Over-localization
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Translator note: Keikaku means plan.
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for the localization, I would rather have a consistent translation, like Manga is always Manga or Manga will always be translated as Comic. I would also want to understand what I am reading so generally speaking if something is not a name then I feel it should be translated into English, I think of the dere types as names.
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@drone205 well, the deres being left as is is understandable. Imagine the outrage there'd be if we got "violent bipolar bitch" or "horny possessive psycho" instead of tsundere and yandere. 'Cause, you know, that's pretty much an accurate translation xD.
PS: I like me some tsunderes, like Rin from FSN. The part where they get embarrassed and can't be honest with themselves so they pretend to dislike their love interesting is cute AF. But I hate the overly violent kind. I just can't find them likeable.
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@paulnamida Tsunderes are fine as long as they arent hyper violent.
Yanderes are never fine in my book. I've been in a relationship with a violently obsesive partner who fit the term. I now get super nervous and squick when I see that trope, having experienced it myself. -
Not all translators work for 4Kids. Especially hard given they haven’t existed for years.
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I'd prefer something over-localized to something under-translated.
Case in point...
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I'd prefer something under-localized to something over-translated.
Case in point... IN LIGHT NOVELSTate no Yuusha (The Rising of the Shield Hero)
The official translation is over-translated and it is very bad, the webnovel fan-translation is better.Bookwalker:
Mr. Naofumi
Ms. Rapthalia / Rapthalia
Raph-chan ( LOL )Many parts of the story are broken because this translation.
Fan-translation:
Iwatani-sama / Naofumi-san / Naofumi-chan
Rapthalia-san / Rapthalia-chan / Rapthalia
Raph-chan -
Honorifics are a general ongoing debate. Some people prefer to keep them, some people prefer not to keep them. It's hard to argue that the story is broken because of the presence or lack of honorifics.
IIRC the normal JNC approach is to remove them unless the setting is Japan? I know that for Smartphone, Steiner decided to remove honorifics except for people from Eashen, since that's pseudo-Japan, which helps to lend Eashen a nice flavour.
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@guspaz Agree it's an ongoing debate. Heck, I'll occasionally toss on the honorific when I post in the forum. (Most common example: Minori-san from Outbreak Company) I like the way that Steiner localizes in Smartphone. I guess if it's unobtrusive, I like it.
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I tend to think that you should only keep language in if there's an actual need for it and it conveys information. So as an example, "X-san" can, and should usually be dropped. It's just a polite marker, you can just translate how they speak as polite.
Just don't give me Little Washu or Mr. Welf and I'm happy. ;)
Then again, I think some fans get weirdly obsessive about how underlocalizing is good, somehow. :)
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@zchronos said in Over-localization:
I'd prefer something under-localized to something over-translated.
Case in point... IN LIGHT NOVELSTate no Yuusha (The Rising of the Shield Hero)
The official translation is over-translated and it is very bad, the webnovel fan-translation is better.I think the Official English Title is actually great. I think when it comes to professional Official Translations I would rather get Over-Translation then Under-Translation.
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As long as shit like "Mr/Miss" isn't used instead of honorifics, I can stomach a lot of stuff. I can survive without honorifics, but their straight up replacement bothers the fuck out of me and has completely killed my immersion before. Otaku-terms like Tsundere, Yandere, Kuudere (The best one), should be left as is. I don't want to see Weeaboo translations though at all. If something has a very easily translatable word, use it. If you use "hai" instead of yea/yes/sure, I will take a finger off you for every offense.
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I don’t wanna see Sissy, is Sis
I don’t wanna see brah
I also don’t wanna see new age terms at all, I saw YOLO once in a LN and I cringed...
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@rahul-balaggan said in Over-localization:
I also don’t wanna see new age terms at all, I saw YOLO once in a LN and I cringed...
Which LN? Also, it is very possible that YOLO was actually was said, or its Japanese equivalent (I am pretty sure 88 is the Chinese equivalent of "lol")
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@drone205 All I remember is that it was an isekai (that should narrow it down), I remember cause after that was said they made the “well i am an exception joke”, I read it last year so I will just start flipping through various books to see if I can find it again.
I do remember that it actually said YOLO in the book, of it said you only live once, I wouldn’t have minded.
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@rahul-balaggan if the character was an otaku or a 2chaneler, it is entirely possible he used it's Japanese equivalent in the original text. For example in Steins;Gate they changed a few of Kurisu/Amadeus' lines into memes (that Never gonna give you up on episode 10 of SG0 was so on point xD), which is pretty much proper since she was using actual memes, just japanese memes.
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@dtta "Then again, I think some fans get weirdly obsessive about how underlocalizing is good, somehow. :)"
Think it got more to do with how bad the localization of some terms can get. We kinda got use to the idea of just leaving some stuff alone instead of a bad translation.
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@paulnamida Pretty sure that use of YOLO was in No Game No Life so would probably be appropriate.
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And there are the cases where the translator just kinds of gives up, and decides to leave the Japanese cultural reference in and explain it all in translator's notes at the end.
Which might get a little distressing, depending on how much they really want to convey the sheer nuance of the concept.
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@unsynchedcheese The whole "aoi" can mean green or blue thing is really annoying.
Basically the color words Japanese has don't match up to the same color words in english exactly and aoi is the perfect example of this. (I bet some research could be done genetically to figure out why this is... I bet Japanese people are more naturally blue/green colorblind than western races, for example)
Streetlights in Japanese for example are "aoi" to mean "go". Obviously we usually use "green" as the translation in that case, but this confusion actually came up in Smartphone with the "Blue/Green Dragon" issue that ended up inconsistent......
