Fan translations, whether English, Chinese, or elsewhere, is clearly not supposed to be the most accurate thing in the world. Normally in most manga this isn't a big deal, since if you see a picture of Itachi saying, "Naruto, I am your father." even though it was originally said "Today is a good day to die.", it is unlikely anyone will actually believe Itachi is Naruto's father. I'm sure we have all seen the crazy Chinese origin English dubs, and at worst, they'll just leave you completely confused, but it'd be impossible to come up with a wrong understanding of what happened since it'd be obvious the translation is just completely wrong.
The problem with HXH is that it is a very text-heavy manga, and a lot of what's said hinges on just a few keywords. There are also a ton of cultural (Japanese) references. For example, Meryem references a term in Shogi to compare his power level to Netero. The rough translation for that would be: "I think you're a total noob". However, people outside the Asia area have no exposure to Shogi, so apparently a lot of people thought he meant, "You are a worthy opponent".
Another example on just cultural references. When Kurapika was learning aura, his teacher asked him if it was possible to materialize a sword that can cut through anything. He said that's impossible. There is a famous folk lore story about a merchant selling a spear that can penetrate any shield, and a shield that can block any spear, so the buyer asked what would happen if you use the spear that can penetrate any shield against the shield that can block any spear. This is clearly a reference to this, namely if it was possible to make a sword that can cut through anything, then there has to be a shield that can block any sword, and then you'd get some kind of logical paradox and the universe will collapse, so it must NOT be possible to do such a thing. For those with a background in this story this is a cute background story that also establishes the limitation of aura. However, the prodominent sentiment on English boards is that you just got to train harder to make a sword that can cut through anything, since there is no equivalent anecdote in English-speaking countries (I think).
Even the Chinese not above this. One of the arc famously mistranslated Knuckle saying they need backup from "National-level military" to "National-level Hunters". Even more amazingly, HXH is open-ended enough that what he said could make sense. It caused quite a confusion amongst the Chinese fan community until, ironically, some English reading posters cross referenced the original with the English version to conclude that the translators made a mistake, and replaced them with national-level translators.
As a fan I find it exceeding frustrating to follow HXH even as a function of the fanbase. There is a reason why fans of HXH tend to have the attitude of 'only smart people follow HXH'. The story is full of irony, sarcasm, indirect critiques to the real world, and other nuances. If you miss just a couple of the key words on the translation you can completely miss the point the story was trying to drive across, and since we don't actually have national-level translators in the fanbase, you always have to question whether your latest copy of the translation is actually right. In some sense I think this is a sign of failure for HXH, that if something is so complicated that you can't expect your reader to ever get it, then why does it even exist? There was a guy in my high school who was super smart and he was the Salutorian for his year. His speech was a bunch of quotes from George Bernard Shaw that basically said he thinks this school is a joke because he didn't get the Valedictorian award (because his sports team doesn't count as honor credit, even though he has taken possible honor class the school offers and all As). To understand what he said he obviously have to know where the quotes come from, and you also have to know the history of corruption in my school (they've a tendency to screw certain guys over). I think there might be literally 5 guys in the whole audience that actually knew what he was talking about. I thought it was a great speech but you also have to wonder what's the point of greatness if you can't share it with anyone else.
The problem with HXH is that it is a very text-heavy manga, and a lot of what's said hinges on just a few keywords. There are also a ton of cultural (Japanese) references. For example, Meryem references a term in Shogi to compare his power level to Netero. The rough translation for that would be: "I think you're a total noob". However, people outside the Asia area have no exposure to Shogi, so apparently a lot of people thought he meant, "You are a worthy opponent".
Another example on just cultural references. When Kurapika was learning aura, his teacher asked him if it was possible to materialize a sword that can cut through anything. He said that's impossible. There is a famous folk lore story about a merchant selling a spear that can penetrate any shield, and a shield that can block any spear, so the buyer asked what would happen if you use the spear that can penetrate any shield against the shield that can block any spear. This is clearly a reference to this, namely if it was possible to make a sword that can cut through anything, then there has to be a shield that can block any sword, and then you'd get some kind of logical paradox and the universe will collapse, so it must NOT be possible to do such a thing. For those with a background in this story this is a cute background story that also establishes the limitation of aura. However, the prodominent sentiment on English boards is that you just got to train harder to make a sword that can cut through anything, since there is no equivalent anecdote in English-speaking countries (I think).
Even the Chinese not above this. One of the arc famously mistranslated Knuckle saying they need backup from "National-level military" to "National-level Hunters". Even more amazingly, HXH is open-ended enough that what he said could make sense. It caused quite a confusion amongst the Chinese fan community until, ironically, some English reading posters cross referenced the original with the English version to conclude that the translators made a mistake, and replaced them with national-level translators.
As a fan I find it exceeding frustrating to follow HXH even as a function of the fanbase. There is a reason why fans of HXH tend to have the attitude of 'only smart people follow HXH'. The story is full of irony, sarcasm, indirect critiques to the real world, and other nuances. If you miss just a couple of the key words on the translation you can completely miss the point the story was trying to drive across, and since we don't actually have national-level translators in the fanbase, you always have to question whether your latest copy of the translation is actually right. In some sense I think this is a sign of failure for HXH, that if something is so complicated that you can't expect your reader to ever get it, then why does it even exist? There was a guy in my high school who was super smart and he was the Salutorian for his year. His speech was a bunch of quotes from George Bernard Shaw that basically said he thinks this school is a joke because he didn't get the Valedictorian award (because his sports team doesn't count as honor credit, even though he has taken possible honor class the school offers and all As). To understand what he said he obviously have to know where the quotes come from, and you also have to know the history of corruption in my school (they've a tendency to screw certain guys over). I think there might be literally 5 guys in the whole audience that actually knew what he was talking about. I thought it was a great speech but you also have to wonder what's the point of greatness if you can't share it with anyone else.
