Comments on: More from Baka than a Bunch of Idiots

By: Kruncs

Kruncs — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 16:05:52 +0000

Half the time I am watching an anime, I don’t even focus on the subtitle and only half-read them while I’m primarily mentally translating the words anyways. So when “bakabakabaka” happens, my mind is translating it to fit with the severity of the situation. I see the translations along the lines of ‘dork’, ‘foolish’, ‘foolish, unobservant/inattentive’, ‘idiot’, ‘insensitive/uncaring idiot’, ‘git’ and ‘a-hole.’ Then again, I’m fairly baka myself.

Yes, the phrase is over-used in general, but I think the translators leave it as “idiot” because of the viewers. I have seen forum posting of the morons who complained because they either don’t want it to be anything but “idiot” as well as those who don’t understand that it has different levels of meaning.

@Guy: If you are watching a romantic or cutesy anime, especially like Zero no Tsukaima, then I think you have to resign yourself to viewing/hearing it until it works itself out of overuse in genre.

By: Guy

Guy — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 01:22:23 +0000

Kind of lazy.

By: Guy

Guy — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 01:21:48 +0000

It’s not the translation that feels worn out to me, but the use of the word.

It feels lazy, we have a female character in-love (or she thinks she is) with a male character, who mindlessly does something that hurts her, or even just goes by their words (and obviously they wanted them to do the opposite, obviously), and they cry, go, “Baka ! Baka baka baka!” and run away.

It feels tired, cliched, and uninspired when character after character, many of them not Japanese or even from Earth do this.

Case in point, Louise and Saito, from Zero no Tsukaima.

By: Akibarika

Akibarika — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 12:19:55 +0000

In Japanese Baka can use in large range of meaning. Firstly, like “idiot” or “fool” in English, but it’s its basic meaning. Bake often uses in more emotional situation, for example the boy is too slow-witted to know the girl likes her and then girl will say bake! Lots of Animes’ charactar(female), like tsundere, says bake like her pet phrase, kinda of Moe….

By: sonryhater

sonryhater — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 16:21:29 +0000

Honestly, “baka” needs to just become a loan word in the English culture and language. If there is no good translation or you lose something important in the translation, just don’t translate it. I’d rather see “Baka! Baka! Baka!” than “Idiot! Idiot! Idiot!” honestly. If baka can be translated to idiot, moron, stupid, etc., let it stay baka and let the viewer glean the context from the scene.

By: radiant

radiant — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 19:34:12 +0000

How about “moron” or “dummy”? Maybe “stupid”, or maybe even “dumb f-” maybe not that one.

dummydummydummydummy!!!!

By: super rats

super rats — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 18:47:11 +0000

I even deleted the sentence about how bakabakabaka has a rythm that idiotidiodidiot doesn’t.

Most of the time it doesn’t need to be anything else, but in this scene in Honey & Clover, the repetition of it struck me as lazy to go with “idiot” yet again, instead of going somewhere else to get to the same place. It feeds into my slant that trying to be literal misses the mark.

By: u_nick

u_nick — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 18:09:33 +0000

Yeah, in my mindset, baka is simply one of those un-translate-able words. ‘Idiot’ is a fine replacement for me, simply because I can watch/read and not think that they are actually saying ‘idiot’, but rather this ‘baka’ word. Idiot sounds funny mostly because it has more syllables. We dont say ‘idiotidiotidiot’ out loud because it sounds weird. But they have a word, that has a similar meaning, that DOES sound fine (and dare i say sometimes cute), saying it 3 times in succession.

Once a fan can realize the two languages are so far apart that you stop taking ANY of it literally, it’s easier to ignore all the other little bits too.

By: omo

omo — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 14:15:02 +0000

Still nothing better than “baka bakka.”

I got over that hump with that show, and it’s been over with me ever since.