Houseki no Kuni

But why did you drink the arsenic water? People were alright with it, you werent, yet you took it anyways despite the warnings and then complained. I mean stupid comparisons appart, im not disagreeing with you in that the translations were bad, im saying that acting as if I did something wrong is stupid. Your blame is not wanting to read accurate translations (who doesnt?), but acting as if providing a defective service (which was the best I had and you didnt provide anything better either) was a bad and evil thing. But you agreed you were a dick and regret that so we are ok I guess.

 

You guarantee so, yet you didnt do it. And yeah, you probably have reasons, but so do I. You are in no place to judge me.

 

Again, the "criticism" isnt bad, its the tone of it. I have been told my translations are bad a lot, I myself repeat it, that never was a problem, it was a reality. Anyways, you said you regretted the way you said it so its ok now.

Woah. Well. Now my criticism turns into something else. Rather than improving your Japanese and/or finding a better translator... you preferred to continue serving arsenic water to yourself and readers. You knew they were wrong, and did nothing to improve their accuracy? Classy.

I never drank the arsenic. I stopped reading the moment your disclaimer showed up. As to me not providing better content... I'm providing my own content for my own group as best I can. Why should my criticism of your scanlation mean I should help you clean up a series you've knowingly shat on for so long?

Edited to add:

Is it not fair to point out to readers that belkrax's scanlation may be inaccurate? While yes, I was (wrongly) inflammatory in my first comment, don't they deserve to know what they're reading might not be correctly translated? It's in the interest of every reader to know what they're reading might not be what the author originally intended. It is cause for concern for every reader, publicly, even if the mistranslations may be minor.

 

Since KoolKidsK seem to be doing a good job, there's no need for me to get in touch with belkrax, but if (if!) the situation changes, you can rest be assured I will contact either you or belkrax via PM to work something out about a translator, hopefully.

You do realize there were warning pages made by belkrax that were put in a bunch of chapters, that explicitly stated the quality will be iffy. People knew what to expect. I don't know what your end game was, but congrats on hurting his feelings. Scanlating/Subbing/etc. has always been a thankless job that fans do for free, so honestly they're not beholden to any certain standard that we arbitrarily impose on them. The majority do what they do out of love for the series and wanting to share them with others. belkrax tried his best because no one else stepped up and he made due with what he had. It certainly wasn't right to so brazenly and maliciously call him out for it. Although a group has stepped up for now KoolKidsK (KKK...is that intentional?), who knows how long it will last.

And to belkrax, what do you plan to do now? Will you continue as you have or maybe combine your efforts and reach out to the group to see if there's anything you can help with?

I'm sorry I hurt your feelings and yeah, I was a dick and I regret the way I initially started this. But this aside, you are literally saying you are not to be blamed at all and didn't deserve to be called out for providing inaccurate translations. "This milkshake might have 10% arsenic in it, but I'm going to pour it for you anyway. I let you know before I poured it for you, so it's not my fault if you get poisoned." A rather harsh example, but that's essentially what you're saying.

 

 

I guess it's all my fault for not wanting to read inaccurate translations. /s

 

For goodness' sake, take a step back and think about this logically. You're a fan, great. You want to scanlate this on your own and not in a group, great. You're not a translator, but you have an OCR program and there's Google Translate............ no. You're not a translator, yet you call yourself one. How can you possibly hope to understand what's being said when you don't know the first thing about Japanese?

 

I guarantee you, finding a translator would be faster than using OCR to Google Translate. There are so many resources at your fingertips where you can find translators who would be willing to pick up Houseki no Kouni. Mangaupdates. Mangahelpers. Batoto. Hell, even Mangafox recruitment forums. And there's plenty of translator tests out there from solid groups you could use to make sure anyone who applies actually knows Japanese.

 

Well, whatever. As both of you have said, nothing fruitful to come out of this unless you pick up another series and improve your habits (and don't use Google Translate; just ask any Japanese translator in scanlation for any series). But I thought people should know what they were reading was most likely to be inaccurate. And if I was a dick in my initial comment, the criticism I wanted to make... can be found in your disclaimer. /sigh

But why did you drink the arsenic water? People were alright with it, you werent, yet you took it anyways despite the warnings and then complained. I mean stupid comparisons appart, im not disagreeing with you in that the translations were bad, im saying that acting as if I did something wrong is stupid. Your blame is not "wanting to read accurate translations" (who doesnt?), but acting as if providing a defective service (which was the best I had and you didnt provide anything better either) was a bad and evil thing. But you agreed you were a dick and regret that so we are ok I guess.

