Sure but a toddler is so far removed. You're drawing a false equivalence. They looked ambiguous enough to be fit in any upper range JS age, which can then be extrapolated to be in line for being pubescent, which holds true for reality. As for the rest of your point I don't know what relevance it has or why you brought it up. Like I mentioned, you just sparked me being curious there. It is not that deep. Cheers!
The really bad news, is not the guy (Dazed) that at least puts effort into it and makes corrections when possible.
I graduate from Japanese language faculty. And No, i can't say about American, but in Asia , Muse Asia , Bstation, and Netflix , we still hiring translator team.
I can't speak to said Asian departments for said companies in Asia and how their subs and dubs turn out. But in the US, it is more or less localization by people that hate Japan, hate anime/manga, and or barely know little to no Japanese(their own words). They just want to insert their activist message. I'd rather take an MTL direct translation than anything official from big companies currently.
I mean, that's not entirely true. There are a lot of English native speakers who're fluent in Japanese. But translating a game also requires some basic programming, and is also a lot of work done absolutely for free. But there are studios like Kagura-games that translate some of the bigger games regularly. Because they earn money from it unlike fan-translators who, even if they try to set up a Patreon, don't make much at all. And even if we take someone fluent in Japanese, they will have a much, much easier time editing and improving upon GPT-4 translation which is mostly accurate, than doing everything from scratch. So yeah, translation will never be the same and I think it's only a matter of time before even professional translators use MTL as a tool to speed-up the process manyfold. And GPT-5 is coming out this year, who knows how much it will improve the already good translations of GPT-4?
A few points to address
They don't reveal that it's edited MTL?
If they did reveal I would have ZERO problems. Last I checked they do not. There was one old Pateron post that said they were MTL'ers but have switched to real translations. But I don't know if it is up still, and two, I don't believe it. As far them revealing it on the site? The answer would be no, based on my search earlier.
In Asia, we have the opposite problems haha. It's either too formal or using to "poetic" translations what happened in North America is very different with Asia. That's why last year Localization drama is ridiculously unprofessional for me (How the hell that got approved anyway?)
What do you mean, why? You said that "people fluent in both languages are gone". I pointed out that they just have better things to do than learning programming, and doing translations for free. And what do you mean "losing credibility", have you played any GPT -4 games, and how good is your Japanese? Because as someone who's actively learning it, I can guarantee that it's more than 95% accurate, and the rest is easily edited. Moreover, GPT by default has "better writing" than most authors, so its translations just sound better. There was actually a study that proved that people prefer text made by GPT compared to human-made texts. If a translator uses GPT, and not only does it increase the speed of their translation, but also how well-written it is and without any drop in quality then IDK how exactly is this going to make them lose any credibility, lol. It seems to me that you don't realize the difference between Google Translate and GPT-4, they are in different leagues. But not many people use GPT because it costs money. MTLs are the future, and that's a good thing. We are already getting way more translations than ever, this is especially true for RPGM NTR games.A few points to address
1. I'm talking about translation prowess. I don't know why you brought up programming. But to your point. It isn't some mystical and magical thing. People have done it in the past, and they can do it currently, especially now with the easier tools we have
2. 99.9% of fan-translators that have Pateron are MTL'ing shitlords
3. If you're fluent in Jap and use GPT you just lose all credibility going forward as far as I'm concerned. (to this point. There are doujin groups that used to be great but currently MTL. Most likely because all the old guard left and they are riding on name's coattails).
4. I haven't played any officially tl'd Kagura games I think? So I can't comment on them.
This might read a bit aggressive. Not my intention, I'm just passionate.
