@Ubiq:
Actually, plume is both a noun (a feather or anything that resembles a feather) and a verb (to create a plume). Viz is probably using it in the verb form; either way is correct.
I do not see what you are getting at. "Moku Moku" is an anagram for "kumo", which is cloud, or it could be onomatopoeia for "whoosh". Either way, such a translation relies on word association, and therefore one might consider it "correct" in some ways, but it's not accurate. I myself never think of "a plume of smoke" when I hear the world, but plumage, as in the Pokemon "Vileplume".
@Ubiq:
Not really; it's just more fanciful sounding than Sea King. The giant squid that attacks them inside of Laboon is also referred to as a Neptunian, which suggests that it's simply a designation of all large denizens of the deep.
You mean "exotic". I can think of a variety of sea monster names that are not only as "exotic" as Neptunian, but don't sound retarded; Leviathan (Calm Belt), Kraken (Octopus), Scylla, Charibdis, Capricorn, Piseces (for the generic Sea King).
Viz's word choice leave much to be desired.
@Ubiq:
Let's not get the wrong impression here, I love the effect that it creates within the manga itself when used correctly (this uninterrupted notion would be especially awesome during a major fight scene); under normal circumstances, you would have nineteen pages, something from Viz, a cover page, and then back to the story. Those two pages drag you out of the story, this way, that doesn't happen.
I don't care for the fact that it means that two chapters of the miniarc have been skipped. Again, they should have emulated what they used to do with DBZ and put the cover pages in there at the end of the One Piece section.
The last time this happened, they didn't publish the missing miniarc chapter in the following issue. So that means that subscribers (provided that they don't put them up on the website, I need to check that "Subscribers only section" sometime) and people who buy it off the rack have missed three pages of Kobymeppo comic, which kinda sucks.
Oh, that's not what I was complaining about; I totally agree with you on that matter. I should note, though, that Oda is not Oku and his later chapters are very capsulated; they're more forumulaic in that the end of each chapter always ends on a high note. This makes the serial readings much more enjoyable (as in, they're worth the wait) while it does not have much effect on the tankoban format.
However, fusing those chapters together would be very messy and break one's continuity of interest. Hopefully, Viz will correct these errors in the English volumes; I am not sure, as I've not really read any of the English ones.
@Voodzik:
People with anal-retentive-grammar syndrome do this all the time. A word's usage is what matters in a case like this; "Plume" does in fact call to mind plumes of smoke, whether that's the original meaning of the word or not;
Entertainment that relies on background knowledge is poorly done. Background info should enhance, not be a foundation. If OP was entirely about inside-jokes, it would be Tsubasa Chronicle.
@Voodzik:
you illustrated this concept with your own "anxious" example. Keep in mind also that words have multiple meanings, I'd be willing to bet the OED had the "anticipation" meaning as one of the uses for anxious.
It does, but that's the same populist dictionary that added the word "D'oh" officially to the English language. While appropriate for Urban Dictionary, distorting the actual word usage reduces the true power behind their meaning; in the case of anxious, it is used incorrectly so frequently, most people assume the incorrect usage, so therefore, people accept it as correct. The word "kid" also comes to mind, as well as "n***a". This "populist" view toward English, which resembles religion in many ways, is basically replacing proper English with slang, which, over time, will degrade our communication skills. Arguably, though the British colonists in sixteenth century America had a long-winded, almost poetic form of speech, they were better able to convey what they were trying to say to other people. Now…their slang becomes our literature. The world is fudged.
@Voodzik:
Frankly, "Sea-Kings" always sounded pretty retarded to me. Kind of like how the "Going Merry" sounded like drug use. ("Damn man, I was going merry all night! Why am I in a tree?")
Agreed; Sea Kings was a very foreign term, but if you look at the above, there are many available names for sea-monsters that could have been used instead of lumping everything together in the category of "Neptunians". Personally, I favoured the name "Merry Go" because of the various puns associated with the name, but most tend to disagree…
@Voodzik:
Let's break down the word Neptunian, shal we? "ian"="having the characteristics of" and "Neptune"=The roman God of the Sea. Thus the word Neptunians means being like the gods of the sea. So it's actually a damn good translation for something called a sea king and, this may just be the latent Roman half of me talking, but I kinda like it.
If we follow the "association" tidbit you brought up earlier, people are going to assume you're talking about the Planet Neptune, not the Sea Horse. Along that vein, Neptunians harkens to "Atlantians", which is a bit odd label for anything but an underwater civilisation of people, as opposed to fish.