It's fairly awesome.

I'm not all that pleased with the translation (I think I heard it was done based on the English and German translations, instead of the original Japanese), but in general it definitely falls into the "Awesome!" category.

>>110653
I'll have to disagree with you on the translations, as far as I can see they could be way, way worse. Besides a few printing errors, the books themselves have been fuckin' A so far.

It's awesome that you got it.

It's not awesome that you had to wait this long.

>>110654

The first volume had several really weird translations, like the one where Kaorin sees Sakaki's panties. The second volume seemed better, though they still call Nyamo and Yukari Mrs.

Finland alone is awsome enough. You guys kicked ruskie ass. The only member of the axis powers that let you shrug and say "I don't blame 'em"

All due respect, Japan, Germany, Italy.

V.C. quowzzable

finland ... more like WINland.
birthplace of the modern sniper

If the Russians come here again, I'll just sharpen one end of the latest Azu volume and kill them all with it! No offence, Russians!

>>110725
That's the spirit. You guys are the best...

By the way, ever thought about letting a large capitalist power install a missile defence shield for you?

Oh, nevermind. I'm just talking.

>>110731
Go to bed, Mr. Cheney.

>>110697
Agreed. It's great we finally got it, but it doesn't make much difference for me, since I already bought it in English some time ago. For the people who haven't read it yet, I guess it's awesome.

Seeing as how EVERY Finn I've encountered knows English better than most Americans, I'm not sure why a Finnish translation would be necessary....

Now, a translation of the anime would surely be awesome.

>>110750
It's not like we Finns couldn't read it in English, but most of us wouldn't even know it exists if it wasn't translated into Finnish. Some people are ignorant and won't find stuff like manga and anime out themselves. They need someone to shove it in their face and that's why the books must be translated in Finnish and sold everywhere.

I don't know where mangas are sold in US, but here all the import books, and mangas as well, are only sold in specialized stores. Most people don't go to such stores and won't ever find out that there's manga avaible in English.

At the moment, there are couple of dozens mangas published in Finnish. To be honest, I've never been very interested in Finnish manga releases, mainly because the titles aren't interesting or I've already read them years ago, but they're cheaper than the imported ones and some series are translated really fast, like one volume per month. For example, there's already 32 volumes of One Piece in Finnish and IIRC only 15 volumes in English. So having mangas translated into Finnish is a good thing in some ways. Mayby some day we'll have hundreds of different series in Finnish.

>>110750
Why you say Finns no English better 'n us Americans?

Well, now I'm curious. How is Osaka rendered in Finnish? Is there a Finland equivalent of Kansai-ben?

>>110764

There are plenty of dialects the translator could've used to reflect Osaka's Kansai-ben, but alas, they wussed out and just made her talk like everyone else. Can't say I really blame them, though, not after the small-scale shitstorm that ensued when Toji Suzuhara of the Neon Genesis Evangelion manga was given a strong Ostrobothnian dialect and Shinji Ikari frequently used the more informal "mä" form for "I" instead of the more proper "minä". Comic book translations in Finland tend to be quite strict with the language, and even widely-used colloquials like "mä" are usually reserved to characters like Disney's Goofy.

(Fortunately, in One Piece almost all the characters are on Goofy's intellectual level, so the translator really gets to go wild there with no reprecussions.)

>>110767
Heh, reminds me of the time everyone on Finnchan was campaigning for an Azumanga fandub with an Osaka speaking in Ostrobothnian...that lasted about five minutes, lol.

>>110760
By the way, I haven't been keeping up with stuff like One Piece here in finland, how heavily do they censor that around here?

The thing that bugged me most with American edition was Yukari-sensei teaching Spanish. In Finnish edition I find the lack of localization a welcomed thing. In Finnish edition for example baseball haven't been altered to Finnish baseball, though it might have been perfectly possible.

"Chiyo, kannatatko Seinäjoen Mailajusseja?"

>>110735
Come on, I think the need for missile defense is fairly obvious.

>>110778

>>110779

Make a good "Kill it with Fire" meme or "Ima chargin' mah lazah".

>>110775

>>NGNG.. NGNGNG...!

Made me giggle for some reason.

