BayJumper said:Do any of you watch movies in widescreen? If so, then y'all know, that in order to create such a "rectangular screen" effect, studios crop away approximately 10% of the image. From the bottom of the screen and from the top and add in those bars. Now, with that, are you missing out on anything when you watch the film on a widescreen? Of course not.
Your analogy is flawed (besides being _completely_ wrong) in that people prefer the widescreen editions (statistically). I know I do. Perhaps a better analogy would be this would be the equivalent of being forced to hear the audio track for the blind instead of the regular track.
BayJumper said:A similar logic can be applied to Berserk having its SFX translated. After reading my copy of DH release of vol 12, I could see that almost all the SFX are placed on the panels in an un-obtrusive manner. In other words, they're on the "neutral" areas of the artwork, where there's nothing happening. So you're not missing out on anything.
So now we're judging which part of the panels are important and which aren't? If a sky or tree may be beautifully rendered but not deemed necessary to the narrative it can be covered?
Perhaps you'd prefer just having the story read to you?
BayJumper said:Now tell me, throughout all those years of reading Berserk, have you ever (at least once) got confused from reading the Japanese SFX, and just wanted to know what it means but couldn't, 'cause you don't know Japanese? It happened to me, and I'm sure to at least some of you.
No. Like I said earlier, this has never been a problem for me. I'm curious about what part of the book you were so confused about that you couldn't go on until you had heard the literal translation of the sfx. Thats another thing. Is the inclusion of a box saying, "hyuuuu" all that informative? An appendix giving the translation of the sfx and how its being used would solve any confusion you might have.
BayJumper said:Now just for a second, ignore this "SFX captions covering up the art" crap and only concentrate on the fact that FINALLY the SFX is being translated, so you can enjoy Berserk in its full aspect.
I love how you said "covering up the art" and "enjoy Berserk in its full aspect" in the same sentence. I think it sums up your post very well.
To sum up the rest about what you said about "progress", I don't know how you can argue full disclosure being preferable while advocating covering up parts you/DH deem unimportant. I don't think you can say this is a step in the right direction when the general consensus is that the fans either dislike it or don't mind it. Thats either a step backwards or a lateral movement.
Cummon DH. Put in an appendix! I don't think it'll cost... I mean, "break the reading experience" too much.