Hydrogenium's Blog Attempt

[Hydrocotyle]

^ Hi Catz! And welcome lol!

---

I KNEW IT WAS MAYA THE BEE!!! When you said furry bee anime that was the first thing that popped into my head XD The CGI adaptation gives me the heebie jeebies I hate it lmao

Spoiler

...it's just for the lolz.

---

Hydro I never knew you had a fish!! I'm excited to hear about all you have planned but... more fishy info if you please sometime ..

Three! They are a white one white with an orange diamond-shaped spot on its head, an orange one with black fin tips, and just an orange one - but more intense colour. I don't think any of them is any standard variety of a goldfish (they have fancier tails and that's all).

Bought them this summer (...a memorable experience of this year). They were so much smaller when I bought them lol, I wonder how much they are going to grow...

I had two goldfish for a few years some years ago, one much longer than the other. It was a very memorable pet... lifechanging I would say, it might sound like an overstatement, but I wholeheartedly know it is not...

I always wanted an aquarium. When I was like twelve? my mum bought me one as a reward for getting accepted to a school. It has twenty litres, I had shrimps in it for the majority of the time I'd say. But I had no shrimps for a while now. I think it was at the beginning of this year I completely cleaned it after doing nothing with it for almost a year or longer maybe, I changed the substrate for the first time too. The only thing that was there from the beginning is Anubias barteri nana on a wood, perhaps only the wood, it is possible I replaced the plant, but still, I had this one for a very long time now and I do not remember replacing it, and I think I would remember as aquarium plants are very expensive. I barely touched the aquarium since, but the plants seem to be doing really well!

I also have two little, like five litres?, 'aquariums' for betas but they are currently dry. I have my fish in a... well, it is a really big outdoor flower pot filled with water! So like a little indoor pond!

The shrimps I had, had the same species always, and for quite a long time, they were Caridina japonica or Caridina multidentata - Amano shrimp! They are named after the aquarist who popularized them, as a way to regulate algae. They are really good at keeping an aquarium clean!!

Spoiler: Photos for you!

I no longer have nice plants like these... very old photos! (Also I was probably wrong about the Anubias, it's missing on the photos...)

This is something I could bore you guys with forever lol. Thanks for asking about my fish, Lisia!!

 

[Hydrocotyle]

Anyway, back to the fact that the year is ending soon... and there are some things I want to post about before that happens, and these are:

• one of the best anime I've seen this year, sort of a recommendation-style review
• music, set your expectations low for that if you're into music
• also, one short movie
• there are more things, but I'm not sure...

music, set your expectations low for that if you're into music

How does one tell whether a piece of music is good or bad? I didn't know until my sister told me something one teacher said. That if you listen to a song, and you don't understand the lyrics, and you don't have any 'aesthetic experience' from the music, then it wasn't a song for you... chances are it was "bad" too. So the answer to something I wondered about for quite a long time was this simple? Perhaps it's more complicated, but at the same time, it is this simple.

And this post is simple. To emphasise the message. Just kidding. I have much more to say on the topic, but it somehow feels too personal. I don't feel like saying more for that reason. So that's it for today. Have a nice weekend everyone!!

 

[Hydrocotyle]