You guarantee so, yet you didnt do it. And yeah, you probably have reasons, but so do I. You are in no place to judge me.

Again, the "criticism" isnt bad, its the tone of it. I have been told my translations are bad a lot, I myself repeat it, that never was a problem, it was a reality. Anyways, you said you regretted the way you said it so its ok now.

No, I did what I could. What bothered me in your comment was the "save us", as if I was holding some good translations hostage and forcing you to read my ones (and my warning is precisely for that, to make it clear that my translations could have mistakes). "Save us" implies a bad action on my part, when I did what I could with what I had. Im not responsible for the entire fan translations of Houseki. I wanted to see people discussing what was going on and be updated and so I did mine, explaining how they could be mistaken, since the manga wasnt updating. There is absolutely nothing bad about that. So I felt a bit hurt when you painted me as some villain.

 

And im not a scanlation group, so that point doesnt apply to me. Im just a devoted fan. To any person who knew japanese that approached me I asked if they were interested in translating, but only lately people who actually were appeared (probably thanks to the anime?).

 

And you telling me that "if i loved the series i should have searched for a good translator" is outright stupid given that you yourself loved the series and failed to do that too.

 

Anyways, I wont bother arguing anymore, I dont think this section is for that and you are not going to say you are sorry either.

 

TLDR: My translations were obviously faulty, no one forced you to read them (i even gave a warning to avoid reading them if you were like that), while you are right in that its good that someone started making good ones now your way of saying it was extremely dickish and put unnecessary blame that I didnt deserve at all.

I'm sorry I hurt your feelings and yeah, I was a dick and I regret the way I initially started this. But this aside, you are literally saying you are not to be blamed at all and didn't deserve to be called out for providing inaccurate translations. "This milkshake might have 10% arsenic in it, but I'm going to pour it for you anyway. I let you know before I poured it for you, so it's not my fault if you get poisoned." A rather harsh example, but that's essentially what you're saying.

My translations were obviously faulty, no one forced you to read them (i even gave a warning to avoid reading them if you were like that)

I guess it's all my fault for not wanting to read inaccurate translations. /s

For goodness' sake, take a step back and think about this logically. You're a fan, great. You want to scanlate this on your own and not in a group, great. You're not a translator, but you have an OCR program and there's Google Translate............ no. You're not a translator, yet you call yourself one. How can you possibly hope to understand what's being said when you don't know the first thing about Japanese?

I guarantee you, finding a translator would be faster than using OCR to Google Translate. There are so many resources at your fingertips where you can find translators who would be willing to pick up Houseki no Kouni. Mangaupdates. Mangahelpers. Batoto. Hell, even Mangafox recruitment forums. And there's plenty of translator tests out there from solid groups you could use to make sure anyone who applies actually knows Japanese.

Well, whatever. As both of you have said, nothing fruitful to come out of this unless you pick up another series and improve your habits (and don't use Google Translate; just ask any Japanese translator in scanlation for any series). But I thought people should know what they were reading was most likely to be inaccurate. And if I was a dick in my initial comment, the criticism I wanted to make... can be found in your disclaimer. /sigh

I'm not faulting you being a fan of something, but when your attempt to scanlate amounts to Google Translate and Paint, that's when you should take a step back and consider whether the tools you're using will misconstrue and even distort the author's original meaning. If you're totally fine with misinterpreting the author's words... that's when you should consider trying to find or even recruit translators who you know will do a better job than you. That's the whole point of scanlation groups: people know they're good at some things and suck at others, so they rely on other people they know are good to cover their weak points.

 

"This scanlation is bad but I'm letting you know in an advance, so if you don't understand and if I accidentally distort and even wrongly translate the author's meaning at critical points in the story, it's not my fault" is an argument I honestly can't believe even is an argument.

No, I did what I could. What bothered me in your comment was the "save us", as if I was holding some good translations hostage and forcing you to read my ones (and my warning is precisely for that, to make it clear that my translations could have mistakes). "Save us" implies a bad action on my part, when I did what I could with what I had. Im not responsible for the entire fan translations of Houseki. I wanted to see people discussing what was going on and be updated and so I did mine, explaining how they could be mistaken, since the manga wasnt updating. There is absolutely nothing bad about that. So I felt a bit hurt when you painted me as some villain.

