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Originally Posted by greenbane
I'm reading Full Moon o Sagashite now... I can't believe I liked it though. I'll just keep in mind that shoujo mangas aren't all so mushy.
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Very true - Jigoku Shoujo isn't what I'd call mushy, but it is shoujo.
Read through the ADV release of Gunslinger Girl vol 5. My conclusion: it's just as good/bad as their vol 4.
In particular, the very last conversation in the volume between Hillshire and Triela is an excellent point of measure. Psygremlin and I had a conversation
here on exactly how this should be translated which culminated in me translating it myself from the Japanese raws. In short, ADV fails. I wouldn't translate '褒める' as 'congratulate.' My dictionaries are rather clear that it's 'to praise,' which coming from Triela has a different meaning than 'to congratulate.'
There's another place where they get it not quite right. Somebody else's translation of the Henrietta and Giuse in the former monastery scene looking at the portrait (I think it was Toukoubi?) included a nice cultural note explaining what is the deal with the monk, the cell, and the portrait. Nada from ADV.
If it were Naruto nobody would care. But here the mangaka has gone to significant trouble to put his fictional story in the
real historical Italy with real buildings, artwork, cars, guns, etc. Because of the nature of Japanese college entrance exams, it's distinctly possible that many Japanese (at least the ones attracted to Gunslinger Girl) would recognize much of what is missed by less-well-educated English speakers...
Cultural notes, people. They don't take up any space, and they often add a lot of value...
My final grade for the ADV translation of Vol 5: C (adequate, but the fan scanslations are significantly better).