Discussion: Manga translation conventions

[ozaline]

"People who have heard me pontificate on translation before might know that I think the retention of honorifics that has become so common in manga translations is generally an unnecessary and even wrong-headed practice. In fact, after twenty years of professionally translating manga, I am hard pressed to recall a case in which I retained honorifics (without an editor holding a gun to my head). Retention of Japanese honorifics without good reason seems to me to be an affectation intended to make self described otaku feel part of an exclusive club that understands, for example, what the honorific "-chan" means.

In the case of Wandering Son, though, skipping over honorifics would not only make my job more difficult, but also completely close off the reader to an aspect of the work that is both important and intrinsically interesting. But if I'm going to retain honorifics, I'm going to do it right. So bear with me while I offer a glossary that is, I hope, more thorough and nuanced than the kind you'll find in most manga translations."

--Matt Thorn


So just thought I'd start up a discussion do you prefer honorifics retained in manga? Or do you think they should be localized. I for one prefer their retention, I feel manga in particular rely on honorifics a lot to convey a character's feelings in a way that can't be approximated in English. Especially true in a queer work like Wandering Son, but in many other works as well.

Bellow is an example from Kaguya-sama Love is War of a scene that would be hard to localize







The Viz version of Kaguya-sama actually does drop the honorifics, so this is gonna be hard for them to translate.





Also do you prefer that names be rendered into western order or left in Japanese order? Again I lean towards leaving them in Japanese order, for a few reasons. I've come across several instances where there's word play that only works if you maintain the original order, and I've also seen it used to build tension by making you think they're addressing one member of a family, only for it to be another one.

This example below from Mix: Meisei Story is not the strongest example, this could be done with Western order... but I couldn't find the exact trope I wanted at the moment.

Comments

[alicemacher]

I understand what Thorn says about retention of honorifics giving translated manga an insular, "no non-otakus allowed" feel, although I think that's more a problem when a translation (generally a scanlation rather than an official one) leaves other, perfectly-translatable words untranslated ("Baka! You fell face-down on my boobs again," instead of "Idiot! You fell" etc.). Japanese honorifics in English may look awkward, but not nearly as awkward as some attempts I've seen (mostly in anime subs, mind) to provide English equivalents. A common offender is "Sir ______" for "______-san," as if the character being addressed were a British knight rather than a Japanese salaryman.

[janegray]

must... resist... urge... must...

"Just According to Keikaku*"

*Keikaku means plan

[ozaline]

I once saw an English fansubbed anime put a translator note on the English word farce, and give the dictionary definition.