Leaving "Dattebayo" Untranslated: NARUTO Editor and Translator Share the Complex Challenges Involved in the Manga's Localization

NARUTO has attained immense popularity not only within Japan, but also throughout North America and the rest of the world, becoming a driving force behind the Japanese manga industry's increasing influence in the global marketplace.

The series includes many distinctly Japanese expressions, from idiosyncratic phrases such as Naruto's "dattebayo" and Sakura's "Shannaro", to technique names written with a combination of kanji characters such as "Rasengan".

But how are such expressions translated for a foreign audience in their native language?

Today we are joined by Alexis Kirsch of VIZ Media (the American publishing company in charge of NARUTO's English edition's translation and publication) and freelance translator Mari Morimoto to take a deep dive into the various approaches they took to translating Japanese expressions and cultural references, as well as the process leading up to the overseas edition's publication.

—I'm sure NARUTO fans are curious about how famous lines are translated, but many readers most likely don't even know the translation and publishing process. To start off, could you explain the roles and procedures that go into overseas publications?

Alexis: There are 3 main roles: translator, letterer, and editor.

As you can probably guess, the translator handles the English translation.

The letterer's main duties are to erase the Japanese lines and onomatopoeia and replace them with the English versions, as well as edit font design and size.

Then editors perform the final check by looking for spelling errors and making sure there aren't mistakes in the order of the lines.

This is a little bit more technical, but when I first started working on NARUTO, the manuscript data wasn't divided into layers yet. Ergo, not only the lines but all the onomatopoeia in the background had to be manually erased, so the letterer's job was a huge hassle. But now the digital data for backgrounds and characters that's given to us is divided into layers, so the letterer's workload has become somewhat lighter. Now letterers can edit each layer freely, so the process has become more efficient.

Morimoto: By the way, there used to be a rewriter position on top of the letterer, translator, and editor positions. A rewriter would brush up the translator's English translation to make it easier to read. It's similar to a "revision" position in Japan. But eventually this duty was taken up by the translator and editor, and that's why we have our current three-man squad formation (laughs).

—It seems that all the roles are well established, but is the work completely divided up? Are there times where members work together?

Alexis: Translators and editors work alongside each other often. For example, when character or technique names are romanized, editors sometimes ask translators to add an annotation so that the meaning gets across.

Morimoto: Or translators pester editors saying they want to add an annotation (laughs).

Alexis: Yeah, that happens. On the other hand, letterers don't have any duties that require them to work with the others, but when the chapters of a running series are collected into a volume, we sometimes work together on fixing the design if a revision request is made. When that happens, we'll often come to realize how important certain scenes are when we're reading all the material again. Some things are easy to miss when you're working on individual chapters one at a time. For example, if a previous translation doesn't fit with the story's progression after a major plot point is revealed, then there's a continuity error in the story, right? We fix those small mistakes and onomatopoeia errors for the collected volumes before they go on shelves.

—Manga sometimes gets touched up and revised in Japan when the chapters are collected into a volume, so I assume this can affect your work as well?

Morimoto: When volumes are being prepared for release, the drawings and dialogue can change and sometimes onomatopoeia get added, so checking for those revisions is also part of a translator's job.

—Now that we know about the translation process, let's start talking about translating the content. There are a lot of characters who use unique expressions, as well as techniques and jutsu that have a lot of kanji, so you all must really rack your brains over how to translate it into English. Is there a standard you need to adhere to when deciding whether to translate something directly or adapt it more freely?

Alexis: There are no concrete rules regarding whether we need to translate something literally or more freely. That said, we make sure to preserve the world and characters present in the story at all times.

If the world of NARUTO was more western, we might have westernized or changed the character's name, but the story is set in Japan with a ninja as the protagonist. That's why we kept Naruto's name as is. But when it comes to technique and jutsu names, we want to make sure fans and readers will be able to pronounce them, so we do direct translations or free translations depending on that.

For instance, Naruto's signature move, Rasengan, was left unchanged because it's not difficult for readers in North America to pronounce.

Morimoto: We actually came up with many different English translations for Rasengan, but they were all too long and wouldn't fit in the speech bubbles. So that's another reason why we just kept it as Rasengan.

Alexis: For other techniques, we include both the romanized Japanese and an English translation, then have the letterer skillfully adjust the text within the speech bubble to make it all fit.

—So, in addition to preserving the feel of the series' world, it's also crucial to consider how translations will fit on the page and within speech bubbles.

