Japanese to Spanish Manga Translation: Readers Speak Out

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At the “Future of Manga Publishing” panel held at the Japan Foundation Toronto (a Toronto Comic Arts Festival 2014 event), an attendee asked if it would be possible to have more manga translated directly from Japanese to Spanish.

At the panel, Cork Agency founder and literary agent Yohei Sadoshima replied that most publishers translate Japanese to English to Spanish, largely for cost-related and quality control reasons. Simply said, it seems like it’s easier to find experienced English-to-Spanish manga translators than it is to find Japanese-to-Spanish translators.

Sailor Moon in Spanish, from the Glenat Edition ©Naoko Takeuchi

I asked the attendee who asked the original question if she noticed if there was a noticeable difference in quality between manga she had read that had been translated from Japanese directly to Spanish, versus manga that had been translated from Japanese to English to Spanish. She said she could kind of tell sometimes, but I wanted to get more perspectives from other native Spanish speakers about their experiences. I threw out this question on Twitter, and got some interesting responses. Read on, in Storify to see what was tweeted back at me.

Now that you see what others have had to say, what do you think? Are you a native Spanish-speaking manga fan, and have you run across these sorts of things? Add your experiences and comments below!