So, did this finally come out? It hasn't arrived @ my local dealer yet, but was supposed to come out in April...
Anyway, ITT Genshiken manga! BANZAI! BANZAI! BANZAI!
Vol 1-3 by Del Rey
http://www.randomhouse.com/delrey/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=0345481690
http://www.randomhouse.com/delrey/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=0345481704
http://www.randomhouse.com/delrey/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=0345481712
Genshiken Anime
http://4-ch.net/anime/kareha.pl/1099441688
English Genshiken stuff for Share
http://bbs.shii.org/read.php/download/1102707466/
It won't stop me from buying it, of course, but... that is one ugly logo.
FFS, would it have been that hard to find a paintbrush font? Plus that freaking green background...
Well, I bought it, and it's a decent translation. In fact, I found a few spots where their phrasing was more appropriate than JJ's. However, there are a couple of awkward moments, especially the "You don't strip her, you fuck her" "You monster!" scene. It becomes "You don't only strip her, but you also screw her, too." "You freak!", which I think loses some of its comedic punch. The use of fanzine for doujinshi is a bit odd. They did make an effort to footnote the cultural references, but there were a few omissions. The "kugapii" omake strip loses the punchline in-joke "Don't get us sued!" for a more generic silly name gag. These are minor issues, though, and I'm happy with it so far.
I agree about the doujinshi / "fan-zine" thing. They could just have explained it in their footnotes at the end. By the way, I like footnotes on the actual pages better. With no hint of a footnote, it's kind of bothersome to have to flip to the end all the time to get your infos.
I will have to compare Jinmen / Del Rey a bit more, but another thing that struck me as odd was in chapter 4 with something Madarame was saying:
Jinmen
[speech bubble #1]
Ahh... we will now commence our 256th...
[speech bubble #2]
"This week's Kuji-An was awesome" conference."
Del Rey
[speech bubble #1]
Ahhh... that's episode 256...
[speech bubble #2]
Well, it's time for our "This week's Kujibiki Unbalance was awesome" meeting.
The latter translation doesn't seem very consistent with last page of that chapter:
Jinmen
[speech bubble #1]
Ahhhhhh.........
[speech bubble #2]
Now commencing our 4th...
[speech bubble #3]
"Maybe Kosaka isn't an otaku" conference...
Del Rey
[speech bubble #1]
Okay.
[speech bubble #2]
Time for the 4th...
[speech bubble #3]
"Kousaka isn't really an otaku, is he?" meeting!
I mean, isn't it an obvious repetition of the joke before in the same chapter? Consistency is a virtue in translations, David Ury!
So far, I can say that Del Rey indeed omits too many cultural references. That's not good for a translation of a manga like Genshiken. Jinmen put more effort into explaining the references (instead of rewriting the dialogue to avoid having to explain them, like Del Rey did in several parts) and some of their wording was more... to the point, like >>4 mentioned.
But overall, Del Rey's translation job is pretty solid and well done.
Also, it's pretty cool that there will be a guaranteed and pretty fast release of the chapters we haven't seen translated, yet.
Found it last friday, in a mainstream bookshop, in Finland. Woohoo!
Kosaka is my wife!
The cultural references are oddly inconsistent. They go to the trouble of explaining soramimi hour, donburi or harisen, but "Parn and Deed" (Parn and Deedlit from Record of Lodoss War) becomes "Pan and Dade".
Another thing along the lines of doujinshi/fanzine, "childhood friend" becomes "girl next door". In all the manga and anime I've seen, girl next door was never used for that kind of relationship. It was always childhood friend.
>>8
Yeah... I think that was the biggest problem I had with it. That and the whole "256th episode" fiasco. Don't they even mention at some point that the anime is just starting? Like, talking about possible seiyuu or something? And, yeah, the cultural references were wierdly inconsistant like that... I think Laputa became "Raputa" - yet, some references were left unchanged.
They were trying to change it to an American context, but FAILED.
Let's hope they put a little more polish in the next volume. It's coming out in July, right?
"buyt i dont speak polish!?"
>>11 Let's hope they put a little more english in the next volume. It's coming out in July, right?
fixed
etc.
I think polish is in ref. to buffing or shine, not in the language. ;)
In the original, they're talking about the 256th meeting. They make a callback to this later in the chapter, too, and they got that one right, except it doesn't make sense since they got this one wrong.
fanzine is what doujinshi means in english. so i don't see the big deal in translating it. in fact, i encourage it, we need less idiots going around peppering their language with random japanese words.
I would have been fine with something like fan comics. Fanzine brings up images of two-bit punk/indie mags with kids whining about how their favourite bands hit it big and thus immediately suck.
Ugh, I need to buy vol 2 and 3. Haven't bought them yet, if they even are available in my store.
Genshiken 2 is released [in the UK at least] on July 26. So you're not too late!
Volume 3? My copy of 2 says it doesn't come out until October. Also, still no Oguie in this volume T_T.
I read the book and liked it a lot, but don't know about the other translation. Usually though, I find the books to be better written than the subs. Maybe it has to do with which you read first...You know like when you hear the cover of a song before the original sometimes you like the cover song better.
