It’s been a year…

… and I missed my celebration! ??????(?????????) ?????????????!! I honestly wasn’t able to keep track of when I actually actively started this blog and it turned out that my site went in motion on August 23 and I forgot to celebrate. lol. I’ve been busy during the past few days as well due to the bookfair so the date just slipped away. Gomen ne. ^^;;

A lot has happened back when I started. Back then, I was on student allowance and now I’m fortunate to at least have something to sustain the hobby. lol. More so, there’s been a lot of developments in terms of manga in the Philippines.

In the past year since I started, there’s been a surge of English translated manga in the Philippines. Booksellers have become sophisticated in their choice of mangas and have started to bring in a lot of more popular titles as well as some to cater for those who have eclectic tastes (but trust me, just like in the US, finding them can be a total pain. -_-;;) . Another interesting thing to note is the resurgence of Japanese mangas in the Philippines through Manga Kissa 10 and the JFMO library. Although you won’t be able to buy the manga, at least you would have access to the weekly magazines and the likes.

But perhaps the most interesting development this year was the discovery of my friend while going through their local Japanese grocery. In this said grocery, they started selling tagalog translated volumes of Doraemon. The book is not as well printed as its American counterparts. If I have something to compare it with, it’s closer to the Malaysian manga releases. Not so sure if it’s the same for Indonesian prints. The paper’s closer to newsprint and the print was closer to that of the weekly magazines than it is that of a tankoubons. For the cheap price of P60 ($1.20) , it’s the best kind of print they can do.

In terms of translation, the manga turned out quite well. The conversations were casual and some things were appropriately contextualized. Mochi was turned to Bibingka ((a local rice cake, not the same texture but both are ‘essentially’ rice cakes)) and the translators were not afraid to use colloquial terms over those that would deem to be more proper in literature. Sound effects and variations thereof were also translated which made it all the more fun. In short, the translators made an effort to keep the spirit of Doraemon by sticking towards a translation that is closer to home. I hope that this characteristic and its cheap cheap price could spiral a new industry in the Philippines.

I just realized this morning that this was not the first tagalog translated manga in the Philippines. (Sorry about that Ed. ^^;;) Barefoot Gen was also published in the Philippines for a short while before the 80s. In fact there was a big effort after the war to distribute Barefoot Gen to the Filipinos to show the impact of the war to the Japanese, but I’m not so sure what happened afterwards. The choice to translate Barefoot Gen was more of a political effort than a commercial effort. What makes this Doraemon release special is the fact that it’s being released commercially. As I told Ed this morning, there are around 4 volumes available and this could be the start of something new for mangas in the Philippines. Many countries in South East Asia makes a big effort in translating Japanese manga to the local dialect. Indonesians has a bustling translated manga industry. The same goes for Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Malaysia. These countries have been ahead in the game, and it should be time for Philippines to follow suit. Hopefully… HOPEFULLY, this publisher could get more licenses with more titles and start publishing them here.