WHAT IS REHEATED?

 

Hi! I'm Slade. Dorohedoro is both my favorite anime and manga, though I started with the anime back when it came out in 2019. There's a good chance you may not know this but the manga is in desperate need of an updated translation (official VIZ release is riddled with mistranslations/stupid decisions) and I’ve teamed up with a letterer to make it happen.

The full name of this project is "Dorohedoro Reheated Edition". We’re accepting any and all assistance! Contact info and all relevant links like our MangaDex group etc. will be at the end of this post. As for my history with Dorohedoro, along with how and why this project began? Well…

I became a huge fan 5 minutes into the first episode and I re-watched the anime once every six months until I decided to finally read the manga with my best friend in the Summer of last year. Two chapters into the manga I got curious as to what the Japanese version was like—it took me 6 years of studying to get fluent in Japanese, thought I might as well make use of it—so I started reading the raws alongside the official VIZ translation. I noticed a mistranslation or two, an error here and there, nothing out of the ordinary. Stuff like this happens even with official translations, nobody's perfect. But as I kept reading I started noticing even bigger mistakes, the mistranslations were getting atrociously bad and don't even get me started on Noi calling Shin "Boss" instead of "Senpai". The SFX were weird and didn't make sense most of the time (e.g. "SQUEEE" at the bottom of the panel on page 5, chapter 1. What the fuck is squee supposed to mean?) which sparked my doubts that the translators even knew Japanese that well.

I have my doubts that they even read the chapters fully. Not only did it feel like the translation was done by 10 different people (all of whom had terrible Japanese) because of how disconnected most chapters were from each other in terms of plot and character interactions, but what's worse is it felt like they didn't understand what Dorohedoro was about in the first place. It was as if the translators were translating purely by raw text, just the script, without any images/drawings/actual manga whatsoever.

I was fucking angry. Comparing every chapter to its raw equivalent infuriated me to the point that I'd have to vent for 10-15 minutes to my best friend after we'd finish that day's chapter.

I'd tell myself that it couldn't get any worse and it somehow always managed to get much, much worse. Small yet no less important details like Fukuyama being referred to with female pronouns aside, the entire plot was getting mistranslated to the point that it quite literally felt like I was reading two different manga between the VIZ translations and the raws.

I have to thank my best friend for helping me power through the disgust, rage and frustration that accumulated due to just how fucking bad the translation was. We read through it all in two months. It was wonderful. Stunningly unique art, genuine characters and a one-of-a-kind story: Hayashida is a genius and Dorohedoro really is a masterpiece in my eyes...

...That's what I say now, though after having freshly finished reading I only had one thought in my head that overpowered all others. "I need to retranslate this." I had to do it from the ground up. I had to fix all the mistakes and mistranslations. I had to breathe life into the characters and make their dialogue reflect their individuality, their realism. I had to make the translation feel as close as possible to the experience the original Japanese raws offered. I had to give this magnificent manga the translation it deserved.

It took a while since I was busy graduating but I finally took the first steps towards making that dream come true. I made a post on the Dorohedoro Discord server and ended up meeting Brobot500. I'm the translator and he's the letterer. Our two (for now) person group HELLGYOZA has room for anyone who loves Dorohedoro and wants to help out! If you're interested then please DM or email either of us. We are currently in need of:

Redrawers

Cleaners

Proofreaders/Quality Checkers

Donators (To pay for the digital manga volumes which we use for our releases.)

The first three chapters are ready for you all to read, and we'd love to hear what you think. Any and all criticism is welcome. You're free to compare them with both the VIZ translations and any fan translations you can find.

Our goal is to provide the highest quality translations that both capture the essence of the manga/characters and have just the right amount of localization without compromising Hayashida's original intent for any given panel, while being readable and aesthetically pleasing to the eye. I'll be documenting all the big mistakes/mistranslations and compiling them all into one big megafolder (will probably turn it into a YouTube video detailing just how dangerous low quality translations can be and why bigger companies like VIZ should be more careful about this kind of stuff) for you all to see.

Brobot and I are both busy people and perfectionists so expect chapter releases semi-frequently. The more people we have on board the faster we can pump out chapters!

If you've read this far then thank you for your time and attention. I hope you have fun reading our take on Dorohedoro. Feel free to share this with anyone even remotely interested in this franchise. See you soon!

TL;DR Official Dorohedoro translation bad. My translation good. Read and enjoy.

Our MangaDex: https://mangadex.org/group/8331b8ed-8756-4ae3-9e01-bfe1d1334dca/hellgyoza

Our Discords: sldae, brobot500

Our email: drhdrreheated@gmail.com