While Chainsaw Man has been praised and adored by many, there are always those who start complaining about something they disliked. While one specific unsatisfied fan started a petition demanding a remake of the anime, another controversy was even worse, which led to Crunchyroll approaching the problems it created. With its premiere episode having been met with tons of praise, an opening that was lauded for its quality and cinematographic references, and twelve different ending songs, which were later compiled in a single video without the credits, the animation’s excellence appealed to both fans of the original manga series and newcomers and had us falling head over heels for Pochita and his special bond with Denji in the very first episode, in an extremely awesome use of great storytelling, a specific translation spurred controversy and some reactions reached some extremes lows in Brazil though.After an intense season was coming to a close, some fans were focusing on one of the devil’s controversial lines more than on its powers, which led to a huge controversy. Everything started when the Future Devil made their debut and told the heroes in the Chainsaw Man animeverse that the future is best more or less. While this line is very forthright, the fandom expected a different translation into Portuguese. But why?
The Devil Is In The Details
In 2021, fans had been translating scans from the manga on the internet, and the translations had already been criticized for their choice of specific expressions and slang used by adolescents. The translation that prompted the controversy had even become a meme in Brazil among the fans, in which a word that is vulgarism was used with the synonym of “awesome”. Also, it was noticed that this translation by fans further contained several instances of jokes that did not exist in the original work, and there were moments when the Brazilian word for “feminist” was used with the intention of being an offense, besides homophobic and transphobic jokes.
Not only the original dub and sub did not have any obligation toward something the fans made and that is illegal in the first place, but also the professional work decide to translate, and adapt things according to the context of the original, which is to be expected, of course, right? Unfortunately, not to some fans that extrapolate limits. To add fuel to the fire, somebody working for Crunchyroll left a hidden message in the subtitles for the controversial line, which reads:
O futuro… é top. {A você que veio procurar uma mensagem oculta nesses comentários, pra começar, damos os parabéns.}
(…) O futuro é top… {Você merece uma recompensa. Então, só dessa vez, aí está:}
(…) O futuro é top!{O futuro é pica!}
Here is the translated excerpt of the script:
O futuro… é top. {To you that came to look for a hidden message in these comments, for starters, congratulations.}
(…) O futuro é top… {You deserve a treat. So, only this time, here it goes:}
(…) O futuro é top! {O futuro é pica!}
Bad Jokes To Begin With
What was supposed to be a joke in reference to the (bad) choice of translation and meme among the fans was not taken lightly and the reactions from some fans were far from funny, and actually very scary and extreme. This word in Portuguese is slang for penis. It does not mean awesome. The words of choice, “top” for the sub, and “show”, for the dub, in Portuguese, are perfect since both are used with the meaning of “awesome”. The translation by fans not only did not match the tone of Fujimoto’s manga series but also became more and more controversial per se when started using the aforementioned derogatory “jokes”, with a heap of homophobic and transphobic added, which the original text did not contain, giving the whole pirate translation a bad name, aside from being piracy.
Things really went too far when fans started to send death threats to one of the most famous Brazilian VAs working in the Brazilian dub of Chainsaw Man, Guilherme Briggs. On the day episode 11’s PT-BR dub was released, he tweeted why the popular meme from Chainsaw Man fanscan translation was not used in his role as the Future Devil, first of all, because it came from an unprofessional translation that took too much liberty with the original text, containing antisemitic, transphobic, homophobic and sexist jokes, as previously mentioned, considered even a “nazi translation” by many other fans and nonfans alike, changing the tone of the manga altogether with what were deemed surreal choices of dialogue and random references thrown in the translated text that did not follow the original. What followed was on-and-on harassment on the VA’s social media accounts, which led him to ask to leave the dub team of the anime.
It is worth mentioning that Guilherme Briggs is considered one of the most pacific and kind persons among famous people in Brazil. Some fans commented on reddit on how these alleged “jokes” are harmful and spread more than toxic ideology.
The way the far-right utilizes meme to spread their hateful rhetoric is impressive and terrifying. Meme Devil is a powerful beast. – Monster_Hugger_93
That’s the only way hateful ideology can spread nowadays. (...)the “it’s just a joke! It’s ironic!” is a quick way to take heat off of them.
If you hear something enough times, even as a joke or if you know it’s a lie, it starts to take hold. You, yes you , are not immune to propaganda. – Optimistic_Lucio”
This is an unfortunate reflection of some actions taken by extreme right-wingers in the country, as commented by another Reddit user:
Unfortunately, in Brazil, we are facing a violent extreme right movement that is messing with all aspects of our lives. Yet slowly but steadily, we are dealing with these fascists. – Lucky_Rock6331
In short, the absurd is that, since the dubbing “given” by Briggs “failed” to meet the expectations of (some) fans, this generated criminal reactions against the voice actor, who decided to quit the dubbing project after harassment that came to the point of death threats. Crunchyroll approached the controversy and stood by his side, pronouncing themselves officially about that. After the coordinated attack made by a group of Brazilian alleged fans that wanted to make it clear they disapproved of the official translation’s choice, Guilherme Briggs said he planned to leave the project before locking his Twitter account.
I'm going to ask to leave the dub of this anime. I don't want to be in it anymore. It's over. — Guilherme Briggs
The disturbing ordeal caught the attention of fans worldwide, and it did not take long for Crunchyroll to direct the Chainsaw Man controversy with a stark rebuttal.
There is no room for cyberbullying within the anime community. Crunchyroll fully supports actor Guilherme Briggs and condemns the attacks directed at him and his fantastic work dubbing — Crunchyroll
While the story of the Chainsaw Devil manga/anime series is as thoughtful as it is violent, with a lot of nuance within its plot, it is indeed terrifying to see such devils in the real world can be even more toxic, extreme and violent than the ones portrayed in fiction. Unfortunately, this is another instance of reality imitating fiction in a way that is far from welcome.
Source: Comic Book 1, Comic Book 2, Reddit