Mikan Watch #97: Witchcraft Works

Posted by DiGiKerot in Mikan Watch at October 26, 2015 on 7:19 pm


From volume 5 of the Witchcraft Works manga. It didn’t make the anime version, alas.


This one is interesting to me for probably uninteresting reasons. The above is, of course, from the official Vertical print of the manga (they’ve just got to volume 7, which means content not in the anime!), whilst this shot below is from the original Japanese print.


What I find somewhat amusing about this is that they made the decision translate the text on one of those boxes into English – the one which reads Otsuka Pears – whilst they elected to simply romanise the Mikan box – That is to say, it still says “Mikan” on it, only in the modern Latin alphabet that us weird English-types use. This is in sharp contrast to the usual tendency to either leave them well enough alone, or to translate it to “Oranges” or “Mandarins”.

There was another Mikan box in volume 4 as well, as it happens (ironically, containing a plot-significant item that is an apple. Also didn’t make the anime), but it didn’t have the amusing contrast in localisation approach.

It just makes me wonder if whoever is dealing with the localisation is aware of the whole “Mikan box” thing to a degree where they thought it amusing to leave it as is…


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