/jp/ - Otaku Culture

>>35088837

>>28177762

素晴らしい. jamal finally is forever gone

>>15977797
Stuff like our pics are dumb, because it's arguable that there are effective English analogues. As for the terms I listed and "gyaruu" and "riajuu," you could concievably translate them, and I'd be okay with it, so long as a footnote about what the actual term was.

Obviously, though, the question become "where does it end?" What terms are okay to translate and what terms aren't? As in a lot of things, context is important. Tsundere, NEET, and riajuu, in particular, are terms that are ingrained in otaku culture. As in, you'd have a hard time explaining the tropes involved if you couldn't use those words.

In general, if you see novels as an outcropping of a specific subculture, then translating terms specific to those subcultures means you lose some sense of understanding of said subculture. It's like if I were to translate The Great Gatsby or other Jazz-age novel into a different language, but I couldn't use the term "WASP."

I would presume, even in American otaku culture, most of the people who would read a light novel would know what a tsundere is and how there's not a direct English translation. And even if they don't know what a raijuu is, that specific term is a cultural artifact--a loaded word, arguably important enough to warrant explanation via translator notes.

But you're right. Figuring out extent is hard. Translation is hard. I'm on the side that leans literalization vs. localization, but even I know it's not a position that can be fully supported.

>>15977841
I'm trying, senpai.