And im not a scanlation group, so that point doesnt apply to me. Im just a devoted fan. To any person who knew japanese that approached me I asked if they were interested in translating, but only lately people who actually were appeared (probably thanks to the anime?).

And you telling me that "if i loved the series i should have searched for a good translator" is outright stupid given that you yourself loved the series and failed to do that too.

Anyways, I wont bother arguing anymore, I dont think this section is for that and you are not going to say you are sorry either.

TLDR: My translations were obviously faulty, no one forced you to read them (i even gave a warning to avoid reading them if you were like that), while you are right in that its good that someone started making good ones now your way of saying it was extremely dickish and put unnecessary blame that I didnt deserve at all.

You know, I get where you're coming from as well, but instead of deriding someone on a public forum, which doesn't serve to help or benefit anyone in any way, why not reach out privately and offer your assistance instead if you're so adamant about it? If you're willing to share examples of critical points in the story that have been seriously mistranslated, then please do so and help improve the understanding of both fans and translator alike. Otherwise, minor translation errors are no big deal considering the small group working on the series and I personally feel like I've understood the main plot points until now. If you're STILL not convinced or don't want to provide assistance, then like I said before, wait for the official English releases from Kodansha.

I actually considered helping, but right now all my resources are tied up. Seems like KoolKidsK got to it before I could have if I'd been more free, anyway, and they're doing a good job, as I mentioned in my (admittedly) bitchy initial comment. My coadmin would have killed me if I'd tried to pick this up, too.

Look, the fact that you understood the major plot points is to belkrax's credit, but you're literally saying you're all right with mistranslations, even minor ones. Don't you think that's a little disingenuous? Besides, a small group is just as capable of providing accurate translations as a larger one. I find it rather odd that you assume small groups =/= inaccurate translations, somehow.

And yes, I'm more than happy to pick up the official release. That still doesn't make my criticism of belkrax's scanlation any less valid.

Edited to add:

Edit: Since you don't understand Japanese either, you're also making the assumption that things are being grossly mistranslated, but belkrax has been learning over time and compared to the earlier chapters, it's a marked improvement. I'm willing to place my faith in his efforts and if it's misplaced, then ok, that's fine with me. I can always seek out the official releases later. Anyways, I'm glad you plan to buy the official releases and I wasn't deflecting anything. I was simply pointing out that option is also available to you. I get that you're a fan and seeing something you love possibly misinterpreted is a cause for concern, but like I previously stated, reach out to the translator directly and help if you can. He may not have the connections to find a good translator, but maybe you do. Having this debate on a public forum really doesn't do anything except cause inflammatory comments to arise. So yea, PM belkrax and even me if you'd like to discuss anything further.

Is it not fair to point out to readers that belkrax's scanlation may be inaccurate? While yes, I was (wrongly) inflammatory in my first comment, don't they deserve to know what they're reading might not be correctly translated? It's in the interest of every reader to know what they're reading might not be what the author originally intended. It is cause for concern for every reader, publicly, even if the mistranslations may be minor.

Since KoolKidsK seem to be doing a good job, there's no need for me to get in touch with belkrax, but if (if!) the situation changes, you can rest be assured I will contact either you or belkrax via PM to work something out about a translator, hopefully.

You know, I get where you're coming from as well and you make good points, but instead of deriding someone on a public forum, which doesn't serve to help or benefit anyone in any way, why not reach out privately and offer your assistance instead if you're so adamant about it? If you're willing to share examples of critical points in the story that have been seriously mistranslated, then please do so and help improve the understanding of both fans and translator alike. Otherwise, minor translation errors are no big deal considering the small group working on the series and I personally feel like I've understood the main plot points until now.

Edit: Since you don't understand Japanese either, you're also making the assumption that things are being grossly mistranslated, but belkrax has been learning over time and compared to the earlier chapters, it's a marked improvement. I'm willing to place my faith in his efforts and if it's misplaced, then ok, that's fine with me. I can always seek out the official releases later. Anyways, I'm glad you plan to buy the official releases and I wasn't deflecting anything. I was simply pointing out that option is also available to you. I get that you're a fan and seeing something you love possibly misinterpreted is a cause for concern, but like I previously stated, reach out to the translator directly and help if you can. He may not have the connections to find a good translator, but maybe you do. Having this debate on a public forum really doesn't do anything except cause inflammatory comments to arise. So yea, PM belkrax and even me if you'd like to discuss anything further.

