Boundary Labyrinth and the Foreign Magician Chapter 10 Discussion

I'll start off by saying this review is based on the english translation.

Overall, I don't think the premise of the story is lacking and it does have potential. From what I can tell the characters have a somewhat interesting background, and diving into the politics of the world can be intellectually stimulating if only it was properly translated. That said, the majority of english readers will probably find the politics to be a massive weakness in the story due to them being so confusing that it will likely give you migraines.

I just want to firmly point out that the reason why this story is hard to follow is NOT because of the author. The fault lies with the translator and their misrepresentation of certain scenes.

The lack of "TL Notes" or any other such clarifications by the translator themselves also doesn't help the situation either.

Here's a few situations that to come to mind as to where clarification could have helped to readers.

Spoiler

In the prologue the MC states that he has the mind of a 10 year old before remembering his reincarnated self (who was apparently a college student). The translated text says "More precisely, I, as Theodore, am conflicting with a 一〇-year old memory." which most people (including me) didn't even recognize because the TL failed to indicate that "一〇" means 10 in japanese.

In chapter 2, the MC mentions a swarm of Killer Ants but the Translator omits a phrase that says the Killer ants are THE SIZE OF LARGE DOGS. Without this information the following "fight against the Killer Ants" holds less of an impact because I, for one, thought the ants were suppose to be tiny.

Also, during chapter 2 the MC explains that he uses "Toujutsu" which I don't even think is a real thing. Nevertheless, this term is never explained. The correct term should be "Jōjutsu" which means "Staff/Cane techniques".

Regardless, there is no indication of what "Toujutsu" is suppose to be, so the reader has no way of knowing what the TL intends for this word to mean. You can't even google "toujutsu" since the only thing that comes up is naruto sharingans.

[collapse]

Aside from the lack of clarity, there are several parts of the chapters that will leave you scratching your head as you try to decipher what's really going on. It doesn't help that the sub-optimal translation does not fully bring out the subtle undertones of the characters' dialogues and only serves to add to the confusion by misdirecting readers on the true events that are occurring.

I wanted to give the series a shot since it was supposedly good, but I found the english translation to be literally impossible to follow due to how lacking it was in quality. That said, I have only read the early chapters so perhaps it has improved as of late (although looking at the comments/other reviews I don't believe that to be the case). Either way, if you read the early chapters as they are now you'll only end up with a confused headache, so I recommend staying away until a possible re-translation comes along.