I think the only cases I can recall where stylistic choices of mine were overridden by the editor's office were in series like SAO where they changed stuff to match the Crunchyroll subtitles for the anime. Which I usually ignore so that I can focus solely on the evidence available in my source material, but in that case I understand since the vast majority of people are getting in through the anime and they wanted to keep it consistent to that source.
Posts made by stephen
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RE: General ALPHA Questions & Discussion
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RE: General ALPHA Questions & Discussion
I don't know, I've never worked on Dragon Ball…
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RE: General ALPHA Questions & Discussion
Yes, I'm referring to Oda's editors in Japan. I have no idea how or when they do any oversight, I'm not there.
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RE: General ALPHA Questions & Discussion
All scripts are given an editorial pass, just like in any publishing field. If the editor(s) catch any mistakes or spots where they think it's a little too confusing, they'll make changes. As far as creative choices like names or attacks, it's basically always passed because my editor trusts my instinct as a longtime reader of the series. Every once in a blue moon we might get feedback from an editor in Japan but that's extremely rare.
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RE: The Genshiken Thread
I've been translating the continuation for Kodansha NA… it's really lost the spark the first series had.
Hato isn't a bad character but the other new members are REALLY boring and I can't emphasize enough how much I hate Sue as a plot device.
I've come around on this somewhat and I'm enjoying the more recent material a lot more. Sue still sucks.
Can't believe it's outlasted the original series in length!
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RE: General ALPHA Questions & Discussion
Since you whined at me in PM, the above answers are accurate to the situation. Also Oda is not usually "really good with that," there are MANY examples of him not being straight with his spellings: Alabasta/Arabasta, Caesar Clown/Crown, Gaburu/Gabull, Donquijote/Donquixote, Rocinante/Rosinante - not to mention unreliable spellings from databooks typed up by other people.
Something that slavish wiki-minded types need to understand is that there isn't some Platonic ideal Truth that exists inside Oda's head and is simply being imperfectly transcribed by the various media forms of OP. There is no word of God on this, it's just that Oda comes up with names in Japanese and occasionally decides he needs/wants to write a romanized version of them for effect. The reason that Oda and basically every other manga/anime artist is so inconsistent with English (or other European language) spellings is because our languages are extremely different and it's very hard to maintain a fundamental understanding of both. When you see mistakes or inconsistencies like that in the finished product, it's not that they don't care about mistakes, it's that there's almost no framework for detecting and understanding those discrepancies - because it's all for the sake of presenting an aesthetic context to their primary audience of Japanese readers who don't care or can't tell anyway.
Those romanized elements are not included specifically for a foreign audience (why should he care? 99% of his readers are Japanese) and therefore a (good) translator needs to consider details in the context of insignificant figures - in other words, are you thinking too much about details that were never given much thought in the first place? Ultimately, although I know wiki editors will scream bloody murder over what I'm going to write here: the spellings that Oda provides are nothing more than a suggestion or evidence to lean one way or the other, but aren't enough to settle a matter 100% on their own. As Crossword said above, "a good translation should take thematics and intent into account, and make alterations as appropriate." That means that sometimes you might change a name (or, as in the case of Shiryu/Shiliew, ignore a spelling provided later on) for a variety of reasons. I don't care about the distinction between Jinbe and Jimbei, they're pronounced exactly the damn same. I went with Madam Sharley in Fishman Island because it added a "shark" element to a name that included "shari" (sushi rice) already, and I gladly ignored the horrendous looking "Shyari" and "Shyarly" spellings because my choice works better for the English audience and its sensibilities. I don't care that it's Shiryu instead of Shiliew, because the latter looks really weird to English speakers, as evidenced by the reactions in the fandom when that spelling popped up. Maybe if Oda had thrown that in there on his first appearance, we'd just go with it by default, but we're not necessarily going to stop the presses and change to a really weird spelling later on when the initial choice is perfectly valid and looks better to our audience. Everything in translation happens on a case-by-case basis. The only answer that is true 100% of the time is "it depends."
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RE: The Viz Media Thread
I'm not sure what the original impetus for the choice was (probably just because "Rio" would not mean anything on its own to English readers, and the kanji meaning is "real") but the Viz styling of that term is "Real Ponegliff," in both Alabasta (the basement scene) and in Skypiea. I don't see a particularly pressing need to change it.
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RE: The Viz Media Thread
It's just a sign of respect, probably because Tsuru is a longtime naval officer and undoubtedly one of the wiser ones. It's explicitly an old-fashioned thing used for females, because back in the 19th century and before, most women had short names that would get "o" in front of them. See also, Momonosuke saying "Onami."
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RE: Next Strawhat Crewmate (Vol. 6)
Not sure about Teach, that could just be something overlooked or considered unimportant. But Trafalgar Law starts with "tora" or tiger, which Oda made a little clearer when Luffy started calling him "Torao" (which I adapted to Traffy because there's no "o" in Trafalgar and it's meant to be something Luffy could remember). Buggy could be "bug" I suppose? Or maybe that falls under the same Blackbeard category. But unlike those characters who were introduced previously and then later fit into that mold, and therefore might not have an easy animal naming angle, this is a brand new character so it can easily fit into the pattern.
