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

[janegray]

I strongly prefer honorifics to be retained. Relationship upgrades rely heavily on switching from one honorific to a different one, or dropping them altogether, and that can be very awkward if you try and translate it into English.

For example, in one Lupin story where Fujiko loses her memory, the climax of the story is when she stops calling Lupin "Lupin-san" and goes back to just Lupin, signifying that She Is Back.

In the English version, amnesiac Fujiko calls Lupin "Mr. Lupin," and that moment is translated as her dropping the "Mr." But it's really awkward, because however polite you might be, what adult calls fellow adult teammates "Mr."?

Or, in Slam Dunk, there is a very funny scene where Hanamichi has a crush on a girl, and gets hilariously jealous when a guy calls her by her first name, and Hanamichi assumes he must be her boyfriend. Turns out he is her brother. How do you translate it without making it sound awkward? It's not like her brother is going to call her "honey" or "dear."

There are a lot of examples like that. Keep the honorifics, they do change the context.

[ozaline]

You can also use them for an awesome mic drop, like the end of the second episode of Utena, where (to Anthy) Saionji goes from Saionji-sama to Saionji ... ... senpai.

[locuatico]

Utena I feel is kind of special, since it is a deeply...artsy?.
It's a show that is very much intended for the reader to find meaning in pretty much every aspect. so I think the translations should keep as much of the original text as possible, even at the risk of getting the audience lost and confused.

[lego_joker]

Tangentially related, but I just hatched an idea of my own for the Lupin thing: as amnesiac, Fujiko pronounces it the "American" way (Loo-pin), and when She's Back, she pronounces it the "proper" way (Ru-pan).

(Also... Penguin called his adult teammates "Mister" in the Batman '66 movie, but I've got a feeling that's not exactly the parallel you're looking for.)