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Localisation Shitty Localizers general

Localised content

Ene

varishangout.com
Regular
Translator Extraordinaire
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Ringo

varishangout.com
After discovering this thread I just had to make an account. I've been learning Japanese for a while now after I couldn't take how dogshit a lot of the translations made by these "localizers" are, especially NEO: The World Ends with You.

These misdeeds of an entire clique of translators perverting text reminded me of words said by one of the greatest literary writers in history and a guru in translating Russian literature to English, Vladimir Nabokov. He had this to say on the topic of terrible translations:


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If you wish to read his full thoughts on the matter the first pic is from his foreword in A Hero of Our Time and the second pic can be found here.
 

hackneyedhubris

varishangout.com
Seven Seas finally mentioned that they will republish and correct the latest title of theirs that was changed under the guise of localization. It looks like reaching out to the Japanese publisher and creator did some good. Now that Ken Akamatsu is a politican and is a fervent supporter of freedom of expression for manga, this won't be as commonplace with the liberty taken with certain titles.
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Migi

varishangout.com
Regular
Seven Seas finally mentioned that they will republish and correct the latest title of theirs that was changed under the guise of localization. It looks like reaching out to the Japanese publisher and creator did some good. Now that Ken Akamatsu is a politican and is a fervent supporter of freedom of expression for manga, this won't be as commonplace with the liberty taken with certain titles.
View attachment 10615
They also exposed their own agenda pushing. Seeing as they were forced to fix it, and didn't do it because of their own sense of respect of the author's original works.
Showing that calling this shit out works, but it's best to do it at the source and not the western woke publishing HQ.
 

NretsewThePerv

varishangout.com
Regular
Seven Seas finally mentioned that they will republish and correct the latest title of theirs that was changed under the guise of localization. It looks like reaching out to the Japanese publisher and creator did some good. Now that Ken Akamatsu is a politican and is a fervent supporter of freedom of expression for manga, this won't be as commonplace with the liberty taken with certain titles.
View attachment 10615

this is a big W for us but we should not let our guards down.

in saying that I think the main takeaway we should have from this is that bypassing these chuckle fucks and complaining directly to the rights holders/authors is an effective strategy moving forward, this would not have happened if people did not try to contact the rights holders and author about this. we should keep this in mind in case it happens again.

Also, gambs was right. This should not be over until the localizaors responsible are made an example of, fired and then blacklisted. These people need to face the consequences of their actions just like everyone else so people know not to try and pull this again, it keeps happening as they keep getting away from it scot-free. we should be pushing for more extreme consequences

but for the time being, we can take the small W, we did it boiz we saved the trap

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VidMasterEon

varishangout.com
Regular
After discovering this thread I just had to make an account. I've been learning Japanese for a while now after I couldn't take how dogshit a lot of the translations made by these "localizers" are, especially NEO: The World Ends with You.

These misdeeds of an entire clique of translators perverting text reminded me of words said by one of the greatest literary writers in history and a guru in translating Russian literature to English, Vladimir Nabokov. He had this to say on the topic of terrible translations:


View attachment 10605

View attachment 10603


If you wish to read his full thoughts on the matter the first pic is from his foreword in A Hero of Our Time and the second pic can be found here.
The "it should not sound like a translation" idea seems to be exclusive to low level translators and scoffed at by the high level ones as the 3 body problem translator had a similar sentiment
It ties into linguistic relativity (sapir-worf hypothesis), everything is there for a reason it developed over generations of linguistic development. By sanding away the edges and making it easier for the average person to digest you are loosing information.
Dropping honoriffics for example
an Emperor addressing a peasant with -san says so much about his character and relationship with a single word

The notion of a text sounding like it was written in another language is equavalent to machine translation is spread by the naive and malicious

Let me tell you that the translation technology you see on the internet for anyone to use are mere fisher-price toys in comparison to what is out there. Universities and corporations dump millions of dollars into R&D for their technology and they are not going to drop their work onto the internet for all to use
If you want a sample as to what computers can do with language look up computational linguistic research papers

The second paragraph describes hack localizers to a tee :ohohoh:

Also, i think smolbakas observation of trying to retool otoko no ko stories into tranny stories by man in the middle attack translations is now proven 100% correct. It also does not seem like they will stop any time soon as we have another otoko no ko BL story filed under the lgbt genre and not BL
Safe to say they are trying the same thing
I wonder if this is a top down decision or if it is a product of rouge localizers and absent quality control

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Macadate

varishangout.com
Seven Seas finally mentioned that they will republish and correct the latest title of theirs that was changed under the guise of localization. It looks like reaching out to the Japanese publisher and creator did some good. Now that Ken Akamatsu is a politican and is a fervent supporter of freedom of expression for manga, this won't be as commonplace with the liberty taken with certain titles.
View attachment 10615
First they justify altering content because they want to it be "commercially viable and enjoyable to read", then because they thought it was "necessary", and now it is "to keep the language respectful and inclusive". I wonder what reason will be used the next time they make a statement.
 

EnrikuhLose

varishangout.com
Fans of the horrible localizations of Atlus games have already appeared, complaining about the fan-translation of the SMT1 to PSX.

It's amazing how a single more accurate translation of a single game can bother these people. They prefer names invented by localizers and American jokes and references to American culture, than a faithful translation of the original text.

