Posting this for awareness and providing a perspective on freelancers. This video gives a brief history & breakdown on how the translating industry (specifically for anime) isn't feasible. How different perspectives on the value of work clash. And its the translator whose on the losing end. I believe this also relates to our current era of translators (in regards to translating all forms of media in general). If translating was more lucrative, more people may pursue translating as a career (it really depends on your locale). To quote the video @ 2:35 "For those who don't speak Japanese, a translator's work is the lens through which we experience these stories. When asked why the Yakuza series [Video Game] suddenly found an audience in the West, creator Toshihiro Nagoshi credits it entirely to the new localization team who were able to capture the personalities of the characters, and the themes of the story effectively. A great translator doesn't just have an understanding of both languages, they also have to be great at writing themselves. It's not a word-to-word process. You're not translating individual words. Rather you're understanding the intent behind those words and attempting to recreate them as if the screenwriter was fluent in English. There is nothing like watching a translator work, seeing them not only study further into the Japanese Language, but into English as well, to find the best way of expressing the intentions of the script." It's a good listen, if you have about 15 minutes to spare.
So, being a Crunchyroll TL means being in a perpetual cash crunch? Can't say I'm surprised. From what I have heard, anime and its associated industries function on the principle of overwork and underpay.
imagine mtl anime subbing.........with the amount of mtl novels i read...I have no problems with watching them
crunchy is shit.....stole money from paid users and made the garbage High Guardian Spice..... funi is shit....its more mafia compared to Mafia.... rooster teeth is shit..... if Japan wants to xport its subculture, they shud dedicate companies in Japan to do it.....
It is indeed a good listen. Anyone who does this professionally should be paid rates at least as high as normal document translators, if their accuracy is at least 90%. If they're at the nonsense level like some H-anime have, where the words that come out of the characters mouth and the translated sub match 0,1% of the time... I'd have to rethink their employment status. On the book though... Man, I remember the news breaking on TYT for that book... I cringed so hard when I listened to it, thinking what oaf had written that, but never looked it up... That was a dumpster fire. On the note of fan vs profit translators... I think that if you've set a schedule for weekly releases of free chapters, that shouldn't suddenly get lowered because "people aren't paying me enough". If you don't want to translate it for free, drop it. Reminds me of the war between community translators and for-profit translators though... The worst of the worst from the for-profit translators that I remember is Elysion or something like that, that charged people for chapters and then put out garbage worse than the even back then Google Translate MTLs. Milking people who aren't English-speakers to read translations that 1: were mind boggling to English readers, 2: inaccurate, 3: incomplete and 4: with random addition from the translator that were grammatical & contextual nonsense that the translator added for "better flow". Heck, I remember when he had joined the "rainbow" group of translators and being the worst among them and the only one that charged anything for the translations. And I don't mean extra chapters per week or something, i mean even a single release. To add in the topic of chapter vs part, I despise people who charge 30$ for a "chapter" when that published "chapter" is actually a 1/3 part of a chapter.
some of their translations are bordering troll i mean, why Spoiler when it could've (or rather should've) been Spoiler or just Sis, at the very least.
It always has been the same as in any other part of work if you find people who do the job for minimal cash you as company are doing it right to get them. The intellectual stuff aside if he/she think they are under paid than it is time to look for something else. I do not want to start this but some thoughts on this let say a good translation via a person with experience and certificates to do so cost 20-60$ per page it is for me obvious that a simple dialog will be more to the 20$ and a page about science and law contract with its own specifics language more on the 60$. It the same in other industries let say a bricklayer have the same situation and there is a difference between 20-60$ It came from where he lives how far he needs to travel to work does he work on simple house or on high risk construction like skyscraper. There is also something like to make a deal if they are freelancers.
Saw that. Was never into Crunchyroll, paying the same price as everyone else, but 2/3 of the work was "Sorry, this is not available in your region". Unfair.
already saw that~ comment section is fun to read~ some say crunchy history from blatant thief ehem agregrator history then to current era then other say it have good intention blablabla then some point how blatant wrong such view then blablabla even fakku name mention there as comparison~ this cat just rolling on bed read da comments~ oh btw there was video talking about fa aftermath of kyoani accident.... law is law indeed~ it created by nobitafromjapan
Didn't really watch the video yet it is difficult to outright impossible for many to most translators to make a living just translating.