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Manga News/Discussion |OTE| Thought it was a smut paradise, it was shounen hell

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upandaway

Member
I don't know how I feel about translating the sound effects. Its not that I mind it, really, it just seems like a lot of extra redrawing work when you could just put a T/N at the bottom.
It would be a lot better if they were actually translating the sound effects. The way they're doing it kind of misses the point because why would there be the text "steam" floating around when you can clearly see visual steam on the page.

Now I'm imagining a parody where the whole page will be filled with descriptions of the visuals like "Soma's knife" next to Soma's knife and everything.
 
One thing I didn't think of though, is the fact that Viz isn't actually "cleaning" anything. They just have access to the author's original art before any of the text or sound effects are put on the page.

So I guess it's less work than I thought, but still seems like something no one really pays much attention to.
 

Charade

Member
One thing I didn't think of though, is the fact that Viz isn't actually "cleaning" anything. They just have access to the author's original art before any of the text or sound effects are put on the page.

Text I can see, but wouldn't a lot sound effects (especially the stylized ones) be part of the original art? Unless they're all some stock ones added afterwards.
 

upandaway

Member
Are we sure they have access to those clean pages? What makes sense for western publishers may not be the same with Japan.

Soma is pretty heavily computerized but something like OP for example seems like the SFX are drawn right in at the sketching period. Actually I'm pretty sure I've seen OP sketches with clear SFX.
I think Viz just gets the scanned pages as they are before they get printed in the mag.
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
Text I can see, but wouldn't a lot sound effects (especially the stylized ones) be part of the original art? Unless they're all some stock ones added afterwards.

I don't think so. I'm pretty sure they're added by assistants at some point.

Are we sure they have access to those clean pages? What makes sense for western publishers may not be the same with Japan.

Soma is pretty heavily computerized but something like OP for example seems like the SFX are drawn right in at the sketching period. Actually I'm pretty sure I've seen OP sketches with clear SFX.
I think Viz just gets the scanned pages as they are before they get printed in the mag.

No, I don't know it for certain, but it would make the most sense. Whether or not they're added in by the author or his assistants, they're still probably the last thing on the page since they overlay everything else. It's not a tremendous amount of work to have those scanned before someone puts them on the page.
 

scy

Member
Nana to Kaoru got licensed in France but I don't think I'll buy that filth.

I'm going to have to buy this to make up for you, aren't I?

It would be a lot better if they were actually translating the sound effects. The way they're doing it kind of misses the point because why would there be the text "steam" floating around when you can clearly see visual steam on the page.

He's turning words into what they actually are. What a tremendous power.
 

thesaucetastic

Unconfirmed Member
Koi Nashi Ai Nashi 3
tb3MgPH.jpg

yeah okay, I ship it.
 

upandaway

Member
I'm going to have to buy this to make up for you, aren't I?



He's turning words into what they actually are. What a tremendous power.
That's... dang I'm certain I've seen this actual power before. Where?! Medaka Box? Law of Ueki? Man this is killing me.

retcon: wait i read that wrong, I'm referring to the power of turning SFX into actual words
although the power to turn words into items was probably done before too
 

Tathanen

Get Inside Her!
What's going on with Soma there? Why is the VIZ art actually different?

Are we sure they have access to those clean pages? What makes sense for western publishers may not be the same with Japan.

Soma is pretty heavily computerized but something like OP for example seems like the SFX are drawn right in at the sketching period. Actually I'm pretty sure I've seen OP sketches with clear SFX.
I think Viz just gets the scanned pages as they are before they get printed in the mag.

When I started buying the VIZ OP volumes the translated sound effects kind of threw me for a bit, but I actually like it a lot now. It's pretty silly to not translate them, if you think about it. If you're trying to convey the original intent, you gotta be able to read those effects just as fluently as the Japanese can. It makes things a little goofier sometimes, but again, that's what they actually are.

What I've definitely noticed, though, is that VIZ manually erases all of the JP SFX in One Piece. I've compared my volumes to scanlations, you can see how they manipulate their words to fill the same general space, but anyplace that used to have JP SFX is whited out instead. If you pay close attention you'll notice gaps in the art where they shouldn't be, but only if you really go looking for them. VIZ will sometimes redraw lines and connect through the gaps if leaving things untouched would make things look particularly broken, but they're definitely working with source pages where all the JP SFX are hard-coded in.
 
That's... dang I'm certain I've seen this actual power before. Where?! Medaka Box? Law of Ueki? Man this is killing me.

It wouldn't surprise me if it was from both of those series.

Oh, that girl from Fairy Tail has this one too. And Yozakura Quartet has the girl who can create whatever she's saying.