Morimoto: Besides speech bubbles, we also have to keep the anime version in mind. The English version of the NARUTO anime began a little while after the manga volumes started coming out, but the anime progressed quickly and before we knew it, it overtook the manga volumes being released. Because of that, any techniques or phrases that appeared in the anime first had to be reflected as consistently as possible in the manga.

—NARUTO is famous for the title character's verbal tic, "dattebayo", and Japanese fans often talk about how that has been translated into English as "Believe it". Can you tell us how that translation came about?

Alexis: Actually, "Believe it!" is a translation used in the anime, but it doesn't appear in the manga version at all.

I think the reason they used "Believe it" in the anime was to have an expression that wouldn't look unnatural when matched with the movements of the character's mouth, which is an issue specific to the dubbing process.

—So then how did you decide to translate "dattebayo" in the manga?

Morimoto: Actually, there is no set English for "dattebayo".

—What? Really?

Morimoto: I became the translator for NARUTO starting from the second volume. When I read through the first volume's translation, I realized that "dattebayo" had been left untranslated.

I checked with the person in charge of editing at the time, and they told me that although there had been a debate about how to translate "dattebayo", the final decision was to not translate it at all.

However, "dattebayo" was an important part of some scenes, so while it was left out as a rule, I had to play things by ear a bit. When it needed to be translated, the phrase "I tell ya" was used, but that creates a nuance that's not present in the Japanese, and in the end, I don't think that translation appeared very often in the series.

—"Dattebayo" aside, there are other unique expressions used by certain characters, like Konohamaru's "Kore!", Sakura's "Shannaro", and Sasuke's "usuratonkachi". Were these left untranslated as well in the English version?

Morimoto: Konohamaru's "Kore!" was translated as "Right?" in the beginning of the series.

However, in the sequel series BORUTO, he becomes a teacher and the translation was changed to "Eh?". Instead of a word, it was treated more as an interjection commonly used in casual conversation. It's definitely been translated more often than Naruto's "dattebayo", but not every single instance of it makes it into English.

As for "Shannaro", the more direct translation I wanted to use was something that would likely have been vetoed by the publisher (laughs), so I continued using the first volume's translation: "Oh yeah!"

I believe in the early days of the series it was translated once as "Holy crap", and I remember thinking that I couldn't believe they'd gotten away with publishing that (laughs).

Sasuke's "usuratonkachi" was translated like other, more typical Japanese insults, such as "aho (fool)" or "doukemono (buffoon)", depending on the situation.

—Why do you pick and choose which phrases to translate instead of just translating everything the characters say?

Morimoto: This issue comes up when we translate technique names as well, but if we translated every single instance of "Kore!", the lines just wouldn't fit in the speech bubbles. So we have to think carefully about which scenes really need to have it included.

For example, there's a scene in Chapter 1 of BORUTO with Konohamaru where his "Kore!" is taken the wrong way and repeated back to him. This conversation wouldn't make any sense without a translation of "Kore!", so we didn't cut it that time.

—Expressions like "dattebayo" and "Kore!" are unique to NARUTO, and not normally used in Japan, but how do you handle things that do exist in the Japanese language, such as the Kansai dialect used by the Sage Toads?

Morimoto: Translators and editors often debate how to express Kansai dialect in English, since there is no direct equivalent. My personal opinion is that Kansai dialect resembles the accent and manner of speaking used in the southern region of the United States, so I utilized that in my translation. I'm actually from the Kansai region myself, so I feel pretty confident about this (laughs).

—That's very interesting! Are there any other examples of unique translations you can tell us about?

Morimoto: Well, Master Guy's nickname, "Gekimayu", was translated as "Uber-Brows", but to be honest, it's been so long that I can't really remember if that was my translation or if a rewriter or editor changed it to that after the fact (laughs).

You've probably heard the word "uber" in connection to "Uber Eats", but it originally comes from the German word "über" and is used in English slang to mean something like "super".

Oh, and I thought of one more thing. The Fifth Mizukage misunderstands Ao when he says "根気/konki (tenacity)" and thinks he said "婚期/konki (marriageable age)". In English we used the term "old maid", which has a similar meaning to the Japanese pseudo-English term "old miss", as this was close enough in pronunciation to what Ao said to recreate the same misunderstanding.

—Now I'd like to talk about elements specific to Japanese culture that appear within the story and how you conveyed their meaning in English or localized them to make sense to a foreign audience. For example, there's a scene where Orochimaru asks the meticulous Kabuto if his blood type is A, since people sometimes judge a person's personality by their blood type in Japanese culture.

