RollingArt23's visual novel reviews.

"As people are asking for more accurate translations that read well in English. This is something GenAI and Machine Translation cannot provide."

Genuinely, I think we as anime and visual novel fans alike seem to forget that localization is an important part of translating a work into English. Whether that be simply changing a joke to fit current standards, or using slang like "chill" or using politically correct language to make more sense to English speakers. A machine may be able to translate, but it is unable to localize. ChatGPT and DeepL cannot accurately translate a script writer's work and prose into something that doesn't sound bland. Localization is a necessary evil if we like the way the dubs are now."

As a counter point, if the current state of translation is far too localized and a much more literal approach would be appreciated by certain fans, like me for example, then DeepL and AI translations should provide a very welcome boost in the apparent quality of translations on a subjective level. Even non-AI, NMT translations, like Sugoi, that preserve honorifics in the translation are a huge improvement over heavily localized translations that are the status-quo, especially because a lot of the meaning of how characters interact with one another dramatically changes if they are removed. Of course that is not to say that pure MTL is acceptable, but Sugoi + a fluent English speaker editing the output is of relatively high quality and ultimately, I would rather deal with incorrect translations due to fixable software errors that are getting better over time than deal with censorship, especially around aspects unique to japanese culture, which is the norm in translations right now. Being able to revert such over localizations and say, re-insert honorifics into the translated text, which AI is capable of doing by the way, would allow it to preserve the original meaning better for those of us who actually want to know what the characters actually said, not someone else's interpretation of what they think they meant after changing the meaning for political correctness and cultural illiteracy.

AI, whether we like it or not, AI is here so stay, so learning to work with AI is more beneficial than just resenting it or resenting how certain companies use it. The best use of AI right now is to literally work with it in a collaborative process since the end result of human + AI will almost always be better than just either one alone relative to the amount of time it took to produce something of reasonable quality. I am not sure what Crunchyroll is doing, but we are in agreement that their quality can only decline if they do not use translators because the output of AI still needs to be double checked and only a translator, a human, can make the decision that the output makes sense. Used correctly, AI should be a boost to both productivity and quality, not a way to backslide quality and damage the reputation of one's brand as a result. If Crunchyroll does not understand that, it will only hurt them in the long run.

In the end MTL is just a tool, which mean it's up to us on how to use the tool to make legitimate translation. Of course though, considering what we have in the past it's very hard to erase the stigma of MTL, especially with on how bad they were in the past, and it would be still hard sell to use MTL anyway even if the translator did their best to edit the line. That said, at least you can still use MTL as some sort of dictionary at the absolute minimum (And even then it's debatable), as shown in My Girlfriend is Blue-Collar Work (Which has very lengthy title describing four phases of the story). Oh yes, it's interesting on how some tried to defend MTL because 'it got point across better compared to the localization', which make sense seeing the people who mention it are read the VN in Japan with them most likely use MTL to read the untranslated VN in the beginning.

For localization, well some did have their fault for sure, especially with a Shiravune translator did translate 'Onii-chan' as 'Bubby' in Kamiyaba simply because he was probably homesick at that time and remember on how their family calling their older brother as such. There's also Chrono Clock and Nukitashi, which is not concidence both are worked out by the same editor (Who already quit from the VN translation scene). I never care about anime controversy seeing I using sub anyway and even then I could try to less care about the political stuff in the sub, although Saban cases is quite special seeing they manage to make DDPC is more controversial then already is (It's related to the story and character). For elaboration, Saban removed several episodes, which won't work in DDPC seeing each episodes has some continuity hints towards the main story.

PS - By the way my stance is I still prefer to not use MTL, although it's not like I can calling out anyone who do it anyway seeing I also involved in making MTL patch of Amayui.

My personal belief is that MTL should only be used like one would use an electric dictionary, looking up single words or phrases rather than just dumping a huge amount of text into it.  For some reason, even today's MTL engines seem to have trouble with common colloquialisms and turns of phrase.  Considering how often they are used, it is inevitable that careless usage of MTL will only produce poor results.   In addition, when I occasionally test the freely-available ones on common narrative text, the results tend to get jumbled, which is probably because most of the data they put in is based on conversational Japanese, as opposed to the language more commonly used in literature.   The results are better on dialogue but still several steps short of what can be done by a skilled translator, unfortunately.

crunchyroll is evil, I agree