Fruits Basket Volume 1 Comparison: Chuang Yi vs Tokyopop vs Yen Press vs Hakusensha Bilingual

I should've done this years ago. Ever since Yen Press rescued Fruits Basket from the "out of print" void, I knew the decision to redo my original post was inevitable, but given that I've recently acquired the bilingual edition, by Hakusensha Comics, and the ending of the 2019 anime reboot, my Furuba fever has not quite abated. Posts by fan and content creator, Jacob Chapman, have also inspired me to delve deeper than I did originally and think harder about how little differences can build to a different reading of these beloved characters and their unique situation.

This series needs no further introduction, but I'll give it one anyway just in case. Fruits Basket is a Japanese shojo manga series, written and drawn by Natsuki Takaya, that ran from 1998 to 2006 in Hana to Yume magazine. It tells the story of an orphan named Tohru Honda who through tragic circumstances comes to live in a house whose family hiding a dark secret that has completely torn them asunder. Through learning about them, laughing and crying with them, Tohru will uncover the mystery and potentially save them from the centuries-old curse that threatens to forever silence any chance at happiness they have. The first English translation for the series was done by Hakusensha in 2003 who released it as part of a line of bilingual editions meant to help Japanese schoolchildren learn English. Tokyopop then licensed and distributed the manga for English territories, primarily in the US and Europe from 2004 until 2011 when they closed their doors. Chuang Yi Publishing did likewise for English speaking territories in Asia and Oceania from 2003 until they too went out of business in late 2013. The licence was then rescued by Yen Press in 2015 until present who now distributes to all English speaking territories. The takeaway message from this is that throughout almost two decades Fruits Basket has been translated into English four times, three of which have covered the entire series, and we will be looking at those different translations in this blog post, starting with volume one. 

So let's get the party started. One where everyone can follow along...hopefully...we'll see.

NOTE: The Hakusensha bilingual edition will just be referred to as the bilingual edition from this point on. Sadly, this edition is only one volume long and even then only covers chapters 1-3 so I won't be able to include a screenshot of it in every comparison. We will also only be covering the first six chapters of Yen Press's edition since that is all that the other releases contain.

Cover Analysis

Time has given us two new covers to look at and while my thoughts on the other three haven't changed drastically, I'll briefly reiterate my thoughts for those who didn't read my original post. Both the Tokyopop and Chuang Yi releases appear to be equal distance from the look of the Japanese and have each gone their own way with their respective covers. You could argue that Chuang Yi took the red lettering whilst Tokyopop chose to copy the turquoise colour scheme though this could be incidental.

The bilingual edition reuses the speckled background and logo from the Japanese release as both are released by the same publisher, Hakusensha Comics, though I wish they'd have reused the background colour too. Perhaps they didn't want it to be mistaken for the regular release on the shelf despite the slim chance of that given that this release is larger, thinner and belongs in a different section than its Japanese original. Last thing of note is the name underneath the author, Natsuki Takaya. That's right. Hakusensha Comics actually credited the translator on the front cover of the book, a practice not used anywhere outside Japan or at least not in any countries these titles were published in English. This is a constant not from just this publisher, but across all the bilingual editions released in Japan.

Not sure what font Chuang Yi is using, but evidently, this isn't the only one of their titles it's been used for, making it feel much less unique than the others. Though to be fair, Hakusensha does reuse the same font for all of their titles, probably for consistency. We've been spoiled by the US releases always giving us a unique logo for each title.

On to the Yen Press release, whose cover shows the contrast of this series past and present, a present Natsuki Takaya has thoroughly embraced through these new covers and the 2019 anime, to which she shot down the idea of using her art style, believing it to be outdated. This cover shows what Natsuki Takaya's style would settle into over the years as the story progressed and after its completion. No longer do Tohru's eyes take up a third of her face. Though any newcomers to the series might be in for a surprise once they turn to the first page. A simple white background helps her drawing stand out and immediately draws your eye to it. Also given that the title logo was already in English, Yen Press were under no obligation to create a new one, but I'm glad they did as their simple logo is a marked improvement over the blocky Japanese one.