All right! Typing this from my phone, so hopefully this’ll be readable… The forums are terrible on a phone for me, I cannot believe I joined from a phone!! I joined from the phone I had before I broke it in a very stupid way (I haven’t physically damaged it though) which left me without a phone with internet connection for like a year I suppose, so I haven’t even seen the mobile version of the forums in quite a while! I got a mobile phone for Christmas and it was the first time getting one for Christmas for me, hopefully last, too… I don’t know, is it just me or are phones these days made to last no longer than like… five years? They are always adding new and new features, so the devices get quickly outdated so when one’s breaks, why should one be bothered by getting it fixed when it’s much easier and „better“ getting a new device? It would be probably nearly impossible to get it fixed once it gets „outdated“ anyway… Rather messy way of saying what I mean, but I suppose you have at least seen the advertisements for the newest mobile phones – it’s quite apparent from them what mentality the companies want the people to have. …Forget about all of this, don’t listen to me (ever).
So, I have a phone that is fully functioning, I mean, you can still make a phone call from my Nokia Asha 501, by „fully functioning“ I mean functioning to the degree my mum considers necessary, which is quite a lot of functions… I just hope this phone will not break within the first year of usage… Seriously, I have no idea how can someone consider „the technology these days“ (imagine whatever you want under this expression) to be 100% reliable… I have no reason to do so as my laptop decided to randomly broke, and it’s not its first time doing so. Unlike the last time, it’s still usable – what happened is that now, somehow, the only way for me to connect it to the internet is through USB tethering (using my phone, and my phone always charges during this and I’m worried it’ll have a negative impact on it’s battery life).
Agggghhhh enough of this!!
You might already know there are posts I wanted to post here while it’s still 2023… not happening. I thought that’s something I will be upset about but I am not, as I have grown a lot as a person during this year, and in my incredible maturity, I simply changed my mindset about these and accepted the things as they are, decided to post later (spent hours crying because of this) O.K. O.K. just kidding of course… but I do feel like I experienced some personality growth this year… and it’s thanks to people from bulbaforums as well <3
I was almost sure I’d be upset if I didn’t post here one more time this year! So, something at least!!
It was a special day today! (It still is.) I got like… three hours of sleep tonight, needed to get up early as we were picking up a dog we have adopted! I have already convinced my mum to get me a dog, that it’ll be O.K. as I’ll leave her house in a couple of years, and the animal with me, and we planned to get one next year but change! It’s next to me right now, sleeping. I won’t tell you how I named my dog as that information could be detrimental to your health… about dog names some other time, I’m kind of worried I won’t be able to post this in 2023 my time zone if I go on tangents like this! That’s why this might be a terrible post a) not using Grammarly, b) Word on my phone, cannot switch the language to English, my only spellcheck is the phone keyboard, glad I installed the Eng one as writing in English with Czech autocorrect?! No. That’s a terrible experience. (Using phone instead of laptop so I can be on the floor – USB cable + a pup? No.)
Czech Word that’s why „this“. Worried there’s no enough time to make revisions to this post. Just copy paste. Hmm the paragraphs are kind of stylised like in Czech too.
I never believed I could get a big dog before living on my own… But yes! It’s a mixbreed, so I have no idea, hmm kinda resembles Belgian shepherd? Probably will reach around that size, considering her current size and age. She’s so amazing
So 2024 soon, huh? Once, I made a… prediction, an educated guess I’d say, and I came to a conclusion that 2024 will be an amazing year for me, and so far, everything suggests that I was right! I hope it’ll be an amazing year for you too <3
This year, I watched one anime that reminded me about one very important thing about myself. As a result, I was able to decide what I want to do once I finish my current school, as if, the level of education. So that’s my achievement of 2023, one of them, I’d say the biggest one maybe?
Anyway: I wish you a good 2024!! I don’t remember what the most common wishes are in English so, I suppose in Czech the most unoriginal wish to new year would go as: „Všechno nejlepší do nového roku!“ All the best to the new year! I might be biased, but „všechno nejlepší“ is a good wish, even when extremely overused! So, all the best to you
Oh, right, I remember now, it’s „Happy new year!“ Happy new year too of course!!

 

[Hydrocotyle]

^ The post above is... Well, definitely a post. Still somehow happy I made it even though it’s such a mess!

Weekend!! But there are a few things I wanted to get done (this' one of them) and I finally have some real free time soooo...

Also, I'd like to do a post here about my... 'personal creative projects', let's say... It's just something I want to talk about, but I never do lol.

I decided to have a creative “start of the year” (first post of 2024 here!!) sooooooo... Where to start ^^; I’d like to make a comic!! Attempts were made already but that’s not what I want to talk about today (or, maybe, ever?? lol!) I’d like to talk about my projects to get motivated (to remind myself why they’re worth all the work) and to sort things out... While this is something I’m excited to talk about all the time, I rarely do!! If that makes sense – I suppose you know “creators who love their characters talking about them” so that, kind of, let’s say- I... I should actually strat, right?!

