Oishinbo - Vol. 3 Ch. 22 - The Miracle of Soy Sauce

[MangaDex]

 

[sarusa]

I think you'd lose something by just calling it rice crackers, even without the kakimochi twist. Some of the things are very obscure, but for something like senbei, I think anyone reading this fussy food nerd manga already knows them or is here to learn, and for learning they need to see the name a lot! You can trust your readers a little more. Of course adding the small 'rice cracker ' margin note the first time is great. And you've always got your exhaustive notes in the back, which are great, for if there's any confusion.

Anyhow, purely my opinion, you TL however you feel right, and thank you!

 

[Mugiwara325]

Thank you, I still have trouble trying to balance being accessible without being too patronizing, so it's helpful to see the perspectives of readers.

While I do enjoy writing up the Gourmet Notes, I don't want to make them an essential part of the reading experience. They are after all, bonus content, and I want the chapters to be understandable even without the Gourmet Notes.

 

[sarusa]

Thank you, I still have trouble trying to balance being accessible without being too patronizing, so it's helpful to see the perspectives of readers.

While I do enjoy writing up the Gourmet Notes, I don't want to make them an essential part of the reading experience. They are after all, bonus content, and I want the chapters to be understandable even without the Gourmet Notes.

I think at the minimum if you just put a senbei* on P3 Panel 4 and added a '* toasted japanese rice crackers' somewhere in the margins the entire chapter would be entirely understandable to anyone even without the notes. For kakimochi, '* toasted glutinous rice crackers', then if anyone cared enough what the difference was (I would!) there's the end notes and websearch.

 

[Mugiwara325]

I think at the minimum if you just put a senbei* on P3 Panel 4 and added a '* toasted japanese rice crackers' somewhere in the margins the entire chapter would be entirely understandable to anyone even without the notes. For kakimochi, '* toasted glutinous rice crackers', then if anyone cared enough what the difference was (I would!) there's the end notes and websearch.

Oh, about the margin notes. Any time there are margin notes, those are written by Kariya himself, and I just translate them. I don't want any confusion on which text is from the author and which are my personal input, so I don't put my own margin notes.
I realize that's kind of arbitrary, but I suppose that's what I feel comfortable with.

 

[deenzfan12]

Aww, I loved seeing the trappings of a typical Oishinbo chapter molded to fit a love story! It's nice that Yamaoka's gotten a little softer around the edges too, going out of his way to help a coworker's exploits in love like this.