Page Quality

Not much to say here as sadly, I'm still no expert as my PHD in "Paper Technology" didn't quite pan out. It almost doesn't seem fair to compare the Yen Press release to its predecessors that were printed over a decade earlier. Technology has taken great strides forward and the publishing world is no exception so it's no surprise Yen Press has the superior picture quality and benefited from the industry as a whole having more experience with the medium. The trouble is Tokyopop doesn't look great next to its other contemporaries that came out within a year of each other. In several panels, the screen tones appear faded or even erased. Maybe the exposure was turned up too high when the images were scanned or maybe the editing team was inexperienced in touching up the pages. I wondered if it was just the copy I had, but several images posted by other readers online suggest it was like that for everyone.

Chuang Yi and the bilingual edition are a marked improvement with most of the tones being clearly visible throughout. The only issue I had was with the black and white versions of images that were drawn in colour, looking a little muddy in places. Something the Yen Press release doesn't share due to having the fully coloured versions instead.

One last thing to add is that Chuang Yi's paper is still the whitest after all this time, even outdoing the recent Yen Press release.

Translation

A few details on the people involved first. For Tokyopop, we have the twin translators of Alethea and Athena Nibley, who have translated over a hundred titles for multiple companies including Kodansha and Yen Press. With so many of their titles under their belt, you might think Yen Press would've brought them back to handle the new translation and the twins were indeed eager to do just that. Sadly, that did not end up happening, but anyone missing their style will be happy to know Yen Press did hire them for the English translation of the sequel, "Fruits Basket Another", and "The Three Musketeers" prequel. Jake Forbes is no slouch either with dozens of titles to his name, though he's worked almost exclusively for Tokyopop with a few outliers. 

Researching Chuang Yi's translator, Shiroi T. Omo, didn't turn up anything online, though I did end up finding out "omoshiroi" which can mean "interesting or fascinating" or be an exclamation when you hear something funny so it's pretty safe to say this is a pseudo name. We also have the return Low Sin Lu and Nicole Ng who edited and lettered the Chuang Yi Fullmetal Alchemist release respectively.

The man Yen Press chose for their grand revival of this beloved series is Sheldon Drzka, winner of the Eisner Award in 2020 for his translation of "The Way of the Househusband" which was published by Viz Media. Beyond that, he has served as translator, adaptor and editor on a plethora of titles by the big publishers, which might explain why Yen Press hasn't listed an editor for the book. You might recognise letterer, Lys Blakeslee, from Kodansha's new eternal editions of Sailor Moon, but her resume is nothing to sneeze at either.

All we have for the bilingual edition is its translator, Alwyn Spies, though there is a small bio in the dust jacket that I sadly can't read. Searching up the name does turn up someone with a Masters in "Asian Studies" at the University of British Colombia, but I don't want to assume that's her.

Honorifics

When it comes to the honorifics, we find ourselves split down the middle as two releases keep them, two lose them to varying degrees and depending on how familiar you are with this story: you might be surprised about which ones. Given their history up till that point and being more familiar with their catalogue than I was last decade, I can appreciate how much of a shock it must have been to readers of Tokyopop to find not only the Japanese honorifics left intact but also several keywords remaining untranslated as well. Yen Press likewise keeps the honorifics.

Now you might think that Chuang Yi is giving me exactly what I asked for considering the Japanese honorifics are either removed or not translated and like Yen Press, many of the terms are localised. That's mostly true and it might just be my fondness for the anime's dub, but reading Yuki call Tohru "Honda" instead of "Ms Honda" makes him feel more distant than intended, but that might just be my skewed perspective. Chuang Yi is also the only edition to translate "sensei" (see above).

Due to not using the honorifics, Chuang Yi had to rewrite, first what Kyo said to Tohru in chapter three and then Yuki's declaration at the end of the book (see below). The rewrites are adequate for the corner the translator found themselves in, but it might have been smoother if they left out the "You can use my name" part since Tohru has done that several times at this point.

