i've done it few times.. but very rarely... i did it to compare title once, and also to compare the change the mangaka did on a tankoban release (they sometimes change/add stuff).. never compare the translation though.
publisher here don't publish manga using english, and i read scanlation that are using english.. so there's no point on comparing them
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Site Poll - Chat Box 140 - Scanlation vs. Official
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12:01 am, Jun 27 2011
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Member7:08 am, Jun 27 2011
Posts: 301
Quote from oneluminousfish
The "official" is usually Americanized and not held true to the Japanese culture and explained.
Dunno what official volumes you're reading, but I own over 250 and none of them are "Americanised".
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8:02 am, Jun 27 2011
Posts: 378
Quote from Turbophoenix
Quote from oneluminousfish
The "official" is usually Americanized and not held true to the Japanese culture and explained.
Dunno what official volumes you're reading, but I own over 250 and none of them are "Americanised".
Americanized in the sense of what words they use and certain sentences that translates strangely, so they take the localized route. For example, changing the names of the characters to English names *like Detective Conan*. Or changing entire sentence's meaning in general when 1 word can't translate well into English. Though I've noticed more recently, thankfully, they leave the word in Japanese and put a small translator note somewhere.
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8:58 am, Jun 27 2011
Posts: 1899
The Americanization argument has always seemed quite flawed to me. You have some ground with names, but the reality is that it generally does a better job of capturing meaning than literal translations, which is sort of the point.
There are basically two schools of thought when it comes to translation- basically those concerned with literal meanings and those concerned with the artistic meaning of a phrase. Over the years (and comparing with how I would translate words myself) I tend to prefer the artistic meaning that occasionally strays from the way a work is literally written as the actual feelings and tones of the piece are conveyed far better when you lose the rigidity.
A lot of the scanlators, especially those that don't speak Japanese terribly well (and there are plenty of translators at that level) tend to prefer the literal side of things, mostly because there's a bias in the fanbase. The official translations are for the general market and tend not to have the same problem. Better translators also tend to work around this, as they have enough experience to know better.
We see this argument all the time when a translator leaves in a word like "baka," which has absolutely no business appearing in a translation unless you're sucking up to a fanbase that knows 4-8 words of Japanese. It also becomes a problem when the translator doesn't know an idiom and just translates it literally...
I guess what I'm getting at is that is doesn't matter if the translation is official or not as long as it's well constructed, but the professionals generally do a better job than the unskilled hobbyists with a decent sized handful of exceptions.
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There are basically two schools of thought when it comes to translation- basically those concerned with literal meanings and those concerned with the artistic meaning of a phrase. Over the years (and comparing with how I would translate words myself) I tend to prefer the artistic meaning that occasionally strays from the way a work is literally written as the actual feelings and tones of the piece are conveyed far better when you lose the rigidity.
A lot of the scanlators, especially those that don't speak Japanese terribly well (and there are plenty of translators at that level) tend to prefer the literal side of things, mostly because there's a bias in the fanbase. The official translations are for the general market and tend not to have the same problem. Better translators also tend to work around this, as they have enough experience to know better.
We see this argument all the time when a translator leaves in a word like "baka," which has absolutely no business appearing in a translation unless you're sucking up to a fanbase that knows 4-8 words of Japanese. It also becomes a problem when the translator doesn't know an idiom and just translates it literally...
I guess what I'm getting at is that is doesn't matter if the translation is official or not as long as it's well constructed, but the professionals generally do a better job than the unskilled hobbyists with a decent sized handful of exceptions.
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Reviews of my Work:
You are kind of boring - Blackorion
Congratulations! Ur an asshole! - tokyo_homi
Your awesome!!! - Cherelle_Ashley
NightSwan also said that she wanted to peg me, once, but I'm not sure whether to take that as a compliment or a threat...
