27-year-old Dan Luffey essentially knew he would be going to Japan to translate works there since his days as a kid. Born in Pennsylvania but growing up in California, after going to Japan as a high school student he ended up loving his time in Japan. So much so that he attended Kyoto University. Yes, he’s been in Japan for a long time. That’s why he thinks Tokyo people can be kind of standoffish whenever he takes a trip there. “Tokyo’s a big city,” he says as he rationalizes why the place has some issues. “Trains are really crowded, and people are just trying to get from one place to another…”
In all seriousness, he loves the place. He also loves translating, which is something that developed back when he was growing up and finding out about video games from Japan. He discusses that while also talking about the unfortunate situation with MangaReborn, the state of manga in Japan, and translation challenges.
(Ed. Note: While speaking I flubbed Shuho Sato’s name later on in the interview. I’m very good at this aren’t I…)
Organization ASG: How did you discover manga? Did you discover manga before or after you went to Japan?
Dan Luffey: I had always been into video games since I was a child and I think I discovered manga as an off-shoot from that and I mean, the choices were very limited in English. But Viz was putting out some stuff, I had Ranma in English, really nice English editions but they were really expensive, I think they were $15 bucks a pop. Those were the premium copies. I think when I was in middle school Viz started releasing like, American styled comic book issues of Dragonball, and those were pretty fun to buy because they would put two chapters in one comic book and at the end they would have like a mailbag section and a fanart section, like classic American comic book style.
Anyway, I got interested in manga that way, and when I went to Japan, obviously all of a sudden there was a ton at my disposal so I would buy used manga really cheap at used bookstores, bring it home and used it to study.
OASG: Was manga or was video games, considering you mentioned there was a limited amount released in English, was that one of the reasons you decided to become a translator, or was there other reasons?
Dan: So I originally started translating as a way to study, and I also felt that if I tried to translate some manga that I really liked I would gain a deeper understanding of the manga, which I did, but then as I did it, I realized that I enjoyed it. I’ve always enjoyed creative writing, but translating was sort of like a marriage of creative writing and Japanese, two things I was really interested in. So it was the perfect combination and unlike other vocations and other jobs, I could translate something everyday and I never really could get tired of it and it was the job I really enjoyed doing. So I decided I wanted to try and make it into a profession. So for many years I did it pro bono for online stuff and just tried to work my way into any translation work.
OASG: Can you name me a few things you were doing to make sure you could translate Japanese at a high level?
Dan: Well at the beginning I couldn’t. I was very inexperienced both in Japanese and in sort of translation skill. I needed a lot of work, but I was always very open to constructive criticism, I was always trying to get better, so after years and years of translating thousands of manga chapters I got better. I think one of the important things to do is don’t stop reading things in English. I’ve always tried to read books or even articles written by people well esteemed in terms of their style and vocabulary, the mode of expression they use, because I think that helps you become a better translator.
OASG: Would that be considered translation skill?
Dan: First of all, there’s English skill — your style, your composition, vocabulary usage — and then there’s how you look at something in Japanese, how you sort of interpret that in your mind, and how you go about putting that into English. I think those two are deeply related but they’re also separate, so you increase your English skill by reading well written English and studying technique, and you increase your sort of analytical skill by reading lots of Japanese, so much that you gain a deeper understanding of Japanese style. When an author or writer constructs a sentence this way, you know he’s trying to put emphasis on this, or he wants to try and create this sort of atmosphere. This will allow you to create a better English sentence I think.
OASG: How did you get the opportunity to translate manga professionally?
Dan: In Japan there are many translation companies that employ mainly project managers who deal with Japanese clients, whether it’s for video games, manga, TV, or all kinds of stuff, and when they get really busy they’ll hire part time translators to handle certain projects. And by living in Japan and going out and meeting other translators and expanding my own network, I just naturally found these sorts of places where I could apply to be a translator and they would give me a translation test. If you pass the test, they’ll give you some work. And that’s how I started getting into professional translation.
