Shonen Jump had to find a new translator for Cipher Academy. Kumar Sivasubramanian, the person behind the translations for the series, has decided to step out as it proves ever-challenging to translate. The manga features other things like wordplay, which is typically difficult to translate into another language.
The most recent chapter, though, took it even further with the use of lipograms, which require the person to speak while avoiding certain letters or syllables. In Chapter 10, the protagonist is challenged by fellow classmate Yugata to answer some questions using lipograms. Naturally, these lipograms aren't taking localization and translation into account, making it a task and a half for the unfortunate soul who has to translate it for a vastly different language like English.
Speaking with Kotaku, Sivasubramanian isn't opposed to lipogram puzzles and appears to enjoy them as a proud owner of a copy of Georges Perec's A Void, which has been translated into English without the letter E. Initially, he agreed to translate 50 chapters of the manga, but after the difficulties from the recent chapter, he begged to be let go early.
Alternatively, VIZ Media had the option to pay Sivasubramanian more and be a book schedule translator, meaning he'd have more time to dive into Ciper Academy and figure out what he'd have to do to make it English-friendly and offer more translated chapters. Unfortunately, they didn't bite. Luckily, his boss found a replacement and didn't seem upset by his pleas.
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