Thread: Why I dislike buying manga.

I sure many people have purchased their fair share of anime and manga over the course of their "otakuness", and I am no different. The biggest problem I have with purchasing manga is because the translations tend to be innaccurate at best.

I understand the need to appeal to an "American" audiences, but I find some of the translations to be nothing short of mutilations of the japanese culture and traditions. I depise the fact that the translators attempt to assimilate the Japanese culture into American culture. Some examples that make me want to tear the book up and throw it across the room are:

1. Instead of calling a foodstuff its correct name and then leaving a translation note, translators decide to call it something entirely different.
ie: onigiri=dougnuts.

2. Instead of using the japanese explatories, the translators attempt to change it into something we might hear in english.
ie: What the hell!

3. I understand the difficulty of translating names, but when japanese people call anyone by their first names, that situation signifies a close relationship. However, in many of the mangas I have accumulated I didn't realize that the interpertation of names in many of my mangas were completely ignored.
ie: Love Hina - I didn't realize that Keitaro was calling Naru by her first name throughout the entire series. After looking a few fansubbed pages I finally noticed. That huge detail was simply overlooked in the translations.

Basically I have been looking for a tranlations company in America that have more direct translations. I want a more literal meaning that is found in many of the fan subbing and scanlations.

Does anyone know any company that do not have the flaws which are mentioned above? Del Ray is notorious for butchering titles, and I simply can not tolerate Toyko Pop. GTO's translations nearly brought me to tears.

Oops did I post this in the wrong category?

Atleast you guys have mangas to buy, we have some here in Sweden but 80% of those are crap and everyone is translated to Swedish... The only manga I own is like Sandland, and the first 5 vols of Samurai Deeper Kyo and some manwha like Rebirth and Ragnarok...

lol well I dont care about the smallest ideas of each manga as long as the overall point and storyline of the story are intact that's fine with me. Overall I read way more online then I buy like most people however there are some I cant get online so I just have to buy them. Mostly buy now because I basically ran out of all the good mangas online and all the long ones too, found a good download site for anime but I still like reading anime.

Yeah... you sort of did post in the wrong section. But w/e. It's not bothering me.



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Seriously.

Well... I disagree with you. I think that if you want to read it in such a perfect, unchanged manner, then learn japanese and read the japanese ones. I dont know what your experience with the Japanese language is, but try directly translating a few sentences in a manga from Japanese to english. directly. it sounds really, really dumb. Since the language structures are different, the very act of translating inherently and necessarily involves a little word play to make the translation be readable to english speakers.
I do agree with you on your point about onigiri:donuts. i'm really not sure why they dont just footnote.
But about the Love Hina manga, it was clear to me from the start that he was calling her by her first name. Like, when they introduced her as Naru Narusegawa, and he proceeded to call her Naru... where, exactly, did that trip you up? but w/e, minor detail.
I think we need to cut some translations a little slack. I would rather have complex and relatable syntax in my mangas than some crazy direct translations from a few guys in Hong Kong.

Besides. It could have been worse. They could have given them english names XD

I have to say though. I prefer scanlations. Although this couuld slightly be due to the fact that I read scanlations first but w/e

Come on topic creator, there's no need to justify the fact that by not purchasing manga, you aren't supporting or helping the industry. Just face it.

I buy a lot of manga, but I really prefer scanlations (except for manga by Del Rey. Come on, they write their name in Japanese on the side! =D Sure, the titles are butchered but the overall quality is much better.). The "americanized" phrases, the names (I've seen names changed to English or at least wrongly spelled - mostly in anime and Viz, respectively) and even lack of reference to culture. I've seen anime that has had colourful language removed because... I don't know. Really. It's already rated 18+.

One big thing that confuses me is the lack of titles and honorifics. In English, it's okay to call people you don't really know by their first names, but you don't in Japanese - it really changes everything to eliminate that idea. Some manga publishers choose to keep some honorifics and I find that it improves the quality of the manga. One example is in Ouran Koukou Host Club, translated by Viz. I don't know how you can translate "senpai" into English ("Senpai, I need your help...") but why would the first name be used instead? Butchering culture like that is what really gets me about manga publishers.

I have huge problems with Viz (they even flipped Ranma 1/2 and Inuyasha around to read left-to-right - which makes it really weird when someone gets shot in the heart on the RIGHT or you carry a sword on your RIGHT or shirts read backwards or whatever). TokyoPop isn't great either.

And the rating system is crazy, though that's mostly a problem with the anime creators (yes, full-frontal nudity and sexual innuendo is just perfect for small children! By all means, cut out the near-constant swearing and show it at 8pm, it's fine!).

Uh... anyways, I have huge problems. And sadly, I will still buy manga.

(For a good laugh, buy Hot Gimmick. There are so many uses of random euphenisms for "virginity" that without reading the scanlation, you probably wouldn't get it.)

Yeah, I think there is a short list of basic words that are intrinsically linked to Japanese culture that should not be americanized (like senpai). as long as theyre explained, I dont see an issue.