I think we've only 4 or 5 manga translated into Dutch at the moment (Naruto, Death Note, Monster and a few others) so at this rate I don't expect an official AD translation until say, 2011 or so.

>>110767
Blame the "Kukkahattu-tädit". If they say that the characters in comic books must speak proper Finnish, then they will speak proper Finnish. No way to get around that, their word is the law.

Though, I admit, it's friggin' annoying to read NGE in Finnish, because they use informal Finnish and Ostrobothnian dialect and mix it with Japanese suffixes like -san or -kun. It sounds quite awful. Had they left the "weeaboo stuff" out and figured some other way, it would sound more natural. Now it's something really weird. I don't mind suffixes in English translations though.

>>110774
I don't know really. I've never bothered to read the scanlations. Is there something that should be censored?

>>110767

I'm glad Osaka didn't speak Ostrobothnian or Savo myself. Friedrich Schleiermacher was right.

>>110816

On one hand, there's no such thing as an "exact equivalent" between the accents of two different languages. So attempts to render an equivalent will always be controversial. On the other hand, if a character has an accent relative to the rest of the cast in the original Japanese, but speaks the same as everyone else in a translation, I don't consider that to be the better choice, because now an important fact about the character as written by their creator (i.e., they speak differently) is entirely gone.

>>110785

If it's any consolation, I'm pretty sure you'll be getting Azumanga Daioh well before we get Monster. Out of the three or so companies translating stuff at the moment, only one of them (the same one that's doing Azu) would ever even consider picking up a manga that couldn't be marketed to teenaged fanboys/fangirls.

>>110824

Aren't they also doing Battle Angel Alita? Any word on whether that translation is OK?

Gunnm translation is OK. It is flexible and punctual in the same time - as far as I can tell. At least it doesn't look weird. And that's done by the very person who translated Evangelion.

Brothers in arms... you're finally officially better than us.. in other things than school results.
I will now fight for this to happen here in Sweden as well. Or well, I've already tipped my book company off about it, hope something happens.

>>110820
It's awfully presumptuous to suggest that an accent or dialect is crucial to understanding one particular character.

Off the top of my head: would you translate Lister's accent? It's certainly distinctive, but it's not important to the plot or the character, and then you'd then have to find equivalents for all the other characters with distinctive accents.

Also, what about when everyone speaks Kansai? Imagine how ridculous SaiKano or LoveCon would look if you gave the whole entire cast (except for random minor characters) ADV's Popeye accent.

>>110855

An accent isn't the whole character, but it's a part of the character. It'd be like taking a character who had blond hair in the original manga and blacking it in for the adaptation. Nothing else has changed, but the effect is different. If it was a point in the original that a certain character, some characters, or all the characters spoke "non-standard" in the original, that should be reflected in the dub as well. Not for some abstract purist principle, but because the original author, in this case, was going for a certain effect by having the character speak with an accent.

>>110893
Dub? We're talking about manga here.

Written accents, especially by someone not a native speaker, tend to look dreadful, far worse than a put-on accent sounds.

>>110893

>because the original author, in this case, was going for a certain effect by having the character speak with an accent.

And that's what I was saying earlier: It's more than a little presumptuous to assume that a) that was the case, and b) your transplanted accent conveys the same effect.

OSAKA IS NOT TEXAS.

There.

>>110905

I think artists generally have some reason for the things they do and that it isn't presumptious to think so.

>>110893

Following your example, I think making Osaka speak some Finnish dialect would be the same as colouring that hair pink. Sure, it isn't black, but...

>>110905
In the case of Osaka, I'd say it's not presumptuous at all. It's obvious Azuma-sensei intended her dialect to be an important aspect of her character. Many of the strips make a point of highlighting the difference between her style of speech and everyone else's, starting from her first appearance. Her very personality is meant to be a stark contrast with the one stereotypically associated with Osakans, so her Osakan style of speech is important for maintaining the incongruity. If she were translated to speak just like everyone else, all those jokes would fall flat.

Now, whether the localized choice of accent presents the same effect is another matter, to be sure. For the American dub, it helps to know that Houston is stereotypically considered to be full of business-minded Foghorn Leghorn types--broad accents, loud and boastful, minds on money. New Yorkers are stereotyped similarly, thus the decision for the manga.

