Close

Debora Aoki Like the other two manga that were featured in this year’s Manga Translation Battle, New York New York challenged translators to convey the distinctive voice and tone of characters who come from different regions and social backgrounds.



This steamy romance between a rough and tough NYC cop who’s in the closet, and the soft-spoken man who he meets in a gay bar has its share of profanity.However,Preston’s translation used curse words with a lighter touch than the other finalists, which made it feel and sound more natural and conversational, and much less distracting or off-putting to me, as a reader.



It wasn’t perfect from start to finish –there were a few moments when it felt odd for the hard-boiled cop describe his reasons for going to a gay bar as “I came here to sate my desires” after some raunchy, not-so-refined locker room talk a few panels prior, but perhaps that’s a matter of taste. Overall, I thought he did a good job tackling this manga translation challenge! Congratulations!

Matt Alt New York, New York is one of those titles that seems like a breeze to translate because it’s set in the modern era, but it’s tricky because it needs to capture a variety of distinct voices, such as New York’s urban culture, gay culture, and policeculture. Preston’s use of slang rather than direct translation (such as “hook up” instead of “casual sex,”as other translators used) helped set the scene for this unique story. My only wish –and this goes for all of the entries I read, across the board,on all titles, from all of the contestants –was that he’d read his dialog aloud once to iron out some of the clunky turns of phrase, but that’s an easy fix, and I felt that Preston’s work shows a lot of potential.

Tomoko Kimura Preston's translation had the pull in the way Kain's change is expressed in his spoken lines and monologues, making me want to keep turning the page. The lines that were in English in the original were also smoothly translated.



Kain and Mel have distinct speaking styles, and that difference needs to be tranlsated more clearly. The two occasionally sounded too much alike. Rewriting the spoken lines one character at a time can help translators keep each character's speaking style consistent.

William Flanagan There are special challenges when a Japanese manga artist chooses a setting that is more familiar to the readers of the translation than, maybe even to the artist. In this case, there is a lot of English used in the original Japanese that did not seem natural and needed to be changed. There are also scenes, such as the use of, "Jesus" on page nine, that needed a bit of interpretation, since that name is used for both negatively and positively. Preston chose the correct interpretation here and in many other cases. Overall his dialog was natural sounding and flowed well. Even though Preston was the winner, that isn't to say it was all perfect. Like changing the incorrect English in the dialog, one must also change sound effects. "Ga" does not sound like radio static to western ears, so that needed to be changed. But on the whole, I liked the characterization and natural dialog enough to consider this entry the best of show. Congratulations to Preston for an excellent entry!

Close