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About The Translators
Back then, Bruce and I brain-stormed with 4 different native
Japanese...Mika was our
first translator, followed by Mayuka.
Makiko, and the ever present Japanese brat,
Masatomo came later. Masatomo came to work
with us during the latter half of the Marmalade Boy work; and
Makiko, later, sometime during the work on Fushigi Yuugi.
It was good to have
backup translators, like Makiko was for Masatomo, because a line
that one translator wasn't able to catch, another translator
often was. It can be thought of as having a second doctor's opinion.
This saved the work on frequent occasions.
Like...the time that Masatomo
translated something in a way so direct that it was more embarrassing
than anything the most vulgar American would have said. (sweat!)
I asked over and over in different ways, if he wasn't sure that
the line wasn't said in a more symbolic manner. He said "no".
So I called in Makiko to double check the same line.
Karen: "Makiko, Masatomo said the character
said "*&^^%%$$$##", but isn't it possible that they
said that in a less direct way? I know he told me I was wrong
this but I have a 'feeling'. His kansai background tends to color
how he speaks himself...."
Makiko: "He's right that it MEANS that.
What they directly say was symbolic by talking about street cars meeting".
Saved by the lady!
(^_^)
Kansai Hanadan Manga
Reader
Other times Masatomo
would EASILY get something that Makiko couldn't.
Why the problem, when
it's their native language?
From dialog that one
could hear and the other couldn't, it seemed as though the female/male
hearing ranges were involved.
ALSO: A difference
of dialect, determined by what part of Japan that each of them
grew up in, also affect their ability to translate some lines.
BETWEEN MAKIKO, MASATOMO,
AND MYSELF....
Each was important
to translations...
Even I managed to
get some lines that neither of them could. Usually it was just
some badly pronounced English or a case of remembering something
from the past within the series that the others had forgotten.
Mistakes? Oh sure!
I knew that I was
going to do the best that I could to fully understand every line before writing them BUT there's going to likely
be cases where there was a miscommunication that we may not have
realized enough to catch.
Humans are fallible.
I accept that. Once one's done one's best, there isn't anything
that can done beyond that. But believe me I have always tended
to take myself to the limit before I've quit trying. Then have
died when I see the mistakes I missed much later
when I'm less close to the work and not looking cross-eyed at
it anymore.
Bruce
and Karen - His and Her Translation Writing Styles
Bruce did his work
VERY separately from me and visa versa. This is was so that our
own creativity and personalities could flow through our work.
So when it came to translations in the beginning, we took two
totally different routes.
Bruce's work....
His original Marmalade
Boy TV version volumes (1-3) reflected a more normal
approach to translations to dialog where "sans, kuns, chans,
were not used. His translations were done in such a way that
he felt would be instantly understood by English speakers. This
was the tradition then.
By the time that the
digital versions of the series were done, Bruce began using info
screens in his work.
Karen's work.... (volumes
4-19 and the movie)
First it should be
understood that in the very beginning that I had no idea that
anyone would EVER see the work. I wanted to REALLY know what
was going on and felt DRIVEN to know what the characters were
REALLY feeling. That meant understanding a little better what
it felt like to be Japanese!
So the translations
took an oddball turn, leaving all the "sans, kuns, chans,
etc" intact; and it was written to blend the cultures in
a way NEVER attempted in any anime TV series prior to that time.
The dialog I tried to get as close to the meaning of the Japanese
and yet tried to pick the English wording that would most closely
create the exactly connotations and emotions. The Japanese culture
and jokes were left intact untainted and explained with my sense
of humor...often at Masatomo's expense.
Most of the work I've
done has broken old traditions. It has never been for ego, because
if it HAD been, the thought would have been "Wow this'll
impress 'em." But actually, the unusualness occurred because
of inspiration and feelings. Everything that's been done, was
done IN SPITE OF feeling that people would probably HATE my unusual
work. It was with true amazement at the POSITIVE responses when
they came.
Even when controversy
did come, I had expected it and was not hurt or intimated. It
WAS normal. I didn't feel I had let those people down because
I knew that one day someone would do the work in a way more comfortable
for them. Which is great...so long as those people do
their work from their own hearts as I had.
Other
Details
The translators were
never a part of Tomodachi. That was just Bruce and I. The translators came about 2 hrs.
a week, sometimes more in emergencies. I would spend a couple
of hours doing pre-translations on the simple phrases before
they came (this saved an hour or so of time with the translators).
Masatomo (my main translator) would come in and help with the
other lines and correct errors that I might have made in translations.
Once an entire volume
was done, there would be a go over of translations not clicking
right with the senario of the show, my intuition, or lines that
I found I could take in more than one way in English.
In all, an average
volume would run approximately $125 in translator fees. A series
like Fushigi would run about $1625 or more for translations alone.
It was FAR more expensive during Marmlade Boy because Mika was
a more expensive translator, it was a 19 volume series instead
of a 13 volumes series, AND I wasn't skilled enough do pre-translations
then. I would estimate that the costs of translations ALONE were
somewhere WELL over double the price of doing Fushigi Yuugi.
I never accepted help
from anyone financially. It was my own money (an inheritance)
and I figured that could've been fixing up old jalopies like
some people do...so why not? Bruce's expenses were his own and
separate from mine.
If it sounds like
an unending flow of money for me by the description, that would
REALLY be nice, but that's not the case. I don't add this because
I want to but if I don't people will misunderstand. And THAT
WILL be my fault for not explaining.
I had spent most of
the rest of an inheritance by buying multiple computers, upgrades,
programs and equipment of various sort to do the creative anime
work I did. I never ever allowed anyone to gift me money to do
it. I have always been this way. People giving me money embarrasses
me.
When it came to that
being gone, I fell back on my smallish monthly income that isn't
enough to cover our monthly grocery bill. After all, I don't
go anywhere. What was I going to do with it? I could save it
but when you're someone who almost never leaves the house. and
yet, are able to meet people from all around the world (online,
that is) because of your work, PLUS it was creating a knowledge
of anime in the English speaking world, isn't it a worthwhile
miracle?
And So
On...
Bruce handled the
majority of the extra costs of doing subtitling - The LDs, the
master tapes, the timing tapes, the digital equipment. He footed
the costs of most everything extra plus his own translations.
In spite of that,
by the time I had finished Marmalade Boy had spent somewhere
over $12,000 (left over from the inheritance) in equipment and
translations of money that could not be replaced by a small monthly
income (created by a loan I made from the same inheritance).
And, you know what, I'm not sorry at all about the money. It
was a wonderful time and I hardly noticed time going by. (^_^)
That said, people
who wondered, now know how we did it.
Next....What
equipment we used to subtitle with |