Tenka-senpai, I'm starting to do translating work from Japanese to English myself, and I'd like your opinion on something because I'm still learning the ropes. My boss person wanted me to translate all the gitaigo/giongo, but from my experience reading manga aren't they usually left alone? For example, ザザ or カタッ. I feel like action words such as カタッ are easy enough to not only translate, but find an English equivalent for. How do you decide what to translate and what not to for gitaigo/giongo?
Ohh good on you, are you with a volunteer scan team? Hope they’re treating you well!!!!!! So with ms, we usually leave the gitaigo/giongo/onomatopoeia stuff as is, but we translate every single one if it’s in a bubble. No hard rule for us though, it ultimately depends on the series. Sometimes I’ll add an SFX note above the panel if I think it has a significant impact on the overall understanding of story flow. Doing every single gitaigo/giongo is not difficult but it is time consuming, not just for translators but also for the redrawers and typesetters - and some sounds are not particularly significant to warrant a translation given the effort it takes, in exchange for the proportionately low impact it has on overall reader experience. (Sometimes, cluttered sfx that aren’t redrawn properly or added in as notes can detract from reader experience imo). So it depends on your own team I guess! Jadednetwork sfx is useful for any gitaigo/giongo you’re not sure of, they have a decent repository there and we all use it. ;)
