How do you feel about the Viz translation?

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Re: How do you feel about the Viz translation?

Post by GreatSaiyaJeff » Sun Sep 17, 2017 10:14 am

rereboy wrote:
GreatSaiyaJeff wrote:Over all I like Viz's translation, however the only thing that bugs me is they refer to Buu as Djinn instead of Majin.
That's a perfectly legitimate choice. From Herm's Demon guide:

- "While it can be used for lots of different mythological and fictional magical beings, the term majin is very often used in Japanese for genie/djin. It’s generally used in translations of the story of Aladdin, and in fact the Disney character Genie is called “Majin Genie” in Japanese. This is why Viz translated it as “djinn”".

- "In the original series Buu is the only one associated with Babidi who is called a majin, but fans have long referred to those Babidi controls with his magic as majin as well"
Man now all I can think of now is Buu singing you ain't ever had a friend like me to Mr. Satan.
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Re: How do you feel about the Viz translation?

Post by SHINOBI-03 » Sun Sep 17, 2017 12:40 pm

I wish Dragon Ball was done by today's Viz translation quality, translating it without any censorship or influences from FUNimation's dub. The current one we have wasn't bad, but not good either. Weird speech patterns, inconsistent name changing, and other weird liberties taken with the script stops it from being perfect.
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Re: How do you feel about the Viz translation?

Post by KBABZ » Sun Sep 17, 2017 5:48 pm

With the now large amount of variations in Dragon Ball internationally now (Japanese, Viz, FUNimation, etc), I always thought it'd be cool if a digital version allowed you to pick your preferences first and it'd adjust the names. Are you masochistic and want Hercule? Do you prefer Tenshinhan and Kaio over Tien and King Kai? Pick what you want? Do you want Piccolo speaking like King George III?

...yes I know it's impractical, but it's a fun idea regardless, right?

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Re: How do you feel about the Viz translation?

Post by Cipher » Tue Sep 19, 2017 10:38 am

I personally won't stand for Herms spreading the lie that Superman's "S" is "some Kryptonian symbol," because for decades and decades it was just a fucking "S" for "Superman."

Which is to say, yes, Djinn Boo's random "M" iconography bothers me too, and I think is reason enough to keep the Japanese title intact. Especially with plenty of other Japanese terminology continuing to go around. (Viz happily leaves Muten Roshi and Kame-Sennin untranslated most of the time.)

It's a legitimate decision, and consistent with the series' choices elsewhere to translate name-titles like "(The) Lord of Worlds," but it's not one I love.

I'm actually not sure we've ever gotten an official English translation that's entirely self-consistent on when name-titles get translated and when they're left alone, by the way, which is also weird to think about. Even Kanzenshuu's style guide kind of has it both ways, though every individual case makes total sense. I'm also not sure that would be a great approach for a translation; just pointing it out.

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Re: How do you feel about the Viz translation?

Post by rereboy » Tue Sep 19, 2017 3:23 pm

Cipher wrote:I personally won't stand for Herms spreading the lie that Superman's "S" is "some Kryptonian symbol," because for decades and decades it was just a fucking "S" for "Superman."
Excuse me...? Lie...? It's the simple truth, that's the official explanation for his symbol in recent times and for Herms' point, which was to demonstrate how an alien symbol can resemble an human letter, that not being the case at some previous point in time is completely irrelevant.
Cipher wrote:
Which is to say, yes, Djinn Boo's random "M" iconography bothers me too, and I think is reason enough to keep the Japanese title intact. Especially with plenty of other Japanese terminology continuing to go around. (Viz happily leaves Muten Roshi and Kame-Sennin untranslated most of the time.)
That's your preference. Viz's decision doesn't depend solely on our preference to be a legitimate choice, but rather on logical and understandable actions. Using Djin is both logical and understandable, even if it might not be our preference.

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Re: How do you feel about the Viz translation?

Post by Cipher » Wed Sep 20, 2017 5:43 am

I would just like to clarify that I firmly believe Herms is on a campaign of misinformation regarding fictional characters and I do believe my personal, often malleable, preferences should serve as a global standard for translation practices.

These are things I genuinely believe. This isn't a joke.

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Re: How do you feel about the Viz translation?

Post by LowRyder2005 » Wed Sep 20, 2017 6:06 am

Cipher wrote:I would just like to clarify that I firmly believe Herms is on a campaign of misinformation regarding fictional characters

These are things I genuinely believe. This isn't a joke.
... Uhm, may one ask why? :|
and I do believe my personal, often malleable, preferences should serve as a global standard for translation practices.
I'm also not sure I understand correctly any of this. Your malleable and personal preferences should serve as standards? Maybe there's a typo somewhere...? "His personal preferences shouldn't serve as standards"? Or is it sarcasm?
Last edited by LowRyder2005 on Wed Sep 20, 2017 6:09 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: How do you feel about the Viz translation?

Post by Cipher » Wed Sep 20, 2017 6:08 am

Kanzenshuu's ability to take a joke dies more often than Kuririn.

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Re: How do you feel about the Viz translation?

Post by LowRyder2005 » Wed Sep 20, 2017 6:14 am

Cipher wrote:Kanzenshuu's ability to take a joke dies more often than Kuririn.
Possibly, but you had started it with a semi-serious claim about Herms supposedly perpetrating lies. The second period would have made pretty much sense compared to your previous posts if you were referring to Herms and simply wrote it abysmally. If we're gong for subtleness, why not put a nice "LOLOLOLOLOL" at the end, next time? :)

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Re: How do you feel about the Viz translation?

Post by rereboy » Wed Sep 20, 2017 6:56 am

Cipher wrote:Kanzenshuu's ability to take a joke dies more often than Kuririn.
Perhaps if the joke was actually funny and didn't come across as an accusation regarding a reputable member of the forum...

