Using industry slang when editing

[jhitchin]

I'm editing a manga that involves voice actors. Now, I happen to be a voice over artist, so during the audition scenes, I want to use actual industry terminology in English.

For example, he asks, "Do you give the scripts here?" At an audition, we'd say, "Do you have a copy of the sides?" in English. Should I go with a more literal adaptation, or actually use the industry English terminology?

Jeff

[hanged_man]

It can be hard to draw the line between being true to the text and losing the reader. As a localizer, job description dictates that, in the end, you have to privilege legibility, but I don't think that should be done at the expense of flavor.
Try consulting with your translator; ask how technical or industry specific the line is in the original JP and make a call from that. Also, it might help to remember that manga readers are often unusually intuitive, and good at picking up meaning from corresponding art and plot context.

[ZepysGirl]

Well, speaking for myself, I would find the second line unintelligible. It doesn't matter what the art looks like, I would have difficulty deciphering that "copy of the sides" means "script." There's a fine line between industry-talk adding flavor to the lines and making the lines inaccessible to normal readers. The only reason I would vote for the second line is if the manga is already jargon-heavy in Japanese--- and in that case, I would suggest we include a note in instances like this.

And yes, I'd say you should definitely have a talk with your translator. See what they're really saying in Japanese. There's no need to add "flavor" to your lines that isn't already there in the original, especially if it'd have the tendency to confuse readers.