Manga Thoughts: Little Witch Academia 1
Aug. 12th, 2018 12:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
krpalmerI liked the "magical school" anime series Little Witch Academia enough that when I heard the manga based on it was being licensed over here, I took some interest in that spinoff as well. This might have had something to do with the anime's "streaming on Netflix" situation adding to some personal uncertainty about whether it'll ever be available for sale on disc here, though (short of the conspicuous consumption of importing from Japan, of course). I'm a bit prone to repeating a stock potential criticism of "manga based on anime," and might have thought a bit about "rolling the dice" again.
However, one seemingly positive look at the manga did get my attention, and I wound up looking for it in my area bookstore. Having heard Yen Press was releasing it under a special imprint marketed towards younger readers, I went straight to the section where "manga for teens" is shelved, which I don't check quite as often as the manga section in between "domestic graphic novels" and "science fiction and fantasy." When I didn't see the title there (among a good many series from Viz most of which I'll admit to brushing by in the past), though, I checked the store's computer catalog only to see it was supposed to have copies available. When asked about this, a store clerk pointed me to a third section with graphic novel titles for preteens. I suppose I did wonder as I bought a copy of the volume if its translated dialogue would read differently from your average manga.
As I started reading, though, I didn't notice much of that. I was more impressed by the liveliness of Keisuke Sato's art, a firm answer to one thing that can add to the stock potential criticism. Where I might have formed the impression beforehand the manga was entirely "side stories" to the anime, however, it did start with an adaptation of the first episode that got its enthusiasm-over-talent main character Akko to the magical school and introduced her roommates Sucy and Lotte (and also managed to casually establish a different continuity than the OVAs that had first caught everyone's attention) before getting to the side story content. While these stories might have had a certain air of casually invoking events presumably familiar from the anime as they got under way, this again dodged another part of the stock potential criticism, namely everything coming across as a boiled-down take on things already seen.
One thing I did notice about this manga presumably aimed straight at younger readers was how the Japanese sound effects were being translated. Viz seems to have enough of a budget to still retouch the characters into English representations, but other companies usually add translations in tiny letters. This just may give an impression of "the volume's turned down," but it's at least better to me than not translating them at all (as Tokyopop did when first pushing "unmirrored manga") or having to flip to a glossary at the back of the volume (as Viz does seem to do with its most prestigious titles). Yen Press, however, usually adds translations that seem more direct representations of Japanese onomatopoeia, and only offers a further translation into more instantly graspable English versions about once a page or so. This can seem to turn the volume down still further for me, but with this manga the "further translation" seemed the default used. It was a small thing, but it could have added to the positivity I had and my interest in seeing things pick up after this volume's cliffhanger.
However, one seemingly positive look at the manga did get my attention, and I wound up looking for it in my area bookstore. Having heard Yen Press was releasing it under a special imprint marketed towards younger readers, I went straight to the section where "manga for teens" is shelved, which I don't check quite as often as the manga section in between "domestic graphic novels" and "science fiction and fantasy." When I didn't see the title there (among a good many series from Viz most of which I'll admit to brushing by in the past), though, I checked the store's computer catalog only to see it was supposed to have copies available. When asked about this, a store clerk pointed me to a third section with graphic novel titles for preteens. I suppose I did wonder as I bought a copy of the volume if its translated dialogue would read differently from your average manga.
As I started reading, though, I didn't notice much of that. I was more impressed by the liveliness of Keisuke Sato's art, a firm answer to one thing that can add to the stock potential criticism. Where I might have formed the impression beforehand the manga was entirely "side stories" to the anime, however, it did start with an adaptation of the first episode that got its enthusiasm-over-talent main character Akko to the magical school and introduced her roommates Sucy and Lotte (and also managed to casually establish a different continuity than the OVAs that had first caught everyone's attention) before getting to the side story content. While these stories might have had a certain air of casually invoking events presumably familiar from the anime as they got under way, this again dodged another part of the stock potential criticism, namely everything coming across as a boiled-down take on things already seen.
One thing I did notice about this manga presumably aimed straight at younger readers was how the Japanese sound effects were being translated. Viz seems to have enough of a budget to still retouch the characters into English representations, but other companies usually add translations in tiny letters. This just may give an impression of "the volume's turned down," but it's at least better to me than not translating them at all (as Tokyopop did when first pushing "unmirrored manga") or having to flip to a glossary at the back of the volume (as Viz does seem to do with its most prestigious titles). Yen Press, however, usually adds translations that seem more direct representations of Japanese onomatopoeia, and only offers a further translation into more instantly graspable English versions about once a page or so. This can seem to turn the volume down still further for me, but with this manga the "further translation" seemed the default used. It was a small thing, but it could have added to the positivity I had and my interest in seeing things pick up after this volume's cliffhanger.