Discussion VIZ Translations Thread

[Monkey D. Bufford]

Sometimes, I really look at the official translations by wondering like Enel did on Luffy when he's realized that his lighntings have no effect on him at all.

Like Zoro as ZOLO... THE FLYING FUCK IT IS?!

And Yonkou as 4 Emperors and Shichibukai as 7 Warlords.... Hurraaaay, FAIL in History class!

And it seems some englishmen don't know what are the SYNONYMS for! It's really embarrassing to have people who're translating like this.


Because If I'd be having the fortune to translate One Piece to the correct version, it would be like this:

• YONKOU = It is THE FOUR OVERLORDS! AND NOT THE EMPERORS! Because the Emperor is the highest Ruler rank in the feudal system. It can be called "Supreme King", "Czar", asasf. No wonder why does their kingdom called EMPIRE. kokuoou means KING/LORD in japanese and it might refer to Yon as "4" Lords. In other words: The Four Overlords makes more sense than Emperors because the Overlords are only ruling a following region. The King of the Pirates is ruling all territories. And the Yonkou can be also referring to the Daimyos as the Overlords
• KAIZOKU JOTEI = PIRATE QUEEN!! You must be all surprised why Hancock would be called as the Pirate Queen. Because she's been a former WARLADY, and she's used to be called as everybody's favorite Pirate Queen and not Empress. Because there's a Seinen series titled JOTEI, and it's officially translated to SUPER QUEEN!

 

[Nie Li]

To address this bit by bit...

- Zolo sounds ugly as hell, and Zoro's name is based on "El Zorro" so it does seem better to leave it as Zoro. I agree with this.

- Ouka Shichibukai is really a term that should stay in Japanese and not be translated at all, because any literal translation turns out long and ugly, and there's no good word to substitute it for.

- Yonkou could also stay in Japanese, but Four Emperors is the best translation because it's what it literally means in Japanese as well. The only difference between English and Japanese here is that, for example, Shanks is not supposed to be "an Emperor", he's supposed to be "a Four Emperor", since he's never a "kou", he's a "Yonkou". Same thing happens for the Shichibukai actually. They're each "a Shichibukai", not "a bukai".

Overlord is not a better term than Emperor here, though, because "Emperor" is the term Oda went for in Japanese and each of them does rule an empire. Isn't the whole point of the Yonkou that they rule over vast territories as their respective supreme figures of authority? So they rule as Emperors, really. Still, it's better to leave it as Yonkou.

- Jotei does literally translate to Empress. It's even how they refer to the tarot card "The Empress". There's really a manga called Jotei that's translated as "Super Queen", but that's a free/liberal translation, which is pretty evident seeing that the manga's original name isn't "Super Jotei", but just "jotei", so they added in the Super just like they chose to change Empress for Queen. That's for marketing purposes.

 

[Fox666]

四皇 (Yonkou) means "Four Emperors"

皇 means "Emperor", and has been used for the "Emperor" of Japan (天皇) or "Emperor" of China (皇帝). There's no reason to translate it with another word.


王下七武海 (Ouka Shichibukai) means "Royal Seven Warriors of the Sea"

The official translation "Seven Warlords of the Sea" is perfectly acceptable.

The only issue is the shortened version ("Seven Warlords") cuts the "Sea" part instead of "Royal".


海賊女帝 (Kaizoku Jotei) means "Pirate Empress"

帝 literally means "the honorable gate", referring to a person who lives in the imperial palace (similar to how the term White House may be used in place of the US president). 帝 is a synonym of "Emperor".

Translating 女帝 as "Empress" may cause some confusion with Four Emperors, but it is not technically wrong.

You could just any synonym for Emperor, however there aren't many words in the feminine form, and you are limited with "Empress" or "Queen". "Queen" would cause confusion with "Pirate King", which is even worse.

 

[Demonspeed]

I can't judge the quality of the translations since I don't read Japanese but I find some of their choices are indeed weird. I honestly don't know why they keep using Zolo. I think I once read that they were worried about continuity but I don't believe it's a solid reason. Especially when they know that he is one of the most popular characters.

I don't like the the Animal Kingdom Pirates name for Kaidou's crew, Beast Pirates is much better. The former sounds too childish for me. I don't like Lead Performers as well. As for Four Emperors, Seven Warlords, and Flying Six I find them fine.

Not everything needs to stay in Japanese although most of us are probably used to this.

 

[Nie Li]

Not everything needs to stay in Japanese although most of us are probably used to this.

Not everything, of course, but there are things that lose some meaning when translated or that get weird (mainly Shichibukai in this case. Yonkou and the rest I'd translate them). It's okay to leave some names in the original language, and these are made-up names.

As both a translator and a non-English speaker comic book reader, I've come across too many things that would have better been left in the original language (Kamehameha, Spider-Man, Wolverine...).

What should or should not be translated is a thin line that most people disagree on, so although my post sounds as if I'm being axiomatic, it is of course but my opinion on where the line stands at.

 

[Monkey D. Bufford]

四皇 (Yonkou) means "Four Emperors"

皇 means "Emperor", and has been used for the "Emperor" of Japan (天皇) or "Emperor" of China (皇帝). There's no reason to translate it with another word.


王下七武海 (Ouka Shichibukai) means "Royal Seven Warriors of the Sea"

The official translation "Seven Warlords of the Sea" is perfectly acceptable.

The only issue is the shortened version ("Seven Warlords") cuts the "Sea" part instead of "Royal".


海賊女帝 (Kaizoku Jotei) means "Pirate Empress"

帝 literally means "the honorable gate", referring to a person who lives in the imperial palace (similar to how the term White House may be used in place of the US president). 帝 is a synonym of "Emperor".

