Forum - View topicFMA vol 11 - Viz, don't you even TRY to proof read anymore?
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Zrana
Posts: 48 |
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I picked up Viz's volume 11 of Fullmetal Alchemist--and was disgusted by the continued horrible and STUPID mistakes in it.
Viz started out with a decent job editing FMA, even if some translations I didn't agree with. Translating by it's very nature will come up with 3 different sentences if done by 3 different translators. I've gotten over that long ago. But since volume 9--yeah, i don't care about the graphical edit in volume 8 enough to get riled up--the editors of the TEXT have totally fallen asleep! I don't just mean 'editor' as in person who puts the text into the speech bubbles, I mean editor as in the person who makes sure work gets done and done right in the publishing industry's sense of the word. I was so disgusted that I decided to write a letter to Viz with all the errors and inconsistancies that have come up in recent volumes of FMA they have put out. I cited volume and page number even. It just sucks that I don't have a printer and contacting the right people at Viz by email seems to be an exercise in futility. If the quality of FMA from the beginning had been this bad, I wouldn't be so upset. At least it would be a CONSISTANT bad quality. But they were doing a decent job for quite sometime! I didn't cite every error ever, and note pad doesn't have spellcheck (not that I looked though) but if people want to see my list, I'll post it. Anyone else want to comment about this? I really had to vent. ^^;; |
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hanachan01
 Posts: 504 |
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I agree here. I didn't mind the edit in volume 8 that much. I want to keep the intergrity of the artist's work, but I assume it was made with Arakawa-sensei's permission, so I'm okay with that. However, I stopped buying FMA after volume 8 because of these mistakes. I don't mind typos, since that's mostly the letterer, but these were made by the translators! If I'm buying a professional product, I'd like good quality. I'd like to see your list, by the way.
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Zrana
Posts: 48 |
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Exactly. We're paying for a professional work, so they need to DO professional work!
They're sentence/word flow is still just fine, but with all these editorial errors (I can live with the occasional easy to overlook typo) but glaring gaps and flipped around dialogue because someone didn't fill the speech bubbles in order on a REGULAR basis is rediculous! And contridicting their own canon on proper names and ranks is sloppy. Consistancy isn't too much to ask for, is it? |
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Zrana
Posts: 48 |
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Here's my list. I'm not a professional getting paid for this, so please forgive any typoes and other such errors. I also tend to get long winded.
Vol 8 page 91 "Mei Chan" .. okay, so it's Mei-chan, but that's a common mistake to those familiar with '-chan' thinking it an honorific when first seeing Mei's name, when in this case it's her family name as Chan. Like Jackie Chan. Vol 11 recap page and page 82: "May Chang." Pick a spelling and stick to it. That's all I ask. Note: the Japanese themselves don't always spell names correctly in English. Often they run katakana through a list of possible roman letter spellings and just pick one. Vol 8 page 115 Cselkcess: How about spelling it Xerxes? Alot of stuff in FMA pulls from various real world stuff of the past. It's awkward for japanese to katakana-ize the letter X, and I think trying to translate that attempt back into English caused this awkward word. It's made even more glaring after you did an empressive translation of Rentanjutsu to Rendanshu that even sent people I know who understand Japanese and some Chinese as well to figuring out how you came to that term--which made them happy. Volume 8 page 119 "Ling Yao" The name of the prince from Xing. Volume 9, page 14, Al calls him "Lin." Later, on page 72, the background art (meaning Arakawa herself, the creator) spells his name as "Ling Yao" on the prisoner identification bands. Thus my point of inconsistancy and inaccuracy from the Japanse editors is proven. Throughout volume 9 and after, Ling is referred to as Lin even though there is proof that Arakawa wants his name to be Ling, even if her editors go and do their own thing for the recap pages at the beginning of each volume. Another note on the names of Ling and Mei: the back cover of volume 8 also spells their names as "Ling" and "Mei." Volume 8 page 129 Foo, the old man with Ling, refers to Ling as "the prince" when in the Japanese, he wasn't referred to as Prince yet--which is why in volume 11 (page 26) Al and Winry are surprised to find out Ling is a prince of Xing as one of the Emperor's sons. Volume 8 page 184 (the 4 panal jokes at the end) Den, Winry's dog, is referred to as a male. Den is female. This information is also stated incorrectly in the Profiles book (where in another spot it is later also stated that Den is female if I remember correctly). Volume 9 page 46, Lust (as "Solaris" Havoc's date), calls Havoc "Jan." His name is Jean Havoc--the French Jean that sounds like "John," not the Jean that sounds like bluejean pants. Volume 9 page 54, Winry refers to Riza Hawkeye as "Liza." Volume 9 page 61, second Lt. Maria Ross. 