OASG: How have you seen the manga industry since you started translating professionally?
Dan: Ok so one thing real quick — I lost my job in January. I was working full-time for MangaReborn, but the company that owns MangaReborn is taking things in a different direction, and didn’t need a full-time translator anymore, so I actually stopped working with them. So I’m not a full-time manga translator anymore, right now I’m mostly doing translation work for a video game company.
But, in terms of how the manga industry’s changed, I think these days, at least in Japan, a lot of emphasis is putting manga for cell phones, and there are a lot of apps that you can download that will let you read part of the manga, or pieces of manga chapters for free, and a lot of Japanese people like that. Just everywhere you go, trains, cafes, you’ll see people reading manga on their cell phones. And they may not be able to read the whole manga, but in some cases just reading one chapter, if they have a few minutes and they’re waiting for their coffee to come, that’s enough for them. So I think a lot of companies that are into digital content or related to manga are really trying to push out low cost manga that can easily be created that caters to a certain fixed genre, and that will give these people their quick fixes that they need. So it’s a lot different than when traditional manga was.
OASG: Like right now I’ve been using this app called MangaBox. I think that’s kind of doing decently as far as I know. That would be one example.
Dan: What do you think of the quality of the manga on MangaBox?
OASG: Some of it is good, some of it is horrible — I mean there’s gonna be titles you like and titles you don’t like — but in terms of translation, lettering, some of it I can tell can be pretty bad, but then others maybe not so much.
Dan: They must be hiring different people for different projects.
OASG: Yeah, they’re relying on translation services to translate some of the manga there.
But yeah, the MangaReborn news, I know you’ve done a lot of work there, so I wanted to ask you how was it like to work with them and what was your perception of the site?
Dan: Well I think in theory MangaReborn is great because what it’s trying to do is take out the middleman, take out the publishers, and focus on connecting with Japanese manga artists and authors with foreign people and foreign fans. I guess the problem was they needed a dedicated PR and marketing person. But they couldn’t find someone like that…I think maybe the approach they took could have used some…adjustments. But the unique thing about MangaReborn is that you see all these other digital manga sites that mainly have recently made manga, manga made specifically for digital release or that’s been past several years by up and coming authors; most of the manga on MangaReborn is actually old manga from the 90’s, 80’s, even before that, which I think is pretty unique. And I’ve translated a lot of it, and I think there are some even series that are completely free to read. There’s an old Jump action manga called Black Angels, which I think is completely free to read. (Ed. NOTE: First chapter is free)
So there’s some really good series on the site if you’re into classic manga, but ultimately it didn’t catch on, people weren’t really interested in it. I guess the average manga reader is looking for something new and fresh I guess.
OASG: On MangaReborn, you translated a few of Shuho Sato’s works, correct?
Dan: Yeah I translated the continuation of Black Jack, I also translated Umizaru, or Sea Monkeys.
OASG: I also believe you translated Manga Poverty, correct?
Dan: Yes, Manga Poverty, his book on the manga industry, I also translated about 50 entries of his autobiography blog, which he just writes in candid detail his career, how he made his way into a pretty popular manga author, it’s a really interesting story, and I really enjoyed translating it, I wish more people would read it because it tells you just what it’s like to be this no name manga assistant and all the stuff you have to go through to really get a chance to prove yourself. It’s a really great story.
OASG: Is that what you mostly learned from translating those posts, and the Manga Poverty work, or did you learn anything else that you might not have known before?
Dan: So his blog really talks about what it’s like to be a manga artist and sort of like a personal account of the industry. Manga Poverty details sort of overview on how the manga industry works, and what sort of problems it’s facing, and towards the end of the book he talks about starting up his own manga distribution site, Manga on Web, and the problems he encountered doing that, and how he’s making it work. So it’s really more of a study rather than his personal account.
What I learned…wow. A lot! Just sort of how…man, I can’t even start…
OASG: Well I guess compared to when you started translating manga what was your perception of manga artists and their work?
