Discussion History Main / DreamWithinADream

Volume 1 is the best example. Compare the Del Rey version of Volume 1 with the online scans or the Chuang Yi version (Singapore). The Del Rey version is basically a perverted, sardonic, badly-voiced rewrite by a well-known comic author (and his wife; she shares the credit) who apparently thought he knew what Ken Akamatsu was trying to do, and thought he could do it better. Now, Volume 1 actually had a rather delicate task - it had to set up the series without being too obvious about where it was going to go, while simultaneously balancing on a razor\\\'s edge of, uh... propriety. The Del Rey translation completely obliterates the subtle setup and foreshadowing, mischaracterizes the characters, tips the propriety issue over solidly onto the side of \\\"sleazy\\\", and actually creates plot holes as it blunders around trying to be funnier than the original.

I can state unequivocally that if I had read Volume 1 in the Del Rey version before reading it online, I would have dropped the series in disgust.

Here\\\'s a typical example of a rewrite, plus some comments on other stuff that\\\'s wrong with Volume 1: http://astronerdboy.blogspot.com/2007/04/negima-volume-1-del-rey-and-peter-david.html

(It\\\'s worth noting that the \\\"Southern Master\\\" thing has since been completely corrected. IIRC that wasn\\\'t the Davids\\\' fault; it was a screwup on the part of the Japanese pusher translator whose work they \\\"adapted\\\".)

This series has a lot of text, and it matters what it is. Minor glitches (like in Vol. 14 where a mistranslation puts Chisame massively OOC, or in Vol. 19 where Al\\\'s backstory-relevant comment on Asuna\\\'s age gets a translation fail) I can deal with. Aggressively over-the-top badly-voiced dialogue (like most of Vol. 6) I can deal with, especially when the translation for that volume is technically a bit more accurate in terms of meaning than the more sedate and in-character Chuang Yi translation. But Volumes 5 and 20 are embarrasingly glitchy; I imported the Chuang Yi versions \\\'\\\'after buying the Del Rey versions\\\'\\\', so as not to have to put up with the problems. At least the problems after the Davids left appear to all be honest mistakes... I can\\\'t comment directly on Volumes 2, 3, 4, or 21, since I don\\\'t own them in the Del Rey translation - just the Chuang Yi...

Volume 1 is the best example. Compare the Del Rey version of Volume 1 with the online scans or the Chuang Yi version (Singapore). The Del Rey version is basically a perverted, sardonic, badly-voiced rewrite by a well-known comic author (and his wife; she shares the credit) who apparently thought he knew what Ken Akamatsu was trying to do, and thought he could do it better. Now, Volume 1 actually had a rather delicate task - it had to set up the series without being too obvious about where it was going to go, while simultaneously balancing on a razor\\\'s edge of, uh... propriety. The Del Rey translation completely obliterates the subtle setup and foreshadowing, mischaracterizes the characters, tips the propriety issue over solidly onto the side of \\\"sleazy\\\", and actually creates plot holes as it blunders around trying to be funnier than the original.

I can state unequivocally that if I had read Volume 1 in the Del Rey version before reading it online, I would have dropped the series in disgust.

Here\\\'s a typical example of a rewrite, plus some comments on other stuff that\\\'s wrong with Volume 1: http://astronerdboy.blogspot.com/2007/04/negima-volume-1-del-rey-and-peter-david.html

(It\\\'s worth noting that the \\\"Southern Master\\\" thing has since been completely corrected. IIRC that wasn\\\'t the Davids\\\' fault; it was a screwup on the part of the Japanese pusher translator whose work they \\\"adapted\\\".)

This series has a lot of text, and it matters what it is. Minor glitches (like in Vol. 14 where a mistranslation puts Chisame massively OOC, or in Vol. 19 where Al\\\'s backstory-relevant comment on Asuna\\\'s age gets a translation fail) I can deal with. Aggressively over-the-top badly-voiced dialogue (like most of Vol. 6) I can deal with, especially when the translation for that volume is technically a bit more accurate in terms of meaning than the more sedate and in-character Chuang Yi translation. But Volumes 5 and 20 are embarrasingly glitchy; I imported the Chuang Yi versions \\\'\\\'after buying the Del Rey versions\\\'\\\', so as not to have to put up with the problems. At least the problems after the Davids left appear to all be honest mistakes... I can\\\'t comment directly on Volumes 2, 3, 4, or 21, though, since I don\\\'t own them in the Del Rey translation - just the Chuang Yi...

Volume 1 is the best example. Compare the Del Rey version of Volume 1 with the online scans or the Chuang Yi version (Singapore). The Del Rey version is basically a perverted, sardonic, badly-voiced rewrite by a well-known comic author (and his wife; she shares the credit) who apparently thought he knew what Ken Akamatsu was trying to do, and thought he could do it better. Now, Volume 1 actually had a rather delicate task - it had to set up the series without being too obvious about where it was going to go, while simultaneously balancing on a razor\\\'s edge of, uh... propriety. The Del Rey translation completely obliterates the subtle setup and foreshadowing, mischaracterizes the characters, tips the propriety issue over solidly onto the side of \\\"sleazy\\\", and actually creates plot holes as it blunders around trying to be funnier than the original.

I can state unequivocally that if I had read Volume 1 in the Del Rey version before reading it online, I would have dropped the series in disgust.

