/jp/ - Otaku Culture

Some more info on project management.
http://dpaste.com/39ZMM41

"Translation is automatically compromise. But compromise the right thing."

I've posted this before, but I'll post it again and revise it a bit.

You should consider that some Japanese concepts can't truly be translated into English, and honorifics are among the hardest thing to translate without losing much of the relationship nuances. Sure, you can use English titles like Lord, Sir, Mister and the like, but I find that this rarely happens.

There's also the fact that the industry's main audience are weaboos. The type that watches ecchi seasonal anime subbed, wear stuff like cats ears and naruto headbands and are not ashamed to display the stuff publicly. NOT saying that the customer is always right (which is a garbage mentality), but they are the ones that buy the stuff so pandering to them is a logical thing to do, at least from the business standpoint.

So for stuff like moege and eroge that use "Modern Japan" (or that has a lot of Japanese cultural elements anyway) as their setting, honorifics are more of a necessity if not an outright requirement.

While for VNs that use "Western Fantasy", "Sci-Fi" and the like as their setting, honorifics are really not necessary and may even feel out of place.
"Western Fantasy" is also special in that it allows for the usage of Ye Olde English, which makes the translation of honorifics easier and may even add flavour to it, provided you have a good translator/editor or else you end with stuff like >>19261795 happening, in which case its just better to leave them in. The exception to this rule are "Appeal" characters that call you an specific way, like Gurigura in Evenicle, which calls MC "Onii-chan". Even localizing it as "Big Bro" makes it lose much of that appeal.

So yeah, you CAN do away with honorifics, but you or your editor also need a good command of English to translate them successfully, and also know when NOT to remove them. Know the type of game you're translating and know your audience and you'll make a good translation.

But what do I know. This industry has rather low standards, with abundant ESL that are comfortable with edited MTL garbage. There's also the fact that most of the good translators moved up and went to do something else that pays more or quit altogether, so there's not a lot of talent within the industry. You gotta make do with what you have.

Not the other autist, but I don't think honorifics can be translated. It's one of those nuances about the Japanese language that can't truly be translated.
I mean, you CAN remove them, but I found that removing them in your average high-school setting moege takes away from the experience.
HOWEVER, contrary to what I said, it's better to remove them in fantasy settings like funbag fantasy, or Rance, or anything Sci-Fi.
It's kind of tricky to know when to remove them, but I wouldn't say that a translation that has them is bad, no.