Lightasus's Topics (47)

'kay that's just cute (≧∀≦)
http://wx3.sinaimg.cn/mw690/d470dd21gy1fd6ij37np7j20go0nm7al.jpg

So it's been a while since I translated Ayano's French interviews. Here's one to help waiting the next release (in 1 week (≧∀≦)). From 2010!

- Hi Ayano Yamane. For starters, how did you become a mangaka?
A: In fact, I started as a doujinshi artist. At the time, I was having fun drawing a BL version of a known manga. A publisher then noticed my work and I became a professional mangaka. But now I create my own characters.

- Who are your reference authors?
A: I have a lot ! (laughs)
They are mainly shonen manga authors like Masami Kurumada and Takehiko Inoue.

- What are your sources of inspiration for drawing your male characters?
A: For the Uke, Akihito, I draw inspiration from characters typically shonen. For the Seme, Asami, it's just my fantasy (laughs).

- What is the ideal man to you?
A: Beautiful, rich, gentleman and kind. Here you go ! (laughs)

- As far as your works are concerned, what are your limitations when it comes to censorship?
A: In Japan, censorship is very harsh. But truth is, I put myself my own limits, especially in certain scenes so that it doesn't go too far, that it doesn't get too raw. I prefer to respect the artistic side. My editors do not forbid me anything actually. It's actually the opposite, they prefer to push the author rather than censure them. (laughs)

- The BL genre has arrived quite recently in France, but has quickly conquered a predominantly female audience. What do you think are the reasons for its success?
A: Initially, it was mysterious to me too. But when I discovered and started reading BL, it didn't displease me. In fact, I think it's the same for all women. Because women love this purely romanticized and romantic side. There are no women and therefore they cannot identify with the characters. They find themselves immersed in a typically masculine world to which they cannot access or participate. And somewhere, there is admiration for this inaccessible world.

- Have you ever fantasized about someone you knew and put them in one of your mangas?
A: No, because that would prevent me from fantasizing. Knowing the person takes away from the dreamy part. So it would cool me off and I would not be interested anymore...

- In the end the secret of BL would be fantasy and its inaccessible aspect?
A: Yes, indeed. The attraction of BL lies in the imagination, what happens in women's heads, the things they imagine about men and what happens between them. This has nothing to do with manga aimed at a gay audience, which are more realistic, where the authors do research in Shinjuku (gay district in Tokyo). In BL everything comes from imagination. Maybe what I write doesn't match with the reality but that isn't the intention to begin with.

- Have you ever considered writing in another genre? Like shojo mangas?
A: In fact, I am a fan of shonen and don't read much shojo. So I could not even if I wanted to.

- Currently, what are you working on?
A: I work on two series at the same time: Crimson Spell and Viewfinder

- And you have many assistants to help you?
A: No, two assistants. The chief assistant and another for the frames. And if necessary, a friend comes and gives a hand. But even with more assistants, I wouldn't go faster. Everything depends on me since I draw all the boards.

- What is your pace of publication?
A: I only do 20 pages a month. For a mangaka, it is really little. Once, I made 40 pages in a month to complete a series but I nearly died, I couldn't take it anymore. (laughs)

- This is the first time you have come to France. Were you able to enjoy it outside of Japan Expo?
A: Yes, I was able to make some visits. As I also draw a fantasy manga, I took the opportunity to document on architecture, especially castles. It was very beautiful, and very different from what I can see in Japan. I have been to the Chateau de Loire and to the Chateau de Versailles. I was in total awe.

- A final word for your French fans?
A: I will try to draw a beautiful love story. Be patients, I'm working for you. Thank you very much.

'Look, this may not be palatable, reader, and I keep trying to come up with a better way to put it, but the simplicity of things, at least from my perspective is this:

Ayano Yamane is not your bitch.

This is a useful thing to know, perhaps a useful thing to point out when you find yourself thinking that possibly Ayano Yamane is, indeed, your bitch, and should be out there typing what you want to read right now.

People are not machines. Writers and artists aren't machines.

You're complaining about Ayano Yamane doing other things than writing the volumes you want to read as if your buying the first volume in the series was a contract with her: that you would pay over your ten dollars, and Ayano Yamane for her part would spend every waking hour until the series was done, writing the rest of the volumes for you.

No such contract existed. You were paying your ten dollars for the book you were reading, and I assume that you enjoyed it because you want to know what happens next.

It seems to me that the biggest problem with series mangas is that either readers complain that the books used to be good but that somewhere in the effort to get out a book every year the quality has fallen off, or they complain that the volumes, although maintaining quality, aren't coming out on time.

For me, I would rather read a good manga, from a contented author. I don't really care what it takes to produce that.

Some writers need a while to charge their batteries, and then write their books very rapidly. Some writers write a page or so every day, rain or shine. Some writers run out of steam, and need to do whatever it is they happen to do until they're ready to write again. Sometimes writers haven't quite got the next volume in a series ready in their heads, but they have something else all ready instead, so they write the thing that's ready to go, prompting cries of outrage from people who want to know why the author could possibly write Book X while the fans were waiting for Book Y.

I remember hearing an upset comics editor telling a roomful of other editors about a comics artist who had taken a few weeks off to paint his house. The editor pointed out, repeatedly, that for the money the artist would have been paid for those weeks' work he could easily have afforded to hire someone to paint his house, and made money too. And I thought, but did not say, “But what if he wanted to paint his house?”

