Why i hate a lot of manga translations - Reason #3968

[Shippou-Sensei]

this is a page form Dr Slump a classic gag manga by the author of the more notorious Dragon ball

what... the... fuck...

ok i get that the original gag is going to be pretty incomprehensible to most western audiances given the manga is japanese and from from the early 80's

but this will be equally out of date soon and incomprehensible to people who didn't know that song (hell i only really know it due to wierd al)

just fucking do a translation of the original joke and stick in a footnote

 

[kabbes]

Yeah! And another thing, right, how about them Dodgers?

 

[Pseudopsycho]

The weird Al version is infinitely better imo

 

[joevsimp]

The weird Al version is infinitely better imo

might have to fire that up again, it was one of the first vids i watched in freshers week, finally having high speed internet

 

[Shippou-Sensei]

i just hate the way it changes the tonality of a lot of stuff

and when it's doing pop culture stuff it's really annoying

 

[stupid dogbot]

The weird Al version is infinitely better imo

In fairness, he's always been a better rapper than Chamillionaire.

 

[Shippou-Sensei]

this is just going to turn into a white and nerdy thread isn't it?

 

[kained&able]

In fairness, he's always been a better rapper than Chamillionaire.

lies chamillionaire is decent!

love me a bit southen takeover.

dave

 

[kabbes]

Why is the back of the girl's head shaved? Do i want to know the answer to that?

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

Indeed, it's not like western audiences are incapable of comprehending that some manga was written in the past in another country.

 

[Pseudopsycho]

this is just going to turn into a white and nerdy thread isn't it?

tbf most internet threads are by definition nerdy

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

Have you got the original page?

 

[mrs quoad]

I did not realise that 'they see me rollin, they hatin' was a reference to anything (let alone anything musical) outside of the internet.

 

[stupid dogbot]

lies chamillionaire is decent!

Sorry. No.

 

[stupid dogbot]

Oh, and for quoad and the other incogs...

 

[Shippou-Sensei]

Have you got the original page?

just downloading a raw copy now

 

[Shippou-Sensei]

Oh, and for quoad and the other incogs...

and the even better

 

[Shippou-Sensei]

original

 

[kabbes]

I prefer the version in English.

 

[FridgeMagnet]

Why would you bother even trying to translate a Japan-specific joke from the early 80s in the first place? The only people who would appreciate it would know the original anyway. And why would you bother putting a different (and in this case not funny) joke into the speech bubbles instead?

 

[Shippou-Sensei]

i'd prefer the original joke but don't know what it is (it's meant to be a translation not a rewrite in my opinion)

and it's not just old manga they do it to modern stuff too


the worst worst worst example i own is ikkitousen first off the title gets changed to battle vixens and then the totally fuck with the characters dialog completly changing the tone of the story... they fucking add in lines with one character complaining about the other one acting gay ... when in the original there is actually implied mutual attraction...

 

[FridgeMagnet]

I just don't see the point of even bothering to translate a one page gag comic based around a culturally and period specific joke. You do it literally, nobody understands it apart from the Japanese (who didn't need the translation) or otakus (who didn't need the translation). You make up your own joke... why bother? You could just write your own comic and it would work better.

It's when people try to do it with longer stuff that it makes more difference I think. I read a lot of the Appleseed and Ghost In The Shell manga, and while I was assured that Shirow had all these deep themes going on, the English versions I read were just confusing and stupid. I'm still not sure whether he actually does have any sort of deep themes going on or whether he's a piss artist. The OAV of GITS, in contrast, was much better. (Appleseed was shit but I think everyone knows that.)

 

[Shippou-Sensei]

it's not a one page gag comic it's a full comic that's just a single page of it

and err i'm a fairly reasonably description of an otaku and i need the translation and maybe a foot note explaining it... it's what a lot of the fan done stuff does... hell lots of translated manga come with a big section in the back explaining japanese-isms

 

[silverfish]

"Esoteric" is the word that pops up for me.......And I can assure you that is you getting off lightly.....

 

[Captain Hurrah]

I mean no massive offence here, but who cares?

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

original

Luckily it is fairly easy to read as it is mostly in katakana (so sounds the same as it is said in english) or easy Hiragana without kanji. That said, I still don't get it at all so I am either missing something or it is based on or making fun of something that happened at the time.
I will ask the wife tonight.

As far as my limited Japanese is telling me - the comment made by the high school girl is pretty much the same. The little girl seems to be singing Pa pa pa pa perm pa pa permanent. Then something about a caterpillar (Ta ta tamushi), a perms caterpillars - and the back of your head - Permanently. Gosh I must be reading it wrong.


Edited extra thoughts. . .
Maybe the highschool girl is a famous singer or celb of the time (Akane?) and is offended by the kid singing about the permanent caterpillars in perms? Maybe it's a bastardization of one of her songs or a popular song?

 

[kained&able]

Sorry. No.

you actually listened to his albums/ mixtapes or just going with the single(s).

In my opinion he is right up there with scarface and bubba sparxx for king of the south.

dave

 

[stupid dogbot]

Yeah, I've heard the records.

Your 2nd sentence, well, that's not really saying much, is it? I probably rate your foot above Bubba Sparxxxxxx, tbh. The whole Dirty South "next big thing" didn't really materialize as it might have done (shock horror, a journo-coined "next big thing" didn't come about!!!) and its time is already passing...

 

[kained&able]

nah bubba is class. The albums he did with timberland especially. 'Ain't life grand' and 'all the same' are amazing.

Most of em are toss though. They tend to lack any lyrical content other then scarface obviously, oh and andre3000 when he isn't annoying me.

dave

 

[Shippou-Sensei]

Luckily it is fairly easy to read as it is mostly in katakana (so sounds the same as it is said in english) or easy Hiragana without kanji. That said, I still don't get it at all so I am either missing something or it is based on or making fun of something that happened at the time.
I will ask the wife tonight.

As far as my limited Japanese is telling me - the comment made by the high school girl is pretty much the same. The little girl seems to be singing Pa pa pa pa perm pa pa permanent. Then something about a caterpillar (Ta ta tamushi), a perms caterpillars - and the back of your head - Permanently. Gosh I must be reading it wrong.


Edited extra thoughts. . .
Maybe the highschool girl is a famous singer or celb of the time (Akane?) and is offended by the kid singing about the permanent caterpillars in perms? Maybe it's a bastardization of one of her songs or a popular song?

ah it's probably about her hairstyle... she seems obsesed about fastion and looks so that kinda makes sence

perhaps the highschool girl is just rolling her eyes at the idea of a brat singing about being fastionable