English Translation Terrible.

[Midareyukki]

I just chalk it up to another case of "localizers" acting as a purity test and going "no, no no. This goes against sensibilities. We gotta change it!".

They don't do it because they want to. Often they're told to by their editors/publishers. Some stuff might be really weird in the original text but either a) the origin culture is more accepting of such a tone than the target language's culture(s), or b) the topic or the behaviour is seen as problematic by the target language's readers. Alternatively, it's possible they view Haurchefant's behaviour as teetering between "pervy" and "eccentric", so it's still considered off-putting by some in Japanese, whereas the effect here would be a bit more inflammatory.

There's a big push nowadays to keep things politically correct and neutral. Japan hasn't gone through the same, thus they'd view some stuff differently. Writers can get away with some behaviours more easily than they would in Western countries. Unfortunately, translators are sometimes told to be mindful of that and be as neutral as possible to avoid issues with the product's reception.

[Raoabolic]

Japan hasn't gone through the same, thus they'd view some stuff differently. Writers can get away with some behaviours more easily than they would in Western countries. Unfortunately, translators are sometimes told to be mindful of that and be as neutral as possible to avoid issues with the product's reception.

SE has an "ethics" department. That ship has sailed, lol.