Western cultures and their interpretation of Eastern and Japanese Works.

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(This is my 1st thread on the site, so I would like to apologize in advance.)
There's something that I learned when I was in the Art Department during my bachelor years is that you should preserve the integrity of language and its message through your translation. After observing the western approaches to things, especially from the east, ranging from video games to Vtubing culture, why do the westerners seem to like to not only exert their ideas/interpretations over the original works without the consideration of the origin but also bash the original works as something "uncivilized" or "unethical" as well?
 
First of all Im no psychologist or anthropologist so I may be entirely wrong.

I think, like most stuff in culture, it involves many factors.
As annoying as the idiots on twitter are about the whole colonialism and imperialism nonsense, there is some truth to that. Western culture and views and more recently american views have had sort of a stranglehold on the globe for a while. So people, even those who claim to be against it, will view and judge other cultures through that westernized lens.

Also there is the fact we humans just like that things dont change to much so the more different something is the more shocking will be to us and the more likely we are to lash against it.

Thats my personal take on it.
 
Lacking respect for the original work when it comes to translation is not solely a western thing. Anyone who has ever read a Japanese localisation of a western property would also know this.

FfZ85Ny.jpg

Kinda wish I saved more than just this over the last 20 years, but nevertheless this image is a perfect encapsulation of Japanese 'glass heart' localisation.

I'm personally waiting for someone on this website to do a side-by-side comparison of western media and their Japanese localisations. Though as someone who has occasionally done this in an effort to improve my own translation abilities, my starter pack recommendations are the Japanese version of Blizzard's 'Starcraft' and ICOM Simulations' 'Shadowgate'. In Japan, their localisations are notoriously bad, but in Shadowgate's case, the game was changed so much, it has turned itself into a meme that dwarf's both 'all your base are belong to us' and 'what is a man but a miserable pile of secrets'.

However, Westerners do feel the need to voice their opinions. Nowadays, professional localisers remind me of hackers and fan translators maintaining their tyrannical despot in the form of an IRC channel where they kick, ban, and mock regular users and leechers, getting in petty squabbles. On the other hand, every Japanese person I know on social media is terrified of voicing their own opinion. If you look at their accounts on places like Twitter, you would notice hardly any of them have a photograph of themselves as their avatar. And the reason for this is because of what is known as The HaseKara Calamity (KRSW-Wiki), which puts the goofball efforts of Somethingawful, 4chan, and Kiwi Farms to shame (these guys are intelligent and really, really mean). Thanks to their online harassment campaigns that encroach upon the real world, hardly anyone feels safe. The ones who do voice their opinions candidly understand they've now put themselves on a surfboard and would need to weather the Hasekara waves to riches and glory, otherwise they'll fall into a sea of depression.

Japan may seem like a utopia, but that comes at the price of being an oppressive hell where it's not just Big Brother watching you, but EVERYONE is watching you ("We're watching you... Scum..."). Personally, as someone who is innately introverted and very private, I don't mind this sort of oppressive atmosphere; it's easy to put up a Tatamae Mask and keep your Honne to yourself.
 
Taruby said:
Lacking respect for the original work when it comes to translation is not solely a western thing. Anyone who has ever read a Japanese localisation of a western property would also know this.

View attachment 13773
Kinda wish I saved more than just this over the last 20 years, but nevertheless this image is a perfect encapsulation of Japanese 'glass heart' localisation.

I'm personally waiting for someone on this website to do a side-by-side comparison of western media and their Japanese localisations. Though as someone who has occasionally done this in an effort to improve my own translation abilities, my starter pack recommendations are the Japanese version of Blizzard's 'Starcraft' and ICOM Simulations' 'Shadowgate'. In Japan, their localisations are notoriously bad, but in Shadowgate's case, the game was changed so much, it has turned itself into a meme that dwarf's both 'all your base are belong to us' and 'what is a man but a miserable pile of secrets'.

However, Westerners do feel the need to voice their opinions. Nowadays, professional localisers remind me of hackers and fan translators maintaining their tyrannical despot in the form of an IRC channel where they kick, ban, and mock regular users and leechers, getting in petty squabbles. On the other hand, every Japanese person I know on social media is terrified of voicing their own opinion. If you look at their accounts on places like Twitter, you would notice hardly any of them have a photograph of themselves as their avatar. And the reason for this is because of what is known as The HaseKara Calamity (KRSW-Wiki), which puts the goofball efforts of Somethingawful, 4chan, and Kiwi Farms to shame (these guys are intelligent and really, really mean). Thanks to their online harassment campaigns that encroach upon the real world, hardly anyone feels safe. The ones who do voice their opinions candidly understand they've now put themselves on a surfboard and would need to weather the Hasekara waves to riches and glory, otherwise they'll fall into a sea of depression.

Japan may seem like a utopia, but that comes at the price of being an oppressive hell where it's not just Big Brother watching you, but EVERYONE is watching you ("We're watching you... Scum..."). Personally, as someone who is innately introverted and very private, I don't mind this sort of oppressive atmosphere; it's easy to put up a Tatamae Mask and keep your Honne to yourself.
Click to expand...
Would you mind giving a tldr of this calamity.

