Should Translator Visibility Matter?

There's this concept called "the visibility of the translator" in translation studies. Certainly, people like us anime and manga fans, who consume translations, would be more aware of this concept, right? The question is, after you take into account what I said above the cut, is why aren't we more aware of who's translating the...

Life in an Anime Fandom

This was originally a response to Scott, but I ended up weaving my own post about a topic I wanted to write about anyway, so…here we are. From having bothered with a blog centred around a specific fandom (magicalgirlsandcerulean), the average time spent in a fandom is 2 years because the first year is when...

Animage Jan. 2021 Interview: Wataru Komada (Translation)

I was gonna postpone this to the 3rd of March's weekly slot, but to celebrate the MTC/FP battle, I moved it up a bit. Part 1 here. Highlights: Jyuto going to the supermarketMTC in bathrobes, particularly Riou in a black bathrobe, sipping wine You can find the interview on Bookwalker if you pay to read/purchase...

Animage Jan. 2021 Interview: Soma Saito (Translation)

Let's start this year off right... Highlights: the source of "Today is a good day to die"insight into Gentaro's roundabout nature This is something I was compelled to do after thinking my language skills were going to die out (they already suffered after my hiatus in 2019...). This also would show how far I've come...

Watch Out for Kaiju No. 8! (An Exercise in Translation)

One good thing about watching manga go live ASAP is how you can examine the translation process up close. Disclaimer: There is no such thing as a "truly correct translation". There is only a "more correct translation" or a "less correct translation", taking into account things like puns, references and the like. Viz is sure...

Google Translates My Favourite Manga

Inspired by this bookish post by Reader Voracious and the previous one by Fictionally Sam. Bloghopping can sometimes take you into territory you think you'd never get to...and that's why we're here. The aim of the game is to translate a synopsis into a non-English language and then back into English, and because manga was...

Why Don’t Subtitlers Always Translate Anime Song Lyrics?

On Crunchyroll these days, it’s becoming easier to see songs being translated. So why doesn’t this happen more, and why hasn’t it happened more? I’ve noticed that Idolish7 gets its songs translated while the ending for the Boueibu LOVE! LOVE! LOVE! OVA, Kokoro to Kokoro de, got translated, so why is it that historically subtitlers -...