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Re: How do you feel about the Viz translation?

Post by Cipher » Wed Sep 20, 2017 7:25 am

I have nothing but the greatest respect for Herms, who is too good for this fanbase but continues to provide for it out of the goodness of his heart, and would never seriously call him, or anyone else, out for misrepresenting the history of a silly comic-book character (especially when they're not even wrong).

I thought the hyperbole of that first post would be enough to get that across, and I'm kind of blown away that read enough like believable internet rhetoric to be misinterpreted.

I also thought about amending the post above to include, "But I wasn't actually being very funny," but I thought that was clear enough too.

Anyway, Viz.

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Re: How do you feel about the Viz translation?

Post by dbgtFO » Thu Sep 21, 2017 2:43 am

Cipher wrote: I thought the hyperbole of that first post would be enough to get that across, and I'm kind of blown away that read enough like believable internet rhetoric to be misinterpreted.
I too am baffled. Baffled that those two otherwise frequent posters on this board didn't get the sarcasm dripping out of your post. Guess you've been absent for too long? And maybe the change in avatar also caused confusion.
Anyway, Viz.
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Re: How do you feel about the Viz translation?

Post by KorgDTR2000 » Thu Sep 21, 2017 10:41 am

The only issues I have with it are minor, and they're the ones everyone brings up: Piccolo's inconsistent speech pattern, Hercule, Vegerot, Djinn, censorship, etc.

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Re: How do you feel about the Viz translation?

Post by rereboy » Thu Sep 21, 2017 11:04 am

dbgtFO wrote: I too am baffled. Baffled that those two otherwise frequent posters on this board didn't get the sarcasm dripping out of your post. Guess you've been absent for too long? And maybe the change in avatar also caused confusion.
The post was too straight. It comes off as serious. At least to me.

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Re: How do you feel about the Viz translation?

Post by Soppa Saia People » Fri Sep 22, 2017 9:24 am

It's great for the most part, but it's got some dumb translations, and it can be inconsient, espically in the Boo arc.
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Re: How do you feel about the Viz translation?

Post by Robo4900 » Fri Sep 22, 2017 4:17 pm

Soppa Saia People wrote:It's great for the most part, but it's got some dumb translations, and it can be inconsient, espically in the Boo arc.
It's not dumb translations, its poor adaptation choices, and inconistent censorship.

The underlying translation is good, but the presentation(Names, censorship, etc.) is off.
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Re: How do you feel about the Viz translation?

Post by Soppa Saia People » Fri Sep 22, 2017 5:34 pm

Robo4900 wrote:
Soppa Saia People wrote:It's great for the most part, but it's got some dumb translations, and it can be inconsient, espically in the Boo arc.
It's not dumb translations, its poor adaptation choices, and inconistent censorship.

The underlying translation is good, but the presentation(Names, censorship, etc.) is off.
Yeah, that's pretty much what I meant, just didn't know how to phrase it. Thanks.
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Re: How do you feel about the Viz translation?

Post by RandomGuy96 » Sat Sep 30, 2017 12:29 am

GreatSaiyaJeff wrote:Over all I like Viz's translation, however the only thing that bugs me is they refer to Buu as Djinn instead of Majin.
Buu is a Djinn though. He wears stylistically Arab clothing, is found sealed in a container, is extremely long-lived, has unique magic abilities such as transmutation and shapeshifting (common Djinn powers), is a physical being that acts on and can be acted on in a tactile manner despite his spiritual nature, and is first seen materializing from smoke. "Majin" is even used in Japanese translations of English works with genies in them, like Alaadin, and "genie" is just an anglicized version of "djinn."
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He's probably referring to the Bardock special. Zarbon was the one who first recommended destroying Planet Vegeta because the saiyans were rapidly growing in strength.
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Herms wrote:The fact that the ridiculous power inflation is presented so earnestly makes me just roll my eyes and snicker. Like with Freeza, where he starts off over 10 times stronger than all his henchmen except Ginyu (because...well, just because), then we find out he can transform and get even more powerful, and then he reveals he can transform two more times, before finally coming out with the fact that he hasn't even been using anywhere near 50% of his power. Oh, and he can survive in the vacuum of space. All this stuff is just presented as the way Freeza is, without even an attempt at rationalizing it, yet the tone dictates we're supposed to take all this silly grasping at straws as thrilling danger. So I guess I don't really take the power inflation in the Boo arc seriously, but I don't take the power inflation in earlier arcs seriously either, so there's no net loss of seriousness. I think a silly story presented as serious is harder to accept than a silly story presented as silly.

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Re: How do you feel about the Viz translation?

Post by GreatSaiyaJeff » Sat Sep 30, 2017 1:34 pm

RandomGuy96 wrote:
GreatSaiyaJeff wrote:Over all I like Viz's translation, however the only thing that bugs me is they refer to Buu as Djinn instead of Majin.
Buu is a Djinn though. He wears stylistically Arab clothing, is found sealed in a container, is extremely long-lived, has unique magic abilities such as transmutation and shapeshifting (common Djinn powers), is a physical being that acts on and can be acted on in a tactile manner despite his spiritual nature, and is first seen materializing from smoke. "Majin" is even used in Japanese translations of English works with genies in them, like Alaadin, and "genie" is just an anglicized version of "djinn."
Fair enough, but I am just so used to Majin. Although the M could stand for Ma for demon.
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Re: How do you feel about the Viz translation?

Post by rereboy » Sat Sep 30, 2017 1:46 pm

GreatSaiyaJeff wrote:
Fair enough, but I am just so used to Majin. Although the M could stand for Ma for demon.
The M can stand for Ma, for anything else, or for nothing at all (alien symbol). It's never actually linked to Majin.

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