I’ve never really gone through and compared his translations to the Japanese, so don’t quote me too much on what he gets wrong. Generally speaking, however, Ixrec is a very literal translator. This helps make him a very fast translator with few “errors” and the biggest advantage of using his work is that it’s probably very close to being a finished product. The vast majority of us, myself included, read Rewrite from his work and I don’t think any of us thought it was unacceptable work.
Unfortunately, literal translations often end up being, as I recently read one person describe as, technically a correct interpretation but not the right one. Tanaka picks his words very carefully, and there are reasons why he words phrases the way he does. So when Ixrec translates things without fully realizing their meaning and association with the work as a whole, you lose a lot of subtlety going on in the language, story, and dialogue - things that might not be super important to the story but do add to the experience. Most of all though, he just isn’t a very creative writer. Which don’t get me wrong is really, really hard to be. But if you look at the Grisaia or Dies Irae translations, for example, you’ll notice some colorful, expansive vocabulary and very distinct writing styles that help define the work itself. Ixrec lacks that sort of writing ability when he translates, so even if he gets the meaning across, he doesn’t convey the same reading experience. It’s like taking a Shakespeare play and rewriting it in bland, boring English. Sure, the story is the same but the writing quality is completely different. That is what people mean when they say he butchers Tanaka’s writing. Rather, to be fair, this is what people mean when they say any translator would butcher Tanaka’s writing.
Personally, I think the elitists are too harsh on his work when some talk about him “ruining everything,” and I know I’m very grateful for his work no matter how “bad” it may be (at least for Rewrite; Cross Channel is a whole different ballgame and he messed that up bad enough that he also admits it in retrospect). But it’s true that his translations are very subpar and you lose a lot of what makes Rewrite impressive from a literary standpoint, even if you didn’t really miss any major plot points. If it means more people get to experience Rewrite, I’d happily send them to Ixrec’s translations, but if SP is going to retranslate the entire thing, that could be a very good thing that all of us should try rereading for a potentially new experience.
