COMICS CULTURE SHRAPNEL from CBEM 287

Which Way Am I Supposed to Read This?

I happen to like manga and anime a lot. While I can't profess to be a huge otaku, I've been enjoying anime since I was young. Manga has been a more recent addition to my cultural experience, part of my outreach program to enjoy wider aspects of the comic medium. As the resident fan of American comics among my Japan-loving friends, I often find myself in the position of defending the U.S. industry, or in recent cases, recommending titles to them. It warms my heart to do so, and it only confirms my faith in the American industry, that we're now producing stories on par with the maturity and diversity of our Japanese counterparts.

It's odd then that I've been reading more manga now. My favorites are Gunnm (Battle Angel Alita here) and Sanctuary. I'm also a huge fan of the Pokemon comics, and all my friends agree that's they're far superior to the show.

I still watch the show though. Though from all my experience with anime and otaku I probably should have developed something of an elitist attitude about dubbed anime on TV, I don't really care. I just want to enjoy the stories, no matter what format I get them in. This policy applies to Dragonball Z as well, a show I now watch religiously on the Cartoon Network now. There's just way too much out there for me to hope to see it all via bootleg tapes.

Not to say the voices don't annoy me, or that any anime could be superior to the manga it's based on. Which is why I was happy to see the comics and collections available in the comic store. Granted, I was a bit intmidated by the "17 of 42" comment on the cover. It's long. I'd spend years collecting it. No matter. Until I opened the book up.

The book was printed right to left. While I understand that Japanese is read right to left, the book was an English translation. It should be left to right to coincide with the English text. This was puzzling. It was confusing. I kept forgetting what direction I was supposed to be reading it in. Turn the page right to left. Read text left to right. Turn page right to left.

Ouch.

I mean, really. Ouch My head literally hurts. The human brain was not meant for these mental gymnastics. I couldn't read the book after a few pages, I couldn't follow the action at all. Flipping though the book I found an explanation for the confusing format. Most translations are done by mirror-flipping the page. A lot of artists don't like this because it alters the art and reveals a lot of flaws in the work. Akira Toriyama is among these artists, so Viz decided to honor his wishes and not flip the art.

The people at Viz are lazy. Why is this truth and not simply slander? Well, last week I was reading Blade of the Immortal, published by Dark Horse. Enjoying it much. Blade of the Immortal is read left to right, but not mirror flipped. How is this possible? Because Dark Horse took the time to cut and paste the panels into the proper order for the English version, honoring the artists while keeping it easy to read. Now that I know that such a thing is possible, I will not accept the excuse that "the artist wanted it this way." If you're going to translate manga, don't do half the job. Take the time and give me something I can read and enjoy. Don't give me a headache.