Since its launch on December 10, the controversy surrounding the domestic animation “Three-Body Problem” has never stopped.
The popularity of the national-level sci-fi masterpiece, supplemented by a huge publicity and promotion, the “Three-Body” animation broke a number of records at the beginning of its launch: the number of simultaneous online viewers reached a new high, and the number of broadcasts on the first day exceeded 100 million , Bilibili, one of the animation producers, ushered in a wave of stock price surges on the eve of the broadcast. Judging from the data alone, this animation adaptation has been successful enough.
However, in terms of word-of-mouth, the performance of this animation is obviously unsatisfactory. As of the third episode, Douban’s score has dropped to a passable 6.2 points, which is significantly different from the impressive commercial performance of this work. From the negative comments given by everyone, it is not difficult to see that the plot adaptation, character modeling, and narrative rhythm of the work have not reached the level that “Three-Body Problem” should have in everyone’s minds.
Zhang Shengyan, the person in charge of the “Three-Body” animation project, once said: “In terms of time and money invested, this animation is by far the largest animation project at Station B.” Trapped in the vortex of public opinion, the animation production group “Yihua Kaitian” even closed its own comment area to prevent violent users from fighting.
While domestic audiences were arguing about this work with divided word-of-mouth, there was such a special group of “Three-Body” fans applauding the start of the animation while worrying about the viewing restrictions set by station B.
Overseas, loyal readers of “The Three-Body Problem” from different countries are examining this work destined to be full of controversy with their eyes.
1
With the addition of the Hugo Award and the nomination of the Nebula Award, “The Three-Body Problem” has won numerous awards and is well-known overseas. “Big V” from all walks of life brings goods, and it is recommended by science fiction bloggers. Anyone who is interested in this type of novel will hardly miss this well-known work.
“Three-Body Problem” refreshed the overseas sales list of Chinese contemporary literature, and also won excellent user ratings on many foreign reading websites. On the “American Douban” Goodreaders website, hundreds of thousands of users have commented on the “Three-Body” series of books, and the comprehensive evaluation of the trilogy is as high as 4.62 points (out of 5 points). It is a work that is second to none.
However, unlike novels with gratifying achievements, the animation “Three-Body Problem” which was launched a few days ago is deserted and deserted abroad, and no one cares about it. As of the third episode of the animation, Myanimelist, the largest animation collection website in the United States, will automatically filter searches related to “Three-Body” for users due to insufficient number of viewers. The major animation websites in Japan have directly found no such person, which is completely empty compared to the domestic crowd. The lively appearance is in stark contrast.
There are many reasons why the animation of “The Three-Body Problem” has been cold. On the one hand, the English translation of the original work has been released for many years, and it is not as popular as it was at the beginning; on the other hand, overseas animation audiences usually do not have the habit of watching Chinese animation. Comes with a layer of popularity debuff Debuff. But the most important thing is that although the animation has prepared bilingual subtitles for the trailer before its broadcast, the English localization of the main film has been quietly absent.
Zhang Shengyan, vice president of Station B, once mentioned in an interview that he hoped that the “Three-Body Problem” animation this time could “gain momentum for Chinese animation to go global”, but the fact is that a large number of overseas audiences can’t even find local genuine channels. At present, foreign “Three-Body” fans are very similar to domestic animation audiences more than ten years ago. The work efficiency of the subtitle group determines when they can see the work they are thinking about, especially in the era of large copyrights, there are very few subtitle groups left. .
In fact, when the animation started broadcasting, many enthusiastic people moved relevant resources to overseas platforms such as Twitter and YouTube, just like the scene of pirated animations being introduced into China in the past, but soon after, almost all pirated resources were taken away by the copyright owner. Reported and taken off the shelves, desperate fans either waited for the subtitle group, or simply moved to station B.
It is not easy for foreign friends to squeeze into Station B. Most of the animations here have regional restrictions, and only Chinese IP users can access them at will. After finally hooking up the VPN and registering an account, the existence of paid membership stopped many people.
Of course, even if the access is successful, the most critical translation problem has not been resolved. At present, the CC subtitles that come with Station B provide a certain degree of automatic translation, but the Chinese-English translation needed by this group of humble “Three-Body” fans is definitely not supported.
Machine translation recognizes “Luo Ji” as “Luo Ji”
CC subtitles are useless, and Google Machine Translation will make a lot of jokes. In this case, self-learning Chinese is probably a reasonable and reliable choice.
2
In the overseas “Three-Body” fan community, many people have noticed the harsh evaluation of Chinese audiences on animation. While lamenting the huge Chinese market, this group of audiences who are separated by a layer of cultural barriers began to carefully consider it from their own perspective. What is the quality of this anime.
For Japanese audiences who read a large number of 2D animations, the full 3D production used in the “Three-Body” animation cannot mobilize their emotions. Similar to domestic evaluations, many Japanese fans have pointed out the existence of character modeling and picture texture. question.
There is no subtitle culture in Japan, and there are only a handful of people who can watch this animation. It is worth mentioning that the Japanese translator of the “Three-Body Problem” novel “Omori Nozomi” also watched the animation for the first time. Considering his popularity and prestige in the Japanese “Three-Body” fan circle, it is logical for this translator The land has driven the promotion and promotion of animation in Japan, and his evaluation of this work is “quite interesting”.
