Seven Seas in Trouble for Heavy alterations and censorship of light novels.
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That umm... escalated fast.
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@Eternal-Wanderer said in Seven Seas in Trouble for Heavy alterations and censorship of light novels.:
This whole mess has now reached the original author of I'm in Love with the Villainess. I'm kinda surprised she wasn't more upset, I know I would be if I was in their shoes.
I am mortified that this took less than 24 hours to reach her and for her to get interviewed about it. I sincerely hope that people have been checking my work along the way, because I've got a gnawing feeling in my gut like, "If I've made any catastrophic errors that haven't been caught, those errors have already made it all the way around the world and back."
@Khaos said in Seven Seas in Trouble for Heavy alterations and censorship of light novels.:
That umm... escalated fast.
No kidding.
I guess on the bright side, I no longer have to write any emails to Seven Seas. They will receive them whether I write one or not.
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We have an official response from Seven Seas:
"Thank you for bringing this to our attention. Those portions of the text were removed during the editorial process at the time, but we have since changed how we edit these books to make sure important lines are not lost. We’ll be revising the ebook within the next few weeks to add the cut portions back into the book, and the revision will also be reflected in all future printings of the paperback."
I want to thank everyone who contacted them politely. As I expected, they have corrected the problem and I hope we will see improvements as they go forward.
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@rsog412 I don't see this anywhere in your post, so I wanted to ask for confirmation: is this from vol 1 or 2?
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@Hauteclere - Volume 1, near the end of the first chapter.
I was actually so put off by the initial omission that I just decided to read the webnovel after that so I never bought volume 2 (and sent the money I would have spent on the novels to the author directly on Ko-Fi instead).
@OkazuYuri - I'm so glad! Thanks for bringing this up with them and closing the loop here with us.
I'll wait a few weeks for them to fix things and then maybe consider buying that second volume.
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@OkazuYuri Thanks for sharing! Glad to have a official response so soon. Maybe I'll order a new copy of Volume 1 with the new edits once its available.
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@OkazuYuri yeah the best result, and it sounds like they have learned and won't be doing this on any future releases, which is great.
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@OkazuYuri Forgive my skeptical nature, however that just reads like the statement they made regarding Classroom of the Elite and Mushoku Tensei last month. I can understand that this is a long process from translation and editing to printer to retail, so I assume this problem is going to crop up again in one way or another and the trust lost over this and any transparency that it might affect future volumes has me out. Especially when they're blindsiding their translators, and in this case even the official author who has had to deal with fallout.
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The best thing that Seven Seas can do at this point to gain back readers' trust is do an internal investigation and find out which books has been altered and make a public statement about it and to fix them. Right now the fans are the one finding these alterations and it's just adding fuel to the fire. Unlike if Seven Seas proactively shows that they are doing something about it which would make the fans still angry that this happened but they won't feel worried of buying altered books and their trust for Seven Seas won't drop anymore.
Lastly, if this is their policy then they should stop it. Even if a line or paragraph may seem controversial they should translate it as is and if they don't then they shouldn't have licensed it in the first place. They bought the rights so they should at least honor the original work no matter how controversial the work is. On the off chance that this is a decision by an editor or translator then they should reprimand/fire him/her for causing this incident and for fans losing their trust on the company.
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@x014 said in Seven Seas in Trouble for Heavy alterations and censorship of light novels.:
@OkazuYuri Forgive my skeptical nature, however that just reads like the statement they made regarding Classroom of the Elite and Mushoku Tensei last month. I can understand that this is a long process from translation and editing to printer to retail, so I assume this problem is going to crop up again in one way or another and the trust lost over this and any transparency that it might affect future volumes has me out. Especially when they're blindsiding their translators, and in this case even the official author who has had to deal with fallout.
I know this wasn't directed at me, but this thread is getting attention from outside (including both of you registering as new users, welcome!) largely because of my post, so I feel like I have some responsibility to try to set the tone.
Yes, that's exactly what they said about Classroom of the Elite and Mushoku Tensei, but is there a problem with that? Their response is the second-best response they possibly could have given. They're not trying to deny or cover anything up. They're not trying to pass the blame. While they don't use the words "sorry" or "apologize" anywhere, they're admitting that it was their own editorial process that led to these changes, that that process has been changed and that they will update the novel to restore the missing passage.
The only way their response could possibly be better is, as @BartzBB says, if they committed to proactively fixing past mistakes - but it's completely understandable to me why they wouldn't do that: they probably do not have enough editors and translators to review every LN they've ever published in a timely fashion, and even if they did, they'd run the risk of re-igniting the fire if they tried to do it and ended up missing some.
Perhaps a better response would be to invite their readers to do this review for them, making a statement with an official inbox to which we should send corrections.
We as readers can either continue to buy their products, or not. Not buying their products isn't free. Speaking for myself, I think the 7S version of ILV reads a lot more smoothly than the fan translated webnovel. Furthermore, I have benefitted from 7S beyond their translations - I never would have even heard of ILV if they hadn't marketed it to English-speaking audiences.
Since they're fixing it now and fixing it going forward, I think I'll continue to buy their work.
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I’m also of the mind that it was overall a very solid translation, very smooth read. Glad to see this issue is seemingly cleared up.
