Viz Media English Localizer Rewrites Dialogue In ‘Syd Craft: Love Is A Mystery’ To Insert Modern Slang
In the latest case of Westerners trying to ‘improve’ the work of a Japanese creator, the English-language localizers at Viz Media have awkwardly hamfisted an instance of modern-day slang into Syd Craft: Final Reasoning.
Created by We Never Learn mangaka Taishi Tsutsui, Syd Craft: Final Reasoning is a Rom Com-Mystery manga that revolves around the exploits of the titular Syd Craft, a great detective and hopeless romantic who often ignores the mysteries around him in favor of attempting to find love in the style of Sophia’s Unforgiveable Love, a popular romance novel that he considers to be his personal ‘romance bible’.
Assisting Syd in his detective work is one Elio Oleyn, who came under the love-obsessed sleuth’s employ after answering an ad for a specifically male assistant (as Syd himself has trouble talking to women).
However, due to the naïve great detective focusing on maintaining their hard tough image, Syd has yet to realize that his eager assistant is actually the female author of Sophia’s Unforgivable Love herself, Levie Oleyn, in disguise.
Having volunteered for the position after becoming enamored with the detective following his clearing of her name from false criminal charges, Elio attempts to temper her feelings for Syd by writing them down anytime they pop up (and later assembling these love notes into full-blown novels and publishing them for the world to read.
And it is in relation to Elio’s true identity that Viz’s localizers have struck again.
In the series second chapter, ‘The Great Detective and Secret Reverence‘, after being knocked out and struck unconscious by an unknown member of a serial arsonist group that Syd is currently pursuing, Elio has an unconscious flashback to her first meeting with the detective.
Following a recap of Syd’s aforementioned clearing of her name, Elio’s memory turns to her discovery of his ‘Help Wanted’ ad, her declaration of love for the detective, and her decision to work alongside him despite her female gender.
Per the flashback, upon realizing that Syd is only looking to “a physically fit male” to help him, Elio dons her now-signature hat and takes it upon herself to do what she can to secure the job as his assistant – even if it means hiding her true gender.
In Viz’s English language take on the chapter, as translated by David Evelyn, Elio steels herself to take on a gender-swapped alter ego, declaring, “If I’m going to learn beside my revered great detective, Mr. Syd Craft, gender is something I shall not need – I mean, uh, screw that gender noise!”
But in the original text, unsurprisingly, Elio’s declaration does not feature that last bit of ‘modern Western slang’.
Rather, as translated by request courtesy of Twitter user @waakaruman, Tsutsui intended for the young assistant to utter the more grounded proclamation, “If I could study alongside my beloved detective Syd Craft, my gender as such is not isn’t ne…Isn’t necessary!”
At current, neither Shueisha, Viz Media, Manga Plus or Taishi Tsutsui have yet to comment on this localization rewrite.
Meanwhile, for fans who may have discovered this series by way of this article, new chapters of Syd Craft: Final Reasoning release every Sunday at 10 AM EST/7 AM PST on Shueisha’s Manga Plus app (Japanese) and Viz’s Shonen Jump app (English).
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