Contemporary Manga Scanlation into English

Textual Language
Honorifics, polite language, gendered language, informal/slang language, name of places and food, humour, etc.


Native speakers of English are clearly outnumbered by non-native speakers.
(Seidlhofer 2011)

What is special about manga scanlation into English?

Number of English Speakers
First language speakers: around 400 million

Second language speakers: also around 400 millions

Speakers of English as a foreign language?
English as a Lingua Franca (ELF)
ELF: any use of English among speakers of different first languages for whom English is the communicative medium of choice, and often the only option.
(Seidlhofer 2011, 7)

For the first time in history, a language has reached truly global dimensions, across continents, domains, and social strata, and as a consequence, it is being shaped, in its international uses, at least as much by its non-native speakers as its native speakers.
(Seidlhofer 2011, 8)
Visual Language: Ideophones

Culture Specific Items in Manga

Translation Norms
Sociologists and social psychologists have long regarded norms as the translation of general values or ideas shared by a community – as to what is right and wrong, adequate or inadequate, into performance instructions appropriate for and applicable to particular situations.
(Toury 1995, 55)
Descriptive Translation Studies (DTS)
[DTS] tries to account in functional terms for the textual strategies that determine the way a given translation looks, and, more broadly, for the way translations function in the receptor (or target) literature.
(Hermans 2014, 13)
Traditional Japanese Rites of Passage and Religious Ceremonies

Polite Language

Idiolect
(yakuwarigo/role play language)

Honorifics

Gendered Language

NT: Okami is the Japanese pronoun used to refer to a married woman. It's hard to translate without sounding awkward, that's why I left it as it is, even though I don't like it.
Okami-san: おかみ[女将]さん landlady; married woman

Since ancient times, women have been the managers of the domestic economy in Japan. Their association with finance has been strongly linked to the nature of the Japanese household(ie). The continuity of ie was more important than gender, and female household heads had an important role in managing the finance and property of the
Household.
(Komori 2006, 27)
Language Related to Unique Japanese Customs, etc.



Scanlation into (a particular instance of?) English as a Lingua Franca

Functionally and formally, not the same as translation into 'English'

Global spread of Japanese Visual Language

Accompanied by

Acculturation of English to Japanese culture


Conclusion

Other Instances of Translator's Intervention



Bokee´: Emphatic form of boke´,
The state of being inattentive or absentminded



At first, a local phenomenon limited to a niche of manga fans in the U.S.
With the expansion of the internet has become a global phenomenon
Scanlated manga is read by millions of people across the world


Separating the 'system of communication' (Japanese visual language) from its sociocultural context (Manga)
Japanese Visual Language


Comics are not a language!

Rather, comics are written in visual languages in the same way that novels or magazines are written in English
(Cohn 2013, 2)

Comics are social objects created by incorporating the results of two human behaviors: writing and drawing….

Sequential images used in comics constitute their own 'visual language'
(Cohn 2013, 1-2)



Contemporary Manga Scanlation into English
Matteo Fabbretti
Translation Studies PhD
Cardiff University

What is manga?
What is scanlation?
What is special about manga scanlation into English?
Defining Manga

Defining Comics?

Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art, 1993.
Neil Cohn
The Visual Language of Comics, 2013
Manga


While 'visual language' is the biological and cognitive capacity that humans have for conveying concepts in the visual-graphic modality, 'comics' are a sociocultural context in which this visual language appears
Double page from vol. 4 of the Hokusai Manga

Manga is truly an entertainment for the masses, thanks to their affordability and availability in bookstores, newsstands, manga cafés, museums, and public libraries. Manga does not require the large production investment necessary for movies, TV, and theater. A manga artist needs talent in story-telling and drawing plus some relatively inexpensive materials: paper, pen, ink, whiteout, rulers, and tones, all of which are affordable for just about anyone wanting to draw manga (Ito 2010, 29).
What is scanlation?

Scanlation
Scanning + Translating

Typically Involves: a raw provider, a cleaner/redrawer, a translator/proofreader, a typesetter, and a quality controller
Hokusai Manga







Hokusai, The Great Wave off Kanagawa, c. 1829–32

Hokusai Manga (北斎漫画, 'Hokusai's Sketches') is a collection of sketches of various subjects by the Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849).
Osamu Tezuka (1928 – 1989)

Japan is the first nation in the world to accord 'comic books'—originally a 'humorous' form of entertainment mainly for young people—nearly the same social status as novels and films. Indeed, Japan is awash in manga. According to the Research Institute for Publications, of all the books and magazines actually sold in Japan in 1995… manga comprised nearly 40 percent of the total. (Schodt 1996, 19)


Today most Japanese mean story manga when they use the term, unless otherwise noted by the speaker or writer…manga classified as 'story manga' read more like novels with graphic pictures than the term 'comics' implies. Story manga tend to have serious themes with social, psychological, political, economic, historical, theatrical, scientific, and educational implications, and offers much entertainment. (Ito 2010, 9)


Publishing Categories
Japanese manga are classified into a number of categories roughly corresponding to different age and gender groups: kodomo 子ども (children); shōnen 少年 (boys); shōjo 少女 (girls); seinen 青年 and yangu ヤング (young adult men); redizu レディズ and fujin 婦人 (women); and seijin 成人 and shakaijin 社会人 (adult men and, increasingly, women) manga.
(Ingulsrud and Allen 2009, 3)
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