Contributor
- Joined
- Feb 12, 2018
- Messages
- 550
As the title says. I can translate and proofread, but naturally I can't proofread my own works. So, I'm looking to pull together a rag-tag team of other possibly lazy people and maybe we can make some magic happen. Now let's get to details.
First, the manga: Meido no Koi wa Enma Shidai is a comedy fantasy romance, in that order. I think it's a real gem - the art is absolutely lovely, it has crossover appeal to both genders, and the whole thing is downright hilarious. I encourage you to check out the first couple chapters and see what you think of it.
Second, needed positions. I'll update this as I (hopefully) gain some members. Still seeking:
- Proofreader
- Cleaner
- Redrawer, if the cleaner can't do it
- Typesetter
Third, the perks!: I have no idea what I'm doing, so if you're open to constructive criticism and want to make this the best release possible, you don't need to have much of an idea what you're doing either! Come as you are and work as best as you can, and I won't rush or judge you for any reason. This is low commitment and there won't be any pressure for anything. Let's try to have a nice time and build a comfortable, fun team together.
Fourth, the reason I care so much about this (TLDRat the bottom in the next post, and main body in a spoiler because it ended up as long as my whole god damn life story):
First, the manga: Meido no Koi wa Enma Shidai is a comedy fantasy romance, in that order. I think it's a real gem - the art is absolutely lovely, it has crossover appeal to both genders, and the whole thing is downright hilarious. I encourage you to check out the first couple chapters and see what you think of it.
Second, needed positions. I'll update this as I (hopefully) gain some members. Still seeking:
- Proofreader
- Cleaner
- Redrawer, if the cleaner can't do it
- Typesetter
Third, the perks!: I have no idea what I'm doing, so if you're open to constructive criticism and want to make this the best release possible, you don't need to have much of an idea what you're doing either! Come as you are and work as best as you can, and I won't rush or judge you for any reason. This is low commitment and there won't be any pressure for anything. Let's try to have a nice time and build a comfortable, fun team together.
Fourth, the reason I care so much about this (TLDR
you may notice a group change after chapter ten. Reading their release should be all the explanation necessary, but if you're still not convinced, it gets worse. See, I've looked up to scanlators and wanted to do something in scanlation since I was maybe 12 or 13. But I've never had the guts to take the plunge and do it. This manga changed that. I was enjoying it so much, and it made me so sad to see it handed off that I felt I had to do something to improve the quality somehow. So, I gathered my courage and joined the scanlation group as a proofreader. I thought that, as long as I did an exemplary job, I would have no trouble being exclusive proofreader for this manga and that the group would appreciate having someone who actually knew the English language properly.
A couple things went wrong with that. The first being that the group doesn't assign individual projects, they toss work at whoever's available whether they've previously read the thing or not. Their translator for Meido no Koi was one such person, thrown into the middle of the manga without so much as recognizing the cast.
Which brings me to the second problem, the real problem. Their translator for this manga does not know Japanese. They know how to read kana, which is apparently enough to get by and fake it, but they do not speak Japanese. I wish I were exaggerating when I said that. God, I really do. But it's not just that the English on the releases was bad, which could've been fixed by my helping as a proofreader. The base was rotten too.
When the group first handed me a chapter of meido no koi, I was excited beyond words. At the time I didn't think I was ready to be a translator yet, but I did plan on doing TLC while I proofread, so I asked for the Japanese raws to look at while I worked and practice Japanese with.
I didn't even get one page in before the raws and the translation didn't match. I thought the mistake would be a one-off thing and fixed it, leaving a little note that the translation had been incorrect. But it was not a one-off thing. Eventually, I realised I had to toss the whole script.
And suddenly I was promoted (by myself) from proofreader to translator. I poured hours and hours of blood, sweat and tears into that manga, doing the whole thing over three days and working 10 hours straight on the third. The results were amazing. I didn't know I had it in me to actually translate something entirely by myself, but I did, and it actually came out nice. I was delighted beyond words and exhausted beyond belief, so I turned the script in and nursed my headache into sleep.
At this point I should mention that I told the group leader the second I realized the script was unworkable. I had been busy that week, so this information was passed along a week before I turned in my script. I let them know (politely) that their translator wasn't ready to work on their own yet and should at the very least have their work checked over by a senior translator before it reached PR. They said they would talk to them, and that was pretty much that. I felt no need to be mean or humiliate someone who was trying their best, so I didn't go into a ton of detail on how horrendous the translation had been. When I turned it my script, it had still been done in proofreader format with all of my text lined up with their incorrect versions, so the difference was obvious enough.
