I'm writing this post in response to virkallea's journal entry. I just wanted to say that I agree with everything that she has said in her journal about the way Viz translates the manga.

A few examples that I found are:

1. Instead of Ichigo saying "Yo" to Rukia when he stopped the fire bird, they have it translated as "Hey". Hey doesn't sound as cool as Yo does, IMO. That's small though, but it still miffs me.

2. They don't use honorifics. A big no-no in Japan unless you are very intimate with that person.

3. They use first name basis. Now that can start a whole fandom war right there. As we all know, in Asian culture you only call a person by their first name if you are very comfortable and very friendly with them, a.k.a Ichigo and Rukia calling each other by their first names. What you don't do is call someone whom your not on intimate terms with by their first name, you call them by their surname with the honorific. It's just like in every other culture where you wouldn't call a person you just meet on a business trip by their first name, you would say Mr. or Ms. and their last name.

Because this is translated to fit the American culture, the Asian meaning is lost to those who are going to read the manga and not familiar with Asian culture at all. So naturally, they wouldn't understand the importance of Ichigo calling Rukia by her first name and Inoue by her surname. I know before I got internet and learned more about the Japanese culture, I would have thought that Ichigo had something for both Rukia and Inoue simply because he was constantly calling them by their first names (and also by putting in all those looks..etc.), now I know better.

This can also be the case for why some (not all) IchiOri fans may hate IchiRuki or any other ship and vice versa. It's because they probably don't understand where we are coming from with some of these Asian ideas. And it's all because people don't translate the words correctly. I honestly wouldn't mind reading Bleach or any manga translated into English but still with the true Japanese meaning. So what if it doesn't sound right to us, sooner or later, you'll get used to it. It's kinda like reading old English. After a while, you understand it better and can read it better (and maybe even start talking like it too.)

I don't see why Viz doesn't translate the proper meanings in the manga. It's as if they are dropping a whole culture and inserting a new one when they do that. That tends to irritate and confuse people who both know about the cultural differences and who don't.

4. I hate how they don't include the colored pictures with the manga volume. That upset me soo much. I purchased Volume 19 with Ichigo and Byakuya's fight. Supposedly, one of the chapters was colored, but Viz took that out. The outcome? A very low quality and dark pics (although they did try to lighten them up). I just wanted to say that I don't mind paying the extra money for a colored copy. Colored copies bring life to a black and white drawing. And who wouldn't want to see Byakuya in colored action? -_- Honestly, think of all the fangirls out there.

That's all I can think of right now, I'm sure once I go back into some of my mangas, I'll find more things to tick me off, but for right now, that's about it.

Question though, I remember Books-A-Million used to sale Shounen Jump on the shelves but they seem to not do so anymore. Is it because they really did stop purchasing Shounen Jump or because they fly off the shelves way too fast? And even though I might not care too much for the way Viz translates, I wouldn't mind getting my hands on a translated copy of "The Honey Dish Rhapsody". I noticed they had Chibi Vampire's novels out, but I have yet to see nothing but the Bleach manga.

Hmmmmm...maybe I'll keep looking. I normally don't buy things off the internet b/c of fraud, but I may have too in order to get what I want.

Okay, I'm shutting up now.