BERSERK by DUANE JOHNSON
Nearly fifteen years ago, not long after I began my career as a translator, the opportunity to work on the Berserk manga came my way. At the time I was only slightly familiar with Berserk via its original anime adaptation, but I quickly found out just how large and devoted a following it has. The first Japanese volume of the manga I picked up in my exploration of the story was volume 12, which made for an intriguing, albeit confusing place to start. Nevertheless, I quickly became a fan myself, and It's been a joy and a privilege to work on this project ever since.
All translation involves some amount of research, and Berserk is no exception. What usually sends me down online rabbit holes in search of sometimes-esoteric information is when a character (typically Puck and/or Isidro) blatantly breaks the fourth wall or makes some anachronistic pop-culture reference for the sake of comic relief. Still, there are times when the references come from other characters or are otherwise more subtle in their delivery.
For example, consider the characters Adon and Samson. It was many years after I translated the early volumes in which they appear that I discovered their names are most likely a reference to the surreal video game series Cho Aniki, which is known for its wacky humor and homoerotic overtones. Mozgus has a similar moment during his fight with Guts at Albion. I missed this significance at the time of translation, but one of the things he shouts is a reference to a 70s manga and live-action show called Inazuman. This was something I discovered years later while translating an entirely unrelated anime that used the same dialogue, and something about it struck me as being familiar . . .
It's easy to miss these references at times, especially when they're so obscure. But it's a great feeling when I do manage to catch it in time to somehow work the reference into the Berserk translation. I'll never forget the time I realized Bonebeard was using the same aquatic pun style that was employed in the anime Squid Girl. That time it was hard to miss, as I had previously translated Squid Girl for one of my clients, and the memory was still fresh. This points out just one of the many ways Berserk is rich in content, and how you can discover things you never realized were there long after you first read it.
It's hard to believe that Dark Horse has been publishing manga for 30 years! As we look back on three decades of publishing some of the most influential manga in the comics industry, we're thrilled to have worked with such an incredible array of writers, artists, designers and translators who help us bring these books to new audiences. Berserk is one of the most popular and longest-running seinen series ever published in North America, selling over 1.5 million translated print editions of creator Kentaro Miura’s Berserk since 2003. Here we have some retrospective musings from Berserk translator, Duane Johnson.
Nearly fifteen years ago, not long after I began my career as a translator, the opportunity to work on the Berserk manga came my way. At the time I was only slightly familiar with Berserk via its original anime adaptation, but I quickly found out just how large and devoted a following it has. The first Japanese volume of the manga I picked up in my exploration of the story was volume 12, which made for an intriguing, albeit confusing place to start. Nevertheless, I quickly became a fan myself, and It's been a joy and a privilege to work on this project ever since.
All translation involves some amount of research, and Berserk is no exception. What usually sends me down online rabbit holes in search of sometimes-esoteric information is when a character (typically Puck and/or Isidro) blatantly breaks the fourth wall or makes some anachronistic pop-culture reference for the sake of comic relief. Still, there are times when the references come from other characters or are otherwise more subtle in their delivery.
For example, consider the characters Adon and Samson. It was many years after I translated the early volumes in which they appear that I discovered their names are most likely a reference to the surreal video game series Cho Aniki, which is known for its wacky humor and homoerotic overtones. Mozgus has a similar moment during his fight with Guts at Albion. I missed this significance at the time of translation, but one of the things he shouts is a reference to a 70s manga and live-action show called Inazuman. This was something I discovered years later while translating an entirely unrelated anime that used the same dialogue, and something about it struck me as being familiar . . .
It's easy to miss these references at times, especially when they're so obscure. But it's a great feeling when I do manage to catch it in time to somehow work the reference into the Berserk translation. I'll never forget the time I realized Bonebeard was using the same aquatic pun style that was employed in the anime Squid Girl. That time it was hard to miss, as I had previously translated Squid Girl for one of my clients, and the memory was still fresh. This points out just one of the many ways Berserk is rich in content, and how you can discover things you never realized were there long after you first read it.
-Duane Johnson, manga translator