Dark Horse Releases

Griffith No More! said:
I'd rather they save money by not including posters, which I also never remove, and put that towards fixing the reprints of the SFX Box edition volumes (or just upping the overall paper/ink quality, especially since the volumes get smaller).

They're not broke; they could spend money on both.
 
Thats some great news about the posters!!

I was scared about that little thing, it wouldnt be THAT bad if they hadn't included the posters, but I really wanted to know, now I can sleep again!

Also, I think more than half of the people that are really fans, leave the posters on the manga/book...it looks better there and you don't risk to scratch the poster or the book itself
 

jackson_hurley

even the horses are cut in half!
well i bought my copy of volume 22 last friday and indeed the mini poster was inside in color! it's really beautiful. at fist i thought it was removable but when i saw it was stuck in it i decided to keep it inside!

do all the volumes after that have one?! that'd be awesome!
 
A

avidwriter

Guest
jackson_hurley said:
well i bought my copy of volume 22 last friday and indeed the mini poster was inside in color! it's really beautiful. at fist i thought it was removable but when i saw it was stuck in it i decided to keep it inside!

do all the volumes after that have one?! that'd be awesome!

Damn you got 22 already? I probably won't be seeing mine till the middle of April.
 
Last Friday is impressive,

I got it on Saturday and Minus a few translation issues, It's still my favorite volume, in fact I learned something that I never knew before at the fault of bad translations. HUZZAH!
 
I can't recall at this very moment but it's nothing like that. Usually just personal preferences to other translations I'm fonder of, but I don't even have a grounds to know if they can be said to be more correct then the Dark Horse translations, they're just the ones I fell in love with when I first read the series.
 

Rhombaad

Video Game Time Traveler
I just picked up my copy and it looks like they're calling the "Millenium Falcon Arc" the "Hawk of the Millenium Empire Arc."  Is this in any way a more accurate translation or, at the very least, a somewhat plausible one?
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Nope. The furigana for the arc title clearly says: MI-RI-NI-A-MU FA-RU-CO-N. (checks manga) Yep. And, ya know, it's not that crazy of a title, since it's used in Star Wars... Come to think of it, maybe that's why they can't use it, because it's licensed by Lucasarts or something? :???: Still, this is a pretty hamfisted translation. Wordier than the literal translation too...

Furthermore, as we've discussed here many times, since Griffith's incarnation at Albion, he's referred to as Taka, but in furigana it's read: Falcon. I think DH may hit a few roadblocks down the road with this one, since Miura is consistent about the change.
 

Rhombaad

Video Game Time Traveler
Walter said:
And, ya know, it's not that crazy of a title, since it's used in Star Wars... Come to think of it, maybe that's why they can't use it, because it's licensed by Lucasarts or something?  :???: Still, this is a pretty hamfisted translation. Wordier than the literal translation too...

That could be, or else they didn't want to imply a connection.  Ugh, lame.

Walter said:
Furthermore, as we've discussed here many times, since Griffith's incarnation at Albion, he's referred to as Taka, but in furigana it's read: Falcon. I think DH may hit a few roadblocks down the road with this one, since Miura is consistent about the change.

Yeah, with the Chapter of Falconia, especially. I'm guessing they stayed with "Hawk" to avoid confusing any American readers who aren't in the know.
 
Thanks for bringing this up Rhombaad, that was the one translation I forgot about that really does bug me. Especially after reading Walter's reply.

Walter, can you link me to a discussion about "taka" and the furigana for falcon.

Sincerely,
Jaze1618
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Jaze1618 said:
Thanks for bringing this up Rhombaad, that was the one translation I forgot about that really does bug me. Especially after reading Walter's reply.

Walter, can you link me to a discussion about "taka" and the furigana for falcon.

Sincerely,
Jaze1618
Sure, http://skullknight.net/forum/index.php?topic=7043.msg149774#msg149774
 
As soon as I clicked the link I got called back to my desk to attend to some business. 15 minutes later when I came back I went through that loop about 2.5 times before I discovered it for what it was.

I was hopin to find something else that might explain what you were talking about since I do know what furigana is but I don't know where it's used in it's use of falcon, and I also can only assume that taka means hawk, and not falcon but I would like to know for sure.
 
Jaze1618 said:
I was hopin to find something else that might explain what you were talking about since I do know what furigana is but I don't know where it's used in it's use of falcon, and I also can only assume that taka means hawk, and not falcon but I would like to know for sure.
Well it sounds to me like you have it figured out.
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Jaze1618 said:
I was hopin to find something else that might explain what you were talking about since I do know what furigana is but I don't know where it's used in it's use of falcon, and I also can only assume that taka means hawk, and not falcon but I would like to know for sure.

