On November 19, 2018, the Global Japanese Literary and Cultural Studies (Global-J) of the Graduate School of Letters, Arts and Sciences, together with the Department of Interdisciplinary Research on Creative Writing and Translation, hosted a lecture by Japanese manga translator Marc Bernabé entitled “Translating manga, translating Japan.” Mr. Bernabé has long experience in the translation of Japanese manga and anime into Spanish. The main issues discussed at the event were the current situation of the international market of manga and the specificities of its translation. The lecture, given in Japanese, was attended by a great number of researchers and students from both inside and outside the university.

    To start things off, Mr. Bernabé stated that the particularity of Japanese manga is not its style nor the way it is drawn, but rather how it is edited. He claimed that the work of the editors of Japanese manga is usually overlooked abroad. He also discussed the current international market of manga between Japan and Spain. While quoting concrete data about the portion of the market corresponding to comic sales and publications, Mr. Bernabé compared the manga market of Japan to that of Spain and showed how it is developing worldwide. On top of that, he said that only paper versions of manga are published overseas, while digital versions of manga are broadly used in Japan. He even mentioned the fact that last year’s sales of digital manga surpassed that of paper manga for the first time. Meanwhile, in Spain, where Japanese manga occupies a 30% of the total publication of comics, the market declined between 2009 and 2014 due to the recession, though it picked up once again from 2015 onwards. Mr. Bernabé also showed the size of the manga market in various countries and regions, and pointed out that France is the biggest market of Japanese manga outside of Japan.

    The lecture then turned to problems regarding scanlation. Scanlation is the act of copying a manga or comic with the use of a scanner, making an electronic book out of that, translating it into a different language and finally uploading it illegally onto the Internet. Mr. Bernabé said that many such manga (not officially published in Arabic or Indian languages, for instance) exist in the Internet in this form. He also shared the example of Kohske, author of the manga GANGSTA, urging on Twitter for a solution to the problem of scanlation and declaring that she would quit her job as a manga artist unless it was somehow solved. Mr. Bernabé added that the resulting cut of profit for manga authors, editors and publishers is a very serious problem and that readers should always buy the official versions of the works that they like. Still, he also pointed out that there are manga that became popular precisely because of scanlation, such as Hajime Isayama’s Attack on Titan, implying that there is also a positive side to the practice. In addition, Mr. Bernabe mentioned the fact that due to scanlation, mistranslations have grown steadily as manga was translated from Japanese into English, Chinese and other languages. Then, he switched to the subject of comic artists throughout the world who are influenced by Japanese shōnen and shōjo manga. He made reference to Felipe Smith’s Pipo Chū and paid particular attention to Tony Valente’s Radiant. He considered this shōnen manga, released in 2013, then published in Japan in Japanese in 2015, and transmitted as a television anime starting October of this year, to be a profoundly interesting manga.

   Next, the topic shifted to specific problems of translation. Without limiting himself to Japanese works, Mr. Bernabé said that it is important to pay attention not to use words exclusive to the written language when translating spoken language in manga, anime or movies. Then, while showing pictures of various manga, he discussed the difficulties of translating Japanese into Spanish. First, he pointed out that the particularity of Japanese is its ambiguity. By using as an example the Japanese word for rabbit (usagi), he indicated that the gender and the number are understood through the context, while in Spanish there are four ways to express male-female and singular-plural differences (un conejo / una coneja / conejos / conejas). This contrast between both languages makes many words and expressions very difficult to translate. Mr. Bernabé also made reference to works where the protagonist is a woman playing the role of a man, such as Osamu Tezuka’s Princess Knight and Riyoko Ikeda’s The Rose of Versailles. These authors were able to deceive readers by hiding the gender of the characters, but in Spanish that is not possible, as any reader can identify whether the subject is male or female simply by reading the ending of an adjective or a verb. Mr. Bernabé also connected this issue to that of the first-person pronouns. In Ranmaru Kotone’s manga version of Your Name, for instance, where a male and a female protagonist exchange bodies, the high-school girl turned into boy uses several different first-person Japanese pronouns to refer to herself: watashi, watakushi, boku, ore. However, Spanish has only one way of expressing the first person, making translation much more difficult. In general terms, Mr. Bernabé explained that he tries to translate in a way that Spanish readers get a similar impression to those of Japanese readers, though sometimes there is no corresponding phrase, making it is necessary to use different expressions than the original ones.

