"Good" English H-Scenes

[SupremeTentacle]

Hi guys,

I'm having a bit of a problem where I suck shit at translating H-scenes. Does anyone happen to know any well-translated H-scenes that I could use as a reference? 

Optimally speaking, I'd like something that either has well done H-scenes early on, or a 100% save that's easily publicly accessible.

And - what do people value more in H-scene translation? Do they prefer it to be perfectly accurate, or do they want their to just have something that helps them spank their monkeys?

 

 

[Narcosis]

Even the best translation won't save a shitty h-scene.

[Nashetania]

From what I know, people prefer informal terms rather than the formal ones.

[Darbury]

People prefer dolphins. #truth

(I'd point you to our copious H-scenes in KoiRizo, but even MDZ admits he did a meh job translating those. So yeah, never mind...)

[Nosebleed]

H-scenes are a major pain in the ass to translate and it really often just boils down to what you personally feel conveys the idea better.
There's no one sole correct way of doing it, but I think you should always take in consideration the context the h-scene is set in and also the type of familiarity between the characters as well as their verbal preferences. By that I mean don't make a girl say "dick" when she's just saying like あそこ, for example.

As you've probably come across by now, descriptions in h-scenes often have more than 1 distinct thought/action in the original script. This works fine in Japanese, but is really awkward in English. I personally value a good sentence structure more than anything, so I often see myself altering a lot of the Japanese during the h-scenes because it would be really awkward to translate things literally. My prioriy is typically to word the actions the characters are performing in a linear line of thought, rather than separate thoughts.

As for all the sound effects, Darbury made a pretty nice blog post about that which I think basically covers everything you should know.

What I personally learned when translating h-scenes is that the best thing you can do most of the time is just forget about the original Japanese sentence and try to form an idea in your mind about the actions that were described, that way you can more concisely transport them into your translation rather than try to literally translate each single action individually and then finding yourself at a loss on how to connect stuff.

The original japanese script for h-scenes can cloud your normal translation methods. This is normal. Just don't let it haunt you and understand that translation is always a lossy process, so you shouldn't get too fixated with being as literal as possible.

I still have all the scripts from Lilium x Triangle which I translated and Ryechu edited.
I'm not sure how well it compares to other people's h-scene translations but, if you'd like, I wouldn't mind sharing a copy of it with you.
Just PM me if you're interested.

 

 

[SupremeTentacle]

I think I've got a general idea of it now, ish. Thanks.

[Tyrael]

People prefer dolphins. #truth

(I'd point you to our copious H-scenes in KoiRizo, but even MDZ admits he did a meh job translating those. So yeah, never mind...)

I thought they were fine. It's incredibly hard to make H scenes interesting in any case, especially since the game has so many of them.

[Tyr]

In my opinion h-scenes should be translated as literal as possible.

Reason is that every culture apparently thinks different about what is erotic and what not.
I'm from Europe and every American porn sounds incredible awkward to me. Erotic literature from the States is also something I just can't immerse myself with... it's too different. Ironically, the dialogs in Japanese novels, av and eroge is much more like something I would say in real life too. XD

So yes, I'm completely against localizing the Japanese culture of erotainment into something more western... because there is no single western approach to this issue. In the end, the characters are Japanese, so I think the most natural sounding solution is a literal translation even if the metaphors and words (please don't translate "asoko" as "pussy", srsly) sound strange to an foreigner's ear. To Japanese people, it's obviously not as strange. And that's where the story takes place.

[Deep Blue]

 

People prefer dolphins. #truth

(I'd point you to our copious H-scenes in KoiRizo, but even MDZ admits he did a meh job translating those. So yeah, never mind...)

Have you seen this? So from now on be careful around them 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zqiAceKzbg

[CeruleanGamer]

Dont go overboard with the H's. Like literally people translate a girl screaming during climax as

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

When it should have been just 3-4 H's. Also don't use "hnnggh"..... It is not a sound effect during sex. It's freaking hilarious when I see this on some fantranslated garbage. It's only from someone suffering from a heart attack or stroke or when taking a dump....  

Edited November 11, 2015 by CeruleanGamer

[Darbury]

Also don't use "hnnggh"..... It is not a sound effect during sex. {...} It's only from someone suffering from a heart attack or stroke or when taking a dump....  

As you get older, you'll find the dividing line between these things grows perilously thin. 

[Nosebleed]

When all the characters say during sex is んんんんんんんんんんんんん (nnnnnnnnnnn) it's sort of hard to write something decent as a replacement, which is usually what leads to stuff like "hnnngh" to appear.
I always struggled because I sought variety yet usually ended up with nnnh and hnnn. I thought about swapping it for the more typical "mmm" that exists in Western porn, but in Japanese it's clearly not  that sort of muffled moaning, so in the end I just said "ah fuck it, it's not like the audience is reading it".  

You can always just imagine that 2D japanese penises cause heart attacks.
They can already do a lot of inhuman things so it would just be another one to add to the list.

[CeruleanGamer]

When all the characters say during sex is んんんんんんんんんんんんん (nnnnnnnnnnn) it's sort of hard to write something decent as a replacement, which is usually what leads to stuff like "hnnngh" to appear.
I always struggled because I sought variety yet usually ended up with nnnh and hnnn. I thought about swapping it for the more typical "mmm" that exists in Western porn, but in Japanese it's clearly not  that sort of muffled moaning, so in the end I just said "ah fuck it, it's not like the audience is reading it".  

You can always just imagine that 2D japanese penises cause heart attacks.
They can already do a lot of inhuman things so it would just be another one to add to the list.

I guess that's true. Compared to all of what your vn h-scene dicks or vaginas are capable of doing, the sound effect does feel like a very minor issue. 

I wonder if the hnngh miasma you see in h-scenes was the work of tumblr/reddit. I swear I see this nonsense at least 10 times a day over there. 

[Fiddle]

And - what do people value more in H-scene translation?

According to the budget poets that write the Japanese for said scenes, what people value is words on a screen to which they can dedicate minimal conscious attention whilst they impatiently await the coming of the climactic, marginally altered CG.

[Mr Poltroon]

And - what do people value more in H-scene translation?

According to the budget poets that write the Japanese for said scenes, what people value is words on a screen to which they can dedicate minimal conscious attention whilst they impatiently await the coming of the climactic, marginally altered CG.

Then rare cases like me pay all due attention to the actual text while muting the sound.

Suffice to say, that's why I don't read H-Scenes these days.