Also is there a contigent of japanese people that wish for a more accurate localization like there is one in the west?

I dont know how people think japan is a utopia, certainly I dont, but every country has its fair share of issues, for example shootings and riots in the US. Growing gang activity in the UK, and this just the "first world" Really, no country is truly "free" even if the law allows for expression the court of public opinion stamps down on any dissention.
At the end you just gotta find the place that bothers you the least :shinobu_kaka:

And if you can maybe support the causes that, you believe will help make things better. If there are any.
 
Mind giving more details on the indecent?
DeepL is unhelpful because of all the slang involved and it doesn't read correctly.

I don't think Japan is a utopia. Having grown up in a traditional Asian family, sheltered from western culture, it's not superior and is at times very frustrating and restrictive.
Having said that my experience with western culture is also just as terrible, crimes go unpunished because the police doesn't want to look racist, policies actively discriminate against one race at the expense of another because of "historical oppression", shoving trannies in to everything, as a few examples.

What is "better"? Neither, because everything fucking bothers me because everyone can't leave me alone to enjoy things, the urge to interfere with my life is to great among others.

Noxgorithm said:
why do the westerners seem to like to not only exert their ideas/interpretations over the original works without the consideration of the origin but also bash the original works as something "uncivilized" or "unethical" as well?
Click to expand...
Because the west always thinks it knows better.
Western imperialism hasn't gone away, it just changed from sending armies to your country to force regime change, to using institutions that are primarily based in the US to force regime change.
 
Taruby said:
Lacking respect for the original work when it comes to translation is not solely a western thing. Anyone who has ever read a Japanese localisation of a western property would also know this.

View attachment 13773
Kinda wish I saved more than just this over the last 20 years, but nevertheless this image is a perfect encapsulation of Japanese 'glass heart' localisation.

I'm personally waiting for someone on this website to do a side-by-side comparison of western media and their Japanese localisations. Though as someone who has occasionally done this in an effort to improve my own translation abilities, my starter pack recommendations are the Japanese version of Blizzard's 'Starcraft' and ICOM Simulations' 'Shadowgate'. In Japan, their localisations are notoriously bad, but in Shadowgate's case, the game was changed so much, it has turned itself into a meme that dwarf's both 'all your base are belong to us' and 'what is a man but a miserable pile of secrets'.

However, Westerners do feel the need to voice their opinions. Nowadays, professional localisers remind me of hackers and fan translators maintaining their tyrannical despot in the form of an IRC channel where they kick, ban, and mock regular users and leechers, getting in petty squabbles. On the other hand, every Japanese person I know on social media is terrified of voicing their own opinion. If you look at their accounts on places like Twitter, you would notice hardly any of them have a photograph of themselves as their avatar. And the reason for this is because of what is known as The HaseKara Calamity (KRSW-Wiki), which puts the goofball efforts of Somethingawful, 4chan, and Kiwi Farms to shame (these guys are intelligent and really, really mean). Thanks to their online harassment campaigns that encroach upon the real world, hardly anyone feels safe. The ones who do voice their opinions candidly understand they've now put themselves on a surfboard and would need to weather the Hasekara waves to riches and glory, otherwise they'll fall into a sea of depression.

Japan may seem like a utopia, but that comes at the price of being an oppressive hell where it's not just Big Brother watching you, but EVERYONE is watching you ("We're watching you... Scum..."). Personally, as someone who is innately introverted and very private, I don't mind this sort of oppressive atmosphere; it's easy to put up a Tatamae Mask and keep your Honne to yourself.
Click to expand...
Interesting that Starcraft and Shadowgate have shitty translations. Are there any retranslation efforts? Or any place where I can get the Japanese versions of these games?
 
Noxgorithm said:
why do the westerners seem to like to not only exert their ideas/interpretations over the original works without the consideration of the origin but also bash the original works as something "uncivilized" or "unethical" as well?
Click to expand...

insecurities plus a lack of basic respect for other cultures.
https://twitter.com/x/status/1631809089385660416

Also Western Culture seems obsessed with the pursuit of Realism.

Edit: Found another clip, holy shit.
https://twitter.com/x/status/1632184101221302276
 
Last edited:
Exoskull Zero RX-78-2 said:
Western Culture seems obsessed with the pursuit of Realism.
Click to expand...
I don't have a deeper explanation but if you look at the popular names in western art, majority is realistic or attempting realism whereas eastern art is stylized or if it's "realistic" it's what I call "perfect realism", think Dead or Alive or Final Fantasy, where females are "doll-like" instead of 1:1 representations of an existing person.

I wish I can explain more but a general observation with western v eastern culture. In the west, there is no valuing of beauty, I constantly hear "beauty is subjective" or "everyone is beautiful" which is completely false, there is a push to pedestalize the ugly, look at fat acceptance or bimbofication, this is inverse in the east, we value beauty, I'm reminded of the yearly calendars we sometimes get from shop owners for lunar new year, on it is attractive asian females, another is how prevalent cosmetic surgery is in countries like south korea for both men and women, we tend to view the ugly, fat, short etc as comical rather than attractive.

Yes, yes exceptions exist, not all and whatnot but this is a general attitude.
 
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