The first one... Is first because it’s the one I’d like to focus on this year!! My goal is to design all the characters and... environments, it’s called? Locations and interiors. That’s “environments”. It’s “smaller” compared to other projects. It’s based on a story I’ve written for my English class. The original story... Is sure something. I wrote it without planning anything, the writing process was like: oh, this is cool, let’s add that! And this, to have some progression of the story... and I’ve been working on it for three days now, I should hurry up and explain all these things so they make sense somehow and write a resolution of all these plot lines :thinking It’s not the best piece of writing but I still like it a lot!! But it starts with a dream so that’s... Not something I’m a fan of. Actually, when I finished writing it, I was very seriously considering sharing it here!! I was that proud. But... Years have passed already and you still wouldn’t find it in the Writers’ Workshop. My teacher ended up liking it a lot so that was great! I’m still considering rewriting the original story but I’m afraid it would “lose its identity” as I’d probably change it a lot – I don’t want to contradict myself – as I don’t really like the story, there are just some aspects of it I really, really like... Taking these aspects, I created the story for my comic. Now back to writing about writing: I thought writing it as a purely written work first might be a good idea as a) I think taking the time to explore many different possibilities for the plot and characters is worth it – visual storytelling and writing are different, but I don’t think it would translate badly from one to another, at least in the case of my story. Exploring it in different mediums... that’s what I want!! b) it started with a written work so... I'd like to see the story inspired by the original short story as a written work as well!

I already worked on the comic... last year- no, a year before that, or maybe even before... Anyway, it led nowhere as I haven't planned it properly and got stuck. I have a couple (literally) of character designs done, others are done? with question mark.

Aghhhh, I started writing this some time ago, left it unfinished and finished it only now! I wanted one long post about whatever I'm working on but... I also wanted to post at least this this month!! Ah, seems like this place will turn into a 'creative blog' of sorts for a bit, lol. Sorry for that!

 

[Hydrocotyle]

There sure is a couple of interesting... 'typing choices' in the yesterday's "blog entry"

No, not editing them, it's what it is! lol

Anyway, third phone blog post!! It'll turn out amazing this time because it's very short and... Advertising time

I made a tumbler blog for my photos, it's password protected because tumbler is too big and that's scary... I'd make a thread for my photos here but I'd need to scale them down as pictures that big cannot be uploaded + spoiler tags, I'm lazy lol just kidding, tumbler- oh no I just realised I'm spelling tumblr wrong! Oh, anyway, tumblr has multiple appearance options and I wanted to showcase my photos in style!! The pictures still lose quality, but not that much as they would if I posted them here, I believe?

So, here you go, the link!!

Tumblr

Tumblr is a place to express yourself, discover yourself, and bond over the stuff you love. It's where your interests connect you with your people.

hydrogenium-fotografie.tumblr.com

CONTENT WARNINGS FOR INSECTS AND REPTILES!!!!

The password:

Spoiler

(I highly recommend using desktop)
(I add photos irregularly, not too often)
(I sometimes forget how to spell 'photography' and alike words ^^; just ignore that if you encounter something like that there)

...and that's all!!

 

[Catz]

Woahh, these are beautiful, Hydro! You should get some of these framed...

 

[Hydrocotyle]

Glad you like these, Ivory!

To be honest, my photos mean a lot to me as they hold many memories and I always genuinely enjoy taking them...

(Just wait for that portrait of a cormorant--

 

[opaliteskyes]

Why did I get happy when I understood what “fotky” meant…

anyways, these are so pretty hydro!

 

[Hydrocotyle]

So, my very last post of this year — no, my very first post of this year!! (Ahh, depends on the time zone LOL)

Anyway, my first post in a while! (Hi ^^; ) I could have just posted and pretend like that wasn't the case and say nothing about it, but I decided I kind of don't like that option? So I'll just say, I was busy failing my math class I guess?

...yes, this'll do as an icebreaker post — anyway, happy new year!!!! (Because it is 2025 where I am already..)

 

[Hydrocotyle]

A solid blog entry? Nah, all of my blog posts are gaseous or liquid. But still — my ambition is to write something better today than what I wrote yesterday while hiding from fireworks in bathroom (sitting on the edge of a bathtub is certifiedly uncomfortable).

