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As many people have noticed, there are a few small differences
between the Japanese and English manga. So for those with access
to only one version, here are a few impressions and observations
concerning these differences. :D I own only the first volume of
the English manga, so I don't have a whole lot to base all this
on, but hopefully it answers a few peoples questions! Format 
Some seven years ago, with the very first edition of the english Fushigi Yuugi manga, publishing it from left to right must have been a huge hassle since all the chinese letters that appear on the warriors bodies had to be changed so they wouldn't be backwards. Later editions were published as right-to-left to simplify this problem, and as with all of Vizs' current manga, the Genbu Kaiden is also published from right to left to preserve the nature of the Japanese edition (and probably saves them a TON of effort at the same time). The covers are essentially the same too with some changes. Sure, there's a lot of bubbly hot pink lettering and lines and whatnot, but the actual images used on the covers are the same as what appears on the Japanese volumes. Japanese manga (and French manga as well, in fact) have very elegant dust covers so some of that is lost with the English format, but big deal, right? You spend more time reading it than staring at the cover anyway. :P Translations This is always a biggie for people, isn't it? From what I've seen from the first english volume, I think the translations for the dialogue and story are quite good, and do an excellent job of portraying the moods, concepts and information that was intended in the Japanese version. Sure, there are stylistic differences; but Viz employs professional translators and their version is top notch! In fact, I like 99% of the translations that Viz has done for this series, but my only qualm would be the names given to characters within the Universe of the Four Gods. "Rimudo" and "Limdo" are both totally legitimate romanizations of the Japanese 「リムド」 (though I can be quoted giving 'limdo' a linguistic smackdown). Character names that are written in Katakana are fine, as are the names of characters originally residing in Japan (such as Takiko, Einosuke and Oosugi). The names of people and places within the Universe of the Four Gods are where people get confused. Some people wonder how names like "Shigi" 「紫義」 (as he's called in Japanese) end up with the name "Ziyi" in the Viz edition. Or how "Hokkan" becomes "Beijia". For those who don't know, China and Japan both use some of the same characters in their writing, but they are pronounced different ways. Thus 紫義 is Shigi in Japanese, and Ziyi in Chinese. Same with how 北甲 is Hokkan in Japanese, and Beijia in Chinese. Watase herself vouched for transcribing the names within the Universe of the Four Gods according to the Chinese readings, since the Universe of the Four Gods is supposed to be an ancient China, thus their names would in fact have the Chinese readings, not Japanese pronunciations. However the use of the Chinese readings has caused some dissent among fans, who would prefer that proper nouns maintain the same readings as in the Japanese version. Take it easy though; Watase would probably have asked that the names be given their Chinese pronunciation in the Japanese edition, but unfortunately the Japanese language isn't that flexible in it's structure. So in the end, it's the english edition that sees the names written and pronounced the way Watase wants them to be! Overall, the Viz edition is great, and although we all love to make a fuss over it, it's not actually as bad as some make it out to be*. * at least that's my impression from reading an entire single volume of the manga in english; I prefer to use the Japanese pronunciation of names simply because those are the readings I'm most familiar with. XD |
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