Maoyuu Maou Yuusha - "Kono Watashi no Mono Tonare, Yuusha yo" "Kotowaru"

[Xellos-_^]

Originally Posted by LeaD36

in all sincerity, we should just call them airhead and bigboobed airhead

According to the Head Maid it should be "Useless Meat Airhead"

[Anjou]

Hello, Anjou here. I primarily use another name in my works, but here I'm Anjou. I work on the Comp Ace's version of mmy, so I'll give a little bit of insight as to why we picked which name.

Every name was picked in a pretty crude way. ruggia, our translator, dumps a bunch of names out and we just throw out the bad-sounding ones or suggest new names. If I remember correctly, one of the names suggested was Queen of Demons. Eight chapters later and it's pretty obvious that wasn't used

But what about Demon Lord? Since I can barely remember our discussion on Demon Queen's name, I can only speculate what happened if it was brought up. Frankly, I would've crossed it out immediately. C'mon, Demon Lord? For a queen? Just name her queen and be done with it.

Hey hey, and Maou? That's an easy one. I hate TL notes. They are ugly, time-wasting, and I'm not a weeaboo. Simply put, it's not kawaii enough.

You can argue that if that's the case, then why not translate everything, including the title? That wouldn't sound as sugoi though!

Plus, instead of Archdragon whatever, you'll have sugoidolagon. That's just not as kawaii, you know?

TL Note: Kawaii means cute. Sugoi means OH MAI GAWD AWEFLKANEFAWLKFNA

The 4-koma is a massive, massive time sink. I hate working on it. You guys better read it and have a laugh

Got a question about anything behind-the-scenes? Feel free to throw it out here.

[Athena]

LeaD36, Xellos, I kinda agree with you guys...

Thanks for the info, Anjou.

[MrTerrorist]

Hi Anjou. I'm glad to know one of the staff working on Comp Ace's Maoyuu Maou Yuusha is joining us. As you probably know, we're having a discussion of whether the main female character's name in TVTropes should stay as it's Japanese name "Maou" or the accepted translated english name by fans, "Demon Queen".

I was very surprise on your opinion against using the original Japanese name since it was very "weeaboo"( Never though i hear this word again for a long time). So in your opinion, should the character just be name "Demon Queen" or another name? I hope for your answer.

[Anjou]

Originally Posted by MrTerrorist

I was very surprise on your opinion against using the original Japanese name since it was very "weeaboo"( Never though i hear this word again for a long time). So in your opinion, should the character just be name "Demon Queen" or another name? I hope for your answer.

I'd definitely use Demon Queen. It's the more known term (I had no idea Maou = Queen, tbh), and like I said, if you leave it untranslated, all other names, for consistency sake, must also be left in untranslated (eg. Hero -> Yuusha).

I can see why some may prefer Maou over Demon Queen though. You can make excellent arguments for both sides.
If you still can't decide, toss a coin and let chance do its magic just remember to be consistent though~

[LeaD36]

ou is the general term for queen/king, ma means demon, sorta
or atleast that's what i pieced together by watching ichiban ushiro no dai maou

[Athena]

Didn't know that "Ou" could be used for "queen" though.

[LeaD36]

well maou should mean demon king imho, not demon queen
perhaps demon emperor would be a better translation? i got no idea

[Athena]

Demon emperor sounds a bit...hum...specific?

[Bonta Kun]

My thinking is I expect the best translation as possible but there is the fact that not everything can be, as not everything works as well in english as it does in japanese, so in that case best going with what works best in english as it's for english readers.
Demon Queen is best, Demon Lord works well enough but Demon King not so much.
There are times when going with "simple" is the best way and I'd say this was one of them times and the simple way here is Demon Queen

[Anjou]

Scanlating means translating relevant Japanese into English in a way that minimizes the effort required by the reader to understand the material. In a way, like Bonta Kun said, simple is usually the best way, but not always.
DUH!
That's pretty damn obvious, but let me give some concrete examples.

Spoiler for Example 1:

Okujyouhime ch07, pg03

It's easy to guess from the context of the other panels what the SFX is, but I asked anyway (I can't read moonrunes). Apparently, the SFX describes a buzzing sound. In this particular school, the bell is played through the PA system as a buzz.

