What we already knew? Or something different? CH363 Translations

[sp-kathrine.livejournal.com]

Okay, this week, Vizmedia released volumes 38-41 of Naruto in English, and while there are a lot of translation choices that I could discuss, I found the translation of the last page of CH363 (Volume 40) to be really interesting. And I wanted to know if this makes people think it would change how they viewed this chapter and what happens later, because of foreshadowing, or if it doesn't change anything for anyone.



At the end of Chapter 363, Pein is speaking to the "hidden leader" (aka Madara), who tells him to go get the Nine-Tailed Fox Demon.

As you can see in this scanlation, Madara says "The machine is ripened. His mind is made up... It won't be long." I always took this to mean that Sasuke was ready to fight Itachi, or that Madara thought he was ready for some plot he had in mind. But the Vizmedia translation changed my opinion. That same line is written as:

"Then the time has come. I'm sure his mind is made up...since he doesn't have much longer."

Now, this changes this entire scene to me. No longer is Madara talking about Sasuke, but about Itachi, and the fact that Itachi is dying. Had we seen this line written in this way previous to Sasuke and Itachi's fight, would we have been so reluctant to be believe that Itachi was dying of some illness beforehand? I know some people believed it from the start, but, at the time, I personally didn't want to accept that he could keel over from some illness we didn't even know about.

I makes me look back at all of the lines the refer to toll that the Mangekyou Sharingan has on its user, such as Kisame's warning during the fight against Kakashi, Kurenai, and Asuma. Was this talking about Itachi going blind, or the fact that the power to use such a technique was making Itachi's illness worse?


Any thoughts from anyone else about this or any of the other translation choices for the latest batch of manga volumes? Or is this just something unimportant that I'm over-analyzing?

Comments

[senior-witch.livejournal.com]

I have looked up some other fan translations, yet I did not find one by Hisshouburaiken.


njt:

機は熟した
The time is ripe.

奴も覚悟は決まってるだろう
You can bet he's prepared himself.

そう長くはないからな
as it won't be long now

cnet128: (edit: I thought he was the same person as Carlos Net, but I am not sure any more.)

Mysteriousdude: I was quite impressed... / His skill with the Sharingan was more than clear... // Those eyes will surpass Itachi's... // The time is ripe. / He too is prepared, I think... It shouldn't be too long, after all.

Maybe you are correct and Madara is talking about Itachi, as his time was running out. I am not sure - maybe at some point in the future we will get more information about Itachi's illness.

[sp-kathrine.livejournal.com]

The second quote seems to fit more with the Vizmedia translation, but it's just the different way it's written completely changed who I thought they were talking about. At first they are speaking about Sasuke and so in the first translation it appears that they are still talking about Sasuke, but in the Vizmedia and the second one you've shown, it's much more ambiguous. I red the Viz-version and thought: "Wait, I thought they were talking about Sasuke at first?"

I hope we do find out more about the illness. It could be that it is something caused by the Mangekyou Sharingan, as we see Madara sick in bed when his starts to affect him, or it could be something completely unrelated to it.

[helike]

Might be just my opinion, but this "it won't be long now" might also refer to the fight that couldn't be avoided this time.

Yay for the vagueness of the language.

[helike]

Forgot to add that "it won't be long now" is closer to the literal meaning than the Viz translation.

[okroginator.livejournal.com]

I'm not really sure about the translations you mention here, but the recent American versions of the manga have had me either laughing a lot or shaking my head at the fail.

My favorite one would have to be Sasuke calling Orochimaru "Bright Eyes" before he killed him.

[sp-kathrine.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes, Volume 38 was great for laughs. They may have taken out the actual pictures of Konohamaru's jutsu, but they made up for it with some of the strange translations. XD

And Volume 39 also was funny, because no one could seem to stick to one mental illness for Juugo. Suigetsu called him schizophrenic and Pein called him bipolar. XD

[okroginator.livejournal.com]

I think that in order to pump out eight scanlated volumes in the span of, like, four months, they locked all the translators into a room with four months' supply of food, water, and high-grade crack cocaine, and said, "Get started."

[sp-kathrine.livejournal.com]

YES!! And of course when they started to crash they gave them caffeine pills to powder up and snort.

Oh, and it's 11 volumes in three months. Yeah, they were on something.

[okroginator.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes. I forgot. But yeah, some wacky stuff came out of that.

[fuuma-konan.livejournal.com]

Aaah, they took out the double knockout guys?!?? How dare they :P

But I do agree with some of the translations being funny... I bought volume 40, and a few of the things I liked were probably:
Tobi calling Deidara's C4 "super teeny-tiny explosives"
Deidara saying his final jutsu would "scar the earth itself and receive rave reviews from all my critics" (Seriously, that ruined the moment)
Madara saying "Ho ho ho..." (what kind of a laugh is that? He's not Santa!)
Tsunade saying "Ah, the times they are a-changin'." WTF.
Pein saying "Let's do it, Konan." I laughed, I don't know why.

Oh, and the Land of Waves was translated as "The Land of Eddies"... awkward o_O

[sp-kathrine.livejournal.com]

They silhouetted them instead of letting you see the nakedness, but to be fair they did the same thing to the double knockout girls too.

Exactly, they were more funny this time, whereas in the last bunch, I got angry and annoyed at some of the changes they made.

