Kampfer Light Novel Vol 1

[natsu]

So, after letting it sit here for about two weeks, I finished up the first volume of Kampfer novel. Um...I like it. I wasn't sure I would, given how uncertain I'd been feeling toward this series (for which I totally blame the anime). The novel, while covers almost the same ground as the first two manga volumes, offers much more details. Natsuru seems like he actually has some kind of a clue, as contrast to how he is portrayed in the anime. But then that might be because almost of the events is narrated by him. In any case, Natsuru telling the story just makes him seem more alive somehow; he has commentaries on the events he experiences and the people he meets. (Yeah, of course he comments; that's just a given for a first-person narrative. But I mean that him doing so enables me to understand him more, thus I enjoy reading about him and his experiences.)

I probably won't spoil it, since people can just read the first two volumes of manga and it's essentially those, minus Natsuru's thoughts (um, sometimes you even get those in the manga; he just speaks them aloud on some occasions). Anyway, I'll be buying the next volume when I can.

About the translation--the version I have seems to be better than average, but still seems, on more than a few occasions, too literal to me. It's like, for example, how the Japanese would establish a topic and then drop it, assuming the reader knows what/who is being discussed at the moment. The translation follows this format too closely sometimes. For the most part, I'm good at filling in the context myself, but a few times, I'm a bit confused as to who is speaking or who is doing/receiving the action. This translation, I think, probably would benefit from a better editor, and/or simply from an extra pair of eyes. But then who am I to judge? It's not like I've ever attempted to translate anything even approaching book-length. Anyway, I know it's not an easy job, but then I did pay for this translation, so maybe it's not too much for me to expect it to be of clearer quality. (Or maybe I'm just spoiled. Another translated novel I read flows more naturally (but then that might be because the source material is better? Or maybe because the ambiguity in that language doesn't exist much as compare to Japanese), so I guess I kind of selfishly expect every translated novel to be about the same (or better) in readability.)


EDIT: I know I said I pretty much stopped reading other people's opinions on Kampfer, but I was in a weird mood today, so went searching for some reviews on Kampfer novels, which is like almost nonexistent. What I found instead made me annoyed. Why, oh why people repeatedly misspell Shizuku's name? It is SHIZUKU, not Shizuka or some other variations people come up with. And most (if not all) of these people claim to like Shizuku/be Shizuku's fan. Not that I care whether they worship Shizuku (or not), but I kind of expect (unreasonably?) that people would remember/know how to correctly spell the name of their idol.

It's not really a new problem (I did encounter it a lot when I was still watching anime, and kind of still wanted to keep up with others' opinions), and I truly wouldn't bat an eye if it's just a simple matter of typting typing (yeah, yeah, a post complaining about spelling mistakes will invariably contain (at least) one itself) her name wrong one time or two. But this mistake comes up far too often. It's like every other discussion thread has to have at least one person writing 'Shizuka' when it's clear they meant to talk about Shizuku. (Yes, it's a Japanese name, but I still think that's no excuse for not taking a few minutes (not even that, really) to learn how to write it correctly. I would feel the same way no matter what language the name is in. If I can't write it, I don't write it publicly until I learn how to write it (or googlepaste it) correctly.)

Yeah, just me venting in my own blog, since I don't want to go make trouble or anything. -__- I think I would stick to my corner of the web, after all, and not venture out again if every little stuff is going to bother me.

EDIT EDIT: I want to read volume 4 of the manga in a language I understand better than Japanese. I know it exists, but I want to be able to hold it, not read it on the computer screen. Yeah, I'm spoiled.