The bilingual edition was the biggest surprise in that not only did it remove the Japanese honorifics, but changed the dialogue so everyone is on a first-name basis. Perplexing, but in hindsight makes sense since this release is first and foremost a language guide designed to help Japanese school kids learn English using a familiar story. Since the majority of English speakers tend to refer to each other by their first name, were these situations to take place in the west, teaching takes priority over book accuracy. You might wonder how this would affect the story, later on, but the book ends after the third chapter so we'll never get to find out.

To further annoy me, only the main dialogue boxes are translated with the smaller text being left in Japanese so you can't even really call it a complete translation of the first three chapters. I suspect it was left untranslated due to not having enough space to put the Japanese dialogue down the side. The smaller text can sometimes account for half the dialogue on the page.

Terminology

 Along with keeping the Japanese honorifics, Tokyopop shocked fans by keeping a number of terms in Japanese as well. This was considered unusual for the time but quickly became the trend as the years wore on, so you might have expected Yen Press to follow suit. Well, you'd be half right, but that won't become clear until the later volumes. For now:

Both "onigiri" and "Daihinmin" have been localised. It's always confused me why Chuang Yi didn't do the same years ago, but it could be any number of reasons. Poor research or because "Rich Man, Poor Man" has so many different names in English speaking territories, they struggled to choose the right one. There's even a translator note acknowledging the audience might be more familiar with the name "President". I see this localisation as a plus as I've made it clear that I'm always in favour of more translation regardless of the setting and while Tokyopop included a little footnote the first time these terms appeared in the book, it feels like an unneeded extra step. Why not just translate them in the first place?

Both Chuang Yi and the bilingual edition also convert the Japanese school years to their American equivalent. 

While there isn't a lot to talk about here as many terms are relevant to specific characters, they will however be talked about in a later section when we cover those characters. 

Sound Effects

Companies tend to have different approaches with some expressing them phonetically spelling out the Japanese sound, some swapping it out for the English sound and others merely describing the action itself. Think about it as the difference between writing "thud" and "fall". Sometimes titles can even employ a combination of any or all three. It might be for this same reason that the bilingual edition doesn't translate the sound effects. Saving time and money on editing could be another factor.

I've said in my original post that neither Tokyopop nor Chuang Yi really tries to translate the sound effects aside from an occasional occurrence and this blogger sadly has neither a TARDIS nor a cosmic cube in which to change that...yet. It's a mystery why either company went this route. The answer may lie in an article about a change in Tokyopop's policies that took place in October 2002 where they stated that they would no longer translate the sound effects of any manga bearing the "100% authentic" label. For those that don't know, this line was the first time manga had been released in English in its original "right to left" format as prior titles had been flipped to the western "left to right" format. Their reasons for this change are a mix of cost-cutting and authenticity and honestly, the latter feels more like an incidental side effect of the former or the only positive way their PR team could spin it. Surely if no translation is considered more authentic then why not just reprint the Japanese volumes as they are? Madness. A quick glance at other Tokyopop titles proves this to be true, even Chobits that had been released earlier that year. The only exception was Cardcaptor Sakura: Master of the Clow, however, that's the second half to one of Tokyopop's most popular titles, having already released a flipped version years before. I had a point somewhere...oh right, the sound effects.

With Chuang Yi, it may be more dependent on the title or perhaps even the capabilities of the letterer. Both volumes one and two were first published in December 2004 and while both books have different translators (something we'll get into another time), they share the same letterer, Nicole Ng. It's possible the sound effects were a cut corner in order for Nicole to meet this crazy deadline. This is all just speculation though.

So while Yen Press takes first prize in this category by virtue of actually having translations for the sound effects, I can deny that way they present them is something I'm not crazy about. Their method is to write the romanisation of the Japanese near the sound effect with the translation underneath in brackets. Not only do I find this a little redundant, but the romanisation appears every time the sound effect does while the bracketed translation will only appear the first time it shows up on the page. I know many love this approach, but I can't help but feel it should be the other way round.

Characterisation

This subject is not my strong suit, and I'm embarrassed I missed it during my initial post, but after reading Jacob Chapman's Twitter thread on how even the little differences can build to a very different read on each character, I knew I had to at least mention it. I recommend the original thread to anyone wanting to read further as it has more than I could ever explain here.

