Category Archives: Anime/Manga

Anime/Manga

Confessions of an Online Manga Translator

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I have moved a step closer to realizing my dream to be a fansubber.  Unfortunately the world of fansubbing is quickly becoming uncomfortable as Japanese media companies start to complain.  I guess the Japanese media companies don’t recognize that the fansubbers are serving willing consumers that they themselves don’t serve.  Curious that they don’t see the opportunity or have not latched onto the idea of crowdsourcing so they don’t actually have to hire translators and the other staff needed to localize anime, drama, books, and manga.

Anyhow, I’ve begun to translate one of my current favorite manga series and I have posted the chapters online in one of my blogs.  I don’t do “scanalation”; that is taking scans of the raw manga and filling in the dialog bubbles with English.  Rather, I write a script for the manga in English, wherein I translate the dialog and verbally describe what is going on in the drawings.  There is an “Inuyasha” translation blog that does the same thing and I found reading this to be more fullfilling than reading the actual manga because my imagination creates the images, rather than being led into the vision suggested by the managka.  This is why I decided to take this approach too.  What’s interesting about this is that I feel a very strong connection to the original text and to what I’ve written.  I didn’t expect this.  It feels sort of like I’m a part of the story creation process because much of how I feel about the story and the characters comes out in the words and the phrasing I choose to translate the words to and the way I describe the action in the pictures.  I also feel that I have a greater understanding of the story because I’ve had to fully digest the Japanese words and the pictures in order to choose the proper words and phrasing.

Does it matter to me whether I accurately present the mangaka’s intent?  That’s a tough question to answer.  I really can’t say for certain what the author intended without talking to the author.  Besides when I read a manga, all that is present goes through my filter and that shapes how I percieve the story.   Therefore when translating and then scripting, what exits my filter is what goes on the screen.  I think this is very powerful and double-edged.  I endeavored to learn Japanese because I didn’t like the way the professional publishers localized manga for an American audience.  I sought purity and from this pure base I wanted to be able overlay my own interpretation.  Being on the other side of it as a translator, I’m am not offering purity to those that read my blog.  This leaves me to ask myself, who am I to offer up my interpretation of this manga to the world?  Am I providing a service or satisfying myself?  I think I am doing both.  Besides I know not to take myself too seriously since anybody that reads what I’ve written, will apply their own filter on top of my filter.

This also has been a great learning tool for me because I can compare my translation to the professional translation when it comes out to see how well I’m progressing with the language.  Plus, my vocabulary, both words and kanji, is growing quickly.   The sad thing is, with a dictionary, I can translate pretty well (I’m still quite slow, but I’m getting better daily) but I have tremendous trouble producing Japanese, so it’s difficult for me to speak spontaneously.  I experienced the same thing when I was learning Spanish.  I understood what Spanish speakers were saying to me, but I could not get out anything intelligible in response out of my mouth.  Rather in both languages, I end up spitting out a bunch of words with no syntax.  Oh well, …

Anime/Manga

So You Want to Buy Some Manga

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So you want to buy manga for either yourself or as a present for the winter holidays.  First of all let me say, if you know nothing about manga and arbitrarily order something over the Internet or purchase a book in the bookstore without flipping through the pages first, you could be in for a nasty surprise. There is a lot of violent, sexual, weird, and close to illegal content out there lurking under innocuous covers.  So here are some hints to steer clear “mature manga” or to identify it, if that is what you are looking for:

  1. “Hentai”  =  xxx-rated content
  2. Manga has a rating system similar to movies and video games.  This rating is usually displayed on the back of the book near the ISBN and UPC code block.  Respect this rating system because it, in my opinion, is fairly accurate.
  3. If the manga is wrapped in plastic, then it probably contains nudity and/or gory violence
  4. Some of the manga rated 13+ can be racy and/or include matters that may be morally or religiously challenging (homosexuality, incest, age inappropriate relationships, pre-marital sex, anti-Christian themes, and supernatural themes) so review the manga and make sure you are comfortable with it before gifting it to anyone under 18.

