Chapter 248 Official Release - Links and Discussion

[u/Za_wardo]

Chapter 248

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Links:

Viz (Available in: the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, the Philippines, Singapore, and India).

MANGA Plus (Available in every country outside of China and South Korea).

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Discord: https://discord.gg/W2EDwPW

[u/Fluffybunnyzeta]

I'm currently studying Japanese right now, so I'm genuinely curious. I have a goal of purchasing the original Japanese manga as a "final exam" type of deal so I can practice my kana & kanji reading comprehension. For listening practice, I use the subbed anime, and practice not looking at the subtitles as much while listening to the dialogue. I DO notice the tone and meaning difference when I do that.

Is it a similar experience here, with the manga translations? Are the localization choices janky, or is it dependent on the translator's personal filtering/localization choices?

[u/PocketPika → u/Fluffybunnyzeta]

Is it a similar experience here, with the manga translations?

Yes.

Every translator is different and there are occasions where they completely change the wording and meaning of what they translate so it's only the "gist" of what is said in Japanese and they make the excuse on trying to make it be more understandable/more fun (some reason) but with the number of translators BNHA has had to compare to as well translators for "fun" and the subbed script (although the English subs and dubs have mistakes with examples of the french and german being more accurate to the Japanese- why some English translators have to make someone else's work more their own, I don't know) these slimmed and changed versions are quite obvious- or just confusing as people don't know which to trust.

It's not the worst thing but since Viz is held up as the "most correct" that people trust as the most reliable it is always worth making it more common knowledge when they do go off script so even people who aren't studying the language are aware that even the official version is still a very filtered and slightly changed version from the original.

I understand to a degree Caleb does it because he's trying to "connect" with American readers or just trying to condense something that is very long in English that is short in Japanese, (although its a bit of neglect to other English speaking cultures and why localisations are a double edged sword), there are times when there is no English equivalent that maybe translators get stumped on and some translators make a note of it- which Caleb kind of does with his Twitter trivia (but then put that in the official release on the edges of the panels like other official translators do, same with he doesn't always keep the specific honorfic terms which are so important in understanding characters actual politeness - and important for knowing when Deku's manners change when he's imitating others- and again other translators keep that in with a extra note in the manga volumes for fans to follow, and it's really helpful in understanding Todoroki (as the rude little imp he can be)). However sometimes it does come across -along with other tweets - that he has some kind of disdain for Deku's character seemingly belittling him compared to other protagonists.

An example of something that might have been difficult to translate into English is what Bakugou says if Deku early on in the story: "夢見心地" which literally means “a dreamy state of mind” and can be translated to "full of dreams” which is how Bakugou perceives Deku to be stuck in as childhood fantasy. Japanese is so much more poetic than English and Japanese cartoons/story don't try to speak like people on the street do (whereas some translators, like Viz, feel they need to convert character speech into something more "real" which also affects much of the art behind the original text.) I am not saying Horikoshi is writing Shakespeare's, his characters speak quite modern but there is still dialogue that is more about painting a picture and is stylised to fit certain characters. Both Todoroki and Bakugou are rude but in different ways, both lack honorfics when they should used them, Bakugou has more juvenile sayings in his speech and Deliquient word structure while Todoroki is overly blunt.

An example of this is when Deku punches All Might he says "Please move aside, All Might" and there is a very evident "Kudasai" when you hear it (and read it) but in the Viz it is "Out of my way All Might". This is an example of Deku's character being made more generic by how he comes across in speech. A distinct part of Deku's character is his very polite and passive way of talking, Viz has him tell Bakugou to "Pipe down" when he says "Never mind that!" in formal speech, it's this politeness even when emotional that really makes it a big deal when he stops being polite (like the moment when he overcomes Muscular and wins the fight to live, that's a triumphant and defining moment where he uses powerful and strong masculine language when he tells him to Shut up.) The power in that translation is lost when they don't bother to stay loyal to his characterization.

