Messages

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Manga Talk / Re: Opinion on manga translations

« on: December 31, 2017, 06:56:44 PM »

Honestly, my biggest gripes come from names. Most recently with Black Clover. In the fan translation I read, the translation given is "The Magic Emperor", but the official translation is "The Wizard King." This is obviously mostly a personal annoyance though. I got used to one, and then another shows up. I'd be fine if they were consistent, but the translation isn't necessarily wrong either way, it's just how the official translation team decided to translate something, vs the fans.

I feel this ^

Did you fill out the survey too on your feelings, sounds like you've been down this road of unofficial translations so many times haha

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Manga Talk / Re: Opinion on manga translations

« on: December 27, 2017, 10:14:51 AM »

For Forlorn Serpent, you can see what's published in Japan anytime by seeing what's actively being published in any particular weekly/monthly comic, or you can see what they list on websites or on places that sell Japanese tonkoubons. But it depends on how much you want to know about manga. There's a ton of manga that never gets translated, much of which comes and is cancelled before it ever sees English eyes. And there's a particular fanbase who want to read that manga.

And then there's others who want the official translations or, as you said, the official ones. Scanlations half the time have to be read as "spirit of the manga" and not letter of the manga, particularly because different translators do different things (though to be clear, even official translations are just whatever the particular freelancer hired interpreted it as).

To anyone who read One Piece through translations, you've got Luffy...Ruffy...Lufi...Luppy, it changes all the time early on...

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Manga Talk / Re: Opinion on manga translations

« on: December 24, 2017, 03:56:23 PM »

A lot of my research indicates a ton of fan translations are in response to bad official translations, especially ones that strip out Japanese things (spaghetti instead of ramen) or lose the original puns or cultural references.

What do you mean by wanting more?

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Manga Talk / Opinion on manga translations

« on: December 24, 2017, 02:11:01 PM »

Hey all!

I'm trying to gather some opinions around manga and how much it gets translated. I have issues around the general lack of officially translated manga and how much (or how little) Japan pays attention to the poor non-Japanese market and our struggles. Or at least mine. Maybe other people disagree so I want to see how everyone feels.

And so I made this fun quick survey. It would be awesome if you could help me with opinions to see if I can maybe do something about it. Need to figure out how I tackle Japan but that's stage two. I know of the no link rule, it's just a poll about manga, doesn't go to any manga sites or anything. Easier than making a poll in here. (Lemme know if you want it gone mods)

https://nickuskoski.typeform.com/to/ts9wdp

Otherwise down to hear opinions here too.

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General Manga writer discussions / Re: Why is DBZ so good?

« on: November 29, 2017, 12:00:20 PM »

More or less this above ^^

Dragonball is actually really good, and a charming story of adventure, exploration, and growth, with excellent ramp up into an escalating battle and satisfying losses and endings. The side characters have relevant time on screen and the intention is to learn and change.

DBZ is simply a non-plot driven series of one-off fights of escalating power. They always break down to:

Threat arrives
Threat beats up some minor characters to indicate strength
Threat requires training to surpass threat
Goku (or other character) trains to the point of surpassing
Beats threat

And then it just goes on again. I did enjoy reading Dragonball, but when I read DBZ I got bored very quickly. It has enormous issues with power escalation, and there's almost no threat of anything. Characters can almost never die, someone will always power up enough to match. There's not really any creativity in the combat. Nobody has to figure out a way around it, they just need to make a larger Spirit Bomb than the last time, to infinity. I actually dislike DBZ even more because Dragonball has so many strengths and does such a good job before it. It's so weird that it goes from this sort of One Piece style adventure story into basically just a tournament arc?

Them Budokai games were pretty fun though.

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break Room / Re: How shuld I deal with this?

« on: November 20, 2017, 12:03:52 AM »

Once you've rejected someone, time to block and move on and try your best to avoid him at school

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Manga Creations / Re: My first manga it (shouen/scifi/isekai) it name is (YES! can fight or can fight)

« on: November 17, 2017, 01:30:59 PM »

This is the premise or like set-up, but not really the actual narrative, as far as I can read. What is the story actually about, who are we following, what are they like, and what's the plot arc? This sounds like the opening to The Devil is a Part Timer sort of, but the part you have here only covers basically the first two minutes of that show, and is missing the other 99% of what it's really about (a derpy devil trying to be a part-timer in a lazy human world and sort of settling into a routine instead of escaping).

So what is the goal of the characters? They are sucked into this world and then what? They are struggling to get back? They want to conquer it? They begin to spread religion there? Why would they fight each other now that they're in a new world and no longer pressured?

