Request Badly translated novels

I generally love the translating community. The light novel boom on amazon wouldn't even be here without them. It's thanks to their hard work, often for free, that we can enjoy these stories we would never have seen the light of day here otherwise. That said, every once in a while an anomaly shows up. In this case It's Cardboard Translations. Instead of directly translating what the author wrote, they put great effort into adding liberal amounts of foul language/cussing, even going so far as to alter the speech patterns of characters to add more. This may be considered reasonable in some stories but they translate mostly lighthearted with occasional drama-y novels. Specifically "I Became the Demon Lord so I Created a Dungeon and Spend Heartwarming Time There with Non-Human Girls" and "I Was a Sword When I Reincarnated" They took two good stories with 13-15 age rating and made it 17+ with language. The entire feel of the novel changed and it seems to add discordance, like the characters gained a personality change. This is highly unethical. It's also highly disrespectful to the author. I hated to see two novels I like completely butchered this way. I discussed it with The Admin Tony and was granted an exception allowing me to make this thread. I would like to ask the community if someone else would be willing to pick up these novels where the previous translators left off.

 

Rise the forks Kappa.

 

I would say in a story where slavery attempted rape and other various depictions of violece language is the least of the problems im talking about the sword one BTW

 

No kidding. The Japanese take some fairly serious subjects pretty lightly. It sorta adds contrast to the series and makes the drama moments. That's kinda beside the point though. They fill the entire thing with obscene language. The way they go about it makes me feel like they find it fun. Reading it at that point is like wading through a sewer to get the story. It changes the entire feel of the story. This changes the authors style of making a fun fluffy story with a dark contrast. They are changing the wording and characters in the story to suit themselves. That is really not okay.

 

I think it's the writers trying to make their stuff try to stand out.... And I'm kinda getting sick of it in alot of cases;

Insert a Loli for no reason

Make them yandere for no reason

Push the ntr issue alot

Stockholm syndrome, rape victims become lovers.

Harem of women/men with little to no character development

It's starting to desensitize people, myself included. Bitch give us vanilla sometimes

 

Summon @SupremeTentacle

 

I drop a series if the put too much language or seriously bad situations in. The point of this thread is that it's the translator doing it not the author. The writer can say whatever he wants and if he writes a bad novel because of it ignore it. The point of this thread is to point out a translator who is adding lots of extreme language to novels. The previous translations didn't have that.

 

Thats wrong and I agree with you, I think Ren summed it up best with his thoughts on translating that you need to keep what the original authors mindset / feel of the novel; while you have leeway as a translator to change words around to fit but don't change the actual meaning?

 

I'm sorry. I was sure I pointed that out in when I spoke to you. I guess it's my fault for not making things clear. I didn't like to see the novel butchered like that. you can actually get one of the stories off of amazon. The best result is if Cardboard TL fixes ti themselves. They have serious talent.

 

... ... ....
i understand where you're coming from but there was no need to bash them. maybe one of the original translators can just give the ok to another group to translate instead. that would be more in line with the policy right?

i got curious about the story so i looked it up. only read the last few chapters and didn't notice any sewer language. no f** or b** just a few exclamatory words that are legit for teens i think. maybe they've toned things down a lot?

 

Naruto system. It's bad enough for me to remember how bad even after an year of finishing it

 

A 13-15 rating novel with rape scenes and slavery.. I think some crude words here and there are okay in comparison, and I don't think there were that many swear words used in the series?

 

That I should check on. I had to drop what they translated. That was after 150 chapters with obscene language all over the place and...well check my complaints above. I once tried to edit them out with a word processor for easier reading. Copied a whole bunch of chapters then edited out the F bomb and edited somewhere between 40 and 60 of them. I didn't even get them all because some where misspelled.

 

>Novel butchered

I do literary analysis before I translate. In TSKD, the MC is meant to be portrayed as a less than intelligent older man. In JM, the MC is a hardcore gamer.

In both cases, it's odd for the characters *not* to swear, and given the MC's tone and the tone the author intends to convey, it only makes sense to insert curse words in English, as Japanese is a language with very few English-like curse words. The point of inserting them is to retain the author's intent and ensure that the characters are portrayed in the same manner they are in the raw.

 

Its not a matter of no swearing It's a matter of heavy swearing and the level of swearing. The previous translations didn't have that. It's the difference between crap and sh*t in its various forms. Also, just because some in those groups cuss constantly doesn't mean they all do. Especially if the writer is going for a wider audience or isn't an excessive swearer themselves. It all depends on how they choose to write it.

 

Dang. I thought that all that 17+ language was fun and hip and gave the reading experience a lot more spice than I could ever hope to imbue in my writings. I thought that was what the kids these days were into.

And well, I've dropped novels cuz of TL quality before. I just never thought to be judgemental about curse words... insert saying about cups of tea, I guess.
Also, who am I to say that the author did or didn't write like that? I ain't about to do a line-by-line analysis like a Legal Imouto once did. I aint good enough for that. Here we arrive, at a central debate in TLing: literal or liberal?

Edit: I proudly profess myself to be a radical liberal. Shokushu-sama is also one of the most skilled TLers I know.

 

I never felt that the use of swear words was out of place in sword daddy, most of the times they were used it was either in an extreme situation or by a crude character. I honestly think Cardboard TL is doing a good job of it.

 

As a reader and as an editor, I can understand where you're coming from. There are rules to editing and to keep the intent and mindset of the authors. However, I feel that you're coming at this with a very emotionally-clouded state.

You're assuming they had inserted profanity with ill-intent when it could be in their honest and sincere attempt to capture the tone of the author. I admire the work and quality they put into their translations. You have to take note that they started translating, especially Dungeon Girls, because they wanted better quality translations and do justice to the novel. It also feels to me like you are too fixated on the profanity when there are many different angles and viewpoints to it. For one, there aren't really sole curse words in Japanese and the words and tone used by the author could be perceived by the specific TL as intending to hold the meaning of a curse word.

There's also the matter of how some people are more okay with curses than others which then this could affect the standards and diction of a TL group. You might feel uncomfortable with it, but the TL might feel that it's a perfectly okay word for the audience base and that using such words would more closely and respectfully match the author's. You also can't make full judgment on the author's intent without understanding the actual raws vs TLs.

Another thing is that from my investigation at least, it seems like their use matches well with the author.

Here's a sample from Chapter 42 (Side story: Gamdia Roston)

Raw: https://ncode.syosetu.com/n2671do/42/
そんなことをすれば、自分は軍職を首にされるかもしれない。
だが、それでも構わない。
元々、この遠征には反対だったのだ。こんな、大儀もクソもない戦闘で、兵を死なせるのは絶対に間違っている。

Google MTL :
If you do such a thing, you may be headed by military service. However, it does not matter. Originally it was against the expedition. It is absolutely wrong to make a solder die, in such a battle that neither a ceremonial nor a sh*t wears.

Carboard TL: https://cardboardtranslations.com/jingai-musume-42/
He knew that suggesting a retreat would call his character to question. He would surely be branded a coward and removed from his position—but he didn’t care. He’d been against the expedition from the very start, and wished not for his countrymen to die for meaningless, political bullsh*t.

AsianHobbyist TL: https://www.asianhobbyist.com/mn-42/
He might be fired from the army if he does that. But even then, it didn’t matter. He opposed this expedition to begin with. He thought that letting the soldiers die because of this stupid, unreasonable war was wrong.

Your thoughts @SupremeTentacle ?
Which is the word of concern and it's literal transition vs in-context translation vs English meaning vs tone vs perceived, etc. etc. ?