#like i don't want to sound rude by going 'hey can you add tone indicators when you say certain things'

[jaybleu25]

does anyone else need tone indicators when talking to people online or no

i genuinely have a hard time telling what's a joke and what isn't sometimes; like when people jokingly insult or something i take it seriously and then i end up being upset for the rest of the day

[slugtranslation-hypmic]

Hello dear Slug, biggest of thanks to you for summarizing the manga! It's so great that you help the fandom to keep being alive alongside the other translators💙 I wanted to ask for something, is it ok to not to use humor in serious scenes? I mean they are so great when things are kind of funny or random but I don't think the "taking in a broken-hearted man..." was an good Idea(it actually killed the mood a little), I can mute ppl in replies when they try too hard to be funny(not you!), obviously because the raw emotional scenes for mtc are "awkward" to deal with and they need to leave an comment anyway but well I think I can't do that here😅 ppl already clown my faves too much, while I don't talk about it and everyone should be free and enjoy their time in fandom I thought maybe it is a little fair to try and ask this in this case💙 I hope I'm not being rude or oversensitive...if you think I'm being sensitive or it's tiring to think about the jokes and if any scene is serious or not do ingnore me I really don't want to upset anyone who likes humor in serious scenes including you if you do(please again note that I'm not saying "you" are trying too hard to be funny, I swear you are a fun guy and your humor is good actually and I was kind of afraid to send this ask and it makes you to stop the jokes completely or go "wth?")

Hey, thanks for reaching out to me about this! I greatly appreciate it.

I think quite a bit about tone when writing summaries, because one of the manga's two major storytelling elements (the illustrations) has to be condensed down into only words. I draw attention to specific visual elements or paneling choices occasionally, but it can be disruptive to the flow of the narrative, so I try to use tone as much as possible to convey the information available in the characters' facial expressions, body language, and paneling. When the characters or narrative joke around, I try to use funny language or add side comments. When scenes become more serious, I keep those comments to myself (with the exception of scenes where I know there's no way in hell it'll be read seriously despite my best efforts - I'm thinking of the super dramatic "Who hurt you?" "... The Swaggers" bit from DoD) and try to match the level of dramatic tension whenever possible.

In the scene you mentioned, I wasn't trying to be funny at all. I described Samatoki as "broken-hearted" to try to indicate the extent of devastation he felt as evidenced by the body language on the page, since most readers wouldn't have that image in front of them. After I talked with other people to try to understand your concern more, I realized that the phrasing of Juuto's line - which I chose mainly for spacing reasons - sounded more flippant than I intended.

In the end, though, it doesn't matter at all what my intentions were, because if readers are taking away a very different impression than what I meant, I have failed as a writer to convey information. I apologize very much for upsetting you, and I will keep thinking about this as I move forward. Thanks again for telling me!