Sounds like a neat power.
 

upandaway

Member
It wouldn't surprise me if it was from both of those series.

Oh, that girl from Fairy Tail has this one too. And Yozakura Quartet has the girl who can create whatever she's saying.

Sounds like a neat power.
Fairy Tail had it. Right! You saved me right now, phew. I was thinking of that chick.

I can clearly remember SFX-related powers on Ajimu's text dump but I don't know if they were in Medaka Box proper.
 

Tathanen

Get Inside Her!
Because they have clean material to work with, not the fugly pages from the magazine that scan groupes use.

I was gonna call out one of those guys' shoulders on the bottom as actually artistically distinct but I realize now that's just some mirroring garbage from where the pages met on the scanlation. Crazy, though, the enormous amount of detail lost in the meat.
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
What's going on with Soma there? Why is the VIZ art actually different?

Because they have cleaner art. Pretty much every scan group's results end up much darker than the original. The effect sometimes looks sharper on amateur scans, but its not necessarily better in terms of quality. You can also see where the amateur scans cut off the art around the edges to remove crappy portions of the source raw.

When I started buying the VIZ OP volumes the translated sound effects kind of threw me for a bit, but I actually like it a lot now. It's pretty silly to not translate them, if you think about it. If you're trying to convey the original intent, you gotta be able to read those effects just as fluently as the Japanese can. It makes things a little goofier sometimes, but again, that's what they actually are.

What I've definitely noticed, though, is that VIZ manually erases all of the JP SFX in One Piece. I've compared my volumes to scanlations, you can see how they manipulate their words to fill the same general space, but anyplace that used to have JP SFX is whited out instead. If you pay close attention you'll notice gaps in the art where they shouldn't be, but only if you really go looking for them. VIZ will sometimes redraw lines and connect through the gaps if leaving things untouched would make things look particularly broken, but they're definitely working with source pages where all the JP SFX are hard-coded in.

I think a lot of the more modern stuff is done by computers though. Some OP volumes are more than a decade old.
 

scy

Member
It really does feel unnecessary.

Futsu Hyakkei - One-shot. It has the normal shoujo stuff of perfect guy, average girl. Entire gimmick is the fascination of the guy is pretty much entirely on her average-ness. Which sounds insulting now that I write it out.
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
"Steeeam"
So that's the sound steam makes I see.

It doesn't even seem like a good translation of the intended sound effect. Its perfectly possible (I don't know Japanese, so I couldn't say for certain) that the Japanese word for a sizzling sound effect is the same word for "steam," but it makes no sense in English.
 

Haly

One day I realized that sadness is just another word for not enough coffee.
Viz is probably from the Marvel school of sound effects:
BhEAc.jpg
 

Tathanen

Get Inside Her!
I think a lot of the more modern stuff is done by computers though. Some OP volumes are more than a decade old.

Hm it's possible it's changed over time, I only own up to the end of Enies Lobby. Got Thriller Bark coming next week, I'll give it another look then.
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
Should do a pun off the song steam heat from the musical pajama game.

Manga News/Discussion |OTX1| Steeaming Shounen Smutlords

Hm it's possible it's changed over time, I only own up to the end of Enies Lobby. Got Thriller Bark coming next week, I'll give it another look then.

In that particular case, I doubt they really tell Oda what to do, though.
 

Articalys

Member
Okay, so seriously -- was Europe just in a position for manga/anime to be more popular from the start, in addition to embracing it more than North America did? Even if we rewind time back a dozen years or so and make people in the U.S. start buying more manga, would it actually change anything?
 
It doesn't even seem like a good translation of the intended sound effect. Its perfectly possible (I don't know Japanese, so I couldn't say for certain) that the Japanese word for a sizzling sound effect is the same word for "steam," but it makes no sense in English.

oddly enough, I can't even find the same sound effect that was used for steam (hoku/ ホク) in one of those sound effect lists so maybe Viz had nothing else to work with.

I'll admit the sound hoku doesn't sound like steam to me anyway ~_~
 

Lain

Member
Hyakushou Kizoku 1-2

Hiromu Arakawa's autobiographical manga, even more so than Silver Spoon so if you like that aspect of SS, this is for you.
Last update: 1004 days ago

Hopefully either it gets picked by some American publisher, or someone with taste in the community will work on it. I can guarantee that it's good from start to end having read it.
 

scy

Member
Okay, so seriously -- was Europe just in a position for manga/anime to be more popular from the start, in addition to embracing it more than North America did? Even if we rewind time back a dozen years or so and make people in the U.S. start buying more manga, would it actually change anything?

So we can't invent time travel to fix the scene in NA?

