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/jp/ - Otaku Culture

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1520023 No.1520023 [Reply] [Original]

Gentlemen.

Why do light novels read so badly? Most of the ones translated into English are, despite the fact that their anime was good, quite terrible. Now, I realize light novels are the equivalent of American YA novels, so I'm not expecting a literary masterpiece, but many of these (i'm thinking vampire hunter d here) suck. The only good light novel i read was Kino's journey (which was really good) so i'm starting to thing that maybe most translators just suck, or translating japanese novels into english is really hard.
Is there anyone (maybe someone who knows enough Japanese) that can shed some light on the matter?

>> No.1520039
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1520039

>> No.1520037

>shed some light on the matter
dhohohoho

>> No.1520041

>>1520037
beat me to it
only I would have said DOHOHOHOHO

>> No.1520047

poorly paid editors feel no need to write interesting english

>> No.1520072

You've pretty much answered your own questions.
Have you taken a look at Spore's preview of the 9th Slayers novel? It was pretty good, I think.

>> No.1520076

Pic related or not? I want to know if I should start reading Baka-Tsuki's Toradora translations.

>> No.1520080

>>1520023
>>so i'm starting to thing that maybe most translators just suck
They do.
It may be a shocking fact for you but being a translator is a real job, don't expect something good from some fan's project.

>> No.1520099

>>1520080
I'm talking about professional ones as well. Also, i don't ever visit /jp/, so did i make some kind of joke without realizing it?

>> No.1520104

>>1520099
Unintended puns are the worst kind

>> No.1520344

get Boogiepop and Zaregoto

>> No.1521002

Anime-style stories are poorly suited to the written medium.

It's sad how the country which invented the novel is so disinterested in it nowadays.

>> No.1521016

>>1521002
Same as Hollywood only sprout utter shit lately.

>> No.1521018

The Welcome to the NHK light novel was pretty good. I hope they don't screw up the Haruhi or Spice and Wolf light novels.

>> No.1521040

>>1520023
You are too late to notice.
Yes, most of light novels are shit.
But a few of them are good.

>> No.1521273

>>1520076
Their Toradora translations are great, same with Haruhi. Then you have shit like Zero no Tsukaima which is almost unreadable (although I think ZnT would suck no matter how good the translation was). Since it's a wiki community the quality varies greatly.

>>
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