I stayed up past midnight, like yesterday, today with the intention to tidy up my room. I don't know since when taking stuff out of shelves and boxes qualifies as "tidying up", but that's what I did... I hoped to organise my things...? Did not really happen.

By doing so, I once again confirmed that I have a lot of sketchbooks and notebooks, mostly ones with some sort of projects and not even half filled, or empty ones, or just chaos. (Or ones with school notes.)

On an unrelated note, I read the Death Note manga last year! But let's not go on a tangent about it now, but later — because, I would like to post here regularly, (like weekly?) don't pay me any mind, I just kinda enjoy writing this sort of stuff.

I won't really be active elsewhere on the forums though because of school stuff — I have the Maturita exam this year, finally! It's not that big of a deal, but it's made to be a really big of a deal, especially by my school I guess, if you know what I mean.

So, the exam — that's why I have so many classical literature books in my room, too! ...need to (should) read twenty books in total and I've only read two from the list so far...

Anyway, I guess I'll keep it exactly this short today — have a good day or night ^^

 

[Hydrocotyle]

Yesterday, my brother told me "wow, you'll have a 1000 day streak on Duolingo tomorrow" and yeah – but how could I have a 1000 streak and no new blog post?!

My Very Cool Amazing Post I have been working on for a while now is still nowhere near finished because yeah, I had the right idea back when I was starting this blog, thinking there would be no polished, long Blog Entries for me..

Aside from the classic problems I suppose one could have when writing something one wants to be good and polished, I've been getting this feeling recently (it hasn't started exactly 'recently') when English feels so foreign to me and I doubt whether what I wrote makes any sense at all...

Hm– just a-note-to-self here, I guess!! Will stick to my 'bad' blog entries for the majority of the time! I'd still like to finish what I already wrote though, and some other stuff I mentioned before here (idk what all it was though, and I have a little rule to not read my older blog entries –or older posts in general, really– because— ...because? Let's just say "cringe").

To have something that sounds cool and deep and meaningful in this post: As a creative person (–dare I call myself that!), I feel like giving up is simultaneously very difficult and the easiest thing.

 

[Hydrocotyle]

It's February already, which means I definitely should start doing something "productive" but I don't want toooo : (

Anyway, I've got a plushie and it's cuteeeeeeee

Spoiler

...

Ehm, so... I have a cupboard (I don't exactly know English furniture names help) in my room that's actually a bookcase but there was a bit of 'everything' in there aaaand so, I've spent the last few days organising my stuff so that there would be only books there (but I wanted my magazines there, too!!) I wanted to have my little book collection in one place — which didn't happen, the bookcase's too small, but it's nicer the way it's now I think!

The other things, I just put into a big box today and considered this arc of me–tidying–up–my–room–series finished —_— I'm tired (I'm bad at tidying up).

Also, I've spent around 2 000 CZK on books this year already, hmm, even though I was like "I'm not buying anything else this year!" after the first purchase LOL

I actually won't buy any more now, I think... (Btw it's not super much money actually — and more than fair for what I bought I'd say)

Anyway, hope you'll have a nice February ^^

 

[Hydrocotyle]

I'm not one to exactly care about music, but IC3PEAK has a new album and it's great bc ofc I mean it's IC3PEAK– T–T

...

I've been playing Pokémon UNITE with my brother like, every day this week – you know, younger siblings; I just cannot say no to "dO YOu wAnt To PLaY POkéMoN UNITE WiTh mE?!" though it's getting annoying... And it's spring break, so. (Also he read that Suicune is coming to the game from somewhere this morning and pronounced it as "Susan"... I should say nothing, I read it as "Sue-sign" just today. It's spelled confusing )

I got a betta yesterday!! It's really good-looking and active but my tank is very small which makes me kinda sad.. It has nice plants at least... Also, I've seen people using smaller (oh no!) Anyway, I have an aquarium that's just the right size (remember?) but it's in my room and I need to have the window open when I sleep so the water gets too cold (I'm more of a coldwater fish person, you see...) >_< So using it for a betta is a no-no until it's summer I guess...