'Second' is abreviated with 2ND as is normal, but this time, unlike any previous volumes or any that follow, the "ND" are smaller letters than the "2". That high tiny lettering used in math for exponents. I forget the proper term. Normally exponential letters haven't been used in this series for such a thing. Volume 9 page 69, Ed says, "Geez, Ed. You scared the crap out of me!" to Al. Yes, Ed refers to his brother by HIS own name, not Al's. Volme 9 page 127, Hughes is referred to as "Commodore Hughes" while in the volume in which he was promoted after death, the rank was "Major General" (volume 4, page 146). Also, Commodore is a naval term, and the Amestres military is land based, not a navy. The anime translates Hughes promotioned rank as "Brigadier General" and the Japanese term for both manga and anime are the same, so I don't see why the translations have to be different. (Much like the President/Fuhrer deal between the official English versions of both the anime and manga--but I think President has at least been used consistantly within your translation instead of changing halfway through.) Volume 9 page 152, first the town is spelled "Resembool" and on the SAME page it's later spelled "Resemboul." All previous mentions, it has been spelled "Resembool" to the best of my knowledge. (It's a bit much to look up ALL past spellings to be sure.) Volume 11 page 102 "He just doesn't [blank space in speach bubble] to be a parent, that's all!" A word is missing! How cruel! Volume 11 page 109, Al calls Ed "Big brother" when I have never seen him add "big" in front of "brother" before. It'd probably piss off Ed as some kind of sarcastic remark if Al ever did so anyways. Rubbing his shortness in his face, what with Ed's sensitivity to that and all. This is the first volume where Al consistantly says "big brother" and it's rather grating to me, a fan of this series since late summer of 2004. Volume 11 page 119. After being told "Thank you." Ed begins repeating it as "Thanks." Also, speach bubbles are out of order. It should be Ed thinking "Thanks/Thank you? " and then Al asking "Brother?" and "What did teacher say?" -- I have a copy of the chapter in raw japanese, and can read a little myself (such as the word 'arigatou'). What your version has is Ed thinking "What did teacher say?" and Al saying, "Thanks?" and "Big brother?", thus making Ed's answer of "She said thanks" make no sense for Al didn't even ask that question as well as he knew the answer before Ed even told him, as if he eaves dropped on the phone call. Volume 11 page 129, Breda starts a big speech bubble with "I" but the rest of the bubble is empty. If the text translation an online friend of mine did (she does translations for pay sometimes in her country--I think she lives somewhere in Asia, possibly south east Asia), is fairly accurate, he's talking about being out of vacation days in this blank space. The other half the speech bubble is the same in both yours and her translation. Volume 11 page 145, Ed and Al are arguing and then Winry announces shell be leaving. But the speech bubbles are mixed up. The 2nd to last frame doesn't have Winry talking (the arrow on the speech bubble points away from her) and yet it's filled with what she would say "I guess this means I can go back to Mr. Garfiel's now." The next speech bubble--a double bubble that's technically just one because they are merged--that IS pointing to Winry starts with "I'm not a kid anymore so quit nagging!" which should have been the previous speech bubble (since Ed and Al were arguing) and continues with Winry saying "I'm so glad you guys are back together." The two frames seem to have had their order mixed up and thus the speech bubbles are out of order and points the wrong way. Winry should have said "I'm so glad" first and THEN followed up with her "I guess this means" remark. The arguing line should have been in the bottom right frame all by itself. |
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Kouji
 Posts: 978 |
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Zrana
Posts: 48 |
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THe Big brother deal is a consistancy thing. In all 10 volumes before this it has ALWAYS been just "brother" when Al is talking to Ed.
Nii-san is perfect acceptable translated as just 'brother.' I'd think it strange if it wasn't 'big brother' if the Japanese word was 'o-nii-san' however. But like I said, it's consistancy. Why change how they translate it now after 10 volumes? It's not like the Japanese it's based off of it has changed. |
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Murasakisuishou
 Posts: 1469 Location: NE Ohio |
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I've only read up to vol. 6 as far as the official translations go, but I agree that the typos are just out of hand. Especially how they started out saying 'Ishvar' and then switched to 'Ishbal' in the next volume. I mean....
