Grizzly bears in Alaskan wilderness : A case study on how indirect translation from Swedish affected the Finnish dub of the Japanese anime Ginga Nagareboshi Gin

Indirect audiovisual translation (AVT) is a field that remains to be thoroughly researched. Especially dubbing in this field has not received enough attention, since most of the research has prioritised professional subtitling. This case study examines how the indirect translation through Swedish has affected the quality of the dubbed translation of Ginga Nagaberoshi Gin, one of the earlier anime released in Finland in 1989. The Finnish and Swedish translations are compared to the Japanese source text looking for differences, and to see whether the changes made in the Swedish translation were transferred to the Finnish target text in the translation process. This study concludes that the indirect translation has significantly affected the quality of the Finnish translation of Ginga Nagareboshi Gin. Traces of the mediating text (MT) are visible throughout the dialogue, and many of these changes or mistranslations were transferred to the target text through literal translation. Some descriptive information has been lost in the translation through the MT, but the essential plot remains the same.