Lost in translation
January 19, 2009 8:38 am Anime & Manga
I’m sick of manga publishers’ refusal to translate Japanese terminology. If I buy an English edition of a manga, I want it fully translated. I can understand not translating character names; those, obviously, you need to leave alone. But especially in shonen manga (which is aimed at the male demographic), you see all manner of terminology left in the original Japanese! Obviously, it’s translated into the English alphabet, otherwise you wouldn’t be able to read it all, but the terms themselves are still Japanese. Worse yet, there’s often an asterisk (*) next to the word or words, with the English translation listed below the panel. That makes no sense whatsoever; if you’re going to translate it, then just put it in the damn speech bubble in the first place!
Let me give you some examples. In the popular manga Bleach, we’ve got terms like zanpakutou (“soul-cutting sword”), reiatsu (“spirit energy”), and shun shun rikka (“six flowers of the shielded hibiscus”). I admit that the literal translations of these don’t sound fantastic, but you can take a bit of artistic license and give us an English equivalent! In fact, Bleach has already done this; many of the supporting cast in the series are shinigami, which translates to “gods of death.” That’s not going to sell many books, is it? So, over here, they call them “Soul Reapers.” It essentially means the same thing, but doesn’t sound generic. It gets the point across and sounds unique at the same time.
I bet that the Japanese terms are left untranslated just to please the overly obsessive fanboys and fangirls. That’s retarded. If you want the original Japanese that badly, then take a fucking class and learn the language yourself.
January 19th, 2009 at 11:39 PM
I am hypnotized by the twirling celery! @.@
Anime gets this a lot too, on both the dub and the sub sides. For dubs, my personal preference is something that retains the meaning or intent of the Japanese, but sounds natural in English. For subtitles, I prefer something that is more literal, yet worded to make sense in English. (I don’t mind reading a few cultural notes afterward if need be, in these cases.) When there is significant difference between the two, you get the subtitle vs dubtitle issue rearing its ugly head.
In other words, dubtitles may be fine for the English track if you need them, but using them for the Japanese track may not be the best choice, regardless of whether you speak the language or not. Think of it another way. If you’re watching a French movie with English subtitles, wouldn’t a subtitle track that represents what is being spoken make more sense, even if you don’t speak French yourself? It represents what it being said, whereas a translation with more linguistic liberties are taken (ie a rewrite) suddenly doesn’t match what is actually being said.
For some things like jokes (and this goes for anime or manga, or anything in any language, actually), an English rewrite is often necessary, since idioms and figures of speech generally don’t translate well. Whether it’s in a manga panel, an English dub, or an English subtitle, for the humor to get across as the creator intended, it has to be rewritten into a parallel joke that makes sense in the language it is being translated into. Cultural notes in a footnote or liner note are appreciated to explain the differences between the original and the translated, at least for me.
Yeesh! I wrote as much as you did, if not more! But yeah, if it’s in English, it’s nice if it makes sense to me in my language. I don’t mind doing a little research if necessary, but if I can’t read it at all, then that part is just lost on me.