nenena: (Default)
nenena ([personal profile] nenena) wrote2008-05-22 07:36 am

Whoops!

This. This is why sticking random chunks of foreign text in your animation, in your comic panels, or on your spiffy merchandise is a bad idea if you have no idea what the text actually says. (ETA: More here.)

Case in point.

(Also, didn't something along those lines happen in a recent episode of Code Geass? Something about a chunk of some hilariously misappropriated prose showing up, quite legibly, on Lelouche's computer screen. Or something along those lines. Or maybe I'm confusing it with an incident in Haruhi? Argh, I can't remember.)

Anyway, I know it's common practice for Japanese comic artists to use English writing, particularly newspaper articles, as "filler" text in panels, or sometimes even as funky backgrounds in more surreal scenes. I.E., the illustration on the back of Pichi Pichi Pitch volume 02 had Kaito sitting in the middle of a bunch of English text cribbed from the Wall Street Journal. And I've lost count of all of the Japanese stationary items I've collected that make liberal use of random English newsprint for decorative purposes.

But yeah. If you throw that stuff around without having any idea what it actually says? Bad idea. This goes for you native English speakers, too.

Meanwhile, to counter the not-awesome:

HERE IS SOMETHING THAT IS FREAKIN' AWESOME.

Albeit at this point I believe that Tim giving Bruce a swift kick in the balls would be totally, utterly justified.


ETA TWO: Follow-up about JoJo's Bizzare Adventure is here. Warning: Post may induce spikes in blood pressure.

[identity profile] furikku.livejournal.com 2008-05-22 02:31 pm (UTC)(link)
"I don't see what's wrong with this bag. It's kind of cute. What about this li- OH MY DEAR GOD! O_O"

Yyyeah.

I still don't understand why creators DON'T research foreign language to death when they're using it, just out of the fear of looking totally ignorant and possibly offensive. I've always feared that. Even just the former- it's like, "OH NO SOMEONE MIGHT READ THIS AND TELL THAT I DON'T KNOW MY SHIT I HAD BETTER COVER MY ASS WITH CROSS-REFERENCING FIRST!"
genarti: Knees-down view of woman on tiptoe next to bookshelves (face. palm.)

[personal profile] genarti 2008-05-22 08:42 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah. Or at least, you know, track down a native speaker and say "Hey, does this look halfway reasonable? Or at least not hideously embarrassing?"

It's one of those things I'm always paranoid about. Which is why I don't buy any shirts or bags or whatever with foreign writing on them unless I have at least a guess at what it says, because I like to know what my possessions are saying. And definitely in anything I wrote, I'd have it checked before releasing it to the general public.

[identity profile] atelierjoh.livejournal.com 2008-05-22 04:37 pm (UTC)(link)
You'd think with as much as the practice is in use, they'd just create stock gibberish for use by anybody, like "WacDonald's" or something.

[identity profile] meiousei.livejournal.com 2008-05-23 12:51 am (UTC)(link)
RE. Scans Daily: OMGAWESOME.

[identity profile] earthy-dreamer.livejournal.com 2008-05-23 12:56 am (UTC)(link)
WOW.

I just. WOW.

...You know that's all because of Girl Wonder, right?

Also, who wrote this, that I may bear his/her children?

...And I don't even LIKE Steph! <.< >.>
ext_6355: (Devi - Monochrome)

[identity profile] nenena.livejournal.com 2008-05-23 02:31 am (UTC)(link)
Chuck Dixon wrote it.

...You know that's all because of Girl Wonder, right?

I'd really, really, really hesitate to say that. A large factor has got to be simply because Steph is one of Dixon's pet characters.

[identity profile] earthy-dreamer.livejournal.com 2008-05-23 03:11 am (UTC)(link)
Aw man, and here I was all ready to be excited that The Fans Have A Voice. Oh well. ^^;;

[identity profile] miss-breeziness.livejournal.com 2008-05-23 02:16 am (UTC)(link)
Hahahaha...It does annoy me a bit when people use random Chinese words to look "cool", not knowing what they mean. I mean, it's okay if it's a word with an appropriate meaning, but...this reminds me of the credits in the Disney movie Mulan. Headings like "Cast" and "Special effects team" (written in English) were accompanied by the kanji for, for instance, "Love" and "Courage".

I mean, it's always good to think well of the special effects team, but...:D

It would have been better if they just had the Chinese translation for "special effects team" next to the English.

[identity profile] hauntedreality.livejournal.com 2008-05-24 08:08 pm (UTC)(link)
heh, I have a few Japanese brushes for photoshop that I always wonder about. Heh.

I should read more comics. *nods*