You mean Whirpool Country? Land of Waves is where Inari and his family are from and the Great Naruto Bridge. But yeah, it was a weird little translation, I wonder how they decide which term is best to use.

[fuuma-konan.livejournal.com]

Better than the anime, I suppose.

Yes, Whirlpool... that's what I meant ^^; They were discussing Kushina, so I suppose so.

They probably draw possible translations out of a hat. XD

[sp-kathrine.livejournal.com]

I know. I'm still hoping that they'll bring it back and do it RIGHT. The Japanese have usually been on our side in this.

Oh they pull a Gundam and have a meeting where they go: "Which one will make the LEAST sense and have people stare at the page until our subliminal messages take effect?"

[okroginator.livejournal.com]

I think Tsunade's just a Bob Dylan fan, clearly. XD

Don't forget Suigetsu and Karin discussing Juugo. Instead of, "He came to Orochimaru to be cured," they said, "...to be fixed." Ouchers.

[fuuma-konan.livejournal.com]

Hm... actually, it looks like Jiraiya saying it, now that I'm checking a scanlation: http://www.onemanga.com/Naruto/366/12/ "Times sure do change"
The bubble was next to Tsunade's head in the Viz one; it wasn't very clear...

[okroginator.livejournal.com]

But her mouth was open....hmm.

[okroginator.livejournal.com]

Well, maybe not, now that I look at it.

Huh.

[sp-kathrine.livejournal.com]

Everything on that page except the very first bubble is said by Jiraiya. Even though Tsunade's mouth is slightly open, there is no little "carrot" or "arrow" in the bubble pointing at her, meaning that whoever is speaking is not in the picture.

[okroginator.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I see it now.

That's weird, I could have sworn I saw Tsunade saying it...oh, well.

I keep staring at your "spinning Uchihas" icon up above and getting dizzy.

[sp-kathrine.livejournal.com]

This is why I sometimes wish the anime and the manga could be completely parallel when it comes to releases. Everything makes more sense when you see it animated (...unless they screw it up).

That's the purpose. ^_^ You keep staring until you can't stand it anymore. I had a version that when faster, but it made me too dizzy so I stopped using it. XD

[lykomancer.livejournal.com]

My favorite one would have to be Sasuke calling Orochimaru "Bright Eyes" before he killed him.

Yep, I LOL'd.

[okroginator.livejournal.com]

I was like, "Briiiiiiiiight eeyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyeees~ Buuuuuuuuuuurning like fire~"

[lykomancer.livejournal.com]

...I love that movie.

I mean, I get that Sasuke is talking down to Orochimaru. He's doing the insulting pet name-thing to a man who is creepy as hell and four times his age to show that he's unafraid and even mocking. But what the fuck, translators?

[okroginator.livejournal.com]

(your icon: ♥)

I know, and all of the speech bubbles around that one little blip there perfectly conveyed this. And then--just out of the blue--"Isn't that right, bright eyes?"

Me: *spittakes even though she is not drinking anything*

[fuuma-konan.livejournal.com]

Do you know what the original was?

[okroginator.livejournal.com]

In the scanlation I read, the only thing in the speech bubble where that particular quote appeared only said: [ Right, ] and then the next speech bubble was [ Mr. Great Sannin Genius? ] which was where the American equivalent [ And you're one of the three great shinobi? ] was. Meaning, as far as I know, no equivalent for "bright eyes" even existed in the manga. Hence the theory I gave sp_kathrine, that they were all on crack for a few months to get them out in time.

[fuuma-konan.livejournal.com]

Huh... that's strange.
Yup, they probably were on crack.

By the way, your icon amazes me XD

[okroginator.livejournal.com]

Three awesome words: Naruto Abridged 23.

[fuuma-konan.livejournal.com]

I am now curious, but can't seem to find it on YouTube... Would you have a link by any chance?
Itachi does have a very... cultured dubbed voice, I must admit.

[okroginator.livejournal.com]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRHX-wnULcU

You have to promise to spam it everywhere once you watch it.

Itachi's dubbed voice is Crispin Freeman. He was the only reason for the single episode of Naruto that I chose to watch in English. Though I cringed at Naruto's English VA, Crispin Freeman was worth every nanosecond of it.

[/total fangirlism and geekery]

[fuuma-konan.livejournal.com]

I promise. *favorites*
Hahaha... "My good sir"

[okroginator.livejournal.com]

"Do you have...evil tea????"

*shuts up before she totally geeks out*

[fuuma-konan.livejournal.com]

"Why yes, yes we do."
Now that I've had time to watch it... HAHAHA.

"Protect me... with your penis!" XD

By the way, I friended you, hope you don't mind :D

[badinerie.livejournal.com]

Crispin Freeman makes everything better, trufax. Unless he's being Alucard creepy, then we all just hide and cry in a corner. ._.

[monkeybananayum.livejournal.com]

yeah, when I first read that I had no idea what it meant. The machine is ripened? Huh? Makes more sense now.

[sp-kathrine.livejournal.com]

There were some other translations that made more sense than the one on OneManga, but I still find that the Vizmedia really makes more sense to me, and does give quite a bit of foreshadowing for the Itachi/Sasuke fight.

[raisel.livejournal.com]

I cant wait till next month so I can get my frind to buy me this batch of mangas. I am seriously laughing my head off at bad translations!