Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS "Fan Anticipation Thread"

[Skyfall]

Originally Posted by CrossoverManiac

That's the script writer's fault. The Japanese VA for Raging Heart is Donna Burke, so I'm going out on a limb here and say that English is her primary language. Why the script writers never consulted her for language accuracy is beyond me.

Did it ever dawn upon you, that maybe, just maybe Raging Heart talked exactly the way it did because the scriptwriter intended it to talk that way, and not because of his insuficient english language skills?

[FlameSparkZ]

That's a question whose answer we'll (probably) never find out...

[CrossoverManiac]

Originally Posted by Skyfall

Did it ever dawn upon you, that maybe, just maybe Raging Heart talked exactly the way it did because the scriptwriter intended it to talk that way, and not because of his insuficient english language skills?

And just why did the script writers want to screw up the language? If I had to write dialogue in a different language, I'd, to the best of my ability, write it as accurately as possible, especially if I had a VA that spoke English as their primary language. That, and too many animes have very bad Engrish to assume they did it on purpose.

[Klashikari]

because they didn't bother to check it up? ot it simply sounds "cool" ?

keep in mind that japanase love using foreign words/speech, even there are huge mistakes (this kind of "engrish" is not really a bother... try some french in anime... THAT is scary...). they use theses language first as "cool" features. the "faithful" and logical features aren't a standard (some exceptions like death note, etc)

i guess they hired a native english voicer, so it would have "some" authenticity, even with goofy speech. (on the other hand, imagine a native japanese talking REAL english... it would be sad, especially for this kind of voice)

since this show isn't really dedicated for us, foreign watchers, but merely for japanese boys, with the good idea of some "subtitle" for RH and bardiche sentences, well... is it really a problem?

[Deathkillz]

Originally Posted by CrossoverManiac

And just why did the script writers want to screw up the language? If I had to write dialogue in a different language, I'd, to the best of my ability, write it as accurately as possible, especially if I had a VA that spoke English as their primary language. That, and too many animes have very bad Engrish to assume they did it on purpose.

you are missing the point here...those are "intellegent devices" meaning they are AI (artificial intellegence)...
well robots arent ment to sound like normal humans especially computer generated sounds...so why would a machine such as those devices speak fluent english? and its ment to be steriotypical of machines to speak engrish...it was on purpose and it suited the nature of the item that is saying it getting the point across perfectly...

[FlameSparkZ]

*Remember Zero no Tsukaima*
Not enough french in it...

Also, japanese know how to use foreing words to make cool-sounding special attacks

[Klashikari]

that depend... some attacks would be ridiculous in english or any other language (i can't imagine fate "Plasma Zanber Breaker" fully in english... it would be so cheesy...(plasma zanber already wrong... now mixing both, ugh...))

but i admit that in nanoha, they did a good job (especially with the wolkenritten velka type weapons)

[Skyfall]

Originally Posted by CrossoverManiac

And just why did the script writers want to screw up the language? If I had to write dialogue in a different language, I'd, to the best of my ability, write it as accurately as possible, especially if I had a VA that spoke English as their primary language. That, and too many animes have very bad Engrish to assume they did it on purpose.

Why did he want to do it? Who knows, he can do it for whatever reason he want's to, and it does not take anything away from the show. And it's a god damn staff that is meant to talk wery little, if at all, and certainly not in a manner that rivals an english peot ... it is very easy to see why RH would talk the way it did It speaks in battle, whe it needs to get itš point across right here and right now, as soon as possible, and simple and direct words achieve that just fine ... it only seldomly speaks in battle situations (and more often than not it's 'speech' is simply announcing the name of the attack it is performing), so it really has no practical use for a vocabulary large enough to fluently explain quantum physics... I have no idea how one can arrive at the conclusion that the manner RH talks in is a result of the writer's faulty english.

[Vexx]

I see some assumption that there is a legion of translators available to jump into action at any time. The unpleasant reality is that good translators are hard to find. Donna was just given a set of lines to read, quick job.
Also consider that this is a machine using a very small subset of the language to save storage space for specific actions. The way RH (and Bardiche) uses what language subset they have makes them both endearing and gives them a bit of character (a Babelfish-like bit of humor) -- nice touch for marginally sentient machines.

[Theclow]

Originally Posted by Deathkillz

you are missing the point here...those are "intellegent devices" meaning they are AI (artificial intellegence)...
well robots arent ment to sound like normal humans especially computer generated sounds...so why would a machine such as those devices speak fluent english? and its ment to be steriotypical of machines to speak engrish...it was on purpose and it suited the nature of the item that is saying it getting the point across perfectly...

If it speaks engrish then woulden't it be a "unintellegent device"?

[Dragnfly@Gamefaqs]

I'd say that it's intelligent from the aspect of being able to speak and think at all.

[Kikaifan]

The primary language used by TSAB, judging from all their emergency messages in A's, is something a lot like English, or a language that English is used in the stead of in order to convey its foreign quality in the eyes of the main character and for the audience's benefit (not much of a stretch when it's so common in media to render all speech into the consumers' native tongue for convenience except where other characters and the audience are not meant to understand).

