Manga Transdub Theater

Translating, performing, and recording Japanese public domain comics

Manga Transdub Theater originated from several issues I encountered as a scholar and teacher of early Japanese comics:

• Difficulty accessing prewar manga, not just in translation, but in Japanese as well. Much of the materials are archival in nature and have not been reprinted since their original appearance. MTT is, in part, an attempt to create a modern, broadly accessible medium for these materials.
• The skewed nature of which manga get translated. Until very recently, Anglophone publishers were mostly focused on localizing comics for teenage boys and girls. Historical comics, instructional comics, and comics for children are almost completely absent from English language print catalogs.
• Lack of context for the media landscape in which older comics were produced. In an academic setting, much more is needed beyond the printed text in order to gain a full understanding of the historical background in which media are created and disseminated.

MTT, then, leverages my skills as a scholar, translator, performer, and media producer in an effort to rectify these issues and show a new way to do comic translation for public consumption.

Inspirations

Katsudō Benshi - Movie Narration

When trying to conceptualize a model for how to perform comic translations for video, I immediately gravitated to the silent film era practice of "narrating" motion pictures, what in Japanese is referred to as benshi. In fact, I included the term in my own translation for Manga Transdub Theater into Japanese, Eiyaku Manga Benshi (Comic Benshi [in] English Translation), as a way of paying homage to this historical practice. Benshi has its appeal as a formal practice, but it is also a way to think of comic translation in terms of direct public engagement.