Two weeks in a row, our translators have been busy, and it’s time to look for new ones for CLANNAD TV. If you are interested in helping fansub episodes (have to be available every Thursday approximately one hour after airtime), please leave a comment! 
You no 1337, you no touch.
This article on July 12, 2007 caught my eye:
During E3, we got the opportunity to sit down with Square Enix’s Koichiro Sakamoto, who just recently served as the producer on the company’s Front Mission DS, due for release in the US this October 23rd… we told Mr. Sakamoto that a fan translation had been done some years ago for Front Mission 1, and asked how he felt about such efforts. The producer replied that he actually found them very encouraging — it’s something the developers should be doing, but because they’re not, the fans are doing it instead. He stated that he’d like to be able to give something back to the fans, and would like to thank personally each of the fans that worked on the translation.
So before any of you people quote anything from the Berne Convention about copyright infringment… think of what the developers feel first. They want us to encourage their work!
Of course, if the big boys license it and want to get to work on it, let them. That’s their job, anyway.
As for how We Suck handles titles and Japanese honorifics - the No. 1 guideline that we follow is: location, location, location.We believe that an anime is in Japanese because:
- It is set in Japan and is about Japanese people, or set outside Japan but with the setting dominated by Japanese people. Alternatively, the story takes place in a fantasy alternate-universe where the environment or people is supposed to resemble Japan.
- It is set in a non-Japanese country and it is predominated by non-Japanese people. Alternatively, it is set in a fantasy setting which is an explicit simulation of a country outside Japan, and features characters that are explicitly not Japanese. (However, it is in Japanese because that is the language spoken by its viewers.)
- It is set in a 100% fantasy setting, where it’s not explicitly obvious what real-life country is being simulated.
In Case A, it would make sense to leave in the honorifics, as well as keep certain terms and cultural references untranslated (but explained via translation note). On the other hand, in Case B, the sensible thing to do would be to translate the honorifics and translate any terms originally left in Japanese - because the anime is supposed to simulate non-Japanese culture (as opposed to Japanese culture) to begin with. To hear things like “Integral-sama” in Hellsing or “Emily-chan” in Emily of New Moon would be rather jarring, to say the least. As for Case C, we evaluate on a case-by-case basis.
The majority of the projects that we’ve worked on fall under Case A. (This includes Rocket Girls, because while the anime itself takes place in a space base in Solomon Islands, said space base is occupied by Japanese people.) The only two projects we’ve done which fall under Case B is Survive (for which I wasn’t part of the group) and Saiunkoku. In the case of Saiunkoku, while we’ve taken some flak for translating all titles and honorifics in the series, we believe that it’s the right path to follow because Saiunkoku is supposed to be set in a fantasy world in the style of ancient China - if it was set in a fantasy world in the style of Japan circa the Heian-kyo era, our decision on titles and honorifics would be much different.
As for the original topic: ○○-tachi can easily be rendered as any of:
- ○○-and the others
- ○○-and company
- ○○-et al.
- ○○-and his/her friends, or even
- ○○-and (insert names of whichever other specific people are being referred to).
But I suppose there could be worse examples… it could have been “Everything is according to keikaku” for 計画通り, with a translation note explaining what keikaku means. (For the record, keikaku (計画) is Japanese for “plan”).
Indeed. Though I don’t know about where keikaku comes from, I do know of certain groups that just purely follow Case C no matter what (changing common Japanese names to Mary and Joe, for one). And certain groups that leave -tachi and yatsu alone.
You do the math.
Which means if I can’t get a translator by the time it starts airing, I won’t be able to fansub the series.
Anyone out there who can manage? Only needs to be a purely translated script; no timing, typesetting or any of that needed whatsoever. Preferably, be able to translate the script sometime within the 24 hours of the episode airing. Everything else will be handled. Thanks to anyone who can answer the rollcall!
I’ve had discussion on this topic off and on, and thought I might want to discuss it a little bit.
(more…)
Rant follows.
This came at the end of Kanon episode 24 while I was fansubbing. :O
A bit of a rant, read more if you dare.
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