Battle of Subtitles

 INTRODUCTION

Whenever I name my article and use strong words such as “battle” I think if I have been too harsh, or if I am just describing the reality. Whichever is the case, in this article, we are going to talk about something both personal, but also very objective, which many of you may have noticed.

Since MyDramaList has started to exist, its main goal was to create a community which would share the joy of Asian film productions and after years in the run, I can proudly state that it has succeeded. Indeed, there is a big diverse community, both different, but also the same at the roots. We all love watching Asian productions, but oftentimes, we get divided by genres.

Today we aren’t going to talk about things that divide us as a community, but we’re going to talk about something that for sure many of us witnessed while watching stories of our likings.

Subtitles.

Since MyDramaList is so big, I cannot pin-point how many users do use subtitles while watching. Since I do not have exact data, I will only say that some of the MDL users for sure use subtitles while watching and that is the main topic of this article – the art of subtitles.

What are subtitles?

For those who are unfamiliar with subtitles and their origin, let me give you a quick briefing before we jump into the main course!

Subtitles are man made or AI made texts that are input into the video in order to assist the viewer with watching. Usually, it’s main purpose is to show translated versions of the dialogues or monologues that happen on the screen. In other cases, the subtitles are transcribed texts for those who are hard of hearing, or for other reasons that do not deal with language barriers.

In this article, we are going to talk about subtitles that are made to help viewers understand the dialogues and monologues in another language, than the one that it’s originally shown on the screen.

Who makes subtitles?

Like I have stated in the section above, subtitles can be made by various sources, but usually in the current year of 2025, they are predominantly made by people rather than AI since AI technology still has issues and isn’t 100% accurate, but we can argue, that even humans cannot be accurate on 100%, right?

The two categories: human translators and AI translators are very vague and big, thus let’s divide the categories a bit more, to get to the root of this article.

When we are talking about subtitles within the TV series and movies we consume, we often come across three categories of translations: official streaming platform translations, fan-translations and AI translations. Which do we dislike the most? Once again, I don’t have statistics, but I think AI translations have the worst reputation among these three categories.

Now, who has the best reputation? We shall debate.

Streaming Platforms VS Fan-translators

I think the older generation of viewers might understand me when I say that back than we didn’t have many choices in terms of subtitles, since we were happy if we stumbled upon a weird non-verified blog with a person generously translating the TV series or movies we desperately wanted to see and understand.

Now, with the era we live in, things have changed.

While Asian productions have been around for decades and indeed they even have black-and-white productions, we got to see them on official streaming platforms only recently. When I saw the news for the first time, I was ecstatic, because not only would I get to see a translated TV series or movie of my liking, but with my subscription to the service, I would be supporting the productions. While I was right about one thing – the financial support part – I was wrong about one major thing, which is getting subtitles. Correction; getting correct subtitles.

I am perfectly aware that I am walking on a thin ice with these bold statements, but I feel that we live in an age where this topic should be talked about, since this isn’t some “fun” game we are playing with streaming services, we are – to put it frankly – talking about our investments, thus money.

While in the past fan-translators were our only hope to watch a production we liked, nowadays with the amount of new subscription services, one would think that they would simply cease to exist, right? Well, yes and no. While it is true that many fan-translators of cable TV series ceased to exist, we still see a lot of fan-translators existing and even translating TV series or movies, which were translated by official streaming platforms. Why is that? Why are fan-translators working so hard when their “workload” should have been lifted by the existence of streaming platforms?

The answer is complicated.

While some fan-translators do their job because they genuinely feel liberated while doing it, others are doing the hard work because they see what many streaming platforms are doing – incorrect translations.

It might be shocking to some, but indeed, we live in an era where we have many paid streaming services where, oftentimes, they provide us with half-correct subtitles, which oftentimes not only have grammatical mistakes, but also factual mistakes. We often see absence of punctuation, adding words that were never originally said or imputing phrases when there is silence in the video.

This is sadly the reality of paid streaming services.

My question is why?

Why am I not paying a small amount of money monthly or yearly, just to see half-correct subtitles when I can just watch the series for free?

I think I can’t be alone thinking that when I am paying for something, I expect a certain level of quality and I can’t help, but feel discouraged to pay for streaming services that provide me with terrible subtitles.

Are we getting our money's worth? I think it depends, because keep in mind, big streaming services don’t only have English translators, but other language translators as well. Usually it works like this; someone translates the original video into English and then other language translators come and translate from the English subtitles and thus that oftentimes creates the fire of incorrectness. If English subtitles are bad, then the other language subtitles are bad as well.

Many times I asked myself and others what could be the problem and I might have come with possible answers.

1. Lack of professional translators being hired

2. Lack of editors being hired

3. Low-budget

4. Not enough of time to translate

Let’s dissect my possible outcomes one by one, shall we? First and foremost, I do think official streaming platforms are trying to save up by hiring non-professionals to do the job of translation. Is it necessarily bad? No! Many fan-translators aren’t professional translators, but still do their job, oftentimes much better than streaming platforms. So, how can we work with a non-professional translator and still produce a good outcome? Editors! I can’t stress this profession enough, because it is really important! Even though you are born in a certain country and speak the language since you were a baby, if you aren’t studying the language actively, you still might make major mistakes and it isn’t something shameful to admit! I myself can’t pin-point all the mistakes in the languages I speak and that’s why we have editors, who did study the language extensively and are considered to be truly the masters of it. If you combine a non-professional translator with a good editor, you might get an awesome outcome. Sadly, the majority of the streaming services work without editors, so that’s why we can see the mistakes. Low budget is often the reason why editors aren’t on the set of work and why professional translators aren’t hired.

Another problem with incorrect subtitles might be the time management. I have heard that some translators have loads of work, but little time to finish the work, thus we get not directly translated subtitles, but oftentimes only paraphrased subtitles.

Solution to the problem?

Honestly, the only solution I have found is being vocal about it. Only by being vocal about it can we catch the attention of the major streaming services. I know, it might sound childish, but sometimes productions DO listen! The most known case I have known in terms of translation was with the Thai TV series called, “WHY R U” which had unbearably bad subtitles that many people complained about. Production team did listen to the complaints and hired someone to redo the subtitles. I get it, sometimes it truly looks like it’s impossible, but I truly think that by being vocal about it, one day, someone might listen. Don’t be vocal only on social media, but directly write emails to the streaming platforms. I can’t count how many times I have emailed Gagaoolala about the incorrectness of their subtitles. Have I got a response yet? No, but I am not giving up.

OUTRO

I know that many people still pay for the streaming services because they think that even if they don’t receive good subtitles, they at least can support the production crew. While this is amazing, not everyone can do that. Some people like myself truly think if I am getting my money's worth by being subscribed to the services. While I am supporting the production, what joy does it bring me, when I can’t understand the plot due to the bad subtitles?

Dear reader, what is your opinion on this?