Gege Akutami’s Jujutsu Kaisen has a serious narrative that consists of sorcerers who wield cursed energy battling for supremacy. The manga is loaded with action sequences and subsequent deaths. Even though ‘fighting’ is the dominant theme, the episodes also pack a humorous punch that accompanies the action.
While most of the jokes in the Japanese version of the anime seamlessly translate into the English dub, there are times when communication barriers or voice-over errors play a hindrance. JJK fans who watched the original version and dub version thus get frustrated when an iconic moment is not recreated by the English translation.
Jujutsu Kaisen Dub Failed To Mimic A Most Iconic Joke From The Japanese Translation
Similar to other shonen mangakas, Akutami has laced Jujutsu Kaisen with wit and humor. The beginning or ending of an increasingly tense scene is usually followed by a hilarious conversation. This technique is used to break the tension during a sequence of events, acting as a refresh button to the emotionally invested audience.
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A most famous example of Akutami’s use of humor in the midst of a battle scene can be witnessed in Season 1 Episode 19. Titled ‘Black Flash’, the episode features Aoi Todo fighting Yuji Itadori in order to make the latter enhance his cursed energy and battle Hanami. Todo, who is voiced by Subaru Kimura in the original adaptation, uses English rather than Japanese throughout the action.
Given his brash and eccentric personality, Aoi Todo kept shouting encouraging English words to Itadori in a dialect. Phrases such as ‘besto friendo’, ‘my friendo’, ‘congratulacion brothar’, were exchanged between the two pals who fought for Itadori’s skill development.
Unfortunately, the same couldn’t be translated into English by Xander Mobus. The joke was based on the dialectic nature of Japanese anime characters speaking in English. As such, Mobus could only reiterate ‘my friend’ and ‘congratulations brother’ for the dub viewers.
Aoi Todo is one of the best supporting characters of the protagonist Yuji Itadori. Even though he has disappeared from the manga after losing the ability to perform the Boogie Woogie cursed technique, fans believe he can still be useful and return in the future.
Also Read: Jujutsu Kaisen May Have Made a Mistake by Wasting its Most Underrated Character’s Potential
Another Jujutsu Kaisen English-Dub Mistake Was Seen in Season 2
Creating the impact of Aoi Todo’s ‘my besto friendo’ lines in the English adaptation of Jujutsu Kaisen was obviously difficult. However, a clear error from the English voice actors in Season 2 made JJK fans truly disheartened.
In one of the scenes from Season 2, Toji Fushiguro talks about Megumi. The latter is the son of Fushiguro but the English dub erred in calling it the cursed spirit that is in his possession. Toji’s cursed spirit is actually a snake-like figure that wraps around the body of enemies during a technique called the Inventory Curse.
Adam McArthur, responsible for voicing Yuji Itadori, addressed the concerns regarding the dub as transcribed by ComicBook. He mentioned that “there was some confusion based on a literal translation that came through and the studio simply made a mistake” in not being able to recognize the error before it made it to the screen.
To end, the actor stated that Season 2 was off to a good start and the studio was enthusiastic in its approach to bringing the source material available in English. The latest season has completed a quarter of the Shibuya Incident Arc as of writing.
