This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://kazamatsuri.org/rewrite-be-published-sekai-project/
I am not familiar with Ixrec ( and even if I were, in no place to criticize any English translation) but there are some very uncomplimentary comments in that reddit about his translation. Is that fair?
Sekai Project have a lot going on by the looks of it (MLA still ongoing for one), so I can’t see this being even properly started until the announcement “later this year”. Nonetheless I’m grateful that the long silence doesn’t mean the plan hasn’t been shelved!
The thing that makes it hard to criticize Sekai Project on slow releases is from what I can tell they mostly work with freelancers with some inhouse staff. If they already have someone and they’re already working on it than it might not take as long as people expect. G-Senjou no Maou was only like a couple months and Nekopara has always released same day as Japan and I don’t think ever delayed for the translation for example.
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Back when I used the subreddit (up until a couple years ago) it always came across as a place where casual VN readers went to act like elitists, with the rare public figure showing up to champion an opinion. Back then I was in the top 3 users who read the most VNs, out of the regulars at least, and for perspective I very barely read VNs. While the subreddit has surely picked up some actual VN readers over the years, and has hopefully evolved from the Katawa Shoujo+Grisaia fansub it used to be, I doubt much has changed.
I’m sure a good chunk of the outspoken people on the subreddit (as with most subreddits) have no idea what their opinions mean, so take it all with a grain of salt. Ixrec has screwed up a bunch, and he’s been outspokenly stubborn on things that are clearly wrong, but he’s also improved a lot since he started. His style just isn’t popular. He’s the admirably fast but flawed type. I don’t think I’d take him in a professional project, but he outclasses most fan-translators in speed and reliability. When the scene was dying and not bombarding Steam, those traits were what you wanted from a translator.
To me this seems like a reassurance announcement. More of a “hey we’re still doing Rewrite guys!” Like Nintendo did with the Switch Pokemon and Metroid. Or maybe they just needed some padding for AX.
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I knew people were opinionated about Sekai but wow, this has become quite the topic. I’ve backed probably around 3 of their Kickstarters – Clannad, Grisaia, and Root Double – at the physical goods level. In terms of translation I played through Clannad and about one third of Root Double and I think the translations have been good even if they could have spent more time tightening it in editing. Really complaining about translations in general seems to be such a hobby these day - especially by people with dubious Japanese experience at best that it has become white noise to me.
So I had some shipment issues, but they went back and corrected them. So I don’t hold those against them at all. The only baffling problem I have had with them is how on earth they thought Root Double shirts came to be approved and made and shipped. I know they are going back and fixing this, which is good and important, but for the love of heavens, I could make a better shirt with my home printer and a blank iron on. I ended up throwing the shirt out - it was unworthy to even be worn as a mess shirt. How did this shirt ever exist?
In general though my opinion of Sekai is such that I was decidedly okay, and maybe even a bit heartened when I heard they would be Rewrite + release. Reading through the critisims, some of them decidedly valid, some just seemingly whiny, I am content to wait and watch.
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They say Tanaka’s prose is Shakespeare-tier. They also say that for the same reason, it’s nigh-impossible to do it justice in a translation. (Those are just things I hear from other people. I never actually read any of those discussions.)
So, assuming what they say is true and this new translation is not only more accurate but also much closer to accomplishing such a feat than than Ixrec’s, I welcome it. Otherwise, I don’t see the point in completely abandoning the old one instead of using it as a basis and just making some corrections while they’re at it.
I can’t read the sacred language, so that might be the reason, but I didn’t really see that many problems with Ixrec’s translation. My biggest gripe with it would be that Kotarou talked about “Power users” (for example, he called Chihaya one after witnessing her strength) in the early common route, which falsely led me to believe that superpowers were common knowledge even for civilians in Rewrite’s setting. A trifle, really.
I also heard there was a serious miss-TL near the end of Kotori’s route, regarding the phrase “I liked it.” Not sure if that one is true, but it would make sense.
EDIT: Noticed that it was recently adressed in a related topic.
Herein lies the biggest problem with translation: no matter what, the person/people who write the English translation are not Tanaka. Therefore, the translation will not sound or feel like Tanaka. Personally, I don’t even know what “feeling like Tanaka” means, so I don’t really care that much as long as it feels good. And honestly, I don’t see why the people who do know what Tanaka feels like care either; if they want Tanaka they can just read Tanaka.
So again, it just needs to be good. And “good” is gonna be different for every person anyway, so no matter what someone’s not gonna be satisfied.
