So true. I could not agree more. A favourite Chinese novel of mine got an official English translation and was published, needless to say, I was extremely disappointed when I got to finally read it, the story's tone changed so much with the westernisation of the language and a lot of things that don't translate well they just outright changed to fit their own (translators/ publishers) tastes rather than sticking to the original mood and meaning of the phrases and situations created by the author.
You find this a lot in officially released manga more than novels though. Harsh words would turn to swear words and even how characters address each other and refer to themselves changes. As if fans are not smart enough to understand the culture.
I have so many complicated feelings when it comes to official translations. On one hand, in glad that the author is getting it, y'know? Like, I'm super happy and all. On the other, can we just acknowledge that the quality of the translation AND the typesetting and cleaning basically dropped clearly??? And I really cannot stand the American-isation of all the translations ╥﹏╥
How often do you find the word "fuck" in scanlations? Not often at all, because Japanese isn't really a crude language, and translators only use "fuck" when the situation REALLY calls for it. And "I'm going to fuck the shit out of you"??? Dude, that was just DEPRESSING. The whole calling-each-other-by-first-names thing and everything, it's just so—!
FRUSTRATING!! It's a manga! See, my main problem with official translations is that the quality of pretty much everything usually drops rather than getting better, and that's just so SAD. It kinda shows how much the scanlators care about their projects and how much effort they put into it. And the official ones in comparison...
I want more official translations, I do, I really, really do, but I want them to care for the projects they're translating. Sigh.