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RE: Next Strawhat Crewmate (Vol. 6)
However the reason why Weeble makes more sense is because other shichibukai animals such as Moriah, have been romanized as "Gekko" instead of "Gecko". A Weeble is a toy brand and Edward Weeble has the shape of such toy, which is far more similar than the Weevil creature. I actually reserached myself about the Weevil when the scans came out and included it in one of my articles but I still felt like Weeble was much closer.
Moriah is "Gekkou-moria," aka "koumori" or bat. He's not named after the gecko lizard.
Why does his shape make a difference or invalidate the obvious animal connection? Are you going to claim that without a bounty poster we should say "Kurokodairu" because he doesn't literally look like a crocodile?
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By the way, if you don't mind me asking , what did you find for Karai Bari/Calai Bali Island in chapter 803? I've been looking on an atlas and apparently there's a place in India named Karai Bari but it seems too much of a loose end.
It's a pun, not a real place or reference. Listen to the podcast next week and you'll find out.
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RE: Next Strawhat Crewmate (Vol. 6)
But usually people like Stephen are much more bias than fans are. I feel like people at least in the wiki try to find the original source while Stephen simply tries to localize in a way that "souns good" to him.
For example on Miss Bakkin/Bucking, he simply went with "it kinda sounded like Buckingham so I called her Buckin". And with Weeble he went with Weevil, rather than the toy brand he's based on which caters to the original katakana more and just looks more accurate to.
Have you considered that I'm actually doing MORE research than the "fans"?
Why is it that going with Buckin based on researching possible name-thematic connections (the most common reference associated with the word is Bakkingamu or Buckingham, which happens to be a place in London just like Newgate) is worse than using the katakana Bakkin, yet it's perfectly okay to go with "Weeble" because that's what people found when they googled it? Despite the fact that all the Seven Warlords are named after animals, his name is a perfectly valid translation of the word Weevil, and isn't it also interesting that weevil is "zoumushi" or "elephant bug" in Japanese, because he maybe he got that idea for his new character as he was thinking about elephants?
But no, I'm just making this stuff up because it sounds good.
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RE: Kingdom Hearts 3
Someone pointed this out and I was amazed at how true it is: Kingdom Hearts is just MGS for a different audience. Very proficiently made and enjoyable games that have baffling, pretentious stories completely hidden up their own ass.
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RE: Kingdom Hearts 3
because of the exponential increase in AAA development costs (which has already left almost everyone else in Japan behind) and the infamous inefficiency of Japanese development practices, specifically in creating every game in-house from scratch without using third-party engines or tools, and the common issue (at least, according to stories) of different departments of Japanese devs essentially having almost no contact with one another due to bureaucratic hierarchy. I think there's a reason that they've come out and said KH3 will be developed with the Unreal Engine, and it's that they've finally realized their development model will promptly fall apart if they don't adopt some smarter policies.
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RE: Kingdom Hearts 3
because they fucked up FF13 and needed to pump out some hastily-made sequels to recoup the engine development cost
because they fucked up FF14 and had to rededicate tons of company resources to rebuilding and fixing it
because they fucked up FF15 and never managed to get it off the ground on the PS3 architecturein short, they didn't have time to work on coordinating the drapes when the house-fire they started was burning around them
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RE: MLB Season 2015
turns out a bunch of flukey offensive career seasons and having a rotation consisting of Bumgarner and a bunch of rusty cans on a string is not actually a winning formula. lol
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RE: The Viz Media Thread
Because I think "Clown Star" looks dumb and I wanted something more memorable and alliterative
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RE: Vinland Saga
maybe if it gets animated people will actually buy the fucking manga
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RE: YOTSUBA&!
I hope they put out the next one soon, I miss working on it!
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RE: Attack on Titan Musou
is this gonna be like when Dragon Quest Heroes was "not a Warriors game"?
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RE: Dragon Quest thread : DQXI on PS4, 3DS & Switch
lol yeah Square is definitely working on bringing over that pay-subscription turn-based MMO originally designed for the Wii, that would be a great idea that won't lose money
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RE: Dragon Quest thread : DQXI on PS4, 3DS & Switch
The two different versions for PS4/3DS kind of reminds me of the treatment for Ninokuni
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RE: Volume 78 Predictions/Discussion
Because "charisma" is misleading for most readers since most readers see it as a syonoynm for "attractiveness or charm" but in this case the term is referring to "talent", "being excellence in a particular field" in a sense that Doflamingo is truly emboding the idea of evil- you could even pull in Max Weber's Charismatic authority to some extent if you want. It is foreigen word in japanese (Karisuma) as well so you have to check out first what Oda wanted to say. Translating is about more than just flipping through a dictionary.
Ask Stephen if you want a professional answer
Sorry for the super late answer about this (hey, I only search my name every month or so here). In short, shadyagent is correct.
