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ceruseeA couple of weeks ago, I picked up a couple of new manwha titles, Pine Kiss and The Land of Silver Rain, published by Net Comics (a new publisher, I think?). I've been feeling I should try to correct my complete ignorance about Korean comics, and these looked appealing enough. They've been sitting in my giant stack o' manga since then, and I only yesterday got to the first one.
Alas. Pine Kiss is craaaaaaaaaaaap. The translation is almost unreadable. It's at the level of a bad scanlation--one of those translations shooting for as much literalism as possible, with no regards for the sound, feel, or comprehensibility in the new language.
Here's a sample: Sebin, daughter of a powerful gang leader, is being driven to school by one of her father's flunkies.
Flunky: (swearing at an ambulance with its siren on) F#&king hell! Retards...Pulling them babies out at this time in the morning. On this pea sized land, we don't even have enough space to walk around. D%ckheads! F#&ckers!
Sebin: Don't come to work, starting tomorrow.
Flunky: Ha! I'm sorry...this crazy mouth did it again...don't tell boss, I mean, your father! I'll get killed. How dare I say things like "hell" and "f#&k in front of you...Ha! I'm so...sorry! ...but to Boss...no, to your father...
Sebin: Shut your mouth! (thinking to herself) Stinks...a title that reveals his background...it's nauseating!
And it it were a scanlation, I wouldn't complain, whether or not I chose to read it, but it's not. It's a commercial release, and this is not an acceptable level of work for a ten-dollar book. This without a doubt, the worst screw-up I've seen by a publisher in this field, worse than that bizarre, untranslated panel in Tactics, or Tokyopop's hit-or-miss approach to translating sound effects. I would not touch Net Comics with a ten foot pole, after this.
I've never returned a book in my life, but I'm seriously thinking taking these back in and and exchanging them. I don't think I can bring myself to slog through the rest of even Pine Kiss, much less take on Land of Silver Rain, I don't want to keep them, and I can't imagine who could possibly want them.
That said, if anybody on my flist is interested in reading badly translated Korean comics about mafia princesses and Korean fairy tales, drop me a line; they're yours for free.
Alas. Pine Kiss is craaaaaaaaaaaap. The translation is almost unreadable. It's at the level of a bad scanlation--one of those translations shooting for as much literalism as possible, with no regards for the sound, feel, or comprehensibility in the new language.
Here's a sample: Sebin, daughter of a powerful gang leader, is being driven to school by one of her father's flunkies.
Flunky: (swearing at an ambulance with its siren on) F#&king hell! Retards...Pulling them babies out at this time in the morning. On this pea sized land, we don't even have enough space to walk around. D%ckheads! F#&ckers!
Sebin: Don't come to work, starting tomorrow.
Flunky: Ha! I'm sorry...this crazy mouth did it again...don't tell boss, I mean, your father! I'll get killed. How dare I say things like "hell" and "f#&k in front of you...Ha! I'm so...sorry! ...but to Boss...no, to your father...
Sebin: Shut your mouth! (thinking to herself) Stinks...a title that reveals his background...it's nauseating!
And it it were a scanlation, I wouldn't complain, whether or not I chose to read it, but it's not. It's a commercial release, and this is not an acceptable level of work for a ten-dollar book. This without a doubt, the worst screw-up I've seen by a publisher in this field, worse than that bizarre, untranslated panel in Tactics, or Tokyopop's hit-or-miss approach to translating sound effects. I would not touch Net Comics with a ten foot pole, after this.
I've never returned a book in my life, but I'm seriously thinking taking these back in and and exchanging them. I don't think I can bring myself to slog through the rest of even Pine Kiss, much less take on Land of Silver Rain, I don't want to keep them, and I can't imagine who could possibly want them.
That said, if anybody on my flist is interested in reading badly translated Korean comics about mafia princesses and Korean fairy tales, drop me a line; they're yours for free.