Most of the stuff I hear brought up doesn’t actually affect the story in any major way… don’t have any examples on-hand though. Either way, I think Rewrite’s translation just happened to come around at the same time as the spark of professional, official VN TLs. The community had previously been satisfied, even happier with faster, but perhaps less accurate TLs. Nowadays TL quality is heavily scrutinized. I guess this is just a long winded way of saying, “yes, maybe a lot of the criticisms of Ixrec are valid, but does he deserve the hate he get, probably not”.
Ultimately, more than anything Im just interested in how Sekai’s TL will feel in comparison. I don’t think any earth-shattering improvements or regression.
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Honestly tl quality has meant very little to me. Rewrite’s Ixrec’s tl seems more than fine for me. But how am I even to grade a tl when I do not know Japanese? the thing is, One translator’s opinion carry a lot of weight. “They” which is probably like 3 people who actually know japanese well, can say a tl is bad then suddenly 1000s start saying that.
I honestly sort of hate re-translation because so much stuff is still not translated. People complain about quality now that is fixed, people can switch to how slow and long they have to wait. They don’t realize that if you want a re-translation it is going to take time. In other words it is a trade off you don’t just get more by asking for more, you pay a price one way or another.
I don’t really mind waiting but I think people are overreacting, because anime kids do that all the time. The problem with all these nitpicky type people is I have no idea when they are actually right for once or being nitpicky like they usually are.
I feel like we need trustworthy tl reviews from now on. It is hard to say if this is good or not.
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Mow raises an interesting point-Rewrite is already translated with pretty decent quality, so they should focus on bringing other VNs to English instead of doing more work than they have to on Rewrite. Where’s my goddamn English version of Daitoshokan no Hitsujikai?!?!
Haha, don’t worry, Sekai is gonna take 5 years to release it either way. Its part of their super secret contract they make with all their VN producers. Then, just when you really think they must have forgotten about it, they’ll release it without any prior notice!
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As a noob to VNs I think I probably have a lot to be grateful to Sekai Project for, as we currently have a large catalogue of VNs easily available on Steam - and I would never have gone to the bother of trying to get hold of the Original Language versions and fiddle about trying to get them to work on a UK PC with English language patches. I’m not massively concerned about quality of translation as long as it reads well - although obviously if you are paying for the translation as part of the finished product you expect better QC.
So, while I have to wait for a few like LB! and Rewrite+ to be localised and released to market, I’ve been fortunate to get some other Key titles already available. Hell, to show my appreciation maybe I’ll consider contributing to any Rewrite+ Kickstarter.
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I am pretty pleased to hear this news. Granted, there are things I don’t agree with SP on, but I generally think that their message is to help out as many publishers as possible and to try to pay wages that aren’t face-palm inducing in the process (that seriously gets under my skin).
I can have 20-30 projects or fixes to make progress on open at any one time, and it’s better to do something positive than to sit by and do nothing (especially when dealing with contract work), but it’s very hard to explain that to most people.
If they say that it will come soon and it doesn’t have many bugs, has good QA support, has a good translation, and doesn’t need to be partially translated after release (sigh), then that’s plenty good enough.
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Just don’t ever touch Sakura series…
Still waiting on my Harvest Festia…
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I read Sakura Dungeon long time ago and, even if is not at all one of the best VN I have read, I liked the story, the drawing and the gameplay part.
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Yeah, looking at the write ups and art concentrating on those, erm; attributes, I’d say that doesn’t really appeal to me!
Huh, I always thought that Rewrite+ was gonna be published by VisualArt’s, since that’s what I saw on vndb a few months ago. Seems they’ve corrected that.
I’ve personally never had any issues with Amaterasu’s translations… but then again I’ve never read the original so I’m not really fit to judge. Though I’m guessing the reason SP is putting in extra work to re-translate the novel has less to do with the quality and more about licensing and royalties. Correct me if I’m wrong.
With all that said, I’m pretty hyped about Rewrite getting a proper official release in the west. Wouldn’t mind reading through it again, and reading Harvest Festa for the first time.
Technically you’re not. What dovac from SP said about it was that VA did not offer them the original translation. Since VA already bought said translation, they (SP) aren’t licensed to use it.
So it seems VA made the decision more than anything
MLA? Degica is doing that. Unless MLA means something else than Muv Luv.
Regardless, this news is weird. I like it and I also don’t. Clearly I care more about it now that I’ve logged in for my biannual post, but it also worries me that Sekai keeps picking up projects with so much on their plate already. What’s next, Angel Beats?
Yes you’re right about MLA. Thing about gettiing old is the wiring in my brain’s going cranky…
SP have a lot going on but many of them seem near completion, and maybe some works aren’t as huge as LB! or Rewrite+
I guess this will take forever. If you want another example, look at Hoshimemo.
They were done translating it several months ago. But according to Kickstarter, the backers are gonna get their digital copies sometime around Sep. 2018 (!!!), which I assume is the release date.
Or am I wrong?
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