Dubbing of silences in Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away: A comparison of Japanese and English language versions

Abstract

This paper clarifies how silences in a particular Japanese animated film are dubbed in the US English version. As a representative sample of Japanese animated films, the author examines the silences in Hayao Miyazaki’s Oscar-winning animated fantasy Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi (Spirited Away), focusing on its acoustic modifications. First, silences in the Japanese and US English versions are identified using Adobe Audition® CS6. Next, silences in the two versions (acting as specific case studies) are compared with each other to examine the process involved in dubbing them. A quantitative comparison of the number of silences between the US English version and five other foreign-language versions (the versions released in Taiwan [Republic of China], France, South Korea, the Czech Republic, and Germany) is then carried out. In conclusion, the US English version of Spirited Away removes more silences than any other translated version by inserting fillers and by adding or amplifying sound effects. These findings indicate the importance of studying audiovisual translation (AVT) not only from the verbal perspective but also from the acoustic perspective.