DO NOT, REPEAT, DO NOT Buy the Eureka Movie DVD

[neoboy3000]

Hello - I know it has been a looooong time since I posted on here (life, what are you gonna do?) but a rift so great and terrible has shuddered my nerdly being that I must sound the alarm from the highest mountain top and raise arms against a fearsome foe!!!

I love Eureka Seven so very much...own the original DVD release, the manga, all that jazz. Posters and soundtracks, you name it. Last year as many of you are aware, they made a movie. I waited for the Japanese release like a good little otaku, and checked out the fansub when it dropped. Loved it, great stuff! Different, but great. The human military EIZO battling the alien Imagi, all the while our young heroes fighting through it to be with one another....splendid!

Now Bandai has finally released the DVD, and I have witnessed perhaps the biggest localization cock up of my life. Ok, as I said the aliens are called Imagi and the military is called EIZO...on the case, in the SUBS, and IN THE DAMN DUB THEY ARE BACKWARDS!! You hear a character say Imagi in Japanese, and the subs read EIZO. You hear JYB voicing Renton talk about the alien and say EIZO - it turned my stomach and, four MINUTES into the film, I turned it off. That's before the title screen for those keeping track.

I am full of the nerd rages by brothers - a curt letter is sent off to Bandai's customer support, but short of re-dubbing the film (which I don't see happening) there is no resolution to this problem. I drove an hour round trip because I saw this DVD was in at a Best Buy near here (not the one in my town, but a half hour away). I paid cash money for this "professional" DVD release, drove all the way home, and it's screwed up. How do you miss something like that ALL THE WAY THROUGH THE DUB?! Nobody caught that? Nobody questioned it at all?

So, while I await response from Bandai, I bequeath you - do not support this shotty release!! It's a small release, and I don't know how many of you are interested in E7 even...but spread the word to anybody you know that is. I love the film, there is nothing wrong with it - but this is the just the biggest screw up in recent history, and frankly shakes my faith in the domestic release market all around.

Thank you for hearing my call of nerd ragey alarm!! Bang your own local gong and let not my call fall into the night and others have to suffer my fate!!

 

[KamenRiderShinzo]

That's so sad. How could they and the English voice actors mess this up? Why, Johnny Yong Bosch, Why?! He's my favourite English voice actor too. Didn't he wonder once why he's saying the names of the wrong sides? Or does he and the other voice actors not know anything about the story? Heck, even the story of the TV series? It makes me wonder if voice actors know about the stories, and maybe their characters in shows. I'm sure a lot do, maybe most of English and Japanese voice actors, at least the Japanese ones.

Anyway, can't you get it refunded? Thank you for letting us know and I hope other people are aware of this too. And wow, you were here since 2005! You should try stick around whenever you can man!

 

[Domino 555]

It has nothing to do with the voice actors and more with the fact that the script writer messed up.

 

[KamenRiderShinzo]

But I'm still wondering if the voice actors at least knew about the story to notice the mistake.

 

[sgtkira]

But I'm still wondering if the voice actors at least knew about the story to notice the mistake.

No, I would highly doubt that they did. First off, it's a job for them. Secondly, it's not like if you or I were to become a Voice Actor. These are just people who are skilled at doing voices, and nothing more. Sure they can get into the character and such, and may even like the show, and hell, they could even get into Anime, but I still don't think that they could be fans like we are.

 

[Lynxara]

It has nothing to do with the voice actors and more with the fact that the script writer messed up.

And R1 anime releases featuring absolutely no quality control. It is goddamn inexcusable that nobody picked up on this before the voice track was laid down.

 

[neoboy3000]

Well, seems I have had some clarity laid upon me...
Imagi is of course Engrish for Image. Eizo, it turns out, is Japanese for image. So they substituted the Japanese word for the English word...which I guess makes sense. I am still frustrated that the subs were not just left accurate, but since it's not really WRONG per se, I can't be so mad about it.

Man, don't I feel embarrassed.....

 

[Kaido]

So it's safe to buy the E7 DVD now?
:laugh:

 

[Lynxara]

I'm not sure I would, that's a pretty pointless localization change.

 

[KouAidou]

I would go one step further and say that it's an outright misguided localization. "Imeeji/Image" is an English word, but it's one that's been adopted by the Japanese and put into regular usage in that language; you see it plenty in Japanese songs and TV.

By contrast, "Eizo" is not a word in regular usage in English; it's not something that English speakers (or even most otaku) would immediately recognize (for that matter, neither is "Imagi", if they're pronouncing it the way I expect they are).

So, it's translating a pun that nearly everyone would get to one that only a small handful of people has a hope of getting, and confusing people in the process.

But is understanding the "pun" necessary to the plot at all? Are the alien and the military organization connected in some significant way? I suspect the translator meant to go above and beyond on the translation and just made a bad call, but I'm confused as to why he/she even bothered.