In the aftermath of the discovery that the translation team responsible for Shueisha’s Manga Plus app had made a post-release edit to Kuraku Ichikawa’s controversial debut series Drama Queen, an industry insider has reached out to Bounding Into Comics to provide his exclusive insight into the decision.
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Upon the release of the series’ third chapter on December 15th, fans noticed that the dialogue exchanged between Nomamoto and a woman whose alien ‘partner’ had accidentally elbowed the protagonist in the face was no longer the same as it had been just a day prior.
Originally, the woman refers to her boyfriend as her ‘partner’, prompting Nomamoto to rage, “I hate ’em!! Just like I hate women who use pet names for their boyfriends!”
But following outrage from readers who took the character’s disdain as Ichikawa’s personal condemnation of ‘gender-neutral terms’, the woman now describes her boyfriend as her ‘partner in crime’, prompting Nomamoto to declare, “I hate ’em! Just like I hate women who use pet names for their boyfriends”
As speculation surrounding the bizarre change continues to circulate on social media, an industry insider who not only knows the Drama Queen translator but also works for the same company reached out to Bounding into Comics to provide additional context on this situation as well as the localization process.
(Please note that while the source in question only agreed to speak with us on the condition of anonymity, their identity has been verified by both this article’s author and BIC’s Editor-in-Chief.)
Manga Translator: “I know the translator involved and the company they work for. I can tell you that the changes were not the decision of the translator. This would have been a request from the client — I don’t know who that is, might be another middle firm, JP publisher, or US branch, etc. — and not from the company contracted to do the translation and typesetting. I do work for that translation company and a key internal guideline is that the translation must faithfully reflect the Japanese which was true of the originally published translation.”
Nerdigans Inc: “The majority of Manga Plus localizations are contracted to Medibang but the Drama Queen localization seems to be a different company?”
Manga Translator: “There’s quite a few companies translating manga, several of which end up working on the same series — one will do the initial translation, another the QA check, and so forth. But I couldn’t say if that’s the case here. But the key point is, the original translation, the one closer to the Japanese, was done inline with internal guidelines for that specific company.”
“The change coming after publication and being against the internal guidelines in terms of faithfulness, tells me the request came from outside of the company the translator/typesetter work for. At the end of the day, the client has final say. If the translating company speaks out against that, there’s always the risk of losing the client. And no one wants to lose a client.”
Nerdigans Inc: “Who at Manga Plus would request the translation change?”
Manga Translator: “That’s the thing, the change request could be from Manga Plus or it could be from the client publishing on the service. Either way, it’s troubling that such a demand will be made after publication. It doesn’t look good for anyone, and it ruins the story.”
“My suggestion would be to reach out the author through which ever public channels they have. Politely making them aware of the change and how it’s damaging the story. Can’t say it will get the changes reverted, but at least they’d be made aware a part of their audience is not getting what the author wrote.”
Nerdigans Inc: “Could the source of the change be from a minority of complaints on social media or the Manga Plus comment section?”
Manga Translator: “I couldn’t say one way or the other with any certainty. But in this day and age, I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s what happened. The question is, has it happened before?”
Nerdigans Inc.: “I’ve been covering Manga Plus exclusive series since 2019. I’ve never seen anything like this happen.”
Manga Translator: “At a guess then, someone (at publisher or Manga Plus) saw the drama doing rounds (e.g. pieces on Screenrant, etc.) and panicked. The company doing the translation wouldn’t have the power to force such a change after publication.”
Nerdigans Inc: “Proponents of this change argue the alteration was done due to readers interpreting Nomamoto’s dialogue as the author taking a jab at “LGBT inclusive language.”
Manga Translator: “Thing is, even “straight” people refer to their partner as partner at times. So the whole thing is stupid. It all boils down to the usual crowd looking for something to be offended by. And as usual, someone made the decision to appease them. The result is a rushed “fix” that makes even less sense and people get a worse overall experience thanks to people who were never going to read the work anyway.”
“I don’t agree with the original translation being flawed or that “partner” was misleading. Even dictionaries use it with the meaning of a (romantic) partner. Given time, a better alternative may have been found, but for things like this, translators generally only have a few days — which isn’t enough time to put in such consideration.”
