Shounen, Chotto Sabotteko? - Vol. 3 Ch. 24 - Wanna stay out of the rain?

[marcopolonian]

Oh shit, translation drama incoming.

@Spoonikle
>Kiddo is mostly demeaning and hardly ever endearing
Most every dictionary I consult lists it as something like "(colloquial, affectionate) A child or close friend; especially used as a form of address."
>and is used primarily by older men speaking to young boys
I've only ever heard one person refer to me and others as "kiddo"s, and it was a middle-aged woman.
The only place that "kiddo" falls short as a translation for "shounen" is that it's not gender-specific.

 

[gravy141]

This translation is actually readable, thank you.

 

[doomskull]

Oh good, an actual decent translation. I've always hated the way the other one was done. Nice job, keep it up.

 

[Spoonikle]

@marcopolonian

As a 30 year old man, I address my nephews as kiddo. BUT if I ever addressed a stranger as kiddo - it would be considered demeaning. Of course I am on the north east coast of the USA, so perhaps its used more kindly in other parts - we happen to be "rude" here in the east coast.

If I addressed a child as anything other than their name, after asking for it, It would be overly familiar or rude.

Its rude because we normally consider it disrespectful to not introduce ourselves here in the USA and to address each-other with something other than our names - especially with children as we are supposed to integrate them into society not ignore their existence and marginalize them down to "kid". In Japanese culture, the use of Honorifics bypasses this issue, and while some are rude in some context ( Oji-san ), you can often avoid using a persons family name entirely by using the age appropriate honorific. Kiddo lacks widely recognized "honor" negative or positive.

 

[marcopolonian]

@Spoonikle
They're certainly close enough to use the term "kiddo" now. Perhaps when they first met it would have been rude.

And I mean at this point, you're arguing that using terms that mean the same thing in English is ruder because it's in English instead of Japanese. In which case the only faithful translation would be the original Japanese raws.

 

[toydamashii]

not enough nihongo in my eigo translation

 

[Yggdrazzil]

I do not understand Japanese. English is my second language. With that in mind, I read both chapter versions. To me, the wording is slightly different, but roughly the same message is conveyed: They are stuck waiting for the rain to pass. She's being her kind yet playful self and treats him to some snacks. He's being his dutiful self but lets himself get swept up in her actions, while taking another step on the long long path of coming to like her and realising that.

Now, seeing someone doing a poor job of something, and knowing you can do better, I totally understand your fingers start to itch to do it better. I get that. I can't stand watching youtubers play a game poorly if I know the game well, for the same reason. I'm sure you do not do this out of malice.

Yet I can also imagine the disappointment this causes to the person or people spending time translating a chapter that has been translated by someone else already, on top of that, by someone who feels they do a better job.

And thirdly, as a reader, I can only lament the time spent by two people/groups translating the same thing, while there's a sea of untranslated manga out there I have never heard of but that I'd probably love to read.

 

[shiyu]

I greatly appreciate both translators! A series does not belong to a single person and anyone should be free to translate what they please.
I personally like the CAT translations more, as the "Shounen" and other untranslated stuff always bothered me (like "Iyaa" in this chapter) and it's not because I don't understand Japanese because I do.
Everyone can choose which translation they prefer, this just means we have more options. And while there is a lot of untranslated manga out there, translators are not obligated to translate what you want. They should translate whatever they want.

Thank you both again!

 

[rabidfish]

@DeOneChester ch. 31 comes out June 10th.

 

[BoshJaker]

@ Spoonikle it wasn’t even a complaint lol I was just saying. You’re way too serious man

 

[Kekitus]

I like both translations but I can see CAT's point.

I've always disliked translations that are filled with Japanese words... what's the point of translating it if you're purposefully leaving some words in Japanese. Is it just to give a more weeby vibe? I've always preferred translators that translate everything into English and then leave translation notes in a separate page if something wasn't clear to translators who let things like "onee-san you're so kawaii today (tl note : onee-san means big sister. tl note 2 : kawaii means cute)".

