What do you think about the fact that each translations of FMA are differents ?

Many sentences in the english version are completely different from the french version.
Sence the first book, we can see it. Why do they do so many differences in each versions ?
Whom versions can we trust for the truth ?
If they do that, how can we possibly understand FMA ?

these differences are to be expected when translating from one language to another


Many factors can play a role including the skill, the style and the level of the translator, what degree of localization the translator does, or even the amount of literal translation done.

@qaghou - The French version you're talking about...is that the official translation?

Regardless, even "official" English translation is known to have contained some mistakes in the past. So....there is only one version I put absolute trust on (other than editor's errors & that kind of stuff..) and that is, the ORIGINAL Japanese version by Awakawa-sensei.

not only will there be differences between languages, but between different scanning group. Take a manga like bleach for instance, there are a number of different groups translating it and although the main idea is the same throughout all of them the wording can be quite different, enough in fact to change the mood of certain scenes.

It's sure that the japanese version is the best but... I can't read it because of the language... (So sad about that too (T.T) )
So I'm always looking for the english version of FMA for the '' truth"... And for respond to your question Tombow, I do read the french version and it's ''the original" where you can find them in any libraries in my country.



The internet isn't the better place to find the ''originals''... It's so difficult to understand why they do so different scanning. I'm so thankfull to all people who can read japanese and translate them to us !

My problem with the translators (for each versions that we can find in our libraries) is that they change all the meaning (the sense) of some scenes of the manga in FMA.
I saw, between the english and the french version, that they add more words (in the french version) than it has to be. Why ? They aren't suppose to do that... No ?

I'm french too, I would need example to really have an understanding of what you're talking about



No. But I know that french is one of a heck of a language to translate into. And as far as the french version go, I'm really satisfied Good translation, the tomes come at the faster rate possible and we have the two artbooks.

Qaghou, that can indeed be on the greatest problems in translation. Often times, some phrases in one language can have a very different meaning when translated into another language. In some cases, changing just one word can drastically effect an entire scene as you have mentioned. Translation will not always be an exact art; the translator has to decide when to take small "artistic liberties" and slightly change the words in a way that are understandable to the audience yet still remain close to the author's original work. Many translators do not prefer literal translations (often translating the text word-from-word) because they believe that it doesn't convey the meaning of the artist's original work. Thus, the translator has the extremely difficult task of retaining the author's original voice yet making the language readily understandable to their audiences. Sometimes the translator might need to add more words or even "subtract" some to retain the meaning of the text. The translator always has to ask his self: "Does this mean the same as what the original text means?" If it doesn't then, the translator will generally work with an editor or proof-reader to find the best way to translate a sentence while still retaining the original meaning and sense of the text. However, even editors will make mistakes though.
Some translators are better at this than other translators happen to be. If you aren't careful, you can completely alter the meaning of a scene. As Asunder and Tombow have pointed out differences are going to be expected when you translate from one language to another. I read both the Spanish and English "official" versions of the manga, and I am sure that there are language differences and changed or added words that differ from the original text.

~Ok, I'll shut-up now....

Well, if you mean the Spain Spanish edition, then in this case there'll be diferences for sure...
Because the Spanish translation is a crappy mess up. It's not bad, when they get it they do it right, but it's SO full of mistakes (and some BIG ones, specially in the first three volumes) it's painful...
Like Riza being called "coronel" by Mustang in their first appearance, number 48 remembering a nonsensical phrase from Ed completely different than the original, which was said just a few pages or a chapter ago ¬¬; the famous "A man wearing an Ishval Warrior Priest tattoo" mistake...
And many many others. Sigh.

Sorry for going slightly offtopic, but I had to get this off...

EDIT: Stupid censorship, who put it there? ( ´A`)

The 18th tome just came out in France, and man am I happy with that traduction It crushes everything the scantrad ever did, and man do I think sometimes than scantrad has some things to learn to professional translation...

I agree with difficulty in translating (especially) japanese to other languages. I'm Polish, and here we have got arleady 12 volumes of FMA manga. What can I say is that we have wonderful translating staff which is trying really hard to give us the most original meaning and try to make all jokes equally hillarious as they are in japanese. They are always (...almost, where is this in 11 volume ;;) adding a FAQ pages to the manga and explain to the fans' questions, which are often about translation of course. And polish is extremely hard language to translate as well ;f

Man, first CD Projeckt, now this, do you have only really really passionate people in Poland to do that kind of stuff? Nearly envious on that particular spot!

Well, we have at the same time pros and non-pros, but when it comes to the publisher of the manga, this is the oldest and (imo) the most professional that we have got there. And one more thing - If the person, publisher or group isn't "really really" passionate about what he/she/they do, they can be replaced by bigger maniacs. And people always pursuit the best quality.

It's very interesting ! I would like to see a Polish translation of FMA. I think this weird to see that the translators for the french translation didn't do that. French isn't a difficult language to translate not like Polish who isn't an easy task.
If we're based on the english version to do the others versions, I think it will be more easier for the translators. Don't you think ?

