Thank you for the kind words everyone!!! We're glad to be back. 💖
THEYRE BACK
also i kinda like it when there are multiple translations cos it means u can triangulate in on the original. the other one was more literal but with this i get a better sense of individual characters' speaking styles, social class, etc. and the subtext / implied meanings. it's very flavorful
We definitely consider it an important part of translation to convey those nuances (which are also present in the original text)! Language is about more than conveying information through words, and often the way things are said and the context that they're said in matter as much or more than the content of the words themselves. We believe a translator's job should be to convert meaning between languages instead of a per-word translation, as language is only used to convey meaning, and like with synonyms in English, every Japanese word that has an English equivalent also has different cultural meanings and nuances from it, even if they both refer to similar concepts. Mocchi is also very good at putting this kind of personal and interpersonal nuance in every line, which is part of what we love so much about translating this series, and any stylistic choice we make in dialogue is an attempt to preserve this!
On page 36 of this version, Sugiomi calls Itsumi Yanagi's "lady friend", but Nekawa understands it as "girlfriend". Are these words treated as synonyms in the Japanese version too, or did Nekawa assume a romantic connection on her own?
As a great example of this, in the original text, both characters are just saying "恋人" (Koibito), which essentially means lover. (In fact, the literal meaning is 'love person', but there are obviously some cultural nuances.) However! Nekawa's style of speech is more modern (some might say 'standard') and influenced by the Tokyo dialect, which comes from the image she wants to project of a professional and competent young woman. On the other hand, Sugiomi's speech consists of a combination of outdated rural versions of grammar particles, phrases that were considered cool in manga 50 years ago, and a general rude and masculine attitude. The vibe is that Sugiomi is trying to present an image of a cool tough guy, but in something like an "80s Japanese Biker Gang" way instead of taking a more modern (and effective) approach. However, this is impossible to literally translate because English doesn't share the same cultural history or grammar, and so we're using the proxy of somewhat out-of-date American rural styles of speech to get this nuance across. In this case, "lady friend" was selected as a southern euphemism for girlfriend that is no longer widely used. The exact word they use is the same in Japanese, but they way they say it is very different! We use this approach across the manga to approximate the impact of the many different (albeit largely Kansai-influenced) dialects spoken by its extensive cast.