And sometimes, and it's as true of authors as it is of readers, you have a life. People in your world get sick or die. You fall in love, or out of love. You move house. Your aunt comes to stay. You agreed to give a talk half-way around the world five years ago, and suddenly you realise that that talk is due now. Your last book comes out and the critics vociferously hated it and now you simply don't feel like writing another. Your cat learns to levitate and the matter must be properly documented and investigated. There are deer in the apple orchard. A thunderstorm fries your hard disk and fries the backup drive as well...

And life is a good thing for a writer. It's where we get our raw material, for a start. We quite like to stop and watch it.

And if you are waiting for a new book in a long ongoing series, whether from Ayano Yamane or from someone else...

Wait. Read the original book again. Read something else. Get on with your life. Hope that the author is writing the book you want to read, and not dying, or something equally as dramatic. And if she paints the house, that's fine.

And reader, in the future, when you see other people complaining that Ayano Yamane has been spotted doing something other than writing the book they are waiting for, explain to them, more politely than I did the first time, the simple and unanswerable truth: Ayano Yamane is not working for you.

Hope that helps.'

Obviously not my writing, changed the names and some words because I thought it translated well in this situation for those that don't mind a longer read ;)

Just pointing out, Asami's eyes obviously didn't turn blue. The light novel is called Finder no Souen and Souen means Blue Flame, so there's a blue reflection in his eyes...

Any idea as to what that's supposed to be? Random doodle?
https://twitter.com/yamaneayano/status/789186852242673665?lang=fr

If people don't like reading just ignore it (I get quite wordy), just a comment about translations in general:

"And to all the people who argue that "any translation is better than nothing". I emphatically disagree. Once things get so bad that you arguably didn't read anything resembling the original work, you didn't read "A version of X", but "An interpretable dance of X". It is an insult of the highest order to the reader, and the author, to put out some work that makes people THINK they read something, when in fact they in fact didn't."

"Scanlations are bad. They don't know what they're doing and they often misinterpret lines. I've worked on one and the main character speaks Hakata-ben. No one except me could understand it. Everyone, including the translators, had to rely on me, the newest member of the team. Before I was around, they apparently winged it. Good thing I am pretending to be MIA."

"I am very critical of translations in general because they can present a person's hard work in the worst shape possible."

Even if you learn Japanese, you need to understand the context and subtleties, or else you'll be barely speaking the same language as the natives. This is true for all languages, especially unrelated ones with no shared roots. What happens frequently, especially with literal translations, is that the reader takes it for face value and interprets it using their own context and culture.

Plus, while legal translations have access to pointers regarding the meaning from the publisher and author, scanlators have none. They're also not professional translators (though professional is to be used loosely - some get paid but do no excellent job), and generally do not have that great of an understanding of Japanese that a native would have. Japanese language is extremely context-based, as words get omitted because they are obvious to the interlocutor and do not need to be repeated each time, and frequently what is literally said does not match what is meant (but is understood through a thorough understanding of the culture and ways they express themselves).

Japanese is a high-context language. French would fit into somewhere in the middle, and English is on the opposite - what is said is literally what is meant; it is a low-context culture/language. They are two very different communication styles.

"High context implies that a lot of unspoken information is implicitly transferred during communication. Low context implies that a lot of information is exchanged explicitly through the message itself and rarely is anything implicit or hidden."

This also leads people from high-context languages to have communication issues in English, it's not one-sided. We expect the same understanding, but more often than not we end up being more offensive than what intended, just by a unfortunate tone that came through some choices of word. "Thought you'd pick up on the undertone but didn't". Heck, French people and French Canadians often have communication issues as well, because both highly rely in the context of their own cultures for the intended meaning to get through.

What that means is, translations from Japanese to English are incomplete. You lose tons of subtle meanings.

Anyway, for all this long explanation, I haven't read the original yet. But in general, picking on choices of word in scanlations, or any translations to a lesser degree for that matter, is a slippery slope. Would be cool to have an input from a native in any cases.

Damn, this comment section is getting disturbing. ᕕ(ಠ_ಠ)ᕗ

For those interested in 2CT, I'd highly suggest checking out the 2CT tag on this tumblr:
http://akumadeenglish.tumblr.com/tagged/2ct

The tumblr is from a native Japanese that is studying English, so she has quite an interesting perspective on the matter, and she's very nice and helpful :)

@Tara: Sorry for the delay! Had super urgent AX stuff pop up so it took a bunch of my time. I tweeted the full list here; http://www.twitter.com/junemanga/status/746089506864934912/photo/1. All digital versions of the Libre books will be discontinued and taken down as well. v_v

@Rin: Ah! Someone understands how I feel about the release schedule. :'D I've fought for more BL titles for the last 2 years to almost no avail. I can't really say anything other then DMI is trying to expand the hentai market so there's been more focus on that. Plus the increasingly difficult and expensive costs that come with licensing BL lately. //Sigh// The market is looking kind of bleak.

@Jake/Kess: The press release... Well... A press release I guess. I don't really know what to say about it to be honest. I didn't really want to get in involved in the matter so I kept silent about the on-goings and whatnot... T_T

Wait, this is still ongoing?!

I had to drop it in the 450-ish chapters. Too many battles with characters no one cares about.

Same reason I had to drop Naruto when they started resurrecting everyone.