Word-for-Word Translated Anime?

[Pitman]

Does anybody know of an anime that was translated basically word-for-word and the company which did it or of a company that generally does this?

[EmilLang1000]

Basically any except for 4Kids

Here's a common misconception: Subs are JUST AS inaccurate to what is being said as dubs are; even MORE SO sometimes. The problem is, no two languages directly translate to one another. Romantic and Germanic languages come close (Spanish to French to English to German, for instance, isn't all that bad, because French and Spanish are notoriously close, French was a major influence on English, and German is the direct root of English), but it's impossible to do it word-for-word. ADV has, by far, the best dubs and subs, Viz is pretty good, and AnimEigo caters almost specifically to the subbers.

[amvwizard]

dude in japan its an entirely diffrent way of thinking. Because of that many japanese words have no literal translation.

[oldwrench]

If they translated it literally, word for word, you would never understand it. Closest example I can think of is some of the instruction manuals that come with computer parts. You need a translator to tell you what the "english", the asians wrote, means.

[Otohiko]

As someone who's about to start grad studies in linguistics, I can say that the idea of a "word for word" translation is naive.

It doesn't exist. Wait, scratch that, word for word translation does exist. As an experiment of what it looks like, I suggest you try Babelfish.

[Malificus]

Like this?

The person who becomes the partner needs in the green onion which is magical errand the tail and fin was attached to the story, whether it is it is not, it decided that "the green onion in order to search the marriage partner, came to Japan". Furthermore the オコジョ spirit duck of the イタズラ person "the partner searching it came to helping", that it appeared. You to make a noise unilaterally with around, as for the green onion annoyance thousandth. However, the duck 憎 not to drive the green onion and to acquire the throat pin face which is thought, what selfish intrigue...?

The translation much good one.

[older_gohan]

The same goes from english to any other language. We often invent new words that just don't exsist in other languages. A fault of humanity as a whole.

[Willen]

And forget about translating many japanese jokes. I'm sure most translators go bonkers trying to:

#1. figure out the joke unless it's really obvious to them
#2: see if they can somehow use a similar english joke in it's place
#3: somehow convert wordplays or puns into something that isn't complete nonsense and make it hopefully even remotely understandable
#4: hope that the joke isn't too culturally specific which will mean that it will probably not translate or will need a page of text to explain it, and even then you are left scratching your head at the strange humor of the japanese (of course, this goes both ways...)

Examples:
Excel Saga in japanese, with subtitles WITHOUT the pop-up notes.
Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi, same as above.

General rule of thumb in the movie biz is that straight comedies don't do well in the international market because a lot of the jokes are culturally based or require intimate knowledge with the native language. Action comedies (especially slapstick and gag types) and to a lesser extent romantic comedies do well, but not as well as action/adventure flicks or dramas.

[Otohiko]

The same goes from english to any other language. We often invent new words that just don't exsist in other languages. A fault of humanity as a whole.

Not a fault at all, just a difference. Other languages invent plenty of words and even, arguably, ideas that English has no word or concept for. All those differences can be explained - but not with attempts at word-for-word translation.

Semantics. Never get me started on semantics

[older_gohan]

I consider it a fault only because the words we ternd to invent only prove to be problems in society.

*shrugs* Consider it my pet peeve.