Yes, and it’s also used about actual child predator pedophiles. It’s a word with multiple senses/connotations, and one of those senses corresponds closely with the English word “pedophile” while the others do not. That’s why “pedophile” is not always the correct translation for it – though whether it’s correct in this case I can’t say, as I haven’t watched the anime in question.
If you’re into sexualized (cartoon) children you’re a pedophile, so the translation would be factually correct. That sort of pedophilia just has much less cultural acceptance in English speaking world
That sort of pedophilia just has much less cultural acceptance in English speaking world
Which is why it’s not always the most accurate translation. Part of the job of a translator is to translate cultural nuance, which would be lost here.
It’s a bit like how in English, Epstein wouldn’t call Trump a pedophile, he’d say he “likes them young”. In Japanese he could call him a lolicon and get the same tone.
If the term isn’t meant to be so “heavy” in the original usage, and there isn’t an equivalent “light” term here, I wonder if it would’ve been better to just translate it as “I didn’t realize you were a creep” or something else that misses the nuance, but gets the intended feeling and tone across.
Japan is uncomfortably comfortable with loli shit, and it’s reflected in anime… Which is why anime will never be a family living room activity for me, unless I’ve vetted it to be clean. For example, Death Note is ok, but Dragon Maid is not.
To be an anime fan you have to learn this specific skill where you disassociate during cringe “fan-service” moments and come back to Earth once it’s over.
My personal favorite example of this is Langrisser Mobile. Easily my favorite mobile game ever made with tons of depth to character building and strategy with a genuinely engrossing story full of political intrigue in a fantasy setting. And I can never recommend it to anyone.
This is because certain female characters allow you to perform love confessions to them if you max them out. Almost all female characters (for the first few years) are under 16. You can confess your love to the 10 year old girl and she will promise to keep it a secret till she’s old enough. You can also buy a skin for her where her skin is glistening wet, she shakes her ass at the camera, and wears white, see-through-because-they’re-wet stockings. Why.
Most players are just totally fine with this. And it’s not a rare issue. Just off of the top of my head there’s almost literally every single anime ever set in a high school, about half of isekai fantasy, almost every modern shonen battle anime. Meanwhile basically every gacha game ever made has you hunting underage girls for sport. It’s wild just how pervasive it is in 2D/3DCG Japanese media.
Part of the job of a translator is to translate cultural nuance, which would be lost here. That’s what makes the translation inaccurate in some contexts.
But isn’t it used about people who are into sexualized (cartoon) children?
Yes, and it’s also used about actual child predator pedophiles. It’s a word with multiple senses/connotations, and one of those senses corresponds closely with the English word “pedophile” while the others do not. That’s why “pedophile” is not always the correct translation for it – though whether it’s correct in this case I can’t say, as I haven’t watched the anime in question.
If you’re into sexualized (cartoon) children you’re a pedophile, so the translation would be factually correct. That sort of pedophilia just has much less cultural acceptance in English speaking world
Which is why it’s not always the most accurate translation. Part of the job of a translator is to translate cultural nuance, which would be lost here.
It’s a bit like how in English, Epstein wouldn’t call Trump a pedophile, he’d say he “likes them young”. In Japanese he could call him a lolicon and get the same tone.
How would you translate the word to best fit the meaning?
I don’t know, I haven’t watched the show so I don’t know what the meaning is here.
If the term isn’t meant to be so “heavy” in the original usage, and there isn’t an equivalent “light” term here, I wonder if it would’ve been better to just translate it as “I didn’t realize you were a creep” or something else that misses the nuance, but gets the intended feeling and tone across.
Does “pedophile” not work in the scene in question?
They already basically answered that.
Though in this context, maybe the best thing to do is to not translate it. Most of the audience is likely to know the word already.
Did the character mean to say that they’re a pedophile but without the bad implication of it?
I can’t answer that categorically, but that’s about what I’m inferring from what other people are saying.
That just sounds to me that pedophilia is not frowned upon in Japan, not that the translation is inaccurate.
Japan is uncomfortably comfortable with loli shit, and it’s reflected in anime… Which is why anime will never be a family living room activity for me, unless I’ve vetted it to be clean. For example, Death Note is ok, but Dragon Maid is not.
To be an anime fan you have to learn this specific skill where you disassociate during cringe “fan-service” moments and come back to Earth once it’s over.
i wonder whether there’s a filtered anime streaming platform for western audiences specifically.
also at that point why would you bother with anime at all? just watch western cartoons / animations, there’s many of them too.
My personal favorite example of this is Langrisser Mobile. Easily my favorite mobile game ever made with tons of depth to character building and strategy with a genuinely engrossing story full of political intrigue in a fantasy setting. And I can never recommend it to anyone.
This is because certain female characters allow you to perform love confessions to them if you max them out. Almost all female characters (for the first few years) are under 16. You can confess your love to the 10 year old girl and she will promise to keep it a secret till she’s old enough. You can also buy a skin for her where her skin is glistening wet, she shakes her ass at the camera, and wears white, see-through-because-they’re-wet stockings. Why.
Most players are just totally fine with this. And it’s not a rare issue. Just off of the top of my head there’s almost literally every single anime ever set in a high school, about half of isekai fantasy, almost every modern shonen battle anime. Meanwhile basically every gacha game ever made has you hunting underage girls for sport. It’s wild just how pervasive it is in 2D/3DCG Japanese media.
Part of the job of a translator is to translate cultural nuance, which would be lost here. That’s what makes the translation inaccurate in some contexts.
So we need to translate it so the audience undertands there’s a level of implied cultural acceptance of pedos. How’s this?
“I didn’t know you were a redditor”