Tohru

Let's begin with our little cinnamon roll made human or maybe rice ball is the better analogy. Tohru is the sweet emotional support of the group that empathises with everyone despite or rather because of the hardships she's endured and that comes across in all English translations of the story. However, the devil is in the details ironically when discussing each release's handling of Ms Honda's more angelic characteristics.

What I mean by that is while Tohru's attitude towards others is positive, this same courtesy doesn't necessarily extend to herself, unless we're talking about Tokyopop's translation which removes a lot of her self-deprecating thoughts. Slight changes here and there but it happens often enough to make me think it was a choice and not a mistake, possibly informed by the 2001 anime whose director made similar alterations. As a result, Tohru comes across as much harder on herself in the other three translations and even gives the reader the impression she might be suffering from depression. It makes her a much more nuanced character than the perfect paragon of good Tokyopop portrayed her as, at least as far as this first volume is concerned. Tohru's a character that's grown on me exponentially as I've matured to understand the need for optimism and kindness in life, especially in these trying times. 

Yuki

Our resident rodent of the Sohma house and Prince Charming of the school, Yuki is shown to be capable both of immense kindness and cruelty as evidenced by his initial response to a girl asking him about Kyo or just anything about Kyo in general. My original reaction to Yuki years ago was that he was unsettling and creepy, which I realise was in part due to the artwork (the legion of rats didn't help) and his attitude towards his cousin. Having said that, I don't think he's a bad person, just a complex and flawed one.

One of said flaws being his insecurity about not being masculine enough, as a result of the toxic mindset forced down his throat since he was a kid. This is compounded by people constantly mistaking him for a girl and being played by a female voice actress in the 2001 anime. This flaw is also mysteriously absent in Tokyopop's translation, at least in this first volume.

Yuki is also noticeably sassier in the Chuang Yi release.

Lastly, while touching on the Chuang Yi release, I want to highlight the liberty they took with the nickname Yuki gives Kyo something that remains consistent in the other three editions.

Kyo

Speaking of our favourite sad boy or at least mine, there are a few things to talk about in regards to how his dialogue has been handled. Kyo easily has the most aggressive manner of speaking in the group. It's straightforward, much like Kyo himself while at the same time being much more informal and somewhat crass at times compared to the others. 

Chuang Yi will try to get this across to the reader by employing various colloquialisms like abbreviating words like "because" to "cuz" and using apostrophes in the place of Gs on certain words. Yen Press will use certain phrases (see above) while throwing in the occasional "ain't".

Then we get to Kyo's nickname for Yuki or the first one at least. In Japanese, he's saying "kuso-Yuki", a very common cuss word that's varied enough to be used in place of "shit, fuck, damn" and even young kids use it. I can only imagine this is the reason that Yen Press decided to go with "yucky" of all things, to try and maintain this element despite it not being a cuss word and there really being no equivalent in English in terms of use. I think back to my younger years and can't remember the first curse word I learnt, but I'm fairly certain I outgrew yucky pretty early on so it feels very ill-suited for a sixteen-year-old. Yen Press have the same age rating as Tokyopop, but perhaps due to stricter oversight, either within themselves or from Hakusensha, they may have wanted to avoid any character using profanity too much. A glance at the bilingual edition makes that theory go straight out the window though as Hakusensha clearly had no issue with Kyo using harsher language, however, there is over a decade and an ocean between the releases which can change things.

Ever the outlier, similar to Yuki, Chuang Yi similarly changes Kyo's nickname for the rat, though I believe rat-boy or just rat sneaks in a few times in later volumes.

Shigure

Last of the main four is our favourite button-pushing novelist who also seems to have had his meaner sharp edges sanded down. The severity differs between each version but this detail once again seems to be partially omitted in Tokyopop's translation. Like with Tohru, this might be because the 2001 anime did the same, casting him in a more well-meaning fatherly light. 

Given Shigure's actions, later on, readers must've had quite the shock. Chuang Yi is a little more on the fence while he really doesn't hold anything back in Yen Presses and the bilingual edition.

