#considering that Zoro's name in the manga is “Zolo” or Zoro

[jsdhwdmax56]

Things I love about One Piece anime:

1. Everything

2. The way Luffy calls Zoro "Zolo" sometimes when whining or just randomly

[lesbiankoby]

Considering your recent post about l'olonnais i think you might appreciate knowing that One Piece's first French translation (which was in print until around 2014) had elected to localize some of the characters' names, the worst offenders being Zoro as Zorro (like the masked vigilante), Usopp as Pipo (meant to translate the lying part of Usopp as ´pipeau' is somewhat dated slang for a lie) and Sanji as Sandy (no explanation there I have no clue, probably just sounded too foreign back then). Not sure if the dub was the same as I've never seen jt but yeah

to be honest i think zorro is a more respectable translation then the official manga translation of his name in english (alas poor zolo)-- the others, though.... aurgh... like usopp is also supposed to sound like 'aesop' so you're losing a pun no matter what you do with it. kldsjfklsdkl sanji......

[sanjisock]

excuse me but do you know if viz translation is better translation? i remember that other translations for op manga were better before than viz, but what about now?

Viz’ translation is an official translation. That means Viz as a company bought the rights to translate and publish One Piece from Jump/Shueisha (the publishing company that handles One Piece in Japan).

The “other translations” you are referring to, such as the ones from mangastream and jaimini’s box, are fan scanlations. That means a group of fans found access to the the newest OP chapter (either legally by buying the actual magazine in Japan or illegally) and translated the chapter themselves.

There are pros and cons to each type. Official translation means the people translating are actual professional translators who get paid doing it — it’s literally their job. There are also various checks and balances to make sure the translations are accurate; I’m pretty sure the translators would have have editors etc who can proofread and double-triple check their works. However, them being a company also has its drawbacks — they most probably have to adhere to a lot of rigid company-wide standards, such as not translating honorifics (“Sanji-kun, Nami-san etc) even when some of us think those are untranslatable and should therefore kept as they are. Also they’re more resistant to changes — they mistranslated Zoro’s name as “Zolo” and it’s harder for them to correct their mistakes as that would mean they’d have to reprint the books, merchs, etc. They also have the monopoly on publishing, so no competition = no particular incentive to improve quality of translations.

fan translations are obviously less professionals — translations are done by fans who may or may not have qualifications to do so, and one chapter is usually done by one person; no one to check if they messed up or not. However fans are also generally more passionate, and may take greater care in making sure the details are correct, the character voices sound right, etc. They’re also faster because there’s less bureaucracy involved in with fan translations like this.

Another thing to consider is non-literal (Viz) vs literal translations (fan translations are more likely to stumble into this pitfall). There is no such thing as word-to-word translation — a non-literal translation would involve the translator understanding the context in the original language and use a completely different phrase in English to convey similar things. Non-literal is generally seen as a good thing; however, I am also aware that with this method, the tone of the conversation can change depending on how the translator views the scene, and this can be much more inaccurate than literal translations, where we as a reader are given the chance to interpret the subtleties of the conversations by ourselves.

Which of it is “better” is up for you to decide :)