Sannom, if you're right about the 18th tome, I will be very happy because, I'm so disapointed about the translation...
Do we have other great translation of FMA ? I would like to know.

When it comes to simplification of translating process then yes, but it must be mentioned that translating arleady translated media would be a risk of making more and more mistakes and differences from the original version.

EDIT: Two sample pages from polish 8th volume:

F.A.Q.:


All about Rentanjutsu, which is called here "DANCHEMIA" and Lin Yao name. "Rentanjutsu" don't have any official _western_ name, so they decided to fuse words "dan" - which means in chinese "elixir" and "alchemy". Why "dan"? Because ancient rentanjutsu art from china was based on elixirs. Thats it. And they came up with that name. Pretty neat for me.

Lin Yao - why not Ling Yao? Autors explain us that Hiromu Arakawa uses both versions - but more often form "Lin", so they decided to stick with it.

One page:


As you can see, Lin dialogues are typed with different font. As to stress the eastern accent.

If they begin to change names of characters in their translations, I will be more than disapointed !
What make me angry about the bad translations is when they change a relationship between two or more characters.
They don't have the right to do that !

For example, in the french version, the relationship between Ed and Winry is so less intense than the english version. I will explain myself... Did you remember the scene when Ed think about how she's more cuter than he thought ? In the version of my country, they replace the word cuter by nice. This creates a completely different perception of the scene. It make us think that he just like her as a friend beside something more. An other example, in the scene of when Hughes come in the hospital when Winry is all ready there, the translators did that again. When Riza say that Ed love Winry, the reaction of the boy is very different and less intense. Same thing for the little sentence where she said to herself that he's weak at direct hit, they change it. The scene after Winry make born the baby and said to Ed that her back hurt, they change that too and after, when Ed put her on his back to help her and says that she's not attractive, they did that AGAIN !

The translators for the french version make those mistakes again and again. After all this, what is suppose to be hints for the couple doesn't count and all this is because they changed so much words and contexts that it doesn't make anymore sense in the end. They destroy intense moments to make them weak. THAT make me angry !

In the French version from France (I don't know about Quebec...), all the people from Xing make a lot of grammar mistakes when they talk to people from Amestris because they are not accustomed to the language, and their dialogues are typed with a different font when they talk between themselves, to stress the fact they speak their language.



Do you mean the one in the hospital after she says that it was perharps her fault that Ed's arm got broken in his fight against Number 48? Personnaly, I think that "nicer" makes a lot more sense than "cuter" here


Are those really why you think the french version is weaker ? Especially by comparing it to the US Version and not the original (I'm not particularly ready to trust a version that censors panels, remember tome 8 )?

Sorry, feeling anal about grammar atm.

It's hard to say which translation is the best... even official ones make stupid mistakes =_= Best way is still, to just learn Japanese. XD

The second I saw the official English version using "Ishbal" instead of "Ishval" I knew it was doomed to failure. There's no excuse for a translator looking ヴァ right in the dakuten and romanizing it as "b" and not "v."

Oh? They use this in the French version too, and I love their work And I prefer "Ishbal" to "Ishval" and "Lior" to "Reole". Just as I prefer "Zolf J. Kimblee" to "Solf J. Kimblee". They prononce "Ishbal" in the anime, so they kept the same for the manga.

They make those mistakes who can make it better in the french version... On this one, I don't have to tell but I can't understand why they change the name of the characters. I had finished the 8 tome yesterday (in french) and they did that to Ying. Yin beside Ying...
Did you remember the scene where Barry felt in love with Riza ? (So funny !! ) They erased some words from the english version... I don't understand why. It's a shame for myself to see that I prefer the english version than the version of my own language. Did you see how the english version make more impacts than the french one ?

First of, it's Lin, not Yin. Second, you do understand that Lin is the official spelling by Arakawa herself, right ?

When you talk about the english version, are you talking about the retail one or the scantrads??? You're confusing me on some of your comments here!

Sorry about that, I didn't have the right spelling... If you want me to write my comments differently, I can do it. My english isn't perfect... I do understand.
About the official spelling of Lin, I didn't know. For my english version, I always read it on the web by the scantrads. I prefer to buy FMA in french same if can choose between the two. In Quebec, the versions of FMA that we can find are them.

A propos, la version française du Québec, c'est la VF de France ou bien c'est une version spécifique au Québec?

Sorry for everyone else, I promise it will be the only time I do this

did anyone else think viz f*!@ed up volume 7?

About the version of Quebec, it is the same of the version in France. Actually, I'm so disapointed of it... I had more proofs of the bad translations. In the version that I read, Winry didn't say officially that she loves Ed ! I'm so mad ! She just mentions that she WAS in love ! The translation turn in cercle. They change my proofs of Edwin that the english have ! If in the version of english the relationship is clear between those two characters, it doesn't in my version. How can they do that to the french fans ?

