Precisely three years after the animated adaptation first graced televisions and monitors the world over, the original The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya light novel1 is being released in English. But this isn’t the first time that English speakers have been able to read a copy in their native tongue.
As I’m sure many of you will know, the now-legendary animated adaptation of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya received a really rather spiffing English-language fan translation by a group known simply as “a.f.k.” way back when it was originally broadcast in Spring 2006. What many of you may not know is that the text of the first Haruhi book (and the first couple of chapters of the second one) was also given a full fan translation by the very same people.
At the end of the final fansubbed episode, the members of a.f.k. were credited. It seems that the mastermind behind this adaptation is a fellow who goes by the handle “Strato”, who we can assume was also responsible for the similar novel translation, which could be viewed on a website linked to in the credits. Ever since North American publishing house Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (a division of the Hachette Book Group) announced that they had the license to publish an English edition, the a.f.k. translation has been removed from the website and replaced with a message promoting the upcoming release. And this is all well and good: once an English-language license has been announced, the unofficial translation is often voluntarily removed from circulation.
From the end of Haruhi Episode 14. Note the credits on the bottom-left and the URL on the bottom-right.
Now, with the finished product just hours away (at time of writing) from official release, some lucky folk have received their copies early. As I’m still waiting for mine to be posted, I have to make do with a free promotional excerpt being offered on the official website. Giving it a read, I notice that it’s quite similar to the a.f.k. version I read a while back. Very similar, in fact. Hey, I recognise that line! I think to myself. Those idioms, that writing style… They didn’t, did they?
They did. Barring some cosmetic changes and an amount of copy-editing, the official English-language release of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya uses a.f.k.’s fan-produced translation.
Here's the opening text from the sample on the Hachette Book Group website…
…and here's a.f.k.'s translation of the same. Bear in mind that this edition was released in June 2006, nearly three years before the English print version.
It’s not quite word-for-word, but the similarities are undeniable. Although translations of the same work, by their nature, are inevitably going to be similar, this one’s just too uncanny to be pure coincidence. They even use the same backronym for “SOS Brigade” that a.f.k. used (the “Save the World by Overloading it with Fun Haruhi Suzumiya’s Brigade”) as opposed to the (in my opinion, superior) translation from the anime adaptation’s English DVD release (the “Spreading Excitement All Over the World with Haruhi Suzumiya Brigade”). As I said, I don’t have the full, finished product to hand, but the people that I’ve discussed this with on Twitter who do have the novel agree that they’ve got to be the same translation.
So, does this mean that Hachette are making a dirty profit from the sweat of a fan’s brow? I don’t think so. In this day and age of Internet Vigilantism, a publisher would never try and pull something like this off; they’d be found out immediately. This very post is proof of that. No, it’s much more likely that Strato himself (or at least his translation) was brought into the project with his full consent, and was edited for accuracy and readability as such. This appears to be the current consensus, anyway. It’s all speculation at this point, but it makes sense: The link from the Haruhi episode mentioned earlier now leads to a short “press release” which notes that someone named Joe Monti (who may or may not be a member of a.f.k.) will be overseeing the program. I reckon that if the time was taken to credit that person on that particular website, then he ought to be involved with the group somehow. I’ll update if any new details come to light.
For the sake of comparison, the original a.f.k. novel translations can still be found on the Internet Archive (and the Hachette sample to compare it to can, at time of writing, be found in PDF form on their website). If you’re still not convinced, try comparing both editions to the (in my opinion, inferior) fan translation at Baka-Tsuki; by looking at this edition, you can see just how divergent different translations can be.
This being that sort of blog, however, I am obliged to stress that you really ought to go out and buy a copy of the book (or at least rent it, if your local library’s “hip” enough) if you want to read it. The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is released on the 1st of April in the USA in both paperback and hardback editions. I expect that your local import comics retailer should have it in stock shortly; elsewise, try RightStuf (noting the US$10 international postage) or Amazon.
Many thanks to my Twitter followers—particularly @animealmanac and @animevice—for helping me with my research. I’d've liked to’ve included the original conversation here, but WordPress got confused with all of those <span>s I got from copying and pasting the individual tweets. There’s probably a better way. One day I’ll learn what it is and then update the post accordingly.
- Light novels are, in general, quick-and-easy reads aimed at the sort of person who does not read a lot of books but who is into anime, manga and the general fandom—not unlike myself, in fact. As such, these books are often (if not usually) based on—or adapted into—manga, video games and animated series. Although printed to a cheaper standard than mainstream books, light novels are not necessarily synonymous with Western pulp literature, but there is a great degree of similarity: Like pulp magazines, light novels are commonly serialised in periodicals such as The Sneaker. [↩]
The licensor paid the original publisher for the right to publish that work. They went through the proper channels, and did things the legal way. The fan work you refer to is a criminal activity. Japan signed the Berne Convention. This thief knows they are stealing the intellectual property of someone else. That’s why they use an alias. They exploited the original creator’s work without permission or compensation to them. Taking it down once it’s published doesn’t make it right. It’s still out there, saved on hard drives like yours, and already consumed by many potential buyers who now have no reason to buy.
Strato does not deserve to have their work respected. They did not respect the rights of the original publisher or creator. If the licensing publisher can scrounge any useful material from the criminal’s work, more power to them. Any reduction this causes to their translation costs is outweighed by the sales they will lose due to Strato’s piracy.
Clearly, the publisher thought that his work deserves to be respected. Otherwise, they wouldn’t've used his translation.
Two translations of the same work being similar?
Great scott!
