The One Piece manga has seen a recent translation error by Viz Media, the company in charge of translating the series to English. This mistranslation, however, could be one of the most notorious. This is particularly noticeable due to the long list of translation mistakes Viz has committed throughout the years with the manga medium, not just with this series.
Furthermore, considering that this Viz Media mistake was a very recent one in the One Piece manga, and involves the nine new Vice-Admirals mentioned in the Egghead arc, that makes this situation all the more egregious. This is due to how considerable translation mistakes in manga seem to be a continuing theme despite the industry becoming increasingly more popular in recent years in the West.
Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers for the One Piece series. Any opinion expressed here belongs to the author and not Sportskeeda.
Viz Media recently mistranslated the name of one of the new Vice-Admirals in the One Piece manga
The recent chapters of the One Piece manga, covering the Egghead arc, have introduced nine Vice-Admirals, one of them being a female known as Dhole, inspired by the Dhole dog, since those members of the Marine are always named after that type of animal. However, Viz Media had the character's name translated as "Doll," and although it sounds the same, it has a completely different connotation.
This isn't the first time that Viz Media has been criticized by the manga community because of poor translations. In fact, it is a running issue across multiple series. For example, chapter 220 of Jujutsu Kaisen had controversies because Viz Media misinterpreted a comment made by Shoko Ieiri, with their version suggesting she was in love with one among Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto, when the actual comment suggested the opposite.
There was another situation that happened with the One Punch Man series, specifically in chapter 156 of the manga, when Tatsumaki met Blast. It turns out that it wasn't Blast but rather God offering his powers to her, with the S-Rank heroine saying she knows he isn't who he claims to be. The entity was seen saying "yes" in the Viz Media translation, when it should be a sound of disappointment because Tatsumaki rejected the offer.
The importance of high-quality translations in manga
The recent One Piece mistranslation is not an isolated issue and is something that needs to be addressed by Viz Media. There have been a lot of poor translations throughout the years when it comes to manga and it has affected the way some stories have been received by the English-speaking audience.
When it comes to translations, they need to stay true to the intent and message of the author. After all, he or she is the creator of the story and the translation has to remain faithful to the original version, regardless of the language.