Are you kidding me???

p. 126 of the french edition of Vol. 12, she says : "Ca fait longtemps que je suis amoureuse de lui... peut-être.."

p. 14 of the french edition of Vol. 18, she says : "Pourquoi je suis tombée amoureuse d'un type pareil...?"

If that isn't EdWin, I don't know what it is

I think pronouns count, too! If this is what the French version of FMA says, I agree that's definitely EdWin. I don't think she specifically said Ed's name in the English versions either.

The thing that border me is that she's actually says :'' Pourquoi je suis tombée amoureuse d'un type pareil ? ''
It refers to the past and not the present ! Yes, I agree that she's saying that she love him in the tome 8 but in the chapter 84, this is so not clear. The english version she says : '' Why do I love this wierdo ?''. For me, in this version, it's totally official by the words that they used. By the way, when Ed says : '' Winry is how she is '', the french version changes it AGAIN to '' Winry a le droit de penser ce qu'elle veut'' I'm so disapointed... These are little things that bored me so much by the translation... Hope that the french version will change the sentence of Ed when he says to Winry :'' Stop nagging me woman''. That will be a good thing to change.

Either you're only learning french, or french is really different in Quebec That sentence, even if it uses the past, clearly says that she is in love with Ed. It says "I have fallen for him", meaning "Now I love him"

^I agree with Sannom. I think you're getting caught up in the tenses too much. "Fell in love" is past tense in English, too, but it doesn't at all imply that someone is no longer in love.

HisshouBuraiKen translated it as
Winry: Why am I in love this weirdo?

ZOMGFTA translated it as
Winry: ...Why did I fall for someone so weird?

Present tense or past tense, it gives the same meaning. It is only worded slightly differently.

(By the way: This is chapter 70, page 8 that we're talking about - in case anyone wants to look up the line.)

I'm still somewhat early in my study of Japanese, so I'm not going to guarantee 100% that I am right about all of this. But I think I have a good enough grasp of katakana to respond here.

The thing about translating names is that you are both turning them into the English alphabet AND Anglicizing them. If you don't speak Japanese, you can get an idea of the changes translators make to names by looking at the katakana translated directly to romaji.

"Ishval" is 「イシュヴァール」, or Ishuvaaru. I think "Ishbal" would be written　「イシュバール」, "Ishubaaru".

Kimblee's name is 「ゾルフ　Ｊ　キンブリー」, or "Zorufu J. Kinburii," but the English version under his name in the Japanese tankobon spells it "Solf J. Kimblee." Personally I think "Zolf" is more accurate, but maybe it's better to so with that the tankobon says...

I'm not sure of the katakana for Lior (リオール, maybe? I'm confident in translating from Japanese to English, but not the other way around ), but since the "r" sound in Japanese can be translated to either the English "r" or "l" sound, I'm thinking this is one of those times where it's the translator's choice unless Arakawa confirms a translation.

People are calling it Reole because of the map in chapter 67:

See:
http://www.onemanga.com/Full_Metal_Alchemist/67/18/

I'm kind of sad, too, because I liked Lior or Liore better. It was more lyrical.

Did any of the official places (dubbed anime counts, too) spell it Lior? I can't remember right now.

Yeah ! I know that you can see me as a creepy fangirl of Edwin... I'm taking the translations very seriously. I think that english is more specific than french... I hate that when it's not clear.



Which version are you thinking that is the best and more nearly from the original ? Actually, someone people think that some versions are shameful when we compare them to the original.

Yeah, "Solf" is Arakawa's choice. She took those occidental names in some kind of dictionary, so the pronunciation must be "Zolf", she isn't wrong. But someone suggested that maybe it's a name from Eastern Europe, and that in some countries it's perfectly natural to pronounce it "Zolf". But in France, and apparently in other countries, it just seems weird Blame (or not) the author for little knowledge of occidental names

I almost never post on this forum because I'm more of a lurker... But I thought it might help you guys to know that German "s" is pronounced like English "z," so that "Solf" would indeed be pronounced as "Zolf." I'm sure there are other languages that do that, but German is the first that popped into my mind. I never gave this too much thought before because I've just always assumed that Arakawa liked to use German names every now and then (i.e. Hohenheim, Heinkel).

On the other hand, I've always wondered about the origin of names like Winry, Pinako or Sheska... I guess I'll need to do some research there.

*hides underneath her rock again*

I think those are known actually : Winry, Pinako and Rockbell are the names of Korean tools shop and creators

Haha, really? I tried to google Winry and Pinako but all I got was Fullmetal Alchemist references... You do learn something new every day

Thanks for the info on Kimblee's name, Sannom and szarancza! I didn't know any of that.



Which name translations do I prefer, do you mean? I like using "Lior" and the pronunciation "Zolf," although what would be the "proper" way to spell Kimblee's first name I really don't know. As for Ishval, I got used to the anime and Viz manga's usage of "Ishbal," but I'm trying to switch over now that I know that they translated it wrong. Nowadays I try to go with what feels closest to the original to me.