It’s a bit of a stretch to say he translated those works, though. Utawarerumono was translated by Ryuusoul, Vagrants was a project inherited from that other group mirror moon merged with. zalas knows his Japanese but he’s more of a hacker and tool programmer than a translator. Saying that he’s translated many works for mirror moon just doesn’t cut it~
My comment was more on the notion of a ‘degree in Japanese’- I’m not denying that it is possible to complete a degree with major in Japanese - my university offers language-focused Bachelor of Education degrees - but the idea of expecting someone to have one so that they can talk about the language on an internet forum is ludicrous. The JLPT is slightly more reasonable, although still a bit silly because many people have no need to take the JLPT and thus do not take the JLPT unless pursuing certain fields of work. It is not a very comprehensive test of Japanese language ability and does not suffice for naturalisation or anything like that. You can pass JLPT 1 and still not be able to read Albatross Koukairoku so JLPT 1 doesn’t even suffice for commenting on eroge, or so the logic could flow =P
Fair enough. It’s true he has translated many works, but I should not have said he translated many works specifically for mirror moon; he acted more as a supplementary translator for mm. Similarly to zalas, I am more of a programmer than a hacker (I hold two Computer Science degrees), but, if you’ll pardon the grandstanding, my writing style has earned me no small amount of praise (I have been told many times that I should become a romance novelist). A jack-of-all-trades may be a master of none, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be pretty damned good in a few chosen fields.
Nonetheless, zalas was the lead translator for at least two titles (both of which have been released), plus he is an active translator for a manga scanslation group (otenba). The point I was trying to make - that zalas has the experience to back up his words - stands.
True enough. What I was getting at was that Imagker presented himself as a know-it-all despite his unwillingness to understand the points of OtaKing, translation specialists he cited, myself, or the other contributors in the previous thread. His infantile attitude and immediate dismissal of the words of those clearly more qualified to speak on the subject (both in formal training and actual experience) were what prompted the comment he seems to have taken great offense to:
“The arrogance of one who does not understand versus the humility of one who does, which makes it all the harder to get the former to recognize where they’re mistaken.”
Ask and ye shall receive. The project is currently inactive; as Nandemonai said, your best bet would be to pass by their IRC channel and inquire about the details in person.
Although I have yet to start playing through the game, something about the text on the back of the box strikes me as odd:
Reportedly, the game does not use honorifics. However, the packaging and website use last-first naming order despite the faux-American setting. As far as I’ve seen (and, believe me, I’ve seen a lot in 16 years), last-first order and honorifics go hand-in-hand with one another; when translating, one uses both or neither. is this just a quirk of the packaging (like Megaman X titles always erroneously changing X’s name to “Mega Man”), or does the game use last-first order as well? If it does, why?
In my own experience, Japanese naming order is sometimes preferred in cases like voiced works (just as animation) because it can distract the viewer if what they’re seeing (given name, family name) doesn’t match what they’re hearing (family name, given name). Of course, this logic fails if you then make the viewer wonder which name is which.
They’re both artefacts of the original language- but the naming order is a lot less offensive to the senses than honorifics at least =P
EDIT: Are you 16 years old, or have you just been a translator for 16 years? You’ve made me curious!
If I were 16, I think I’d be the only balding sixteen-year-old in the world that wasn’t undergoing chemotherapy or stricken with some debilitating disease (no offense intended to those who fit that description - cancer just isn’t funny). No, I’ve been an anime fan for 16 years, a translator since 2001 (mostly French-to-English work, but my group focuses largely on Japanese titles), a visual novel fan since ~2004, and a gamer since 1991 or 1992.
I’ve hinted to it in other topics, but can you guess my age?
I’m a stickler for visual consistency, so I’d always go for first-last rather than selectively using first-last and last-first on different characters. This seems to be the Japanese’s approach as well when it comes to romanizing names; the vast majority of R2 openings and staff rolls use first-last order (Sharin no Kuni, Air, Clannad, Devil May Cry, Love Hina, Metal Gear Solid 2, Last Order, and pretty much every Japanese video game ever released overseas). If the Japanese make their intent this clear, why should I insist otherwise? The only exception to this would be when a name is clearly misromanized (Mylanndah vs Myranda, Mash vs Matthew, Teletha vs Theresa, Milfeulle vs Millefeuille, Franboise vs Framboise, Pias vs Pierce, Debid vs David, and so on); in that case, I may bite the bullet if the offending misromanization can’t be corrected (with games and visual novels, this is typically not an issue).
On the other hand, I don’t approve of replacing last names with first names when used on their own. I was seriously confused when I kept hearing “Hayashi” but read “Masashi” when I was playing through Chain. That’s probably one of my only complaints about the English dub script of Rebuild of Evangelion; Shinji always refers to people by last name unless they insist otherwise, so having him on a first-name basis with them from the get-go is a little jarring (Asuka calls him on his formality in 2.22, which should have posed a problem since FUNimation ruined the precedent; they did a remarkable job of pulling themselves out of the hole they dug, and the fix remains perfectly in-character. Bravo, guys! ).
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