Yes, manga in the wrong hands can be downright terrifying, but there are plenty of wonderful series and one off books out there for every taste.  Here are some of my favorites:

Shoujo — manga for girls.  These manga are usually romantic in mature and focus on the relationships between people.  They can either be comedies or dramas or somewhere in between.

  • “Fruits Basket” is the #1 manga title in the US.  It starts off well and ends well, but drags in the middle.  This is a good one for the over 13 set.
  • “His and Her Circumstances” or “Kare Kano” — this is a high school romance that centers around the lives of the top two students in a high school.  This manga is a very beautiful and involved drama with some funny moments.  I recommend this for older teens and adults as it does have some sexual and violent themes.
  • Anything by Arina Tanemura (“Fullmoon wo Sagashite” (Search for a Fullmoon), “Kamikaze Kaito Jeann”, and “Gentleman’s Alliance”) — again this is one for older teens due to some sexual themes.  Besides having very engaging stories and characters, the artistry of these manga series are top notch.
  • Anything by Hino Matsuri —  “Vampire Knight” is hot both in the US and Japan.  “Meri Puri:  Marchen Prince” is nice too.  Both I recommend for folks over 16, especially Meri Puri.  Like Arina Tanemure, the artistry of these manga series is amazing.
  • “Crescent Moon” — this a good one for the younger set.  It the story of the Moonlight Bandits, jewel thieves who steal to save their world.

Shonen — manga for boys.  These manga generally focus on adventure or they are stories of a single boy in the middle of a girl harem.  Most of the girl harem manga contain “fan service” which depending upon your perspective may be quite offensive (and there are debates as to whether “fan service” runs afoul of child protection laws — so be careful).  I will steer clear of these types of manga in my recommendations.

  • “Deathnote” — a freaky manga series that was too exciting for me.  I couldn’t sleep after reading the 4th volume because I was too pumped with adrenlin.  This is a good one for older teens and adults.
  • “Full Metal Alchemist” — 13+
  • “Kekkaishi” — high school barrier masters with ghost dog side kicks 13+, my husband likes this series too.
  • “Samurai Kyo”  16+ — very violent

Good manga for everyone:

  • “Xxxholic” — despite its name, there is nothing XXX about this series.  The series contains stories akin to stories from the “Twilight Zone.”  The stories are centered around the relationship between Youko (the Time Witch) and Watanuki Kamishiro, a boy with psychic perception. 13+
  • “Tsubasa” (by Clamp) — this manga series intersects occasionally with Xxxholic and takes the characters from “Card Captor Sakura” (another wonderful manga series) and re-imagines them in a different universe.  Other Clamp characters appear in this series. 13+
  • “Crest of Stars” — this is a sci-fi epic.  It is also being novelized.  13+
  • “DNAngel” — this is like “Kamikaze Kaito Jeanne”.  I recommend this for 13+

That’s all for now.  I’ve read a lot of anything, so if you are looking for a more specific recommendation or want to ask about a series, please ask!  I’m more than eager to discuss manga.  Oh, and anime too :).

Anime/Manga

Kids at the Bookstore Talking About Anime

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I was at the bookstore the other night looking for something new to read when I heard a pack of teenagers talking about the anime shows they watch and the fact that they watch them on YouTube.  Huh?  My first thought was why are they doing this.  YouTube is very low quality and you can’t archive the episodes.  My husband who looks down upon on everyone under the age of 24, theorizes that it’s what they know — in other words, “Net Effects.”  He said because they use YouTube, all of their friends use YouTube and they don’t venture to find another solution.  I wonder if this is true.  Anyhow, they were complaining about how difficult it is to find episodes because they are removed very quickly due to copyright enforcement.  I thought this was the generation that was all into the internet and trying new things out.  Wouldn’t some of them have done a search and found other sources than YouTube as well as a bunch of shows other than “Naruto” and “Eureka Seven.”  Personally, I think it has something to do with the transient mindset of the younger set (I’m still trying to wrap my mind around this concept) in that they want instant gratification and once satisfied they throw it away and then move onto the next thing.  They are always in “the now” and they do their best stay in the now with all of their associates.  I remember being very much this way in high school and college.  At one point I decided to discard my teenage years entirely and burned all my letters and photographs.  Now that I’m older, I wish I hadn’t done that, but at the time, “now” seemed very important and the past was holding me back.  Perhaps it’s the same mentality.  You know, teenagers remaking themselves daily or maybe even by the minute, leaving no record until they settle on a “self.”  It’s very 15-mins-of-fame and in that respect very “YouTube.”

