[EVA] The final line & Eva's themes

[Carl Gustav Horn]

On Feb 1, 2007, at 6:13 PM, e wrote:

> Sailor Star Dust wrote:
>> As I stated in my previous post (did it get sent
>> out??), Shinji said
>> literally "I'm the lowest of the low". He's NOT
>> dropping the F-bomb, which
>> is my gripe with how AWL "directed" (if you can call
>> it that) the
>> series/movies dub-wise.
>
> A literal translation isn't necessarily correct.  In a
> yakuza movie, if the gangster says "Teme!!" a literal
> translation would be "You!!" but I would consider that
> a poor translation.  A better translation may be "Fuck
> you!!" (depending on the circumstances).  Japanese
> doesn't have the exact equivalent of the F-word as far
> as I'm aware.  From what you seem to be implying, no
> subtitle for Japanese dialogue can ever use the F-word
> because there's no literal equivalent in Japanese.
> Translation is subjective - it's more than simply
> transliteration.
>
> E


That's true. Even in English, swearing is rarely done with the  
literal meaning of the word being meant--that is, "shit" and "fuck"  
aren't exclaimed because the literal act is happening. If a Japanese  
didn't know this, for example, they might explain "Fuck!" literally  
as "In this scene, he is using a vulgar word for 'to have sex,'  
speaking it as a command, in the imperative tone." In the sense of a  
dictionary or book of grammar he might be right, but in terms of  
understanding the word in context--i.e., translating its emotional  
impact in that moment--he would very likely be wrong.

I can somewhat understand the argument that since the ADV TV series  
adaption didn't use much strong language, it's jarring to see it from  
the same cast in the film. However, I'm not even sure how far that  
argument goes, since the film is a willful intensification of the  
brutality and extremity previously present in the TV series  
storyline. It is more violent, more sexual, more psychologically  
disturbed. It pushes its characters to the absolute limit, and breaks  
many of them. Again, it would not seem unreasonable under such  
circumstances for the language to escalate as well.

--C.