@ATborderless "It's about quality. If a wannabe can translate more proficiently than any pros, I'd prefer the former."

@Koiyuki: "I don'tknow who's the bigger fool in the equation: Tokyopop for giving these people more legitimacy, or the scanlators."

@Shelly_LR: “[If] I want scanlation quality translations, I'll DL and read them. Half aren't worth paying for. My $ = professional standards.”

Even Stu Levy himself is feeling the rage of dozens of clattering keyboards.

@Stulevy “@nikoscream “Clearly not a popular [concept] – seems like everyone on Twitter is voting ‘no’.”

Furthermore, this announcement comes to be rather ironic given a coincidental recent (and must-read) blog entry by erstwhile manga translator/university professor Matt Thorn, posted just days before:

To publishers of translated manga: You get what you pay for. I’ve heard industry people attribute declines in sales to any number off actors, but never to the quality of their own product… Sure, you can find any number of doe-eyed, young otaku who are willing to work for peanuts. But seriously.

Which brings up a valid point both about translation quality and the more general state of where the industry in America is now.

The debate of fan translations against their commercially released ones is an old one in anime/manga fandom. It’s not surprising given that the history of anime in America is riddled with the excising of taboo content and wacky localization. Just ask StarBlazer’s Dr. Sane, and his amazing spring water. Even MIXX had its day with the ax-man when first publishing Parasyte (complete with non-sequitor rap).

Issues of censorship aside, there are many factors that make the issue of translation a minefield. Japanese is a notoriously difficult language and for good reason: a sentence can consist of no more than a single verb and still be considered grammatically "correct." On the other hand, the language is rich with varying levels of expressions and subtly different grammar forms with potential double-meanings that can be easily missed by aninexperienced translator.

As far as your author’s humble opinion on the issue off arming out translations, the answer is “It depends, and it doesn’t make much difference anyways.” It’s no great secret that the line between “fan” and“ professional” is a fine one that often gets crossed in the industry. Even Justin Sevakis, founder of ANN and former Central Park Media employee, was in the fansub scene back in more innocuous times of VHS tape trading. That's just one of the more well-known examples.

Honestly, this all comes down to semantics and responsibility. What constitutes a professional and what constitutes a fan hinges on little more than whether someone gets a paycheck out of it. That’s what seems troubling given the circumstances.

While Levy’s plan is very much in the fetal (possibly even aborted) stage, it should be stressed that Tokyopop bears a responsibility as well. That is, if it were to be taking in fan translators to finish off their incomplete catalog titles, it would only seem fair for Tokyopop to pay said translators for their hard work.

Paradoxically, this payment would make the aforementioned fans become definable as “professionals.”

Finer and finer the line becomes.

The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and not necessarily those of Anime3000.com or its staff.