but…like we discussed before…miyazaki films are like making cloud pictures…they are informed by your experiences.

like you think the Laputa gardian robots are inhuman…but i loved them…miyazaki did too.
One stands guard in the courtyard of the museum. You are a mecha bigot, Steven.

i know the dubs are sometimes different–and i usually can’t stand dubs, but the miyazaki dubs are better quality, usually, and devoted to keeping the meaning.

and also…i will compare the vhs and the dvd of totoro…perhaps they are different.

AND…as for Naussica…you and i were watching different films, i think.
i have more to say on that.

For instance, there was a line in an episode of DBZ I just watched. It’s at the beginning of the “World Tournament” saga just after Vegita has totaled the punch machine. Gohan says something that they translated as “Can’t take him anywhere.” A funny line.

But what he actually said was “Shou ga nai, ne?” Which means “What can you do, eh?” or “No help for it, eh?”

Actually, what I’ve been discovering is that the English translator(s) of DBZ have gone up on their lines quite a lot, and the English (sub or dub) is a lot more witty than the original Japanese in a lot of ways.

Translators often have to make serious changes in order to deal with figures of speech that don’t translate literally, or cultural references, or topical jokes, or puns. Translation is not literal and cannot be. (For dubs, they have the additional problem of trying to match the animated mouth movements.)

That’s why sometimes I find myself trying to identify the actual Japanese; it’s because I have a suspicion that the translators have taken serious liberties in the translation and I want to know what the original actually said. This is such a case. The word was translated as “soot sprits” but I don’t think that’s what the word/phrase actually meant, or at least not literally.)

And I know it happens in the Miyazaki films. One of his films was titled “Spirited Away” in English, but the Japanese name is Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi which means “Sen and the mysterious disappearance of Chihiro”.

Meanwhile, I just went through the closing credits again looking for the baby, and I think you’re imagining things. I think our host is closer to right: Mom was suffering from tuberculosis and was staying at a sanitarium while being treated, probably in order to minimize the risk of infecting the kids. There is a baby which appears a couple of times in the credits but no particular reason to believe that it’s theirs, especially since Mom isn’t holding anything in her arms when she gets out of the taxi.