Then there's the little aesthetic things, like in vol. 6 where the sound effect 'heh' is in Roy's speech bubble, but also right next to it. There's a couple other places where that's happened, but I'm too tired to go look them up right now. And I have to go look at my copy of vol. 1 again, but in vol. 4 they refer to Liore as Reole. Is that how it was spelled in the first volume, or has the manga always spelled it Reole? In regard to the Riza->Liza thing, I believe that 'Riza' is a mistranslation in itself, since later in the manga Roy calls her Elizabeth, which I'm assuming is her full name. That would shorten to Liza, but since her full first name doesn't come into play until vol. 9 (?) or at any rate much later in the series, the translators just assumed it was Riza. I don't know if I'll keep buying the manga, though....I mean, even the scans I've been reading are more thorough about spelling and grammar....It's like someone different translates every volume, and they're all from Hong Kong. |
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hanachan01
Posts: 504 |
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Elizabeth is a code name. Her real name is either Riza, or unknown currently. Riza is the correct spelling.
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Murasakisuishou
Posts: 1469 Location: NE Ohio |
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Huh. I could have sworn I read somewhere that it was a mistranslation. Oh well, teaches me to look things up at 1 AM 
And BTW, I had no idea that Den is a girl x) |
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Zrana
Posts: 48 |
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I'm following the manga as it comes out in Japan, as well as Viz's version (I'm all about legitimately supporting the creator--I just can't read or speak Japanese other than the occasion word), and the latest chapter has a map of Amestres, and as always when it's spelled in the artwork itself, it's "Reole." Fansubs had it as Lior first as far as I know, or maybe even the first fanscanlations had it that way, and the anime never shows it in the art (and the manga doesn't show it for a long time), so maybe that's why it took so long to realize that Arakawa spells it as "Reole" and not "Riol" even though both can be spelled with the same katakana. "Riza" however, is how Arakawa spells the name from what I understand. "Elizabeth" was a codename since he was having his subordinates do stuff unofficially for him and he didn't want to get caught giving them orders if the phonelines were being tapped. He made good use of his reputation with women as whole chunks of the end of volume 9 were Roy and his subordinates speaking in code that sounded like dating. I used to be one of the editors for a shortlived scanlation group that only did FMA, so I'm big on making it LOOK good and not just flow well sentence wise. Putting the text in the right places, consistancy on font face and font size, NAMES, etc. But then I lost my translator and some friends/rivals who BOTH know Japanese constantly beat me in getting theirs out, so I gave up. I trust their translations, they can double check one another. THings are always better when there's more than one translator, and the editor knows if changing the wording will end up changing the original meaning or not. Viz only uses one translator, and although I think it's the same one they started with, obviously somewhere along the way people are getting sloppy. |
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Zrana
Posts: 48 |
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Also a note on "Liza/Riza" that might contribute to the confusion.
When the 5th episode aired on Adult Swim, whoever did the subtitles for the on screen text that introduced the characters wrote "Liza Hawkeye"--Her first name was never spoken in that episode. Maybe the people that do the screen stuff (which are seperate than the audio stuff like the voice actors) got wrong info or thought it was the usual L/R flip flop that happens in Japanese and miscommunication or assuming occured because of it. And since the FMA card game people got their info from Funimation (maybe copies of the same thing Funi sent to Adult Swim) the "Liza" mistake continued for awhile. (When people at Funi realized the mistake--pointed out to them by the fans--it was rushed to make sure the mistake didn't continue onto the DVDs.) It only takes one mistake slipping through to cause a domino affect of incorrect information. |
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Murasakisuishou
Posts: 1469 Location: NE Ohio |
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Ah, maybe that's where I heard about it, then. Thanks for correcting me^^ |
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Pepperidge
 Posts: 1106 Location: British Columbia, Canada |
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Has anyone throught of actually e-mailing Viz about this directly and demanding that they fix these problems in reprints, and prevent such stupid errors from happening in future editions? I'll be doing that.
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Zrana
Posts: 48 |
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Viz seems to have taken away all email adresses on its websites. |
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LydiaDianne
 Posts: 5634 Location: Southern California |
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Gee, I wonder why? 
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