Chuang Yi will also occasionally pepper his dialogue with some French. Truly a canine of culture though it's really nothing more than the average person would know.

Other

I'll briefly mention Tohru's friends, Ueno and Hanajima. Not much to say with Ueno, but Yen Press updated what the others characters referred to her as. "Yankee"  means something different depending on where you live and I'll admit when I first read this, I thought Ueno was an American before finding out it means "juvenile delinquent" in this context. 

Also, does anyone know what the insult "squidy" means? I'm genuinely curious.

You know, years later and I still have no idea what happened here in Chuang Yi's translation as it gives the most bizarre first impression of Hana almost as if they wanted you to think she was an android or cyborg. I'm almost convinced it was an editor's joke that got left in by accident since the rest of her dialogue is on point in this volume, though spoiler alert, they'll pull a similar stunt in the next volume.

And Kagura...no, nothing new to say there.

Extras

A few things to note here as none of the releases have every extra. The bonus comics Natsuki Takaya drew for the tankobon edition are present in every release except the bilingual release which opts instead for a series of cue cards (see above) at the back with various phrases and their translations from the story.

During the original tankobon release in Japan, Natsuki Takaya included little notes to the reader in the margins, answering questions and little tidbits about her interests and hobbies or what she was feeling while drawing the manga. These paragraphs scattered throughout the twenty-three volume run were faithfully translated in both the Tokyopop and Chuang Yi release but left out of the Yen Press release as Ms Takaya felt they were out of date at this point. She's not entirely wrong, but it's a shame to lose this time capsule of her inner thoughts even if any newer fans probably wouldn't have understood half the stuff she was referencing. 

The bilingual edition doesn't include them either due to that space being taken by the Japanese script and like Yen Press chose to replace what little space there was with chibi drawings though they each used different ones. Have the ones the bilingual edition used popped up anywhere else? I don't think I've come across them before, but they look familiar.

Any who still have their old Tokyopop editions lying around might recall a few extras unique to their release. The first is a quick history lesson concerning the Chinese astrology this story draws inspiration from, told in multiple parts across the volumes. A wonderful addition to those unfamiliar with the concept or more used to its western equivalent. It's certainly more than the brief paragraph Yen Press writes in their translation notes. There's also an interview with Laura Bailey, the English voice of Tohru in both incarnations of the anime though this clearly predates the 2019 show. Whether you're a fan of the dub or not, Laura's love for the character is undeniable though all this information and more is widely available online nowadays.

While Natsuki Takaya's famous work was created in black and white, there are a number of colour pictures she drew when the story was published semi-monthly in Hana To Yume magazine. Twelve years have passed since Tokyopop published volume one of Fruits Basket and gave us the black and white versions of those pages and now finally Yen Press has seen fit to restore them to full colour in their collector's edition. Granted, the collector's edition is based on a new edition in Japan and thus might just have these images in colour because that edition decided to include, but that doesn't diminish my joy at seeing more of Natsuki Takaya's work as it was meant to be seen. Yen Press is also the only release to include translation notes, but it's hard to count them as extras since they help provide the necessary context for their dialogue choices making them essential in places throughout the book.

It's hard to call one release the best in this regard as aside from Chuang Yi, every release has at least one extra the others lack, but for those wanting to keep score:

Other Thoughts

There's a discrepancy over whether Tohru was flashing back to Hana or Uo's words. Yen Press and the bilingual edition siding with Uo while Tokyopop and Chuang Yi side with Hana. Tokyopop doesn't even quote the same panel as the other two and Chuang Yi doesn't quote any panel at all.

This panel I have to give to the bilingual edition for being the best of both worlds. Tokyopop and Chuang Yi sound like something Tohru would say, but miss the supernatural element to her words and Yen Press's choice doesn't come across as natural even if it's accurate.

I'll admit, this is here because I love all of Yuki's responses. Yen Press using the b-word makes me rethink my age rating theory. Whether or not, using the word as a verb is less or equally severe might come down to personal preference, but I won't deny I did a double-take upon reading it. What's puzzling is that it comes from Shigure, a novelist known for waxing poetic. Seems too crass to be a word he'd use. Also, Yen Press is the only one who thought radishes were involved in this culinary debacle.

