As someone who was around when fan translations were the mainstay of some obscure series, the very fact that some groups were polite enough to take things down after they were licensed sorta bit them in the ass. For example back in the day There was the Petshop of horrors group back on yahoo.
Now a few people were actively interested in getting the series brought over since it had a anime release in the states, but in the meantime they did their best to translate it. Now this wasn't the time where you could put out a post saying "hey who wants to start a group". No this was entirely "my friend Hiro is willing to translate when he's got time" and/or "I'm semi-fluent in Japanese, when I'm not swamped with work I'll help". So it was slow-moving, but man did the fan translators do their research. This wasn't optional, PSoH has a lot of obscure Japanese idioms and cultural references, even for a series set in America. Moreover the Mangaka would often have a plot point related to something that required a bit of research to make sense. In fact the entire community often helped on these translation efforts and researched what they could. And then it got licensed (by either viz or TP I think) and the mods took down all the translations out of the unspoken fansubber/translator relationship that really existed back then. (note: translations, not scans. You had to buy a Japanese copy of the book and read along. It was a far cry from what's out there today.)
The problem was that volumes 1-3 were TERRIBLE. The translator either was dedicated to "Americanizing" the manga, or the Publishing company was. Either way a lot of important character development got lost along the way. A notable example is a chapter in volume 2 where the two main characters are stuck in a dream landscape and they speak their minds a lot more. D's undercurrent of his problems with humanity comes out, and we see just how deep Leon's racism issues go. Seriously, he uses the term "mushi"(insect/bug) to refer to D's "people"(the Chinese). It sets up a point to show us just how much they've changed by the end... and in the english release a lot of it gets glossed over and whitewashed.
Now from volume 4 on they hired a new translator. Hell he/she actually used the community for some of hir research. Even then zhe commented more then a few times that what ended up on the page was NOT what she had sent in. (moreover iirc zhe also had to get on their cases about actually getting PAID a few times) In any case the community had no option other then to use a resource that wasn't as accurate as it could be, and by now the original translations were long gone.
The belief that the official translations are inherently better somehow is gaining popularity and... frankly it's not true. Sure these days translation jobs are much better and there's less that gets changed, but it's still open to executive meddling. Fan translations don't have that. Yes they have fanBRAT translations, but those are easy to spot and avoid.
-And that's the major problem with the official companies pulling the c&d card. When people do academic research on a foreign work, they tend to use multiple translations because that's how you get the most complete picture. Imagine if the 1001 Arabian nights only had one translation (most editions leave a different stories out). Imagine if nobody ever re-translated a work after people better understood a ancient language. Imagine if all biblical scholars had to only work from the King James version? Yeah these are grandiose examples but the idea is the same. One translation of something is narrowing the possible interpretations down to one individuals' ideas about the work.
Frankly I like holding a book. I like it a hell of a lot more then I like lugging around a laptop or being chained to a computer. Also paying ten bucks is expensive for me, but I get iconing material out of it too. In my opinion books > computer reading. But I haven't gone out in bought much manga at all these days. Aside from my cashflow issues, I also want a good translation. I'm not guaranteed that when I pick up a official release. I have no idea what's been changed, if that particular fandom is going to maul me for only being familiar with the official release. Simply put, I can't trust the official release, because I don't have anything to compare it to.
Yeah some people can say "that doesn't happen much anymore", but until recently the only way I read Air Gear was through the official releases. Look at the wank about THAT and tell me that crap isn't still going on today.
tl;dr publishing companies are shooting themselves in the foot.
no subject
Now a few people were actively interested in getting the series brought over since it had a anime release in the states, but in the meantime they did their best to translate it. Now this wasn't the time where you could put out a post saying "hey who wants to start a group". No this was entirely "my friend Hiro is willing to translate when he's got time" and/or "I'm semi-fluent in Japanese, when I'm not swamped with work I'll help". So it was slow-moving, but man did the fan translators do their research. This wasn't optional, PSoH has a lot of obscure Japanese idioms and cultural references, even for a series set in America. Moreover the Mangaka would often have a plot point related to something that required a bit of research to make sense. In fact the entire community often helped on these translation efforts and researched what they could. And then it got licensed (by either viz or TP I think) and the mods took down all the translations out of the unspoken fansubber/translator relationship that really existed back then. (note: translations, not scans. You had to buy a Japanese copy of the book and read along. It was a far cry from what's out there today.)
The problem was that volumes 1-3 were TERRIBLE. The translator either was dedicated to "Americanizing" the manga, or the Publishing company was. Either way a lot of important character development got lost along the way. A notable example is a chapter in volume 2 where the two main characters are stuck in a dream landscape and they speak their minds a lot more. D's undercurrent of his problems with humanity comes out, and we see just how deep Leon's racism issues go. Seriously, he uses the term "mushi"(insect/bug) to refer to D's "people"(the Chinese). It sets up a point to show us just how much they've changed by the end... and in the english release a lot of it gets glossed over and whitewashed.
Now from volume 4 on they hired a new translator. Hell he/she actually used the community for some of hir research. Even then zhe commented more then a few times that what ended up on the page was NOT what she had sent in. (moreover iirc zhe also had to get on their cases about actually getting PAID a few times) In any case the community had no option other then to use a resource that wasn't as accurate as it could be, and by now the original translations were long gone.
The belief that the official translations are inherently better somehow is gaining popularity and... frankly it's not true. Sure these days translation jobs are much better and there's less that gets changed, but it's still open to executive meddling. Fan translations don't have that. Yes they have fanBRAT translations, but those are easy to spot and avoid.
-And that's the major problem with the official companies pulling the c&d card. When people do academic research on a foreign work, they tend to use multiple translations because that's how you get the most complete picture. Imagine if the 1001 Arabian nights only had one translation (most editions leave a different stories out). Imagine if nobody ever re-translated a work after people better understood a ancient language. Imagine if all biblical scholars had to only work from the King James version? Yeah these are grandiose examples but the idea is the same. One translation of something is narrowing the possible interpretations down to one individuals' ideas about the work.
Frankly I like holding a book. I like it a hell of a lot more then I like lugging around a laptop or being chained to a computer. Also paying ten bucks is expensive for me, but I get iconing material out of it too. In my opinion books > computer reading. But I haven't gone out in bought much manga at all these days. Aside from my cashflow issues, I also want a good translation. I'm not guaranteed that when I pick up a official release. I have no idea what's been changed, if that particular fandom is going to maul me for only being familiar with the official release. Simply put, I can't trust the official release, because I don't have anything to compare it to.
Yeah some people can say "that doesn't happen much anymore", but until recently the only way I read Air Gear was through the official releases. Look at the wank about THAT and tell me that crap isn't still going on today.
tl;dr publishing companies are shooting themselves in the foot.