Morimoto: It's true that blood types aren't connected to personality in western culture, but there are personality tests that divide people into different types, so I replaced the blood type "A" with personality type "A" in the English translation.

However, while NARUTO is set in Japan due to it being a story about ninja, specific references to Japanese culture don't actually appear too often. I think one of the only truly Japanese things is Ichiraku Ramen, but since manga and anime fans are already pretty familiar with that level of Japanese culture, there wasn't a need to localize. Overall, we didn't have many struggles when it came to cultural elements.

—There was also a character based on a famous Japanese performer. Did that cause you any difficulties?

Morimoto: Ah, you must be referring to the Enka Ninja, Sabu-chan. Rather than his being a homage to enka performer Saburo Kitajima, I actually struggled more with how to translate the word "enka" itself.

As you can see in the following panels, an explanation of enka was already included in the story itself, but if we just used the romanization, the line's meaning wouldn't be conveyed. This is why we used the direct translation "en the ka" and added an annotation that explained how the Japanese word is a combination of the kanji for "perform" and "song".

Alexis: Hearing about Sabu-chan made me think of Killer Bee. When it came time to edit the final version of his raps, we had not only the letterer, translator, and editor team I mentioned earlier, but an advisor with experience in American cartoons working on them.

Morimoto: Since Killer Bee's lines are raps, in addition to preserving the Japanese meaning, we also had to make the English rhyme. Since America is the birthplace of rap, I felt a lot of pressure about these translations (laughs). It was really difficult, but fun at the same time.

—From what you've explained, it seems the way the story gets translated and localized in English depends heavily on the translator's personality and style.

Morimoto: Yes, that's true. There's a joke often said within the translation community that, "One script given to ten translators will get you 25 different translations," and it really is true. Occasionally I retranslate something I did previously and am surprised by how different it ends up being from my original work.

Also I think there are times when the translator's work experience affects translations. Like for me, I've been translating boys' manga for a long time, so when I do work for girls' manga, I sometimes end up using expressions that are a little too masculine. I think this happens because I'm used to writing lines for the rambunctious characters typical of boys' manga, but according to my mother it's because I'm a tomboy (laughs).

—Is there something you focus on or give more weight to when translating to help deal with the difficulties we've discussed?

Alexis: I mentioned this a bit earlier as well, but using phrases and expressions that fit the world of the story is something I keep in mind all the time.

Morimoto: From the series' beginning, Masashi Kishimoto wrote reference pages explaining the characters and world of NARUTO, not only for the volumes but also in the serialized chapters. These became an invaluable source of information about the story for translators, editors, and fans alike.

Instead of the usual dialogue, this one was just a wall of text, so it was a struggle on the translation front (laughs).

—Up until now we've talked about the translation and publishing process that took place as the NARUTO overseas version was released, but after looking back on that, is there anything you'd want to try differently if you had the chance to work on a new edition?

Morimoto: I'd like to put something explaining the Japanese meaning of the character, place, and jutsu names online or in the back of each volume. I'd list names like "Naruto" and "Sakura" that are just spelled phonetically with Japanese katakana, but I would especially want to explain names that use kanji. For example, Orochimaru's English name is just a romanized version of its Japanese pronunciation, but if the meaning of the kanji that compose it was explained as well, people could gain a deeper understanding of the name's origin and the character himself. I think only having the romanized pronunciation is unfortunate because it takes some of the fun out of things.

—The kanji in Orochimaru's name (大蛇丸) certainly reflect the jutsu he uses.

Morimoto: However, there are hardcore fans who will look up the name's meaning themselves. Those fans probably enjoy that process, so leaving some things unexplained for them to research on their own is also a valid option.

Alexis: With a series like NARUTO that's popular worldwide, deciding how much to translate and explain can get complicated. Since this franchise has so many fans, there's a wide range of differing opinions... Some people would like to see the kanji explained like Morimoto mentioned earlier, and the Japanese cultural aspects reflected as faithfully as possible, while others believe that making things easy for English speakers to read should be the top priority.

Morimoto: In the early days of NARUTO, most of the Japanese in the background like store names and various signs was translated into English, but as the series went on we began intentionally leaving more of that in Japanese. We translated anything important to the story into English, but Alexis and I both felt that leaving those details as is when possible would immerse readers more in the world of NARUTO and its Japanese culture. It truly is difficult to strike the perfect balance when deciding how much to translate.

—Following NARUTO, Alexis and Morimoto are currently working on the translation of BORUTO. I'm sure they will continue to encounter new challenges as they work to deliver the sequel series to NARUTO's devoted North American fans.