Please don't take liberties on names when its not the same as the light novel/web novel....
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@hatguy12 Mainly because the name difference is too huge in some cases. I do understand that its good to change some names. but changing the name to something that is not even close to the original is little much. Garfield is ways off from Nyantaro( ニャンタロー ) and since it has a way to say it in romaji anyways they could have kept the name the same. I do not see the need to change the name of a character just to localize it. This was suppose to be Touya picking on the cat for one thing. But then the whole joke gets ruined by him naming him Garfield. The actual name in the original has a meaning to it whereas in this case, Garfield does not. I read the web novel and own all the translated versions/original as well. so this was a huge surprise to see such a big difference in names. I mean Garfield... he could have at least picked Socks or something for the name if he was going to go off the original. The damn cat isn't even striped! he's black and white! But still, the whole purpose of the name was to pick on the cat in the first place and with the name change the joke is ruined.
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@invayne (disclaimer, I don't really read smarthphone, so I don't have a strong opinion on this particular item)
I'd agree that if there's no reason to change a name, it shouldn't be changed, and reading through the translator's comment on the topic, it seems he agrees with you that it should be a joke with Touya picking on the character.
I read a decent number of light novels and watch a good chunk of anime, and can usually recognize and understand a range of common phrases, but I would personally have had no idea why "Nyantaro" was supposed to be a joke. So, in general, I appreciate the translator changing it to something else that can give me the same/similar humor when I read it. I went and skimmed that section of the text, and it seemed to work for me, though again, I don't really read the series to judge the larger context.
As to the question of whether "Garfield" or something more like "Socks," as you suggested, is better able to convey the humor to the common English reader, I don't really have much of an opinion on that.
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I feel like this is like naming a Turtle Franklin when the Japanese name had a more Japanese pun to it.
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@drone205 said in Please don't take liberties on names when its not the same as the light novel/web novel....:
I feel like this is like naming a Turtle Franklin when the Japanese name had a more Japanese pun to it.
yes exactly what I was getting at!
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Puns should be replaced with ones that actually make sense to the reader. Japanese puns don't work in English, and names that have some sort of double or deeper meaning often lose all that meaning to an English reader.
Calling the cat "Nyantaro" in the English version of the novel basically strips the name of all meaning, because most readers won't get anything out of the name other than "It sounds Japanese".
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@guspaz I agree with that. A pun in one language just can not work well in another language. I am sure most anime fans will understand that nyan is basicly our equivalent of meow but not everyone will know that. I feel like translators are in a tricky spot here when translating puns and double meanings as it may be impossible to incorporate it in English. For example "KAMIng soon" has a pun with Kami as in God but no matter if you do coming soon, next time, or to be continued there is no easy way to put in that pun.
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@guspaz said in Please don't take liberties on names when its not the same as the light novel/web novel....:
Puns should be replaced with ones that actually make sense to the reader. Japanese puns don't work in English, and names that have some sort of double or deeper meaning often lose all that meaning to an English reader.
Calling the cat "Nyantaro" in the English version of the novel basically strips the name of all meaning, because most readers won't get anything out of the name other than "It sounds Japanese".
mmm, I think 90% of readers are somewhat versed in Japanese humor. the way the pun was ruined just by changing the name. Ruined the whole meaning of the scene the author wrote. I do not see anything funny by the cat's name, being Garfield. I could understand if the picture of the cat resembled the character the translator is trying to apply it to. but it does not. Like I said before it just ruins the whole scene. I personally do not like wasting my money on translations with liberties taken on them or ruining parts of the story just to make it localized for the 10% of readers that have no clue what they are reading in the first place. so it wouldn't matter if it was localized or not.
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@invayne said in Please don't take liberties on names when its not the same as the light novel/web novel....:
I think 90% of readers are somewhat versed in Japanese humor.
Considering the number of people who have posted here asking stuff like "what does isekai mean" and "what is a dakimakura," I think you're wrong.
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@myskaros said in Please don't take liberties on names when its not the same as the light novel/web novel....:
@invayne said in Please don't take liberties on names when its not the same as the light novel/web novel....:
I think 90% of readers are somewhat versed in Japanese humor.
Considering the number of people who have posted here asking stuff like "what does isekai mean" and "what is a dakimakura," I think you're wrong.
you have to do it based on readers, not the people who just post asking questions. that is basically your or 1% of the 10 % I'm talking about. 100 people asking questions is not the same as 5k + readers or whatever the reader count is, that know what that stuff means.
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@invayne Extrapolation. The number of people who are willing to come here and post questions represent the silent majority who just get confused and decide not to buy more books in the series.
Whoever said nothing's impossible never tried slamming a revolving door.
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@myskaros you are missing the point. all together you can not count the minority to the reader base j-novel makes around 6 to 7 figures a year. just on Amazon alone. do you really think that's all new readers to Japanese light novels?
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No, not all of them are.
However, you translate a language, you don't translate half the language and leave the other bits in to feel 'Japanese' for people who think it's an inherent good to keep anachronisms in. Reminds me of people who want to keep Japanese sentence structure because "It's Japanese." I that not would like. :)
I note that I actually am familiar with the Nyan pun, but I didn't find it so horrible.
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I'm pretty confident that it's a small fraction of readers who would understand what "Nyantaro" might mean (that it's supposed to be excessively plain/common, if I'm following the discussions around it correctly). There are many things (like isekai) that some people might not know, but are much easier to pick up just from exposure.
"Garfield" does not evoke the same association as to what I understand "Nyantaro" might mean to a JP reader. It is, however, a recognizable name that results in a similar humor in the narrative/dialogue in my opinion (apparently not for everyone, though, since you did not get the same sense).
If you wanted to argue that "Socks" or whatever was superior to "Garfield" in terms of conveying the joke to the English reader, then I wouldn't be able to come up with a strong argument in favor of one or the other. But as far as "Nyantaro" vs "Garfield," Garfield wins hands down for conveying at least some/most of the humor of the situation.
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@invayne I think the amount of people seriously complaining about this change (you and a few others) on this forum are just as representative, and on the whole most readers don't particularly care. So, between catering to new readers and catering to "purist" readers, I personally would choose the former.
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Personally I didn't like the Garfield change either, but that's because I know what Nyantaro means while I have never seen a film about Garfield or anything else. I do know the character but it means nothing to me since I don't really "know" it. It might be a popular character for English people, but it's not for me.
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Yeah, I can see that if you're not from the US.
Kind of wish there were a Disney housecat character that had the same catchet as say Mickey, but most of their well known felines are like Tigger or Simba or such, biiig cats. Otherwise, a Disney cat would work best. :)
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Steiner isn't from the US either :v
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people will be fans whether you cater to them or not. but I will say as being someone from the US and also someone who can read and write Japanese as their 2nd language. it is pretty bad to try to associate something that has no meaning to what was actually being said. it would make more sense to try to word it in a manner that would be funny. since the image of the cat looked like "Puss in boots, dream works film character, which the cat is based off of and use that for the pun instead of a fat orange cat that has no association with the whole thing?
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At this point you're proposing that the translator should have used a different Western pun/reference to replace the Japanese one, though, which is the antithesis of your original complaint. You're now arguing not that the translator shouldn't have replaced the name, but that he didn't do a good enough job at doing so.
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@guspaz no i was just saying it would have been better than what he had done.
@invayne said in Please don't take liberties on names when its not the same as the light novel/web novel....:
it would make more sense to try to word it in a manner that would be funny. since the image of the cat looked like "Puss in boots, dream works film character, which the cat is based off of and use that for the pun instead of a fat orange cat that has no association with the whole thing?
as said here it would make more sense. not saying he should have.
