Yancha Gal no Anjou-san - Vol. 5 Ch. 58 - Toyoda-san Can't Enter the Contest

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Hey, translator here again. This might be another long post, but anyone who is interested in translation will find it interesting, I think.

Some people are commenting that both /a/'s and my translations are acceptable, or that /a/'s translations aren't that far off. This is entirely untrue, and I would like to prove that with some glaring issues in their releases.

Chapter 57:


The translator for both chapters 57 and 58 have written Toyoda's name as Toda. Almost all names in this series are written with furigana (the text that shows how to read kanji), so this doesn't make much sense. Anjou and Chita refer to Toyoda as Toyo.


Japanese: あの…安城さんいつか本当に怒られるよ?
Anon TL: Um... Anjou-san, are you actually mad about before?
Facepalm: Um... You're really gonna get in trouble one day.

Literal meaning: Um... Anjou-san, one day (the teacher) will seriously get angry with you, y'know?

This line refers to how Anjou-san always does stuff that would get her in trouble. This line comes shortly after the chapter where Anjou-san is roasting marshmallows and heating up cookies on a kerosene heater at school.


Japanese: なんでこんなに好きなんに / こんなに恥ずかしいんやろ…
Anon TL: Why do I like this... / This embarrassing thing...
Facepalm: Why am I so embarrassed / about something I love this much...

Literal meaning: Even though I like (this kind of thing) this much / Why am I so embarrassed about it...

The very basic Kansai dialect Toyoda-san uses might throw off someone who is still learning Japanese. That's the only reason I think you could mistranslate such a simple line.


Japanese: 飛島先生やったっけ?
Anon TL: This was Tobishima-sensei's idea?
Facepalm: It was Ms. Tobishima, right?

Literal meaning: (The teacher's name was) Tobishima-sensei, right?

This is another instance of misunderstanding Kansai dialect, I think. In this dialect, the やった here doesn't refer to the past tense of やる (to do, to give) but is instead a mutation of だった, which is the coppula (is, to be).


Japanese: こっちの緑ももっとギュッと深くしよっか
Anon TL: I think it'll be good if you make this line a little deeper too.
Facepalm: Let's deepen the green here.

Literal meaning: Let's deepen and make firm [strong] the green over here, too.

Line is written as 線. The colour green is written as 緑. That's about all I have to say about that.

Note: Some lines after this have been interpreted incorrectly because of the mistake in ➃ by the anon translator, so let's overlook those mistakes and move on.

Chapter 58:


Japanese: 好きだったよな?
Anon TL: Do you like this kind of thing?
Facepalm: You like these, right?

Literal meaning: You like these, right?

Even without knowing the relationship between these two, だったよな? very clearly refers to a past action or knowledge. He would not use this Japanese to ask her information he does not know.


Japanese: あいかわらず変なん好きやなぁ / ホント…
Anon TL: He never changes. He really loves to / criticize...
Facepalm: He sure likes weird stuff. / Honestly...

Literally meaning: As ever he likes weird things. / Really...

... OK?


Japanese: 犬山みたいにできたら楽なんになぁ…
Anon TL: If I could be like Inuyama then may-be I could have fun too...
Facepalm: If I could draw like Inuyama, things would be a lot easier...

Literal meaning: If only I could do (things) like Inuyama, it would be easier...

The anon transator has misunderstood the meaning of 楽 which is the kanji used in 楽しい (adj. enjoyable, fun), but as a noun means comfort, ease. I personally took the nuance of this line and applied it to his drawing skill to help the flow of her realisation since it was kind of vague.


Japanese: 絵上手い人の描くキャラ参考にしたら上達するかな思って…
Anon TL: I thought if I talked with someone good I might be able to improve...
Facepalm: So I thought using a good artist's work as reference would help me improve...

Literal meaning: I thought that if I used a character drawn by someone good at drawing as a reference, I might improve my skill...

参考にする means to use as a reference. Not a big issue with their translation, but also lacks accuracy.


Japanese: よ よかったらその… / 描こうか?キャラ…
Anon TL: Th-Then... / Should we draw one? A mascot...
Facepalm: I-If you'd like, um... / I could draw it. For you...

Literal meaning: I-If you'd like, that... / Shall (I) draw it? A character [mascot]...

Omitted subjects can be tricky. If they wrote "Should we draw one together?" this translation would make a lot more sense. But I'm fairly confident based on the following Japanese that Inuyama is suggesting that they eliminate the issue of poor drawing quality by having him draw her design instead.


Japanese: コレだっていうの見せてってさ
Anon TL: If this is all you have to show me.
Facepalm: Show me something that screams, "This is it!"

Literal meaning: (I said to you) Show me a "This is it" kind of thing.

This line calls back to the previous advice the teacher gave Toyoda-san. Not quite sure why they didn't realise this.


Japanese: コレ / 恥ずかしくないでしょ?
Anon TL: This. / Isn't it embarrassing?
Facepalm: But this / isn't embarrassing, is it?

Literal meaning: This / isn't embarrassing, is it? [doesn't make you feel embarrassed, does it?]

This one is unacceptable, and it's a very important line. The nuance of this line is "This doesn't embarrass you, and that's an issue." Even without the context provided in chapter 59, I understood the advice that Tobishima-sensei is giving here. Toyoda-san doesn't feel anything when it comes to this design because she had someone else draw it or her, so it's not her character. This is why the climactic moment in chapter 59 is Toyoda-san blushing with the force of a thousand suns and saying "It's really embarrassing, but I want you to look at it," because it's a bare-naked look into what she likes and is very personal.