Now, if I went ahead and typesetted "Buzz buzz" into the panel, most of you will probably be scratching your heads. Although I attended three high schools and two had the buzz system, I know that the majority will use the tried-and-true mechanical ring ring ring ding ding ding bell system.

In this case, the correct typeset would in fact be "Ring ring" or "ding dong", depending on your mood.

You can make strong argument that the "more correct" line is buzz buzz. Do you want to preserve Japanese to the fullest, or do you want readers to absorb your work a little easier?

Fun fact: I left the Japanese alone.

Spoiler for Example 2:

MMY ch08 pg04. Also known as "I didn't see the typos until I released it"

For these few lines, we had to use the "-dono" suffix and add a tl note since there's no substitute in English. If we bulldozed it out, the meaning would've been lost.

Personally, I hate tl notes.


So there you have it. I hope this settles this name issue. I understand that translating a light novel is completely different, so you might be right in picking Maou over Demon Queen. I don't know since I never worked on a LN before :S

[Irenicus]

Originally Posted by Anjou

The 4-koma is a massive, massive time sink.

How come? Unclean raws? Barely readable original Japanese font?

Originally Posted by Anjou

Apparently, the SFX describes a buzzing sound. In this particular school, the bell is played through the PA system as a buzz.

Now, if I went ahead and typesetted "Buzz buzz" into the panel, most of you will probably be scratching your heads. Although I attended three high schools and two had the buzz system, I know that the majority will use the tried-and-true mechanical ring ring ring ding ding ding bell system.

In this case, the correct typeset would in fact be "Ring ring" or "ding dong", depending on your mood.

Actually, it is literally a drawn out "kin kon," a bell sound used by just about every Japanese high school out there (one can hear it sometimes in school-setting anime). Something very similar exists in many US high schools as well.

So your typesetting some sort of bell sound is much closer than buzz buzz or whatever. Honestly buzz buzz would just make people go, wut. Where are the bees?

Albeit, although you said you hate TL notes, I'm usually of the opinion that big SFX sounds drawn over the panel are better left untranslated or explained by the briefest of notes (*Bell). It means you guys don't have to bother cleaning, redrawing, and typesetting all that stuff, too!

Of course, for consistency's sake if you translate smaller SFX notes (a little "mu" next to a character = pout :<) you might feel like you need to do it for the big ones as well.

[Mentar]

Anjou, I've been working in the fansubbing scene for 10 years - so I've experienced discussions of this kind more than once - and for what little it's worth, I agree with your decision to go with Demon Queen 100%. Thanks for your efforts. Your translations flow very well.

Addressing a female with "King" in English would be a typical case of a failed translation, because it would introduce a new and wrong connotation (the speaker negates the femininity of the one addressed) which doesn't exist in the Japanese to begin with. I can't believe that this is still even discussed here.

[MrTerrorist]

Originally Posted by Mentar

Anjou, I've been working in the fansubbing scene for 10 years - so I've experienced discussions of this kind more than once - and for what little it's worth, I agree with your decision to go with Demon Queen 100%. Thanks for your efforts. Your translations flow very well.

Addressing a female with "King" in English would be a typical case of a failed translation, because it would introduce a new and wrong connotation (the speaker negates the femininity of the one addressed) which doesn't exist in the Japanese to begin with. I can't believe that this is still even discussed here.

Thanks Mentar. I hope you can explain this to the person that wants to change "Demon Queen" to "Maou" in the series TV Tropes page over at the discussion thread.

[Athena]

Though from what s/he said, it's about many different versions...and if you think like that, it's acceptable. Frankly, I have not seen other versions, but no matter how they are translated, it's all from "Maou" that it comes from...

IMO, for TVTroopes, it could simply follow its antecedents. If they translated "Daimaou", then translate "Maou" too. If they didn't, then don't translate it neither.

[Anjou]

Originally Posted by Irenicus

How come? Unclean raws? Barely readable original Japanese font?

Neither. The raws are ripped directly from the publication's web comic reader, so they're usually clean. Just a little bit of processing and they look fine.

