The following are just opinions.
I’ve found some very bad translation in the latest volume of Pandora Hearts vol 13 by Jun Mochizuki published by Yen Press. Does anyone proof read anymore?
Actually, this and Arata: the Legend (Arata Kangatari アラタ カンガタリ～革神語～) by WATASE Yuu are two of the series I’m thinking seriously of dropping. Both are shonen written by women (not sure if that matters, except the drawing styles are very good and more likely to pull in a female audience). I won’t go into my reasons, which are several.
Which brings me to the topic of direct translations with notes verses adaptations. Personally, I prefer the direct translations and often don’t understand the substitutes in adaptations with, in many cases, American Pop culture – get the Japanese pop culture better (but not always – hence the need for notes). But often these have nothing to do with pop culture and you lose a lot of interesting information. The best publisher for doing direct translations (at least in the past) is Dark Horse, several are very bad at adaptations and Yen is one of them, VIZ seems to do a lot of adaptations but not as blatant – but really need some notes on things (thinking last night about the volume of Bleach I was reading and wanted to know the Kanji onTōshirō Hitsugaya ‘s shoulder armor). This may be a good topic for an up-coming poll.
I will probably be dropping several series from Yen press as many have just become redundant and boring and should have been finished long ago. Also, some items aren’t coming out in a timely manner, and again, poor translations, proof reading is NG, not getting things out in a timely manner (although not bad in many cases), story line is all over the place and confusing, boring, redundant, dropped popular series (probably because not getting out in a timely manner and people give up on the series), etc. I will continue with the following at this time – if they continue to interest me (shorter list than if I write which ones I’ll be discontinuing from Yen Press – mostly their shonen line and many should have finished long ago, among other reasons): A Bride’s Story (Otoyomegatari 乙嫁物语) by MORI Kaoru (seinen, slice of life and historic about a girl married into a family for politcal/economic reason and when her family wants her back for a different more important marriage, how she fights them as she loves her new family), Bunny Drop (Usagi Drop うさぎドロップ) by UNITA Yumi (one of the few Josei out there and interesting, unusual, slice of life story – however, not coming out in a timely manner. was a bit disappointed by the end), probably the series of novels about the character HARUHI SUZUMIYA by TANIGAWA Nagaru & ITOU Noiji (although, not sure) (shonen, adventure, slice of life, supernatural, fantasy, comedy, science fiction, etc.), YOTSUBA&! (よつばと!) by Kiyohiko Azuma (seinen, very humorous, slice of life, and believe it or not, about a young child with her world view, refreshing to me who has never had much to do children (nor do I want anything to do with children), pickup on a whim and am enchanted with the story – and didn’t expect to make it through the first chapter after seeing it was about a small child), THE BETRAYAL KNOWS MY NAME (Uragiri wa Boku no Namae o Shitteiru 无法逃离的背叛) by Hotaru Odagiri (shonen-ai/shojo, fantasy, supernatural, action).
BTW. they also do My Girl Friend is a Geek (腐女子彼女。 Fujoshi Kanojo) by PENTABU – hilarious, true story, and a good starting point for anyone interested in fujoshi. There are 2 novels, manga and a film (called My Geeky Girlfriend US title). This is Yen press; although the following are not.
And one can’t talk about Fujoshi Kanojo 腐女子彼女。 without mentioning the true and very famous international hit story that started it all: Train Man (Densha Otoko 電車男~ネット発、各駅停車のラブストーリー~) by NAKANO Hitori. There are a movie, a novel based on the web threads, and manga. This is a must read/watch for any otaku or those with otaku friends or those that love romantic comedies and a true life romantic comedy. I can’t remember the publisher – if not into reading novels or manga, the movie is good.
Also, along those lines is the new, true life-based manga Molester Man (Chikan Otoko 痴漢男) by YOKO, not at all like what the title sounds like in US (if you’re just starting on manga and Japanese Novels – the titles don’t follow the same logic as titles you find in English – and you’ll find not what you’re expecting – it’s taken me a few years to understand how to pick items based on the titles from the cultural differences), another romantic comedy about an anime/gaming otaku guy who has had little contact with women, mistaken for a stalker and his chasing after romance after things are straightened out and wanting to become the next Train Man. Not as good as the other two real life stories above, and much shorter.
The first thing one notices about He’s My Only Vampire 純血+彼氏 Junketsu + Kareshi by SHOUOTO Aya 硝音あや is that Yen Press made horrible choices in the print and it’s very difficult to read (at least if you’re older, and many of our readers are). There is not enough contrast in the font and manga, and the fonts are difficult to read and smallish at times.
seattlekifujin 