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Left
to Right, Right to Left, Queen to King's Knight
by Matt McConnel
Why pray tell, you ask, am I building a fort? Simple,
I am about to throw the glove down into the debate over whether
manga should be brought to the states in the Japanese right
to left format. It should not. If it is being released to
an English speaking, and reading, audience, it should be flipped
to the conventional left to right. Before you, dear readers,
begin to fire off flames to yours truly, please share in the
following ruminations.
First,
some background. English is read left to right. Japanese is
read right to left. In the past, when manga is brought to
English speaking audiences the book was 'flipped'. The pages
were transposed into a mirror image of themselves and English
text re-inserted. Recently some companies that produce manga
in the United States, most notably Viz and Tokyo Pop, have
begun to produce manga that is not flipped, and is simply
translated. Viz has opted to continue to produce the conventional
left to right in tandem with right to left versions of selected
books, while Tokyo Pop has almost universally gone with the
right to left. Currently other manga importers are still using
the older convention of the left to right. Dark Horse's Prometheus
Studios, Central Park Media, and other smaller vendors all
have yet to weigh in. A large number of fans appreciate the
non-flipped format, and in fact prefer it. The companies are
merely reacting to what is perceived to be the growing desire
for non-flipped manga production.
I do not
appreciate this growing trend. If I wanted to read comics
right to left, I would learn Japanese. Even the Torah and
Koran when translated into English from the Hebrew and Arabic
respectively are read left to right. To pick up a book that
is in English and be forced to read it in a format that is
not is both confusing and annoying. I have heard it argued
that the flipping detracts from the artist's intent. Well,
that is a load of bull, as it is rarely the artist's intent
to confuse their readers with format. When an American comic,
such as Superman, Batman, or X-Men, are transposed to Japan,
they are flipped to a right to left format. I have never heard
of a Japanese comic book fan wanting to read un-flipped American
comics. I have encountered instances where a page or two is
not flipped owing to narrative flow or the specific wish of
the artist, but the text is still read left to right. To not
mirror the pages in production is to cave into the desire
of Asia-phile manga fans that do not have the balls or the
brains to go out and learn Japanese themselves. I know this
is not entirely true, but it is unfortunately far too indicative
of the fans-boys I have encountered in this debate.
I applaud
Viz for their choice in offering both formats of manga to
the market. I agree that this is possibly not the best business
choice initially, but I believe that it will bear fruit down
the road. The flipped, non-flipped debate is scarily reminiscent
of the old sub vs. dub argument from a few years ago. The
inclination of the individual fan was appeased oftentimes
by the dual release of both subtitle and dubbed formats of
their VHS tapes. Strangely, it was Viz who angered most fans
in taking so long to release subtitled versions of Ranma,
and I can only wonder if their current marketing strategy
for manga is not an attempt to avoid, or even apologize for,
something akin to the VHS sub/dub debate. The desire to hear
the original Japanese versus the desire to listen to one's
native language was finally made moot by the introduction
to the heaven send to anime, the digital versatile disc. Unfortunately,
e-book technology has not yet caught up with consumer expectations,
so for now we are stuck with the problem of one book, one
format. For the time being, the only solution seems to be
for manga producing companies to abandon pretence of pleasing
any one faction of fans in favor of pleasing both. Viz's model
of dual production is the only foreseeable solution to an
already sticky situation. I for one look forward to not having
to argue the point, and also to reading books that are currently
in the right to left format. Now then, if you need me, I'll
be cowering from the inevitable fan-boy onslaught.
Attack
Matt here.
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