A Study of Translating Japanese Manga Titles into English

Sammanfattning

This study examines the translation of 525 Japanese manga titles in the demographic genres shounen, shoujo, and seinen into English, aiming to identify the most used translation strategies and how factors such as demographic genre, time of translation, and the grammatical structure of the original Japanese titles influence the translation process. By examining these aspects, the study aims to uncover patterns or trends in manga title translation and explore whether certain types of titles are more likely to be adapted in specific ways than others. The study found that transliteration was the most common strategy for translating Japanese manga titles into English, followed by semantic/free translation and using a combination of transliteration and one of the strategies: adaptation/complete change, literal/direct translation, and semantic/free translation. Both expansion and omission were shown to be rare, typically occurring alongside transliteration. The analysis also showed the difficulties of conveying wordplay, cultural terms, and nuances, with translators often prioritizing recognizability and a Japanese-sounding aesthetic over fully conveying the original meaning. The study proves that translation choices are highly influenced by factors such as grammatical structure, script usage, and the content of the original titles. While the findings indicate that demographics and time also have a big effect on the strategies employed, further analysis would be needed to draw any general conclusions.