One could argue that there are some words/slang/expressions that are hard to translate from Japanese to English like "Ara ara~", or "onee-san" (since you're never gonna call an older woman "big sister" in english if she's not your actual sister). But I think those should be kept to a minimum. Everytime that a word have a close counterpart in english it should be translated, even if the translation isn't 100% perfect. Otherwise, you're just leaving half of the manga untranslated, and that is very painful to read. For example, why keep bentou instead of replacing it by lunchbox?

On the other hand, I feel like this translation suffers from the opposite problem. Kiddo just doesn't match "shounen" at all. And making a bentou to someone shouldn't be translated into "cooking for someone" as it is not as precise. When I read "maybe I could cook for you" I actually thought shounen was wondering if he could go to her place and cook for her. Making a bento could be translated into "making a lunchbox", that would be more accurate. I also don't understand why CAT would translate shounen as kiddo but let "onee-san" as it is...

With all this being said, I still appreciate both translations, both have their ups and downs. I'm also still very much grateful to SquigglesJP for translating it since the beginning. And I feel like some people are overreacting like crazy when calling SquigglesJP translations "terrible". In the end, a translation is never going to be perfect anyway, but calling it terrible is blowing things out of proportion.

 

[rabidfish]

neither is perfect but here i am, sitting on my ass not translating shit, so thanks a lot please don't stop.

 

[Exkalamity]

I appreciate this translation. Gives me a second option. I agree with above points that perhaps keeping "shounen" would be best since the entire manga revolves around her calling him that affectionately. However the rest is good, especially since you don't leave random parts of Japanese sounds untranslated.

 

[hxtreme]

Your translation reads like an official translation. I wouldn't be surprised if CAT scans have actually worked as official translators for some manga. You seem to not only translate it but also localize it, for example at one point you translated a bubble to 'OOF', I don't think people in Japan tend to use oof but that makes it easier for international audience.

Meanwhile Squiggles' version feels more like a fan translation, they try to stick as close as possible to Japanese version. For example they stuck with Bentou instead of cook/prepare food(whatever fits in that sentence). I think that it keeps me grounded plus it also provides a lot more information such as he isn't planning on making a bag of PB&J sandwich which is a lot less effort than preparing a bentou. Also, you'll learn more words which makes it easier to read/watch stuff (like manzai) that involves a lot of puns.
(Edit: @Kekitus kinda my defense on not completely translating everything to English)

Personally I like the latter style but the former is definitely much better to get people started on, so its good that there's some options (though I'm gonna stick with squiggles).

 

[TheMinester]

Only better thing I could say is that it's not leveled and not more dark than it should look so we don't loose details. As for the tl squiggles likes to keep the JP onomatopoeia which can feel weird to some, here it was translated which makes it an actual "translation" of this work. Dunno about the quality of this translation tho.

 

[tsunamininja]

I think I prefer a translation in between what you (CAT) and Squiggles do, but if I had to pick how much out each it would be like a 70/30 split respectively in regards to how it's translated and/or localised. I might be biased from reading shounen as shounen for so long but I think especially when you don't translate onee-chan, turning shounen into "kiddo" looks really strange (as many others have pointed out).

 

[burningknuckle]

Keeping onee-chan but dropping shounen feels off.

 

[Darkmeep]

Wow, this translation was terrific; it was smooth as hell and easy to read. The only thing I didn't like was Onee-chan. Might as well have used her last name or whatever he calls her. It's shocking how that one little bit of Japanese just knocked me out of the immersion. Also, those Japanese words in bold were a bit annoying. You're great, thanks for translating.

 

[Misaki16]

I prefer Squiggles translations!

 

[LordTartaros]

Thieving CAT

I like your translation more though, mixing english and japanese word always made feel uncomfortable.