Love Hina bilingual v TP versions

[Njr Scrawl]

I've seen some bilingal Japanese Love Hina volumes for sale online.

How do they compare for translation with the Tokyopop ones?

Are there any other series which have had a bilingual release in Japan?

[Andrew Cunningham]

The bilingual translations are universally extremely stilted and prone to obscure Australian slang for reasons nobody has been able to explain.
Avoid at all costs, even if you are Japanese trying to study English. It's also probably cheapter to buy both the Japanese and the English editions...

[Natsume_Maya]

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Njr Scrawl said:
Are there any other series which have had a bilingual release in Japan?

[/ QUOTE ]

There are quite a number, mainly released by Kodansha. However, I don't know if Kodansha finished all the series in bilingual versions. For example, GTO was stopped after only a few volumes IIRC:
- Zipang
- Ah! My Goddess
- Card Captor Sakura
- GTO
- Ghost in the Shell (uncensored)
- Peach Girl
- Devil Man
- Chobits
- Tale of Genji
- Bakabon
- Division Chief Kosaku Shima (salaryman manga)
- GeGeGe no Kitaro
- New Kindaichi Files
- etc

IIRC, a bilingual version of Fruits Basket was also released by Hakusensha.

Heart Sugar Town by Ohse Kohime is quite unusual IMO in that it was published in English when originally serialised in Japan. (Each chapter is about 4 pages long and there isn't much dialogue.) The tankoubon then added a Japanese translation at the end of each chapter. The English is a weird mix - sometimes appropriate use of colloquial speech, sometimes twisted use of idioms (eg IIRC something like "Curiosity eats cats") /images/graemlins/happy.gif

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Andrew Cunningham said:
The bilingual translations are universally extremely stilted and prone to obscure Australian slang for reasons nobody has been able to explain.

[/ QUOTE ]

Sounds great /images/graemlins/happy.gif I've always hoped to see an anime with Australian English dubbed soundtrack or a manga with Australian English. Then perhaps people will have a better appreciation of why I find North American accents on dubbed anime kind of disconcerting /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

[Tora-chan]

I got some Kodansha billingual manga of Sazae-san and another called Survival in the Office - The Evolution of Japanese Working Women.

I only really got them as they're the only English language versions that I'm aware of. I personally wouldn't bother with a series that has been properly released.

I believe there is a bilingual version of at least part of Kare Kano as well.

[Mr. Nail Bat]

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Natsume Maya said:
Sounds great /images/graemlins/happy.gif I've always hoped to see an anime with Australian English dubbed soundtrack or a manga with Australian English. Then perhaps people will have a better appreciation of why I find North American accents on dubbed anime kind of disconcerting /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

Then you need to see the (sadly unfinished) dub of Strange Dawn. Australian, English, Scottish, Irish, and South African accents galore, as well as other English accents I can't identify.

But getting back to the topic, I loved the Kodansha English version of Love Hina. There's just something hilarious about Keitaro's reaction to getting a close-up view of Naru's panties being: "Oh, I say!"

[Buster Darkwings]

There are also quite a bit of translation mistakes in the bilingual Love Hina. Plus lots of times when the translator couldn't tell which character was talking and attributed the speech bubble to the wrong character. Akamatsu-sensei does make it difficult sometimes, but an experienced manga translator or a native speaker wouldn't have made these mistakes.

[Andrew Cunningham]

The only thing I really remember was Suu giggling, "He showed me his willy."

[adam_omega]

The biggest problem with the bilingual versions is that they stopped before they got to volume 8. On top of that, you also have to pay more money for fewer pages than the original tankouban.

Is the TOKYOPOP version perfect? No.

Is TOKYOPOP's version easier to read than the Bilinguals? Yes.

Were the scanlations of Love Hina better? No really.

Was Bandai's release of the anime better than the fansubs? Debatable.


For the collectors, I recommend trying to track down the two English novels that Kodansha put out that comprise the contents of the first Love Hina novel "Mixed Bathing Not Allowed." The volumes are titled "Mystery Guests at Hinata Hotel" and "Secrets of Hinata Lodge." (Yes, the same translator called the dorm different names in different releases!)


As for the TOKYOPOP release, I did comment on that recently in this thread. (http://forums.animeondvd.com/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Number=1128364&page=0&view=c ollapsed&sb=5&o=&vc=1)

[michaelwb]

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adamomega said:
For the collectors, I recommend trying to track down the two English novels that Kodansha put out that comprise the contents of the first Love Hina novel "Mixed Bathing Not Allowed." The volumes are titled "Mystery Guests at Hinata Hotel" and "Secrets of Hinata Lodge." (Yes, the same translator called the dorm different names in different releases!)

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Yup, good suggestion. I've got them myself. It's been a while since I read them but I recall there were several translation differences that stand out reading them back to back.

Still they were a fun, silly read...

[Natsume_Maya]

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adamomega said:
For the collectors, I recommend trying to track down the two English novels that Kodansha put out that comprise the contents of the first Love Hina novel "Mixed Bathing Not Allowed."

[/ QUOTE ]

Personally, I found the novels creepy /images/graemlins/sweat000.gif
Manga and its cartoony character designs emphasise the silly/slapstick nature of the harem story, but with a novel suggesting using text rather than cartoon pics to suggest that Keitaro is aroused by a young girl like Kaolla Su, I found it too creepy...

A friend gave me a volume as a gift a year or two back, but once I hit that reference to Su (in the first few pages), I put down the book and haven't picked it up again... /images/graemlins/sweat000.gif

[Njr Scrawl]

Reading that kind of thing is not for me, or seeing it really.

Father Ralph & Maggie in "The Thorn Birds" was far enough /images/graemlins/shy00000.gif

[Shiroi Hane]

AFAIK there were only two volumes of the bilingual Chobits, and if nothing else the print aned paper quality is better than the tokyopop version.
I have all 6 Cardcaptor Sakura bilinguals (again AFAIK the 2nd half od the series was never done) although I only have volume one of the TP version to compare, and that's the old flipped and pocket-sized version.

[fantasydewdrop]

I've got one bilingual GTO and three bilingual A!MG. Sad to hear that GTO isn't complete.... I guess I'll just switch over to the Tokyopop version of that.... Argh, but the height difference! /images/graemlins/anger100.gif I'll have to either find the rest of the bilinguals or buy vol 1 again so I don't have just ONE different volume.
How far did they get on A!MG and where can I find more?

[Celsius]

The bilingual version's quality is much much higher than that of Tokyopops. Tokyopop's printing of the book is kind of low quality, and therefore, it makes it hard to see a lot of the shading. For instance, in the bilingual version, you can clearly see how detailed naru's panties is but in the TP version, it looks mostly just black. I don't have a scanner, but if I ever get the chance, I'll scan the pics at my friends house for comparison purposes.

[BrianF]

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Andrew Cunningham said:
The bilingual translations are universally extremely stilted and prone to obscure Australian slang for reasons nobody has been able to explain.
Avoid at all costs, even if you are Japanese trying to study English. It's also probably cheapter to buy both the Japanese and the English editions...

[/ QUOTE ]

Not quite "universally" - the GitS bilingual uses Frederick Schodt's original translation so it should read quite close to the Dark Horse version.

And I'll agree with Natsume Maya - the presence of Australian slang just makes these sound more attractive, not less. It could be quite entertaining to see Keichi dropping the occasional "Strewth" or "K'nell".

[Libertus]

I have quite a few volumes of bilingual manga, and although I'll agree that the text seems stilted I can't say I've noticed the use of Australian slang (and yes, I'm Australian).

If it's there, maybe an Australian translated it...

robert