No, the real problem is that there is so much text in so little space. Every line needs to be adjusted - position, font size, font choice...
Anaru is my other name - I'm very Anaru about my own typesetting, especially when it comes to positioning. It takes ~12 minutes to do one page of 4-koma. Multiply it out and it's a little over 1.5 hours on just 8 pages! Hidoi~!

fufufu~ I should stop with that crap.

Originally Posted by Irenicus

Actually, it is literally a drawn out "kin kon," a bell sound used by just about every Japanese high school out there (one can hear it sometimes in school-setting anime). Something very similar exists in many US high schools as well.

Oopsies, my bad! See, my memories are terrible.
Even so, "kin kon" isn't quite bell-ish to gaijiners like me.

Originally Posted by Irenicus

Albeit, although you said you hate TL notes, I'm usually of the opinion that big SFX sounds drawn over the panel are better left untranslated or explained by the briefest of notes (*Bell). It means you guys don't have to bother cleaning, redrawing, and typesetting all that stuff, too!

Here's where it turns into a gray area. Depending on mango, I might or might not skip typesetting sfx. If it's Okujyouhime, I typeset quite a lot of it. If it's mmy, I leave them all. This has more to do with cleaning and redrawing than typesetting (in other words, amount of effort). For big sfx, I usually (if not always) leave them unless they're important to understanding the material. If the sfx is deemed essential, then I'll add a little "SFX: blah blah blah" outside the panel.

Originally Posted by Irenicus

Of course, for consistency's sake if you translate smaller SFX notes (a little "mu" next to a character = pout :<) you might feel like you need to do it for the big ones as well.

Sometimes~ but efffforrrttttttttttttt

You're right though. If I do the small sfx, chances are, I'll go the extra step to do them all for consistency.

--------------------------------

Originally Posted by Mentar

Anjou, I've been working in the fansubbing scene for 10 years - so I've experienced discussions of this kind more than once - and for what little it's worth, I agree with your decision to go with Demon Queen 100%. Thanks for your efforts. Your translations flow very well.

Thanks! You'll have to direct your compliments to the translator though - I don't translate I can do all the other stuff though: editing the script, cleaning the raws, typesetting...

I like to say that I use a hammer to edit scripts - if something's wrong with a phrase, I'll smash it up until it looks good. I've written a little about this:

Spoiler for Musunde Hiraite ch07 release post:

In most of these cases, stepping back, reading the line over, and rewording the sentence worked. But there were rare occasional moments where stepping back didn’t work and I had to completely rewrite the line. This will reduce translation accuracy since I had no translators ready to help me out (you went offline at the wrong moment, ruggia!), but I believe the trade-off was worth it. After all, I like using a hammer to solve things.

Teehee~ I usually write too much.
I have to stress that I don't translate, so most of that work is done by the translator. Not translating though means doing other work in scanlating, and as you know from fansubbing (I've fansubbed before as well), translating probably takes the least amount of time!

Originally Posted by Mentar

Addressing a female with "King" in English would be a typical case of a failed translation, because it would introduce a new and wrong connotation (the speaker negates the femininity of the one addressed) which doesn't exist in the Japanese to begin with. I can't believe that this is still even discussed here.

Agreed

PS. MrTerrorist, where did you read the chapter? We still don't have them raws >.<

[MrTerrorist]

Originally Posted by Anjou

Agreed

PS. MrTerrorist, where did you read the chapter? We still don't have them raws >.<

What chapter are you talking about?

[Von Himmel]

Or we could say Maou = Overlord just in case like Disgaea

The 4-koma is a massive, massive time sink. I hate working on it. You guys better read it and have a laugh

That reminds me, the 4 koma version has the most...helpless demon queen compared to all other version I didn't even know that the general characterization of the demon queen in all version should be someone air-headed before reading that series... I mean, in the first version that I read, the demon queen might seem a bit helpless but I don't think she's an airhead

...then again, maybe I don't really understand the terms of helpless or airhead

[LeaD36]

^that's what i suggested earlier, given the literal translation of maou (i still got no idea what it would be, but 王 means king in itself), but i dno if there'd be a female version of the word maou

[surerman]

Originally Posted by MrTerrorist

What chapter are you talking about?

he talk about comic Clear version

Maou or Demon Queen I don't mind, as long as it make sense