Examining the translation and scanlation of the manga naruto into Turkish from a translator’s perspective

Abstract

The collective power of Japanese popular culture permeating the rest of the world through manga and anime is a recent issue of interest for scholars. Studying the scanlation and translation of the manga, which are multimodal texts that hybridize linguistic and visual arts, also entails several topics of discussion and interest for the translation scholar. There are facets of these multimodal texts as in manga the narrative is conveyed through composite, cinematographic narrative with integrated frames. In turn these can yield interesting translation solutions and strategies, especially when compared in terms of the two mediums of production (i.e., in print and on the Internet). The following study entails a comparative analysis of the scanlation and translation of the manga Naruto into Turkish especially concentrating on: the format (i.e., arrangement of pages, lettering, typography), what was translated what was not (i.e., dialogues, onomatopoeia, honorifics, names), and the use of diverse translation strategies (i.e., adding notes, dealing with discourses, registers and translators choices). In this sense, as is the aim behind the study, manga translations present translation studies with rich grounds of research into multimodal, multicultural dialogue and interaction. As the potential for intercultural dialogue through comics has never been stronger than the present, manga seem to be a medium through which this may be achieved across cultures. Comparative studies in different languages and cultures would not only be a benefit for the comics’ translators and scholars, but also the field of translation, as discussing the abundance of decisions and possibilities would enrich the discipline.