BERSERK: Yours is a black path through the night.

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > VEGETA > BERSERK: Yours is a black path through the night.

GorfZaplen: Jan 20, 2012

I'm not gonna read the last 100000 words of these arguments but saying that Griffith is being manipulated and that early Berserk is about Guts finding his humanity again after being betrayed don't seem like unreasonable takes to me?

# ¿ Feb 12, 2021 16:28

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# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 17:08

GorfZaplen: Jan 20, 2012

Like, it's pretty inarguable that the god hand manipulated Griffith into doing what he did? That doesn't excuse his actions or make him in any way a moral equivalent to Guts, but it's still pretty important I think!

# ¿ Feb 13, 2021 05:01

GorfZaplen: Jan 20, 2012

Bisse posted:

I would say your argument falls apart because Griffith had the choice of saying 'No, I do not sacrifice'.

GorfZaplen posted:

Like, it's pretty inarguable that the god hand manipulated Griffith into doing what he did? That doesn't excuse his actions or make him in any way a moral equivalent to Guts, but it's still pretty important I think!

# ¿ Feb 16, 2021 23:38

GorfZaplen: Jan 20, 2012

Lucasar posted:

Bear with me being tedious here, but I got a translation question:

I have always hated the names Schierke and Farnese, because they seem pretty phony, and like they are possibly screwed up attempts to re-un-translate western names that Miura tried to render in hiragana. Sorta like how Charles Aznavour becomes whatever in hiragana, then comes out the other side as Char Aznable. That isn't even a name, but it has become the standard localization because the crossover between mech anime fans and french chanteur fans is probably small enough that it doesn't matter, and I guess it makes sense to keep your sci-fi red baron distinct from such a popular celebrity.

Even the name "Guts" may well have been an attempt at G�tz, referring to a historical knight (G�tz von Berlichingen) with a prosthetic arm who may well be credited with coining the phrase "kiss my rear end." It just seems like sort of a happy accident that "guts" is also colloquial english for courage and determination, making the name fit either way.

I sometimes see Tudor translated as Chuder as well, and it just doesn't seem as likely in my head that the made up word is more correct than the referential one. Miura uses lots of referential names such as Puck (Shakespeare), Nosferatu (famous vampire movie), Serpico (famous cop/Al Pacino movie) etc.

Anyways back to my question about the girls - how sure are we that these are the most accurate translations of those names?

Firstly: Farnese. A quick bit of searching makes the hiragana pretty unambiguous, and there was an influential Italian renaissance family by the name, but a considerably more popular girl's name is Firenze (which is the Italian form of the English name Florence). It has the same consonant sounds in the same order. Florence Nightingale would certainly be a less obscure reference or loan name. I think Farnese is probably more correct in this case, but it always stuck out to me as an ugly and awkward name so I looked into it. I kinda prefer the choice of Firenze, or a more liberal translation of Florence, but don't know how defensible it is from a translation standpoint.

Schierke on the other hand seems like an odd one. On the one hand, I can only find one unsourced fan wiki claiming that it can be translated as "unspoilt wood" from low german (not a language I expect Miura to be riffing in), and it is also the name of an obscure village of fewer than 1000 people in Germany. On the other hand, the name Silke is a normal German girl's name meaning "heavenly," and a homonym of Silky, a benign witch/ghost/spirit from Northern England. I guess I feel like Silke/Silky is the more compelling translation here simply because it seems way more likely that a Japanese person looking for European names might actually arrive at this choice, and the legend of Silky is available enough in Japan to warrant an appearance in other Japanese media (the Persona games feature her as a creature).

I don't read a ton of manga or know any more Japanese than can be worked out through Google Translate. Anybody with more Japanese knowledge can maybe provide a sturdier defense of how some of the names are translated out of and back into English? I could be way off base and I'm not really trying to seriously suggest a massive correction to the accepted versions of these characters' identities in English, moreso exploring a little peeve of mine, and hoping somebody can set me straight.

It could be worse

# ¿ Feb 24, 2021 17:19

GorfZaplen: Jan 20, 2012

Bisse posted:

What the gently caress is this poo poo

Chrollo Lucifer from Hunter x Hunter, or as his official name is romanized Quwrof Wrlccywrlir

# ¿ Mar 3, 2021 03:29

GorfZaplen: Jan 20, 2012

Shizuya Wazarai's other manga, Kento Ankokuden Cestvs is legitimately good and if you enjoy Berserk you'll probably enjoy that too. They ran in the same magazine at the same time. It also has some eye-raising sex stuff early on but it goes away entirely eventually at roughly the same time it faded from Berserk to the point that I wonder if some of that stuff wasn't pushed by some editor. The sequel, Kendo Shitouden Cestvs is one of my favorite seinen martial arts manga going right now. The art isn't as detailed as Berserk's but I think the author has a better grasp of some fundamentals over Miura, fight scenes are very legible and clear which even Miura struggles with!

# ¿ Apr 3, 2021 03:41

GorfZaplen: Jan 20, 2012

Tiptoes posted:

What the series needs is more dicks to balance things out. It's clear from re-reading Berserk that Miura wishes he could draw much more full frontal male nudity but he's not allowed to.

I support this.

# ¿ Apr 12, 2021 01:06

GorfZaplen: Jan 20, 2012

Flesnolk posted:

An old post, but this is probably among the things that bothers me most about Berserk and Miura's passing. It's proof positive that real artists are born, not made, and if you don't have your magnum opus before 25, you're never going to.

The gently caress?

# ¿ May 25, 2021 03:21

GorfZaplen: Jan 20, 2012

It was my least favorite on my last reread. Not as tight as the rest and constantly threatening to lose the plot theead in a bad way. The orgy is one of the funniest moments in all berserk though

# ¿ May 26, 2021 03:21

GorfZaplen: Jan 20, 2012

mind the walrus posted:

I really wonder if Miura ever had any plans for a good Borkoff death scene. What would that even look like?

Guts blows off his top half with the cannon and his body keeps running after death, trampling dozens of smaller apostles and taking some of them with him, off a cliff

# ¿ May 28, 2021 00:47

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# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 17:08

GorfZaplen: Jan 20, 2012

All in a single two page spread

# ¿ May 28, 2021 00:48

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > VEGETA > BERSERK: Yours is a black path through the night.