I Can’t Date My Student… Can I? - Ch. 11.2

[Travis9887]

I get dropping a manga when an official version comes out. I disagree with it but I GET it. But to drop the manga 7 MONTHS before it even starts it's official translation is ridiculous to me.

Thanks for the translations nonetheless..

 

[BookQueen]

She should move to tge fantasy land known as South korea

 

[AppelJoosh]

The vast majority of official translations are far better than 90% of scanlations. Tons of past scanlators now even work in the business.

Meanwhile modern scanlation is like 50% people using machine translation and broken English. Yet readers who don't even know Japanese will point to like 5 bad examples of official localization and act like it applies to every single one of them, and then point to scanlation saying it's so much better when you need to trudge through mud just to find a chapter written in proper English. The cognitive dissonance is wild.

Also the translation being officially endorsed means that they're able to get in contact with the writer/editor to find out what they intended if an English equivalent for slang or a phrase doesn't exist, or if there's a hyper-specific meaning/intention behind some dialogue that a scanlator can and will easily miss. See; anything to do with TYPE-MOON works.

I think it sucks that scanlators make a habit of dropping a series after it's picked up for an official translation too, but let's not pretend that the vast majority of official translations aren't just outright better than the vast majority of scanlations.

 

[razorshaleh]

well, older woman troubled by failed love as teenager then dropped EN translate unti january 2026 that to long maybe other group can continue this translate.

anyway, thanks for translating guys

 

[Nosebleed]

Also the translation being officially endorsed means that they're able to get in contact with the writer/editor to find out what they intended if an English equivalent for slang or a phrase doesn't exist, or if there's a hyper-specific meaning/intention behind some dialogue that a scanlator can and will easily miss. See; anything to do with TYPE-MOON works.

I think it sucks that scanlators make a habit of dropping a series after it's picked up for an official translation too, but let's not pretend that the vast majority of official translations aren't just outright better than the vast majority of scanlations.

And also the fact you are working with vetted professionals that will make sure quality is maintained throughout, hopefully ensuring you as the customer/reader get a good experience and your money's worth.

For every good scanlation that actually takes quality seriously there are like 1000+ that are happy to churn out slop translated by AI with bad grammar and typesetted with no consistency.

For every bad localization there are like 1000+ good ones that you can read and feel like you got the best translated experience for that story.

Yet someone will see like, an official translation dropping honorifics (not even that common these days, as most major companies keep them now when the setting of the story is Japan), and act like now the whole product is trash and all official translations are unreadable, as if the scanlation version of the same product doesn't usually have way worse issues.

I get being frustrated that you can't access something for free anymore (though I really wish people would stop acting like an author getting an official translation isn't something worth celebrating, because that's honestly kinda insulting to all the work they do), but seeing people even act like official translations don't outright surpass the vast majority of scanlations in quality is absurd to me. It just proves they don't read official translations and/or don't know anything about translation (but they sure are vocal about a subject they don't understand).

 

[Kushikime]

Thanks for the chapter

 

[Ainkrip]

And also the fact you are working with vetted professionals that will make sure quality is maintained throughout, hopefully ensuring you as the customer/reader get a good experience and your money's worth.

For every good scanlation that actually takes quality seriously there are like 1000+ that are happy to churn out slop translated by AI with bad grammar and typesetted with no consistency.

For every bad localization there are like 1000+ good ones that you can read and feel like you got the best translated experience for that story.

Yet someone will see like, an official translation dropping honorifics (not even that common these days, as most major companies keep them now when the setting of the story is Japan), and act like now the whole product is trash and all official translations are unreadable, as if the scanlation version of the same product doesn't usually have way worse issues.

I get being frustrated that you can't access something for free anymore (though I really wish people would stop acting like an author getting an official translation isn't something worth celebrating, because that's honestly kinda insulting to all the work they do), but seeing people even act like official translations don't outright surpass the vast majority of scanlations in quality is absurd to me. It just proves they don't read official translations and/or don't know anything about translation (but they sure are vocal about a subject they don't understand).

Why don’t you drop the fan translation when the official translation catches up? We will wait years without a fan translation.

 

[Bibliothecarius]

Thnks for the chapter!!!

 

[Nosebleed]

Why don’t you drop the fan translation when the official translation catches up? We will wait years without a fan translation.

Assuming you are asking this in good faith: usually it's to support the author.

By continuing to release a scanlation when there is an official translation, you directly compete with and eat into official sales, because most people would rather access something for free instead of paying, even if the free alternative is of lesser quality.

Most scanlators that drop licensed series are in a camp that believes a scanlation only serves its purpose so long as there is no official alternative available. Once an official alternative exists, they step away and let that take over. The hope is that this fosters the official industry and leads to more works being translated with high quality. And if sales increase, companies can also provide better services like simulpubs and the like.

Remember, if nobody pays for the manga, there is no manga.

One other reason is just time. Why focus your time and energy on a scanlation when a legal, usually better alternative will come out later anyway. You might as well spend your time on scanlating something that doesn't already have a translation in the works. That's just being efficient with your life.