Man, I can never understand why people are so ungrateful to people who do things for free and out of love for the community because no one else would. It's even more appalling because you call yourself a "scanlator" and should know how rough the translating scene can be. Sure, Belkrax's translations were pretty rough at first, but they've improved immensely over time and you can totally understand the gist of what's happening in every chapter.

 

If you're that unhappy, you can always, you know, support the official English releases from Kodansha: https://kodanshacomics.com/series/land-of-the-lustrous/

 

They're slowly, but surely catching up and I'm really glad the series got licensed. If you don't want to wait nor pay for the official releases, then you know where the door is. As for me and the other grateful fans of this series, thank you belkrax!

 

P.S. The anime is still friggin great and IMO an even better adaptation than I could've hoped for, especially considering it's made mostly with CG, which tends to get a bad rap, but it totally fits LotL and the execution has been nothing short of amazing. Here's hoping for another season (it seems to be doing reasonably well in both ratings and popularity)!

"It's free, so I'm grateful for whoever scanlates it, regardless of quality or accuracy." So just because it's free... I... should be happy that I'm reading wrong translations? In that case, I suppose it'd be fine with you if belkrax wrongly translated something even accidentally? What if they wrongly translated translated something multiple times each chapter? What if they wrongly translated a critical turning point in the story? You wouldn't even know. Hell, I wouldn't even know, because neither of us know Japanese.

belkrax, if you really love this series so much, you know the right to do was to have found people who actually know Japanese in order to scanlate this. Japanese is one of those languages where a ton of minute nuances are lost in translation, where you have to find creative ways in English to get around them or express them properly. It's the difference between using a tiny pencil to make a detailed sketch (a translator worth their salt) and a giant paintbrush that wipes over the entirety of the sketch (Google Translate). When you don't appreciate this nuance, that's when you start making mistakes you're not even aware of; that's when the majority of readers take your mistakes for canon. How are you not even bothered by this in the least?

Edit: And of course I will buy the official release, ProlificSky. Land of the Lustrous is an amazing series. I find it somewhat odd that people will point to buying the official release the minute any criticism is levelled at the scanlator... is that an argument somehow meant to trump the criticisms when in fact it's a deflection? I do, in fact, buy the books for the series I scanlate because I like the story. I even buy them in Japanese because I'm a sucker and want to learn the language at some point. None of this makes the criticisms of the scanlation any less valid.

hey, my feelings there, is not as if anyone was picking the manga before I started with that shit and I never had any trouble with someone picking it (that would be dumb). Dont paint me as some evil translator, im happy to have better translations too, and if I started doing my awful ones it was simply because I loved the series and wanted people to be updated on what was happening.

 

But besides that you are right, its going to become better now.

I'm not faulting you being a fan of something, but when your attempt to scanlate amounts to Google Translate and Paint, that's when you should take a step back and consider whether the tools you're using will misconstrue and even distort the author's original meaning. If you're totally fine with misinterpreting the author's words... that's when you should consider trying to find or even recruit translators who you know will do a better job than you. That's the whole point of scanlation groups: people know they're good at some things and suck at others, so they rely on other people they know are good to cover their weak points.

"This scanlation is bad but I'm letting you know in an advance, so if you don't understand and if I accidentally distort and even wrongly translate the author's meaning at critical points in the story, it's not my fault" is an argument I honestly can't believe even is an argument.

 

They're slowly, but surely catching up and I'm really glad the series got licensed. If you don't want to wait nor pay for the official releases, then you know where the door is. As for me and the other grateful fans of this series, thank you belkrax!

 

P.S. The anime is still friggin great and IMO an even better adaptation than I could've hoped for, especially considering it's made mostly with CG, which tends to get a bad rap, but it totally fits LotL and the execution has been nothing short of amazing. Here's hoping for another season (it seems to be doing reasonably well in both ratings and popularity)!

Thank you! Really.

