GITS: Kodansha Bilingual manga

[Briareos]

I recently bought the Ghost in the Shell Bilingual manga:
http://www.tokyocentral.com/shop/exd.asp?id=1246

For those who have never read GITS before, and even for those who already have the Dark Horse version of the GITS manga (I own the individual comics, the collected Dark Horse graphic novel, the Japanese collected manga, and now the Bilingual version) this is the version of GITS to get.

Bilingual manga are used by Japanese as a learning tool. An English/Japanese bilingual manga replaces the Japanese text in the manga with English, and prints the Japanese text at the bottom of the pages and in the side margins. Sound effects are also translated, often retaining the Japanese kanji sound effects in artwork form while printing the translation of the sound next to the effect.

The main selling point of this book for me was the fact that it uses the literal Frederik L. Schodt translation of the manga. The Dark Horse version's translation was reworked by Toren Smith from the Schodt version and lost a lot along the way. (Smith personally admits that he butchered it.) The Bilingual version is much clearer and clarifies a number of sections that I found confusing when I first read the Dark Horse version.

While the Bilingual manga is smaller than the Dark Horse manga, the print quality of the Bilingual edition is much better -- crisper, cleaner, sharper -- and it remains right to left just like the original Japanese manga.

The last goodie is that the Bilingual edition retains the two pages and one panel that Shirow himself edited out of the Dark horse version of the manga. The dropped scene features Motoko and two female friends creating an illegal cyber-sex recording that they plan on selling in the underground market. (This is the Major's other job.) You can plug in to this "recording" and actually experience the sex, although there are certain dangers involved (thus the reason it's illegal) and it can only be experienced by women (because men don't have the same parts to experience the same sensations). The scene, although somewhat graphic, is fascinating since Shirow has notes and technology details all over the two pages -- exploring some of the potentials of true virtual reality. There's also a funny part involving Batou who ends up crashing their little party.

The book is no longer in print, however shops all over the 'net still have copies. Got mine for $15.00 plus $2.30 shipping. List price is $29.99.

[TronDD]

I just finished reading the Dark Horse GitS last night.

I've considered getting bilingual manga but have never seen it in person and was conserned about the quality of the translations and just how cluttered it might be with 2 languages written out. I wish there were wore bilingual options. I haven't seen many, anyway.

Where did you get it so cheap? I paid more for the Dark Horse version ond only got one language. :(

[AnimeFangirl]

I read a bilingual version of Sazae-san once. Is that the sort of thing you're talking about, with both Japanese and English on the same page? I don't think it was particularly expensive either.

[Briareos]

I just finished reading the Dark Horse GitS last night.

I've considered getting bilingual manga but have never seen it in person and was conserned about the quality of the translations and just how cluttered it might be with 2 languages written out. I wish there were wore bilingual options. I haven't seen many, anyway.

Where did you get it so cheap? I paid more for the Dark Horse version ond only got one language. :(I got mine from Animebooks.com, but I'm not sure why they've jacked up the price.
http://search.store.yahoo.com/cgi-bin/nsearch?catalog=animebooks-com&query=ghost&.autodone=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.animebooks.com%2Fnsearc h.html

The link in my first post sells it for $18.00 + shipping. Yeah, the Dark Horse one is priced at about $24.99 (at least my first edition is). Look around if you want to get it. I found my price with about a half hour of searching.

I should stress that the Bilingual (at least from Kodansha) is not cluttered at all, because the Japanese text is outside the frame for the most part. The art frame is slightly smaller than normal so there is more space on the page to use for this purpose. It's really just about a 5% reduction, and doesn't affect the look of the pages at all. Maybe I'll scan a comparison when I get back from Detroit on Sunday.

[Briareos]

I found an example of the Love Hina Bilingual mangas that should give you a good idea of what to expect from Kodansha's Bulingual mangas.

http://dmd-sales.com/manga/lovehina.htm

Click on the page graphics for a close-up view of each page.

[MwyC]

ive had my dark horse GiTS for about a year now and have read and re-read it quite a bit
ive seen the edited out scenes scanlated, but not the rest of it.
is the bilingual edition THAT much better? cause im a bit wary of shelling ( :heh: ) out another 40-50 bucks cdn if the bilingual version isnt immensely better
and i cant read japanese anyway, so practicing my reading is pretty useless

[Briareos]

ive had my dark horse GiTS for about a year now and have read and re-read it quite a bit

ive seen the edited out scenes scanlated, but not the rest of it.

is the bilingual edition THAT much better? cause im a bit wary of shelling ( ) out another 40-50 bucks cdn if the bilingual version isnt immensely better

and i cant read japanese anyway, so practicing my reading is pretty uselessI'll tell you what. Tonight, I'll make up a text comparison of some of the Dark Horse version vs. some of the Bilingual version. The Bilingual translation is much more clear, especially when the dialogue gets technical.