In English the word "charisma" is an uncountable quality - something that people can possess, such as "charm" or "intelligence." (think of the RPG stat) Either you have it or you don't, and you possess it in a certain quantity. However, it is an abstract essence, not a tangible thing, so while a person can have charisma or be charismatic, you cannot be a charisma.
The difference with the Japanese loanword of charisma (karisuma) is that while it can use the definition I've defined above, it can also be (and is much more often) applied to refer to a person outright, i.e. Doflamingo is "a charisma." It's such a popular buzzword to use nowadays that there are TV comedians like Ariyoshi who point out the word has basically lost all meaning, because it's used on anyone and anything (particularly magazine models) even if they don't have a particularly notable personality. In that sense, it's similar to the word "celebrity." It doesn't mean that someone necessarily has an arresting and charming personality, but they do attract lots of attention (and it can still certainly be both of those things).
So with that in mind, it's ungrammatical and awkward to call Doflamingo a "Charisma of Evil" in English - you might say he has an "evil charisma" or is "charismatically evil," but it doesn't work as an actual title. I settled on Champion of Evil because that was the closest approximation I liked that summed up his embodiment of evil (to "champion a cause") and the singular nature of it (not a follower but a leader).
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RE: Jurassic World
I would have been able to handle the stupid decisions better if the actual characters were likeable or had any kind of charisma together. They all sucked.
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RE: SQUARE ENIX - Single Player RPGs are dead?
People are delusional if they think it isn't going to be a massively different game…
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RE: SQUARE ENIX - Single Player RPGs are dead?
I have very fond memories of FF7 like a lot of people, but I don't trust Square to do a good remake that resembles the original in any way. It's going to be Advent Children: The Game, and that movie was a goddamn disaster of vapid flash over substance.
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RE: E3 2015
I know I'm late on this, but I thought Just Cause 2 was one of the more underrated games I had played. I recall it being a whole lot like Farcry 3, except with the grappling hook of awesomeness. The grappling hook was endlessly entertaining. Shoot one end into a car, stick the other end into some random guy and watch it drag him off, etc. Or attach someone to an elevator of a skyscraper as it starts to ascend. The possibilities were endless. The game had shit writing, though.
tbh Just Cause 3 is probably the Square game I am most excited to actually play, followed by Deus Ex
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RE: E3 2015
It bothers me that they call it "backwards compatibility." Hey guys! My Wii U is backwards-compatible with NES and SNES and GBA and N64 and…!!!!
It might not be reading off the disc, but at least it enables you to make use of your existing property. You have to buy all that shit again to play it on Wii U.
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RE: E3 2015
he was crying tears of pain
"No Yu Suzuki…don't make me drive a forklift in the port and undergo countless QTEs again, anything but that"
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RE: Tales of Series
Hopefully the PS4/Steam version is revised and tweaked ala Graces -> Graces F because vanilla Zestiria was a bad game with pretty glaring technical problems
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RE: My Hero Academia - Gomu Gomu no Gentle Fist
gotta love empty lip service!!
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RE: Tales of Series
what do you want to bet they're eager to push this one out and Tales-of-the-Tempest brush Zestiria under the couch
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RE: Vinland Saga
I have a question considering volumes - english relases of them gotten cancelled ? On what depends if they will get back or is there already some news on it getting back to being relased sooner than later?
Publication is back on, sixth and seventh omnibus will be out later this year. If sales hold consistent with the last few books to come out, we'll continue after that.
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RE: The "Shueisha" Thread
So what's going out? Gakkyu and Ageha for sure, probably Roggy…
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RE: The Nintendo Thread
LOL, Level 5 is making Fantasy Life 2…exclusively for IOS/Android
NOPE
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RE: SQUARE ENIX - Single Player RPGs are dead?
at least Square recognizes the only good thing they've got going
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RE: The Microsoft / XBONE 180 thread
Reallllly excited about Ori, totally gonna snap that up on XBLA once I'm done with Talos Principle
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RE: #SkeletonGate
"I shouldn't talk about gamergate, so all my gamergate jokes will be made by this sock puppet."
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RE: #SkeletonGate
lolling so hard @ all the folks who were so mad about FemFreq "fraudulently(?) taking people's money to not(?) make videos" paying those jokers to ultimately not make a video taking her down
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RE: The "Shueisha" Thread
he punched him a lot of times very hard
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I couldn't ignore this converation, but is Roggy that hard to read?
I think maxter is having a harder time than most people, but it also does feature some awkward transitions and sometimes doesn't really point out the most important detail of a panel very well
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RE: The "Shueisha" Thread
the rich boy who was the ringleader of the club. it said earlier in the chapter that they have more money than they know what to do with.
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RE: The "Shueisha" Thread
the last few panels was Roggy using the rich boy's money to pay the lady so she can afford the boy's treatment
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RE: Dragon Quest thread : DQXI on PS4, 3DS & Switch
is it more tightly structured than the Musou games, then?
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RE: Tales of Series
It might not be underwhelming if you've never played a Tales game before and like low-budget JRPGs otherwise, but if you've played pretty much any other Tales game, it is. The only reason I would recommend it to first-timers is so that they can see how much better the older games are when they go backward.