Thread:Gsimenas/@comment-34692810-20180214150322/@comment-34692810-20180214165802

Gsimenas wrote: For two main reasons: Any naming change on the wiki must be approved by an admin, usually after a community discussion, but the latter is not always necessary (such as when the author himself gives the official English name for a character/term/etc.). This is done to ensure that people don't change naming randomly because some subtitles or something used (incorrectly) some different naming, as well as to ensure that consistency is maintained on the wiki. On this wiki, the Yen Press translations are not considered to be on the level of an official translation in regards to naming. This is because 1) They can't be bothered to contact the Japanese side for actual official terms and instead prefer to use sources that make up their own terms (e.g., Crunchyroll); 2) Because of point #1, they have been wrong with their naming numerous times (e.g., Zexceed, Ronie, Algo, Xaxa - the last one was even given in the Western alphabet in the original text; still managed to mess up capitalisation); 3) They can't even be consistent with their own naming. They have three versions for the "official" name of The Army and three different names for the exact same quest. Bonus) They can't even maintain consistency with other "official" translations, such as "official" anime subtitles, e.g, http://swordartonline.wikia.com/wiki/Evil_Gods - three different "official" translations and all use different translations for the same term.  Because of reason #2, we are not obligated to use Yen Press's naming on the wiki. Instead, we may hold discussions on specific names/terms to adopt from them if their translation sounds better than what we're already using and there's no actual official source that says anything otherwise. That's why we have reason #1 in place.

The problem I see with this is several fold:

1) Official subtitles are generally swayed by popular terms or what is needed for English translation terms to avoid liplock even if they don't make sense. Such as using "Rasengan" instead of a localized translation because lip lock and cool sounding for Naruto. Or in case of SAO, pronoucing "PoH" as "Pooh" because of Japanese pronounciation despite the fact that makes zero sense in English. This is why printed works are generally the better source of material over animated works.

2) Many times translation of English terms are not correct or are exceptionally wordy because of how Japanese works. A great deal of time, Japanese tend to use overly wordy names because they don't always know a simpler version or because of how a lot of terms don't line up. Mountain Range at the Edge being changed to End Mountains for instance.

3) Japanese usage of English terms don't always sound good in English. This is because a lack of knowledge and terms making more sense when in Japanese. Mountain Range at the Edge for instance sounds exceptionally wordy and clunky for readers. This is why localization exists.

4) Yen Press books are sold for money within stores with the rights allowed firmly by Reki, his editors, and distributors to be the official version. And while there may be issues exact translators have, localization exists to not just translate but to make sense to English speaking audiences. Unless massive edits happens to the original text for censorship - see Pokemon - there's no reason to consider the terms used for the Yen Press to not be considered the official version and spelling.

5) As for inconsistencies and spelling - generally speaking, most versions go with the most used or last used within the works. Errors do occur in all writing. Noteably was within Harry Potter when the appearance of key characters was put in reverse from the correct order because the author and editor couldn't remember the correct order.

With all that in mind, it comes across more along the lines of having a preferance for literal fan translations over official works because of them being the first translations that you are used to over official works.