Getting the Ball Rolling

Before I talk about any of my actual class time, I thought it would be good to explain how everything works at my particular school.

Basically, the school is divided into different departments: Manga, Anime, Voice Actors, Illustrations, etc. Then, the different departments are divided into classes. I happen to be in class B, and since I am a first year, 1-B. We have class every day, and each day is a specific kind of class that lasts for the whole day. Here is what my schedule looks like:

Mondays - Character Drawing
Tuesday - Perspective and Backgrounds
Wednesday - Story
Thursday - Drawing (like a classic Drawing class you would take at a university)
Friday - Character Development

Mondays through Wednesdays are taught by the mumbler with the weird hat. Thursdays and Fridays have a different teacher each.

You might be wondering why there are two Character classes in my schedule. Are characters that important, you ask? Well, to put it bluntly. Yes!

Especially according to the teacher of my Character Development class.

He starts class by rolling off the all-important question. What's the most important part of a successful Manga? I, of course, hid my face in terror at the prospect of further public speaking, but some of the other nerds braved that unknown frontier.

We got answers like: The story.

Well that's important, but not most important.

Okay, the drawings, then.

Those are also important, but you can have successful manga that has pretty piss-poor art.

Give up? Okay, I'll tell you.

It's the characters. That's right. The characters. From the characters flow the story. From their personalities and interactions and dialogue that's what makes a manga grab a reader. This fact was pounded into our heads relentlessly.

According to the teacher, when an aspiring Manga-ka brings his Manga to an editor, what they're really looking for - more than original story, more than clever dialog, more than beautiful artwork - is a memorable character that easily resounds in the hearts and minds of the audience.

Okay. I'll remember that. But I soon found myself stumbling into a huge obstacle that has continued to pursue me through my term at school.

/How can I make exciting memorable characters that seem real, alive, fun and interesting with only my moderate command of the Japanese language?/

Thinking about this problem has made me realize just how much goes into bringing any character you write about to life. For example, how does the character usually speak? Does he use idioms? Does he have an accent? Does he invent his own way of speaking? Does he use lingo? Slang? Do his mannerisms bring out his personality? Basically, it has made me realize that as I try to write every line a character speaks, I must also think - What does this line reveal about this character's personality? Does it match up to his past experiences? Does it show his beliefs, his thinking? Does it reveal something new or interesting about this character? In other words, does it contribute to the image I am trying to create for my readers, and does it bring the character to life?

In English, this is not easy, but doable. A skill attained, just like any other with practice and experience. However, in Japanese? Impossible. Without being a native speaker there are just too many nuances I miss, not to mention the sheer amount of words I don't know yet.

So, what to do?

In my situation, I happen to be lucky, and married to a wonderful woman who helps me translate. However! Even with all of her hard work, it is still incredibly difficult. There are many sayings or feelings that I want to convey, that are perfectly reasonable and easily recognizable in English, but once translated are clunky and confusing.

An example: In one of the short Mangas I wrote, A young man is hitting on a young woman. The young woman is supposed to be a "princess" who is spoiled by Daddy, but at the same time she doesn't like him because he is always busy with work. A pretty classic situation. The young man is poor, has lost his parents, and was raised on the streets. He has the tough, cool, dangerous kind of personality that makes you unsure if he's a good guy or a bad guy, but either way he's attractive. Also fairly classic. Now, throw them into a bar, and he's trying to convince her to stick around with him. She smiles coyly and throws out a line like: "My Daddy told me not to talk to strangers." He responds with, "Do you always do what your Daddy tells you?"

Simple. Nothing too complex or far out. I feel like any native English speaker who read that situation would know what's up. They would know that she is being coy when she speaks. However, when translated, many of the Japanese readers interpreted it very literally. I couldn't really convey the inherent sarcasm present in the situation.

Having continually gone through this makes me really appreciate all the people that translate Manga professionally. There are so many nuances that are easily missed in both the language and culture behind Manga that make it difficult to translate in either direction. Especially in a way that would be culturally and socially relevant to the readers.

So, while this ended up being slightly off topic:

Lesson of the day: Appreciate your translators!