Question on MangaGamer.com

Visual Novel Community Archive, 2000-2009
#41

Well, they never said anything to me about pushing back the deadline. I was just emailing them saying “this translator is awful”, “this bit’s taking me a long time because the English is so awful”, and so on, and I think they took me seriously enough to push things back. I got them my half of the script by my deadline, but for whatever reason they decided to send me the other guy’s half as well, and I said “Eek, this is awful too”, and they pushed back the deadline to let me do that. But they hassled me to keep to the new deadline.

And I didn’t really have time to go over it all again. I feel frustratingly certain there are several grammar mistakes I missed because I was fixing the more glaring problems and I only had time to do a second pass to about half of it.

Yes! Me too, both halves of this. The translators omitted honorifics everywhere, and we added them back in for vocative clauses, but there were many places where the original went something like “Chotto, niisan, dou shiteru no?” and the translation was “Hey, what are you doing?” (made-up example). I didn’t have time to comb the script looking for those to put them back in.

That’s very cool. The “translation notes” concept didn’t occur to me, so there aren’t any in Da Capo.

#42

The original script had a lot of translations of Japanese words next to the romanization of them in the game, and I thought that was getting a bit awkward, so I asked to do a separate list of all the words.

Here’s some random quotes from Suika that were bad, though probably not the worst since I just opened random files and picked some lines.

I looked at the shiny knife without emotion and it reminded me of what it was for.

“Are you such a talent that was supposed to do something like that?”

Orange shadow played on Itsuki’s face.

Or the really bad one I already posted:

As I heard she said that, I stopped the rhythmical concerning sort of piston action and started to thrust my thing into her like crazy.

#43

I ain’t touching those Engrish lines. Once you see them, YOU CAN’T UNSEE THEM!!

#44

Are there proofreaders assigned to fixing Edelweiss? Or … is its current state… “complete”?
Anybody know :?:

#45

my question is if they accept US orders. I really want to play Da Capo and Sukia

#46

Yes.

#47

If anyone cares, I have got information about the current patch of da capo. From my emails with Mangagamer, they hold license for both Da Capo and Da Capo Plus Communications which puts a hatchet into the patch as it were.

Strange thing though, they said they would consider buying their translation. Struck me as a bit odd but I informed them it very incomplete and they be much better off not doing such things.

#48

MG buying translation from fansub group? Lol, not quite professional :?, but it’s like a seal of approval for translation quality since the guys working on a fansubbing project are usually full of enthusiasm that they can continue working even without gettin paid. This kind of business could actually work though: a group working on translating the whole game scripts (come on, they shouldn’t too hard comparing to the anime scripts) and leave the rest of the hard work to MG (editing, compiling etc etc - the work that all translation group hates). The group doesn’t release anything, but credit goes to them, maybe among them there’ll be someone being hired as full time workers, maybe not. But hey, MG needs a lot of help to stand strong in their first year of business anyway.

#49

Unfortunately, things aren’t that convenient. Plenty of fan translators are beginners with no formal training, so quality is never guaranteed (compare fansub releases and you’ll sometimes find huge variances in meaning). Many projects also languish for years.

Anyway, text translation requires much greater Japanese skill than anime fansubbing.

#50

The amount of translation needed to be done is also usually much higher than fansubs, except those who do massive series like Bleach or One Piece (and do a lot of it). More than that though, translation requires coding knowledge with some way to reverse-engineer the game so you can not only extract the script, but re-insert it without having to do a 1-to-1 character replacement which would quickly become a major hindrance to any game requiring lots of dialogue. Then of course there is graphical work, even if you don’t do decensoring, menu needs to be translated as well as other items usually. As if that weren’t enough, if you want a quality translation, you have to edit word wrapping so that you don’t get words that do not break at non-sylables as often seen by many translations, you then have to go and proof all of that, far more complicated than something linear like an anime episode.

#51

This is a commonly-supposed fact, but I know several people who ARE professional translators, one of whom was a native Japanese speaker (and did fansubs for awhile before graduating and getting hired). I am informed by these professional translators that the quality of fansub translations is very nearly universally poor. They have to work off of what they hear, since they don’t have the show’s script in print form right in front of them (which real translators have), and they are indeed highly motivated, but also usually inexperienced. One of my pro translator friends is fond of pulling out series XYZ, and a fansub, and comparing them side-by-side. Everything in the episode more complicated than “hai” is wrong.

