These days, it has never been easier to find and tread translated manga. From in-store volumes to online simulpublishing, the entire industry is shifting in Japan and all over the world. It can be easy to forget there are translators and editors working hard to turn around content in different languages most of the time. But right now, Shonen Jump has put translations center stage with a new series that is almost impossible to interpret.
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The whole situation came to light when Cipher Academy by Yuji Iwasaki and Nisioisin shared its first chapter. The manga itself has an intriguing premise as it tells the story of Iroha, a boy attending a school all about ciphers, puzzles, and more. Much of the manga’s dialogue and so-called battles involve intricate wordplay in Japanese. So as you can imagine, it is a nightmare to turn around.
This was made very clear in chapter ten as Iroha found himself battling against a classmate named Yugata. Their back-and-forth was ladened with lipograms, a type of phrase or passage that excludes a specific letter. This wordplay puzzle is popular in Japan, but as you might have guessed, it doesn’t translate well into English.
Other manga series like Akane-banashi have translated lipograms to great success, but none of Viz Media’s previous examples compare to those found in Cipher Academy. Even veteran translators admit they’d struggle to adapt this Shonen Jump manga, and that is because of its sheer amount of puzzling language. It is one thing to translate a few rhymes or wordplay puzzles… and it is another to adapt fifty in a row.
Thankfully, Viz Media brought in Kumar Sivasubramanian to handle the manga. They’ve handled the codebreaking series with grace, but over on Twitter, the translator informed fans they were exiting the series shortly. Chapter 13 will mark the translator’s last addition to Cipher Academy. And if the series carries on with its simulpub, the manga’s new translator will deserve all the awards.
Have you had the chance to check out Cipher Academy yet? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB.