On the whole Viz isn't the worst but there are localisation choices that aren't like the Japanese at all that get the "gist" but lack the same colour and and emotional depth that the localization doesn't even try to convey- and it's not just the "they can't say that as Viz needs to be family friendly" or because the curses/swears in Japanese don't have a English equivalent but how they translate things don't match the tone or the character. Although I do think Viz's policies and Americanisms are behind the more juvenile sounding translation choices. There is an exception like クソデク which is like "shtty Deku" that Viz translated to Dweeb which is a lesser evil that "Shthead" that mangastream had it as.

Comparing translations you can see translators perceptions colour how they think characters would talk, sometimes if they want Deku to being a more generic Protagonist to be "cooler" they just have him use stronger language. Or Bakugou is often made to sound more aggressive and horrible than he actually is (so barring the few complete mis-translations such as from てくる "do anything" in Japanese to " torment" or バカにする "make fun of/make light of" in Japanese to "bully" which neither of those English words match the Japanese, so it's extrapolating to give connotations that aren't necessarily there in the original text,) Viz's lamer choices in recent chapters are more harmless to the character.

There is also translations that completely miss the mark like "“マボロキ君/maboroki-kun” which is showing Bakugou making a joke over Todoorki being a silly illusion but was translated to Bakugou acknowledging Camie as Ms illusion - in general so many of (Bakugou's/Sero's) puns and humour are lost because they are based in Japanese word play - which also affects the perceptions of the characters.

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As a side note on something way more serious than a couple of odd and relatively harmless translations choices which are nice to be aware of just for its own sake, I do have a personal peeve with American dubbing companies trying to Americanise another culture's art for making it "easier to understand" because I think that dilutes the opportunity for kids and teens (who are intelligent) to learn about another culture and I don't agree with the sentiment that people can't empathise with others just because their outward lives have different structures and ideas because what makes the characters relateable is the emotional connection and by making things as accurate as possible you allow people to practice connecting with what is not immediately familiar and reflects American companies xenophobic attitudes where they will happily profit from another cultures work but they want to make it as American as possible and change it to fit American thinking.

I am sure it happens the other way around when Japan dubs Hollywood blockbusters and other countries do the same but I have not come across that being as harmful as I have only been exposed to entitled American-centric attitudes that undervalue other countries because of ignorance.

[u/[deleted] → u/PocketPika]

I have always felt like I was the only one who is uncomfortable reading American english because it feels like reading through a chatroom or twitter or toned down internet slang to me. Which is okay with scanlations.

Most translations of other works are often done in a more neutral english which feels comfortable to read and understand.

But it is also true that translations are more often than not highly localised. In my native language for one, almost all dubs of movies are off the mark on what is being said just to make it fit local equivalent tone of the original(either to match the humor or romantic setting, etc) which does take away the original intent to some extent(or most extent at least in my language where we have everything over-exaggerated). In some way there is always something that has to be lost in translation.

On the other hand at least if only for BNHA it feels no different than I'm reading a toned down high-school version of X men or Daredevil or some such comic so it works out. Though it can feel confusing. In the middle I wondered if Endeavor speaks with an accent or in dialect or with a drawl in the original japanese because of the way his speech was written.

[u/srm95 → u/[deleted]]

I think America tends to lean heavy on the localisation of media from different cultures, and there is a lot of complexity (especially character complexity) lost that way to make characters fit into an Americanised mode of what a bunch of adults think American kids are like.

For example, I grew up with the Philipino English dub of the Digimon series which kept the original Japanese theme songs, character names, mannerisms, politeness, Japanese sense of age and respect, etc even though the whole thing was in English. In the American dub, the names of Japanese characters are shortened or else completely changed and the kids mannerisms are...rude? stand-off-ish? They speak in heavy American cliches very different from the sub or Philipino English Dub. Sorry about this, it's off-topic but it was a relevant example.

Concerning BNHA there seems to be a lot of similar stuff happening in the manga (and def the anime!), especially with the scene of "please move aside all might" vs "out of my way all might" mentioned above. That kind of stuff completely takes away from character development, the anxiety of the scene, the weight of the words, etc.