However, it's certainly possible (even likely) that the equivalent match of distinctive dialect and character traits won't exist in all language markets. In those cases...well, a distinctive accent or dialect is still preferable, I'd say, if only so the jokes about Osaka's unique speech quirks retain some sort of humor.

>>110905
>>110904

It will convey a effect, and not necessarily the exact same one. A skilled translator can, however, give a suggestion of how the character sounded relative to the rest of the original cast. That's the key point; not the accent equivalency (because there is no such thing as an exact equivalent) but rather, the effect relative to "standard" speech. Why on earth is it presumptious to assume that a creator intended a character to sound different, if they deliberately write them with an accent? It's like saying it's presumptious to think Azuma intended Chiyo to have pigtails, just because he happened to put it into the manga. And whether it's a dub or manga adaptation makes no difference; Osaka's accent is written out in the original tankobon, so an attempt should be made to suggest it in the English manga, too. The result might be open to debate, but to simply act as if a character spoke the same way as others, even if she didn't, is not good translation.

>>110917

But aren't these regions also connected with stereotypes that aren't at all relevant and even distracting? I think that to many people, Texas is cowboys and the Republican party rather than loud businessmen.

I think the Finnish translator did rather well with Osaka's way of speaking when it was relevant. I'll check tomorrow how he did it.

>>110923
Coming from Texas myself, I didn't view Osaka's southern accent as being contrary to her personality but rather quite suited to it. It gave off the image of a slow, leisurely southern pace. Also, I think it adds to her appeal, as southern accents can be quite cute.

>>110924

But isn't that exactly how it shouldn't have been done? In the original, the stereotypes of her accent are supposed to be in contrast to her personality, not suited to it, in the same way that Sakaki's appearance and bearing is in direct opposition to her personality. This is why I prefer the Brooklyn interpretation of her accent.

>>110925

The moe in me sympathizes with the Southern voice for cuteness, but in terms of her accent being not meant to synch with her personality, I think you're right about Brooklyn.

>>110931
Agreed. It may not be true to the original intentions, but I wouldn't have my English speaking Osaka talk any other way.

>>110919
Well, hell, let's go back to Red Dwarf, because it's a glorious old chestnut. Everyone has a distinctive accent, because that's just how people are.

Are you going to try to translate them all? Or is the whole idea ridiculous?

FUHGEDDABOUTIT.

>>110936
Well, here we get into a possible intent vs. inferral problem. Lister's Soho lilt seems intended to emphasize his more laid-back, slovenly approach to life. Rimmer's tighter, sharper accent seems to me to emphasize his more prim, stick-up-the...er, fundament personality. Cat, of course, is a pastiche on James Brown. I may be guilty of reading too much into it, but I see all those different modes of speech as being meant to emphasize personality differences.

Each one might not merit a completely different dialect, but I feel if the writers, directors and actors went to the trouble of convey that much personality vocally, then a translation should at least attempt to accomplish the same. For instance, if I had all the vocabulary, I'd give Rimmer an annoyingly proper and condescending level of politeness mixed with disrespectful forms of address. Lister would be far more casual, since he's not formal with anyone. Maybe a bit more polite with Kochanski, I don't know. Kryten would have very formal and polite speech most of the time. Cat would be...hm. Well, the Japanese do have some funk singers among them. A mix of modern slang and his usual feline/James Brown yowls, I think. Holly...um, I'm not sure.

>>110932

It seems criminal to have cute Kansai girls like Osaka and Arumi speak like Joe Pesci, even though they probably should be saying FUHGEDDABOUTIT.

>>110959

Are you saying that Brooklyn girls can't be cute?

I saw a russian translation once when I was in Moskva. Didn't bought it though.

>>110964

Not at all. I used to know a girl from Flatbush who was extremely cute. She sounded more like Bob Marley than Joe Pesci, though.

>>110911
Congratulations on Wakachan front page inclusion

VC: saw
I saw it first

>>110911
I just noticed that Azumanga here is written あづまんが which is just wrong

>>111074
because its a hentai doujinshi