Translation, and the splitting of the breast.

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Olin of Xephon
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Translation, and the splitting of the breast.

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Postby Olin of Xephon » Sat Aug 28, 2004 1:21 am

This may or may not belong in the Chit chat section, but I figured there might be some debatble symbolism so...

First, why are the dircetor's cut tanslations diffferent?

Mostly I'm talking about the theme song. It's a lot different.
Also the episode title, on my old VHS it was "at least be human"
Now it's "At least be humane" while I suppose the second one makes more sense, but there was something I liked about the former.

I also heard NEON GENESIS EVANGELION is a bad translation the title is supposed to be NEW CENTURY EVANGELION. True? Why the big screw up?

Anyone know anything about these mistakes/corrections? Which one is truer to the original script?

Secondly. Does the Japanese episode title, Splitting of the breast, bear any symbolism I'm missing? The only thing I saw phsyically split was the Angel (right down the middle) does it mean something?
I asked "And where would you take me?"
At this the beast laughed, tears made of my mother's blood leaked from his eyes.
"I will take you to every place you never wanted to be, and you will hate it."
"Then I will take you to every place you've already been, and you will hate that also."
"Last I will take you to the places you have always dreamed of, and that you'll hate worst of all."

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Postby Reichu » Sat Aug 28, 2004 8:31 am

I can answer many of your questions, but only in a few days' time. (I'm about to transfer to a new college!)

Meantime, you may find it enlightening to look around here.

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Postby ShoKenju » Sat Aug 28, 2004 11:20 am

thats huge
a man within the trap of one sided love is a man torn beyond his imagination.
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Reason = Virtue = Happiness

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Re: Translation, and the splitting of the breast.

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Postby The Eva Monkey » Sat Aug 28, 2004 12:55 pm

Olin of Xephon wrote:First, why are the director's cut tanslations diffferent?

As is the case with an anime brought over and translated, the dub tends to be more of an aproximation. Same affect, slightly different wording. While the sub is the more literal and somewhat less fluid translation. Some times dubs are more literal, sometimes they're more paraphrased, sometimes subs are very broken and literal, sometimes they are more like a dub caption. In the case of the Director's Cut and Platinum subs, ADV had 6 or so years of additional translation work under their belt, and going back to Eva they were able to be a bit more literal, and create a truly quality translation.

Olin of Xephon wrote:I also heard NEON GENESIS EVANGELION is a bad translation the title is supposed to be NEW CENTURY EVANGELION. True? Why the big screw up?

Its not a bad translation per se.

Shin - Seiki - Evangelion
New - Century - Gospel

Or... "Gospel of the New Century"

The title Neon Genesis Evangelion, changing some of the episode titles, changing the Apostles (Shito) to Angels (Tenshi)... they were all decisions made by Anno. They are not neccessarily screw ups, as Anno wanted to make a few changes for the English version. In some cases they make sense, in others they don't.

For more on this, either read the following, or listen to the Platinum commentary track for episode 1 of eva with Matt Greenfield.

http://www.evamonkey.com/there_is_no_agreement.gif

Olin of Xephon wrote:Secondly. Does the Japanese episode title, Splitting of the breast, bear any symbolism I'm missing? The only thing I saw phsyically split was the Angel (right down the middle) does it mean something?

I'm sure it was gleened from somewhere, but I've never really questioned it. It makes sense to me, there's a lot of motherly stuff jumbled in that episode, "Splitting of the Breast", Shinji first realizing his mother within the Eva, Eva Unit 1 emerging from a womb-like Angel. Etc.


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