I made this comparison in my previous post about this volume where I made the mistake of assuming Shigure was cracking a joke to make himself laugh and that Tokyopop had preserved the joke in this scene while Chuang Yi had removed it. A helpful commenter then pointed out that the good laugh Shigure was referring to was his hysterical fit in front of her tent on the previous page. My bad short term memory aside, am I the only one seeing a divide in Shigure's thinking. He's undeniably sexist in both the Tokyopop and Chuang Yi translations, echoing his early reasons for wanting a woman to live with them and implying Tohru is high maintenance because she's a girl. However, his lines in the Yen Press and bilingual editions seem to put more emphasis on his worry of external threats like perverts hence his mention of them so I'm a little torn. Neither really seems out of character for him, but I am inclined to believe the latter two translations have it right.

Tokyopop has the funnier take on this line, but Yen Press is left as the odd man out. Granted, water is what you give someone who's feeling faint, but in this case, it's because of a fever so ice to bring it down is best. Localisation? Probably not. Unfortunately, my only method of checking is to type ice/water into Google Translate and then crossreference with the bilingual edition, oblivious to any context. Questionable research aside, this is what I found: 

While the kanji for "water" and "ice" are very similar there's no mistake, this is meant to say "ice".

Jacob Chapman has confirmed, with help from Alan Zabaro, on Twitter that this is referencing the very same "Sea of Corruption", from "Nausicaa in the Valley of the Wind", a manga that's been available in English since 1990 despite its film adaptation not receiving a full uncut English release until 2005. Whether or not this played a role is unclear since all but the Yen Press release predate the film then it's likely they were either unaware of the reference due to unfamiliarity with the manga, unsure of its English equivalent or thought it would be lost on the audience. Chuang Yi turns the line into a clever bit of foreshadowing so while it's by no means accurate, it's not wasting the line either in my opinion. I do think it's interesting that Nausicaa's English dub went with "Toxic Jungle" as their term for the sea, which is weirdly close to Tokyopop's interpretation. I wonder if the kanji can be read more ways. Stranger still, Tokyopop actually translated the same term to "Sea of Decay" in the omake bonus comic. 

Here we have one of Chuang Yi's shortcomings and in the first chapter no less. They occasionally attribute the wrong speech bubble to the wrong character, sometimes even rewriting the dialogue to be more in the voice of that character. With Shigures reaction trailing off, it's an understandable mistake, but a mistake nonetheless. One point in their favour is their phrasing the cat as chasing the rat to the ends of the Earth. It reads the most like a fairytale in my opinion, but let's view each one as a whole.

A few things are clear. Chiefly, how sick I am of typing the word "mischievous". It's hilarious that every translation agreed on that word, but not whether the zodiac cat was tricked by a rat or a mouse. 

The kanji used can mean one or the other, but considering the context is the Chinese zodiac, I would've thought it was obvious. This is a mistake that should've been caught by the editor. On a similar note, the kanji for "party" can also mean "banquet". Since the image we're given is God sitting down and sharing a meal with the twelve animals, Tokyopop and Yen Press are tied for first place on this one. Party is a very general term that still fits, but it would probably also conjure up the mental image of a slightly different type of gathering and let me say, I'd pay to see God host one of those. It's a little goofy that Chuang Yi has God speak in a more Shakespearian way, but for all we know, it was to match a more antiquated speech pattern from the Japanese original.

Two collars and two leashes. Not much else to say. Maybe the Japanese dialogue was vague on how exactly Kyo would be metaphorically contained. 

Now, this is interesting. As Yuki and Tohru of them discuss the impact of her knowledge about the curse, Yuki is reflecting on his past experience, Akito's words and how Tohru's actions fly in the face of them in the present. Tokyopop and Yen Press both chose to connect the scenes by using the words sick/sickened. All the translations agree that Tohru misinterprets Yuki's words as concern about her still feeling ill from the events of chapter one, but Chuang Yi adds the extra element of her mishearing "uneasy" as "unwell". It's a bit of a stretch even for Tohru as they are standing right in front of each other. That's still better than the bilingual edition not even trying to connect them.

