Genki Life Magazine 55 - Spring 2024
How Can We Make This Stuff Right?: Western Localizers Prioritize Ideology Over Doing Their Job Isekai de Cheat Skill o Te ni Shita Ore wa, Genjitsu Sekai o mo Musō Suru: Level Up wa Jinsei o Kaeta An Interview with Cosplayer OCD_Usagi Wield VR OneStock PlayStation Game Gremlins Strike Again
How Can We Make This Stuff Right?: Western Localizers Prioritize Ideology Over Doing Their Job
Isekai de Cheat Skill o Te ni Shita Ore wa, Genjitsu Sekai o mo Musō Suru: Level Up wa Jinsei o Kaeta
An Interview with Cosplayer OCD_Usagi
Wield VR OneStock
PlayStation Game Gremlins Strike Again
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We<br />
This<br />
How Make<br />
‘Right’<br />
Stuff<br />
Can<br />
?<br />
Western Localizers Prioritize Ideology<br />
Over Doing Their Job<br />
An issue that has been an ongoing problem for years has finally come<br />
to light after being swept under the rug. Up until recently, localizing<br />
Japanese material hasn’t really been a problem. As a matter of fact,<br />
it was a necessity in the early days of anime, manga and video games<br />
imported from Japan. It was a time when Westerners had a very skewed stereotype<br />
of Japanese people and their culture. The anime genre also wasn’t as prevalent<br />
as it is now. It only had a very niche fandom.<br />
It was a big thing back in the 80s to bring “Japanimation”<br />
to America. Localizers had the job of making Japanese culture<br />
make more sense to the mainstream American audience.<br />
In a lot of cases, by rewriting the story, renaming characters,<br />
and removing all overtly Japanese cultural references. That<br />
was the trend back then and we were none the wiser to some<br />
extent. Some popular examples of this are Battle of the Planets<br />
(Kagaku Ninja-tai Gatchaman), Star Blazers (Uchū Senkan<br />
Yamato), Voltron (Hyaku Jūō GoLion, Kikō Kantai Dairugger<br />
XV) and Robotech (Chōjikū Yōsai Macross, Chōjikū Kidan<br />
Southern Cross, Kikō Sōseiki MOSPEADA).<br />
As Japanese anime, manga and video games became more<br />
popular at the start of the 90s, these extreme changes became<br />
less prevalent. Although there were some changes to<br />
certain cultural aspects, there were also some edits made to<br />
the storylines. Character names predominantly remained<br />
unchanged. Localizers around this time period were becoming<br />
more familiar with the material they were working<br />
with. Some of them are Cardcaptors (Cardcaptor Sakura),<br />
Pokémon (Pocket Monsters),<br />
Sailor Moon (Bishōjo Senshi<br />
Sailor Moon) and Final Fantasy<br />
VII. Things were going good<br />
through the North American<br />
“Golden Age of Anime” in the<br />
2000s and early 2010s for the<br />
most part. It was when fandom<br />
in these genres blew up<br />
when more and more fans<br />
familiar with the Japanese<br />
language and culture began<br />
to notice inconsistencies.<br />
16<br />
This is a recent example of how the original Japanese<br />
title was changed against the original author’s wishes.<br />
<strong>Genki</strong> <strong>Life</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> | <strong>Spring</strong> <strong>2024</strong>
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