Tortugas Magicas

Normally, most of people watch (fan)subbed anime and read (scan)translated manga. The problem with fansubs and scanlations is that they are made by fans, so that means that from time to time, we may find some, let’s say, uncorrect translations (if not unreadable). And I can say this as a reader of scanlations and a fansubber watcher (only if I can´t find the raw version, though) and a potential professional translator.

Translating is a difficult task, I may say. It’s not just about translating words. Goods translators have to do their best in order to keep the meaning and at the same time deliver a perfectly redeable text that has to be as close to the original as possible. To give you an example, the spanish translation of “Fruits Basket” manga is so good , that sometimes I find it even more amusing than the original version. All the dialogues are very well rendered into spanish, and even if the translator had to make some little adaptations, they didn´t alter the text in any way.

Japanese is a complicated language. Not only because of the kanji, and the somewhat complex grammar, but also because it tends to be very implicit, and it heavily relies on the context. While reading “X” manga in japanese, for example, I notice that I understand what the characters say, but I would find it very difficult to produce a good spanish translation of the text.

A bad translation can completely ruin a good story, or alter the reader’s/watcher’s perception of a certain character, as pointed by Hinano in one of her posts about Soul Eater’s manga. I know some translators work under pressure because they have to finish the translation as soon as possible and therefore they can’t check it properly for mistakes (specially if they are working on fansubs), but then I wonder if it is worthwhile translating just for the sake of translating. I want to mean, for me translating is like a craftwork: you have to take your time, and put all your efforts and love into it.

Of course, when talking about translations made by fans, I don’t think we can complain at the same level as if they were translations made by a professional, since fan translators aren’t getting any money for their work. Nonetheless, they must at least provide a redeable text (and not like some chapters of Vampire Knight manga, that made little to any sense when I read them, to the point I started wondering if I was starting to forget all my english! XD).

To end with:

(Bilingual entry, coming soon!)

By the way, Karekano, (or “His and Her Circumstances”) is another example of great translation into spanish (at least the anime version).

Finally, the famous blood drinking scene…

Yuki says: “Let’s do something unforgivable….” and some people thought they were going to have sex right there in the bathroom (well, when I read the manga, I thought the same myself, but of course this is shojo, and they have to keep the characters as sexually frustrated as possible! XD) All right guys, more after the jump!

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Death the Kid vs Soul and Black Star! As expected, we get to see an epic fight in this episode, that shows Kid’s amazing skills… when he’s not in Obssesive Compulsive Mode!

Learning about Kid’s being transferred into the Shibusen, Black Star and Soul decide to welcome him in their own way: that is, fighting! However, they have to wait for a long time, because it takes almost three hours to Kid to leave his house, since he has first to check that everything is symmetrically placed…

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First of all, I’d like to apologise. If you’ve read the description of this blog, you must have remarked that it is supposed to be a bilingual animeblog. Alas, that is not true, since most of the entries (with a few exceptions) are written just in english. It is somewhat difficult to mantain a bilingual blog, since that means that I have to write every entry twice (first in english and then in spanish). My question is: are you really interested in reading a bilingual animeblog? Would you prefer me to write in just one language? Which language would you like it to be? I’ve been thinking of just writing in spanish, since there doesn’t seem to be many animeblogs in spanish right now, but well, it’s up to you, readers! Please, leave a comment! Thanks!

En primer lugar, me gustaría disculparme. Si habies leído la descripción del blog, seguramente habreis visto que en teoría, se trata de un blog bilingüe. Sin embargo, no es cierto, ya que la mayoría de las entradas están escritas en inglés (con contadas excepciones). Es algo difícil mantener un blog bilingüe, ya que eso me supone tener que escribir las entradas dos veces (primero en inglés y luego en español). Mi pregunta es: ¿Os interesa leer un blog bilingüe? ¿O preferiríais que escribiese en un solo idioma? ¿Qué idioma os gustaría más? He estado pensando en escribir únicamente en español, ya que no parece haber muchos animeblogs en este idioma. En fin, todo depende de vosotros, lectores. Dejad un comentario con vuestra opinión, y así podré decidir. ¡Muchas gracias!

The members of Kyouran Kazoku Nikki will be forever grateful to you if you answer my questions! ¡Los miembros de Kyouran Kazoku Nikki os estarán eternamente agradecidos si respondéis a mis preguntas! 

Rather dull episode this time, with some good comedy moments, though. I think the main problem is that this episode is too much focused on Mahjong, a very complex board game, and they spent like three quarters of the episode either playing it or talking about it. It was funny, however, to see poor Watanuki trying to learn how to play, and failing at it. XD

I don’t feel like writing a full summary for this episode, so I’ll just point out some interesting moments:

-Since Watanuki doesn’t know how to play Mahjong, Yuuko gives him a mountain of books related to mahjong. It was funny to see that one of them had a cover with a picture resembling Miku Hatsune, the mascot of the Vocaloid software.

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I know I’m jumping kind of late in the Inukami bandwagon, but man! What a funny TV series it is! I love all the characters, random comedy and crazyness! In a few words, Inukami! is the story of a young Inukami (dog spirit) tamer Keita, and his inukami, Youko. Keita is voiced by Jun Fukuyama (in his best role, I must say! ) and Youko is voiced by Yui Horie. Keita is a bit of a pervert, and he’s always running after women, but he’s a good guy. Anyway, Youko is there to punish him if he goes too far…XD

The relationship between those two is what makes Inukami! so funny. And by the way, there are loads of nude men! If you don’t believe me, take a look at the first episode. One of Youko’s abilities is to perform a spell that makes Keita’s clothes disappear, so you can imagine all the mad situations they live together (and how many times Keita ends in jail for scandal!)

Anyway, I just wanted to post about this particular scene in episode 11, that reminded me so much of a similar scene in “Monthy Python and the Holy Grial”, you’ll see:

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Finally Maka and the rest get to face who turned Sid-sensei into a zombie: Dr. Frank Stein! Although being a genius, Dr. Frank Stein seems to have a problem with his chair: he can’t help keep falling over backwards! XD

This introduction surprises the kids, who can’t believe that such a hopeless guy is their enemy. Suddenly, Maka feels something, and asks Soul if he can feel it too. It seems Dr. Frank Stein has the ability of seeing souls, and he remarks that Maka’s and Soul’s souls are special in their own ways: Maka’s soul is a hard worker one, while Soul’s is sarcastic. Black Star, seeing that he is not the focus of attention (how typical of him XD), attacks Frank Stein, who points out that Black Star’s soul is very self-centered, and when he sees Tsubaki, he understands right away that she is Black Star’s partner, since Tsubaki’s soul is very open and has enough space for a soul like Black Star’s.

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