One Punch Man's Hero and infinite translation possibility space

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takenoko
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One Punch Man's Hero and infinite translation possibility space

Post by takenoko »

So I've been listening to the opening to One Punch Man "Hero" by the fantastic group JAM Project. And the original song is great. You can literally feel them push their vocal chords to their limit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QImBolnTVH8

But what's fascinating to me is these two English dub covers of the song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDygxp01CG8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAz6svcil1I

It's neat because the lyrics vary quite a bit, but both do an interesting job at capturing the feeling of the show in different ways. It's a departure for subbing, since in dubs you can just put whatever you want as long as you get the feeling more or less correct. But it's also more constrained, since it has to sound lyrical and fit well in a song.

It kind of reminds me of this story from Radiolab, where this one guy had this French poem translated in dozens of ways to try to capture the structure, tone, and meaning of the original in English.
http://www.radiolab.org/story/translation/

It might be counter intuitive, but having very clear constraints can be very beneficial to creative works. It gives focus and can lead to surprising innovation.
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Re: One Punch Man's Hero and infinite translation possibility space

Post by Catastrophe »

So I've been listening to the opening to One Punch Man "Hero" by the fantastic group JAM Project. And the original song is great. You can literally feel them push their vocal chords to their limit:
Of course. It's a JAM Project song. All their songs are like this.

Except the song they did for SRW Z 3.2. That was kind of shit. Just like One Punch Man.
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Re: One Punch Man's Hero and infinite translation possibility space

Post by Roz JC »

Catastrophe wrote:
So I've been listening to the opening to One Punch Man "Hero" by the fantastic group JAM Project. And the original song is great. You can literally feel them push their vocal chords to their limit:
Of course. It's a JAM Project song. All their songs are like this.

Except the song they did for SRW Z 3.2. That was kind of shit. Just like One Punch Man.
One Punch Man? Shit?

Ok...
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Re: One Punch Man's Hero and infinite translation possibility space

Post by MagusKaiser »

they're both good although I still prefer jonathan youngs version since it has that nice impact to it
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Re: One Punch Man's Hero and infinite translation possibility space

Post by Catastrophe »

Roz JC wrote: One Punch Man? Shit?

Ok...
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takenoko
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Re: One Punch Man's Hero and infinite translation possibility space

Post by takenoko »

Pic's broken. I think One Punch Man is a hilarious spoof of the hero genre. I don't think it's meant to be taken seriously.
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Re: One Punch Man's Hero and infinite translation possibility space

Post by Philip Aldraine »

I never took One Punch Man seriously. I watched it because it was hilarious and entertaining at the same time.
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Re: One Punch Man's Hero and infinite translation possibility space

Post by j_yukio »

Hey Takenoko, have you seen this one?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YDjNfm6NNc
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Re: One Punch Man's Hero and infinite translation possibility space

Post by takenoko »

Not yet, thanks! I love seeing people singing the song, it's so crazy to begin with. I wish the guy had subs for his lyrics though.
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