[RAILGUN] Tact's Notes on Railgun Volume 1

[Tactless]

Greetings. I am a proofreader of a certain site, and I am thankful that you, Seven Seas, are releasing this series in English.

It is because of this that I am compelled to provide my thoughts on your translation. Most will be phrased as questions, but the rest will be simple quips or nitpicks.

Chapter 1

Mikoto: Everything here is state-of-the-art, thirty years ahead of the rest of the...

Was the line supposed to trail off like that? I know it's supposed to finish off as "rest of the world", but it feels just a bit odd...

Mikoto: You could hear it all the way in the classrooms?

I was thinking of "all the way from the classrooms".

Kuroko: You're the Star of Tokiwadai!

Was the title rendered as "Star"? There might be a card motif hidden here if it was "Ace", considering that another known title in that place is "The Queen".

Kuroko: Dear God... What's with the face mask?

I didn't know that Kuroko believed in something while in a city that has no religious structures.

Kuroko: If you continue to resist, I will teleport them inside of your body.

I think "teleport them inside your body" flows better.

Chapter 2

Touma: I have no luck!!

Not "such misfortune"? Eh, I won't argue this.

Chapter 3

Mikoto: If someone did try and help a complete stranger...

"Try to help"?

Touma: She might look well bred, but she's hardly mature.

"Well-bred", maybe?

Chapter 4

Uiharu: God, Saten-san! There are boys here!!

Another believer. Huh.

Saten: I could show you mine by way of apology.

Maybe "show you mine as an apology"?

Saten: God, you work way too much.

Instance three of a believer.

Teacher: AIM stands for "An Involuntary Motion"...

As much as I like how you rendered this term, his and Komoe's Japanese VAs pronounced it as "An Involuntary Movement".

Mikoto: You know what? I hate it when magazines are in bags, and you can't just read them...

Referring to shrink-wrapped stuff?

Chapter 5

The main character of A Certain Magical Index.

Implying something here?

Chapter 6

She is a first year student at Academy City's prestigious Tokiwadai Middle School

"First-year"? "Freshman"?

Kawazaki
Domura Jintou
Morimoto Futari

Thanks for the names.

Chapter 7

Bald Thug: Who the hell do you think you are?

No comment.

Terminology

Regarding "psychic" being used to refer to those with powers (not complaining about "psychic training"), I'd like to hear your thoughts on this decision. I'm assuming you passed on "esper" for similar reasons.

Regarding "Level Zero/One/.../Five", was there a reason as to why they aren't rendered as "Level 0/1/.../5"? If it's because it's being spoken, I understand.

[Ashandorath]

I have nothing to do with 7seas, btw.

Regarding "Level Zero/One/.../Five", was there a reason as to why they aren't rendered as "Level 0/1/.../5"? If it's because it's being spoken, I understand.

In the anime they use the english words for the numbers (i.e. they actually say zero/one/two... instead of the japanese equivalent (rei/ichi/...)). So it's probably the same.

Kuroko: Dear God... What's with the face mask?

I didn't know that Kuroko believed in something while in a city that has no religious structures.

I'm an atheist and say things like "god damn it" etc. all the time.^^

The problem is some things can't be translated from one language to another easily, often because they don't make sense in a literal translation, or they aren't used as a curse word in the language you are translating to. cursing etc. is a good example where you have to improvise a bit.


esper actually has a very specific meaning, namely someone capable of esp, while psychic is broader.
technically, using esper to describe all the ability users would actually be incorrect.
Japanese has imported a bunch of foreign words, and the meaning has occasionally changed a bit. esper probably belongs to this group. (A good example would be the german word "Arbeit", which gets used as "beito", meaning "part-time job", while the german word means "work".)


Can't comment on the grammar complaints.

[Adam_Arnold]

Thanks for your comments, Tactless. Some of them are stylistic preferences, and some are indeed valid. Anyway, we hope the later volumes will meet your standards.

[Riccha]

Kuroko: Dear God... What's with the face mask?

I didn't know that Kuroko believed in something while in a city that has no religious structures.

I'm an atheist and say things like "god damn it" etc. all the time.^^

The problem is some things can't be translated from one language to another easily, often because they don't make sense in a literal translation, or they aren't used as a curse word in the language you are translating to. cursing etc. is a good example where you have to improvise a bit.

I'm also an atheist with a tendency to use phrases like 'Oh my god!', but I have to agree with Tact on this one. Science vs. Religion seems to be a big deal in the Index/Railgun universe, so I think that having characters on the science side of things referring to god seems odd.
Like you said, sometimes you have to improvise a bit... and I think that this is one of those cases.

I also agree with Tact that 'Ace' would probably work better than 'Star'. Other than that, I don't really mind either way with the rest.

[ProvidenceBreaker]

Considering Seven Seas doesn't participate in the this franchise's underground fandom, it is pretty unreasonable to expect them to know what interpretations are more generally accepted. I tried to get the Raildex crowd to participate in this process earlier, but they were too busy scoffing at the logo font to bother following the link to where they could have made preemptive suggestions. The translation is fine, and I'm sure it will improve in future volumes.