Second note, and this is a general isekai rule:

You're moving characters from one fantasy realm to another, and neither of them are the actual human realm. Typically, the purpose in moving them to a different realm is to change the rules on them and to give them a new or unique experience, either by putting a regular dude in a fantasy land and giving powers or putting a fantasy character in a regular world and removing powers. This appears to just be moving existing fantasy peeps to another fantasy place with slightly different rules, so I'm not sure how that will affect their growth/change. Usually you move them to a world that either gives or takes so that they have to adapt. This is more like "hey you had a power over here, you're used to having power, don't worry that isn't gone, now it's called something different here and is a bit different power but there's still power." At a conceptual level, nothing is really lost. It's possible the narrative that's missing I pointed out above solves this problem though so this could all be nothing.

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break Room / Re: How shuld I deal with this?

« on: November 17, 2017, 01:16:52 PM »

So first, yeah, any case where a guy appears to be really pushing, you should make the police aware. They're often very *censored*ty about domestic stuff with guys who aren't even a boyfriend (they're then almost as bad when they are so...), but I will cross fingers you speak with police who really care deeply.

Otherwise, this does sound like a guy who is into you and is generally being a typical dick guy about it (sorry about us).

My number one bit of advice is to reject them as clearly and concisely as possible. Like "I'm sorry but I am not interested in you" is really clear and shuts them down. Anything less than that guys will warp in their own minds into a sort of "she'll like me someday" situation, which in turn causes the constant messages. My best advice is to just say sorry not into you, and block them out and never respond to anything again. You owe them nothing anymore and made things clear.

Guys do this a lot and then kind of fade as their interest shifts, and then they'll message you once in awhile to see if there's a chance yet. There's a lot of terrible things guys do.

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General Manga writer discussions / Re: How is a fighting scene supposed to fleshed out in a novel?

« on: November 15, 2017, 11:17:43 AM »

I usually draw but, for some reason I hardly had any time to keep drawing so, I thought that I should try writing and I realised how much differences that was between both, I find drawing to be more easier since you can add more expressions and reaction/actions.

Well, that's true at first, but writing you can do all the same things, and should. Focus in on their expressions, and their thoughts. Drawing can do a good job of expressing visual emotion and feats, writing has its strength in being able to explore thoughts and emotions infinitely (whereas drawing is confined to smaller thought boxes)

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Manga Art Gallery / Re: Rusinstein's Illustrations

« on: November 15, 2017, 10:54:30 AM »

I struggle with this.

Lies

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General Manga writer discussions / Re: How is a fighting scene supposed to fleshed out in a novel?

« on: November 15, 2017, 10:44:07 AM »

Hmm I suppose it would depend on what kind of fight scene you're describing, be it something large or something small. And also on where you're really struggling.

More importantly, writing a fight scene needs to be appropriate to both your personal style, and to the story itself. In something a little lighter and more comedic, it's not incredibly important to describe specific attacks in perfect detail. Or, if your story is really over the top, it again doesn't matter. You could see it through things like Dragonball versus Dragonball Z, where it goes from intimate martial arts moves and tournaments to just "look at this big ass spirit bomb! I can yell louder than you!!!" and their technique and training is out the window. Or History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi is all about techniques, moves, and execution, so it's very important it describes those things accurately and believably. One Piece doesn't care about that, so set pieces, character interactions, and the stakes are all more important than the actual fight, at which point Luffy can literally make up a move and nobody cares cause it's awesome.

So that would be my first bit of advice.

Second, any fight is just an extension of a conversation or an argument. It's a debate between two people, and debates always have larger things at stake. Fighting for the sake of fighting isn't very interesting. A fight scene to introduce a badass fighting character or show off their skills isn't really captivating or impressive or fun for the readers, regardless of how interesting it is written (there is a ceiling you can break on that but it has to be really damn impressive with spectacular art). So the other thing to remember is to focus on all the things going into the fight. Why are they fighting? What happens if X loses? What happens if they win? Why might they use certain attacks over others? Why don't they run? Why don't they try something different? How do they feel? And so on.

This extends into during the fight as well. Between action lines, characters can speak to continue their fight. They can also react and feel and panic and other things can happen. They can take the time to observe surroundings. Things are shifting around them, and they need to be described too.