Dan: Well, I’ve always had trouble understanding why certain things are so popular vs more unknown manga or stuff that goes under the radar that people that are really trying to push the medium of manga itself. I guess it’s like the same thing with TV and movies, there’s always going to be a certain demand for an action movie, sitcoms…there are types of manga that people are always gonna want, like romance manga, slightly perverted manga, so even if it’s not really doing something new, it will still find an audience.
But when I was doing this as just a hobby, I didn’t have any information on how the industry worked, how publishers operated, why they chose certain manga over others, what their stance on translations were, all that sort of stuff. I didn’t really have any sort of educated opinion on it. I was really just focused on finding manga that was really cool, and put that into English so other people can enjoy it.
OASG: What’s been the most challenging manga you’ve had to translate and why?
Dan: I think, in a way, the most challenging manga I’ve had to translate is the manga that I find the most boring. If I’m working on a manga that I really have no interest in, where I feel, “Oh, this is so boring,” this lets me know there’s no entertainment value here. Translating one page of that can take me longer than translating 10 pages of manga that I’m really interested in, because it’s so hard to concentrate on it. And then, on top of that, it’s a manga that’s not only really boring, but there are tons of text bubbles, where there’s a lot of words but they’re not really saying anything? Those are the worst. Those can really tire me out.
One manga I did translate as a hobby that really gave me a run for my money was Moyashimon.
OASG: *laughs*
Dan: You read that?
OASG: I read a volume of it.
Dan: That manga is…ugh…it’s like an encyclopedia of bacterial science, and there are tons of text bubbles and lots of them are filled with technical information, so that one was really tough.
OASG: But you translated most of it right?
Dan: Actually I translated two volumes of it, which is quite a bit. Has that whole thing been released yet? I think some company started it and then they like gave up?
OASG: Del Rey. I don’t know if they was making enough money, or maybe like you, it was too much of a translation thing, there’s so much to translate.
Dan: And it takes a long time to translate, which means a lot of money, probably just cost wise it didn’t make sense for them to translate any more of it I guess. Which is a shame, because it’s a really interesting manga, I like the art and I think the stories are really interesting, but…woof! It can tire you out!
OASG: What’s been the most rewarding manga you’ve translated?
Dan: Two projects that I did as a hobby really, I still consider those to be highlights of my career. Just by how much I enjoyed them and how much people responded to them — they’re just great manga and I was happy to get a chance to translate them. The first is Riki-Oh, there’s this really famous Chinese action movie that was based off this manga, it’s just a really insane action manga, but the story is so crazy, it’s just so much fun. The other manga is Fourteen by Kazuo Umeno, it’s another bizarre sci-fi manga, but I had a lot of fun translating those, and I think those are great, masterpieces of manga.
When I was working for MangaReborn, doing Black Angels was great because that’s a Jump manga that started around the time of Fist of The North Star, so it’s really one of the forefathers of all the famous action manga in Jump that we all know today like Bleach, Naruto, all that stuff. I mean when those authors were kids, this was the kind of stuff they were reading, and you can see a lot of the staples of the genre that’s been sort of started with Black Angels, so translating that was really fun. Also working on Shuho Sato’s Black Jack was great, but actually working on the continuation, I think that’s a better manga than the original, because when he was writing the continuation he had more freedom, he didn’t have editors changing his scripts without permission, so he really had a chance to perfect his own vision of what he wanted to express, so I really recommend the continuation if you liked the original.
OASG: Final question: what’s upcoming for you this year?
Dan: I’m actually translating a light novel right now. I don’t know when it’s gonna be released, but it’s a fairly atypical as far as LNs go. It’s about archeology…it’s very unique so I’m having fun working on that. I’m also working with Access Games, I’ve been working with them for several years on this video game. Last year it was released for Xbox One, and this year in three more weeks they’re gonna release it on the PC, so I’m really excited a lot more people will get to play it now, I think it’s a really great game.
