From: bt11+@andrew.cmu.edu (Benjamin Daniel Taylor)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.manga
Subject: Re: Ranma 1/2 (Viz)
Date: 7 Sep 92 02:58:08 GMT
	<1992Sep3.221800.9254@cam.compserv.utas.edu.au>
Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA

cjudd@esk.compserv.utas.edu.au (Craig Thomas Judd) writes:<;7mIORu ict/9h"f6rsXtch{
> In article <1992Sep3.164909.20018@newshost.unh.edu>, mt5W,7n
sr@kepler.unh.edu
> (Mathew S Reno) writes:

> > Actually I kind of liked it better colored.
> 
> NNAAAANNNNIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII??????!?!??!?!!!!!
> Well guys, we got ourselves a radical here. I have yet to see Ranma
> colourised, but I have heard many (unchallenged) reports that ep. 1 is the 
> worst thing Viz has ever done :-)

Donning my asbestos suit, I'll venture to challange those reports.  I
agree that the colors for #1 were pretty bad, but for another reason I
believe that this book is worthwhile.  Parts of Viz's translation are
better than their corresponding parts in The Ranma Project's script
for the first tv episode, which followers will know follows the manga
almost scene for scene.

I don't mean to say that The Ranma Project's script is bad, or that
Viz's trans. is great, but that in translating particular lines or
scenes, one or the other is superior.  Allow me to mention a few
examples:

Compare the scenes in which the daughters first meet Ranma's female
and male incarnations.  In The Ranma Project (TRP) script, Ranma-chan
introduces herself:	"Ranma Saotime is my name.  Please excuse me."
and Ranma himself:	"Ranma Saotime is my name."

Compare to Viz's translations:
Ranma-chan:		"I'm Ranma Saotime.  Sorry 'bout this."
Ranma:			"I'm Ranma Saotime.  Sorry 'bout this."

Sounds more natural, doesn't it?  The identical statements, IMHO,
contribute to the irony.  After listening to the first episode last
night, I believe I noticed a pause as Ranma introduced himself,
suggesting that the second sentence was overlooked by TRP.

There are frequent cases in which both translations mean much the same
thing but Viz's translation comes across in a way that is funny.
In these cases, TRP's wording is unnatural or mechnical in a way that
I personally never recognized the humor in an exchange until I read it
in Viz's Ranma.  The following example comes from the scene after
Akane has run out of the bathroom screaming and picked up a massive
stone/the table:
The Ranma Project:
Katsumi:  What happened?  Why are you holding the table like that?
Akane:    There's a pervert in the bathroom.
Nabiki:   Why don't you knock him down with your fist?
Akane:    Are you kidding?  I was scared shitless.

Viz:
Nabiki:   Akane, what is it?!  What's that for?!
Akane:    There's a pervert in the bathroom!
Nabiki:   Why don't you kill him with your bare hands?
Akane:    Because I'm afraid!!

Assuming a generous degree of liberty for translating Japanese to
English, such that the original Japanese for the manga and the anime
is the same for this scene, Viz's translation is clearly superior.
In TRP's version, Akane sounds entirely reasonable.  In Viz's version,
Akane is shocked out of speaking rationally.

My point is that Viz's Ranma #1 could not be judged the worst they have
ever done because it provides the best translation of the opening
story of the two that I've heard of and seen.  Some parts of TRP's
translation I prefer, in particular foreign words left untranslated,
like inazuka and the Chinese names for the lakes at Jhusenkyo.  For
the most part, I prefer Viz's translations, and so I value #1.

Having seen a major flame war on this book before, I hope that my
words will be interpreted in the spirit they were intended:  a
point-of-fact defense of an otherwise debatable book.

Signing off for now,
Your live(?), roving reporter at Notyale U.

Ben D. Taylor

a.k.a. yet *AGAIN* the mysterious Mr. Invisible

"Hello.  My name is Oedipus.  You are my father.  Prepare to die."