Can't you use the forum's search engine and find out by yourself? Or can't you simply take Walter's word for it, if searching information is too much of an effort? Should you be spoonfed everything?

"鷹" can mean both "falcon" and "hawk". Furigana are kana that are written next to a kanji to indicate what its pronunciation is. In fact I don't even know why we use "hawk" at all anymore. I think it's pretty clear Miura intends it to be "falcon".
 

Rhombaad

Video Game Time Traveler
Aazealh said:
In fact I don't even know why we use "hawk" at all anymore. I think it's pretty clear Miura intends it to be "falcon".

Why do you think Miura switched all of a sudden after the Incarnation? Or do you think he always meant it to be "falcon" but just wanted to reemphasize it, given the name of the new arc?
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Rhombaad said:
Why do you think Miura switched all of a sudden after the Incarnation? Or do you think he always meant it to be "falcon" but just wanted to reemphasize it, given the name of the new arc?

Well no switch ever occurred. While the word has sometimes been translated as "hawk" in merchandising and such, Miura himself never specified anything, and we know how unreliable other sources have been in the past (very). Falcon has always been a possibility, it just wasn't considered by the English fan community for some reason (probably because "hawk" is a more commonly used word in English).

Personally (just a guess here), I think Miura just never really cared until the Millennium Falcon arc. And why would he have, after all, when the Japanese word didn't need any second thought? It's the same in French, where "hawk" and "falcon" are both translated as "faucon".
 

Rhombaad

Video Game Time Traveler
Aazealh said:
Well no switch ever occurred. While the word has sometimes been translated as "hawk" in merchandising and such, Miura himself never specified anything, and we know how unreliable other sources have been in the past (very).

True.  Knight of Skeleton comes to mind. :SK:

Aazealh said:
Personally (just a guess here), I think Miura just never really cared until the Millennium Falcon arc. And why would he have, after all, when the Japanese word didn't need any second thought? It's the same in French, where "hawk" and "falcon" are both translated as "faucon".

Gotcha, that makes sense.  That sucks for the Dark Horse releases.  I guess they didn't look far enough ahead, so now they're stuck with "hawk". Regardless, "Millennium Empire" makes no sense. It sounds like something out of Hellsing. They should have gone with "Millennium Hawk," but even that's inaccurate.
 
Well I for one am grateful that all have this discussion has transpired.

Aaz,
I hope you don't think that I wasn't not taking Walter's word for it. I was merely wanting more information to understand more on what had transpired.

I didn't specify that I thought maybe someone knew of a specific thread and that it wouldn't be any trouble to find it for me if they knew what to search for. Hell I guess could have asked if anyone knew of a specific term to search for in relation to a specific thread.

So now without further ado, Walter I am sorry for not being specific in asking for a "specific thread" that you could refer me to. Versus many unspecific threads that only had peices of discussion, like ones I was afraid would be the only ones I would find had I searched with out asking first.

Now I'm going to go search and see what I find just for the heck of it.
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Rhombaad said:
True. Knight of Skeleton comes to mind. :SK:

Oh, there's been worse than that... Words I dare not type!

Rhombaad said:
Gotcha, that makes sense. That sucks for the Dark Horse releases. I guess they didn't look far enough ahead, so now they're stuck with "hawk".

Yeah, although to mitigate what Walter said, the furigana for "falcon" was never used in the text itself, only in the arc title. But then there's Falconia and such, so I don't think a doubt persists.

Rhombaad said:
Regardless, "Millennium Empire" makes no sense. It sounds like something out of Hellsing. They should have gone with "Millennium Hawk," but even that's inaccurate.

Well, it's just that they translated the kanji without regard to the furigana. The kanji does say "thousand years empire," so their translation isn't inaccurate in that regard. However, Miura specifically named the arc that way because of the Star Wars pun, and even passed that, it sounds better in my opinion. It's also deeply relevant to Griffith's incarnation since it is a once-in-a-millennium event. I just find it strange that they'd ignore the author's will on such a detail for no reason whatsoever. It's disrespectful not only to him but to the readers as well. Maybe it's to avoid possible licensing problems, like Walter speculated, but that sounds far-fetched to me. It's really just a pun, it's pretty minor, and it can't mislead anybody on the nature of the product they purchase.

Now I just wonder how they'll translate the Chapter of Falconia. Probably "Chapter of the Hawk Capital," and that will be very sad.

Jaze1618 said:
I didn't specify that I thought maybe someone knew of a specific thread and that it wouldn't be any trouble to find it for me if they knew what to search for. Hell I guess could have asked if anyone knew of a specific term to search for in relation to a specific thread.