My only question is how does one go about making sure that a future purchase of the paperback novel will be the one with the updated passage?
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@Kollieprime9 I would usually wait 2-3 years at most from the time of the announcement of the revision edition is available to make sure I get the revised edition just because some online retailers might still have the older copies. And I'm someone who imports these things so a return isn't feasible if I still get the old version.
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@rsog412 First and foremost, I am thankful for your discovery and that Seven Seas has taken action. I'm a fan of both all three of the series currently known to have been hit by these unfortunate edits, and many more of their works, and do agree that they read well.
However, I suppose my irritation and reservations come from the fact that they're not being proactive. I very much think that this is due diligence at this point, especially since they're publishing these works and will continue to release novels with these problems. There are Reddit posts you can find about issues with Classroom of the Elite 7.5, as there were for volume 7 (and some earlier volumes for that matter) and the physical volume is set to release next week. I've seen queries and concerns over the volume and none of them addressed. It seems only when there is a large enough blow up that Seven Seas are willing to address it. Which is unfortunate and apparently lacking in understanding of the effect these incidents have on their readers.
So I cannot with good conscience endorse my purchase of that volume. This was my feeling before today's incident where now these errors are further widespread. I very much want to purchase their books, as you said, they've got a magnificent variety of novels which read well, but it is a downright shame it's somewhat tainted by these mishaps, and with no heads up as to whether it's going to be safe to buy a future volume or not, especially when proven otherwise.
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@rsog412 One positive thing that could be said about this latest response is that it simply commits to fixing the problem, full stop.
This is in comparison to their statement about Mushoku Tensei and Classroom of the Elite which buried their "we are fixing it" promise under a smokescreen of thick condescension about how translation isn't a 1:1 thing and they were just making the script "commercially viable" and "enjoyable to read".
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@Microdynames said in Seven Seas in Trouble for Heavy alterations and censorship of light novels.:
One positive thing that could be said about this latest response is that it simply commits to fixing the problem, full stop.
This is in comparison to their statement about Mushoku Tensei and Classroom of the Elite which buried their "we are fixing it" promise under a smokescreen of thick condescension about how translation isn't a 1:1 thing and they were just making the script "commercially viable" and "enjoyable to read".
As a great American philosopher once said: “Fool me once, shame on... shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again.”
Jest aside, they now know that people are going back through their catalog specifically looking for this. They can’t risk trying to BS the subject anymore without that potentially turning into a bigger liability. Doubly so if, as I suspect, this new scrutiny will reveal that only the tip of the iceberg has yet been scratched.
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I went back and looked specifically for this one passage, because I remembered it from the WN and felt like the story was significantly worse without it. More specifically, though, I remember reading “I just can’t live without poking fun
at you” and just wanting to put the book down. Translation isn't one-to-one. That was simultaneously a book-ruiningly awful mistranslation (opinion) and technically correct (fact). The fact that the passage which would have provided the context to clue a JP reader as to whom she couldn't go without making fun of was also omitted was actually extra to me.Is it the tip of the iceberg? Are we going to see a bunch more people come forward about things like this? Maybe. But I hope the people who come forward are fans of the works in question, speaking up because they remember the omitted passages, feel that their loss lessens the work, and want other fans to be able to read it just like they did.
Seven Seas other titles probably have similar omissions, but not all omissions are created equal. I'd rather both Seven Seas and fans of their licenses focus on cases where an omission (or mistranslation) significantly impacts the work rather than do a literal side-by-side scan of the original text of everything they've ever published.
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@rsog412 said in Seven Seas in Trouble for Heavy alterations and censorship of light novels.:
Seven Seas other titles probably have similar omissions, but not all omissions are created equal. I'd rather both Seven Seas and fans of their licenses focus on cases where an omission (or mistranslation) significantly impacts the work rather than do a literal side-by-side scan of the original text of everything they've ever published.
Quoted for truth. Excellent point, and I agree entirely.
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Indeed. It's omissions that affect the story or characters that are the issue. It's not great if they miss out some text saying that a shirt is blue or a drink is coke, but it's not worth getting heated up over. An omission that removes a.huge chunk.of characterisation is though... But still after being caught out on the hop three times I daresay they'll be.more careful going forwards as they know people are watching
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A user claims on the ANN thread there were also changes to Bloom into You(dialog removed), Adachi and Shimamura(dialog removed) and Roll Over and Die(wrong gender of character).
So far nothing more than their claim though, so waiting for them to provide some concrete proof or someone else to chime in if they have knowledge of it.
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@Korppi said in Seven Seas in Trouble for Heavy alterations and censorship of light novels.:
So far nothing more than their claim though, so waiting for them to provide some concrete proof or someone else to chime in if they have knowledge of it.
I don't know about Adachi and Shimamura much but Bloom into You have a mistake collections wordpress page called 'Bloom into You - Regarding Seven Seas’ Mistakes'. I can't link in the forum because it can be counted as FanTL but that wordpress page have original JP text as well as why they think it is wrong. Most of the mistakes are quite small mistakes but as a Bloom into You fan, I saw some are quite important things that Seven Seas cut out or mistranslate.
And here is a tweet calling out on Roll Over and Die
https://twitter.com/shiroihane/status/1301655498731778050
