Portuguese Dragon Ball Tankoubon Edition *On Going* - Review

[Rukura]

Because it's the closest aproximation they have for the sound they want to make. IN JAPAN, they write it as Vegeta when using our alphabet (which, to make sure, ends up as "Vegeta")

Well, 'Vegeta' isn't the closest, 'Vejita' is.

Here's where I remind you that the japanese alphabet doesn't have a "V".

[Pokewhiz7]

In Japanese, it's spelled ベジータ, and a direct romanization would be Bejiita. There's many of ways to write this, such as Bejita, Bejiita, Vegeta, Vejita, Vegita, etc. Most people generally agree Vegeta is the best because it brings out the pun the best. Though I don't see how Bejita doesn't sound wierd.

[Rukura]

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/40 ... 12109.jpg/
From one of the japanese Dragon Ball Kai gashapon lines. What did those crazy folks write under that guy with a scouter there?

Anyway. Aside from the Vegeta thing (how is this even an issue in 2012?), where were we on the actual discussion on the volume?

[dbboxkaifan]

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/40 ... 12109.jpg/
From one of the japanese Dragon Ball Kai gashapon lines. What did those crazy folks write under that guy with a scouter there?

Anyway. Aside from the Vegeta thing (how is this even an issue in 2012?), where were we on the actual discussion on the volume?

Their names in Japanese products are some as in the West, Son Gokou, Klilyn, Vegeta, a mix of both.

[Red Tiger]

Saiyanjin
Supersaiyanjin
Supersaiyano

Did they really wrote them altogether as you've just did? O.O

'Saiyano' sounds Brazilian-ish to me and the Brazilians didn't even come up with an alternative term, instead they kept with the original, Saiyajin.

Yes, they really wrote as i did above. You're right "Saiyano" really sounds brazilian-ish, maybe Planeta DeAgostini's translation was made by a brazilian person, in one of the early volumes i saw the term 'droga', as you know it's a typical brazilian word.

You're talking about the original release here in Portugal, right? Because they're the ones that released the kanzenban in Spain lol.

Yes, i was talking about the original portuguese release.

[jrdemr]

Guys, I really hate to burst your bubble, but I've been doing a bit of checking, and despite what has been said, these new editions are not translated directly from the japanese ones.

We all knew from the beginning that Asa's edition was translated from the english version, but I figured "what the hell, it's still better than the one from Planeta DeAgostini, it has a better print and better paper quality". And that was it.

But when Rukura posted the email he got from an Asa representative (back in February 23rd 2011), saying that they follow the original japanese editions, that really got me thinking. So, seeing as I have a master's in translation and I'm actually trained to check for linguistic "residue" in translations, I decided to make a quick stop at my local comic book store (local meaning about 30 km from my house ) to check the Viz manga and compare it with our own version.

And then it was really obvious: Asa's edition is definitely an indirect translation that uses Viz's english version as a source. The dialogue is pretty much the same, almost word for word, except in situations where it's just impossible to stick to the english.

For example: in the beginning of volume 8, when General Blue comes back to the Red Ribbon HQ, one of the guards says:

"Pisga-te, antes que te transformemos em comida para cão!!" - ("Beat it, before we turn you into dog food!")

Don't know if this is the actual quote as I don't have the viz editions with me right now, but this is a clear influence from the english language and exactly the type of thing Viz likes to write (not to mention the japanese version would never say something as "american" as this).

Another example is the abundance of the passive voice, which is very frequent in english but much rarer in portuguese.

Furthermore, if you look closely to the email:

"A Viz Media surge mencionada nas nossas edições não porque estejamos a seguir as suas edições mas sim porque foi através da Viz Media que adquirimos os direitos desta série para Portugal. As edições que estamos a seguir facto as edições originais Japonesas, publicadas pela Shueisha." ("Viz Media is mentioned in our editions not because we're following their own, but because we acquired the legal rights to publish this series in Portugal through Viz Media. The editions we're following [there's a verb missing here to make this a coherent sentence] indeed the original japanese editions, published by Shueisha")

If you look closely, they never actually said that they're translating directly from the japanese version, they just said they're following the japanese edition (well, they never even actually said they are, the sentence is missing the verb - could even be intentional, in case someone confronts them...) - by which I assume they mean the cover art, the chapters in each tankoubon (volumes 16 and 17 have the same chapters as the japanese version), the lack of censorship and keeping the whole series as "Dragon Ball" up until the end (and not dividing it into Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z as Viz did). Either that or their translator is just a big fat lazy liar and just started translating the books using the Viz edition as a source instead of the japanese one unlike what he was told to do (which I seriously doubt ).

Oh well. Let's just hope Viz left them some kind of notes telling them what are the original names for characters that were renamed in the english version so we don't end up with Hercule and Djinn Buu in our version too.


On another note, shouldn't volume 18 be out by now? 17 came out more than 2 months ago... I called Asa's customer service and they told me categorically that they had no plans to cancel the series, but the person that took my call also checked their database and volume 18 still had no ETA... if they intended to publish it by July, it would be available for pre-order in Leyaonline by now, so... what's going on?...

[rereboy]

You didn't look closely enough. Like I stated in the first pages of this topic, some lines are clearly inspired on the Viz translation while other are clearly from the original.

