#bad sub

“But if my adoptive father finds out, he’ll... And what will happened to my adoptive sister?”

Guys, I just watched the subs for the 17th episode of 3-gatsu no Lion (even though I watched the episode beforehand without), and I have to say, I’m upset.

In the Japanese, Rei does not say (think) the word “adoptive,” he only uses “father” and “sister.” I don’t know if the subs are trying to create extra drama or if this is Simone Biles all over again.

Either way, it’s wrong, and at worst, the creator of the subs doesn’t seem to know how adoption works.

Since these are Rei’s inner thoughts, and he’s using “father” and “sister,” I think it’s safe to say he thinks of them without the label “adoptive.” I’m not going to say Rei doesn’t have baggage from his life experiences up until this point. (That’s the meat of this anime after all.) I am going to say, he obviously cares for them deeply and sees them as his family.

In case you all think that maybe the sub creator or I heard something wrong, I watched this part three times to make sure I didn’t miss something. Sure enough, Rei only uses 父 (chichi) not 養父 (youfu). Notice how completely different those are pronounced. Someone involved with the subs purposefully added the terribly didactic and distracting word “adoptive” to this part of the script. The question is WHY?

It might be to add more drama between Rei and his family, making him seem unwilling to accept them as his family and/or undeserving to be included. But, personal experience tells me that’s probably not the case. Even to say this was up to “interpretation” is just wrong, and I’m going to guess whoever added “adoptive” to this sentence is not adopted.

As unfortunate as it is, people still don’t get that adoptive families are REAL FAMILIES. There are many different types of families in the world, and just because an adoptive family looks (not really even) different than say any given person’s non-adoptive family doesn’t mean you have to say “adoptive” this and “adoptive” that all the time. If anything, it’s rude to the family if not hurtful. This is Rei’s real father and sister, and he’s dealing with issues between them that are completely considered in-family issues. If he wasn’t in this family, he wouldn’t be dealing with these particular thoughts he’s having, and this scene probably would never had occurred.