Forum - View topicJapanese or English?
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Subaru19
 Posts: 118 |
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Hi, I hope this hasn't been asked before, but I'm very curious. It seems that a lot of people here are able to read their manga in either Japanese or English. So for those of you who can, which do you prefer?
As for me I'm kind of in the middle. Generally if it has furigana in it I can read it passably. For instance I own all of X/1999 in Japanese and can read it and understand it. But I also like reading translated manga when I can find a series I like. I'm kind of torn between buying the imports (which now cost nearly as much as the translated volumes), and reading translations. |
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fighterholic
Posts: 9193 |
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I most definetly prefer to read all of my manga in Japanese, though sometimes I might read some English manga when I'm at the local Barnes and Noble bookstore. My reasons for this would be for one, Japanese manga is a lot cheaper than English manga, even at full retail price. I'm not trying to offend English readers who only have that language manga to go on, but the prices simply exceed my expectations for a manga book over here. I live over here in the US, and have been doing so for two years now. I've only been back to Japan once after coming back here, and that was only for two weeks. Japanese language manga helps me to keep my Japanese skills up, as well as it helps me to keep my identity in knowing who I am and what country I really want to go to after I finish school.
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SalarymanJoe
 Posts: 468 Location: Atlanta, GA, USA |
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I'm only reading one title in English, Maison Ikkoku only because I started it before I knew Japanese and it's easier for me to find at a retailer. Outside of that, I read the rest in Japanese.
Last edited by SalarymanJoe on Mon Mar 26, 2007 1:31 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Webki
 Posts: 299 Location: Albany, NY |
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I prefer the Japanese manga for a couple of reasons:
1) If you are following something like Bleach, it is easier just to download the raws than wait for them to be scanlated. 2) Many lines sound less cheesy in Shonen type manga. 3) It's good practice. 4) And, as fighterholic said, it is way cheaper. I can go to Kinokuniya and pick up two volumes of Negima for the price of one here. $12? I'd rather not. |
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fighterholic
Posts: 9193 |
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And like I've said many times before, it's even cheaper when you buy them used. Like when I go to my local Book Off store, I always look in the one dollar section to see what titles might be in there. Conditions of the book have seemed to become of less importance to me these days. With some of the prices I've been seeing for English version manga, I'm starting to feel a little sorry for those who can't read Japanese and therefore must buy the English versions of the manga to read want they like. |
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aya_honda
 Posts: 920 Location: Around here |
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I prefer Japanese, that's true... Since I'm learning Japanese and I don't have else where to practice it other than with my class mates, I like to read my manga in Japanese... This would be my first reason...
Then the fact that as the guys above me said, it is definetly much more cheaper then the English versions and you get them much more earlier than in the other case when you have to wait for quite a lot for a manga to be licensed. For example if I would have expected for the English version of Fruits Basket we would still be on that thread only at volume 15. But don't think it's easy: I still have to use my dictionary for some Japanese words: but as long as a human being lives, she/ he learns so... I think I will continue reading the Japanese versions... |
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marie-antoinette
 Posts: 4136 Location: Ottawa, Canada |
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If I could read them in Japanese I would and not just because of cost. I think reading works in their original language do add to your appreciation, if only because you get the wording how the creator intended it. While there are excellent translations out there, it's still not quite the same.
To jump away from manga to help illustrate, a few summers ago I tried to read Anna Karenina, by Tolstoy. Since I do not speak Russian, I had to read an English translation and I found that there was just an element of style which couldn't be translated over. Plus, while once again translations exist that are good there is some humor which just does not translate at all which you obviously don't get unless you read the original language. But, for those who can't read enough Japanese (and it's tough reading all that kanji so there are a lot of us), then a good English translation will probably work as well as Japanese most of the time, but something will still get a bit lost (hence the saying lost in translation). |
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Subaru19
Posts: 118 |
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That's odd though. Maybe it's the titles I'm buying, but at my local Kinokuniya one volume of MPD Psycho sells for $9 USD. I should really get to the NYC book off, but I haven't actually found it yet. 
