@Imitorar:
There are a few things that they have a tendency to edit, but their translations ARE rarely ever inaccurate
How do you know unless you speak Japanese? I know people (one on this forum in fact) who learned Japanese simply because VIZ's work was low quality. Still others are not slow to criticize VIZ's work. I also know people, one of who is a rival mahjong player to me, who has done work for VIZ, and the head of Toriyama's World ak_of_troy was the translator for Death Note.
When people think of "professional" work, they get this idea that there's some minimum level of quality that one has to put out to be considered a professional. That's not true at all, there are all sorts of variation between people who are paid to do translations - sometimes, the best amateurs and fansubbers/translators are the people who get conscripted to do the work. They're not that much older than a college graduate, at that.
VIZ gambles on most people having very weak BS detectors. Most of the publishers don't speak Japanese either, so they wouldn't know a bad translation if it kicked them in the rear. They gamble that Japanese speakers aren't going to read the English version, and English readers are too apathetic/ignorant to really care if a translation is bad or not.
I hate that. It's like being sold a bad car and not realizing until years later how bad it really was. You're being sold an inferior product to what you think you're getting at list price.
@Gravy-Kun:
It's like video games, manga have ratings, but parents are too stupid to check and would buy it for their kids just like a mom would pick up the goriest first person shooter for their kid just because he whined about not having it.
But the thing is, it all plays around the culture. America fears mild swearing, boobs, and middle fingers. Remember the Janet Jackson incident? I read articles about how kids were so traumatized they not only began to "fear mommy" but they were afraid that the boob would come out to get them. (though I bet it was just written by the author of the article…) I swear if we introduce kids to these things earlier they would at the very least know that "this thing isn't nice" instead of locking it away for the sake of kids learning about it at school and getting an alternate viewpoint.
Personal opinion, but in my view selling customers a cheapened product is far worse than the moralistic implications of censoring the manga. If you want to go on about how freedom of speech is being abridged, read up on how Japan is now banning any depiction of rape in video games. On the front it seems like a good idea, but when you read the details you'll see how ridiculous it really is.