Time travel sucks.
 
Okay, so seriously -- was Europe just in a position for manga/anime to be more popular from the start, in addition to embracing it more than North America did? Even if we rewind time back a dozen years or so and make people in the U.S. start buying more manga, would it actually change anything?

Did Europe ever got hit by a bubble burst the same way the US did with ADV licensing too much stuff and basically collapsing upon itself and whatever Tokyopop did to kill itself. There's also Bandai's failed attempt at manga publishing that I only remember now too.
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
oddly enough, I can't even find the same sound effect that was used for steam (hoku/ ホク) in one of those sound effect lists so maybe Viz had nothing else to work with.

I'll admit the sound hoku doesn't sound like steam to me anyway ~_~

There's two possibilities in my mind: one, its either the hot-food sizzling sound; or, two, its some Japanese "sound" that doesn't actually exist. Unless steam makes noise in Japan and not in America.
 

Lain

Member
I don't know how I feel about translating the sound effects. Its not that I mind it, really, it just seems like a lot of extra redrawing work when you could just put a T/N at the bottom.

I think that when done well (like in the case there), it makes the enjoyment of reading something in your language a lot better.
 

Articalys

Member
Did Europe ever got hit by a bubble burst the same way the US did with ADV licensing too much stuff and basically collapsing upon itself and whatever Tokyopop did to kill itself. There's also Bandai's failed attempt at manga publishing that I only remember now too.
Ah, so those were the key factors? Time to go read up more on that part of the market history, I guess...
 

Akito

Member
Hopefully either it gets picked by some American publisher, or someone with taste in the community will work on it. I can guarantee that it's good from start to end having read it.
Italy really gets everything :(
No wait, what's that, you guys don't have Nana to Kaoru? Hahaha.
lol
 

Lain

Member
Italy really gets everything :(
No wait, what's that, you guys don't have Nana to Kaoru? Hahaha.
lol

We also don't have some Yui Toshiki stuff that Gemrany has I think. Fucking Panini, why do they publish it there but not here?!?!
 
There's two possibilities in my mind: one, its either the hot-food sizzling sound; or, two, its some Japanese "sound" that doesn't actually exist. Unless steam makes noise in Japan and not in America.

I imagine sound effects are basically guesses or close enough for obscure sounds. I mean not like there's a dictionary of sound effects out there for all mangaka to look up. (Ok, it wouldn't surprise me if there actually was)

Ah, so those were the key factors? Time to go read up more on that part of the market history, I guess...

Pretty much, everyone was licensing as much as they could regardless if it would sell or if it was good. It was a big burst of new stuff but the problem was that most of it didn't sell well which basically took down companies like ADV (though they somehow revived into Sentai which licenses everything with some weird source of money), CPM, Bandai, Geneon (Pioneer), Tokyopop, Media Blasters (as zombie as they are still) etc.
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
I imagine sound effects are basically guesses or close enough for obscure sounds. I mean not like there's a dictionary of sound effects out there for all mangaka to look up. (Ok, it wouldn't surprise me if there actually was)



Pretty much, everyone was licensing as much as they could regardless if it would sell or if it was good. It was a big burst of new stuff but the problem was that most of it didn't sell well which basically took down companies like ADV (though they somehow revived into Sentai which licenses everything with some weird amount of money), CPM, Bandai, Geneon (Pioneer), Tokyopop, Media Blasters (as zombie as they are still) etc.

There certainly are Japanese conventions for onomatopoeia, many of which would have no equivalent sound in English.

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Japanese/Vocabulary/Onomatopoeia
 

Haly

One day I realized that sadness is just another word for not enough coffee.
to drift between sleep and wakefulness うつらうつら utsura-utsura

Best language.
 

Articalys

Member
Europe just got lucky to have so many anime airing in the 80s.
Right, it laid the foundation for popularity later, but that's still another part of the equation -- what led to licensors willing to take more of a chance on anime back then in Europe than in the U.S?
 
There certainly are Japanese conventions for onomatopoeia, many of which would have no equivalent sound in English.

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Japanese/Vocabulary/Onomatopoeia

Well I'm now interesting in finding a dictionary just for sound effects now.

to drift between sleep and wakefulness うつらうつら utsura-utsura

Best language.

うつらうつら ~

Makes English looks boring in comparison.
 

Kurita

Member
Right, it laid the foundation for popularity later, but that's still another part of the equation -- what led to licensors willing to take more of a chance on anime back then in Europe than in the U.S?
Because they were cheap. TV channels just grabbed everything they could without knowing if they were good or bad. Kids would watch them anyway so... Win-win for everybody.
 
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