Seems Good Enough to Me!

In thinking about making a post or two to my journal about manga, I remembered I had been thinking about the topic before but not got around to saying anything. Well before that, I did take note of how the Genshiken continuation was going to be released in English, but had to balance my interest in that with the complaints of others about how Kodansha comics, since taking over from Del Rey, seemed uncaring about the quality of its work. Things were that much stickier in that I'd happened into reading "scanlations" of the manga chapters as they were released, translated by a fan who could make the dialogue lively instead of leaden. Buying a "localised" release (and not reading it) in an attempt to make up for sticking with fan translations doesn't seem to be talked about quite as much as importing the Japanese originals (to be read or not). Still, I did try to hope.

When the first volume of the continued series did show up in my local bookstore, I bought it and started into it with just a bit of uncertainty. Soon enough, though, it did seem to be winning me over. The dialogue was good in its own way, and didn't seem to be glossing things over for whatever reason; I even stopped worrying about the dire breath of possibility the art just might be retouched...

I suppose that in comparing the two translations, I wound up with something of a "six of one, half a dozen of the other" feeling as to what I preferred. At the same time, seeming to prefer the fan translation for the last chapter in the manga volume might have left the faintest of shadows. Still, I'm interested in seeing the next volume when it comes out, to continue the story of the new fans and the old fans (some of whom have taken on larger roles in the latest fan-translated chapters, to be certain...)