Forum:Official English Manga Translations

Hello, One Piece fans! I'm going to go straight out and say that the manga is the most important and most reliable source for One Piece canon. Right? So what I wonder is why we've neglected the official translations of the manga done by Viz and Shonen jump in favour of other translations found in the anime and video games. I'm not talking about general romanization though, (Rufi vs. Luffy,) I'm referring to things like this: Seeing as this wikia is mainly aimed at English-speaking audiences, (presumably,) why don't we use the official English terms used in the manga? I personally think that Shonen Jump's translations should be given more credit from this fandom. They are the ones who brought One Piece to us, after all. What do you think? Rebecca-47 (talk) 23:14, January 13, 2015 (UTC)
 * Zolo vs. Zoro
 * Warlords of the Sea vs. Shichibukai
 * Jimbei vs. Jinbe
 * Thousand Sunny vs. Sunny-Go
 * Chop Chop fruit vs. Bara Bara no mi

Discussion
Strictly speaking, the original manga is the most important source, yes. That doesn't automatically make official, localised translations equally as important. We tend to follow the rule of 'importance' thusly:

Original Manga <- SBS <- Databooks <- Anime <- Scanlators (depending on the reliability of the scanlator) <- English Dubs (Such as Viz and FUNimation)

If a word means one thing, and can only mean that thing, in Japanese, we aren't going to change it just because a publishing company translated it to a more localised version for that particular language - for example, Sea Kings is not the same thing as Neptunians, which is why we don't use that translation. You might remember that 4kids were an 'official' dub, but that doesn't make it reliable, trustworthy, or anything else complimentary. Hopefully this helps.

23:15, January 13, 2015 (UTC)

Viz may have the official translation, but because of their demographic and policies, they tend to translate things differently. This doesn't necessarily make them "wrong", but it doesn't mean they're "right" either. One thing we almost always have priority for is romanization; there are some things in the original Japanese manga that are spelled in English rather than Japanese letters, such as "Zoro" and "Jinbe". That's why we spell their names like that. Other translations such as the Warlords vs. Shichibukai are more debatable, as it's not a direct translation. Even though I support changing Shichibukai to Warlords, "Warlords" isn't really literal enough to translate, so that's why we keep it like that. Basically, we take direct translations over localized translations, although localized translations will take precedence whenever possible. 00:07, January 14, 2015 (UTC)

Basically what these two guys said. Just because a translation is "official" it doesn't make it more correct, and our main goal is to dispense correct information over "official" information. What the other guys left out is that for most translation issues that pop, we usually have some editors who can give us much clearer, accurate translations if we need them. 02:36, January 14, 2015 (UTC)

Regarding the first comment, I dont see why you put scanlations above official translations. Shonen Jump is a more reliable translator than any scanlation I've seen, and their target demographic isn't different from the original. Also, 4Kids wasn't hiding the fact that their translation was completely abridged, so we shouldn't count them in this comparison. Sure, Viz makes them "localized", but that's honestly a good thing. Otherwise we'd have Torafaruga Ro instead of Trafalgar Law, n'est-ce pas? And we wouldn't be able to understand things (like the warlords) on the same level that a Japanese reader would if it was left untranslated. Additionally, isn't it more important for your readers to find the terminology and names that they're familiar with, instead of the ones that (aren't present in any work but) are the most direct translations? Also, by using official names, we wouldn't be endorsing scanlations, which is good. Rebecca-47 (talk) 03:26, January 14, 2015 (UTC)


 * It should probably be noted that we don't use "scanlation" names. Anytime we use names, we use the ones spelled in English by an official source; Oda, Toei, or even Viz/FUNimation. So we don't go for scanlators or fansubbers there. In the Japanese manga, Zoro's name is spelled "ZORO", which is why we don't use "Zolo". We don't endorse scanlations; we just use what's the most direct translation. 04:27, January 14, 2015 (UTC)

Then you should read more scanlations and avoid sites like mangapanda. Scanlations tend to translate more literally.I don't know why you also say "we" when this is your first edit. People already said what needed to be said. Plus most names are done by an actual Japanese person, User:Klobis. Pretty sure Oda himself also romanized Trafalgar Law in a databook or a chapter anyway. Besides Viz is flat out wrong when they still use names like Zolo and would just be moronic to use them because of that. Also Funimation used Bon Clay and Oda actually romanized it as Bon Kurei in a chapter. By your logic Viz and Funimation are more accurate than the original author. More people also read/watch manga/anime through scanlations/fansubs so they would know those names more than what Viz uses. We also don't use Viz/Funimation titles for chapters and episodes. SeaTerror (talk) 04:48, January 14, 2015 (UTC)

Honestly, these rules were written in a different time when the quality of scanlations was better than the (possibly non-existent in the case of the anime) "official" versions. Right now, that's probably shifted, as Mangastream/Mangapanda actually kinda suck. So maybe Scans>Official translations should be re-evaluated...

Except for one thing: In the end for us, it doesn't really matter which we prefer, as we prefer in-house translations of the raws for any controversial material. One over the other doesn't really matter since there will never be a dispute that can't be settled by going over BOTH of their heads.

And also, localization is ok for the casual reader, but actually sucks for an encyclopedia, which is what this site ultimately is intended to be. If someone makes some kind of pun in Japanese (Zoro vs. Kaku anyone?), we need explain how that pun works in Japanese, not do what some random translator though kind of got a joke across.

So like, I'm sorry, but this forum probably isn't going to go anywhere. Most every editor here shares the same opinion on official translations, since we all either created those rules, or joined after they were made and accepted them. We also have a rule about closing discussions when there's a clear majority, so watch out for that, and don't get prepared to argue endlessly, as we don't like that kind of behavior around here. It's a new forum, so we can definitely discuss things for a week or so, but I just don't want you to be surprised about how this will probably end. I hate to be so negative in response to a new user's first post, but this is just kinda the truth here. 04:51, January 14, 2015 (UTC)