The anon translator has turned this line into, "Aren't you ashamed about this? You should be." That's appalling.


Japanese: 自分の愛を他人に任せちゃダメ
Anon TL: Pushing the things you love onto someone else is no good.
Facepalm: You can't rely on someone else to show your love.

Literal meaning: Don't leave your love [or the act of representing it] to other people.

This isn't the easiest line to translate. Even my translation is kinda forced. 任せる means to entrust to someone or to leave a task to someone. What Tobishima-sensei is saying here is "It's your responsibility to show your love, so don't let someone else do it for you."


Japanese: オレがでしゃばったから…
Anon TL: I just made it worse...
Facepalm: I'm the one who suggested it...

Literal meaning: It's because I butted in...

This is nitpicky. Inuyama is saying that he's the one who butted in on her contest entry by suggesting that he draw it for her.


Japanese: 才能とか言うなよ
Anon TL: Stop talking about ability.
Facepalm: Don't call it talent.

Literally meaning: Don't say things like talent. [Don't call it talent.]

This is a pretty easy line. Inuyama's snapped a little bit. Everyone knows that people who can't draw well say "I just don't have the talent for it," which implies that skilled artists are only good because of some innate sense for art. While talent plays a big factor in drawing and painting well, years and even decades of study and practice are the real factors. I wanted this line to have that weight and punch behind it.


Japanese: オレが頑張ってないみたいで嫌だ
Anon TL: I hate hearing you talk like you're giving up.
Facepalm: It sounds like I didn't work hard to get here.

Literal meaning: It sounds like I don't do my best [haven't done my best] and I hate that.

??? The オレ is talking about himself. I cannot understand how the translator did not understand this. There is no mention of giving up (諦める) in here at all. Refer to ➉ to see why I translated this line this way.

. . . . .

I hope you enjoyed my little lecture about translation. If you have any questions about why our translations differ in other sections or about my translations in general, I'm always happy to answer them!
 
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I have an honest question, because I do enjoy y'alls translation, but why did it come out after /a/non uploaded theirs? Was there a sudden rush job to ignore a lot of the clean up, was there maybe a certain date the group tries to upload things?
 
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@FourzeShikikan Basically just a rush job. 57 was delayed because I really wanted to have the posters for the contest redrawn and typeset properly. 58 was going to take a day or two regardless of when I uploaded 57, because the cleaning and redrawing in that chapter was super easy.
 
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@FourzeShikikan We do not try to keep to any fixed or predictable schedule. We work on and release things whenever we feel like it.

2Q.png
 
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@FourzeShikikan to expand on reimu's response: it's not like we have any insight into when anyone else is going to release chapters. we're always just working on the next chapter at any given point. when we have work in-progress, there's no reason to just dump it, especially when the quality of the other releases isn't all that great (and especially as in some cases, the translation is bad enough that it actually totally changes the meaning of some lines).

It's not as though when anon releases a chapter, we then start working on that chapter from the start. it was already in progress, and it's a matter of finishing what's necessary to get it out. delays we've had were almost entirely down to me not being able to get the work assigned to me done. rem has taken over almost all of my responsibilities due to that, and it's why we just got four chapters out in a month.
 
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@balenol Oh I read it, alright. I just don't give a shit. People are quick to praise snipers, but when snipers try to actually turn into a serious group and offer quality, it's a whole different tune. Every single complaint about Facepalm I've seen could be levelled at pretty much any snipers.

Oh well, another for my block list, I guess. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 
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You know, after all this drama, I prefer this version after all. The quaility is just better. It's cleaner, smooter, and read more natural.
 
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@MagicalCarcrash I'd like to see more cases of people updating series with improved quality, because some series are filled with early group swaps that shift quality of scans and translations all over the place. I especially hate when they can't make up their minds about names, and some groups seem to be so focused on grabbing as many series as possible that they throw out barely proofread chapters just to be first. One series I read they'd even have three different names for the same character each chapter, even when it's the same group releasing.

@cor3zone One of the arguments I hear about sniping being bad is that it discourages people from translating things because they lose motivation, but then they turn right around and fill threads like these with posts telling people to stop releasing. It's an interesting joke, but I'm not sure I'm getting the punchline.
 
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@Dombl Yeah, I don't get it either. Sniping is bad, except it isn't? What? I also don't get why getting better quality of a thing, is bad. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 
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@Dombl That sure doesn't happen often enough. The only example I know is Fiancée's Observation Log, where they upload a cleaner version when they got their hand on high quality scans.
 
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Poor Facepalm, the suffer from doing quality work and then becoming a slave to it, ahah.

Be Facepalm:
>don't do chapters - get shit
>do chapters - get shit

Man, that's why I don't like doing stuff for free.
 
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@TDSgaming Tbf, the problem with the word is people talking crap without knowing. But talent IS a thing, and anyone who says otherwise is a fool.
If talent wasn't a thing, we'd have a Mozart or 20 in every class. But not every 5yo can learn a complicated piece just hearing it once, can they?

Doesn't mean he didn't ALSO work hard.
 
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@Tatherwood oh yes, talent is definitely a thing. Honestly no matter how much raw effort you put in, someone with talent that puts in the same amount will do better. But talent only brings you so far, and once people reach a certain threshold, they possess more skill than talent, and by that point should rightfully be called skillful.
 

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