Discussion Official licensed novel way worse than fan TL

Discussion in 'Novel General' started by Soroty, Aug 21, 2019.

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  1. Soroty

    Soroty Active Member

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    This maybe bias opinion since i only read a few from Yenpress and not J-novel (danmachi, deathmarch , Onii-sama ,hataraku maou, kumo desuga ..). And there a few points i could not overlook
    - all suffix like nanodesu , desuwa , degozaru , desu desu etc etc got butchered , cut off or replaced with awkward word in which totally change the characteristic , speech & behavior ( ex : waku waku nanodesu ---> i'm excited , sir! )
    - some specific words/terms/idioms got mistranslated ( DT , ZR , shoujo , fujoshi , maou ->magic king =/= demon lord etc etc )
    - changed the measure unit from metric to imperial , it really hurt my brain to see those feet mile pound galon




    edit : Youjo senki got licensed n translated into my language. and guess what ; the publisher contracted a fujoshi TL which her main focus was chinese BL. result in a WWI war novel became a chinese fantasy isekai. i read a few sample pg and so fuking cringfest
     
    Last edited: Aug 21, 2019
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  2. Amethyss

    Amethyss Active Member

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    Thats ur own preference on how stuff should be translated. I personally hate the subfix and wouldnt mind the cutoff
     
  3. DarthOu

    DarthOu 《Lord Vader》

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    I've read YP's Reincarnated as a Slime, I've feel awkwardness every now and then, but the reading still flow nicely.
     
  4. Geor

    Geor Well-Known Member

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    sometimes the legal versions are worse, sometimes the fan ones are it all depends on the translators and editors (preferences aside that is), good example try to find some of the legal translations of LN's and comics from back in the '90s, the fan redos where better just in the editing alone
     
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  5. Sabruness

    Sabruness Cultured Yuri Connoisseur

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    I've had nothing but good experiences with J-Novel's official TLs that i've read. Then again, J-Novel clearly has a commitment to try and maintain as high a quality as reasonably possible (in my view at least).

    Yen Press.... is more of a mixed bag. Some have been great, some have been okay and some have been... urgh.
     
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  6. Kingloli229

    Kingloli229 Well-Known Member

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    There is nothing wrong with an American licencing company changing the measurement system to imperial since the everyday American uses imperial instead of metric anyway. That is a weird thing to be critical over as otherwise they wouldn't understand how far or tall something is.
     
  7. Kaminomikan

    Kaminomikan 神のみ感

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    professional translations always translate 100% removing idioms, and adapting things to the local region where is translated.
     
  8. tahzib1451

    tahzib1451 Title?is it food?

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    i have read J-Novel Club's books, and i have no problems with them apart from naming Motto Noss in Arifureta as More Noss...
     
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  9. TamaSaga

    TamaSaga Well-Known Member

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    This is a major reason why I store a copy of fan translations even though I buy official translations too. Many D-Frag jokes were lost in translation since they tried to find a softened localized version of it instead of telling it as it is...

    ...So I can claim that I've supported the series, but I can fall back to what I feel is the better version.

    I kinda wish that J-Novel called her Seria instead of Celia for Seirei Gensouki.
     
    Last edited: Aug 21, 2019
  10. Naofumi

    Naofumi Well-Known Member

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    50-50 As long that you can enjoy it when you read that's enough for me.
     
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  11. RNGesus

    RNGesus <<+10 Luck upon seeing this Nuffian>>

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    The number one problem; when Japanese names are spelled with their family and given names reversed. Gets on the nerves. I don't see THAT problem with CN novels.
     
  12. Snowbun

    Snowbun

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    Humm...from my personal experience, I can tell you that it depends a lot on the chief editor (though I never directly worked with that department).
    The timing for publishing and printing was taken into account when choosing the translators and sometimes even though there might be someone who is better for a certain genre or title, the publishing company might just want to choose anyone who they think is decent enough and just get on with the schedule...

    That's one of the reasons I appreciate fan translations a lot. Two of my seniors at my former workplace were huge fans of comics and did some fan translations when they were young before doing professional freelance translations. They are the kind of people that research a lot about the author previous works and word choices, phrasing and quirks before translating anything. I really admire both of them.
     
  13. Soroty

    Soroty Active Member

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    joke lost in translation is a common failure, nothing we can do beside deal with it.
    And fyk , licensed fee in most case paid in sum for publisher / copyright holder not in sale percent like thing in jp. so whether you buy the TL or not the author wont get any extra money . They already got a part of that sum when the LN licensed.

    edit :If you really want to support the author/serries , buy the original LN , dont matter you can read jp or not. Keep them in plastic cover in the bookshelf to showoff i guess
     
  14. yamibae

    yamibae Well-Known Member

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    I never buy officially translated works, only original untranslated format. Not a fan of the cutting of for honorifics and anglicizing them, some go a step further and even anglicize the names which is beyond stupid but a number of English readers prefer that. For measurement, imperials are a pretty shit unit to use in 2019 but what can you really do about it right?
     
  15. Chrono Vlad

    Chrono Vlad 『Banned From Drinking』

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    Most of my official translated novels are from J-Novel and i am satisfied with their quality of work as for the suffixes screw that I'm fine with or without it as long as i can understand the novel properly.

    As for Yen Press i sometimes get: Wait what? moments.... :notlikeblob:
     
  16. Galooza

    Galooza The One True Walapalooza

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    A lot of professional translators are simply hired for the job with no care for this as a hobby. As long as it's good English, regardless of how bland the result is. I've heard of the official translation of Negima translating the author's intentional Latin technique names like Magia Erebea straight to dark magic. I slightly die just thinking about it. With regards to suffixes, it's a mixed bag. I go by whether it's appropriate based on who's talking, and to who. Some longer ones do get annoying after a while, though.
     
  17. rosie94hrpr

    rosie94hrpr Active Member

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    Yen Press is probably the worst culprit for bad official English translations. I read Spice and Wolf and a lot of the phrasing was awkward, and sometimes they would even mess up who was speaking or use the wrong pronouns. Yes, it was English and mostly readable, but it made me feel like I was missing out on a lot.
     
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