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Hey, Answerman! [2010-09-17]

InnocentSorrow59 wrote:

I've seen the English translations. I died on the inside. Gokudera is supposed to be this rough-tough bad boy who doesn't open up to anyone and has a stalker crush on Tsuna. In the viz version he sounds like a country boy. (He actually says "Yer darn tootin'...) They say things like "This is fishier than a herring net." (Can't remember exact text.) With stuff like that in the middle of serious moments it's hard to take it seriously. Any fan of Reborn that has started with fan scans will most likely want nothing to do with it. Any fan starting out with Reborn will probably be turned off by the beginning art work and translation. It's no wonder that it's probably not doing well.

Exactly this.

Reborn! has been my all time favourite series that I have been obsessed with for almost 3 years and I've bought every single official Viz volume released so far (up to 16 atm) but as I had already read the scanlations, I only recently actually sat down and read thru them all for the first time. And I was appalled at the translation quality.

I'll tell you why of course, but let me quickly scope how much of a huge fan of this series I am. In addition to the English vols, I own every single Japanese tankobon (1-30 atm) as well as Vongola 77 (data book), Colore (artbook) & all 4 of the novels. Plus multitudes of official Japanese merch. The only reason I got a Cruncyroll sub is to watch & support the Reborn! anime. In short, even thou I read the weekly scanlations, I don't feel guilty/leechy at all considering I've spent over AU$1200 on Reborn! alone.

Now, back to why I was appealed by Viz's releases. (Currently, I'm studying Japanese at University. So whilst I'm nowhere near fluent, I do have an educated clue.) Just by reading their volumes you would cringe at the horrible dialogue they have given the characters. Not to mention the other issues. I swear they employed a blind editor. Specific examples I can remember off the top of my head include:

They used 'senpai' in the first vol, then 'sempai' in the third. Random & infrequent uses of -'san', '-kun' etc. This really annoys me in particular: you either use honorifics all the time or not at all.
The other thing that really annoyed me was the indiscriminate & inconsistent use of names. As far as I know, Tsuna has never called Gokudera or Yamamoto by their first names. Yet he frequently did in the earlier English vols. Thankfully them seem to have stopped that in the more recent vols (about 10 +).
Ryohei's catchphrase was first 'to the limit' then they changed it to 'the extreme' ...then back to 'to the limit'.
I have absolutely no idea how since it's clearly written in furigana AND romaji but they incorrectly translated Kokuyo as Kuroyo all thru the 8th volume.... then fixed it in the next with no correction notes about it.
One final point that really got under my skin was the translated character exclamations. Maybe it's an American thing but I've never heard any teenagers say 'Holy hat' or 'Holy cheese on a bagel' or 'Holy cracker on rye' or ' Cripes' or 'Jiminy cricket' any of the other ridiculous expressions they use. They already gave it an OT rating, how hard is it to have them say 'Holy shit' or 'damn' or even a simple 'crap'? Same with Gokudera's speech as stated by InnocentSorrow59. I know he has like a gansta/regional accent in Japanese but still, his lines are terrible.

I'm sorry if this just sounds like ranting but they wonder why some people prefer scanlations & don't support the industry.

One final point that really got under my skin was the translated character exclamations. Maybe it's an American thing but I've never heard any teenagers say 'Holy hat' or 'Holy cheese on a bagel' or 'Holy cracker on rye' or ' Cripes' or 'Jiminy cricket' any of the other ridiculous expressions they use. They already gave it an OT rating, how hard is it to have them say 'Holy shit' or 'damn' or even a simple 'crap'? Same with Gokudera's speech as stated by InnocentSorrow59. I know he has like a gansta/regional accent in Japanese but still, his lines are terrible.

One final point that really got under my skin was the translated character exclamations. Maybe it's an American thing but I've never heard any teenagers say 'Holy hat' or 'Holy cheese on a bagel' or 'Holy cracker on rye' or ' Cripes' or 'Jiminy cricket' any of the other ridiculous expressions they use. They already gave it an OT rating, how hard is it to have them say 'Holy shit' or 'damn' or even a simple 'crap'? Same with Gokudera's speech as stated by InnocentSorrow59. I know he has like a gansta/regional accent in Japanese but still, his lines are terrible.

I'm sorry if this just sounds like ranting but they wonder why some people prefer scanlations & don't support the industry.

Wall of texts.

Do the exclamations in the original Japanese sound like current speech, or are they off?

I don't profess to be fluent in Japanese by any means, but from what I understand, Japanese doesn't really have curse words like 'holy shit'. Now, don't get me wrong. Even not having read any scans of Reborn, even I have to question the use of retarded terms like 'Holy hat' and the various other stupid expressions that you have brought up. But, I don't necessarily think that throwing curse words in there is needed either. Of course, I could very well be wrong on this. Again, I don't profess to know what the proper translation is and I'm quite sure that Viz botched it, but to what degree, I couldn't say. I just don't think there's a need for swearing just because it may or may not translate that way.

Oh man, I couldn't help it. I wish, Hitman Reborn, would get dubbed too. If anyone is going to watch it; Watch it from, Episode Twenty. That's when the story....well, picks up.

Anyways, I've been reading, Hitman Reborn since...2008, I believe. I don't really watch the anime, but from what I saw, there were no fillers, until they went into the Future(Spoilers?)

I'll shut up there. I'll continue to wait, for a dub. But then again, If a dub, does surface....I'm expecting a crap load of complainers. *sigh*