I don't own the musical or any such, I just wrote up a translation, and obviously your work's gotten support by those with some actual ownership of it so I'm certainly not going to say "Stop that!"
But I'd like to take the opportunity to respectfully state that I'm not thrilled with it. Again, this is not an attempt at an injunction, this is just a statement of my feelings on the matter, and nobody's required to give two hoots about them.
However, as you may be able to tell by reading my comments on translation in general, including some links about the thought I've put in how to best carry the feeling of the Japanese in the two subtitle sets, the copious translation notes I've provided, etc., I am strongly opposed to loose translations or changes "to make it sound better." In the endless translation debate between fluency and accuracy, I fall to the extreme end of the accuracy side. I also recognize that I make mistakes there too--there have been corrections in the subs for these, so I'm not declaring my superiority in the matter.
I spend an inane amount of time fussing over the wording which I think best captures the original feel/intent, and so a person casually adjusting lines "to flow better" doesn't settle well. Of course there are arguments that by favoring accuracy over fluency, I've failed; there's a reason there's an otaku version vs. non-otaku version, because I do recognize that something being *too* foreign is a problem in relaying the work in translation (Translator's note: keikaku means plan). Personally, the non-otaku version is as far to the "fluency" side as I'm willing to go in terms of stepping away from my take on accuracy (which is of course only my own; I try to distill my personal interpretation as much as possible--see the discussion of Urai vs. Kakizawa sub differences). This is also not to say that your fixes may not have managed to be more fluent without a loss, though it is also clear that maintaining the original feel (in so far as the Japanese is the original--that is, for the specific video performances being used as the base) is absolutely an accident rather than an intentional on the part of your subtitles.
While the Japanese version is obviously itself not the original, a matter which I've also posted having some struggles with in deciding where I stand on it, it is very definitely strongly distinct from the English original. My debate is on whether it is enough so to stand as an independent work worthy of independent analysis--having only the lyrics to go by, I'm presently going with a yes. I'd even previous questioned if there was a full English script or just songs written due to that being all that had been available. I frankly have little to no interest in the English version, so my information is surely scant there, and it seems that information about it has become more prominent perhaps even specifically due to your works. Menchell has put out more information to the masses, possibly in response to you generating more interest in it. So what you're doing has brought joy to fans.
Back into my issues, the sharp differences in just the raw text wording in what they imply about the characters makes me feel it a mistake to subtitle the Japanese work as if it were representative of the English work. It's a bizarre form of dubtitle, and does the cast and crew of the video a disservice in that their deliveries do not match the "Translation" because those are not the words they're speaking, and are not the characters they're playing. Likewise it does the English script and characterization a similar disservice in that the actors are not doing an interpretation of it, but an interpretation of an interpretation thereof.
Again, I have no authority nor intent to police. This is just a statement of my opinion, which I fully acknowledge nobody is required to care about, even if enjoying or using my translations.
no subject
But I'd like to take the opportunity to respectfully state that I'm not thrilled with it. Again, this is not an attempt at an injunction, this is just a statement of my feelings on the matter, and nobody's required to give two hoots about them.
However, as you may be able to tell by reading my comments on translation in general, including some links about the thought I've put in how to best carry the feeling of the Japanese in the two subtitle sets, the copious translation notes I've provided, etc., I am strongly opposed to loose translations or changes "to make it sound better." In the endless translation debate between fluency and accuracy, I fall to the extreme end of the accuracy side. I also recognize that I make mistakes there too--there have been corrections in the subs for these, so I'm not declaring my superiority in the matter.
I spend an inane amount of time fussing over the wording which I think best captures the original feel/intent, and so a person casually adjusting lines "to flow better" doesn't settle well. Of course there are arguments that by favoring accuracy over fluency, I've failed; there's a reason there's an otaku version vs. non-otaku version, because I do recognize that something being *too* foreign is a problem in relaying the work in translation (Translator's note: keikaku means plan). Personally, the non-otaku version is as far to the "fluency" side as I'm willing to go in terms of stepping away from my take on accuracy (which is of course only my own; I try to distill my personal interpretation as much as possible--see the discussion of Urai vs. Kakizawa sub differences). This is also not to say that your fixes may not have managed to be more fluent without a loss, though it is also clear that maintaining the original feel (in so far as the Japanese is the original--that is, for the specific video performances being used as the base) is absolutely an accident rather than an intentional on the part of your subtitles.
While the Japanese version is obviously itself not the original, a matter which I've also posted having some struggles with in deciding where I stand on it, it is very definitely strongly distinct from the English original. My debate is on whether it is enough so to stand as an independent work worthy of independent analysis--having only the lyrics to go by, I'm presently going with a yes. I'd even previous questioned if there was a full English script or just songs written due to that being all that had been available. I frankly have little to no interest in the English version, so my information is surely scant there, and it seems that information about it has become more prominent perhaps even specifically due to your works. Menchell has put out more information to the masses, possibly in response to you generating more interest in it. So what you're doing has brought joy to fans.
Back into my issues, the sharp differences in just the raw text wording in what they imply about the characters makes me feel it a mistake to subtitle the Japanese work as if it were representative of the English work. It's a bizarre form of dubtitle, and does the cast and crew of the video a disservice in that their deliveries do not match the "Translation" because those are not the words they're speaking, and are not the characters they're playing. Likewise it does the English script and characterization a similar disservice in that the actors are not doing an interpretation of it, but an interpretation of an interpretation thereof.
Again, I have no authority nor intent to police. This is just a statement of my opinion, which I fully acknowledge nobody is required to care about, even if enjoying or using my translations.