Anyway, have a good day or night, everyone!

 

[Hydrocotyle]

So! I have a house now, as of yesterday?! (A small flat, not a 'house'.. and it's just rented so I don't 'have' it, but still!! Yay) I was worried I wouldn't find a place to live near my university T–T and I needed to move since it's at the other end of the country from where I live now (that sounds super dramatic, right? But "other end of the country" translates to "six hours by train" in Czechia LOL)...

I did not do my maturita exam from one subject and was rather upset (←understatement of the decade) but idk nothing happened it's not a big deal actually and basically nothing changes for me? So, that's it.. (My maturita essay from English was flawless though and I'm still proud because of that eheheheh ^_^; also got super lucky in literature, I happened to choose one of the like four topics I actually knew enough about out of the twenty topics (also yes I did not manage to read all the books from my list)).

And uh em oh it's June? That means the next month is Art Fight!! I hope to do something so that there's more on my profile than one character who doesn't even have a reference sheet, just one full body drawing (it worked just fine like that so far, though... I'm mainly interested in drawing people's characters rather than getting art of my OC's, and if someone wanted to do revenge they would just draw that character lol) I really hope to draw more overall, and actually post, too, to do the "'online artist' thing"... Guess I just need to try, huh?

Anyway, I hope you have a good day or night ^^

 

[Hydrocotyle]

Spoiler

This is health hazard at this point.....?? I haven't touched it for like a year (BUT MY ANUBIAS IS THRIVING––) I'll go clean it now, hope there's no mold, or at least not too much mold lol

I'm hoping to put my Betta in my bigger tank for summer!! (It needs a lot of cleaning if it's supposed to be habitable for him, as you can see, but oh I'll feel bad for ruining the ecosystem in there lol..

 

[Hydrocotyle]

Spoiler: Update

took me about four hours yesterday and yes this photo is from a different angle I can't bring myself to take a proper picture now there's always some reflection on the glass!!

I used orange juice to remove those white stains (from minerals in the water.. what is it called...) and now I'm questioning the safety of it's consumption LOL

I wonder how those thin grass-like plants (Eleocharis) will grow, they are among new plants I bought recently (the reason why I have almost no money now... So I really hope at least some of them will last!)

 

[Hydrocotyle]

My lobelia cardinalis is melting ;–; some plants seem like they will last but it's too soon to tell and;;;; I've definitely messed up this time but that won't happen again also I think in vitro plants are worth investing into actually (2× the price though....) because I've bought in vitro hydrocotyle tripartita months ago and it's doing super well. All the plants I bought the last time were regularly planted (and I couldn't bring myself to re-plant them immediately so that's why. Now it's kinda bad) ((Hope I make sense.))

I'm currently... reading a manga in a language I don't know....? (Is that how I choose to spend my free time? lol) It's better than I expected, just a bit slow — second day of reading for a few hours and I'm halfway through? (Why do I like question marks so much today?) I remember I once spent my whole day reading one volume of Demon Slayer manga and it was in my first language but that was years ago and I'm a much faster manga reader now (consuming text, and consuming text AND pictures are two completely different skills!!!!)

Anyway, I'll finish this later because it's midnight now and;;;;;; I've been writing that one paragraph for almost ten minutes now which is either a sign it's too late for me to write or that I underestimated how bizarre that first claim sounds and confused myself......??

Have a good day or night, everyone!

 

[Hydrocotyle]

Months ago, I wouldn't say I have a "manga collection" — just some manga, but not a "collection" (not that there's any official requirement for A Collection or something!!). But over the last –hmmmm not "few months", it took almost around half a year?– it changed, and I do have a manga collection now. It's relatively very small (though I probably don't have a solid point of reference for size) but I do not have any intentions of significantly expanding it — not anytime soon, at least, as I will probably want to get a whole manga series/a portion of it when I find any I really like, adding which would be a rather "significant expansion" considering the current size? Not to get off topic — what I wanted to say was that I have only one manga in English.

