Official Translation or Online Translation of Manga

[grandta14]

I would like to discuss whether it is better to use the official [English] translations of manga provided by the publishers or the translations provided online (such as from MangaHere).
Currently I am reading Yu-Gi-Oh! (Origional Series) and have read the first two volumes from Shonen Jump and the third volume on MangaHere. While the Shonen Jump version tranlsated more of the graphic text than the MangaHere version did, there were several translation notes in the MangaHere version that I quite liked; the Shonen Jump version lacked any translation notes.
I would appreciate any additional input on this subject.

For reference the MangaHere versions can be found here: Yu-Gi-Oh Manga - Read Yu-Gi-Oh Online at MangaHere.com

Note: If there are any legal issues with this link then please alert me and I will remove it.

 

[Glenn]

It probably wouldn't hurt to use both (assuming they're both accurate) if you've got the time. That way you can see how different people deal with the same translation issues. Of course, you'll want to try it in the raw Japanese form as well.

 

[grandta14]

It probably wouldn't hurt to use both...

While I agree that reading both would be best, I was asking, if you only had time to read one, which whould you choose?

 

[Glenn]

I would assume the official translation, but I haven't checked them out.

 

[SomeCallMeChris]

Generally, fan translations are quite literal - often overly literal to the point of needing a great deal of footnotes and including untranslated Japanese terms in the English sentences. They tend to be more prone to errors as well, often hard to detect errors because a casual glance at the dictionary can give the reader the same misleading gloss for the same unfamiliar word giving the same misunderstanding. The tone of dialogue is sometimes hard to understand as well, often being translated into very similar English grammar without regard to what the natural English is for the situation.

Generally, publisher translations are quite liberal, often rewriting difficult parts for smoother reading (i.e., replacing untranslatable puns with another kind of joke, replacing a reference to a holiday unknown in the west with one that is known, changing the date references to make them mean 'present day' in the year of publication, just to name a few.)

Which one you want is really a matter of what you're trying to achieve and what you prefer.