Funimation Catches Flak For Altering Joke In Bofuri Anime Dub

The animated show Bofuri: I Don’t Want To Get Hurt, So I’ll Max Out My Defense is being syndicated on Funimation with English dubbing. In episode 2 there was a joke in the Japanese version involving word-flubbing by the main character in a post-match interview that had some inference to innuendo, which was altered in the Funimation dub, causing some people to criticize the company for altering the joke.

Bounding Into Comics did a quick write-up on the event based on a scene comparison from Twitter user Cozy Gamer Gimp.

In the episode, the main character Maple manages to come out on top and is being interviewed in a post-match segment to talk about her third-place finish. Being shy and embarrassed, Maple stumbles through the line. In the Japanese version she apparently makes mention about being glad for being able to endure so much, to which she gets embarrassed because it comes off as somewhat sexual.

Which do you think is funnier? Is Funimation trying to remove anything slightly ecchi? This is the same prudish censorship religious right wingers pushed in the 80s and I hated it then too. pic.twitter.com/Eu9EnpbGGG

— Cozy Gamer Gimp (@GrumpyCatterman) February 15, 2020

In the Funimation dub, Maple mistakenly says “hoppy” instead of “happy”, and the scene plays out that the audience is confused as to why she said “hoppy” instead of “happy”. Maple’s visual expressions certainly don’t match up with such a simple mistake, which makes the scene play out more awkwardly and befuddling in the dub compared to the sub.

You can view the scene below.

Is Funimation’s new standard “no fun” or “no jokes allowed”? Because they took a joke, and then dubbed this scene in BOFURI as not a joke… it was really dumb. #Censorship pic.twitter.com/7ryvQOQOkf

— Cozy Gamer Gimp (@GrumpyCatterman) February 15, 2020

Now before jumping on Funimation, there were some discrepancies about the accuracy of the subs for the Japanese version, with some claiming that the explicit innuendo was added by the sub group and that the original Japanese version was far more subtle about any inferred double entrendes.

I think she said「いっぱい耐えれて良かったでしゅ」which I think translates to「Im glad I was able to endure so much」I dont know about the sexual innuendo in the subs, Im not confident enough to say if its right or wrong.

— Ene (@Enetue) February 15, 2020

The thing is, it’s quite apparent that the Funimation dub certainly took more liberties with altering the intent of the post-match interview than the sub-group did, since the sub-group attempted to make an American reference out of a line that’s typically used as a form of innuendo in Japan.

Even still, the best option for getting the most accurate depiction of the creator’s intent is just to learn Japanese and watch the original in the language that it was always intended for.

(Thanks for the news tip Master Nemesis)