On Scanlation
Dec. 13th, 2008 06:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chu_totoro"For six years, Be With You Scans often buys a copy of the manga, debinds, and scans it ourselves. We translate, edit, proofread, quality check ourselves-- the modern BWYS is an HQ group working from tankoubons and we really don't take that lightly."
"...personally I think that decreasing the quality of HQ scanlation devalues manga and scanlation to a level not unlike that of bootlegged Hollywood DVDs bought in a Chinatown. I believe that there is the potential for great literate and academic value in manga, and I also believe that there is value in scanlation-- for me its not just about having the next chapter, its about presenting a foreign language comic in English in the best conditions possible with as much of the original intent and content retained as possible. I believe that of Be With You Scans licensed projects, our modern releases are superior to the official English versions and that is why we continue to do them. The scanlation community as a whole-- people who go on IRC, who visit Baka Updates and read scanlations themselves, is what I do this for and what I put my time towards contributing. I believe there should be direct dialogue and discussion between readers and scanlators, and this is why I am not comfortable with the position of middle-man sites like online readers."
Oh Chara how I love you. ♥ And how I love being a part of Be With You Scans.
[above quotes extracted from part of a (very polite) argument currently ongoing between BWYS and Onemanga.com]
I've become a HQ-geek too. Low quality speed-scans break my heart.
Observe the difference:
(speed scans)
VS.
(quality scans)
(speed scans)
VS.
(quality scans)
There is no comparison. None.
But it's not even the raw scan quality that bothers me. I'm a translator. Proofreader. QCer. See, to get an idea of what I do, I skim through a whole chapter of pages like this...
...and I make a post in the forums reading something like this.
p.02
'the good luck' -> 'your good luck'
'receive the price' -> 'collect the payment'
'moving' -> 'crossing'
'However, the odds of you being able to arrive at the world you want to go to are still 2 to 1.' -> 'However, the probability of you arriving at the world you want to go to is still 1 to 2.' (2:1 would mean Sakura's got a great chance. XD Unless we change it to '2 to 1 against', but I somehow don't think Yuuko would talk like a bookmaker...)
Thus, bad typesetting really bothers me. Bad translating really bothers me. Pages like this really make my eyes bleed--
Ugly font, bad typesetting, Engrish transliterations as opposed to English translations, the use of -dashes- instead of proper ital or bold, bad cleaning job on the bottom right hidden only by the overall bad quality of the compressed image, failure to recognize sfx in any way; the whole thing shrieks to me, "sloppy! sloppy! sloppy!"
It's not bad. It's readable. It's just that - sloppy. And most places are like this. Sloppy, sloppy, churn out something somewhat comprehensible and release it to the public like that, half-chewed.
Scanlation does not have to be about bootlegging. Scanlation does not have to be about being cheap. Scanlation is an art, in and of itself, when done right, when treated right.
I don't know what I'm trying to say except that I love doing what I do and I'm glad I returned to BWYS and if I don't get into college because of this, screw college.
"...personally I think that decreasing the quality of HQ scanlation devalues manga and scanlation to a level not unlike that of bootlegged Hollywood DVDs bought in a Chinatown. I believe that there is the potential for great literate and academic value in manga, and I also believe that there is value in scanlation-- for me its not just about having the next chapter, its about presenting a foreign language comic in English in the best conditions possible with as much of the original intent and content retained as possible. I believe that of Be With You Scans licensed projects, our modern releases are superior to the official English versions and that is why we continue to do them. The scanlation community as a whole-- people who go on IRC, who visit Baka Updates and read scanlations themselves, is what I do this for and what I put my time towards contributing. I believe there should be direct dialogue and discussion between readers and scanlators, and this is why I am not comfortable with the position of middle-man sites like online readers."
Oh Chara how I love you. ♥ And how I love being a part of Be With You Scans.
[above quotes extracted from part of a (very polite) argument currently ongoing between BWYS and Onemanga.com]
I've become a HQ-geek too. Low quality speed-scans break my heart.
Observe the difference:
(speed scans)
VS.
(quality scans)
(speed scans)
VS.
(quality scans)
There is no comparison. None.
But it's not even the raw scan quality that bothers me. I'm a translator. Proofreader. QCer. See, to get an idea of what I do, I skim through a whole chapter of pages like this...
...and I make a post in the forums reading something like this.
p.02
'the good luck' -> 'your good luck'
'receive the price' -> 'collect the payment'
'moving' -> 'crossing'
'However, the odds of you being able to arrive at the world you want to go to are still 2 to 1.' -> 'However, the probability of you arriving at the world you want to go to is still 1 to 2.' (2:1 would mean Sakura's got a great chance. XD Unless we change it to '2 to 1 against', but I somehow don't think Yuuko would talk like a bookmaker...)
Thus, bad typesetting really bothers me. Bad translating really bothers me. Pages like this really make my eyes bleed--
Ugly font, bad typesetting, Engrish transliterations as opposed to English translations, the use of -dashes- instead of proper ital or bold, bad cleaning job on the bottom right hidden only by the overall bad quality of the compressed image, failure to recognize sfx in any way; the whole thing shrieks to me, "sloppy! sloppy! sloppy!"
It's not bad. It's readable. It's just that - sloppy. And most places are like this. Sloppy, sloppy, churn out something somewhat comprehensible and release it to the public like that, half-chewed.
Scanlation does not have to be about bootlegging. Scanlation does not have to be about being cheap. Scanlation is an art, in and of itself, when done right, when treated right.
I don't know what I'm trying to say except that I love doing what I do and I'm glad I returned to BWYS and if I don't get into college because of this, screw college.
