Every time I see people use images or take quotes from the official translation of MAO…I take 10 damage😔 (rant)
For most english speakers it’s the only option unfortunately, but the tone is different from how it is in Japanese in my opinion. A lot of characters seem to be translated to be less serious than they are originally.
For instance:
Original text: なんか…人間を作ろうとしているみたい…(It’s like…she’s trying to create a human…)
While Nanoka isn’t exactly a “serious” character, there’s been so many instances where extra dialogue or extra use of exclamation points is given to her dialogue. Thus, she comes off as goofier than she really is…which is such a shame, because I really like her as a character.
Original text: 夏野さんはいつも…自分の知りたい事がわかったら他の事に興味なくしちゃう感じだな。(It always seems like Miss Natsuno…loses interest in everything else when she’s figured out what she wants to know.)
Another thing is how everyone addresses each other. Everyone except for Otoya (even then, sometimes “master” is accidentally omitted) calls Mao by just his name. Mao on the other hand calls most people with honorifics (-san or -sama). With all of Mao’s seniors, he calls them “[name]-sama”. This includes Hyakka, Daigo, Kamon, etc. While there’s not a great english equivalent to calling your senior with an honorific, the first name basis is strange to me.
Doesn’t only apply to Mao too; Otoya calls Nanoka only by her name in the translation, while the original has him call her Miss Nanoka (菜花さん). Nanoka calls Natsuno “Miss Natsuno” originally.
Characters thoughts and feelings are changed sometimes in subtle ways.
This is the worst offender in my opinion. Mao’s dialogue right before this is “What i’m trying to say is…”:
Original text: 私は…大丈夫だ。(I’m…alright.) Don’t know why they made him stutter instead…
I have more examples, but just in general I don’t love the translations. I understand why it is this way; there’s likely multiple translators and they don’t need to have read the story, they just need to translate it to english. Still, I feel like it could be better.
I will say that one thing I DO like (sort of) is how Sasuga’s Kansai dialect is translated to sound like a southern U.S. dialect. I think it’s nice that one of his unique characteristics isn’t lost.
