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It’s been something on my mind for a very very long time. I seldom use the forums here bc I’m really just in to read my fix and get out, but I’ve been reading on mangago since 2012 and finally made this account in 2017 when they switch the site to be nearly unusable with all the redirect ads if you’re not logged in.
In that time period I feel like we’ve seen such a rapid decline in translation quality, where aggregator sites are churning out quick google translations in hopes to direct any sort of traffic to their website, to the point where three copies of a chapter will be uploaded and each one is more illegible than the next. Does anyone else feel as frustrated with this? I feel like it has to do with the massive traction anime and manga got over the pandemic, but I miss the good old days where you knew your favorite scan group by the art in their credit card at the end of chapters, or their warning comics they posted before hand. It’s just sad and feels like a dying art. Not to mention is borderline disrespectful to their artists to mutilate their stories and art to the point where they’re impossible to make sense of and follow. I’ve been reading manga for over a decade now and it just has been on my mind so so much recently.
Yeah I honestly agree. I think that this was also because manga/hwa/ua exploded in popularity all of a sudden. This lead to more translation demand (faster updates, more stories getting translated, etc) which resulted in more rushed and careless translations. Not to mention uploader clout which results in inexperienced translators sniping manhwa uploads/translations from more experienced uploaders/translators. Finally another factor is big translation group monopolies. A lot of big groups take over translating for lots of manhwa which results in them neglecting projects. When they do that other groups that are willing to keep up with it arent able to actually pick it up bc of potential drama which leads to ur every day readers to just translate it themselves if that makes sense.
They have dropped so much, the grammar and misspelling errors seem to be immensely overlooked. Do you have any good old ones that have good translations?
No that totally makes sense!!
Yes oh my gosh the translator clout is WILD I can’t remember which it was but just a couple days ago I read something where every credit panel was just four different translators fighting over one another like… what if… you all worked together to create something really good instead of pumping out a bunch of mediocre chapters trying to beat someone you have beef with online it’s so wild and so so sad
Oh!!!! I definitely might!! What do you generally like to read? I’ve mostly been consuming stuff in the shoujo/romance and BL genres but I can go way way back in my book marks and my brain to see if I’ve got anything for you!
I imagine ai also played a role, albeit not a major one, because people just pop shit into an ai software and assume it'll be more accurate than Google translate.
Oh shit, I didn’t even take ai into consideration tbh— that’s a really good point. With how easily accessible and advanced it’s getting I’m sure there’s some systems out there that are able to do the typesetting and translating in one go. Absolutely wild
Been reading shoujo romance, bl is good if there's no smut
Oh HELL yeah! I mean you gotta go with the classics, like skip beat and Tokyo crazy paradise. Akashi no yona, kimi no todoke, sukitte iyo, tonari no kaibitsu-kun, ao haru ride, sumika sumire, namaikizakari, honey lemon soda, niehime to kemono no ou, the list continues to go on! If you run out lmk, I’ve got plenty more! All of those are shoujo!! A lot of them have anime adaptations now (with varying degrees of quality) but would highly recommend reading the mangas first because there’s always so much that anime leaves out! It’s like reading the books before watching a movie!
I LOVED this story I think it’s so well written but the author got FLASHBACK CRAZY I wish it was like a stretch of a few chapters all together or like dispersed between the present day, I literally rolled my eyes when daon had a flashback as he was leaving soohyun to the conversation he LITERALLY JUST HAD WITH HIM why did that need to be a flashback like what it kind of convoluted the point and watered down the impact of modern day actions to keep us on our toes about what could have possibly happened in the past like oh!!! You want to know?? Wait 50 chapters for an iota of expose <333 other than that though really fucking good story, fuck jaemin eat shit and die bitch
Also I wish there was more into Daon’s writing, the first few chapters especially with sunghyeon loving it but hating Daon, made it seem like it was gonna be a much bigger part of the plot than it was and there was SO much potential for it