The community of manga enthusiasts was surprised when the announcement of the return of the popular manga written and illustrated by Kore Yamazaki“The Ancient Magus’ Bride (Mahoutsukai no Yome)”, was accompanied by other equally relevant news: The work will be released simultaneously in Japanese and English thanks to an immediate translation by Mantra, an artificial intelligence (AI).
According to the press release, “Mantra” AI-assisted translation system combines its unique machine translation technology with the intervention of professional editors and proofreaders. This hybrid approach where human involvement is considerably reduced seeks to harness the efficiency of AI while ensuring the quality and fidelity of the translation.
It is mentioned that the manga industry has suffered continuous and considerable damage due to online piracy and illegal translations into English, so The initiative seeks to ensure that AI-assisted translation makes fans opt for official translations now that they will be available much faster.
While the reasons sound quite understandable for the manga industry, from the point of view of saving on salaries for translators and reducing the wait time for official manga translations, Some have considered that removing the “human factor” could lead to unreliable translations of the source material. Although some point out that it is the same as when using Google Translate to translate manga (something that is quite noticeable when the sentences do not make sense), in this case The statement mentions that the human factor has not been completely eliminatedbut now the translators will only be in charge of reviewing the AI’s work and making corrections if necessary.
Of course, this greatly reduces the translators’ responsibilities, but will it also reduce their salaries? This situation is what has sparked a wide debate in the comment forums, with people for and against the introduction of AI in this market:
- «“In this innovative initiative, we have combined our unique machine translation technology with proofreading by professional translators using Mantra Engine” I hope at least this part is true. They say translator efficiency is halved, but people are rightly skeptical».
- «I had a feeling this was going to start happening. The future of translators does not seem very promising».
- «It’s sad, but most of the translation, editing and lettering jobs for manga, light novels, etc. They will almost certainly be replaced by AI in the coming years, because the general public values the speed of publication much more than its quality. AI translation gets some things wrong, sure, but it can produce pretty decent-sounding sentences. Most readers in this market don’t notice small errors, much less the difference between well-thought-out prose and clumsy diction. (In fact, any degree of creativity in translation is automatically considered “unauthentic” by a large portion of the online public. From now on they will probably get all the fancy writing they can ask for.)».
- «In the best case scenario, within a decade, companies could keep a couple of freelancers as “translation quality control” staff (very poorly paid) to detect any major failures. (In an even more cynical scenario, they could simply rely on the network’s most die-hard fans to spot the biggest bugs for them. Give them “10 points” on their app.)».
- «The sad thing is that I can see all this happening. With the general trend towards digital media, it could easily be positioned as one of the beneficial digital versions that do not need reprinting, and the AI translator could immediately spit out alternatives to plug into it».
- «I’m not surprised by this shit. Even Manga Plus is doing it with its less relevant series. I would rather read pirated translators again than a translation made by a machine not familiar with the work».
- «I refuse to touch any publication that I know uses machine translation. It’s an insult to hard-working translators who are already treated like trash.».
- «As a professional translator, I find this very disconcerting. I really don’t see how AI can pick up on the nuances of language or an author’s intent. I often have to read between the lines, but how can AI do it? Translators also need a constant flow of work to pay the bills. Have any freelancers lost a job because Magus Bride switched to AI?»
- «I think that has nothing to do with it, since we have seen many official translations that made many mistakes or that purposely chose to edit/censor a series or make very strange localizations in a conservative way. The argument of the nuances of the language does not work very well. well when official translations do not respect the language itself and make very questionable decisions. And if quality is not the issue, it will come down purely to cost and what is cheapest for the company. I don’t care who or what translates a series, as long as it’s a good translation».
- «Ask any translator and they will tell you that “correcting” a machine-translated work requires just as much work as doing it yourself, if not more. They still have to read Japanese to make sure that the things the software can’t pick up, like all the unspoken ambiguities that the Japanese language and culture is literally known for, are handled correctly. They have to make sure things read well in English, often wholesale rewriting the output to correct clunky prose. And yet, they charge less to “correct”».
- «I value quality more than speed, but the quality we currently have is not very good either, so changing to machines couldn’t be worse and the company ends up saving money. Maybe a machine won’t substitute Japanese idol terms for K-Pop terms, like when I see an official translation change “oshi” to “stan” and I cringe. Or worse… when I see Twitch chat slang in official translations like “poggers.” I prefer stilted English to that any day of the week.».
- «It’s also worth noting that “speed vs quality” is a false dichotomy to begin with. Viz has been making simulpubs of dozens of series at a time for years, all with dedicated human translators and letterers doing their jobs as usual, and without even resorting to low-cost/quality translation companies like Media Do or MediBang. If the publisher wants to do daily simulpubs for this series, it is absolutely feasible to do it the traditional way; it just requires a more thoughtful logistical process than putting the dialogues into an MTL program and forcing someone else to make the results presentable.».
- «I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to translate something with Google Translate or DeepL: it’s still extremely crude. I have no reason to believe that this random company has some special sauce that is better than what much larger companies have to offer after 10+ years of perfecting. As someone who has translated quite a bit of anime and manga, it won’t be a good translation. By its very nature, it cannot be uniform».
- «There are too many nuances, and especially Japanese is very context-based. Not to mention “character voice,” where the same sentences in Japanese are spelled differently in English depending on who is saying them. Or how certain words in Japanese convey a feeling that can be one of up to a dozen different words in English. So choosing the right one is important, or several can be interchangeable and used in cycles to avoid repetitive phrases etc. The only explanation is that a third party offered to perform the services cheaper or allowed the publisher to subcontract them.».
Fountain: Twitter