Ok that makes sense maybe because why would I even want to have English language manga when I don't live in an English-speaking country? (Am I asking rhetorical questions in my blog entry FR?) The thing is: there are reasons why one might not prefer/avoid manga in Czech.

The reason that seems the most apparent, would be the translation — and I'd like to emphasize something I think is important because there are people who believe Czech-language-anything is inferior to stuff in English (ok, I hope there's actually not many people who are like that, and the ones who are are still kids who are just getting that impression for some reason lol). Anyway — there are definitely VERY bad Czech translation of manga, and ones that are... not very good but still O. K. Which I think is the majority, maybe, I don't know; after one experience with the first category, I don't prefer Czech translations. BUT. that doesn't mean I think that non-Czech translation = automatically good! It's just.... You don't even notice a bad translation if it's not your first language....?

Ok, not that true... Also, if they kept Japanese honorifics, you just know the translation IS BAD— I won't go on a rant about that but that's just not how translating works. Feel free to challenge my views if you have a different opinion, I'm very far from changing mine but I'm not completely opposed to doing so : ))

Anyway; the 'translation reason' also includes the horror level stuff like. Text overlapping speech bubbles. Using font that doesn't support specific diacritics. Translating from English. Those are not common? I've heard of them, though, and I think it doesn't happen at all with publishers specialised in manga. Yea that's not translation specific just... I don't think I'd ever buy manga published by the company that did that...?

The second reason would be that less manga has been translated to Czech than to English. It's not like there's no variety or something though, but, uh, there's a list (under 'seznam') on this Wikipedia page if you're interested, and it's not exactly a lot? Another thing is that,,,,,,, I'm not exactly sure how to say it. POKESPE has been first published in 2020 here. Waiting is fine but,,,, I think you get the idea! A lot of series just started publishing recently?

Ok so, why do I have only have one manga in English: they're quite expensive as far as I know! The Czech-translated-ones aren't the cheapest option, either, unless you buy them second hand (they're also usually the only option if you want to buy a second hand manga here?).

So..... The third option is manga in German. I'd say I know German, but ever since my last post, I've been questioning what does it mean to "know" a language? Not to get on another tangent now, so, I'll just be more specific and say I had German classes at school for several years, and there were times when I was actively interested in the language, but still,,,,, I'd say my level is A2 at best lol—

The majority of manga I have physically are in German. And so, when I found a manga I wanted to buy, I went on my online shop of choice and then I saw the German edition? (is that the word I want to use? I'm not super sure) looks noticeably different from the English one... The font used for the title on the cover was very big, thick, and bold — imagine text from a YT video thumbnail....? It was... Definitely a design choice, all right (the original ehm... "edition" used a rather delicate font, not one that looked like a wall) So after some consideration,,,, I decided to buy the manga in Polish. I've never formally/seriously learnt Polish. I definitely cannot speak the language. Still, I bought it because,,,,, I should understand Polish, right? It's similar to Czech, and not only like, both slavic!!, but, actually similar/said to be understandable to a Czech speaker with some effort... And, yeah, it was actually easier to read than I expected? (Though I'm not sure what I even expected...) I needed a dictionary less than I dared to hope I would LOL.

 

[cinderace]

really cool to hear you’re starting a manga collection!! i also have one, i understand the woes of prices :,) i’m trying really hard to get fhe rest of witch hat atelier anywhere for cheaper but alas, there’s not much. i only speak/read english so im pretty limited to those lmfao

Ok, not that true... Also, if they kept Japanese honorifics, you just know the translation IS BAD— I won't go on a rant about that but that's just not how translating works. Feel free to challenge my views if you have a different opinion, I'm very far from changing mine but I'm not completely opposed to doing so : ))

also i hope you don’t mind haha, but im really curious on why you feel that way! i honestly prefer when things keep the jp honorifics sometimes because there’s just not an easy way to translate some of them, buutttt i also see the point in that the point of translating is to convey the same meaning in a different language. i also have a, very very very basic jp knowledge, so it might just also be that the honorifics come naturally to me whereas someone who’s never read manga before might be like “what does this mean?” lol (in general, not specifically you!) but yeah i’m curious to hear exactly why you think that if you don’t mind sharing!