Yuki likens Shigure's attire to a number of jobs in this panel.

In this panel, we can see how Chuang Yi's approach has oversimplified the dialogue. The overall meaning is still there, but the others offer more words and greater clarity though you could argue everything said in either Tokyopop's or Yen Press's is still implied in Chuang Yi release. This continues in the next example.

Chuang Yi's interpretation of this scene would have you believe Tohru's speaking out against fighting in general, while the others clarify, she's talking about the problems of fighting in school. You could argue that's still implied, but this will come up again later.

Here we come to the first major confrontation between Tohru and Kyo. Kyo's responses to Tohru all range in severity and while managing to be distinctly different from each other, you can see the overlap between them. The scale shifting from bad to worse. I think Yen Press loses here. "You're just annoying!" feels like too tame a response given Tohru's reaction in the following panel.

Much of Tokyopop's more comedic dialogue and approach to humour is, in general, much more localised than the others and in this case, that's very much appreciated. Literal jokes rarely land, though I appreciate Chuang Yi's attempt to make it rhyme like it was being sung in a singsong way. It's almost impossible to guess a tune when we're reading a translation so maybe figuring that out and then coming up with something around that might have worked better. That said, I think Tokyopop's replacement is implying more than the original meant though. It implies the interaction was more reciprocal. What other line could have worked in its place? "If you go down to the woods today, you'd better not meet Kyo..."

This panel of Tohru reflecting on the words of her mum highlight one of her greatest strengths, her boundless belief in others enabling them to believe in themselves. Tokyopop doesn't quite complete that thought while Chuang Yi talks more about others' abilities to believe in her. I think the Singapore release is trying to make the same point as Yen Press but maybe should have clarified it was to help others believe in themselves. Maybe that's still obvious to other readers and it's just my overly literal brain struggling.

 

I can't avoid talking about this infamous scene despite Jacob Chapman having already covered it with help from Zack Davisson and Victoria Bachman. Here's the cliff notes version. Kyo's actually saying he hates nira. Other names for it include the "Chinese leek" and "garlic chives" hence the various translation choices. Given that they left riceball as onigiri, I'm honestly confused Tokyopop didn't leave this untranslated too. Credit to Yen Press, nira does actually look more like chives than leeks so I think that's the better choice. As for Chuang Yi, it looks like they put a blur filter on the screentone. No release seems to use the same one so maybe it was all they had on hand.

Over the course of this first volume, one thing that's stood out to me is the Yen Press translation's more frequent use of English idioms and phrases than the other releases. While all of these are accurate to the situation and are being used correctly, I can't deny that in many cases, there's a nagging voice at the back of my head saying: would this character really talk this way? They make sense coming from characters like Yuki and Shigure who have a much more eloquent manner, but Kyo, while smart in his own regard, speaks in a very straightforward way. This is admittingly a personal gripe of mine and my interpretation of the characters could be completely off base, honed from years of reading translations that left them out. 

There's also the occasional occurrence where Yen Press will use the word "male" or "female" in the place of what someone would normally say. The results speak for their awkward selves.

While I'm on the subject of appropriate word choices, let's take a look at Chuang Yi's take on this line to prove I'm not just being mean to Yen Press. Still fairly accurate but loses its meaning a little. "Charges" carries across the point of Kagura's aggression and obliviousness far stronger.

OK, Time to fully address the elephant in the room. Chuang Yi, which means "creativity" or "creative arts", is a Singaporean company that began translating manga into simplified Chinese in 1990 before expanding into English in 2000. I haven't been able to find any confirmation of this, but I've seen enough for me to strongly suspect that their English editions were translated from those initial simplified Chinese releases rather than the original Japanese, a "translation of a translation" of sorts. The company that translates into simplified Chinese is ironically playing "Chinese whispers". This could be on account of not having an English speaker who was confident in Japanese or to save time and money by reusing their existing translation as the base. Maybe their Japanese source copies had already been sent back to Japan. The problem with this is that both mistakes and liberties will carry over to an English that will already be doing enough of those on its own. This is only a theory, but I've noticed enough little details being missing from Chuang Yi's translation, enough to make me ponder the reason.

