translate this, baby
2 Mar 2008 07:20 pmSometimes the world of translations and scanlations really irritates me.
Let’s say I like a particular mangaka. Just like I do with English-language fiction (as do many people), when I find an author whose style and voice I like, I often go in search of other works by that person. It’s no different with standalone comic books (I clarify that as being in contrast to long-running serials like Superman or The Dark Knight, where the publishing house may contract a variety of authors and/or artists over a series’ long life). Over at Baka-Updates Manga, I learn the mangaka has a series with the Japanese title of Mainichi Seiten (picking a title completely off the top of my head). It’s been licensed. Okay, that means I can purchase it at my local comic book store, and I would expect it to be a decent-quality translation. (Not always, but one can hope. I mean, not all publishing houses are Dark Horse, after all.) The link, however, is to Digital Mania Publishing (DMP) who really, really need someone to kick them in the head. I mean really kick them in the head. Several times, at that.
The pages opens, and you see a series of cover-shot images, with the english titles above each image. I only know the Japanese title. I’m supposed to scroll through the images and pick something that looks like it might’ve been drawn by the specific mangaka I like? ( Where’s the search function? Oh, wait, there isn’t one. Where’s the author’s name listed? Nowhere. ) This is assuming I even have any interest in reading the mangaka’s work in the first place, if I’ve been able to find the remotest teaser or taste of his/her work to make me curious enough to search it down. ( Because for the scanlations prior to licensing, sometimes there are just so many goddamn hoops I have to ask: WHO OWNS THIS ANYWAY. ) It gets really ridiculous when you see non-translated scans, though. That’s where I just shake my head and wonder at this bizarre confluence of the internet’s strong “information wants to be free!” drive, ( meeting head-on with the human impulse to ‘own’ your work even when your actual input of ‘work’ is so derivative as to be nonexistent. )
Dear scanners: somewhere on this planet, in a small dark room, there’s a little boy playing a violin just for you.
I don’t care, though. I just wish DMP and its ilk would identify the authors, create a search function, and post at least the first four or five pages of any work so I can get a sense of the work. Then I could just avoid these self-entitled scanlation hostage-holders altogether.
Let’s say I like a particular mangaka. Just like I do with English-language fiction (as do many people), when I find an author whose style and voice I like, I often go in search of other works by that person. It’s no different with standalone comic books (I clarify that as being in contrast to long-running serials like Superman or The Dark Knight, where the publishing house may contract a variety of authors and/or artists over a series’ long life). Over at Baka-Updates Manga, I learn the mangaka has a series with the Japanese title of Mainichi Seiten (picking a title completely off the top of my head). It’s been licensed. Okay, that means I can purchase it at my local comic book store, and I would expect it to be a decent-quality translation. (Not always, but one can hope. I mean, not all publishing houses are Dark Horse, after all.) The link, however, is to Digital Mania Publishing (DMP) who really, really need someone to kick them in the head. I mean really kick them in the head. Several times, at that.
The pages opens, and you see a series of cover-shot images, with the english titles above each image. I only know the Japanese title. I’m supposed to scroll through the images and pick something that looks like it might’ve been drawn by the specific mangaka I like? ( Where’s the search function? Oh, wait, there isn’t one. Where’s the author’s name listed? Nowhere. ) This is assuming I even have any interest in reading the mangaka’s work in the first place, if I’ve been able to find the remotest teaser or taste of his/her work to make me curious enough to search it down. ( Because for the scanlations prior to licensing, sometimes there are just so many goddamn hoops I have to ask: WHO OWNS THIS ANYWAY. ) It gets really ridiculous when you see non-translated scans, though. That’s where I just shake my head and wonder at this bizarre confluence of the internet’s strong “information wants to be free!” drive, ( meeting head-on with the human impulse to ‘own’ your work even when your actual input of ‘work’ is so derivative as to be nonexistent. )
Dear scanners: somewhere on this planet, in a small dark room, there’s a little boy playing a violin just for you.
I don’t care, though. I just wish DMP and its ilk would identify the authors, create a search function, and post at least the first four or five pages of any work so I can get a sense of the work. Then I could just avoid these self-entitled scanlation hostage-holders altogether.