After its actual visuals were toned down by its animation studio JC Staff, 2.5 Dimensional Seduction has had its English localization completely butchered by Sentai Filmworks.
RELATED: ‘2.5 Dimensional Seduction’ Anime Censors Risqué Appearance Of Protagonist Lilysa Amano
Prior to the anime’s broadcast, Western fans were forewarned of 2.5 Dimensional Seduction‘s inevitable English mishandling when notorious localizer Katrina Leonoudakis announced earlier this month that the cosplay ecchi anime would be her next masterpiece.
“So excited to be working on this one!” tweeted the localizer. “As an ex-competitive cosplayer who’s still very much involved with the current competitive cosplay scene, it’s SO much fun getting to work on a series that takes sexy cosplay seriously”
After going through the anime’s first three episodes, BIC has discovered that the Sentai Filmworks localizer has deliberately overwritten the series’ original script in favor of her own fan fiction.
Within the first five minutes of the 2.5 Dimensional Seduction anime’s first episode, the localizer had already replaced Yu Hashimoto’s script with her abridged version of events.
This first altered scene in question sees series protagonist Masmune Okumura’s reacting to the surprise appearance of deuteragonist and 3D girl Lilysa Amano appearing in the manga club room.
Per a fan translation of the series (which will be used as the point of reference for our comparisons, as Seven Seas’ translation has its own problems), upon discovering Lilysa is interested in manga, a shocked Okumura thinks to himself, “A girl?! Damn it. Don’t girls only like shojou manga? This is a sanctuary for manly desires…women and popular guys shouldn’t like my weird otaku lifestyle. What kind of reason does she have to be here”
In Leonoudakis’ localization, however, Okumura is portrayed as much more reactionary and sexist, declaring instead, “This club is for a-s and titties, and the guys who love’ em! Yeah, I bet she only likes shoujo bullcrap!”
In turn, Okumura resolves, “No way am I letting some girl ruin my secret sexy sanctuary! I’ll come up with some excuse to get her out of here…”
The alterations continue as Lilysa proceeds to check out the limited edition Lillel figures on the club room’s shelves.
Taken aback by her interest in the figures, in the manga, Okumura questions himself, “Hold up! That figurine isn’t just some cute doll. It’s a limited ‘undressing’ edition of an erotic figure…it could help me drive her away if she sees it.”
However, unfortunately for him, Lilysa ends up activating the figure’s stripping function.
In turn, the otaku concludes to himself, “It’s understandable. This isn’t something girls can handle.”
Meanwhile, under Leondoukis’ care, the unnecessarily sexist anime version of Okumura instead exclaims, “Jackpot! Those aren’t your sister’s baby dolls, no, ma’am! That’s a limited edition strippable figure.”
“Now she’ll get it,” he convinces himself. “She’ll know she doesn’t belong here.”
Next up is the scene wherein Lilysa both reveals her collection of erotic cosplay photos and confesses to Okumura that she would like to create a similar set of her own.
In the fan translation, a shocked Okumura, a piece of Lilysa’s collection in hand, inquires “Do you wear stuff like this?”, to which she seductively inquires, “Senpai, do you not want to?”
In the anime, rather than simply checking back in with Okumura’s shocked feelings, Lilysa instead presumes that her new friend is looking down on her interests, pushing back, “Um, didn’t you just say you wouldn’t judge?”
And unsurprisingly, the problem continues on into 2.5 Dimensional Seduction‘s second episode.
When new student Mikari Tachibana arrives for her first day of class, she’s immediately mobbed by her classmates, many of whom want an autograph from the model.
In the manga, some of the girls in the class can be heard gossiping about Mikari’s supposedly ‘uncouth reputation’.
“She’s dating the model, Kei-kun. She’s the worst,” says one, with her friend dismissively replying “No way I heard she was getting hot and heavy with an actor the other day. Ugh what a slut!”
Sentai Filmworks anime localization not only removes the majority of the second girl’s dialogue, but also changes the context of the second girl’s sentence, her crude judgement instead replaced with the envious “Lucky her.”
Another butchering occurs right at the second episode’s conclusion.
At one point during the manga, Mikari attempts to put the moves on Okumura, her childhood friend. However, whether through social awkwardness or his love for his fictional waifu Lilliel, the otaku ends up missing her cues and instead ushers her out in favor of his next appointment: a photoshoot with Lilysa.
To this end, while later contemplating her feelings for Okumura, she catches a glimpse of Lilysa entering the manga club room, prompting her to fear she has romantic competition.
However, in a bit of dramatic irony, the reader can see Okumura telling a flustered Lilysa to not worry about arriving late, in doing so simply telling her “Let’s get started with the shoot right away” – implying that he didn’t consider his interaction with Mikari to be anything more than 100% platonic.
But in the anime, Okumura instead stutters, “Don’t apologize your timing is perf…I mean don’t worry about it!”, his innocence in the situation replaced with an active recognition that his activities are less than above-the-line.
It only gets worse in 2.5 Dimensional Seduction anime’s third episode, Lili × Miri.
The scene in question starts with Okumura’s knockout reaction to Mikari and Lilysa in their new homemade Milliela and Lilliel costumes.
Realizing that Okumura has at least partial eyes for Lilliel, Milliela attempts to have Okumura notice her by posing in an even more risque pose that shows off her butt, from there asking “How is it? Do you like it?”
Stunned by her similarity to the actual character of Milliela, Okumura assertively praises, “Of-OF COURSE I LIKE IT!”
Met with this praise, Mikari proceeds to admit, “Ahh, I’ve loved senpai for 10 years…10 whole years! That’s the first time he said he likes me”, therein recognizing that while the otaku did show her affection, it was more towards her cosplay than her actual person.
But in the anime’s localization, rather than offering the simple phrase and allowing Mikari to read too much into it, Leonoudakis instead has him blurt out the far more direct and far more loaded statement, “Hell yeah, I love you!”.
Like with the above gag regarding Mikari’s confession, thanks to this change, Okumura is now portrayed as less ‘too polite for his own good’ and more ‘intentionally stupid’.
As of writing, neither Sentai Filmworks nor Leonoudakis have offered any comment on the changes made to 2.5 Seduction‘s English subtitles.