Member
5:17 am, Jun 29 2011
Posts: 263
5:17 am, Jun 29 2011
Posts: 263
Quote from Crenshinibon
The Americanization argument has always seemed quite flawed to me. You have some ground with names, but the reality is that it generally does a better job of capturing meaning than literal translations, which is sort of the point.
There are basically two schools of thought when it comes to translation- basically those concerned with literal meanings and those concerned with the artistic meaning of a phrase. Over the years (and comparing with how I would translate words myself) I tend to prefer the artistic meaning that occasionally strays from the way a work is literally written as the actual feelings and tones of the piece are conveyed far better when you lose the rigidity.
A lot of the scanlators, especially those that don't speak Japanese terribly well (and there are plenty of translators at that level) tend to prefer the literal side of things, mostly because there's a bias in the fanbase. The official translations are for the general market and tend not to have the same problem. Better translators also tend to work around this, as they have enough experience to know better.
We see this argument all the time when a translator leaves in a word like "baka," which has absolutely no business appearing in a translation unless you're sucking up to a fanbase that knows 4-8 words of Japanese. It also becomes a problem when the translator doesn't know an idiom and just translates it literally...
I guess what I'm getting at is that is doesn't matter if the translation is official or not as long as it's well constructed, but the professionals generally do a better job than the unskilled hobbyists with a decent sized handful of exceptions.
There are basically two schools of thought when it comes to translation- basically those concerned with literal meanings and those concerned with the artistic meaning of a phrase. Over the years (and comparing with how I would translate words myself) I tend to prefer the artistic meaning that occasionally strays from the way a work is literally written as the actual feelings and tones of the piece are conveyed far better when you lose the rigidity.
A lot of the scanlators, especially those that don't speak Japanese terribly well (and there are plenty of translators at that level) tend to prefer the literal side of things, mostly because there's a bias in the fanbase. The official translations are for the general market and tend not to have the same problem. Better translators also tend to work around this, as they have enough experience to know better.
We see this argument all the time when a translator leaves in a word like "baka," which has absolutely no business appearing in a translation unless you're sucking up to a fanbase that knows 4-8 words of Japanese. It also becomes a problem when the translator doesn't know an idiom and just translates it literally...
I guess what I'm getting at is that is doesn't matter if the translation is official or not as long as it's well constructed, but the professionals generally do a better job than the unskilled hobbyists with a decent sized handful of exceptions.
when i think americanized, i tend to think when they change the names to "american" names.
i also think of, and this one is FAR more offensive to me, when they replace a culture reference with and american equivalent, like one where they changed an japanese singer name to britney spears. but the worst one, the one that makes me doubt entire mangas translations, are when the words are almost 100% taken from something that didnt exist back than. i beleive a chapter of ah my goddess name was taken from an eminem song, i cant find the chapter, and im not looking through 100 to find it buy i believe its there, and will look a bit later.
if you want to say the artistic interpretation, i believe that is ok, only for the jokes, because they are suppose to be funny, and not everyone gets the reference, or the joke falls flat in english because its basically a pun. re wording there can be ok.
but when ever i see the changes, i always see it as an insult to the fans. NOTHING to me is worse than knowing that the official translation isn't a real translation. so i compare EVERYTHING before i will buy it. and i pick out things that i KNOW will be translated differently, just to see what way they take it. like if they try to keep it as bad as it should be (such as saying fuck) try to side step it (changing fuck to fruit) or if they omit that part all together to reach a younger demographic.
some of the better examples come from naruto, i dont like it any more, but official translations take the context words are said, and choses the lighter meaning of the words. like changing shit to darnit, when you know for a fact that it was a harsher word.
im a bit tired and think im turning into a rant.
