When I 1st got into light novels, manga, and anime my sister told me that if there were swears then it is from the translator and not the author of the story. Especially the f word. Is that still true today? I don't mind the swearing as long as it goes with the story. But if it is just trying to get away with stuff, it's annoying. I Always Appreciate any Edited swears. Just makes reading so much more enjoyable.
that's probably just false depends on author and target audience, but various novels definitely do have swear words
If I remember correctly, profanity in Japanese doesn't exactly directly translate into English profanity. It's less words such as "fuck" or "damn" and more words that just have a negative connotation. Kuso, would directly translate to "shit" in English. However, Japanese is a very contextual language, and it's not necessarily the best translation in every context, to which translators would use a different word to better fit the dialogue. So while you'd likely hear someone insulting you in Japanese as "human trash," a translation might be "fucking piece of shit" to account for the level of salt in their insult (or should i say insalt). In short, the edited swears facilitate integrating a translation better to the culture catered to. Or at least, that's what I think. You'll likely find someone who actually learned Japanese or lived in Japan a lot more helpful for an explanation.
Somewhat related question what's with translators censoring swear words like 'f*ck' I don't understand the purpose??
Some ad companies don't want to run their ads on pages with profanity on them. I know in the past that's why Wuxiaworld and some other sites censored some words like that. It was just to get around the ad company restrictions.
Ah that sounds very possible, don't mind the fact that they're describing torture murder etc. can't have profanity TY Guan Zhong
Ad companies got bots to check for profanity keywords, that's why. Descriptions are too long and vague to target specifically. Sometimes my site will get warning from ad comp, they even hated the word gay :v