Viz Media Forum

sickVisionz

@hitsusatsu11: They could call him Pink Death and I'd still support the series, especially if it was one of my favorites.

hitsusatsu11

@sickVisionz: Ok, go ahead and support it. I own the full boxset of Viz DB manga, doesn't mean I don't wish they would translate correctly.

Dream

And supporting the same anime distributor which you can't get any re-releases of older anime titles like Video Girl Ai, Saikano and Maison Ikkoku from. :P

hitsusatsu11

@Dream: But really the audio is horrendous, did your microphone break or something?

Dream

@hitsusatsu11: And as I tell any other person on Youtube who berates my voice and audio options, if you think you can do better with voice quality presentation (especially considering the little spare time I have as I'm struggling to find work right now), then do it yourself instead of saying how I speak or what I use to record sucks. I was doing this clip to voice my opinion, not to be a professional speaker.

hitsusatsu11

@Dream: What you should do is just record on webcam (their cheap and easy) then import it into WMM and cut out the video part

Dream

@hitsusatsu11: My webcam needs another sound input source for audio as all it does is record video. Before I got the microphone, I used the internal microphone built into my laptop and that was a lot worst in sound quality than the microphone I have now because it was always recording background noise, counting the sound coming from my laptop as it ran.

FoxxFireArt

@sickVisionz said:

" @hitsusatsu11: They could call him Pink Death and I'd still support the series, especially if it was one of my favorites. "

In that extreme of an alteration. You aren't supporting the series. You are supporting the alteration and censorship of the series. Publishers will only continue these sort of alterations if people pay them. It makes them think what they are doing is fine.
VIZ is not the artist or writer of these series. The only thing they should be doing is translating it and distributing it. They should never be changing content or altering the art work.

What makes them worse is that they never offer any alternative to the consumer. At least with DVDs those normally offer subtitles that don't alter the story, but when it comes to manga. There is absolutely nothing offered as unedited or unaltered.

I don't want to buy VIZ's version of series. I want what the actual author intended in a English format. The only format that is offering that in the US is scanlations.

With Detective Conan, they changed the entire cast from Japanese to European. They changed the two villans from Gin and Vodka to two obscure characters from the Bible. Though, FUNimation also made changes for the dubs. At the very least the DVDs have the options for the subtitles and it has the proper names. They provided a second option.

I read the Negima! manga online and I buy every volume. The way Del Rey publishes the series, it's as if I'm reading the scanlations. It is extremely rare you will see changes from what was in the scnalations to what is seen in Del Rey publication. They are a publisher that is dedicated to making things as accurate as possible.

Publishers, such as VIZ, aren't going to change their practices by asking them nicely. You have to hit them there it hurts. The pocketbook. That's the only way to get their attention as a consumer.

hitsusatsu11

@FoxxFireArt said:

" @sickVisionz said:
" @hitsusatsu11: They could call him Pink Death and I'd still support the series, especially if it was one of my favorites. "
In that extreme of an alteration. You aren't supporting the series. You are supporting the alteration and censorship of the series. Publishers will only continue these sort of alterations if people pay them. It makes them think what they are doing is fine.
VIZ is not the artist or writer of these series. The only thing they should be doing is translating it and distributing it. They should never be changing content or altering the art work.

Exactly, I want the real names and plot, not Viz's own original plot or names.

FoxxFireArt

@hitsusatsu11 said:

@FoxxFireArt said:
" Exactly, I want the real names and plot, not Viz's own original plot or names. "

While I'm with you on most things. You also need to learn to give some leeway.

I don't hold it against VIZ that they changed Zoro to Zolo. They changed a single letter in the name. Buu to Boo is pretty minor. I know it seems silly to make such a minor change, but you never know what could be going on.

Most scanlations groups were sure Princess Vivi's home land was called "Arabasta", but the artwork clearly shows that Oda had meant for it to say "Alabasta". Still, some groups continued to publish it as Arabasta.

It was the same with Sabaody Archipelago. For some reason the katakana for the island was "Shyabondi", but if you look at Oda's artwork. It said Sabaody. If that's what the author intended for the original story. That's what it should be.

What is far too much is when VIZ is changing complete nationalities of characters. In Detective Conan, the character in the Japanese version if named Ran Mouri, but they made her in the US to Rachael Moore. Heiji Hattori was changed to Harley Hartwell. Ai Haibara was changed to Anita Hailey.
With One Piece, there was no just cause to change God Eneru to Kami Eneru. While not story altering. It was censorship based upon religious values. That is utterly unforgivable. Religion should never be playing a role in their translations.

Most scanlations and fansubs called the character Enel, but if FUNimation uses Eneru. I'm willing to change. They have shown that they can be trusted to follow the will of the original creator. VIZ can not.

hitsusatsu11

@FoxxFireArt: Its not the Buu to Boo thing, that has basis. It 's the Majin to Djinn and Vegeto to Vegerot I hate.

