本好きの下剋上 領主の養女

OG members of the Bookworm forum will remember the huge discussion we had on how to localize his name. Like many names, Justus's name (ユストクス) is actually slightly modified from how the name Justus is supposed to be spelled ( ユストゥス ). However, completely unbeknownst the author, this minor modification in Japanese is actually an extreme modification in English. We can't just turn a "u" into "ku" like Japanese can, it dramatically morphs how the name is pronounced. "tus" turns into "toku" so Justus turns into Justokus which then gets morphed into stuff like Eustochius or Eustachius in the attempt to make it more like a normal name. It's just horrible. I elected, at the time, to cut the Gordian knot and simply go with the original name (Justus/ユストゥス) as if it had not been modified. In some ways this is unfaithful, though Eustachius completely abandoning the Justus origin is not exactly more faithful. I consider this name to be an "impossible translation challenge" because no matter what you do it probably won't be very good. It pulls down the curtain and denies the idea of there being "right" name translations because sometimes a name is just nonsense in Japanese and has no good or even close English equivalent. All because, by chance, the slight spelling change the author made to this name made it unrecognizable in English instead of slightly different. (By the way, for comparison, Eustachius is エウスタキウス in Japanese - pretty far from ユストクス. Eustace would be ユースタス.) (P.S., although people didn't like this reasoning, I do think it's valuable for Eckhart and Justus to have names which start with different letters. Eckhart and Eustachius will probably blend together in people's minds like a comedy duo long-term.)

It's my perception that both English and Japanese publishers have very little interest in, like, preserving the involvement of any given translator. It is probably not something that occurs to them at all. Internally, within a single publisher, they may keep giving work to the same translator just out of inertia and convenience (i.e. not having to train a new translator on terms), but it's not really a serious thing and basically no publisher will like reach out to a translator to try to hire them so they can keep working on the same series. In fact, it's more often the opposite, and publishers will like try to poach series and actively take them away from translators. I'm aware of one instance where a TLer I know was abruptly not offered to continue working on a series, and later they found out that the publisher had offered it to another translator... at 2/3rds the translation fee. Anyway, all this is to say that Crunchyroll did not reach out to me to work on the anime series, probably never even conceived of the idea of reaching out to me to work on the anime series, and probably did not ever bother looking into who was translating the LNs at all. The only way I would ever have been the one assigned to Bookworm in Crunchyroll is if I was already in their employ and probably aggressively pushed the fact I also worked on the LN series, which MAY have influenced them to pick me, but by all means they very well could have picked someone else because they gauged the other person to have a more open schedule and they could pay them less or something. Or because they potentially could have plum forgot I had ever said anything. (Similar anecdote: I know someone who pushed very hard for a publisher to license a series while stressing their history with the series and their eager desire to translate the series. Eventually, the publisher DID pick up the series, and... assigned another translator to it. The first guy was stunned, and could only ask "Why?" - the publisher was briefly confused, then explained they had entirely forgotten it was the first guy who had asked for the series. That is how little we translators exist in the mind of publishers.) I don't mean to particularly complain about it, but translators are not exactly celebrity talent that publishers pay a lot of attention to, I think. It's best to think of translators as cogs in the machine, and the best cog is simply one that turns in their work on time without ever causing social media controversies. The quality of the translation itself is kind of ephemeral. My judgment is that the attention Bookworm fans give to the translation is very abnormal, and to this day I'm not entirely sure what that is - maybe I accidentally invited it myself by being so receptive to implemented feedback, or maybe it's just a consequence of the highly consistent and precise writing itself (such that any brick out of place stands out). But in any case, if you looked at 1,000 LN adaptations that Crunchyroll has subbed, you'd probably find exactly 0 shows that have been worked on by the LN translators (with maybe a few exceptions by those who just so happened to work for both Crunchyroll and a LN publisher already like I said). And this is business as usual and is totally fine for 99.99% of shows. It's not like Bookworm sales or viewer rates would go up whatsoever if they went out of their way to hire me, or any other LN translator for any of their LN adaptations. As long as their cogs are turning and work is being turned on in time, all is right in the world. (Note: All of this is just from my perception from having worked for 4~ publishers and having spoken to various translators in Crunchyroll yada yada. I'm not omniscient about everything in the TL world so I might have missed something.) Bonus story: Nob Ogasawara, one of the few J->E translators out there I would describe as having remarkable skill, was basically the singular translator of Pokemon from Pokemon Red and Blue all the way until Pokemon Platinum as a freelancer in the employ of Nintendo of America. Then, after Platinum, the Pokemon Company decided they wanted to do future translations in-house... and just like that, he was gone. They did not hire him. This is a translator of remarkable skill, who was a HUGE component in Pokemon becoming successful in the west, who provided consistent and quality output for TEN YEARS STRAIGHT... and a publisher STILL decided not to hire him simply because they straight-ass, dead-ass, did not care. It was more convenient for them to assign the work to someone in-house then bother to go out of their way to hire the freelancer who had carried the entire series on his shoulders for the decade prior. Quote Nob: So, after nearly a dozen years and nineteen Pokemon games later, I am out. I was told that my services were no longer needed because translation work will be handled internally hereafter. They assured me it's not a quality issue, but because of some bureaucratic thing. And that's just how the cookie crumbles. It's just bureacuracy. We're all just cogs.

