They're Just Fan Translations, Guys.

Something has been irritating me lately, and surprise surprise, it's not limited to just Yu-Gi-Oh!!

Up front I should be clear that I sincerely appreciate the efforts of fan translators, especially since my understanding of other languages isn't even at a grade school level. What's getting to me are the people that take those fan translations as the "one and only absolute truth that couldn't possibly be wrong, and damn the professionals for fucking up the names/lines!"

Seriously? The professional translators are far more familiar with the involved languages. The professionals are far more experienced. The professionals actually know something of translation etiquette. It boggles the mind when people who know little to nothing about something start berating professionals for doing their job and doing it well.

Since Yu-Gi-Oh! is aimed at children in the United States, yes, there are times in localization, be it with card names or card art, where something is changed to make it more suitable for that audience. Censorship. However, let's keep any personal biases about that topic on the back burner for the moment, since there are certain aspects about translation and localization that need to be known.

Japanese and English are entirely different animals, being Eastern and Western languages respectively. English is more concrete, allowing one to convey exactly what they want to say in a relatively efficient manner, but it has a ridiculous learning curve due to inconsistent rules. Japanese is more abstract, though it sticks to its rules pretty well, and its simpler words and phrases are pretty flexible. Because of this, it's a language that's largely open to interpretation, and it's likely that there are multiple ways to do so (with each being perfectly valid).

When localizing something, it's best to not alienate the target audience. This is why most honorifics are dropped in English anime dubs (even subs), and it's also the reason that when something has a meaning, that meaning should be conveyed as accurately as possible in terms the audience would understand. There are times, however, where this isn't possible for whatever reason (lengthiness, for example), and transliteration is the way to go. In media, there are occasional run-ins with copyright, trademark, and other such laws, so something simply cannot be translated a certain way.

In Yu-Gi-Oh!, we run into another complication due to cards referencing other cards by name quite often. Advance planning helps here, and it's apparent that Konami has gotten better about it (been a long time since we ran into a "What's an Archfiend?" issue).

Such are the hurdles that need to be cleared on a regular basis.