H scenes excluded in translation?

[Erogamer]

Is it just me or are more and more translators refusing to translate H scenes? I do realize they don't have to translate anything, but if you are going to do a translation, do all or nothing. At least that is the way I see it. I do not know about other people, but I prefer having  my H scenes translated in the visual novels I read. I would rather wait for a translation project longer than to not have the entire thing translated.

[Zakamutt]

Practically every single translator (this may be a slight exaggeration) seems to find translating h a pain. Haven't exactly tried it myself, so can't comment lol.

 

I prefer them translated myself, but if you see enough you're likely to get jaded so there is that.

[Mephisto]

Translators all translate for their own reasons and H-scenes are boring to read and weird to translate, hence why many translators don't like translating them. 

[Steve]

Indeed, the quality of the H scene translation can be lower to still enjoy (since you don't usually pay that much attention to the text and focus on the images, voice and "the activity you are doing"), but there should at least be some translation to know if the girl is saying she likes or not and such.

[Erogamer]

@Mephisto that is your opinion. A lot of people enjoy reading the h scenes. Honestly, I would rather not have that person translate it and wait for someone else to come along who will translate the h scenes. Also, there are all ages visual novels available to translate if someone does not like doing h scenes.

[Erogamer]

@Steve Yes, there are things that can be said besides just moaning and sexual content. Things can be said that are actually important to the story line.

[Clephas]

It's a problem with the English language end of things.  Puritanical Christian influence results in disgusting slang and a lack of decent words and subtle terms that could serve as a counterpart to a lot of H scenes.  Thus, you are forced to use the disgusting terms, and most tls aren't interested in the H-scenes at all in the first place.  (also, Japanese fetishism is pretty reliant on mental aspects that generally aren't touched upon much in English sexual language).

[Erogamer]

My issue is, if this is going to be a rising trend in translation then I don't know if I will continue to have interest in visual novels. People and times change tho, so I am hoping it is just the opposite.

[Steve]

Well for me the important part of H-scene text is knowing how the girl is feeling, I can now pretty much understand that myself since I've played many Japanese only H-scenes.

Understanding that makes the fap so much better, especially if you have real feelings for the girl.

 

And usually translators do at least put some effort into that, even if the TL and editing quality is lower (as Clephas mentioned the English there isn't that refined in the first place), it is still possible to get the meaning.

 

So not sure what exactly is Erogamer referring to, sure translators say that H-scenes are pain in the ass to do but they do them in one way or another. Or do you know about projects that left the H-scenes completely untranslated?

[Clephas]

It isn't a 'rising trend'.  It has been there from the beginning.  Why do you think there are versions with the H-scenes cut out for Cross Channel and Tsukihime?  If anything, it is less of a trend than it was before.

[Kaguya]

I don't mind cutting H-scenes if they're just "rewards" and don't affect the story- then again, it's not like I dislike them or anything. I just find using VNs for that terribly ineffective. In fact, there have been more than one time where I started thinking about how embarassing and awkward must it be for the voice actors to do that and started laughing in the middle of an H-scene.

 

If they serve an actual purpose in the story, I think it's kinda bad, since I like reading the whole thing. Well, as Clephas said, I think it's actually less of a trend nowdays than in the past- it's just that more VNs are being tld lately, so it becomes apparent to most people. Eien no Aselia had H scenes and one entire route cut off from the translation because it featured too much H, for example.

[Erogamer]

@Steve, I am not going to give any names, but I have seen a couple translators/project teams lately consider or actually say they were not touching H scenes. Just so you know, I appreciate translators for the work they do. I would just prefer to be able to enjoy the novel to the fullest, as a Japanese reader would.

[Decay]

As I said before, all-ages versions often have alternate content written by the original creators. When they don't, they're lazy ports that should have had more effort put into them. When they do, that's a perfectly valid way to remove h-scenes. A translator just snipping content out is not a valid way to remove h-scenes, in my opinion.

 

This conversation isn't about whether or not h-scenes are integral to an experience, it's about whether or not translators should be making that judgement call. They shouldn't be.

[Zakamutt]

Well, I guess the original question has been answered now. I suppose we could branch this off, but I'm not sure if we're going to get more than two camps yelling at each other.

 

Personally? Meh. I think leaving it in in Japanese is a decent way to go. I prefer having it translated, though.

 

Releasing tools and scripts so others can translate the h as well would be a nice touch, though - arguably anything else is forced censorship, which I can't really get behind. Not sure if Lemnisca will do that for KQ, but they did make the SVN for I/O available. http://lemniscatranslations.wordpress.com/2014/03/09/io-svn-repository-download/

[Kaguya]

Topic was getting waaaaaay too derailed, made a new thread and moved things there. If you want to continue your previous discussion, do it here: https://forums.fuwanovel.net/index.php?/topic/5025-translating-is-it-ok-to-cut-h-scenes/

[Okami]

Topic was getting waaaaaay too derailed, made a new thread and moved things there. If you want to continue your previous discussion, do it here: https://forums.fuwanovel.net/index.php?/topic/5025-translating-is-it-ok-to-cut-h-scenes/

 

And could you explein to me difference beetwen "H scenes excluded in translation?" and "Translating: Is it ok to cut H scenes?

" as no matter how I look at it they are the same topic.

[Kaguya]

And could you explein to me difference beetwen "H scenes excluded in translation?" and "Translating: Is it ok to cut H scenes?

" as no matter how I look at it they are the same topic.

The first one is a topic asking a question- if more H scenes are being excluded.

 

The second is a discussion on wether they should be excluded or not.

[Okami]

The first one is a topic asking a question- if more H scenes are being excluded.

 

The second is a discussion on wether they should be excluded or not.

 

I guess I misunderstood a first one, I thought it was always about opinions on the matter.

 

In that case I would say that in general there are more VNs being translated so there are more of thouse that are cuting off H-scenes too. If you look at my list of all translated VNs you could clearly see how many more english translations are being released in last faw years.