Man, and this is why Quof is the GOAT. I'm normally a hater of dub name changes or "localisation". But this is as good a reason for me to accept the change as possible. By the way, u/Quof , are you considering discussing with the rights holders to publish a sort of "Translator's notes" kinda book to cover all the changes you have decided, the history of said changes along with the reason for said changes? I'm sure it'll let people gain some insight into the process of adapting a Japanese work for an English audience along with giving us more to read.

I actually did put together such a document for P1V1, but I think most people would be rather unhappy to read it. Translation is kind of a brutal thing of trying to force something to be another thing that it isn't, and the more one learns about this the probably less happy one will be. Although this is not a perfect analogy, it's like the same song being played on two different instruments, a piano original and a guitar rendition; the audience has enjoyed the guitar rendition, but what will come of talking of the piano original and trying to paint a picture of what it's like? It will probably just make people feel envious and frustrated with having to listen to the guitar instead, no matter how faithful and well-reasoned the guitar rendition is. This is bad for my business, but I try to be honest: what I can say is that I, and almost every translator I know, refuse to read any translation for any reason unless absolutely forced to. If I were to set about thoroughly going over my or really almost any other translation and conveying everything that gets changed, lost, impacted, etc I would probably induce a state of people wanting to quit reading translations... without them being able to. Which is pretty nightmarish. And I just genuinely fear creating that situation. I may do my absolute best to be as faithful and accurate as possible, but given how furious people get about things as simple as Yurgenschmidt vs Jurgenschmidt, there's absolutely no avoiding people getting profoundly upset with a translation once they intimately understand it. Instead I'm like: if you want to see these horrors, then learn Japanese, and by the time you understand them, you too can be free of them.

I... I didn't really think that deeply haha. But I totally get what you mean. I guess that's why I've been overly critical with translation. I do know 2 languages including English and have been studying Japanese for a while now. I guess I feel more vindicated that my feelings were being shared by people who are more expert than me in the subject matter, instead of being the oddball making all the complaints. Thanks for taking the time out to reply to me

But wouldn't it make more sense to use established character names instead of having different translations across diferent media-? Like come first - serve first - be the canon? What if they do a live action Bookworm and they name him Ieustuss or something.... There has to be some Quality Assurance postion that stuffl iek that doesnt happen. I dont care if your translation is correct or not, it was accepted and printed and we all now it as such. Its just stupid to have different versions. Nobody is changing Ash Ketchums name into Satoshi what would just be dumb.

Sadly the world doesn't really operate on what makes the most sense or what would be the best; it moreso operates on what is most convenient for individuals, and it happens to be more convenient for the different translator to do whatever they feel like. I really really can't tell you why the anime translator doesn't just google what the LN used for a name and copy that when it would make everyone's lives so much easier, or even to use a glossary, but I suppose it's more convenient for them to just come up with something themselves and proceed with that.

Yeah way better than I expected. for the first time in this season 8/10 for me Poor poor saint of Ehrenfest ... can't even guess what's awaiting her in the royal academy; actually... NO ONE EXPECTES RF(read Ana and family+future wife) too are spending days in real peace right now (if a certain future friend knew her own future, she would have devoted herself in to enjoying every moment she has in PEACE)🥹 till the fateful day actually comes ..😂