Well it's alright man but you've got to realize that we don't know threads by heart any more than you do. It's all about searching for them. :guts:
 

Rhombaad

Video Game Time Traveler
Aazealh said:
Oh, there's been worse than that... Words I dare not type!

I'm not sure I want to know. :griff:

Aazealh said:
Yeah, although to mitigate what Walter said, the furigana for "falcon" was never used in the text itself, only in the arc title. But then there's Falconia and such, so I don't think a doubt persists.

Gotcha, and like you said, "taka" can mean both "falcon" and "hawk," so it's not really necessary to write the furigana above "taka" everytime it's used in the text.

Aazealh said:
Well, it's just that they translated the kanji without regard to the furigana. The kanji does say "thousand years empire," so their translation isn't inaccurate in that regard. However, Miura specifically named the arc that way because of the Star Wars pun, and even passed that, it sounds better in my opinion. It's also deeply relevant to Griffith's incarnation since it is a once-in-a-millennium event. I just find it strange that they'd ignore the author's will on such a detail for no reason whatsoever. It's disrespectful not only to him but to the readers as well. Maybe it's to avoid possible licensing problems, like Walter speculated, but that sounds far-fetched to me. It's really just a pun, it's pretty minor, and it can't mislead anybody on the nature of the product they purchase.

I can't read most kanji, so I didn't realize it actually says "thousand year empire."  And like you said, I doubt that anybody would think Berserk was connected to Star Wars or visa versa (although there are people out there who probably like the series summary Dark Horse puts on the back of the volumes...).  That just plain sucks.  At least we know what it's supposed to be, but it sucks for all the people who are new to Berserk and just follow the DH releases.

Aazealh said:
Now I just wonder how they'll translate the Chapter of Falconia. Probably "Chapter of the Hawk Capital," and that will be very sad.

Ugh.  They really need to have someone who's read all the Japanese volumes before they start working on translating them to English.  This reminds me a lot of the way ADV Films handled Rurouni Kenshin: Tsuiokuhen.  They kept translating "hitokiri battousai" as "assassin" since they felt people new to the show wouldn't understand why Kenshin was called that, since the OVA was released in the US before the TV series.  The people handling this stuff need to know the material before tackling these kind of series.
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Rhombaad said:
Gotcha, and like you said, "taka" can mean both "falcon" and "hawk," so it's not really necessary to write the furigana above "taka" everytime it's used in the text.

Exactly. Even in terms of convenience, always having 5 characters next to one little kanji would probably make things hard to read at times.

Rhombaad said:
And like you said, I doubt that anybody would think Berserk was connected to Star Wars or visa versa (although there are people out there who probably like the series summary Dark Horse puts on the back of the volumes...).

Well anyway it's not like it's on the cover or anything...
 

handsome rakshas

Thanks Grail!
Volume 22 is my favorite volume for a number of reasons. The reunion on the hill of swords with Guts, Griffith, and Rickert, the battle with Zodd, and even the cute and twisted side story with Farnese and Serpico. But for me episode 186, "Winds of Change 2" will always be my favorite because of the awesome introduction of my favorite character. Every time I read it's like the first time, it always seems exciting. Then along comes Dark Horse. I got over the whole "Hawk of the Millenium Empire Arc" stuff and decided to buy the volume. It was going good until episode 185 when I noticed they changed the episode name to "War Cry of the Wind", which just
doesn't sound right to me. Then I got to episode 186, my favorite, and things got worse. Let me put up the translation starting from the beginning of the episode.

Kushans: "Stop them! Stop those two horsemen!"
Tapasa: "Young master. Wait."
Silat: "What benefit is there in being loyal to these? We should take advantage of this chaos to capture the hawk."
Sonia: "Look out!"
Tapasa: "Impossible! We Tapasa were knocked down?!"

It's at this point a shadowy figure emerges from the ground, oozing with awesomeness. My favorite Berserk moment.

Awesome Shadowy guy: "Slow. Obtuse. The summit of the Bakiraka...the Tapasa, inquire in amazement."
Tapasa: "That mask! You're RAKSAS!!"

I'm going to pause a minute here to get my blood pressure back to normal.

Silat: "Why is our clan's exile here!?"
RAKSAS: "I heard the oracle. So you're the hawk of light. You're...lovely. Someday
I'll lop off your head...and make it mine. Until then...I'll let no harm come to you.
I'll play with you."

Do I have a right to be super pissed off here? I mean RAKSAS? Is there any reason why they would fuck up his name? I know missing an h isn't that big of a deal, but it hits a little closer to home when it's your favorite character! Maybe I'm overreacting, I'm going to go take a pill and lie down.
 
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