@Yves: GTFO of my internets
Yves: I can’t speak on the legality of the matter, but you’re dead wrong about fan translations killing at least my desire to purchase a hard copy to own. Despite reading all the novels translated by Baka-Tsuki, I’ve been waiting anxiously for the english releases to come out for a variety of reasons.
Firstly, the translation, which as said above, is suspect in a variety of areas from that particular group. This is not entirely surprising with the wiki method of translation/editing they employ. Secondly, reading on a monitor or hand held device is not ideal no matter how you look at it. There is something about holding a book that will probably never be replaced, even with e-paper technology like the Kindle becoming significantly better. Lastly, I’m just a huge fan of the series. I want to see them make money on this, because I honestly think the series deserves it, and I actually support the things I like with my wallet.
In my opinion, the real damage is not done from the fan translations (especially relatively obscure things like light novels), but from the companies who license these novels and then butcher them in the name of mass marketing, like Shakugan no Shana. The books had a terrible translation, and after the edits, read like they were made for children. What do you know, they failed to sell and future volumes got cancelled after book 2.
I will be ecstatic if they really used the fan translation for Suzumiya Haruhi, because it will mean it’s actually worth buying and reading again, rather than being another in a long line of disappointments from english publishers. I hope not only used it, but hired the fan translator to do the job for them, because then there’s someone with passion for the series and the common sense to leave the content the way it was written on the job.
Just to clarify a couple facts in your interesting article. Strato is not the “leader” of afk and he has been out of the fan translation world for over two years. More than likely, he turned pro (he always was of a professional level) and landed the official novel translation contract on the merits of his actual skills.
He wouldn’t be the first, and certainly not the last, fan translator to go pro. I would call this a non-story.
I don’t think similarities to the AFK TL really prove much. It was the popular TL, the official R1s were pretty lousy and quickly forgotten. If I was the TL I would’ve used their terminology too.
Strato’s last fansub release (Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou 4) was just over a year ago, not two.
It’s been publicly available information for well over the past year that the novels were going to be based on the fan translations.
It’s Strato. Duh? A legit publishing company like Yen Press (and Little, Brown) wouldn’t risk a potential lawsuit when they can just hire the guy. I’m with Karl. A non-story. One of those good ones.
@Yves
I’m going to have to agree with HawkEye on this matter. While fan translations of light novels, scanlations, and scanlations are all undoubtedly illegal, it does provide a whole lot of free advertising. I certainly wouldn’t be able to read a fraction of the manga that I do read simply because it isn’t available in my area/is yet to be released in the U.S. Because of scanlations, I am able to become a fan of things I probably never would’ve otherwise seen, and when I love something, you can bet I buy it. (I own an obscene amount of manga…) While not all fans go out and purchase the product when it is finally, (if ever), released in their area, they do spread word of mouth towards other potential buyers. Not to mention, companies can see the popularity of unlicensed material that has become well-known via illegal fan translation and thus decide to license it. So while the whole deal is illegal, I don’t think it’s been hurting anyone too much, if the recent boom for love of anything Japanese over here in the U.S. is anything to go by.
Anyway, I’m very excited to hear about the official release, and will be buying ASAP.
After I read the Strato translation of the light novel I was so extatic I pre-ordered 3 copies of the light novel 1 hardback and 2 paperbacks. One of each for me and another to loan out and force my friends to read.
I got old copies of the Strato translation on hand and side by side line by line it is almost the exact same. This is by no means a bad think Strato and a.f.k.’s work in general is considered gospel among fans on the internet myself included so I couldn’t be happier with the situation so long as everyone got their just deserts.
For those that think it is natural for 2 translations of the same work to sound the same then I urge you to compare BakaTsuki’s translation of the novels. There are 2 extremes in translation the “literal” and “correct” and Strato is somewhere inbetween both. There are always debates and “fansub” drama between the two schools of thought and when 2 translators look at the same script it is rarely alike let alone almost line-per-line similar.
Japanese doesn’t have English 1:1 equivelents and their sentence strcuture is different so a lot is held in the editor and translator’s judgment. I do typesetting in doujin scanlations and one of my translator friends used to be an editor for BakaTsuki and from the stories I have heard when you put 5 people who know Japanese in the same room, reading the same script, and tell them to turn it into English all 5 will have a different approach. Partly the reason he quit was ’cause that translation drama and the enternal “literal” or “correct” debate.
Hello!
In regards to Baka-Tsuki, We certainly do not deny that our Translations are not of \professional\ quality.
But at the same we actively cultivate our \Fan Quality\ as we value our translation community as we like to focus more on the ability to promote Japanese light novels to the wider community then to actually aim for any sense of professional quality.
As we feel this will undermine the desire to see an official release and quality gap between an employed paid professional translators and a weekend hobby novice.
We applaud A.F.K/Stratos achievement to advance to professional status and we all admired his accurate translation at Baka-Tsuki and hope some of our own home grown Translators will find the interest of Japanese though our translated novels to take it to the next level and graduate to a more professional source and perhaps a career.
Please continue to support Baka-Tsuki as we hope to bring more word worth Japanese Novel to surface of popular Japan eccentric culture to the western world……..beyond!
best regards,
Onizuka-GTO
(Editor-in-Chief of Baka-Tsuki.org)
I’m not a 100% percent sold on the novel translation excerpts. Given how they both come from the same source, similarities are expected to show up. And the whole idea behind the “SOS Brigade” backronym being the same, it can be argued that Little Brown, being aware of the existence of this fan translations, decided to use one that fans are most familiar with. I can certainly say that I am more familiar with afk’s than Bandai’s (was it them?). With that being said, the possibility of Mr Strato going pro could very well be true.
And Yves is a faggot for not realizing that Strato’s work is the kind we need for fans who don’t know whether the series will be translated for them.