Netflix Localizers Rewrite ‘Blue Box’, English Script Sees Character Complimented For Being ‘Feminist’ Instead Of ‘Feminine’
In the latest case of English-language localizers overwriting a Japanese creator’s original creative vision, Netflix’s in-house team has edited a bit of dialogue in Blue Box to have someone who was originally compliment for having a “feminine” perspective instead receive praise for being “feminist”.
Written and illustrated by I Love You, My Teacher mangaka Kouji Miura, Blue Box is a slice-of-life rom com centering on the day-to-day activities of Eimei High School badminton player Taiki Inomata, who after spending ages pining for senior basketball player Chinatsu Kano finds his world turned upside down after Chinatsu’s parents leave for an extended business trip and she ends up moving into his parents house.
In late 2024, the series began to receive an anime adaptation from TMS Entertainment and Telecom Animation Film, its English dubbing rights eventually secured by Netflix.
To this end, with the release of the first season’s second half on April 18th, English-language fans discovered a particularly odd change made to a bit of dialogue in the series’ sixteenth episode, Unfair Woman.
Therein, with preparations for their school’s culture festival find themselves in full-swing, Taiki’s childhood friend Hina Imomoto (CV: Akari Kito – Nezuko Kamado in Demon Slayer) can be seen struggling to rehearse her lines for the lead role in Class 1-B’s upcoming rendition of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.
In both the anime and manga, after taking notice of her frustrations, her friend Kyo Kashara (CV: Chiaki Kobayashi – Shion Shiunji in The Shiunji Family Children) steps in to help, proceeding to recite the forgotten dialogue and admit that while he doesn’t particularly care for acting, he was still able to memorize the lines simply by listening to Hina repeat them over and over.
Impressed by his skills, Hina suggests Kyo should have gone out for a role in the class play, only for her friend to promptly decline.
Explaining his aversion to the stage, Kyo admits he’s “no good at a cheesy romance like that”, as while he can sympathize with a heroine “being struck by misfortune and hardship”, he “can’t abide by her just up and marrying some random prince.”
In Miura’s original manga, Kyo’s reflection is met by the acknowledgement from Hina, “That’s a surprisingly feminine perspective,” her further aside of “I thought the love aspect wasn’t going to interest you” implying that she was taken aback by his romantic view of the situation.
However, in Netflix’s English dub script, Hina instead observes, “That’s very femininst”, thus implying that Kyo’s take was based more on gender equality than the concept of romance.
(Interestingly, while the English subtitles for the Japanese track were originally consistent with the manga, it appears that they have since been updated, as they now bear the “Feminist” re-write.)
As of writing, neither Netflix, TMS Entertainment, Shueisha nor Miura herself have issued a comment addressing the line change. Further, it is currently unknown which specific individuals worked on this script.
Sadly, this is far from the first time Netflix has made such an ideologically-motivated edit to a piece of Japanese media, having made similar changes to scripts in Tiger & Bunny, One Piece, and even Godzilla Minus One.
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