They are genderless and use masculine terms. Make of that what you will
The officially sanctioned translation uses neutral pronouns. We should update accordingly, just as we update names and phrases in favor of official Romanizations.
Edited by Observance
The official translation changes dialogue entirely just to fit in some weird-ass gender-neutrality that for the most part doesn't exist in the original publication. Not a particularly good source i reckon
...dude, we're literally talking about the official translation. You'd need some pretty convincent arguments to make it look like a bad source.
Like, official translations aren't always good, but your only claim against it is that gender neutrality is "weird" and it wasn't in the original. The first thing is subjective (and has some unfirtunate implications?) and the second one is not as straightforward as it looks: I've read the mangaka confirmed they are genderless. So I see no reason to not consider the official translation a valid source.
http://www.animefeminist.com/feature-land-lustrous-singular-politics-subtitles/
Recent interview with some localization staff saying using non gendered pronouns was a decision from on high. The direct quotes are in the first few paragraphs if you want them quick.
http://konomanga.jp/interview/8866-2 Additionally an interview with the author where she very much doesn't use gendered terms with her own characters.
This is very much a case where actual authorial intent is in favor of gender neutral terms. I don't really see any real ambiguity here unless someone is convinced that the old fan translations know more about the work than the actual people working on it.
The writer has repeatedly confirmed she interviewed those members of the localization staff. You can not agree with the rest of the article for your own reasons but the direct quotations tell the tale that the decision was Kodansha's directive and we should follow suit as we now have official translations, which we should have done in the first place like we do with every other article once official translations come out.
How to address the gems. Why aren't they addressed as "it" and "their"? I mean, they are genderless after all and such a being wouldn't have a concept of gender, especially considering how confused Phos got from seeing that snail's true form.
I mean... The version of the translated manga I have doesn't refer to the gems as "he" even once. Always using their names instead or "they", "you", "I"... Never "him" or "he".
I think the "he" label is the wrong way to describe them, just as much as the "she" form is wrong for them as well. Why is this not reflected in the page?
I mean, the official version is the "printed" version, right?
Hide / Show Replies