AgentJ

I'm surprised no one has brought up the change of the stone Greed was chained to in the FMA manga was edited from the form of a cross to that of a generic slab of rock (to be fair, they kept the fairly jarring scene of the cross coming down on its victim in the first volume of D. Gray Man.
Honestly, nothing that has been brought up here is anything I'm even mildly concerned about, though keeping characters names intact in Case Closed would have been nice. At least Viz hasn't done to its properties what CMX did to Tenjo Tenge. There's a whole website devoted to the many changes made to that one series. In fact, Viz manga releases ARE the alternatives. A number of extra edits are made to the Shonen Jump versions, while the manga releases are distributed (nearly) uncut in most cases. I'm always shocked at how much made it through in the Dragonball manga.
(last note: The God/Kami change just makes sense to me, in the same way that any case of an english word being used in the original japanese text would make sense being a foreign word in the translation. If the intent is to feel foreign and mysterious, then that sort of substitution works. The Case Closed naming situation was obviously an attempt to reach out to a larger audience, and I think if they had the chance to do it over again they would have made a different decision. And hey, maybe they will in a subsequent release. Perhaps VizBig editions?)

hitsusatsu11

@AgentJ said:

At least Viz hasn't done to its properties what CMX did to Tenjo Tenge. There's a whole website devoted to the many changes made to that one series.

If Viz had Tenjo Tenge they would do the same, or worse. Uncut Tenjo Tenge is R rated.

I'm always shocked at how much made it through in the Dragonball manga.
Why? There is nothing that should be cut out of DB. The main problem here is stupid translations.

. The Case Closed naming situation was obviously an attempt to reach out to a larger audience,
Viz has no excuse for what they did there.

(last note: The God/Kami change just makes sense to me, in the same way that any case of an english word being used in the original japanese text would make sense being a foreign word in the translation.

I would agree if he were referred to as Kami. But he specifically referred to as "Goddo Eneru"
It would be like when Goku uses the english word "Peace" to turn it into the Japanese equivalent of the word peace.

AgentJ

@hitsusatsu11:

Nothing could be worse than what CMX did to Tenge. Viz published Dance Till Tomorrow. Tenge would have been fine.
Full frontal nudity in the most popular kid's manga on the planet? Again, I'm shocked. How many questions have been started by a trip to the library I wonder... Note there is a difference between being shocked and being disappointed, because I was certainly not the later.
Again, If they could do it over again, I am quite certain they wouldn't make the same mistake. If it is such an issue, just buy the original japanese versions, or wait for them to (hopefully) fix it.
That's EXACTLY what I'm saying. Goku SHOULD use the Japanese equivalent for peace (perhaps with a translation note). At least that's how I see it. Foreign words should be foreign. I wish that in Anime that had both Japanese and English speaking characters that there was a way to get each speaking their respective language.

AgentJ

For future reference, this is what I was talking about.

This panel from volume 8 shows some of the changes in the graphics that Viz Media made in changing from the original release of Fullmetal Alchemist (left) to their English release (right).

Thanks Wikipedia. Of the manga I "subscribe" to, this is the biggest change I have seen.

Dream

Quite surprised there's more talk about Viz's manga end (which I don't mind seeing as folks see them as the devil) yet I made this video focused on criticizing Viz's anime end which isn't being discussed.

AgentJ

@Dream said:

"
Quite surprised there's more talk about Viz's manga end (which I don't mind seeing as folks see them as the devil) yet I made this video focused on criticizing Viz's anime end which isn't being discussed.
"

One reason is because the problems you brought up are hardly Viz specific. Cancellations and re-release box sets happen all the time. Its the nature of the American anime market these days.
Another reason is because I can barely understand your points in that video. If you want people to understand what you are saying, I recommend re-recording.
Finally, user's feelings on Viz' manga end are well known as a hot-button issue already.

Dream

@AgentJ: If this has to do with companies like Central Park Media and Geneon, I recall that they are now out of business (CPM gone, Geneon's quit distribution) and as a result, they are now out of print. In Tokyopop's case, they seized distribution of anime. And last I recall, whatever major distributors are still around (Funimation, Bandai, Media Blasters, Rightstuf) still issue re-releases for their older titles, all titles winded up getting a later box set release if they spanned more than a single volume and they haven't abruptly canned them in the middle of production (even with low sales) while Viz Media hasn't re-released many of their titles in years, abruptly canned production on some of them if they weren't making enough money and some titles never bothered having a proper box set release afterward. The issue of Viz's treatment of their anime is also a hot-button issue with folks in both Mania.com and Anime News Network's forums, especially considering Viz doesn't really have much they plan on releasing the rest of this year (only a single anime release for the months of November and December).

And yet again, how the hell's my voice hard to understand considering I'm using a friggin microphone to record my dialogue and I can hear my voice clearly and just fine?

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