Also yeah, im extremely happy with the anime. I was really scared and dissapointed when I first heard it was CG but now I see I was wrong, the things they made with it are impressing and there is definitively love in it. I have solid hopes for S2.

Waiting for episode 10 right now.

KoolKidsK, please save us from belkrax with their Paint and Google Translate ways. Sincerely, a scanlator who wants to see this series scanlated accurately and with quality.

Man, I can never understand why people are so ungrateful to people who do things for free and out of love for the community because no one else would. It's even more appalling because you call yourself a "scanlator" and should know how rough the translating scene can be. Sure, Belkrax's translations were pretty rough at first, but they've improved immensely over time and you can totally understand the gist of what's happening in every chapter.

If you're that unhappy, you can always, you know, support the official English releases from Kodansha: https://kodanshacomics.com/series/land-of-the-lustrous/

They're slowly, but surely catching up and I'm really glad the series got licensed. If you don't want to wait nor pay for the official releases, then you know where the door is. As for me and the other grateful fans of this series, thank you belkrax!

P.S. The anime is still friggin great and IMO an even better adaptation than I could've hoped for, especially considering it's made mostly with CG, which tends to get a bad rap, but it totally fits LotL and the execution has been nothing short of amazing. Here's hoping for another season (it seems to be doing reasonably well in both ratings and popularity)!

KoolKidsK, please save us from belkrax with their Paint and Google Translate ways. Sincerely, a scanlator who wants to see this series scanlated accurately and with quality.

hey, my feelings there, is not as if anyone was picking the manga before I started with that shit and I never had any trouble with someone picking it (that would be dumb). Dont paint me as some evil translator, im happy to have better translations too, and if I started doing my awful ones it was simply because I loved the series and wanted people to be updated on what was happening.

But besides that you are right, its going to become better now.

Now comes the big answer; Will Phos get betrayed, or will the pact go through as planned? Can hardly wait...

KoolKidsK, please save us from belkrax with their Paint and Google Translate ways. Sincerely, a scanlator who wants to see this series scanlated accurately and with quality.

This has been a theory that's been around since we discovered the moon is covered with gem dust.

I'm actually surprised people forgot about that, when It's not even been that long since Phos came back from the moon and saw that ugly mess.

I think it's less that the theory has been forgotten and more that we're all waiting for the other shoe to drop in Phos's latest utterly doomed venture before we even consider ways that things could get better again. 

People I just watched chapter 4 of the anime and saw a line that made me think that the gems that were taken to the moon can be recued/saved/reformed again

The snail says that the snails that are on the moon are fattened up and gigantic because they eat the sand on the moon, meaning that the gems they ground up can be found on the shells of those who ate them here is the page in question https://vatoto.com/reader#58ab6441238fc66a_13

This has been a theory that's been around since we discovered the moon is covered with gem dust.

I'm actually surprised people forgot about that, when It's not even been that long since Phos came back from the moon and saw that ugly mess.

People I just watched chapter 4 of the anime and saw a line that made me think that the gems that were taken to the moon can be recued/saved/reformed again
The snail says that the snails that are on the moon are fattened up and gigantic because they eat the sand on the moon, meaning that the gems they ground up can be found on the shells of those who ate them here is the page in question https://vatoto.com/reader#58ab6441238fc66a_13

People I just watched chapter 4 of the anime and saw a line that made me think that the gems that were taken to the moon can be recued/saved/reformed again

The snail says that the snails that are on the moon are fattened up and gigantic because they eat the sand on the moon, meaning that the gems they ground up can be found on the shells of those who ate them here is the page in question https://vatoto.com/reader#58ab6441238fc66a_13

I know things are starting to get serious, but I didn't expect this chapter to be so short to the point my thought at the end was
 

It would be kind of depressingly poetic if the new job Phos finds that "only Cinnabar can do" ultimately turns out to be defeating Phos. Even then Phos would have failed, because I can't imagine putting down a misguided loved one would be a "fun" job.

Just gonna leave this here.

the whole thing with cinnabar being a counter to phos makes me think they'll definitely fighting against each other... I just hope both come out okay.

Spoiler

Wait he took Rutile's partner too? Since when?!

I really hope this series will have a good ending...

the whole thing with cinnabar being a counter to phos makes me think they'll definitely fighting against each other... I just hope both come out okay.

Thanks for the new chapter! Can't wait to see this unravel.