Author’s Comment

I decided to do an experiment. I used Claude AI to TL the entire Ranma 1/2 ep. Results surprised me a bit, because the subs are really usable. This is exactly what was the resulting file of my prompt. After initial comparisons, I can say that the TL is much better than the one from Netflix. It’s not perfect, it needs some polishing, but it’s still amazing. In virtually every case, the AI not only reads better, but is more faithful.

As I mentioned above – these subtitles are not without flaws. There is a bit of inaccuracy in them, some lines could be written better, but these things could really be corrected quickly with a little knowledge of Japanese.

And take a note, because the first episode has a twist about boy transformed to girl. It got the context right without telling it in prompt, so it’s even more surprising how good LLMs already are.

Comparisons

Netflix (left), AI (right)

Bonus

I asked Claude to take notes on the episode, write about the characters and key things to keep context in future episodes.