Translating 女帝 as "Empress" may cause some confusion with Four Emperors, but it is not technically wrong.

You could just any synonym for Emperor, however there aren't many words in the feminine form, and you are limited with "Empress" or "Queen". "Queen" would cause confusion with "Pirate King", which is even worse.

Well, Pirate Queen is not confusing with the king at all, because it's unecquivocally correct that the Queen is a female ruler. And they call her Pirate Queen for reason.

And the Yonkou is definitely for the Four Overlords, not emperors.

 

[goldb]

Like Zoro as ZOLO... THE FLYING FUCK IT IS?!

I can't judge the quality of the translations since I don't read Japanese but I find some of their choices are indeed weird. I honestly don't know why they keep using Zolo. I think I once read that they were worried about continuity but I don't believe it's a solid reason. Especially when they know that he is one of the most popular characters.

I don't like the the Animal Kingdom Pirates name for Kaidou's crew, Beast Pirates is much better. The former sounds too childish for me. I don't like Lead Performers as well. As for Four Emperors, Seven Warlords, and Flying Six I find them fine.

Not everything needs to stay in Japanese although most of us are probably used to this.

That's more of a trademark issue rather than poor translation, with the western character of Zorro; who is also a swordsman.

I also don't like the use of Animal Kingdom Pirates. I think there was an explanation Stephen (the official OP translator for VIZ) gave but I can't remember where I read it, mayber reddit or APF. It still sounds stupid to me; barring something to do with copyright/trademark, the most literal and accurate translation to be used should be Beast Pirates.

EDIT: Found it:

The crew's name, Hyakujū Kaizokudan (百獣海賊団?), literally translates to something along the lines of "Many Beasts Pirates", "All Beasts Pirates", or "Hundreds of Beasts Pirates".

The term "Hyakuju", meaning many or all kinds of beasts, is a compound word that combines the characters for Hundred (百 Hyaku?) and Beast (獣 Jū?). It is seldom used and most often found within the Japanese idiom Hyakujū no Ō (百獣の王?), or "King of Beasts" in English, consequently causing confusion amongst One Piece translators on how to render the term.

Additionally, Viz decided to take the translation into a whole new direction by opting to use the title "Animal Kingdom Pirates". According to Stephen Paul, the translator of One Piece for VIZ, "Animal Kingdom came from 'Hyaku-juu' which literally is the kanji for "hundred" and "animal" but it actually means 'all manner of beast/animal.' A common use of that is 'hyaku-juu no ou' which is 'king of the beasts' aka Lion. Kaido's title is 'Hyaku-juu no Kaido' so, given the implication, and the reference to him as the strongest creature alive, I called him 'Kaido, King of the Beasts.' As an analogue I decided to go with Animal Kingdom for his crew, since it's implied that he rules over them, and they obviously have a wide variety of animal-powers in the Gifters."

Four Emperors I'm fine with, I would've preferred Royal Shichibukai or just Shichibukai but I've at least gotten used to Warlords.

I think for those that only ever read the official translated manga, these are things that aren't too much of an issue but when you're following spoilers and have translation notes, you have to get accustomed to certain translated words/terms. As such a lot of it comes down to personal preference.

 

[HereNThere]

Yeah, Animal Kingdom Pirates sounds like a kids' show on Animal Planet. Beast Pirates definitely feels like the more appropriate translation. I feel like he really overthought that one.

Everything else, I'm fine with or have gotten used to it. Somethings just need to be localized because there may not be a decent 1:1 translation.

 

[McNuss]

That's more of a trademark issue rather than poor translation, with the western character of Zorro; who is also a swordsman.

I have heard that a lot, but I also have my doubts about it.

While I don't know enough about American trademark laws, "zorro" is a spanish word that means "fox". Is something like an animal name really protectable by copyright?

 

[Monkey D. Bufford]

That's more of a trademark issue rather than poor translation, with the western character of Zorro; who is also a swordsman.

I also don't like the use of Animal Kingdom Pirates. I think there was an explanation Stephen (the official OP translator for VIZ) gave but I can't remember where I read it, mayber reddit or APF. It still sounds stupid to me; barring something to do with copyright/trademark, the most literal and accurate translation to be used should be Beast Pirates.

EDIT: Found it:



Four Emperors I'm fine with, I would've preferred Royal Shichibukai or just Shichibukai but I've at least gotten used to Warlords.

I think for those that only ever read the official translated manga, these are things that aren't too much of an issue but when you're following spoilers and have translation notes, you have to get accustomed to certain translated words/terms. As such a lot of it comes down to personal preference.

It's more like the 4 OVERLORDS than Emperors, because Emperor is the highest ruler rank. And they more likely named the Pirate Overlords/Vassals due to the feudal system.

 

[M3J]

Calling an Emperor "Yonkou" irks me because... it's not set in stone that there can only be four emperors at any given time, another one could rise. At least with the Seven Warlords, the Government probably decided establish no more and no less than seven.

 

[strawhatcrew]

thats why i like fan translation better.. coz fan translation mix up japanese word with eng translation
but official translation translate all japanese word to english and something is missing if u translate all to english
but not all fan translation is better, i hate it when they put some accent there to the character.. its a turn off lel

 

[Monox D. I-Fly]

Yeah, Animal Kingdom Pirates sounds like a kids' show on Animal Planet. Beast Pirates definitely feels like the more appropriate translation. I feel like he really overthought that one.

If they really wanted it to be something which meant "Animal Kingdom", I think they could use "Beast Empire" instead.