One clear example is when, in Volume 1, the old lady that had a Dragon Ball on the village that Oolong was attacking, is given her proper and original name in the ASA-portuguese version. Viz never gives her any name. Therefore, in this case, ASA and the portuguese edition are much closer to the original than Viz and actually include something that was on the original but not on Viz's edition.

There are several other cases like this.

But, there are also several other cases where its clear that they followed Viz instead of the original, because they used something that Viz used and that wasn't exactly in the original.

My theory is that Viz gave ASA the original lines and their translation, or gave ASA the translation they used in the actual volumes and a more literal translation of the original that they keep for reference and other purposes, but there really is no way to know.

Overall, the Portuguese edition's translation quality is equivalent or better than Viz's.

As for new volumes, I believe that they are deciding whether to release new volumes or not. Its somewhere on limbo right now. Its possible that they decide to cancel it. We just have to hope they don't.

[jrdemr]

True. I've been wanting to post this for so long, I forgot some of the previous posts
But ever since Rukura's post, it seemed like people also forgot your in-depth analysis, so it serves as a reminder

Your "alternative translation" theory is probably correct, and that gives us hope that there won't be any Hercule nor Djinn Buu in the future (that is, if they do decide to keep up the release )

But it's still mostly Viz. Fortunately, it's not 100% Viz, so we're still coming up on top

[rereboy]

Welcome to the forums

[jrdemr]

Thanks, been looking forward to it

[Rukura]

Sadly, it's as jrdemr says (welcome, by the way)

I think volume 17 really clinched it as far as what they're going from.

By the looks of it, it seems like they're not even going to volume 18. Looks like I'm gonna get the japanese tankobons.

[jrdemr]

I really, really hope they're just late or preparing or something, because this is really the best version we're ever going to get in a language that is confortable to read (some lucky people get the french version, but it's just not the same for me, not only am I not that fluent in french, it just seems "weird").

Oh well, I'll give them a year. Not like I don't have a gigantic backlog of comics and manga to read ever since I got a job.

And thanks, Rukura I'd also really like to get the japanese version (it's rather have the kanzenban version, though, it's in color and has the extended ending), especially since I started studying japanese, but it's just so God damn expensive to order them. Amazon.co.jp has an unbelievable 300 yen handling fee per item (yeah, we pay for the stuff and we pay even more for ordering stuff!), the shipping costs are just downright theft and the customs here will just make you cough up pretty much the same amount of money you spent just buying the stuff - which means spending somewhere between 500 and 1000€, most of which won't even be spent on the books themselves, so... I think I'll just wait untill I visit Japan. No shipping, no handling and no customs (I hope - God, I hate those guys...).

[Rukura]

They've continued to release other comic-based stuff on a regular basis, which makes it look like they really have dropped it like Yu-Gi-Oh and Astro Boy. (At least Dragon Ball lasted longer)

Yeah, bringing those over will be a bitch for sure. When you go there, try to find a Book Off store. When I was there, they had all the tankobons for 250 yen each (roughly 2,50€). My dumb self only got the last 3 volumes lol (and later the final kanzenban). And yeah, no extra costs bringing those with you.

[rereboy]

I see no point in having the Japanese volumes since I can't read Japanese. I rather have the Viz volumes. The translation/adaption is not perfect but its good.

But for someone who wants them, ebay.co.uk might be a solution.

Also, even in the case of Yu-Gi-Oh, its perfectly possible that ASA gets back to it in the future, just not right now. We just don't have any way of knowing.

[Puto]

It's been mentioned in an interview before (don't remember with who exactly) that back in the day, Viz's scripts were done in two steps: First a translator did a direct translation of the Japanese to English, and then a "rewriter" (their term, not mine) would change the sentences to sound more natural for English. I think that ASA might have gotten the original translation before the rewriting, so to speak.

[jrdemr]

Huh. Pretty interesting piece of information. And it makes total sense. If that's true, at least they were smart enough to ask for the more literal translation.

Still, too bad they didn't do the right thing and just translated directly from japanese. Unfortunately that's how the translating business works here in portugal: "just let the americans have all the hard work, we'll just translate off of them afterwards"

And that's (one of the reasons) why so many anime dubs and subtitles are so crappy here in Portugal: the subtitled versions are just translated off of the english subtitles (or worse, the english dub, as it happened with Kai) and the dub is just translated off of the american dub - with the expected results; or worse - not only is it translated off of the american dub, the footage is the edited footage from the dub as well - with the expected loss of proper openings/endings, censorship, etc.

Sometimes they translate from the french or spanish versions, but the results are pretty much the same - our Dragon Ball dub can attest to that...

Seriously guys, just stop being lazy and stingy and hire a decent translator!

[Rukura]

Seems like Leya is doing 50% off on all manga on their online store up through July 16th.

So, if anyone missed it, now's a good time to grab them at a little over 5 euros, which is the cheapest we've seen for manga over here (recently).

[rereboy]

Actually, its just on some specific volumes: http://www.leyaonline.com/campanhas/fam ... t=1&id=466

[Rukura]

Woops, sorry. The email didn't make any note of it and I didn't bother clicking (figured it would just lead to the manga section).

[alakazam^]

If they start releasing the other volumes, we should demand better quality because those kind of name inconsistencies are a shame to any translation out there. I wonder if it was a real translator that made this...