Talk:Mafia Community (Hunter × Hunter)

Translation Issues

I haven't been around too often due to personal issues, but I thought I would drop in and address some translation errors with the Mafia community.

First off, the Inju is where it starts. The text used for "Inju" literally means (and reads) "Shadow Beasts" in Japanese. This is another one of those cases in which a term isn't translated by fans for...um, no reason. The same goes for all of the members though. If their names were written in Katakana, then the case would be completely different. But as it stands, the names should probably be translated. "Mimizu" literally means Earthworm, "Fukurou" literally means Owl, "Yama Inu" meaning Ill Dog, and "Yamaarashi" meaning Porcupine. These are likely not their actual names, but code names derived from the animal their powers are akin to.

Also, the Nostrade's are never referred to as a clan in the manga, but as a "family," as it is in actual Mafia communities. -Mr. Toto (talk) 03:56, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

Not really familiar with real-world Mafia terminologies, clan was used in all the old old old scanlations. I just checked, and Togashi uses Kumi, the Yakuza group term, but actually adds the furigana "フアミリー". Family it is.

As for the names, well, names just aren't or shouldn't be literally translated. Example off the top of my head, if a Japanese girl is named Sakura in some manga, the English version isn't going to call her Cherry Blossom.

-Zyrxil (talk) 05:11, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

Those aren't their actual names though--aren't those aliases? Aside from that, the kanji the names are written with are specifically referential to the animal itself--it's not written with a typical name format. Furthermore, the scanlation those names are referenced from is laden with translation errors. I'm not exactly sure it's very trustworthy when there are so many mistakes. -Mr. Toto (talk) 01:50, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

Yeah, the old Manga-Section scanlations aren't great quality at all. I think they scanlated from the French version too. I went back and checked, you're right, they're not written in name format. I changed them, though you'll have to do correct the English to what Viz named them. Still, I have to say, they fail the #1 demand of code names for fictional characters: they don't sound cool. In fact, "The English doesn't sound cool" is an excellent reason for not translating things like long complicated super abilities (in other media I mean, seeing as HxH has English names for abilities). -Zyrxil (talk) 15:40, 7 April 2008 (UTC)