Only it apparently wasn't. I woke up the next day to find that my chapter had already been released! My delight was indescribable. Until I saw that it was a double-release. The next chapter was already done as well, and they were released together.
The chapter following the one I worked myself into the ground for was done by the same translator as the script I tossed. As have the subsequent chapters of the same manga. And since I was so slow and picky in my work, nothing more was sent to me.
So essentially, no matter how hard I work to save this manga from the inside, it just isn't going to happen. And it's not as simple as their translation looking bad and awkward. It's just plain wrong. After putting so much into trying to bring the best release possible to fellow fans of this manga, it was a big blow.
So I've decided to go it alone! Except not completely alone, because I can't tell photoshop from the pharmacy photo printer.(The photo shop! Get it? Ahaha! Ha! Ha...)
A couple things went wrong with that. The first being that the group doesn't assign individual projects, they toss work at whoever's available whether they've previously read the thing or not. Their translator for Meido no Koi was one such person, thrown into the middle of the manga without so much as recognizing the cast.
Which brings me to the second problem, the real problem. Their translator for this manga does not know Japanese. They know how to read kana, which is apparently enough to get by and fake it, but they do not speak Japanese. I wish I were exaggerating when I said that. God, I really do. But it's not just that the English on the releases was bad, which could've been fixed by my helping as a proofreader. The base was rotten too.
When the group first handed me a chapter of meido no koi, I was excited beyond words. At the time I didn't think I was ready to be a translator yet, but I did plan on doing TLC while I proofread, so I asked for the Japanese raws to look at while I worked and practice Japanese with.
I didn't even get one page in before the raws and the translation didn't match. I thought the mistake would be a one-off thing and fixed it, leaving a little note that the translation had been incorrect. But it was not a one-off thing. Eventually, I realised I had to toss the whole script.
And suddenly I was promoted (by myself) from proofreader to translator. I poured hours and hours of blood, sweat and tears into that manga, doing the whole thing over three days and working 10 hours straight on the third. The results were amazing. I didn't know I had it in me to actually translate something entirely by myself, but I did, and it actually came out nice. I was delighted beyond words and exhausted beyond belief, so I turned the script in and nursed my headache into sleep.
At this point I should mention that I told the group leader the second I realized the script was unworkable. I had been busy that week, so this information was passed along a week before I turned in my script. I let them know (politely) that their translator wasn't ready to work on their own yet and should at the very least have their work checked over by a senior translator before it reached PR. They said they would talk to them, and that was pretty much that. I felt no need to be mean or humiliate someone who was trying their best, so I didn't go into a ton of detail on how horrendous the translation had been. When I turned it my script, it had still been done in proofreader format with all of my text lined up with their incorrect versions, so the difference was obvious enough.
Only it apparently wasn't. I woke up the next day to find that my chapter had already been released! My delight was indescribable. Until I saw that it was a double-release. The next chapter was already done as well, and they were released together.
The chapter following the one I worked myself into the ground for was done by the same translator as the script I tossed. As have the subsequent chapters of the same manga. And since I was so slow and picky in my work, nothing more was sent to me.
So essentially, no matter how hard I work to save this manga from the inside, it just isn't going to happen. And it's not as simple as their translation looking bad and awkward. It's just plain wrong. After putting so much into trying to bring the best release possible to fellow fans of this manga, it was a big blow.
So I've decided to go it alone! Except not completely alone, because I can't tell photoshop from the pharmacy photo printer.(The photo shop! Get it? Ahaha! Ha! Ha...)
TL;DR: Favourite manga was passed to another group, their translator genuinely does not speak Japanese, they didn't want my help, here I am doing a real translation by myself.
Bonus: if anyone wants to see my script compared to what the group would've released without me, I still have it and it's pretty hilarious. Also, if you want to see the chapter I did, it's chapter 12 (the one with no comments ;v
. Compare it to the other chapters! Praise me!
Bonus: if anyone wants to see my script compared to what the group would've released without me, I still have it and it's pretty hilarious. Also, if you want to see the chapter I did, it's chapter 12 (the one with no comments ;v
. Compare it to the other chapters! Praise me!