Action scenes do have a major pitfall in that at their heart, they're super short. Like it or not, they're very quick in the written word. In manga, they can be really drawn out because they can do bitching poses that take up an entire page, or they can wind up for a punch, wait a moment, show a reaction shot from the audience, then punch, whereas that might be just a sentence in written word. Or, much like that manga example, you can cut away for reaction shots or other descriptions of what's going on.

So that's all my advice on things around fighting, without describing how one even writes out the specifics of a fight scene. Cause I don't find that part to be hard. So long as you can imagine (or doodle out with stick figures) what's happening, you can just write it down beat for beat. It's all the surrounding stuff that you have to remember.

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General Manga writer discussions / Re: How do you flesh out a manipulative character?

« on: November 15, 2017, 10:25:32 AM »

It's pretty ok to make a manipulative character appear to be bad and they can just do things that are not to indicate they are not.

I think the issue here is the focus on making a manipulative character. That's a two-dimensional approach. You're not making a manipulative character. You're making a person who happens to lean towards being manipulative and scheming. If you'd like to flesh them out for the audience, you need to flesh them out for yourself.

Who is this character?

Why do they pick the path of manipulating other people?

Why do they pick it instead of physical violence or wits or any other option?

What drives them forward in life overall? What are they trying to achieve? What brought them to that point out of all other possible paths?

What are they like when they aren't being part of some scheme? What makes them do good or bad acts?

When you can answer a lot of these, they'll become apparent and evident in your writing as well, because you know the reasons behind someone's actions. Then you're writing someone not to "show a manipulative character being good" but just because that's who that person happens to be.

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MR Pub / Re: Some News and a Question. (Relationship Stuff)

« on: November 14, 2017, 10:54:12 AM »

First of all, you rat bastard, you convinced two people in a poly relationship, you lucky dog you.

Anyways, this often revolves around this sort of parent conundrum. If you do tell them, let's assume you're in some form of trouble or in for a talking to.

If you don't tell them, but they (inevitably) find out, now you're still in the original trouble, plus the trouble for lying/hiding that information. So one of them is a double whammy. So from a logic perspective, that way always works.

However, when it comes to parents, I'm always hesitant to give people advice to be open and talk. I'm lucky to have come from a family that's super open, largely to a fault, but I'm aware that not all families are like that, and you may still have to live with them or connected to them, and I would never want to put someone into harm's way. So I would leave you at your own discretion about telling them.

More importantly, are you happy and confident in the choices you're making? Like you said, you've never dated before, this is all new to you all at once, so make sure the different threads aren't all tangled up. Do you feel you're doing the right thing in your dating? Are you being a good girlfriend(?) to both parties? Are they treating you properly? Do things seem right/wrong/awkward/weird? Why?

Even if you don't have that kind of open dialogue with your parents, and you're not sure what to do there, now is a great time to set standards for yourself in your own relationships and make sure they have open dialogues and clarity between all parties, especially with 3 parties over 2 (cause 2 is hella hard as it is).

To solve your parent problem though, you may just want to tell them you've started dating, you're bi, and you're taking it really slow and casual with people, nothing serious, just finding yourself and getting familiar. That is not a lie, it covers for why you're there or not at your apartment, and explains why you might have a boyfriend one weekend and a girlfriend the next, without mentioning they're also dating each other in a triangle situation.

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General Manga writer discussions / Re: Is this too ambitious?

« on: November 14, 2017, 10:34:17 AM »

A thing to remember is that those sorts of mass universes and linking are created through multiple writers plus an editing team whose sole job it is to watch over the stories and make sure they all make sense and connect, so putting it on yourself to do something similar is asking a ton of yourself that nobody would expect.

That said, it's something I've tossed around a bunch, but more importantly I would say that there's nothing wrong with looping between stories. My style is to have several projects at once and to just work on the one I happen to feel into that day or moment, and sometimes that means flipping between stuff too.

However, sometimes it's also time to admit that one of your plots or ideas doesn't have legs and can't keep going, which is why you bounce away from it. Those ideas I would say pull the plug on but find a way to integrate that idea with your other ones and fuse them together.

In terms of everyone feeling like a main character, you don't have to write a story about a main doing X, Y, Z. You can write stories that bounce between several mains and have an interwoven narrative. Maybe one day I'll put a post in here that doesn't reference Zetman but that's basically what it does, and just tells two stories that happen to overlap sometimes, with two characters (and then it starts to incorporate a third and fourth and beyond). You can also give major character arcs to a group, like One Piece and the early character intros where they all get a whole arc typically to explore who they are.

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Welcome Center / Re: Heart Explosion!

« on: November 14, 2017, 10:26:56 AM »

Welcome aboard!