I do see what you guys are talking about with some of the little details, but overall I thought it was really well done. And I agree with boogersnotch on the fanzine thing, I don't get what the big deal is. I don't really care about learning all the Japneese words for everything. I think "fan comics" sounds a lot worse than fan-zine. I didn't even know what the dojinshi was until I looked it up online anyway...but I figured it was something like that. I guess, I don't really know what all the references about Parn or Pan or whatever mean anyway so it doesn't really bug me. But "childhood friend" or "girl next door" mean the same thing don't they pretty much. Maybe I'm just not an otaku enough to get angry about it. Still, I thought the book was really funny and I'm definitely buying the next ones.
> I didn't even know what the dojinshi was until I looked it up online anyway...
Hmm. The culture surrounding doujinshi is quite a big part of this series, so it's slightly misleading to make up a different name for it. There's not really a western equivalent of Comiket.
And "childhood friend" is significant because it's a label for a recurring stereotype (which is used in Kujibiki Unbalance, for example).
I think the main point here is that while most translations benefit from being scrubbed of too many western-otaku style phrasings, this one is all about otaku culture, and therefore needs to retain its otakuness. It was never a story meant for the average reader - it's directed directly at otaku or those familiar with the otaku culture.
Has anyone figured out which Genshiken member wrote which of the blurbs about Kujian in volume 2? Pit Viper and Yoko are obviously Madarame and Ohno, Toshio is probably Sasahara, and the Crusher is Saki. Kosaka might be Kodama, but I have no idea about the rest.
>But "childhood friend" or "girl next door" mean the same thing don't they pretty much.
"Girl next door" can mean any neighbour girl of any age, whether the character knows her or pines for her from afar. A "childhood friend" specifically refers to someone with whom there is a close relationship while growing up. It's a common background setup in many love comedies and is why the group labelled Saki as one.
Another notable translation difference:
http://img372.imageshack.us/my.php?image=genshikench07p028jjvsdelrey9fx.png
(From the chapter 7 omake in volume 2, JJ on the left, DelRey on the right)
Too bad I don't have the raws here anymore, so I couldn't tell whether "Tanaka... a formidable man!" or "Tanaka is so... creepy!" would be correct, but I am guessing JJ's is more like it.
I almost must compliment JJ on their font editing. They often replaced sound words with proper types and sizes and also filled up speech bubbles in a way you didn't even notice there was something else in there to begin with.
DelRey kinda sucks at that...
> I almost must compliment JJ on their font editing.
That's "almost forgot to".... orz
Tyopgraphy is a lost art in the manga business... orz
>>29 I loled, if that was intentional. ...orz
hey guys volume three. they really should have done some research on the things they referenced in this volume. The names of the Gundam characters and MS were way off (because there are Sunrise-official romanizations of these things, and you've really got to look them up to know). The translator didn't know stuff like which names were for characters and which were for MS, so I have to assume no research was done. This isn't particularly hard stuff to do; there's no shame in checking the material being referenced, or reading a fansite.
And the fighting game stuff.... it's technical language, and it must have been a bitch for someone who doesn't know this stuff. They should have had somebody who does know fighting games read it over. As a fighting game dork I can tell what's being said in the between-chapter notes from the movelist in the back of the book (nearly everything references an existing game), but the actual text is pretty weird. Kohsaka's (I'm assuming him to be Toshizo; note how he beats everybody at this theoretical game) little bit about drunken Tokino is translated completely weird and off. The things he says plainly do not match with the movelist.
Everything ELSE reads fine though. I consider these quibbles but they ought to be brought to somebody's attention anyway.
>>31 Hasn't it always used parody copyright-dodging names for the anime and game references? I remember the anime calling GMs "Jimmys".
How is the print quality? And do we finally get some Oguie in this volume?
>>32
Print quality's about the same as last time. No Oguie. This book ends at the Genshiken Fire. The anime uses fake names but the manga uses the "Gundam" name often. Here are the straight romanizations they did:
"Jimu" for GM
"Gufu" for Gouf
"Raru" for Ral
And the weirdest:
"Bouru" for Ball
They got Hamon right though!
Finally got my hands on and finished Vol 3. Ohno's perverted eye gleam is so awesome. I like how Madarame is starting to show more flashes of leadership as club president and Kitagawa proving she's more than a petty bureaucrat.
Like >>31 said, it's obvious the translator doesn't have(and isn't trying to get) a clue about otaku culture which is a shame considering its integral nature to the setting and characters, as well as the massive amount of references and in-jokes. The use of fanzine irks me even more now because they used the word doujin anyways to describe the fan made games.
And I still don't know who anyone is besides Pit Viper and Yoko. orz
Somebody told me that they had to change the names Gouf and Gm and stuff for copyright protection. Anybody know if that's right?
I thought Vol.3 was the best so far. Can't remember the last time I laughed out loud so much at a manga (or any book).
ive seen the entire series, and read the manga, i have to say, i actually thought the translation was fairly well done
Vol.7 is out and it's pretty good <3 <3 <3
Volume 7 is quite good.
This, of course, is coming from a complete Ogiue fanboy.
With Volume 4 out (or about to be out), what are people's impressions of the flame-headed one?
