Ni no Kuni: The Successor of Light and the Cat Prince - Vol. 1 Ch. 1

[MangaDex]

 

[yoshiii]

Alright. This is really good so far! Much darker than the Ni no Kuni games!

 

[SUPER7X]

Leaving "Ni no Kuni" untranslated is stupid. Should be "Earth Two" or "Region Two" or whatever. Same for "Ichi no Kuni".

 

[Wildtale]

Yikes, what a maddening situation to be in. O,O I wouldn't trust that cat for a moment. First he tries to kill him, then he sets our MC up as a hero when he realizes he's of use? I hope he's redeemable. Even then I'd like to see our MC beat him up one he's strong enough to.

On another note, I wonder when this takes place in the timeline. Al Mamoon still exists, so this must take place prior to Revenant Kingdom, and yet our former cat prince is not a Tildrum like King Tom in NNK I or King Even in NNK II. Is he from a "ducal" family with a different last name? What happened?

I personally like that "Ni no Kuni" and "Ichi no Kuni" were left as is. I am a proponent of leaving names, titles, suffixes, and the "last name then first name order" alone. <3

 

[SUPER7X]

I personally like that "Ni no Kuni" and "Ichi no Kuni" were left as is. I am a proponent of leaving names, titles, suffixes, and the "last name then first name order" alone. <3

"Ni no Kuni" doesn't mean anything beyond it's literal meaning, tho. It's not a last name or something. Why should it not be translated? Agree with you on person names and everything else, but names generally I just have to disagree with. Place names—depending upon what they are—pet names, attack names, all should be translated.

 

[Shinjinotikari17]

The title Ni no Kuni is kept in the localization process of the games, plus Earth 2 sounds too comic booky. This ain't DC Comics bruh.

 

[SUPER7X]

The title Ni no Kuni is kept in the localization process of the games, plus Earth 2 sounds too comic booky. This ain't DC Comics bruh.

Yes and the official "localization" is wrong to do so too. And this is literally a comic, sounding "too comic booky" is not a reason to not translate accurately. And regardless, there are other accurate options, one of which I gave, that you chose to ignore in order to make a bad point.

 

[Wildtale]

Yes and the official "localization" is wrong to do so too. And this is literally a comic, sounding "too comic booky" is not a reason to not translate accurately. And regardless, there are other accurate options, one of which I gave, that you chose to ignore in order to make a bad point.

I'm interested in continuing the discussion, so let's have a friendly chat on the topic, shall we?
Of course, if your opinion is not up for debate, that's fine too. ;m;

Also, I wrote this while feeling a little muddled, so I realize not everything may make sense. XD

My understanding is that localization is simply meant to make the product appealing and culturally acceptable for a new target audience. It often comes with the unfortunate side effect of significantly, and sometimes questionably, altered context ("Jelly donuts" in Pokemon or Calamity Gannon's "motive" in Breath of the Wild). While I can see how such changes in context could be considered "wrong", I find it difficult to apply the same thought process to translation alone.

I believe translation is very much an art, especially if it is between such different languages as Japanese and English. I don't deny poor translations that are difficult to read and understand exist, but that's different from stylistic choices. I got used to reading scanlations that kept the original place names, titles, etc. and appreciate them because of the extra context they give. I generally dislike it when "Koji-san" is replaced with "Mr. Koji" or the like, because it eliminates some of the finer relationship details that exist in Japanese culture. Similarly, I have a hard time understanding why some terms are translated when English has no good substitute, or the loan word is already well known.

In this case, I believe the use of "Ni no Kuni" as a place name was a stylistic choice. In context, it is being used to identify a location no differently than using the names Hokkaido or Sapporo to identify locations. It does not change the context of what's being said. If anything, it remains consistent with the other elements of the manga. Would translating it fully to "The Second County" or "Earth II" make it any more understandable? Would such a change still retain the original feel of the work? Personally, I don't see that.

What I understood from Shinjinotikari17's explanation, is that fully translating the name would not fit the story/sound awkward, would eliminate some of the Japanese identity, and break consistency with the rest of the series. (Please correct me if I'm wrong!)

TL;DR: Using "Ni no Kuni" as a place name fits within the context of the work and helps it retain some of its Japanese identity while remaining appealing and understandable to most of the target Western audience. Fully translating it could change the feel of the work and may dissociate it significantly from its roots and the rest of the officially translated materials.

 

[Shinjinotikari17]

Plus Ni no Kuni is more search engine friendly. (a marketing thing)

 

[SUPER7X]

Would translating it fully to "The Second County" or "Earth II" make it any more understandable?

Yes, obviously. I don't understand how you could possibly think otherwise. How many people do you think know that the worlds are literally called "Region One" and "Region Two"? I bet less than 10%. It should be 100%. Because it should translated.

Plus Ni no Kuni is more search engine friendly. (a marketing thing)

Oh yes absolutely it's some BS like this. Searchability, cool-soundingness, whatever, but none of that should be considered. The only thing that should matter is translation accuracy. Untranslation for things that can and should be translated is unacceptable.

 

[Wildtale]

Would translating it fully to "The Second County" or "Earth II" make it any more understandable?

Yes, obviously. I don't understand how you could possibly think otherwise. How many people do you think know that the worlds are literally called "Region One" and "Region Two"? I bet less than 10%. It should be 100%. Because it should translated.

Plus Ni no Kuni is more search engine friendly. (a marketing thing)

Oh yes absolutely it's some BS like this. Searchability, cool-soundingness, whatever, but none of that should be considered. The only thing that should matter is translation accuracy. Untranslation for things that can and should be translated is unacceptable.

It would seem that your opinion is not up for debate, so let's just agree to disagree, yes? ;D

I will clarify one thing: by understandable, I did not necessarily mean that understand what the name means, but rather it is easy to understand what it is referring to. The only analogy I can think of (and it's a poor one) is the meaning behind a person's name. We don't translate the name just because it is from a different language.

But this is merely my opinion.

I agree that translators should attempt to be as accurate as possible within the confines of the language they are adapting to. However, I don't believe that translating as much as possible will necessarily lead to accuracy, nor do I believe that kind of absolute you are referring to exists. If accuracy is indeed your goal, then the focus would be to convey the most complete picture of what was said with all it's details and nuances - which may or may not include actually translating everything.

You have a lovely day,

~Wild