I have a very good opinion of their work. For various reasons I can’t get into without actually identifying them, they have very good reputations in industry.

Furthermore, I have heard stories of fansub groups trying to get guys with like a year of Japanese under their belts to become translators. Then they have to compete to get the episode out ASAP. Having taken a year of Japanese myself, I can say with 100% certainty this is a recipie for disastrous quality.

Finally, I would point out that translation quality can only be judged by someone who is fluent in both languages, who then compares both the original and the translation. Certain ‘warning signs’ (like broken english, or translated ‘dialogue’ that doesn’t appear to even make sense) are good clues that a translation is poor, but once a translation reaches a certain minimally-acceptable level, it’s impossible for someone who doesn’t actually know the original to tell when the translation is bad.

There’s a famous story (couldn’t find a link) where a translator involved in very high-level negotiations between the US and Russia … accidentally inserted a “not” into his translation of what the Russian president was saying – in the middle of very delicate negotiations. Well, of course, this caused the Americans to think the Russians just made a major concession when in fact, nothing had happened. Very confused several minutes followed; the real intent was eventually communicated. Later the translator went to the US president and explained he has misheard and translated incorrectly; Reagan thought for a minute, then said “Well, these things are inevitable. You owned up to it; we’re not at war; just be more careful, eh?”

#52

Good that Mangagamer wasnt involved in these negotiations then. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

#53

When I was talking to Mangagamer, I dont believe there actually realized what sort of group that was doing the patch. So I wouldnt go to the extent to say they would buy fan made translations.

But the good news in this is we actually learn that we will eventually get Da Capo Plus Communications ^^ I am pretty excited about that.

#54

It’s going to be a double edged sword. With the knowledge that DCPC is going to be coming out as well, a good number of customers will now simply skip over DC waiting for the larger content release.

Bad move on their part honestly, they should have simply gone with DCPC in the first place, again they’re just shooting themselves in the foot.

#55

raises hand

I waited until the release of D.C.P.C. before playing Da Capo.

Go figure, that the sequel gets the same treatment with D.C.2 P.C. after Xmas. You get to plow the girl with glasses in the renewal. I wish there was a cat too. :twisted:

#56

Well, I’m still going to buy DC, since I want Mangagamer to survive and possibly translate more titles. When DCPC comes out, and I guess it won’t be too soon, I’ll check the additional content and I’ll decide whether to buy it or not.

Anyway, I have to agree with you on the fact that, given the small size of the western market for this kind of titles, it would have been a better choice to go with DCPC from the beginning.

#57

Hardcore Da Capo fans might want to own both since the extra characters apparently ruin the pacing of early scenes (tacked on feel - like the writers spliced disparate events instead of naturally working them in). In that sense, Plus Communication isn’t entirely a definitive release.

It would be nice if MangaGamer offers a discount to customers who buy both D.C. and D.C.P.C.

#58

Dont think I could wait any longer for da capo. Would kill me to wait 6 months or so till D.C.P.C. comes out.

Arent they doing the same thing for Edelweiss expansion ?

#59

It’s confirmed they have the license for Kira Kira, Edelweiss Eiden Fantasia and Kira Kira Curtain Call,
But they don’t appear on there website.
So it’s guessed that they haven’t started on them or if so they haven’t progressed far enough to put it on the website.

#60

The difference is that DCPC was and has been out long enough that they could have concentrated their work on it instead of releasing DC and DCPC later. The fandisk for Edelweiss was just recently released(As in it wasn’t even out yet when MG released the full version of Edelweiss), and also isn’t a full reprint of the game like DCPC is.

So a customer has a choice at this point. Do I buy DC, or do I wait and buy the same game with additional paths and more content with DCPC? MG wont have this issue with Edelweiss, it’s just a matter of ‘will the customer buy a couple additional paths for a game they’ve already bought and played.’ In other words, it’s not competing with itself on sales.

Even if they did this, I still believe they’ll be costing themselves customers they could have had with it’s first release. While I do agree it’s great for fans/customers to have the options there, it’s a bad move financially for MG. I just hope MG can continue to hang in there when they continue making choices like these.

I admit to doing the same.