Ask John: Should Songs in Anime be Subtitled?

Question:
Do you think songs in anime should be subtitled? When recent rumors of Viz Media having possibly licensed the Full Moon o Sagashite anime appeared, some fans worried because apparently Viz Media doesn’t always subtitle songs in their anime releases, and singing is a crucial part of Full Moon. Why do some companies not subtitle songs? I don’t understand this because background music helps set the mood of certain scenes of a show and if you can’t understand the lyrics this could be lost. Should songs always be subbed?

Answer:
I may be part of an unusual minority of anime fans because I generally don’t pay much attention to song lyrics in anime. I’m personally only insistent on having translated songs in cases such as Dijiko’s famous “Akihabara” song because the song and its lyrics are significant to the story. However, my personal interest aside, I can see no reason why a professional, commercial translation should not include translated song lyrics. When a consumer pays for a commercial translation, there’s a reasonably assumption that the consumer is expecting to receive a comprehensive translation. Signs and other insignificant on-screen text may not necessarily warrant translation, but theme songs are a significant component of an anime, and in shows like Megazone 23, Macross, Aquarian Age, Gravitation, and Full Moon wo Sagashite, songs and singing are central components of the story, so leaving the songs untranslated is very similar to leaving large passages of dialogue untranslated.

As far as I know, Viz is the only domestic translating company that has a consistent history of not including song translations for many of its anime releases. I don’t know why Viz doesn’t translate songs. Considering that they’re able to retain the original Japanese music, there shouldn’t be any restrictions in place on the lyrics used in the music. My only theory is that because Viz is a Japanese owned company, decisions involving anime translation are sometimes influenced by a Japanese perspective. It’s not difficult for me to imagine a Japanese executive assuming that Americans would want spoken dialogue translated but wouldn’t care about Japanese pop songs. But from the perspective of an American consumer and anime fan, when I pay for a professional, commercial translation, I expect a complete product with everything translated, within reason.