Discotek Licenses Japanese Sonic X!

I imagine I've a lot more negative a view on localisation than you, but I appreciate you being aware of this historical element. Drives me nuts when people try to argue "no, localisation always existed and is super needed and without it translation would be me so sorry mechanical literal nonsense sentence" as if people just didn't translate things before the 80s, because they don't understand that localisation as a specific job is super recent and also doesn't just relate to the script but things like "make sure the dates are in the correct format for this audience in this spreadsheet program" etc

 

I'm studying for a Japanese Language and Culture Master's degree, so my thesis is manly focused on the linguistic aspect of localisation, trying to tie it into translation studies. To be honest, my thesis is more or less finished (working on proofreading atm), but I'd love to read your stuff on the basis that's it's interesting to me, haha

Again, my mistake was probably making it look like I was 100% all for localisation when I'm actually pretty critical of the idea myself- I do realise the need for interpretation and adaptation, but stuff like completely changing a character's personality and inserting some cringey american slang in a translation always make me die a little inside, lol.
Its origin as a purely business oriented practice is still felt nowadays, I think. The fact that it developed completely independently of translation studies is a grave mistake they're just barely getting around to fixing, but it's gonna take a while.
In fact, you could argue the game localisation industry's many failures are the reason its reputation is so controversial nowadays: it really should be an "invisible art", that most average people shouldn't even know exist- and yet, the fact people still make jokes about Japanifornia to this day shows the industry still has a lot of growing up to do, compared to its movie and comic counterpart.

But still...I think the big point I wanted to make is that taking liberties with the source material is not always a cynical localisation choice, and might genuinely be for the best to give a quality translation. In fact, that's probably gonna be my hot take of the thread: it's always a good idea.
Ask any veteran in the industry, the biggest mistakes rookie translators do is sticking too close to the source text. It's something I'm still struggling with a lot, being...a rookie translator myself

So I'm genuinely tired anytime I see someone nitpickinly picking appart the source text and finding one random element that wasn't brought over to the translation, and complaining about how the translation isn't faithful and it'd be better if they stuck more closely to the original script: 99% of the time said person can't even speak the source language, and with all due respect, their suggestions is always inferior to the official translation, lol.
The localisation industry definitely need to get its act straight sooner than later, but the general public also need to take it down a peg and stop pretending to be linguistic experts. I mean, I know how to drive a car but I'm not gonna argue with my mechanic about how to best fix it, right? Damn, that was bad. I guess that's why I'm not doing a thesis on analogies...

 

Ah, cool. My BSc. was International Business Asia which was basically a combined business and Japanese language program. My masters technically was the “Asian” track of the program but it didn’t incorporate any language work because it combined the students from the Mandarin version of my bachelor’s lol.

Anyway, I’ll send a link to the thesis in a private message.

 

Finally got my copy. As someone who is initimately familiar with the original script/version of the show, I'm pretty happy with the results.

Something I think most here might take for granted, but the sub translation is excellent. It's better than the Hulu subs at multiple points, including referencing dialogue from the actual games where relevant. The vast majority of translation choices are fairly close to what I would have done now in 2023 if I was given this script, so on a personal level? Color me impressed.

I wish it was possible to use the dub cast for the show with the original OST, but that ship sailed a long, long time ago.

I still see a few frames with interlacing artifacts, which is rare, but outside of that the video quality looks pretty good all around for an SD show, even on my giant 65" 4KHDR Samsung screen. And the discs are evenly split with 1-39 on one, and 40-78 + Extras on the other. Procuring the resources to put together a 20 year old digital show like this was no doubt a pain too. Overall, despite some problems mentioned before, some real love went into this set and as an old sub fan of the show I'm pleased. This is pretty much the boxet I wanted to buy back in 2005, only for a fraction of the price I would've had to pay at that time. Put aside the few niggling video issues and just enjoy this set for what it is. It's far better than a lot of other problematic releases like things Toei would do with DBZ or Sailor Moon, for example.

P.S. If you didn't like Sonic X, but watched the dub only, you should at least give the subbed version a try. The overall product is much more in line with character and lore from the games as a whole, and the one off funny episodes play a lot better with the original script, IMHO. Episode 20 is a riot in the JP version, for example.

 

This is now the definitive way to watch the show, no question about it. Anyone interested in watching Sonic X needs to watch this.

 

I finally watched the whole show on this set. It'd definetly the best copy of the shoe but I do have 2 glaring issues. Episode 6 & 14 each had a SatAM Quote snuck in as Localization.
Episode 6 - The line "He's Wonderful" (Hulu Subs & 2012 Fansubs) is changed to "Way Past Cool" (Discotek Subs)

Episode 14 - The line "Here We Go" (Hulu Subs & 2012 Fansubs) is changed to "Let's Juice" (Discotek Subs). Ep14 also accidentally kept in the 4Kids Orange Juice Edit. An unfortunate oversight since this is my favorite episode

Overall, Not a complete dealbreaker but really unfortunate and something everyone should know

 

"Really unfortunate"? Jeez. They made me smirk.

 

I mean, "really unfortunate" is obviously subjective, I think this is pretty mild, but it's fair to say they shouldn't have done it. From subs to dubs, the job of translation is to translate, not to make cheeky little jokes and references.