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Notes -
This actually makes me happy to hear, based on some things I had read a few months ago it sounded like translators were struggling to find work. I've already had to deal with subpar LLM translations in some animes etc., and sadly I think companies like Crunchyroll are going to be too cheap to go back to real translators. Though it might be an improvement, given their human localizers's penchant for injecting modern woke politics into their translations.
Edit: typo
It is rather hard to feel sorry for human localizers given their obvious disdain for the content and those who consume it. For all the problems of LLMs, such seething hatred is rarely included.
Can you share some examples?
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
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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