ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND THE JAPANESE: Manga for new audiences / Finding the right voice to create perfect dialogue
Translators play a key role in promoting manga overseas, helping fans abroad share the excitement that their Japanese counterparts feel when they read the original. one of the few Japanese manga translators who translate into English is Tomo Kimura, who has worked on more than 220 books that have been published in the United States.
A freelance manga translator, Kimura started her first translation project in 2004. Her specialty is primarily the shojo manga genre, or manga for girls.
Her current projects include popular titles such as Yoshiki Nakamura’s “Skip Beat!” — a story about the world of showbiz — and Yana Toboso’s “Black Butler” (“Kuroshitsuji” in Japanese), which is set in Victorian-era Britain. For “Black Butler,” Kimura’s translation work has allowed fans overseas to read the latest episodes online in English on the same day they’re released in Japan.
“Essentially, because of the time difference, I have half a day to work on it,” she said during a recent interview with The Japan News.
Kimura said she can race against time because she’s translated “Black Butler” for a decade now. She understands the setting and characters to such an extent that she “can fix the translations [for characters’ lines] without thinking much at all.” (206 words)
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