I have heard a lot of Tatami Galaxy and I watched a bit of it a few days ago

I have to admit I was pretty tired and the subs were going too fast for me to follow but I’m planning on watching it completely next :^)

That’s because it IS ridiculous! Nothing you’ve seen about Quiet is a lie--She is an extremely capable soldier who has super powers to boot, she got beat by Venom Snake, sure, but he’s legendary and even then as soon as she recovers she easily gets rid of him and the only reason she stays as your partner and in her cell in MB is because she WANTS to be there, not because VS beat her. 

Both are used

That’s a really good question and I think it’s definitely something most every translator deals with at least on occasion. How much an individual translator has to contend with recognition issues from people outside their work probably varies in terms of specialty. As someone who mostly does translation work that entails a lot of creative writing, I’m probably on the lower end of the spectrum in terms of it being a real issue; within stuff like localization, there are a good number of opportunities to still develop somewhat of a distinct voice even within a “set” work, have people notice that, and then seek you out to give you feedback. Contrast that with something often deemed to have more rigid needs like patent or medical translation where technical competency and semantic consistency between languages are typically valued above all else and you have output that feels, by design and necessity, a lot more colder and lifeless, even it’s otherwise quality work for something that’s super important. In those sorts of cases, I’d be really surprised if those translators got much gratitude beyond their immediate work contacts, especially given that it’s usually a lot more anonymous (eg: who ever gets credit for translating appliance instruction manuals?).

Personally, I’m at a point where even if recognition for my creative stuff is super flattering and sometimes valuable for improving my work, what’s more important is whether the audience for a given translation just feels a connection to whatever it is they’re playing and reading. My job as a translator ultimately isn’t to supersede anybody on the original creative team behind a game, even if the work of people like me, as you say, can sometimes be super important to making the underlying points make sense outside its native territory. I’m lucky enough to be given a lot of discretion in my work where I can be creative and put my own stamps to how those points are presented, but at the end of the day, my localization work has to first and foremost be a bridge that opens up that work to a new audience and broadens its horizons. If I wanted total recognition from people for being a completely original creator, at some point I’d have to strike it out and just do my own thing. As it is, whenever the games I work on do come out in English, if people comment at all on the localization, that’s still enough of a personal and professional boon because at least it displays a certain level of recognition that it took middlemen like me to bring them out overseas. Any actual flattery on top of that is just icing on the cake.

Beyond that, there’s definitely some fan translation stuff I’ve done where I realistically can’t expect that many people to notice or care. Like who in the English-speaking world is going to have an honest interest in a pachinko/RPG-hybrid, let alone seek out a developer interview on it, right? Even if I say that said developer is the guy that made Steambot Chronicles and Disaster Report, it’s most likely not going to attract throngs of people. I mean, granted, I have followers on here who have totally expressed an interest in that stuff after I’ve spent so much time blabbing about them (and I should finally be able to actually start streaming those games soon!), but realistically speaking, some of the stuff I like doing definitely appeals to a niche within a niche and probably rankles some people who’d rather I be working on more “popular” stuff. Those sorts of things are very much so passion projects that I take up just because I think the information contained in them is worth preserving and spreading in another language so that if there ever comes a time when someone does want or need that information, they can find it without getting a Japanese degree or hiring a translator to do it. Sometimes those projects still manage to take on a bit of a life of their own if left alone, though; I occasionally get notifications about my Oreshika work getting reblogged and I continue to remain floored just how many people actually care about what I did with stuff like that Kaneko pixel art post. So a lot of the time even if stuff doesn’t make an immediate splash, it still works out pretty well in the end.

In the end, I don’t feel personally like I’m left wanting for more recognition for what I do as a translator, especially the free fan translation stuff I’ve provided over the years. The big pieces that have gone on to be really widely circulated and reported on has resulted in me seemingly getting more and more name recognition online, especially on here and I get a surprisingly high number of messages thanking me for what I do and saying they enjoy my style, even when it’s just pretty throwaway stuff like trailer subtitles. If I manage to retain even a fraction of that goodwill with my commercial work, then I’ll be beyond happy doing what I do, even moreso than I already am, but as it is, way too many people have gotten in touch with me over the years for me to ever feel like nobody ever pays attention to my work. It’s really satisfying getting even that much, but I also try to remember that I had to work really hard to earn people’s trust and that I have to keep respecting it as things slowly move forward in my professional career.