I know for many readers none of this matters, they just want their fix, but it is what it is.

 

[Landale]

The vast majority of official translations are far better than 90% of scanlations. Tons of past scanlators now even work in the business.

Meanwhile modern scanlation is like 50% people using machine translation and broken English. Yet readers who don't even know Japanese will point to like 5 bad examples of official localization and act like it applies to every single one of them, and then point to scanlation saying it's so much better when you need to trudge through mud just to find a chapter written in proper English. The cognitive dissonance is wild.

It's actually pretty basic behavior, no dissonance required. "In goods and services there are three options. Fast, Cheap, Good. Pick two."
Fan translations pretty reliably hit fast and cheap, given that they're typically free. Official translations often fail on those aspects, and this is especially true for people outside of the market area who have to give up on it entirely or spend additional time and money importing. Objectively speaking fan translations are the superior product, even at lower average quality.

 

[Exeos]

Good news is with how little content there is the official English should be caught up quickly.

bad news is sevenseas has pretty low quality standards. the best example for that is probably "magic artisan dahlia wilts no more" - never before have i seen an official english translation with as many mistakes in it as that one. i've seen other sevenseas works before that had a fair amount of mistakes in it, but nothing came close to that one.

so while this is good news for the author, it's kinda bad news for the readers...

 

[curvedtree]

Why would an official translation be released in a manga this short? And that grew inconsistent with its late releases? It was, more or less, a monthly manga, but between 11.1 and 11.2 there was a 4 months hiatus, and from the latest release 11.3 it has passed also almost 4 months with no new issues.

 

[MrBump]

Jeez 7 months huh?

 

[no_name65]

fan translation gets dropped

Well, it's a good bye for me then. As someone outside US, it will be extremely hard to read official release. Meybe if it will be digital, I could read it but physical only, almost no chances.

Thanks for your work anyway.

 

[MarqFJA87]

The vast majority of official translations are far better than 90% of scanlations. Tons of past scanlators now even work in the business.

Meanwhile modern scanlation is like 50% people using machine translation and broken English. Yet readers who don't even know Japanese will point to like 5 bad examples of official localization and act like it applies to every single one of them, and then point to scanlation saying it's so much better when you need to trudge through mud just to find a chapter written in proper English. The cognitive dissonance is wild.

Also the translation being officially endorsed means that they're able to get in contact with the writer/editor to find out what they intended if an English equivalent for slang or a phrase doesn't exist, or if there's a hyper-specific meaning/intention behind some dialogue that a scanlator can and will easily miss. See; anything to do with TYPE-MOON works.

I think it sucks that scanlators make a habit of dropping a series after it's picked up for an official translation too, but let's not pretend that the vast majority of official translations aren't just outright better than the vast majority of scanlations.

The fact that my experiences with both official and fan translations over the past ~20 years glaringly contradict the claims that you are making tell me all that I need about your opinions' credibility. I'm not gonna pretend that fan translations are perfect - I've gotten into heated arguments with translators over their sloppy work or committing the same localization bullshit that turns me off from official TLs - but I find it far more tolerable to find the good ones among them than to suffer the official TLs.

EDIT: And in case anyone thinks otherwise... Yes, I can see that Nosebleed is a scanlation group leader. I don't give a crap; nobody died and made them undisputed arbitrator of what is and isn't the "right" way to do translations and condemn anyone that dissents as objectively wrong.

 

[Kafka]

Well, it's a good bye for me then. As someone outside US, it will be extremely hard to read official release. Meybe if it will be digital, I could read it but physical only, almost no chances.

Thanks for your work anyway.

There will be both a Digital and Physical release according to their announcement on Twitter. Scanning the QR code in that page also takes you to the 7S site with more info

 

[BlargET]

Oh joy... I get to wait an entire year before I can read this again. And by 7 seas of all people. What tremendous joy.

 

[CulR]

NOT 7 CS!!!

Mixed bag, yeah its cool the author will make money, but it's 7 Seas so an official might be a bad thing.

whats wrong with them?

 

[davidgraham212121]

Stop dropping series because Seven Seas are notoriously unreliable at finishing things they pick up, also it's really stupid to wait til later in 2026 or 2027 for them to catch up to current chapters.

 

[ActuallyArma]

By continuing to release a scanlation when there is an official translation, you directly compete with and eat into official sales, because most people would rather access something for free instead of paying, even if the free alternative is of lesser quality.

Most scanlators that drop licensed series are in a camp that believes a scanlation only serves its purpose so long as there is no official alternative available. Once an official alternative exists, they step away and let that take over. The hope is that this fosters the official industry and leads to more works being translated with high quality. And if sales increase, companies can also provide better services like simulpubs and the like.

I'm glad this was brought up because it gives me a chance to ask something I've seen a bunch and have wondered about whenever I see it.

Have seen a bunch of instances where a group drops a manga because it got an official release, though some time later the same group picks it back up. What determines if/when that happens? If there is a general rule of thumb sort of thing for that, anyway