_________________________LATER THAT NIGHT:



Okay, so here I am at home doing a page-by-page comparison of the two versions (something I should have done before I spoke up saying that the Bilingual version is better). I'm not sure why I thought the Bilingual version was so much better. Maybe it's because every time I read GITS, I understand it more. The differences in translation are actually quite minimal. Parts have slightly different wording, or different accents added (page 129 -- the sniper in the Dark Horse version), but a vast majority of the dialogue is the same (which still baffles me -- I must be losing it in my old age ). Some translational differences are personal preference. Dark Horse uses the term "Cyberbrain" when the Bilingual version uses "e-brain". Some parts of the Bilingual version are the reverse of the meaning in the Dark horse translation for example; on page 10 something is amiss because the Fuchikoma clearly gets confirmation later on (at the top of page 12):Bilingual -- page 10, panel 6
Major: Hey Fuchikoma! Got the confirmation?
Fuchi: Y-Yes, Sir!
Major: (aside) Well, get with it!

Dark Horse -- page 10, panel 6
Major: Hey Fuchikoma! Got the confirmation?
Fuchi: N-No, Ma'am!
Major: (aside) Well then, get on with it!Most of the other discrepancies I noticed were in the no for yes department. The Bilingual translation is, after all, the raw translation before Toren Smith edited it for the Dark horse version.

Here's an example of one of the moments where the Bilingual beats out the Dark horse version:Dark Horse -- page 342 (accounting for the two missing pages near the beginning of chapter three)
Batou: It's 21:34 on September 22, and yer in my very own safe house.
Major: Huh...This is the Michelangelo III style that was popular four years back...
Batou: Hmphh! That all you can say? Nothin' else for poor ol' Batou?
Major: Thanks for the effort...
Batou: ... (crying for being slighted)
Major: Boo! So what'd you do with the guy who used to be in this prosthetic bod?
Batou: Well, one of her pals took your unit home, thinking it was some loot he'd uncovered, and -- Heh-heh -- Huh?"Guy?" Guy?!
Major: Yeah. This is a male body. You want proof?
Batou: M-Male??! So that's why yer voice was low?!
Major: Walking feels strange...

Bilingual -- page 344
Batou: It's September 22, 9:34 p.m., and yer in my own safe house...
Major: Hmph...This is the Michelangelo III style that was popular four years back...
Batou: Sniff. 'That all you can say? Nothin' else?
Major: Thanks for all your efforts...
Batou: ... (crying for being slighted)
Major: What the?! So what'd you do with the guy who used to be in this prosthetic bod?
Batou: Well, one of her pals took her unit home, thinking it was some loot he'd uncovered...Heh-heh...?..."Guy?!" You said "Guy?!!!"?
Major: Yeah. This is a male body. You want proof?
Batou: Male??! So that's why yer voice was so low?!
Major: Yech, walking feels awkward...Now although the differences are technically slight, they are greatly different in the meanings conveyed. In the Dark horse version, I thought that Batou had made a deal with the previous body-owners pal (who is a scavenger), but that never made sense, since the body's owner would have protested, and the Major's "unit" was a literally rotting and molding, black-market body.

The Bilingual version makes it clear that Batou forcibly removed the previous owner's brain from the body he acquired for the Major, and then left the brain-pan out for his scavenger buddies to find. This not only makes the scene much more clear, it makes it all the more funny. The last line is also funnier in the Bilingual version, because it conveys the Major's disgust at having to learn to walk with male genitalia between her legs.

I noticed that a few of the aside lines by various characters didn't get a translation in the Bilingual version, and the Bilingual version also does not include an English translation for the extensive (14 pages of) footnotes at the end of the book.

So the decision to buy or not to buy is personal preference in the end. I'm glad I have it, but you may not want to shell out the bucks for what essentially amounts to minor transnational differences (and two pages of the Major working at her other job, recording a virtual sex experience -- which is erotic and graphic, full of techinical theory, and funny at the same time).

I hope this helps.

[MwyC]

yes, that helps VERY much
thank so so much for taking all that time to compare the two
loving ghost in the shell, i might just pick it up if i see it cheaper, but as it is, its a bit outta my price range...usually going for USD$32 + $15 :twitch: shipping (need the cash to pick up man-machine interface) :heh:

[Briareos]

No problem and good luck. :)

[whyrph]

Nippon-export has it for 22 bucks:

http://www.nippon-export.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=24_33_233

Don't know about shipping, though - haven't ordered from them before (about to, however - they have Yakikate!).

[Briareos]

Dark Horse is going to release a 2nd TPB edition of the original GITS manga.
Details in the SAC thread. (http://forums.animesuki.com/showpost.php?p=306460&postcount=92)