XPost: rec.arts.anime.misc   
   From: aj153@FreeNet.Carleton.CA   
      
   As promised, my critique of the adaptations of the domestic releases of   
   the Negima! manga.  I've covered up the one possible story spoiler.   
   Before I start, thanks to my friend Rob for lending me his copies of Vols.   
   1-6 (all first printings); it saved me more than my money.  You might want   
   to put your safety goggles on before I start.   
      
   Volume 1:   
   "Take your mystic diploma that will dictate your career.  And remember:  A   
   charmed life is a happy life."--That doesn't ring right to me somehow.   
   This is supposed to be a translation of what ChaotiXubs got "Everyone has   
   worked diligently for the past 7 years.  However, this is only the   
   beginning of your training, so keep up with your studies" out of?  This is   
   only the first panel.  Bad start.   
      
   "Besides, he's a shrimp!  And a space cadet!"--Yeesh.  I don't know about   
   where Del Ray or the translators are located, but in Ottawa, we   
   acknowledge that the 80's ended about 15 years ago, and save the nostalgia   
   for retro dance nights at clubs.   
      
   Negi on the bus:  While the girls on the bus do notice Negi as being a   
   foreigner and tease him a little bit, no way in hell do I believe that   
   they told him, "You should have gotten off last stop."  "Have you ever?   
   Gotten off, that is?" on the first page you see him sneeze.  Give me a   
   break.  That is just wrong, in every sense of the word.  By the way, CX   
   had them saying, "Little boy, where are you going?"  "The next stop is the   
   high school district."  I think that may be closer to what Akamatsu   
   originally wrote.  I also don't believe their lines after the sneeze were   
   similarly crude as what Del Ray used.  Keerist, if Del Rey wants to run a   
   story where cute high school girls talk smutty to little boys, then they   
   should licence a bloody manga where they do that to begin with!   
      
   Asuna's first page:  In the fan translation, Asuna does *not* say   
   "Awright!" when her friend tells her that silly fortune book spell in the   
   last panel.  According to ChaotiXubs, she says "Are you kidding me?"   
   Considering that she does it immediately afterwards, just who's right   
   here?  My money's on CX, frankly.  However, it doesn't have her friend   
   telling her she made it up and calling her a "cheesehead" on the next   
   page.  She actually just tells her another similarly absurd one.   
      
   "So how'd that anger management class work out, Asuna?"--About as well as   
   trying to get that obvious piece of pop (bacterial) culture past me.   
      
   At this point, I'm going to stop doing page-by-page, but refer to the   
   scanlation when something in the Del Rey version strikes me as especially   
   wrong.  However, something tells me that's not going to speed things up   
   much for me.  I don't put peanut butter on toast anywhere near as thick as   
   Peter and Kathleen O'Shea David spread what I assume is their egos all   
   over the translation (unless what's being laid on is what "market   
   research" dictates that shounen manga consumers, who are assumed to be   
   nothing but a bunch of idiots with money to take away from them, will suck   
   up unquestioningly), regardless of what Akamatsu originally had the   
   characters say.  And Del Rey let them keep on doing this for three more   
   volumes?   
      
   Meet Shizuna-sensei--While there's no denying that her hugging Negi too   
   close was meant to be a joke, the "kept abreast of the situation" and "Can   
   I have a cookie?" lines were obvious overAmerican grafts and made me do   
   nothing but roll my eyes.   
      
   To hell with it.  I'm stopping here.  I haven't even finished the first   
   chapter of the first volume and this already has me in a foul mood.  Oh,   
   all right, I'll take a break and then grab Vols 5 (Douglas Varenas--   
   translator and adaptor) and 6 (Toshifumi Yoshida--translator, and Trish   
   Ledoux--adaptor; Dallas Middaugh's former bosses at Viz) out of the bag   
   and make some observations about them.  I didn't get any scanlations past   
   partway through Vol. 1, so these will be based strictly on what blatantly   
   rubs me the wrong way.  Given my previous history with the current   
   adaptor's previous work, you can bet that I'm more than a little wary of   
   Vol. 6.  Here goes:   
      
   Vol. 5:   
   So far, while some of the slang usage is a bit stale, at least it's not   
   totally rancid, and it sounds more realistic to me than what the Davids   
   (who now make me want to legally change my first name) did to Chapter 1.   
   Hold on.  While I'm sure that the girls were being a little naughty during   
   the school trip and that they're now looking to kiss him to form one of   
   those magical bonds, I doubt that that girl was really saying "I wanted to   
   talk dirty to Negi-kun, but..."  I'm willing to be proven wrong, though.   
   Still, so far, very tasteful usage of the language dressing, with a few   
   exceptions ("Gimme some sugar!"?  Ugh).  This copy (first edition) says   
   "Southern Master" (the late great punk/indie music engineer/champion John   
   Loder was Negi Springfied's dad?), and then "Thousand Master" shows up   
   later; I guess this was the one in production when they finally realized   
   the mistake.  While I personally would have sharpened things a little   
   more, this version was a tonic after a horrible start.  Mr. Middaugh:  Why   
   didn't you keep Mr. Varenas on?  If you'd had him do work like this from   
   the start, I would have been much happier.  Coming up, the One Everyone   
   Who Knows Me Wants to Hear My Impressions About, out of morbid curiousity   
   or whatever reason.  But not yet; got other stuff to do now.   
      
   Okay.  A couple of days later, not hopped up on coffee (but I do have some   
   green tea steeping right now), lightened up some.  I'm going to grab   
   volumes 2-4 out of the bag and start reading.  If I encounter any of the   
   crap I did in Vol. 1, it's back in the bag, and next.  Okay...lasted with   
   2 and 3 in about the same time as two songs on the CD I'm listening to   
   (Toronto garage rock band the Chickens), but Vol. 4 seems to have a much   
   lighter touch on the localiztion.  I guess Del Rey got enough negative   
   feedback from readers to be forced to.  I would have wiped out even more   
   traces of it than what got left behind here, but it's still an   
   improvement.  But how will it weigh up against a Trishing?  Let's find out.   
      
   Vol. 6   
   "Hey, Negi!  Ix-nay on the ission-may!":  Ugh.  It took me a few pages   
   before I got to something like this, which is better than I hoped for from   
   Trish, but gawd, the fact that it read fine up to this point (leaving   
   "ojou-sama" untranslated was a nice touch; I assume that "oujo" was   
   explained in a previous volume) just makes something like this even more   
   glaring.  Moving along...and moving along...an utterance of the word   
   "Coolness" instead of "Cool."  That was pretty much it until halfway   
   through the volume, and then we hit a snarl.  Making Fei Ku (student #12)   
   talk baby-talk like they did with Shampoo from Ranma 1/2, since they're   
   both Chinese...Mr. Middaugh, I would have not let that go unchecked.  That   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)