From top to bottom: Japanese, German, English
When I was in Germany last August, I bought the first volume of Honey and Clover and wrote about how Tokyopop GmbH was releasing titles noticably ahead of US licensors. Now that Viz’s English version has hit shelves, I bought one of those and looked for differences and similarities between the German and American adaptations. What follows is a comparison of many features between the two in attempt to determine which is the better visual adaptation.
Front Covers:
The image of Hagu with peaches remains the constant among the three versions of the cover but the German one has a significantly brighter. The US cover by comparison looks a bit more washed out than the original Japanese and bears the number framed by a crescent motif that appears on all of Viz’s Jump and Beat titles.
Back Covers:
Like the front cover, the back covers have the same “Takemoto in a speckled shirt” picture with the US version featuring the largest version. The descriptive text in that version becomes shorter and more punchy than the longer German iteration.
Sound Effects:
In terms of sound effects, the German version keeps most of the original Japanese characters and places subtitles next to them while Viz made up their own onomatopoetic words and lettered them in the same places. The redone effects make the panels easier to read and mimic the size of the replaced characters but it
Also, in the above scene where Morita leaps from the second floor window and displaces Takemoto from the scooter, the word “Geronimo” is a specific American-influenced translation IMO since it reminds me of Bugs Bunny diving off something. Contrast that with the German “Jaaaaaah!!” that better matches the original “tou!!” since both have one elongated syllable and sound more savage.
Chapter Titles:
Viz’s placement of the series’ phrase and logo on chapter pages is very faithful to the original whereas Tokyopop moved it to another part of the page while omitting the logo. The reasoning could be to provide a more intact shot of the art, such as Morita’s legs above, but that at times seems not to be true so I’m not sure.
Other Aspects:
The speech in Viz’s edition is in all caps like pretty much every other manga on the shelves whereas Tokyopop Deutschland used capital letters only when merited and in the process expresses a more mature, or at least subtler, dialogue between characters. It’s worth noting that this style seems be one exception to the rule as the stuff I’ve seen from Carlsen Comics (example) and Egmont Manga & Anime utilizes the common practice capital-letter comic style font.
Another aesthetic quality of the German version is the whiteness of its pages and how that translates into crisper drawings. The American version is slightly more pulpy in color on the level of other Viz titles. Also, the American version has its cultural notes (called a “study guide”) in the back while the German version has on-page notes. Finally, the German version has a pair of color drawings before the table of contents.
Verdict:
Each version has its advantages - the American version seems to more faithful in design and translation (e.g. Viz’s reference to a System 6 Mac is more accurate than a C64) while the German edition has on-page reference explanation notes and, to my eyes, crisper lines and cleaner pages. Importing one over buying your local version would be silly and fiscally unsound given shipping and the current value disparity between the dollar and the Euro so just pick up the one in your respective region. But if I had to choose a victor, I would pick the German one because now that I’ve seen non-all caps dialogue in thin type (I am such a font geek!), I really wish that this style would cross the Atlantic and perchance give some manga a more mature sensibility.
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The german version says Yuuta, Shinobu and Takumi all the time. It’s highly disturbing in my opinion. I also think that when discussing faithfulness and translation, italian and french version are typically much more faithful than german and english. So I would feel a little bit uncomfortable to jump to the conclusion that importing translated manga from other countries is not worth it - because some french manga *really* are.
By the way: It completely fell under my radar that you actually blogged about german manga. How nice! Now I have to check out this thoroughly after my exam in three hours is over ;)
Sasa: Aah, you’re right about the naming trend - I suppose I wasn’t particularly looking very closely at it. I wouldn’t make sense for such friends to call themselves by their last names.
The only experience I’ve had with European manga is from Germany so you’re also correct that I should take a look at French and Italian manga in order to form a truly informed opinion. Perhaps I should start with Detective Conan since you can’t really screw up mysteries, right?