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Naruto: English or Japanese?

Discussion in 'Fanfic Discussion' started by Knyght, Sep 16, 2014.

  1. Solomon

    Solomon Heir

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    If you're just doing a machine translation, sure. Directly translated, word for word, a lot of meaning would definitely be lost in that sort of situation. That's why you focus on maintaining the meaning and the tone, making changes where necessary.

    I'm hardly an expert myself, of course. I'm just trying to emphasize that focusing on individual words is a fool's errand, and it's what causes stupid bullshit like this to happen. The tone and the meaning is what's important, not the word itself.
     
  2. fire

    fire Order Member

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    Nakama is one such term that means more than its literal translation.

    Tomodachi means "friend"; Nakama means "friend" too, with the added idea that your friend is supremely important to you. There's a sort of implication that you're true companions, bonded on some elementally deep level. Calling someone your Nakama is almost like declaring that you're in love, except platonically.

    In truth, I don't think normal people even use the word Nakama in ordinary life. It's most likely to be used by chuunibyou children and teenagers overly influenced by fantasy and anime.

    As to how to translate it - I'm not too sure. You'll probably have to use "friend", and imply all the extra emotional stuff with tone and context and adjectives.

    In this case, I'm against using Nakama untranslated because I think it detracts from the flow of the story. It's like being punched in the face by Japanese - you're suddenly aware that the language you're reading the story in (e.g. English) is not the language being spoken by the characters - which is bizarre and undermines immersion - which is not something you want to do, especially if you're trying to write a very emotional scene regarding characters' friendships.
     
    Last edited: Sep 20, 2014
  3. Aekiel

    Aekiel Angle of Mispeling ~ Prestige ~ DLP Supporter

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    I think we'd probably use the phrase blood brothers or 'they're as close as family' to translate Nakama. It's to denote people who are not family but mean just as much to you, I think.
     
  4. Ched

    Ched Da Trek Moderator DLP Supporter ⭐⭐

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    Fair points regarding use of words like "nakama" in fanfiction. At some point I'd started talking more about how I liked the anime/manga translated as opposed to writing fanfiction in English (as opposed to translating).

    No need to use words like that in fanfic, since you're writing in English and can make sure the meaning is communicated without using them. In translations though I still prefer to keep them, I think.
     
    Last edited: Sep 21, 2014
  5. Solomon

    Solomon Heir

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    See, I'm in favor of translating as much as possible, because think about it for a second: you're just leaving a Japanese word in the middle of regular conversation, and it's not something like the name of a character or a place, where it makes sense. Not only will that take your average viewer/reader out of the story, it won't actually add any meaning (especially for your average viewer, who has probably never seen the word before.)

    Worse, if you just throw a translation of the word onscreen elsewhere (like in that image I linked), it just looks spergy and stupid, even to someone who understands the idea. That's why good localizations of Japanese works don't generally have random Japanese words peppered in.
     
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