Yu-Gi-Oh!:Translation

Translation can be a very large problem for any project that has to deal with more than one language, and our own project is no exception. This page attempts to set forth exactly how editors are expected to approach translation, mainly between Japanese and English, but also for translating to other languages as needed.

The type of information which tends to be most contentious when being translated is names: mostly card names, but any name can generate discussion and spark controversy over the "best" translation to use. As a result, most of the advice on this page is presented specifically with translating names in mind.

It should be noted that, contrary to this page's name, its content does not exclusively prescribe translation. Rather, depending on the material and language(s) in question, the appropriate action could be any of translation, transliteration, or localization—and, most often, will be a mixture of all three.

Official names
It should first be noted that in all cases, the wiki defers to official names. An official name is any name which has appeared in an official media, most often the card game, anime, manga, or a video game, but also such things as advertisements, articles, or press releases and other announcements.

There are cases where one card, character, or object has more than one official name; in such cases, the wiki uses the most recent official name used, approximately according to the following order of precedence by media type: card game, anime, manga, video games, other media (though common-sense exceptions should be made: if, for example, a card's English name comes from an old video game, but it otherwise has had no English release, and a recent announcement or advertisement features the card with a different English name, the newer name should be used even though video games are generally preferred over announcements or advertisements).

General principles
In general, translation should strive to preserve the context and spirit of the original text, instead of reaching for some ideal of "perfect accuracy" (not only is this in most cases impossible, due to the fundamental differences in languages as different as Japanese and English, but most word-for-word translations, while technically accurate, nevertheless fall far short of being good translations because they do not preserve, or even attempt to emulate, puns and other wordplay or cultural or mythological references).

Non-Japanese OCG and English translations are generally derived from the original Japanese text, and non-English TCG translations may be derived either from the English text/translation or the original Japanese text (though normally the former is used).

Japanese
Yu-Gi-Oh! is a Japanese franchise, and most new information is in Japanese, which means most translation-related concerns will be in regards to translating from Japanese to English. General product information is often first posted and translated by NeoArkadia on NeoArkCradle and DuelistGroundz, and names in particular are then further discussed and refined by the Organization, a group of translators who have been in the fandom for years, and whose translations are used by the Dueling Network and several other areas of the fandom.

These are the translations which should be generally preferred on the wiki, unless a compelling case for ignoring the Organization translation is made. Editors who are interested in regular translation work are encouraged to introduce themselves to the Organization, at minimum to make their presence and interest known, and potentially to be added as associates.

The Organization
As a quick aside, to ensure that the right people get proper credit for their work, a quick rundown of the Organization: as previously mentioned, the Organization is a group composed of thirteen people and assorted assistants, most of whom discuss the preferred translations for Japanese card names, though several members act as liaisons between the Organization and other factions of the fandom.


 * Members
 * I - Pharaoh Atem/Atem (DGz, wiki) - translator
 * II - NeoArkadia/Ark (DGz, wiki) - translator
 * III - Dark Evangel/Eva (DGz) - translator
 * IV - Yuki/yzan424 (DGz) - translator
 * V - Deadborder (DGz) - translator
 * VI - Siulzen (DGz) - HQ images provider(?)
 * VII - ness00/ness (http://duelistgroundz.com/index.php?showuser=39390 DGz]) - rulings translator
 * VIII - Ryusui (DGz, wiki) - translator
 * IX - Cheesedude (DGz, wiki) - wiki liaison
 * X - Neonian (DGz) - Dueling Network admin and head of the card database team
 * XI - rei (DGz) - owner of DuelistGroundz
 * XII - Darkplant (DGz) - translator
 * XIII - kahu (DGz) - translator


 * Associates
 * AEtherchild/AE (DGz, wiki) - Dueling Network admin and database editor, rulings translator
 * Deltaneos (DGz, wiki)
 * Dinoguy1000/Dino/DG (DGz, wiki)