Howl's Moving Castle

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by innerSpaceman

Unless it was an important plot point, not one single line of the English dialogue was the same as the subtitles. As an example, where a subtitle might read, "Sophie, don't stay here by yourself" ... the spoken English would be, "Sophie, come out and have a good time with us."

That's exactly the phenomenon I was talking about earlier. Because subtitles aren't limited to having to match in timing and rhythm to the animation, they can be more accurate with the translation. While the dubbing has to be significantly altered to synch up as closely as possible with the animation.

[Alex]

The subtitles are translation of the Japanese. The English dub is the change in language necessary to match mouth movements and create subtle changes in story that make comprehension easier for non-Japanese people (a Japanese idiom, for example, will probably be literally translated in the subtitles while converted to an English equivelant for the dub).

[Not Afraid]

Originally Posted by Alex Stroup

The subtitles are translation of the Japanese. The English dub is the change in language necessary to match mouth movements and create subtle changes in story that make comprehension easier for non-Japanese people (a Japanese idiom, for example, will probably be literally translated in the subtitles while converted to an English equivelant for the dub).

Yeah, Japanese idioms don't translate well directly into English. Or the other way around for that matter.