Here's a new translation that just started. I spoke with the translator and told them about the Amawashi translation but they said they just wanted to do it because they love the story. They said they're going to try to get caught up as soon as possible by doing a couple chapters a day but some of us know how that went with the other translation so we'll see how it goes. They even offered to translate the new chapters as they come out but I said they shouldn't put too much work on their plate and they should just focus on getting caught up. It's not as perfect as the Amawashi translation as they're not a native English speaker but it's definitely better than the MTL or chatGPT.
https://app.yoru.world/en/story/380
I just saw this after replying to your email to me.
My biggest concern isn't necessarily being "sniped" or having the series taken over. Ultimately, I want to have the readers' best interests at heart, so if there's a translator out there that does a better and faster job than me at it, I would not mind passing the torch over provided that they contact me first and can show they'll deliver releases at equal or higher quality. I know it's a bit hypocritical of me to want to be notified first, considering I also just came in and started translating it without contacting Story Seedling first, but in my mind, I viewed it as somewhat fair game considering it's mostly MTL.
That all being said, I read over the translation in the link you posted. Let me start by saying I fully acknowledge the translator is doing this in good fun, as in, they are doing this because this is their way of expressing love towards the series. Some people draw fan art, some people write fan fiction, and some people translate. I completely understand this line of thinking.
Their translation is definitely better than the MTL or ChatGPT, but I think they would serve to benefit more by translating the newest chapters as they come out. Of course, I can't control what they choose to do, but from my personal point of view, I don't think the chapters they have currently released are better than mine. I have noticed plenty of mistakes (both translation and grammar) from what they have posted already, but I also realize they are doing this as more of a passion project, so criticism or corrections may not necessarily be welcome.
Though, I do have two main concerns. I find that ShuuKura benefits more from being written in past tense than present tense. In Japanese, this type of separation doesn't exist, so it's up to the translator to choose which to write in. For a story that leans so heavily into introspection, I feel like ShuuKura reads better as if the characters are looking back on events that have happened, considering how deep these two are in their own heads.
Secondly, while this translation is better than the MTL version or ChatGPT, I'm concerned about what the translation being hosted on https://app.yoru.world/en implies. Just a quick glance at the website shows me that it uses AI to translate a good number of the other novels they are hosting, and that it costs money to buy chapters. This isn't necessarily going to be the case with this translation of ShuuKura, but I'm worried this means that maybe the chapters are translated with AI, but just heavily edited. I will have to take a closer look at their posts again to double-check.
Again, while I can't control what the other translator does, I would like to kindly request that they don't post their translations on Novel Updates. But they can continue translating otherwise if they so choose. The only exception to this is if they want to snipe from Story Seedling (i.e. by translating the newest chapters as they come out) - then I have no qualms about seeing them up on Novel Updates.
Finally, I DEEPLY apologize if their translation is not AI-generated or AI-assisted and I just accused them of something unsavory. One of my biggest concerns (lol, I know I said I only had two, but hear me out) is that the translator is so able to push out several chapters from older volumes and the newer chapters in one day. For the record, while I'm not the fastest worker and I get distracted super easily, the most I've been able to do in one day is 3 chapters (or parts - it means the same thing here), and that took up my entire day with full concentration. I'm talking little sleep, little time to eat. Literally just sitting in front of my PC for 16h. It generally takes me anywhere between 2-4 hours to translate one part (distractions included, but I am usually pretty focused for an hour at a time), and very little of this has to do with me "deciphering" the words from Japanese to English. It takes a hecking long, LOOONG time to rewrite the sentences and turn something that only makes sense in Japanese and make it make sense in English. I also get stuck on dialogue sometimes while trying to make it sound perfectly natural, like something high school girls would actually say in real life.
What I'm getting at here is, even if you sat down in front of the PC for 20 hours and worked faster than me, I cannot imagine that it would be easy to crank out anywhere between 3-4 parts a day without other forms of tools or assistance, unless this just happens to be your job.
last edited at Sep 11, 2024 4:22PM