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fighterholic
Posts: 9193 |
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For Japanese? Depends upon who publishes the comic book and the size of it as well. Regular book sizes for series that are released through Jump, Sunday, Magazine, Champion, Hanatoyume, Margaret and certain others go for the lowest price of $5.50. Their retail prices are 410 yen in Japan, which would be about $3.80 or so. When you get into books released through Young Jump, Kadokawa, Jets Comics, etc., prices vary from anywhere of $6.75 to $9.00. Anything released from Gum Comics or something of that kind such as Ikki Tosen and Saiyuki will be up in the double digit section, due to the size of their books, which is considered "wide edition". On the note of Book Off, I'm sure if you go to the website, they can probably direct you. |
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d.yaro
Posts: 528 |
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I presume the prices your're quoting are in US dollars at Kinokuniya. Up here my primary source for new Japanese manga is Iwase books and I suspect their yardstick, especially for the books air freighted in, is double the yen price and shift right two places to come to a price in Canadian dollars. The new volumes that come in by surface shipping are a bit cheaper. I think a ￥500 book ends up around $10 after GST, PST and 5% store membership discount. Having said all that, Book-Off is within walking distance of my home so I usually shop there (unless I just have to have a new copy of a given title or I can't find a used copy). As for the original question... I stick with Japanese text manga partly as a learning exercise and mostly because I seem to enjoy them more. In the back of my mind I still don't feel comforable with English translations. The one that irked me ages ago was Gunnm. I read an article by the translator and while I didn't disagree with what he did, the fact that he had changed names of places and people in the story, with attendant interpretive meanings of his own choice, bugged me. They weren't big, or even really noticable, changes but knowing they were there was enough to get under my skin. Another case that undermined my faith in English versions was the missing colour page in the US English edition of Ghost in the Shell. In short, my mindset with respect to translated manga is "Give me a close to the original but comprehensible in English translation (and please don't censor the artwork) lest I lose faith in the translators work". |
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Zrana
Posts: 48 |
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With all this talk of costs, I think it should be pointed out that the paper quality of almost all Japanese manga is much lower than that of their English counterparts. Thinner paper more prone to yellowing and fading.
Just an aside. If I could read and properly understand Japanese, I'd go for the Japanese. But I can't. Thus I sob. (Although I do own two large series in Japanese, as well as a couple 2 volume series. Only the Clamp title is now available in English.) |
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Subaru19
Posts: 118 |
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Yeah I'm paying the import cost, since I live in New York, plus tax. Also MPD Psycho is released by one of the more unknown publishers as far as I remember AND it has color pages. It's really the only series I've been putting money into recently, so I'm fine with the price. 
But cost really isn't that much of a factor in the end for me.the reason I read both is because part of me keeps feeling like I'm missing something when I just read the originals. I also love reading the stuff that probably won't get published in the US. So that's another reason I read Japanese comics. |
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fighterholic
Posts: 9193 |
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I am. Unfortunately I don't know how they do pricings up in Canada, but I suspect that the pricing would be a lot more. Whenever I order from rightstuf I see that you only need $50 worth of stuff for free shipping in the US, but for Canada you need $150.
Ah, color pages can up the price of a book by two or three dollars, because of use of color ink for that. Color ink is pretty expensive these days, especially when you have to buy it for your printer. But yeah, you can get stuff over here that they won't have in the US when you buy Japanese language manga. Heck, a good number of the manga series that I have aren't even in the this site's encyclopedia at all. |
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EVA fiend
 Posts: 314 Location: Somewhere in the UK. |
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I prefer reading my manga in English as it's the language I'm most fluent in, but that doesn't stop me from buying manga in it's original language. I have about two dozen volumes of Japanese manga from various series (some I was just too impatient to wait for the US releases, others have never had a release outside of Japan). I usually have a Japanse-English dictionary sat by my side & my cell phone when I'm reading manga in Japanese - when I get really stumped by the hiragana & katakana, I take a pic of the page on my phone & send it to my ever helpful Japanese friend.
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mistress_reebi
Posts: 735 Location: Canada |
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I buy manga in English but I have read some in French. I wouldn't mind buying the Japanese version if it isn't released in North America, but if it's released here then I'll buy it in the language I'm familiar with. I wouldn't mind reading manga in German, Italian or any other language, but not for reading yet for the art. Also, where do you get Japanese manga? I know ebay has some but it's hard to tell if it's a bootleg.
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