Is it worth it to buy Light Novels?

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moustachelot
Mikuru's Master
Posts: 21
Joined: Thu Jul 18, 2013 7:58 pm
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Is it worth it to buy Light Novels?

Post by moustachelot »

I know that occasionally Light Novels are licensed and translators legally have to abandon the project, so I've been wondering if it's actually worth it to buy the Light Novels that are translated and sold in stores. From my experience with manga I noticed that the online ones were as close to the originals as possible and even left in honorifics, which I enjoy greatly, but the manga bought in stores are changed by the translators as they feel would look best instead of sticking true to the novel, which irritates me. I'd like to know if the Light Novels in stores are translated by people who actually care and leave stuff in or if I'm buying a half-assed effort for making money. thanks for reading this!
Cthaeh
Yuki-Nagator
Posts: 647
Joined: Sun Nov 11, 2012 6:54 pm
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Re: Is it worth it to buy Light Novels?

Post by Cthaeh »

It kind of sounds like you have an opinion already. But regardless, the best advice would be to go to a bookstore and skim, or check out your library (mine has all of Yen Press' recent volume 1 releases).

Before moving on to my thoughts on the novels, I'm going to comment on the differences in our personal tastes. If I were to write a similar line to the following...
I'd like to know if the Light Novels in stores are translated by people who actually care and leave stuff in
... based on my personal preferences, I would say "I'd like to know if the LNs in stores are translated by people who actually care and don't leave random Japanese leftovers in."

Also, it's fine that people have different preferences, but I think you're incorrectly assigning a translation with less Japanese language conventions as being "half-assed." As someone who occasionally edits and has discussed issues related to those Japanese conventions with multiple translators, I can assure you it requires a lot more effort to remove those quirks of the Japanese language and render the text in standard English. Standard English is the language I speak and use, so that's what I personally like my reading to be in.

Back to your question, as someone whose preferences differ from yours, the recent published volumes have been very good. In general, the text of the official translation flows as good as and usually better than the previous fan translations whenever I've compared the two. Honorifics are not kept for the most part, except where the narration or dialogue specifically mentions them. Overall I would say they're a cleaner, more professional translation, which is pretty much what you'd expect. I'm mostly satisfied with the novels I've purchased (except for that seemingly random bolding in TAMNI) and I am happy to support the industry and the authors legally.
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