So. It’s not that I’m not grateful to Rain Over Paradise for scanning 7SEEDS in high quality, and doing all the hard work they do, but… has anyone else noticed that their translation… isn’t that good? While re-reading the manga, I kept wondering why I remembered some different dialogues, or why some things just sounded clunky, when, during my first reading (a couple years ago), they had felt natural and smooth.



The answer: They changed Tsukihana Scans’ original version, updating the scans with their own different translation, which you can now find on most manga sites. Thanks to mangareader, however, I was able to find the old version, and compare the two.

(TL;DR: If you’re looking to read 7SEEDS, I highly recommend finding the original translation on mangareader, as it is more natural, smooth, and overall a better translation)

ETA: You can also find the original scans in Tsukihana’s original website!

I’ll include some examples here, but it was difficult to pick one, mainly because they’re all of this nature:

Tsukihana:

Vs Rain Over Paradise (POP):

“I musn’n’t die through carelessness”? That might have been an accurately rendered translation, but it just… doesn’t sound like something anyone would actually say. Tsukihana’s translation, on the other hand, seems more natural, and filled with emotion, and definitely more in line with Arashi’s character.



ROP also cut off all of Semimaru’s “accent”, making him grammatically correct and, by doing so, dulling much of his character, which definitely comes through in the way he speaks.

Tsukihana:



Vs. ROP:

Tsukihana:



Vs ROP:

Tsukihana:

ROP:

Even Matsuri gets the same treatment:

Tsukihana:

Vs. ROP:

“In an acute situation like this?”? What does that even mean? And that’s quite a vocabulary for, well… Matsuri. It simply doesn’t fit for her character.



I don’t mean to crap all over their hard work, but I have to admit, I do wish they had gone with the original translation, instead of changing it for their own. While the translation might be more “exact”, in this attempt to fix it, they have made it stale and unnatural, making for a lesser reading experience.