😂😂😂👌👌👌but to be fair not everything was her fault half of it came because she spent 2 years in coma + her many guardians never educated her for alot of reasons like misunderstandings and that they underestimated her past life's role her behavior or somehow thought she can do it out of nowherecauseshe has some life experience elsewhere? , royal family aside , the trio somehow deserved some of the sufferings, they put the germlin in school days after she woke up for her future of course they didn't want her to suffer for marriage and look down upon more than this +Wilfred's sake to take half of the credit for trends to restore his reputation after the ivory tower incident and a year later would be too late (a SS when Elvira came and questioned Fredinand however he half lies to her and make it seem like it's +95% for her daughter's sake , she was always second for him ,after Sylvester and his family+ Ehrenfest only after rescue part he put her 1st) Don't get me wrong Syl is even among my top 5 favorite characters, he is a great person but sucks at being father much like Karested remember after Fredinand left, for nearly 2 years the sickly Rosemyne haven't been assigned a doctor ; not because they don'tlike her , they both do and alot .however it was pure negligence even if it was one of their own blood children the same would happen + it's7 years Rose doesnot have a proper mother in her life it's like both dads were like "Fredinand will manage everything "( and they had even picachoo face, and wondered why she is so attached to Fredinand rather than her fiance when both children rarely meet or talk outside the royal academy!) if it was real life and not a story, for they own desired outcomes they should've removed Fredinand's vast influence on her life earlier and devided the load between themselves and the mothers and also made Willy and Rose spend more time together ), but at some point Rose even lost that Fredinand; Florancia's requests for Rosemyne's education were shut down by him +she was convinced that her "True Mother" is by her daughter's side and Elvira thought Florancia is managing all in the castle or when Syl again neglected Florancia's warning about Wilfred I think for many years he was always like :" he is my copy one day will be ok " but never thought that they are completely different even in environment and decade , which they live in !"however with all this his morals and kindness are why he is among my top 5 like in p5v6 it really warmed my heart as much as Rosemyne's . I'm just imagining what if one day somehow Florancia finds out that Rose never met with Elvira at the temple.. RUN SYLVESTER RUN I have only the goddess of time to blame😂

The examination scene was done about as well as it could have been, I think, even if the flashback format was a little awkward. "Eustachius"... erm... no thanks. The tree scene wasn't terrible, but it didn't feel nearly as frantic and perilous as in the book. It didn't feel like an endless tide of feybeasts, it felt more like a video game where a modest crowd of enemies all make sure they're attacking one at a time so as not to be unfair. Some of this can be chalked up to animation budget, sure, but here's an easy step: When the camera cuts to Justus and Rozemyne at the top, there should have been battle sounds playing to communicate that the struggle is ongoing down below. Instead there's just silence, as if the feybeasts know the camera isn't on them and have politely decided not to make any moves. They did hit the core expositional beats, though. Damuel isn't as good at this as the others. Rozemyne is a powerful support caster but folds in the face of direct combat.

I do not think that the idea of the mark of ewigeliebe was know by anyone in Rozemyne's closer vicinity (as it was not in Ferdinands book) . Therefore the possible implications of two people having nearly identical mana was also unknown. (I imagine that the group around Gibe Grausam would have known the technique as they used it for the body doubles , but they, of course knew about nothing about Rozemyne other then 'filthy commoner'). It seems also not really known that commoners have 'grey' mana . So I assume for most of the series Ferdinand and Co assumed that Myne was simply born omnielemential for some reason and had no reason what so ever do doubt this theory. Because of this, I imagine, that it will not have occurred to them to even try to test for a close enough compatibility (completely different origin after all), even if such a test would exist. It is mentioned that children using the juverne of the parents is considered a emergency measure after all.

For a moment I was flabbergasted about how they skipped the whole medical examination until it popped up right after. Think they handled the explanation of the jureve well and glad they added that small scene. Was happy to see the blood on the feybeast, and the others eat it as well. The first three seasons avoided showing anything too dark despite how horrifying stuff can be in the LN, but this didn’t hold back and goes to show just how dark the series can be. Which is good since it means hopefully they won’t hold back come another certain event in Part 3. Didn’t like how they animated the feybeast taking the ruelle though. Could have sword she drops it in the light novels upon being scared by the feybeast, but here it took it from her while she is in Lessy. That after credits scene was a treat for LN readers 😂

It’s more of tsuntsuntsuntsuntsun tsuntsuntsuntsuntsun tsuntsuntsuntsuntsun tsuntsuntsuntsuntsun tsuntsuntsuntsuntsun tsuntsuntsuntsuntsun tsuntsuntsuntsuntsun tsuntsuntsuntsuntsun tsuntsuntsuntsuntsun tsuntsuntsuntsuntsun tsuntsuntsuntsuntsun tsuntsuntsuntsuntsun tsuntsuntsuntsuntsun tsuntsuntsuntsuntsun tsuntsuntsuntsuntsun tsuntsuntsuntsuntsun - dere. At the very least, she doesn’t dislike it. But she definitely likes ditter a bit more than the average noble (of course except for Dunkelfelgerians). 

So they're sticking with Eustachius as the spelling I see, hahahaha. Oh well, I look forward to his chaos. I will say I'm impressed with how they adapted the scene with Rozemyne's hardened mana, as well as their explanation for how the jureve works. Man, the mayor is just continuously digging his grave. Oh well. Lessy front and center of all the other highbeasts is absolutely hilarious. This is the first time I've noticed it so I'm not sure if it's been like this the entire season, but doesn't Rozemyne's ring look slightly different? Maybe it's the angle?