Should SFX be translated?

[Daravon]

What do you think about companies slapping english over manga artwork while translating the onomatopoeia?

As for me, I can read them, so there is no point. The japanese conventions regarding onomatopoeia are a little different but easily learned.

Another thing that bothers me, is when fansubbers cover up the japanese text with screen text translation, even when they have plenty of room to write it off to the side, such as at a title screen.

[silan]

It depends. Sometimes, it doesn't matter if they put English in place of the katakana/hiragana. But in some manga, the sound effects are just as much of a part of the artwork as the characters themselves. In which case, it'd be better to have a glossary in the back as I've seen some manga have, that explains all the different sounds that are going on to those who can't read the Japanese.

It doesn't really matter to me, since I'm lucky enough to be able to read them.

I guess I'll go with choice #1.

[Tremolo]

If they f*ck about with the art, absolutely not. I will admit it does benefit Shounen Jump manga, but usually there's not a lot of point to it. It doesn't take much of an imagination to guess the sound effect, I think.

[Illjwamh]

Well - and I can read kana, so it doesn't really matter to me either way - I think they should go on a case-by-case basis. In manga where the sound effects are sparse, they usually are significant and therefore should be translated to give the full context of the situation to the Anglophonic reader. Whether they blot out the original or not isn't really relevant as far as I'm concerned.

However, when you take a manga-ka like Akamatsu Ken, who throws the things all over the place even for the tiniest, most insignificant things, it would be too cumbersome to translate them all. First of all, a "piku" sound for an eye twitching isn't really important to anything that's going on, and second of all, most American readers wouldn't care and wouldn't bother to read them anyway. And of course, with that many sfx, they're heavily incorporated into the artwork and translating them without altering the manga in other ways might prove difficult, whether the originals are rubbed out or not.

[Mana]

I can't read kana. Used to be able to, but I didn't use it at all, so I lost it, and eventually I'm going to have to re-learn.

That being said, I don't like altering artwork, and if the effects are made as part of the artwork, then they should leave it alone. If people want to know what the SFX say, there are a good number of options on how to translate them without artowrk changing, the first that come to my mind being small text addidtions in between panels and (my personal favourite) end of book glossaries that include SFX translations (and can include other things as well, cultural notes, location names, so on).

One of the groups that translated the DiGi Charat manga used the second option, and it worked really well. Not only did they keep all the artwork intact (including guest artwork that they had shown), but it let them add in a few extra notes and whatnot that they wouldn't have had a place to, otherwise. I know other manga companies have brought over more DiGi manga since then, but I'm not sure if they had the same policy.

[Kagome654]

I say let it be and just put the translations in the back like Mana mentioned in case anyone cares...I think TokyoPop does that anyway, right? It seems like the ideal solution to me.

[soundchazer]

I also agree with the idea that as long as they don't butcher the artwork, it is fine to translate. Viz did a very good job with Maison Ikkoku. The translations are there, and the artwork is pretty much intact.

Given the choice, I would rather not have to go to a glossary, but if the artwork has the FX too ingrained to it, then I would rather have the glossary than butcher the art.

Oh... and I do read hiragana, katakana and some kanji, but the onomatopeia of Japanese sounds makes some of them not understandable, even if you know how to read them, and believeme, there are plenty of them that are not easily guessed by looking at the picture.

[Mamimi]

I'm going with the don't-screw-with-the-artwork stance. If someone really wants to find a translation (like me, who doesn't know the language), you can do a little research. This is the artist's WORK, do NOT change it!
However, if the hiragana/katakana is off to the side on a white background, that's okay to translate, simply because it won't harm the actual artwork. So I guess I'm beating a dead horse with this post, but that's my opinion :P

[PsychoSaiya-jin]

A small piece of text to translate the sfx can be helpful, but I've seen in some cases SFX being used for censorship purposes *cough* CMX *cough* Tenjou Tenge *cough*
and that makes me sad :(
I've also seen [in both western comics and manga] the word "fap" used as a sound-effect.. frequently
and that makes me laugh :)