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Notes -
https://preview.redd.it/t8si5jmaw9pg1.jpeg?width=646&auto=webp&s=6f8a203626ed9fda42160a04d358b04f7c528b7d - The text with the white background is the lovely work of the "localizers"
https://i.redd.it/qm0ypm1csz3b1.png - Literalish translation would be "Crap! Why did I have to babble on about some weird fashion theory to a pro model of all people!?"
And over 20 examples are provided in this Twitter thread: https://x.com/BoundingComics/status/1741000080889720927
Also for an example of a localizer doing an amazing job and trying to be true to the source material is the fan translation of Mother 3 (AKA Earthbound 2): https://mother3.fobby.net/ https://youtube.com/watch?v=WjMllYgUOeU
Thank you.
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Speaking as an outsider to this whole milieu, the discourse seems rather confused between complaining about motivated alterations specifically, and complaining about less-than-maximally-literal translation in general, which is to say, about the entire concept of localization. Several of the examples in the X thread seem to object about localizers using modern American slang even when it carries no culture-war salience at all.
For example, one of the linked articles take issue with changing a line about a girl being "a gyaru" to calling her "that gyaru bimbo". This is, to put it mildly, not what I would call a change oriented towards extra wokeness. Instead it seems obvious to me that the point is to convey a close-enough analogue to what a Japanese viewer would understand the term "gyaru" to mean to American viewers who might never have heard it before. Maybe it's a good translation, maybe not, but it's got nothing to do with tweaking dialogue to be more in line with western feminist norms - it's localization working as intended.
Consider an example from a show I recently watched. The FMC had just performed well in a contest and in reference to that feat a male side character exclaimed to those around him "Sasu ga <FMC>-san.", which was rendered in English as "That's my girl." The localizer inserts both a possessive ("my") and diminutive ("girl") into the phrase, both commonly complained about forms of sexism that are completely absent from the original. Now why would the "localizer" choose to localize it in that manner? Is it because the lack of sexism is something American viewers wouldn't understand, and therefore it had to be inserted? That makes no sense, as such language has been widely seen as sexist for decades in the US. Further, there are other non-sexist phrases that would make more sense in context, such as "That's <FMC> for you." No, that choice is a deliberate insertion of sexism to denigrate both the character and the fans. (ETA)And probably also to cater to some women's "strong women victim of sexism" fetish.
The translation is completely fine though. "That's my girl" is a standard idiomatic expression that, like many idioms, has a meaning that differs from the literal meaning of the words. And the meaning is quite close to the meaning of さすが when used in this context.
Here's what gemini has to say about it: https://gemini.google.com/share/f9b5400d70ae
And a blog post by an English teacher: https://vectorinternational.ca/englishstudy/vol-060/
On the topic of LLM translations, when translating the other way, gemini also suggests "Thats's my [name]" as a top option for a translation of "さすが[name]さん"
An important nuance that AI noted is the different uses of さすが like this with subtly different meanings:
「やっぱりすごい！」と感心する場合
スキルや成果を褒める場合
Since based on your post the usage is the former, translations of the latter meaning such as "way to go " are actually inferior.
The translation you suggested "That's [FMC] for you." Is mostly fine, but it's slightly tortured as a less common variation of the expression in English speech.
The translation would be fine in some circumstances. For example, your second link references parents talking about their daughter:
It is very tortured to use it in this case, as the male side character does not have a significant relationship to the FMC beyond being part of the same institution.
Hmm, ok that part wasn't totally clear from the previous post, but if true that does make it a pretty strange translation if they aren't that well acquainted. I think it might be more clear if you could share the details instead of vagueposting, I don't think there's any reason why not to post the episode number and timestamp of this.
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Though I thank you for the breakdown, this doesn't really address my observation. I don't dispute that, based on the linked articles, some localization choices are motivated by political correctness. What bothers and bemuses me is that some of the linked articles seem to see no difference between clear instances of politically motivated rewrites - e.g. turning a crossdressing he/him character into a trans girl to win representation points - and perfectly anodyne use of clearly-non-political American slang where it might not literally correspond to the word-by-word Japanese dialogue - e.g. talking about a character "yeeting" another. Is it truly the case that only politically-biased translators make those kinds of alterations too, while more literal-minded translators are also the ones who don't try to warp the political overtones of the source material?
But even then, surely it shouldn't be a binary choice. Surely there are anime fans who would prefer naturalistic, idiomatic, non-maximally-literal localizations just so long as they weren't politically biased? Indeed, I'd have naively guessed it'd be a majority of dub consumers; after all, surely purists who want textual fidelity above all else and are sufficiently well-versed in Japanese culture that they don't need to gloss a cultural nuance like "gyaru" as something more familiar to Americans would, in any case, prefer subs to dubs? So what's going on?
Side note: your example is kind of baffling to me; I've got one of the most left-wing social circles here and I've never heard anyone in my online circles treat "That's my girl" as some kind of taboo, inherently misogynistic phrase. My guess would be that the localizer, in this case, simply picked a common American phrase that people actually say in this situation over a purely literal translation so that the dialogue would sound natural. I agree the localizer could equally well have chosen "That's [FMC] for you", but I would assume that they happened to pick "That's my girl" because they viewed it as an equally innocuous, unremarkable idiom. Which it is. But eh, for all I know woke anime localizers might indeed be plugged into specific echo chambers where everyone agrees that "That's my girl" is an eeeevil microaggression; I merely caution you not to assume this is some kind of mainstream consensus on the Left. I'd never heard of it before.
(Like, yes, sure, if you get a critical theorist talking, they'll explain that the fact that we casually call grown women "girls" is belittling and a sign of structural sexism in the English language blah blah blah. But get a critical theorist talking about anything and they'll explain how it's secretly a tool of systemic oppression. "That's my girl" is not uniquely regarded as some sort of dogwhistle where if you make a cartoon character say it, it's supposed to immediately scan as a boo light signaling that they're an evil sexist. That's not a thing. Hell, search for "that's my girl" on Tumblr or Bluesky and you'll get tons of hits showing casual usage by very woke users!)
I can't imagine an American ever using that phrase in this situation. This was a male side character who is not close to the [FMC] in any meaningful way. At best he might say "That's our [FMC]." or maybe "That's our girl." since he is a younger member of the same large organization and she is a well-known celebrity in it. Had they had a closer relationship, "That's my girl" may have made sense--but then the Japanese phrasing would have been "Sasu ga [FMC]" or "Sasu ga [FMC]-chan" instead.
The problem isn't that it is inherently sexist, but that it can be interpreted as sexist and will be when the narrative demands it--ie, when criticizing the show and its male fans as sexist. That the fans reject it and it was added to the show will be conveniently ignored.
Wait, is the claim that the localizers would have inserted ostensibly sexist dialogue into the material as some sort of false-flag operation allowing them to then decry the work itself as problematic? This seems, uh, yet another claim from the more straightforward (and contradictory) accusation that some localizers alter dialogue to make the work itself seem more woke than it really is.
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