I’m not sold into the idea, yet, that vast majority of millenials are very net-savvy.  My brother, who is 23, was blown away by the vast treasure trove of anime I had carefully archived and when he comes over to my house he basically raids my collection and binges on anime for the entirety of his vacations.  I was surprised that he had seen less anime than I had … Sigh … Anyhow, I’m constantly on the prowl for new anime and manga and I will consume the media in any media I can be it analog, digital, electronic, or printed.  I wonder whether it is age or depth of interest that makes the difference with regard to this.

Anime/Manga, self publishing

Blog 2 Book Expt. 2: Lulu.com

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This time I try to turn my external world blog into a book via lulu.com and in one afternoon I have successfully created a book.  Am I now a legitimate published author?

I heard about lulu a few months ago through reading the booksmashup F2 blog.  After crashing and burning on Blurb, I decided to give lulu a try.  Again the process begins by registering with lulu.  I noticed in the menu, transforming a blog to a book was not explicitly listed.  I chose to make a hardcovered book.  Lulu then gave me a choice of sizes, 6×9 inches or ~8x~10 inches.  I chose the smaller format.  Lulu then opened an upload dialog box and suggested that the user change the page size to 6×9-inch in whatever editor the user is going to use.  This was actually rather nice.  Instead of re-inventing the wheel and giving the user a text editor, lulu uses a file the user provides.  Blogger is nice in that it allows you to copy and paste text from a blog, without taking the sides of the blog space with it.  This made for swift cutting and pasting of my entire blog into MS Word.  From there I was able to reformat my entire blog in 3 mouse clicks:  select all –> font Arial –> size 10.  I added in a few lines between entries and did a little proofreading (the proofreading actually took the better part of the afternoon) to complete my book file.

Uploading was pain free.  After I uploaded it, lulu tranformed my creation into a 2 up layout ready for the printing press.  The only place the processed hiccuped was during the creation of the cover, which was done using an online tool through Lulu.  It took about 10-minutes for the tool to fully load and once it did load, it worked very smoothly.  I created a simple cover and send it to print.  After this, lulu allowed me to adjust my book availability, set my intellectual propetry settings, and setting my pricing.  Yes, now the whole world can buy my lousy book for $20.97 hardcover ($5 goes to me) or $3.75 download ($3.00 goes to me).  The book is searchable, but you can’t actually buy the book because I’ve set some permissions for access.  A second edition will be published from home and put out to the public to see if anyone actually buys it.

I ordered a couple of copies of my new book.  I’ll let you all know how it comes out when then arrive.

Anime/Manga

Manga Featured in the Latest Issue of Wired Magazine

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Here’s a great article from Wired about decline of manga in Japan and the rise of manga all over the world.  The article discusses the types of manga and the unspoken agreement between manga publishers and doujinshi artists.  Doujinshi is like fan fiction, or manga featuring existing characters drawn by fans.  What’s interesting is that the publishers have recognized that the presence of doujinshi does not negetively impact sales of the original manga, but rather fans buy both.  It’s also interesting that the publishers see doujinshi as a means to cultivate new artists and encourage creativity.

On a side note, the buzz on the bittorrent distributions portals is that Japan has asked the US to crack down on the illegal distribution of copyrighted TV shows within the US.  I find this strangely contradictory since this is the way anime series get introduced into the US.  Since I’ve been watching, most of the popular shows (that don’t run too much afoul of an American sense of decency) get picked up by the cartoon network.  “Bleach”, “Naruto”, and “Full Metal Alchemist” come to mind.  All of these shows I watched at least 2-years prior to their US release.  (Original versions are much better due to better voice acting in Japanese and, also, the stories tend to get dumbed down and censored for American audiences.)