 

[Hydrocotyle]

^ ooh Witch Hat Atelier!! I was thinking of getting that manga for my sister (she lets me read hers eheheh and the series looks like it could be her kind of thing). I've heard it's gooooood and it looks really nice!

I wish you good luck finding it for cheap somewhere — from my experience, it's easier once the series is finished/older (←more available secondhand if you don't mind read/ex library) but I totally understand not wanting to wait lol!

also i hope you don’t mind haha

DW, I wouldn't say that otherwise before : ) also posts from others are totally fine on this blog!!

Now to the question.... Firstly, I believe a translation should be more than just a translation! As you said, it should "convey the same meaning in a different language" but not only the meaning, it should have the same feel to it, the same implications — basically, I'd say the goal is to "make an adaptation in a different language" rather than just change the language, if that makes sense?

I sometimes feel like a good translation should change more compared to the original — an example (a rather extreme one though, lol: imagine translating idioms rather than replacing them with an idiom used in the target language (that would be "walking around hot porridge" instead of "beating around the bush" or "crying on the wrong grave" instead of "barking at the wrong tree" if I use Czech idioms as examples — they do have a the tiniest bit of different implications/feel to them (as they also originated differently) but the loss of nuance is 100% worth it in my opinion (just. imagine seeing "You're making me your ass!?" instead of "Are you kidding me!?" in a book))

I'm getting off topic.

Leaving Japanese honorifics is not the same crime as literally translating idioms, of course —_— My point was that translation should be as familiar as possible rather than as close to the original as possible

i also have a, very very very basic jp knowledge, so it might just also be that the honorifics come naturally to me whereas someone who’s never read manga before might be like “what does this mean?”

I don't think someone who is 100% unfamiliar with the concept of Japanese honorifics would get to reading a manga lol I have a feeling that everyone who picked up a manga has already watched some subbed anime or something or is at least very open to exploring... Might have the wrong impression because anime/manga was still considered super nerdy in my country the last time I interacted with a larger group of people on a daily basis. What I wanted to say is that I think confusing readers is not that big of a concern! I feel like many people have only very basic understanding of jp honorifics (idk about you, of course!) while they are more nuanced than just. meaning one and the same thing always. that's also basically the same as »insert a title here«. You might as well throw the nuance away in the translation right away, and it even has the bonus of being less awkward/more understandable (at times) or more familiar to readers. (Ashy-boy is basically iconic what would the kids watching anipoke think if they kept Satoshi-kun?!)

Anyway, I might have forgotten something... I don't mind continuing this discussion at all, if you have any questions/arguments!! English is not my first language so I don't know how well the Eng translations of jp honorifics sit with people who are! But, generally speaking, everything one language can express can be expressed in a different language, sometimes just with more words needed. It's also important to keep in mind that language is not just for communication, it's a part of culture (I'm... I'm not getting into the Czech National Revival chapter(s) of Czech history (translating stuff was a big part of that), but learning about that my whole life, living in a country that treasures it's language so much... It affects you and your views, yup, definitely!)

Anyway, my opinion on keeping jp honorifics in English translations is not set in stone, but I cannot ever see it working in Czech/maybe slavic languages in general for a couple of reasons (which probably also affects my view, but translation solutions are definitely not universal by any means!!).

Firstly: declension. There are seven grammatical cases that modify the ending of words, including names. Would you... Change the honorific word... Or... Just the name and leave the honorifics without change...? Both would be rather awkward, or "linguistically disgusting" as people say! I'm not saying downright incorrect but... Uhm, no, I don't exactly wanna see that please. Also declension of foregin names/words of foregin origin can be tricky enough I don't think anyone wants to deal with that on top of that lol

Secondly.... There are "politeness levels of speech" that go beyond titles and such in many languages... Iirc English had that and discontinued that lol? If you want to be formal, you'd address the person in third person plural, or second person plural in Czech specifically, third person plural was used historically though so it's also an option, the specifics depend on the language. That already gives you some idea of what the relationship between the characters is in a way that's natural in the language.....

I hope it was understandable, it's already late here so sorry if it's,,,,, not. Have a good day/night!!