   Mr. Bernabé mentioned three other problems related to the translation of manga: panel layout, speech bubbles and onomatopoeia. He explained that many Japanese manga artists do not draw and write with the expectation of being published abroad, so speech bubbles and such do not match horizontal writing. Hence, it is in many cases necessary to adjust the typeface. Following a chronological account, he said that the trend in Spain used to be of translating all onomatopoeia into a Spanish version, but it later became common practice to treat them as part of the picture without making alterations to it. Still, he said that nowadays Japanese onomatopoeia are left just as the original, while adding a Spanish equivalent in the form of a subtitle that serves as commentary.

   After this, Mr. Bernabé brought into question the difference between translation and adaptation. He stated that when translating words specific to Japanese culture or food, such as hina matsuri or sukiyaki, it is first of all necessary to know who the target reader of the text would be. In case of a work intended for children who will not know much about Japanese culture, he said it is better to use words and expressions that are easier to understand, for example, “festival” or “girls’ festival” instead of “hina matsuri,” or “stew” instead of “sukiyaki.” However, in case of a work intended for a young-adult reading public, he said it is better to leave the Japanese as it is and insert a comment or note on the word. This means that the way of translating is different according to how much the readers know about Japanese culture, which in tandem makes it difficult for the translator to choose whether to use notes or to change words and expressions, especially when translating works intended for the general public. He also stated that the intentions of the publishers are always present while making such decisions. On another note, in relation to manga that have an anime version, he suggested to always make expressions of the manga match those used in the anime. In regards to this, he revealed that he received himself influence from manga translated through scanlation.

   Finally, while comparing his own translations of manga such as Akira (written by Katsuhiro Otomo) and Bakuman (written by Tsugumi Ohba and illustrated by Takeshi Obata), with those made by other translators, or with those made via scanlation, Mr. Bernabé described the cases he found most difficult to translate. Among them, he raised the case of Shintaro Kago as an example that left him a particular impression. Kago uses experimental techniques in his manga, such as using the same background for consecutive pages, though cutting six frames out of it that show in each case a different moment of the conversation. Mr. Bernabé said that it is very difficult to translate such a work, but also very worth the challenge, as it is an extremely interesting and deep manga.

   Several questions came up during the questions-and-answers part of the session. When asked which was the manga he found most difficult to translate, Mr. Bernabé gave Hisashi Sakaguchi’s Ikkyu and Akira Hanasami’s Oishinbo as examples. Particularly in relation to the former, he said that the story is staged in the Muromachi period, making it difficult to bring to light the background of the era and its cultural practices, such as Noh theatre or Zen. Then, he was asked to whom was it necessary to ask for permission in order to change the contents of a manga, as he had explained during the lecture that he had done so himself with discrimination towards women in Monkey Punch’s Lupin III. To this question Mr. Bernabé answered that because manga artists are very busy, the final decision always comes from the editors, though he also believes that the translator should basically remain as faithful as possible to the original. In regards to what he had claimed about changing expressions like tanabata, hina matsuri or the like into easier to understand versions such as “festival,” especially in manga for children, one of the attendants suggested that it was also important to let kids know about Japanese culture and their specific terms. To this opinion, Mr. Bernabé answered it was indeed important to add explanations about Japanese culture even in works targeted only at children. Furthermore, when asked if there had been any criticism of his translations in magazines throughout Spain, he said that very recently people had pointed out some mistakes of his translation in Twitter and other social media, but that in any case, he was thankful for such indications as they help him improve his translations. To conclude the lecture, when asked how should a neologism be translated, Mr. Bernabé answered the following: “There are limits to both translation and adaptation, and there is no perfect result for either. But it is still important to always try to aim for such perfection.”