#whew boy...how much i'd prefer if opm was done by dark horse like mob

[the-nysh]

I didn't realise badly written my last message (On Psykos) was, sorry for that. Murata is cool and chill so I can't imagine what he thinks, but knowing how much time and effort he puts into his art, redrawing it to get it just right and then another publisher destroys all that detail, to me thats so disrespectful and insulting while also an inaccurate representation of Murata's work and skill. I get annoyed with Viz for destroying the authors words because they cut corners and want to (pt1)

- americanise the comics (I appreciate Tokyopop (rip) for keeping the Japanese honor-fics in and just educate the readers on Japanese nuiances) and in OPM dumb down and censor it. To me it reads really disrespectfully and makes poor translations because at times they barely retain the tone or meaning (admittedly that is difficult but possible). It's worse that they're purposefully doing it. Murata and ONE still get their coin but it's a disservice all round. 

(It’s fine, no big. If I can still understand your messages then any grammar/formatting issues aren’t a problem. <3) I think there’s some solace in how Murata probably doesn’t even -know- what viz is doing to his work behind his back overseas (ONE probably has no idea either, aside from licensing/publishing/distribution rights. So together they can continue to work unaware and unbothered by whatever hangups viz gets themselves trapped in~) But IF Murata saw what they were doing to his art then...whew that’d be a different story. Remember how Miyazaki threatened Dis/ney by mailing a katana saying “no cuts” to his movies, since that was very common for american companies to do back then. We know just how seriously and painstakingly Murata the no-chill perfectionist works, and how he gets worked up when ONE’s work is disrespected. :’D Still, Murata’s also a nice guy so who knows if he’s already aware of what viz is doing (and let it slide) or not.

It also looks like this is some...unfortunate common practice among viz’s track record too, if they’ve similarly done this to many other series in the past before. (Oh dang, and I remember Tokyopop back in the day.) The other option to keep those honorific details (specific to revealing the level of respect/closeness chars have for one another, which can differ wildly depending on how they address the protag for ex like in Mob) and nuances while offering educational translation notes in the index is pretty valuable. Viz couldn’t get around it in bn/ha; they had to keep Katsuki’s nickname intact for it to make sense. Meanwhile for opm viz will have like 1 note in the back of the vols about what’s written on a random background character’s shirt...not useful. So...I totally hear what you’re saying, and I wish the opm manga had been licensed to a better company, because everything viz does to the manga is like they’re purposely trying to undersell Murata’s work (literally presenting it as something not worth buying), which, as the only legal eng option available, is just confounding and painful.