Twitter, as an international communication website, naturally also carries the function of Chinese people watching the reactions of overseas audiences. Many Chinese people who urge people to turn around will appear under the tweets of the “Three-Body” animation, and they pass on in multiple languages. Disappointed and dissatisfied with himself, he tried his best to persuade foreign friends not to waste time and continue chasing fans.
But in the English community, everyone’s reaction is another scene. On the overseas animation rating website anilist, although there are not many people who actually rated it, it is not difficult to see that their evaluation of the “Three-Body” animation is also complicated.
Complaints from English-speaking users centered on the drastic cuts to the animation. To put it simply, the “Three-Body Problem” animation almost deleted all the content of the first novel, and chose to start the adaptation from “Three-Body Problem II Dark Forest”. Such a clean deletion may be due to the popularity of “Three-Body Problem” in China. There are a large number of original readers who can understand the content of the story without the foreshadowing of the previous article, but the animation team obviously did not consider it. Overseas, there are a group of people who can’t hold back Amway’s heart fans really want to use this opportunity to pull their friends who haven’t seen the original into the pit.
It may be difficult for domestic friends to imagine that the first part of “Three-Body Problem”, which is generally not highly rated in China, actually has a pretty good reputation among overseas fans. Whenever foreign science fiction bloggers mention “Three-Body Problem”, they always focus on Mention the excellence of the first part. It is generally believed that the English translation version has made greater changes to the narrative order and rhythm compared with the Chinese version. According to the interviews between the foreign media WIRED Book Club and the English translators, the translator conducted in-depth communication with the original author Liu Cixin, and translated the English The text structure of the edition was changed to Liu Cixin’s ideal. In general, the popularity and word-of-mouth of the first part of “Three-Body Problem” seems to be further improved than the latter two.
Against such a background, it is incomprehensible and unacceptable for overseas readers to delete a large number of content in the first part. The animation adaptation should try its best to restore the scene in the book. Now the first part that foreign fans like most is passed Deletion of an article will inevitably arouse dissatisfaction.
As for the production issue that is very important in China, the audience here doesn’t care that much. Maybe it is a problem of expectation management. This group of fans adheres to the principle of “it’s good to watch”, and patiently waits for the arrival of the next episode.
3
In the English-speaking community, audiences who love animation will give different names to animations in Japan, China, and South Korea: Anime, Donghua, and Donghwa. Among them, “Donghua” is of course the transliteration of “animation” in Chinese.
Not many foreigners are willing to watch Donghua. In the Reddit forum, the number of followers on the Donghua section has just exceeded 10,000. For comparison, the Anime section next door has 6 million followers. Although the mainstream 3D CG effects of domestic animation are generally not seen by 2D animation audiences, there will always be people who like this style that is different from the mainstream expression.
In their hearts, the “Three-Body Problem” animation bears the heavy responsibility of making more people like Donghua to some extent.
A very strange phenomenon is that foreign audiences are very resistant to the 3D effects that appear in Chinese, Japanese and Korean animations, especially animations that use 3D technology throughout. They often automatically filter out such works in their waiting lists. Unless there can be a 3D animation with a word-of-mouth explosion. The emergence of “Three-Body Problem” may break this deadlock. Everyone knows that this novel has won various honors and won countless hearts.
As mentioned above, the lack of official localization support is the most fatal problem for the “Three-Body” animation. At present, there are three subtitled versions of this animation overseas, two of which are organized by fans of domestic animation. This group of enthusiastic people worked hard for nothing else, just to make more people fall in love with Donghua .
On the other hand, the subtle reviews of the animation of “The Three-Body Problem” are also shaking the confidence of overseas fans: If even the Chinese themselves can’t shoot well, will the upcoming Netflix version be even worse?
There are currently three officially authorized film and television works of “The Three-Body Problem”. In addition to the animations in charge of Station B, there are also live-action drama series produced by Tencent and Netflix. Suspect.
At this point, like domestic audiences, overseas readers also began to spontaneously read the magical fan work “My Three-Body Problem”.
“My Three-Body Problem” is a self-made animation created by fans on the stage of “My World”. Although the rough and blunt square figures in the work are very eye-catching, the excellent scene restoration, appropriate additions and deletions, and an excellent atmosphere The transfer made “My Three-Body Problem” win the favor of fans of the original work.
“My Three-Body Problem” comes with Chinese and English bilingual subtitles, which is also a major reason why it has been spread and promoted overseas.
With the “Three of Me” gem in front, the official “Three-Body” animation will inevitably be magnified and compared. Although the animation has only broadcast 4 episodes so far, it is still difficult for the follow-up performance to restore the slightly collapsed reputation in the early stage.
The cultural attributes behind the “Three-Body Problem” IP make it difficult to adapt animation. What the audience wants to see is the ceiling of domestic animation and the rise of Chinese science fiction again. Stripped of the “domestic” feature, the “Three-Body” animation can get a more neutral and purer evaluation and judgment from overseas audiences. As far as the current situation is concerned, their tone and judgment standards are indeed very different from those of domestic netizens. , but the animation is still bad in their hearts.
The “Three-Body Problem” animation could have been an excellent case of domestic animation going overseas. The combination of the popularity of the original work and the outstanding animation adaptation will surely attract a large number of overseas audiences who do not pay much attention to 3D animation. However, for various reasons, there are still Readers of the original work did not get to see this official animation.
The greater the audience’s expectations, the more severe the challenges faced by the production team. The “Three-Body Universe” finally took its first step after many years of preparation, but this step may not satisfy the “Three-Body” fans all over the world.
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