Here\\\'s a typical example of a rewrite, plus some comments on other stuff that\\\'s wrong with Volume 1: http://astronerdboy.blogspot.com/2007/04/negima-volume-1-del-rey-and-peter-david.html

(It\\\'s worth noting that the \\\"Southern Master\\\" thing has since been completely corrected. IIRC that wasn\\\'t the Davids\\\' fault; it was a screwup on the part of the Japanese pusher translator whose work they \\\"adapted\\\".)

This series has a lot of text, and it matters what it is. Minor glitches (like in Vol. 14 where a mistranslation puts Chisame massively OOC, or in Vol. 19 where Al\\\'s backstory-relevant comment on Asuna\\\'s age gets a translation fail) I can deal with. Aggressively over-the-top badly-voiced dialogue (like most of Vol. 6) I can deal with, especially when the translation for that volume is technically a bit more accurate in terms of meaning than the more sedate and in-character Chuang Yi translation. But Volumes 5 and 20 are embarrasingly glitchy; I imported the Chuang Yi versions \\\'\\\'after buying the Del Rey versions\\\'\\\', so as not to have to put up with the problems. At least the problems after the Davids left appear to all be honest mistakes... I don\\\'t own Volumes 2, 3, 4, or 21 in the Del Rey - just the Chuang Yi...

Volume 1 is the best example. Compare the Del Rey version of Volume 1 with the online scans or the Chuang Yi version (Singapore). The Del Rey version is basically a perverted, sardonic, badly-voiced rewrite by a well-known comic author (and his wife; she shares the credit) who apparently thought he knew what Ken Akamatsu was trying to do, and thought he could do it better. Now, Volume 1 actually had a rather delicate task - it had to set up the series without being too obvious about where it was going to go, while simultaneously balancing on a razor\\\'s edge of, uh... propriety. The Del Rey translation completely obliterates the subtle setup and foreshadowing, mischaracterizes the characters, tips the propriety issue over solidly onto the side of \\\"sleazy\\\", and actually creates plot holes as it blunders around trying to be funnier than the original.

I can state unequivocally that if I had read Volume 1 in the Del Rey version before reading it online, I would have dropped the series in disgust.

Here\\\'s a typical example of a rewrite, plus some comments on other stuff that\\\'s wrong with Volume 1: http://astronerdboy.blogspot.com/2007/04/negima-volume-1-del-rey-and-peter-david.html

(It\\\'s worth noting that the \\\"Southern Master\\\" thing has since been completely corrected. IIRC that wasn\\\'t the Davids\\\' fault; it was a screwup on the part of the Japanese pusher translator whose work they \\\"adapted\\\".)

This series has a lot of text, and it matters what it is. Minor glitches (like in Vol. 14 where a mistranslation puts Chisame massively OOC, or in Vol. 19 where Al\\\'s backstory-relevant comment on Asuna\\\'s age gets a translation fail) I can deal with. Aggressively over-the-top badly-voiced dialogue (like most of Vol. 6) I can deal with, especially when the translation for that volume is technically a bit more accurate than the more sedate and in-character Chuang Yi translation. But Volumes 5 and 20 are embarrasingly glitchy; I imported the Chuang Yi versions \\\'\\\'after buying the Del Rey versions\\\'\\\', so as not to have to put up with the problems. At least the problems after the Davids left appear to all be honest mistakes... I don\\\'t own Volumes 2, 3, 4, or 21 in the Del Rey - just the Chuang Yi...

Volume 1 is the best example. Compare the Del Rey version of Volume 1 with the online scans or the Chuang Yi version (Singapore). The Del Rey version is basically a perverted, sardonic, badly-voiced rewrite by a well-known comic author (and his wife; she shares the credit) who apparently thought he knew what Ken Akamatsu was trying to do, and thought he could do it better. Now, Volume 1 had a rather delicate task - it had to set up the series without being too obvious about where it was going to go, while simultaneously balancing on a razor\\\'s edge of, uh... propriety. The Del Rey translation completely obliterates the subtle setup and foreshadowing, mischaracterizes the characters, tips the propriety issue over solidly onto the side of \\\"sleazy\\\", and actually creates plot holes as it blunders around trying to be funnier than the original.

I can state unequivocally that if I had read Volume 1 in the Del Rey version before reading it online, I would have dropped the series in disgust.

Here\\\'s a typical example of a rewrite, plus some comments on other stuff that\\\'s wrong with Volume 1: http://astronerdboy.blogspot.com/2007/04/negima-volume-1-del-rey-and-peter-david.html

(It\\\'s worth noting that the \\\"Southern Master\\\" thing has since been completely corrected. IIRC that wasn\\\'t the Davids\\\' fault; it was a screwup on the part of the Japanese pusher translator whose work they \\\"adapted\\\".)

This series has a lot of text, and it matters what it is. Minor glitches (like in Vol. 14 where a mistranslation puts Chisame massively OOC, or in Vol. 19 where Al\\\'s backstory-relevant comment on Asuna\\\'s age gets a translation fail) I can deal with. Aggressively over-the-top badly-voiced dialogue (like most of Vol. 6) I can deal with, especially when the translation for that volume is technically a bit more accurate than the more sedate and in-character Chuang Yi translation. But Volumes 5 and 20 are embarrasingly glitchy; I imported the Chuang Yi versions \\\'\\\'after buying the Del Rey versions\\\'\\\', so as not to have to put up with the problems. At least the problems after the Davids left appear to all be honest mistakes... I don\\\'t own Volumes 2, 3, 4, or 21 in the Del Rey - just the Chuang Yi...