Romanize Katakana

[D]

From Japanese reader :
I respect the work of translation in this site, and highly estimate it.
But, except rare different point of view in the interpretation, there is
one (not critical but very frequent) mis-romanization in our translation
of Tenjo-tenge : The translator has often mistook "Katakana-A" for
"Katakana-Ma" especially in SFX.

One of latest examples : vol.9 pp.62-63
transcription : ZAMA
but correctly : ZAH! or ZAA!
The letter Katakana "A" rudely written is very similar to "MA"...

I found many same kind of "ZAMA"s which are almost always "ZAH"
and so on.

These onomatopes are used very frequently for sounds of "step of character", "wind blowing" or "rain that pours". (Curiously, as far as sounds of "raining" are concerned (like " ZA ZA ZA" or "ZA A A A"),
same kind of mistakes are rarely observed : See vol.1 p.94).

"Katakana KU" is also very alike as "Katakana Wa"
"BUKU (vol.1 p.66)" is correctly "BUWA". Pronounced like "Boo-What".

"ZAH!" and "BUWA!" are frequent SFX's used in works of Oh! Great. So
I remark these point for readers abroad.

Please forgive my rudeness which is not intended and my poor English.
With respect. D.

[FuguTabetai]

Hi, thanks for the notes.

I don't spend too much time on the Katakana - when Oh! Great and friends draw them messily, I just glance at it and write down what I see. So I probably do make lots of "Zama" -> "Zaa" mistakes.

I also considered trying to semantically transcribe the sounds, such as "zah zah zah" -> "(raining sound)" but I think it reads better as the sound. I don't know American comic conventions for these sound effects (I don't read American comics.)

Well, hopefully the readers can interpert things for themselves!

cheers,

fugu

[standa-man]

The wide array of sound effects in manga always amazes me. Especially the fact that there seem to be so many standard conventions for things. I suppose it's kind of the same in a lot of media, but this seems even more so. One unique thing though is that a lot of the sounds don't seem based on onomatopeoia. Anyways, just some Random thoughts.

[D]

Japanese Mangas use a plenty of varieties of SFX's,and there are somestrange conventions, except I, as native speaker of Japanese, couldn't feel it strange (you know?). For example, It pours in japan almost always with sounds "Zaa" or "Za Za Za".

And Mr. Standa-man's notice : don't seem based on onomatopoeia, is fully understandable. Some Japanese Manga SFX's are precisely not onomatopoeia. (I spelled it "onomatope" in the previous letter. In fact my first foreign languageis French. Please forgive me for my french-linguistic interference) Can you imagine that there is an "onomatopoetic" SFX which represents"sound(?) of silence" in Japanese Manga : SEEN (pronounced just like "seen" as perfect participle of the verb "see".)
In Japanese Manga, there are a lot of SFX's that are precisely NOT a "sound".

"Muka" pronounced like "Moo-kat" represents a "sound" of anger.
"Kachin!" pronounced like "Car Tin" represents a flush of irritation.
"Babaaan!" or "Jaaan" are used like a drum roll that represents very dramatic and important situation. (The translator of "Hunter x Hunter" often transcriptsthem as "Tadan!")

These SFX's seem to be arbitrary, but situations and SFX's are strictly connected.There are some kind of conventions largely shared by Japanese Manga readers, who already couldn't consider these sorts of SFX's as "arbitrary". Japanese manga readers hear even the "Sound" of silence.

[FuguTabetai]

Thank you for the information on the sound effects. Those are some of the hardest things to translate, so I usually just romanize them. The "translations" are not in any dictionaries, and seem very context dependent...

I'm curious though D, why are you reading Tenjo Tenge here? Can't you just read it in Japan? Also, do you read the versions with javascript pop-ups (like these
or do you read the English scans?

Thanks!

fugu