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俺はさ、お前らにお友達になれって言ってんじゃないのね‌。中学のときにネットを挟んだ敵同士だったとしても‌、今はネットのこっち側同士だってことを自覚しなさいって‌言ってんのね。

Official translation: Do you get it?

The source is from Haikyuu season 1 episode 2 (around the 10 minute mark). The line is said by the club's captain, who is generally patient, responsible and understanding but could be scary when he gets angry (like in this moment). Does this info affect his choice of words and fit into the image of a typical male captain?

When I read the translation at first, I was a bit taken aback by how much it differed with my own interpretation. But after thinking it through, I wonder if the translation provided above is not a literal one. Could it be that the sentence also means "...is what I am saying" (lecture about rules and such) and the translator tweaked it a bit in a way that still fit the context?

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    言ってんのね seems to be an emotional emphasis placed on 言っている, with the captain likely speaking in a condescending manner reflecting some sort of irritation. Depending on the context, the translation can be valid and good enough. The validity depends all on the exact context. So you may want to provide some more context so as to obtain more relevant answers.
    – user48754
    Commented May 18, 2021 at 10:59
  • More context is necessary. This is definitely not a literal translation, but if you need more help, please read this and share more original Japanese text. Unfortunately, a long description in English is often not helpful enough. And do you understand 言ってんのね is short for 言っているのね? What's the title of this work, and what type of character is this captain? I'm confused because a stereotypical male captain-type character never speaks like this.
    – naruto
    Commented May 19, 2021 at 2:05
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    I'm sorry I wasn't clear enough, I'll definitely take this into consideration the next time I make a question. Now that I have added some dialogues surrounding the sentence and the original source, is it possible to decipher what it means now?
    – smeraldofw
    Commented May 19, 2021 at 5:12

2 Answers 2

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言ってんのね is just a contraction of 言っているのね, and って right before it is a quotation marker. So the literal translation of ～って言ってんのね is "It's that I'm saying ～". The captain's line contains nothing that directly corresponds to "Do you get it?"

After watching the actual episode (available on Amazon Prime Video in Japan), I kind of understand why the translator chose "Do you get it" even though it's grammatically a mistranslation. There is a long pause between 自覚しなさいって and 言ってんのね, and 言ってんのね comes with a scary zoomed-in view of the caption, so "Do you get it?" fits well here. If we translated this literally into English, the last part of his line would be something like "the same side of the net", but uttering it with this visual effect might look a little unnatural. Anime translations are full of examples like this.

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    I particularly appreciate that you explain the localization context -- subtitles are a very particular subset of translation, with specific operating parameters (such as the need to synchronize sensibly with the action on the screen) that require the target text to sometimes stray significantly from the source.
    – Eiríkr Útlendi
    Commented May 24, 2022 at 16:24
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I have watched the relevant part of the video in question, and gotten the impression that he fits well into the male captain image.

The translation is definitely not literal and maybe too much a leap from the original. But I don't think it is a particularly bad translation since anime translation might be geared toward entertainment so that English subtitles can synchronize with characters speaking Japanese. (I have no idea how professional translators would evaluate this translation.)

言ってんのね here can be understood as a variant of 言っている that puts an emotional emphasis on what he's saying. The translation "Do you get it?" apparently derives from this emphasis: what he has just said is extremely important.

As for the sentence in question:

中学のときにネットを挟んだ敵同士だったとしても‌、今はネットのこっち側同士だってことを自覚しなさいって‌言ってんのね。

I personally think that as you suggested, "what I am saying" is more true to the original. The following is a roughly corresponding English sentence.

What I want you to understand is that even if you were opponents on different sides separated by the net in junior high school, you must realize that you are now on the same side of the net.

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