Anyone who had only read the Chuang Yi release would probably never notice anything was wrong and for the moment, the details lost aren't story-breaking but that could easily change as we progress through the story. Teething problems or a symptom of something bigger? It's hard to say at this point. 

This is the only complete rewrite I could find. Like a square that's been polished into a circle and in a story like Fruits Basket where these details matter, that can be harmful. It's trying to say what it wants to say in as few words as possible and that approach is a double-edged sword this story could easily fall on.

Just showcasing the different names for the books Tohru picked out of the library. Not sure why Chuang Yi chose to half erase the titles to put in the translation when they could've done what either Tokyopop or Yen Press did. Curious how they all agree on the martial arts book's title, but not on the gardening book. There's a "12" in the Japanese title. Could that indicate the month, December or mean all 12 months of the year? At this point, let's just be thankful they all mention gardening.

Interesting to see the different replacements for the Japanese proverb, "Kaeru-no-ko-ha-Kaeru" or "a frog's child is a frog". Sorry, most of the time, I avoid making a comparison that has no point other than "look at that, that's different" but sometimes I can't help myself.

Grandpa is a savage regardless of the translation. I wish Chuang Yi didn't have him refer to the rest of Tohru's family as "these guys" though. It gives the impression he doesn't remember who these people are or why he's living with them. Not unprecedented given he can't remember Tohru. It's a funny thought even if it does threaten to undercut his moment of clarity. On the whole, I prefer Yen Press's take on the line as Tokyopops feels too literal and Chuang Yi has the problem mentioned above.

Chuang Yi's take on this line lacks the impact of the other two. I appreciate Tokyopop's line being straight to the point, but does it go too far and make Kyo more self-aware than he should be in this scene. This is supposed to be a quote from the previous page and do you know what Kyo said on the previous page? 

Chuang Yi doesn't seem to do well when it comes to quoting itself.

They also missed that it was a callback to a previous line from the beginning of the chapter, but Tokyopop struggled a little there too.

Conclusion

This is a story that has touched many people over many years and I'm extremely grateful that it got so many translations if that meant many more got to experience it across the world. There is no conclusion to draw from the story at this point, it is merely the promise of a new beginning and many more to come.

I've heard it said in the past: think of the Tokyopop release if the story was translated by Tohru and Yen Press if it was translated by Yuki. While I do see some truth in that, where does that leave the Chuang Yi and the bilingual edition? The answer I'm offering is a slight deviation: Chuang Yi's edition is the story translated by Tohru whilst Tokyopop was done by Kyo. Given Tokyopop's airbrushing of Tohru's more self-deprecating traits, it makes sense to me that Kyo would try to portray her the way he sees her, a beckon of positivity. Tohru, while it's not obvious in this volume, is the worst student of the three so it's not hard to see her making these little mistakes while keeping the dialogue very natural. Yuki and Yen Press need little explanation with how methodical their work is while not passing up the opportunity to make Kyo look childish. Shigure could've easily been responsible for the bilingual edition, flawlessly translated, but he clearly got bored and gave up halfway. Shame.

Joking aside, Tokyopop's translation is some of their best work despite missing sound effects though characters like Tohru and Shigure suffer for having some of their negative traits missing in action. Yen Press is the most complete version of this story, it's just a very awkward read so lines that should be impactful can sometimes fall short. While I'll admit there's a handful of lines I prefer in the Chuang Yi release, I can't overlook some missing details and the wrongly attributed speech bubbles. Whether or not these are simply teething problems while the translator gets to grips with the story or a snowball about to roll down a hill remains to be seen. The bilingual edition is more or less exactly what I expected. A straightforward translation with no English puns, idioms, turns of phrase or anything that strays outside the original story. I was hoping it would at least be the regular length of the others, but the limited editing suggests perhaps time and money played a much larger factor here.

Thank you for taking the time to get through this. Special thanks to Jacob Chapman for letting me use some of his talking points. I'll try my best to cut down the waffling for the next time.