on the topic of the spanish translation of #that episode of the summer hikaru died... as a translator myself, I find the excuses made by the translator in question ridiculous. (for anyone wondering about my qualifications on the topic I have a masters in spanish filology and I have been working as a translator for 2 years now).
she is saying that it is all up to "interpretation" and that was her own and really I detest that word as a translator, especially when it is used to excuse a shit job. but this is what happens when translators take a job without feeling any purpose behind it and let their own personal biases get in the way of their job.
"caer bien" as a phrase in spanish is strictly used in the context of expressing how someone left a good impression on you or if you get along well with someone, devoid of any romantic or sexual connotations.
me cae bien mi compañero de trabajo - I get along well with my work colleague | clearly a strictly platonic sentiment
amo a alguien sin quién no puedo vivir - I am in love with someone I can't live without | a clear romantic sentiment
me gusta mucho mi amigo de clase - I like my classmate very much | this right here is very much up to interpretation, whether it is romantic or platonic, all depending on the context of the situation it was said in.
instead the translator went with "no puedo evitar que me caigas bien" which in english is... "I can't help getting along with you"... like... let's be fucking serious for a second here. I have never read a sentence structured that badly and I have read a lot of shitty sentences.
and my point is that if she wanted to use a phrase that would leave things up to interpretation for the audience, "caer bien" was not the phrase to use, "gustar" was right there. words have meaning and feelings and weight behind them. we use them to convey our emotions and the mark was missed horribly here.
the use of a phrase that is devoid of any romantic or sexual connotation in a situation where Hikaru is clearly confessing his feelings to someone dear to him, to someone he believes is central to his personhood and his "humanity"... he's not talking to a store clerk or a cousin twice removed. this translation makes no sense in the CONTEXT of hikaru's and yoshiki's relationship which is full of queer, romantic and sexual feelings. the CONTEXT of the relationship he has with the person he is saying this to is very fucking important and should be reflected in the translation, including the emotional weight that the words carry in that scene.
and yes, I am sure netflix pays their translators pennies and the schedule most likely was pure hell, but that doesn't excuse you from stripping queer context from a story that is already being stripped of it by homophobic people in the audience. to me this is a form of censorship.
also saying that translation is simply personal interpretation of each translator is such a shit from a butt fucking statement, I don't even know how you got this job in the first place... each translator might translate the same text in slightly different ways, but all of us still have a responsibility to make sure that we convey it's message as closely to the original as we can without obscuring anything.
and sure, translating manga and anime differs in format and you sometimes have to adjust phrasing, especially for voice actors, but "no puedo evitar que me caigas bien" is the most clunky, horribly structured spanish sentence ever created and if I ever submitted something that badly translated, I wouldn't be able to sleep at night from shame.
it's just unfortunate to see a fellow translator make a complete fool of themselves and double down on it in the most pathetic way, especially while working on something so great and important as the summer hikaru died. just another day of queer media being censored in ridiculous ways by incompetent and homophobic people. it's exhausting.
