[bearcat]

I got some good answers elsewhere:

The Japanese find it rude to simply answer "Yes" or "No".
an explanation, often an elaborate one, has to accompany the reply.

The Japanese use body language MUCH more than Westerners, and what we consider overstatement is
considered normal.

The wordy replies in Japanese films make the mouth move for a long time, so the translators struggle to fill this in with more English words, resulting in some repetition and absurdity.