bad to sometimes realize something you're reading/watching is foreign? Particularly if you're a fan of and specifically seeking out anime/manga which, in English, is a term specifically referring to foreign mediums (or, to those who consider western works that adopt common features of them to also count as anime/manga, a distinctly foreign-influenced style, if nothing else).
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I kind of like that "off" feeling sometimes if they better capture the feel/meaning/style of its source. Of course sometimes it's just sloppy translation, but other times it's just an expression that doesn't work naturally in the target language. For example, take the lyric "Yasashii kimi no koe." I'm going to bet for the sake of fluency, most people will translate that as "Your gentle voice." However, the placement of yasashii (gentle) before kimi (you) means it's moditfying 'you' not 'voice' (koe). So the more accurate translation would be "The gentle you's voice.' That's ripe with that "off English scent." But I think the difference is important enough to be worth it. Many disagree the difference is significant, and thus why I suspect *most* people prefer fluency over accuracy. But in fact we don't have a way to express that different sentiment "naturally" in English, so why don't we just hijack it and make it our own after all? Translated works have the potential to influence the culture they're being translated for as much as any work in that culture's native language(s), given any living language is going to be changing. We adapt foreign-isms all the time. Is it that bad to sometimes realize something you're reading/watching is foreign? Particularly if you're a fan of and specifically seeking out anime/manga which, in English, is a term specifically referring to foreign mediums (or, to those who consider western works that adopt common features of them to also count as anime/manga, a distinctly foreign-influenced style, if nothing else).