{"version": "1.0", "type": "rich", "title": "I thought this panel was an interesting translation hall-of-mirrors effect. Dead Dead Demon\u2019s Dededededestruction is a...", "author_name": "kontextmaschine", "author_url": "https://kontextmaschine.com", "provider_name": "kontextmaschine", "provider_url": "https://kontextmaschine.com", "url": "https://kontextmaschine.com/post/130188240628/", "html": "

youzicha:

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I thought this panel was an interesting translation hall-of-mirrors effect. Dead Dead Demon\u2019s Dededededestruction is a slice-of-life/science fiction comic in which the characters hang out on the internet all the time, so the scanslators translate Japanese chan-speak into English chan-speak. In this case, \u201ctoo lewd\u201d is a 4chan catchphrase. (In the original, Ontan says \u201c\u3084\u3060\u30fc!! \u4e0b\u54c1\u4e0b\u54c1!!\u201d)

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But the reason the word \u201clewd\u201d became popular in the first place was via scanslations from Japanese. It\u2019s such an awkward word choice that people picked up on it and made fun of it. So in some sense this comic completes the circle: \u201ctoo lewd\u201d is an excellent translation in 2014 because it was a poor translation in 2006.

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(Where did \u201ctoo lewd\u201d originate? According to Know Your Meme, it all goes back to this translated Touhou comic. The corresponding phrase in the original is \u5c11\u3057\u30a8\u30ed\u904e\u304e\u308b.)

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