The Translator is Wrong!: Readers’ Attitudes towards Official Manga Translations Biased by Fan-Made Scanlations

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the knowledge of fan-made translations (scanlations) of Japanese comics (manga) influence the perception of official translations of volumes published in Poland. An analysis is performed on readers’ comments regarding the Polish translation of the Dragon Ball Super series and can be seen as a multiple-case study, showing how readers’ attitudes can be biased by their knowledge of scanlations (in both English and Polish). Criticism is analyzed using existing translation theories and explained accordingly.

Keywords

• translation
• manga
• scanlation
• Dragon Ball
• fans