I watched the Japanese version and the English subs translated the word for the black soot spirits 'makuro koruske' to 'dustbunnies'. Is that an accurate translation?
shareummm...first of all, "kuro" means a color of black, and "makkuro" means real black.
These are ordinary Japanese words at all.
But it's difficult to explain "kurosuke".
This is a coined word by Mei and Satsuki that sounds like a boy's name.
I wish I can help to your understanding...
Yes and no.
Here's the problem with translations, they're more an artform than a science. The idea is to translate not only the words but the meaning of the words into a form that the viewer will understand.
We know what "dust bunnies" are but we have no word for the Japanese "makkuro kurosuke" or "susuwatari" in English so they went with the closest approximation.
Makkuro kurosuke is literally translated as "completely black helper". I'm not sure if this was something that the Japanese of the time actually believed in or if it's just something that Miyazaki-san created for his movies.