Gal Can't Be Kind to Otaku!? - Vol. 7 Ch. 47

[waldo220]

If people are on Mangadex reading manga like this, then they either:

1. know enough Japanese to understand what Oshi means or
2. should really learnt to pick up some commonly-used, not-easily-translatable terms like Oshi or titles/suffixes they use for names like -sama, -chan, etc.

 

[guygarelard]

And honestly, I can't believe people still prefer oshi, even though they can all see the "I'm gonna oshi you" line.

In this regard, I think you've misunderstood what I initially tried to say. Your localized line of "I have decided to push you forward" was totally fine, and probably how I would have done it myself too. I just meant that I personally prefer the use of "oshi" in instances where the word "fave" was used. i.e., this:

That being said, I agree with you. The line "I'm gonna oshi you" feels weird, and translating the pun is practically impossible afaik. So in instances like that, going with the localized first version (with the the word "oshi" instead of "fave" like the image above) and leaving the exact same TL note from the first version at the end, is completely fine. But if the point of this alternate version was to show a more literal translation, I'd suggest something like this:

I know the asterisk and parentheses can be aesthetically off putting, but it reads much better than "I'm gonna oshi you", and Ijichi's explanation on what an "oshi" is to Otaku-kun works as an explanation to the reader as well. The mid level weebs will have learnt something new, and the normies reading this will understand what Amane was referring to when she first used the word earlier in the chapter.

The "oshi (fave)" line could also be placed when Amane brings up the word (The first and only instance where the word "oshi" was used in the chapter before the pages) so you don't have to have too many parentheses in the same speech bubble, resulting in this sequence:

Ultimately, you guys did release this alternate version. Whether that was to gauge reader opinion, satisfy demand, or to prove a point, we do not know. All we can do, is give an opinion on something that was uploaded to a public platform, and it's up to you guys to move forward with those opinions, whether you'd like to implement them, or ignore them.

P.S. I do hope this long post doesn't come off as rude, as that isn't the intention. I'm pretty sure all of us still appreciate the work you guys do in translating the manga so far, so please don't let the more rude and poorly worded forum posts convince you otherwise.

Edit: I also may have gotten the oshi and oshikatsu meanings mixed, but my point still stands I think

 

[Shamgarsan]

”Oshi” is a pretty decent candidate for a loan word here. It has specific cultural connotations not carried by the closest English equivalent but the rough meaning can be inferred from context, and it is highly relevant to the story. Judicious use of loan words can be a form of emphasis and is hardly jarring to anyone who has ever learned new words by reading them in context. It’s reasonable to be cautious about loan words as they draw attention that may be needlessly disruptive, but it’s just as easy to underuse them as to overuse them.

 

[chusetto]

Omg they're so dumb dumb 🥰

 

[PreStoneX]

In this regard, I think you've misunderstood what I initially tried to say. Your localized line of "I have decided to push you forward" was totally fine, and probably how I would have done it myself too. I just meant that I personally prefer the use of "oshi" in instances where the word "fave" was used. i.e., this:

That being said, I agree with you. The line "I'm gonna oshi you" feels weird, and translating the pun is practically impossible afaik. So in instances like that, going with the localized first version (with the the word "oshi" instead of "fave" like the image above) and leaving the exact same TL note from the first version at the end, is completely fine. But if the point of this alternate version was to show a more literal translation, I'd suggest something like this:

I know the asterisk and parentheses can be aesthetically off putting, but it reads much better than "I'm gonna oshi you", and Ijichi's explanation on what an "oshi" is to Otaku-kun works as an explanation to the reader as well. The mid level weebs will have learnt something new, and the normies reading this will understand what Amane was referring to when she first used the word earlier in the chapter.

The "oshi (fave)" line could also be placed when Amane brings up the word (The first and only instance where the word "oshi" was used in the chapter before the pages) so you don't have to have too many parentheses in the same speech bubble, resulting in this sequence:

Ultimately, you guys did release this alternate version. Whether that was to gauge reader opinion, satisfy demand, or to prove a point, we do not know. All we can do, is give an opinion on something that was uploaded to a public platform, and it's up to you guys to move forward with those opinions, whether you'd like to implement them, or ignore them.

P.S. I do hope this long post doesn't come off as rude, as that isn't the intention. I'm pretty sure all of us still appreciate the work you guys do in translating the manga so far, so please don't let the more rude and poorly worded forum posts convince you otherwise.

Edit: I also may have gotten the oshi and oshikatsu meanings mixed, but my point still stands I think

I agree, and I'd have done that too if not for people complaining about how I tried to localize the word oshi, so to prove a point I uploaded a version with oshi instead of trying to localize it, to show that no, it wasn't a simple "oshi" or "fave" choice, and we had other concerns too in this chapter with the word oshi.

I dislike it when people keep assuming things, like how everyone knows what oshi means. As a translator I have other concerns too than trying to cater to hardcore followers of this fandom, as there are casual readers too who are not deep into this culture. I personally only knew oshi from Oshi no Ko, and even then I didn't know what oshi is exactly.

Sooo yeah, while I agree it should've been similar to what you mentioned (maybe without the asterisks and extra words in the bubbles, or writing "push you" which is taking the easy way out imo), I just did it this way to show what everyone wanted was not as simple as they make it out to be, plus the phrasing we used in the english came from when we were trying to fit the translation around the word 'fave' and not from the original oshi usage as you could see in this chapter... (what I mean is, its much easier to replace fave with oshi AFTER we did the hard part to fit the translation around fave, but the japanese wasn't like that)

 

[frankieMuniez]

Anyway, I'm sorry for delivering such an awful translation...

Oh no, the translation is great, it’s just tue fave thing felt super unnatural. We cant always get a 1:1 translation, so in those cases stick with the japanese terms.

 

[Encyclopedium]

Aww he's wearing the cap they gave him