Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san - Vol. 14 Ch. 120 - Confession
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chrispower110
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I expected nothing less or more.
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TSP
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We spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to best get the misunderstanding to work in English, seeing as it's impossible to say the word "like" all by itself without its constituent parts as the Japanese always does for these situations. Since we try to avoid translation notes wherever possible, we decided that it's likely the food itself isn't really crucial information, but getting the misunderstanding right mattered the most.
We did a similar kind of translation to this back in the infirmary chapter where Nishikata and Takagi had to avoid saying "ow/itai" at all costs. Just as it was here, the original content of the joke/pun was not really all that important, but more the spirit of it was. Instead of perfect fidelity in times where the languages don't match up cleanly, we would rather people have an experience that is the same as the Japanese readers, requiring minimal jerking of people out of the story to explain how the original did something. Hope that explains it.
We spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to best get the misunderstanding to work in English, seeing as it's impossible to say the word "like" all by itself without its constituent parts as the Japanese always does for these situations. Since we try to avoid translation notes wherever possible, we decided that it's likely the food itself isn't really crucial information, but getting the misunderstanding right mattered the most.
We did a similar kind of translation to this back in the infirmary chapter where Nishikata and Takagi had to avoid saying "ow/itai" at all costs. Just as it was here, the original content of the joke/pun was not really all that important, but more the spirit of it was. Instead of perfect fidelity in times where the languages don't match up cleanly, we would rather people have an experience that is the same as the Japanese readers, requiring minimal jerking of people out of the story to explain how the original did something. Hope that explains it.
TSP
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You're free to disagree with how we decide to translate things, as that is your prerogative.
We think making that misunderstanding as clear and exciting as in the original Japanese is more important than sitting readers down and explaining to them how the misunderstanding went, making the scene weaker from a writing standpoint. The fact that Takagi is talking about curry and pizza buns is not crucial information to the scene.
If you keep all of the original information of a scene, but it reads clunky whereas the original read fine, we don't think that is a proper translation.
Obviously, there are some things which you simply can't work around, and we have left them as-is before (to the anger of OTHER readers, so you see how we can never please anyone xD), but we do what we can to capture the soul of the original while still not going beyond the intent of individual lines, scenes, etc.
For this scene, the most important element was Nishikata thinking Takagi was asking if he liked her, so that had to be preserved and made easy to read no matter what. We originally tried something closer to the original, but it forced our beta readers to read back from the original question in order to fully understand what just happened, and we really like to avoid people backtracking in order to understand something.
However, since you already read the original in Japanese, I suppose you never have to worry about missing all these little details!
You're free to disagree with how we decide to translate things, as that is your prerogative.
We think making that misunderstanding as clear and exciting as in the original Japanese is more important than sitting readers down and explaining to them how the misunderstanding went, making the scene weaker from a writing standpoint. The fact that Takagi is talking about curry and pizza buns is not crucial information to the scene.
If you keep all of the original information of a scene, but it reads clunky whereas the original read fine, we don't think that is a proper translation.
Obviously, there are some things which you simply can't work around, and we have left them as-is before (to the anger of OTHER readers, so you see how we can never please anyone xD), but we do what we can to capture the soul of the original while still not going beyond the intent of individual lines, scenes, etc.
For this scene, the most important element was Nishikata thinking Takagi was asking if he liked her, so that had to be preserved and made easy to read no matter what. We originally tried something closer to the original, but it forced our beta readers to read back from the original question in order to fully understand what just happened, and we really like to avoid people backtracking in order to understand something.
However, since you already read the original in Japanese, I suppose you never have to worry about missing all these little details!
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@TSP
Honestly this is the best way to approach Translation. Professional translators would agree with that as well, since this is a way too common problem you always face when translating something. Thanks for the hard work guys! I will say though, everything in moderation, we Don't want another "Brock Onigir-- Wait, not They're donuts" Thing happening... although I doubt you guys would ever reach that point LOL
Honestly this is the best way to approach Translation. Professional translators would agree with that as well, since this is a way too common problem you always face when translating something. Thanks for the hard work guys! I will say though, everything in moderation, we Don't want another "Brock Onigir-- Wait, not They're donuts" Thing happening... although I doubt you guys would ever reach that point LOL
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Damn, Nishikata's actually starting to realize Takagi's unparalleled attractiveness. 2nd year already starting off strong, not gonna lie. I would really like the romance focus and development of the last few chapters to continue, and possibly start to carry a continued plotline between chapters. Not holding my breath, but I'll still keep coming back for more Takagi either way.
TSP
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Thank you! We've frequently joked about going full 4kids, but I think where our philosophy differs is that we think it's okay for there to be a large element of foreignness to the text. After all, if the setting is Japan, why wouldn't people eat onigiri, drink amazake, and use point cards... instead of say, jelly donuts, Corona with lime, and royalty cards. We did the same thing with Acchi-Muite-Hoi, where we decided to just leave it in because we didn't see anything wrong with letting people see how Japanese people actually play rock-paper-scissors.
The issue for us is when there are linguistic misunderstandings that have nothing to do with cultural differences. We generally will try to recreate the joke without necessarily keeping all of the information if we decide it's not something that will bite us in the ass later. So far... it hasn't! xD
(It's because the vast majority of times in any Japanese pop culture thing, the misunderstanding/pun is far more important than the actual information being conveyed. The things that build up to it are simply there... to build up to it.)
Thank you! We've frequently joked about going full 4kids, but I think where our philosophy differs is that we think it's okay for there to be a large element of foreignness to the text. After all, if the setting is Japan, why wouldn't people eat onigiri, drink amazake, and use point cards... instead of say, jelly donuts, Corona with lime, and royalty cards. We did the same thing with Acchi-Muite-Hoi, where we decided to just leave it in because we didn't see anything wrong with letting people see how Japanese people actually play rock-paper-scissors.
The issue for us is when there are linguistic misunderstandings that have nothing to do with cultural differences. We generally will try to recreate the joke without necessarily keeping all of the information if we decide it's not something that will bite us in the ass later. So far... it hasn't! xD
(It's because the vast majority of times in any Japanese pop culture thing, the misunderstanding/pun is far more important than the actual information being conveyed. The things that build up to it are simply there... to build up to it.)
TSP
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@CKT0304
Why don't you come over to our Discord? We'd be happy to explain all of our translation choices to you.
If you're referring to the chapter I think you are, that was some time ago, so I imagine you must have questions from other chapters as well.
But, I believe it's considered off-topic to talk about something other than this chapter in this spot, so best to take the conversation elsewhere.
(But a quick explanation for those curious: The original Japanese was "Critical" romanized from the English, not "critical hit", and thus,
has its own Japanese definition)
Why don't you come over to our Discord? We'd be happy to explain all of our translation choices to you.
If you're referring to the chapter I think you are, that was some time ago, so I imagine you must have questions from other chapters as well.
But, I believe it's considered off-topic to talk about something other than this chapter in this spot, so best to take the conversation elsewhere.
(But a quick explanation for those curious: The original Japanese was "Critical" romanized from the English, not "critical hit", and thus,
has its own Japanese definition)
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Oh shit, so much progression lately. We nearing Endgame?
https://youtu.be/Tl0DMTlwLw4?t=15 -> Nishikata atm
https://youtu.be/Tl0DMTlwLw4?t=15 -> Nishikata atm
