[Manga] Yotsuba is invincible. "WAKAPPA!"

I'm bumping this because I finally caved in and downloaded Yotsuba scanslations. Cursed ADV Manga has basically left Yotsuba (and many other good titles, like Gunslinger Girl) in limbo. I'll definitely buy up volumes 4 and beyond if ADV Manga ever releases them here...

"The one that really gets to me though is in chapter 7, volume 1. When Fuuka asks Yotsuba what her father's job is, Yotsuba mistakenly tells her that her father is a "konyakuya" (a maker of traditional snacks) when in actuality he's a "honyakuka" (a translator). ADV changed it so that instead of a "translator", Yotsuba tells Fuuka that her father is a "train spotter". WTF?! How does that work?! "

How does it not work? Although I do realize that ADV screwed themselves over for Chapter 24, it seems very obvious to me why they changed the joke in the first place; "chef" of "cook" sounds nothing like "translator" in English, whereas "train spotter" does. Would you rather have ADV leave the Japanese terms in and not translate things?

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by hikarub

Actually, yes. I'm sure it would've been easier to leave the original terms in there and just add the notes at the bottom of the page. The scanslation made much more sense that way. This may be the reason why ADV aren't releasing volume 4 yet, they're too busy trying to figure out how to "fix" this monumental cock-up. Or would they skip chapter 24 altogther?!

...whereas ADV decided to change things so that the humor would be more obvious to western readers.


I do agree that ADV Manga's long hiatus is inexcusable, as well as random name/grammar mistakes like the ones you mentioned (it reeks of sloppiness), but what you said earlier is my point exactly. Scanslators can get away with leaving jokes in Japanese and using cultural and/or definition footnotes because they don't actually have to sell anything. However, companies like Viz and ADV Manga have to try to sell things to both the mainstream and the fringe. They can't risk shunning the mainstream with Japanese jokes that would go over most people's heads (even with footnotes).

I won't push this any further, since I don't want an argument to potentially break out in a Yotsuba topic. I apologize for my initial inflammatory post, and thus will take my leave.

How ya doing, buddy?