Editing in The English Language Adaptation
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To preserve the integrity of his art, Samura requested that the publisher of the licensed English translation, Dark Horse Comics, not "flop" the manga (that is, reverse the pages as if in a mirror). At the time the English translation began its publication in individual monthly issues (1996), flopping was an almost universal practice for translated manga. Instead, Blade of the Immortal was modified for Western readers by the unusual method of cutting up the panels and rearranging them on the page in order to have the action flow from left to right.
Although American industry practice has now largely changed over to publishing translated manga in its original right-to-left orientation, Blade of the Immortal has retained the labor-intensive cut-and-paste method. The publisher cautions that rearranging the panels is not foolproof, and can lead to continuity errors; this usually occurs when the flow of text bubbles is dependent upon character placement within panels. In such cases, individual panels or entire pages may be flopped, and occasionally the artwork is modified accordingly; for instance, a retouch artist may draw a scar over Manji's left eye to disguise a flopped panel, though this is not always the case. Sound effects within the panel may also be retouched out and re-lettered in English, or removed completely. Japanese sound effects that are an integral part of the artwork are usually left as is. Additionally, text bubbles or panel borders may be redrawn, and script pacing may be subtly altered in order to preserve suspense or the placement of text bubbles.
In the monthly Dark Horse serialization, colored versions of title pages from the corresponding manga chapter are often featured as cover art, though in some cases a different piece of artwork, such as a tankōbon cover, may be used, usually in cases where the original title page depicts graphic subject matter. The original Japanese tankōbon, which are not subtitled, also collect more chapters than the English volumes published by Dark Horse; as such, they are considerably longer and do not directly correspond to the English numbering scheme. The original tankōbon also contain different cover and interior art, and may contain additional special features, such as character biographies.
Another reason for not "flopping" in the English version is Manji's clothing, which features a manji symbol, is that if the pages were "flopped" it would resemble the Nazi swastika instead of the Japanese character Manji. (Some publishers issued an explanation of this in several issues, particularly in Norway.) Manji is Japanese for "the character for eternality" 萬字, and represents Dharma, universal harmony, and the balance of opposites.
Read more about this topic: Blade Of The Immortal
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