Between 'the TSAB AIs just happen to have been programmed to misuse verbs from their intended users' native language in ways that would be natural for a nonfluent foreign speaker,' and 'the writers didn't care enough to make sure small segments of dialogue in a foreign language that they were going to subtitle anyway was accurate,' I don't see how you can reasonably expect anyone to believe the former. Having an explanation handy for maintaining suspension of disbelief is all well and good, but I wouldn't for a second conflate that with the writers' intent.

[CrossoverManiac]

Originally Posted by Skyfall

Why did he want to do it? Who knows, he can do it for whatever reason he want's to, and it does not take anything away from the show.

Even if it doesn't, it's still wrong.

And it's a god damn staff that is meant to talk wery little, if at all, and certainly not in a manner that rivals an english peot ...

I don't recall criticizing RH for not speaking in iambic pentameter. I do expect them not to speak Engrish with an English VA on hand to make corrections.

it is very easy to see why RH would talk the way it did It speaks in battle, whe it needs to get itš point across right here and right now, as soon as possible, and simple and direct words achieve that just fine

By speaking in English to a girl raised on Japanese

... it only seldomly speaks in battle situations (and more often than not it's 'speech' is simply announcing the name of the attack it is performing),

The English language doesn't need to be bastardized (Engrish) to convey ideas in a short duration of time.

so it really has no practical use for a vocabulary large enough to fluently explain quantum physics...

Again, no one asked that RH be able to explain quantum physics.

I have no idea how one can arrive at the conclusion that the manner RH talks in is a result of the writer's faulty english.

Because faulty English is not isolated to just Nanoha. Most anime with English dialogue is badly spoken.

[CrossoverManiac]

Originally Posted by Vexx

I see some assumption that there is a legion of translators available to jump into action at any time. The unpleasant reality is that good translators are hard to find.

Aw but they did have a translator, Donna Burke. At the very least, they could have her proofread her own dialogue.

[Deathkillz]

Originally Posted by Theclow

If it speaks engrish then woulden't it be a "unintellegent device"?

Originally Posted by Dragnfly@Gamefaqs

I'd say that it's intelligent from the aspect of being able to speak and think at all.

exactally...also being able to think...
its not like these devices are as advanced as the huminoids from the terminator...its has a smaller chip i guess

@CrossoverManiac ~ well thats your opinion and i respect that...no point trying to change things further if you still think that way but my opinion is that the voices rocks!

[JediNight]

About the voice parts: She is a voice actress. Her job is to read the part given. I can't say exactly, but I would think that second-guessing your voice director over there is probably frowned upon.

At any rate, it could just be that the script-writer was not great with English. It could also be that they wanted passable-sounding English, but still phrased simple enough that most of the potential viewers of the show could understand it. (Just a bit of an exotic flavor)

This subject does remind me of the horrible Engrish in Ep1 of Kashimashi. It sounds like they just pulled random foreigners from the street and asked them to voice a part. The voice director didn't know how to direct them in English, so basically had them read the part once as deadpan as possible, so it came out sounding like something from Zero Wing. We get signal!

[Kikaifan]

Originally Posted by Deathkillz

exactally...also being able to think...
its not like these devices are as advanced as the huminoids from the terminator...its has a smaller chip i guess

Someone hurry and get Arnold to take a gubernatorial holiday so he can voice a new device in StrikerS. I'd pay just to hear that.

[MeganeShounen]

Originally Posted by Kikaifan

Someone hurry and get Arnold to take a gubernatorial holiday so he can voice a new device in StrikerS. I'd pay just to hear that.

Duly noted. Maybe a fist-type or large Caster Gun-type Device would fit Ah-nold's voice nicely.

At least the Devices don't use shorthand or l33t language. Thinking of it makes me wonder still...

Nanoha: Raising Heart, onegai!
RH: Standby Ready. Set Up.
(RH's screen reads "stndby rdy, SETUP")
Nanoha: Umm... she's acting funny...

Speaking of which... cellphones as Intelligent Devices...?
(Ugh, bad idea..)

[Dragnfly@Gamefaqs]

I remember an anime girl who used celphones as weapons. I'm drawing a blank on who though.

And Arnie would totally voice an ID staff that turned into a minimi or something. He'd have to

As for the engrish voicework, yes, it is horribly bad form to "correct" a director or writer in japan, even if you're right. In that case status is everything, remember. And not just a VA "backtalking" them, but a gaijin at that! ABSURD! It might seem like the wrong way to do things to us but we're those absurd gaijin Additionally, the script would have been written long before the voices were recorded.

EDIT: RIGHT! Gatekeepers 21 had celphone battles.

[Deathkillz]

haha just imagine one of the villians in Strikers having arnie as his/her intelligent device XD that would totally pwn! and each time the guy defeats someone the weapon would scream "hasta la vista baby..."...come to think of it the weapon has to be some kind of badass gun weapon