Monday, April 2, 2012

Bonsai in Japanese?


I have a few friends in Japan who speak English and check my blog now and then, but otherwise I get barely any hits from Japan. It just occurred to me that this makes me kind of sad because I'm Japanese and I'd like some Japanese readers who could relate to my comics. And that it's probably impossible to gain Japanese readership in English.

So yes. I'm thinking of translating some of my comics into Japanese. I'm not really sure why I'd never thought of this. I usually work Japanese -> English when I do translation work, but it's not like I can't work the other way around. Plus, it's my own stuff so I can work freely, and it's good practice anyway.

That being said, I still do want to keep BMB in English, so I'll have to determine whether I want to have a separate site or not. I probably won't translate everything (some things are just pointless to try to translate and there's also panel order...) and I'll want to do the text by hand if possible, but I think I'll give it a try. 

Anywho. Here's my first attempt at translating today's comic. Is it just me, or does it suddenly look all . . . manga-esque? 


[日本にも私のマンガを読んでくれる友達が何人かいるんだけど、それ以外の日本の読者はほぼゼロ(多分)。それってなんだか悲しいな、と今日始めて思いました。やっぱり自分は日本人だし、私のマンガを読んで共感してくれる日本人の読者の方がもっといたらなぁ。やはり英語で書き続けても日本人の読者の輪は広がらないし...

というわけで、私のマンガを日本語に訳してみようと思います。なんで今まで気がつかなかったんだろう?大体仕事で翻訳をする場合は日本語を英語に訳すけど、反対が全然できないわけでもないし。しかも、作者が自分だから自由に訳せるし、いい練習にもなるし。

とは言え、Bring Me Bonsaiのサイトは英語のみにしておきたいので、日本語サイトを立ち上げるかどうかも考えなくちゃいけないし。マンガも全部が全部訳して面白いものでは無いし、コマの方向とか順番も違うし、出来れば全部手書きでしたいけど、とにかく試してみようと思います。

とりあえず、今日のマンガを訳してみました。日本語にしたら急になんだかすごく日本のマンガっぽく見えるのは私だけ?日本語になってもあんまり違和感が無いかも?]

4 comments:

  1. looks so exotic in Japanese! awesome!

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  2. *raises hand* German located in Japan, I hope I don't destroy your visitor's stats ;)

    but I like the idea of some Japanese comic strips, would definitely read them as well (yes, even if it's "only" translations of the ones you post in English already)

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  3. I agree it looks awesome in japanese. I barely get readers from Spain either.

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  4. Iris: I'm glad you think so. It's a big strange seeing it in Japanese, but I kind of like it too!

    Kerstin: Woot! Thanks for your comment! That's so cool; we're like the mirror image of each other. :D I'll post one today and you can let me know what you think!

    Alex: Thanks! You don't have that many Spanish readers either? Weird!

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