Fan and Official Translations of KonoSuba: God’s Blessing on This Wonderful World! 

Abstract: In the field of manga translation there are official translations and translations by fans, so called scanlations. Traditionally, official translations tended to use domesticating strategies, while scanlations tended to be foreignized. This study examined potential recent trends in the usage of foreignization and domestication strategies in the official translation and scanlation of KonoSuba: God’s Blessing on This Wonderful World! to see if there are any changes in these known tendencies. It also attempted to see the connections between the usage of those strategies to the quality of the translations. It did so by collecting cases of onomatopoeia and mimetic words, culture-specific items, honorifics, order of names of people, ateji and dialogue that does not fit these categories from both official and fan translations and compared them to the original Japanese version.It was found that some foreignizing strategies used in official translations can be linked to scanlator’s practices, and that the quality of a translation can sometimes be linked to the usage of foreignizing or domesticating strategies. Finally, a unique strategy of combining transference, translation, and leaving the original onomatopoeia or mimetic word intact was found in the official translation. However, it is not possible to determine the origin of this strategy in a case study alone, suggesting the need for further research.