Honestly, the damage that English localization has done to Western fans is huge.
Creating huge confusion in the minds of western fans about the two most important entities of Megaten games, because the translator thought that "The Great Reason = The Great Will".
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Taruby

varishangout.com
Regular
These misdeeds of an entire clique of translators perverting text reminded me of words said by one of the greatest literary writers in history and a guru in translating Russian literature to English, Vladimir Nabokov. He had this to say on the topic of terrible translations:
I'm guessing you're only familiar with Vladimir Nabokov's writing in English.

Because if you're familiar with his body of translations in Russian, you would know Nabokov didn't hesitate at all to commit his sins (especially the gravest) when he adapted Lewis Carroll's 'Alice in Wonderland' into Russian (Аня въ странѣ чудесъ; Ania V Strane Chudes) . Being that this is the only time he translated a children's work into another language, it differs from his usual fare in that he took huge liberties and changed names to make it as if Alice was a Russian girl parodying old Russian poems and nursery rhymes instead of a girl from the Victorian age. To put it simply, he 'russified' Lewis Carrol's work to make it palatable for a Russian child and their sensibilities.

Some scenes, like the one with where the Duchess violently shakes her baby as she sings were entirely removed, being that Nabokov—or someone else—deemed it too violent for the mind of a Russian child, and the story is unique in that it's one of the few translations of Alice in Wonderland where Alice had her name changed (Ania), which is a rather contentious decision, since Nabokov remains the only Russian translator who would change the name of the main protagonist. As far as adaptations go, Nabokov put a lot of effort into it; it's no lazy localisation where he drops some dumb meme and called it a day.

Why I'm pointing this out is that you're going to need to take care when invoking Nabokov and his 'Art of Translation' when it comes to the adaptation of Japanese children's media, which includes many manga, anime, and video games. Things need to be changed to make them appealing to children, so you would need to argue from a more thoughtful, nuanced position when dealing with these English localisers and their shoddy work. Well, if they're smart enough to know that Nabokov also thought it appropriate to not make any effort whatsoever to preserve the structure of the original text, but to convey what he felt was its soul, which is a justification I often see from these sorts of people over the last few decades.
 
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VidMasterEon

varishangout.com
Regular
I'm guessing you're only familiar with Vladimir Nabokov's writing in English.

Because if you're familiar with his body of translations in Russian, you would know Nabokov didn't hesitate at all to commit his sins (especially the gravest) when he adapted Lewis Carroll's 'Alice in Wonderland' into Russian (Аня въ странѣ чудесъ; Ania V Strane Chudes) . Being that this is the only time he translated a children's work into another language, it differs from his usual fare in that he took huge liberties and changed names to make it as if Alice was a Russian girl parodying old Russian poems and nursery rhymes instead of a girl from the Victorian age. To put it simply, he 'russified' Lewis Carrol's work to make it palatable for a Russian child and their sensibilities.

Some scenes, like the one with where the Duchess violently shakes her baby as she sings were entirely removed, being that Nabokov—or someone else—deemed it too violent for the mind of a Russian child, and the story is unique in that it's one of the few translations of Alice in Wonderland where Alice had her name changed (Ania), which is a rather contentious decision, since Nabokov remains the only Russian translator who would change the name of the main protagonist. As far as adaptations go, Nabokov put a lot of effort into it; it's no lazy localisation where he drops some dumb meme and called it a day.

Why I'm pointing this out is that you're going to need to take care when invoking Nabokov and his 'Art of Translation' when it comes to the adaptation of Japanese children's media, which includes many manga, anime, and video games. Things need to be changed to make them appealing to children, so you would need to argue from a more thoughtful, nuanced position when dealing with these English localisers and their shoddy work. Well, if they're smart enough to know that Nabokov also thought it appropriate to not make any effort whatsoever to preserve the structure of the original text, but to convey what he felt was its soul, which is a justification I often see from these sorts of people over the last few decades.
I think the Russian translation of Alice in Wonderland might have had some "creative input" from the soviet government
 

AK-12

varishangout.com
Regular
seems Meru let it slip in her sperge thread that Seven Seas don't actually contact the mangakas when they localize their works
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You've misspelled "vandalize"

No wonder the lolcowlizers think these are their own works to champion whatever they feel that will rake more likes and retweets
> lolcowlizers
Damn, I gotta remember this one. Right after "predditor", this is a very good one in a long time.
 

Macadate

varishangout.com
seems Meru let it slip in her sperge thread that Seven Seas don't actually contact the mangakas when they localize their works
View attachment 10672
Schrödinger's publisher: Seven Seas might or might not have access to the author, depending on whichever narrative is more convenient
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credit to Hellhammer for archiving this earlier in the thread

it would be amusing if this can pit her against Katrina
 

Meemoo

varishangout.com
Regular
Schrödinger's publisher: Seven Seas might or might not have access to the author, depending on whichever narrative is more convenient
index.php

credit to Hellhammer for archiving this earlier in the thread

it would be amusing if this can pit her against Katrina
oh sweet, they are accidentally initiating friendly fire now.

gonna be entertaining seeing them try to explain away their contradictory statements
 
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Solar Blade

varishangout.com
oh sweet, they are accidentally initiating friendly fire now.

gonna be entertaining seeing them try to explain away their contradictory statements
"Ackshually it's different depending on the manga you chud!"

Or something to that effect.
 
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