Member
11:28 pm, Jun 29 2011
Posts: 11
11:28 pm, Jun 29 2011
Posts: 11
Mushishi had awful typesetting. Text wasn't even centered properly :\
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8:10 pm, Jun 30 2011
Posts: 198
8:10 pm, Jun 30 2011
Posts: 198
Quote from kirabook
Americanized in the sense of what words they use and certain sentences that translates strangely, so they take the localized route. For example, changing the names of the characters to English names *like Detective Conan*. Or changing entire sentence's meaning in general when 1 word can't translate well into English. Though I've noticed more recently, thankfully, they leave the word in Japanese and put a small translator note somewhere.
While what you say would be (mostly) true a decade ago, the vast majority of this has thankfully faded away. It's true you still get the kid shows getting extremely liberal translations, but the source material is so nonsensical that playful liberties can improve on them (Samurai Pizza Cats anyone?). Not always, of course, but sometimes.
The vast majority of official works nowadays try to stay as close to the source material as possible, aside from western censorship issues. You do have erroneous substitutions, from time to time, but the same can be said about Fan work (especially in the cases of gratuitous German or English phrases).
I'd say, as a general evaluation, that Fan translations can range anywhere from utterly atrocious to great, while most present day Offical works will range from mediocre to great. If it's a mainstream popular series, the Scanlation will probably be better. For everything else, the Official translations will average out to higher quality.
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Member8:41 pm, Jun 30 2011
Posts: 301
Quote from alidan
some of the better examples come from naruto, i dont like it any more, but official translations take the context words are said, and choses the lighter meaning of the words. like changing shit to darnit, when you know for a fact that it was a harsher word.
Off topic (sorry) but how do you know the scanlation is correct when it says 'shit'? They could be replacing 'darnit' with 'shit' in order to make the series seem more adult. Just a thought.
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Member
1:14 am, Jul 1 2011
Posts: 198
1:14 am, Jul 1 2011
Posts: 198
Quote from Turbophoenix
Quote from alidan
some of the better examples come from naruto, i dont like it any more, but official translations take the context words are said, and choses the lighter meaning of the words. like changing shit to darnit, when you know for a fact that it was a harsher word.
Off topic (sorry) but how do you know the scanlation is correct when it says 'shit'? They could be replacing 'darnit' with 'shit' in order to make the series seem more adult. Just a thought.
For that matter, it's not like swear words are 1:1 transferable either, especially when it comes to context.
Not to mention that I've seen Scanlators throw in swears where they never were in the first place, just because they thought it was "more appropriate".
(Fimbulvetr)
Member
4:14 am, Jul 1 2011
Posts: 2
Member
4:14 am, Jul 1 2011
Posts: 2
Where's the option "Only those where I was involved in scanlating" ?
I guess that's the only case where I'd be interested enough.
I guess that's the only case where I'd be interested enough.
10:58 am, Jul 2 2011
Posts: 10666
Poll's over
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Member
12:29 am, Jul 8 2011
Posts: 27
12:29 am, Jul 8 2011
Posts: 27
Quote from alidan
but when ever i see the changes, i always see it as an insult to the fans. NOTHING to me is worse than knowing that the official translation isn't a real translation. so i compare EVERYTHING before i will buy it. and i pick out things that i KNOW will be translated differently, just to see what way they take it. like if they try to keep it as bad as it should be (such as saying fuck) try to side step it (changing fuck to fruit) or if they omit that part all together to reach a younger demographic.
some of the better examples come from naruto, i dont like it any more, but official translations take the context words are said, and choses the lighter meaning of the words. like changing shit to darnit, when you know for a fact that it was a harsher word.
im a bit tired and think im turning into a rant.
some of the better examples come from naruto, i dont like it any more, but official translations take the context words are said, and choses the lighter meaning of the words. like changing shit to darnit, when you know for a fact that it was a harsher word.
im a bit tired and think im turning into a rant.
That's not Americanized, that's censored. It happens because Naruto is geared towards younger readers and the parents get angry and complain. In the official Naruto volumes Lee doesn't drink sake and drunken fist it up, he drinks some sort of potion or whatever. Why? Because he's underage and underage drinking is bad, yo.
