Reading between the Lines in Japanese: A Lesson from Neon Genesis Evangelion
Anyone who is interested in Japanese anime should not miss Eva. Neon Genesis Evangelion (Eva) is regarded as a phenomenal masterwork of Japanese anime. It tells a dark and extremely complicated story that touches on a diversity of themes, including spiritual development, romantic relationships, social values of that age, culture, and religion. Among these, one of the most popular subjects of fan discussion is the delicate relationship between two of its characters, Shinji and Kaworu. And our story starts here.
Eva was first broadcast in 1995 in Japan and was then released on many streaming platforms after it earned its reputation in the following years. In 2019, Netflix’s re-release of a new version of this anime aroused heated discussion about several changes in the English translation from the original one.
One of them involves a dialogue between Kaworu and Shinji, where Kaworu is telling Shinji that the latter deserves the love of others. This is actually a significant realization for Shinji in terms of story development.
Shinji: 僕が…(I am?)Kaworu: そう。好意に値するよ (Yes, worthy of love.)Shinji: 好意？(Love?)Kaworu: 好きってことさ。(I mean, I love you.)
But the meaning of this significant realization is argued to be completely distorted by the new Netflix translation, which is in the second row:
1st row: the original translation; 2nd row: the new Netflix version
Obviously, there must be many reasons for Netflix to do so, and for some audiences to reject Netflix’s doing so. Viewing it as a good example for pragmatics, I do not intend to judge who is right, or to dwell on the love relationship between the two characters (i.e. a plot analysis of whether there is really a romantic “love” between them). But I would like to draw your attention to a pragmatic perspective on why this translation can be unreasonable or well-founded if we look from a different lens.
A Japanese perspective: This can’t be mere “like”!
Let’s start by looking at how the Japanese usually express their emotions.Japanese are known for their euphemism. There is a well-known anecdote about Japanese expression of love: Soseki Natsume told his students that the Japanese way of expressing “I love you” should be “月が綺麗ですね(As the moon, so beautiful)”. They do not say it explicitly, but the hidden message is about love and affection. Such euphemism provides the ground for translating “好きってことさ” into “I mean, I love you”, rather than “I like you”. Since Japanese resort to the principle of euphemism so frequently, an explicit statement as such (the aforementioned “I love you” or “I like you”) is very possible to point to some firm and weighty emotion instead of mere interest. In other words, even if we know nothing of their story, this translation would be weird enough should we consider the obviously effusive emotions between the lines in the Japanese context. This is the pragmatic reason that supports the translation of the original one and rejects the new one.
A famous romance anime series named As the moon, so beautiful
Retrieved from https://anime.dmkt-sp.jp/animestore/ci_pc?workId=21588
An English perspective: Why is “I like you” better than “I love you”?
However, if we take a different perspective, “I like you” would suddenly seem acceptable. Research has shown that the expression “I love you” can actually have various hidden meanings in western culture. The meanings range from “I really care about you”, “Bye”, to “I need something from you” and “I apologize”. Therefore, it is because the target audience of Netflix is mostly from western culture, the expression of I love you, with so many implications in the western context, could result in misunderstanding. People might refer to the wrong implied meaning, or become at a loss for what exactly this Japanese character is trying to tell another boy by saying this. In this light, “I like you” could be a better choice--and is also more faithful to the literal meaning of the Japanese lines.
A Lesson from Eva: Cultural Awareness
You might have noticed that throughout this post, I have not made any personal judgment about the two ways of translation by calling one of them “mistranslation”. In fact, I have deliberately done so in hope that readers of this passage, after reading through the explanation from two language-cultural standpoints, may realize that in an intercultural situation like media translation, the rights and wrongs are sometimes only the results of cultural assumptions. Even the appropriateness of a piece of translation might differ depending on its settings, as we see in this example. So next time you watch an exotic movie, try to be more aware of cultural differences and to change your “cultural spectacles” sometimes!
By Flora
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