Here’s an example I just ran into that argues for “old Deepl was bad”: 水車館の殺人 | L35
Japanese blurb:
仮面の当主と孤独な美少女が住まう異形の館、水車館。１年前の嵐の夜を悪夢に変えた不可解な惨劇が、今年も繰り返されるのか？ 密室から消失した男の謎、そして幻想画家・藤沼一成の遺作「幻影群像」を巡る恐るべき秘密とは……！？ 本格ミステリの復権を高らかに謳（うた）った「館」シリーズ第2弾、全面改訂の決定版！
Current English blurb on Natively, from old Deepl:
The masked master and a lonely beautiful girl reside in the deformed mansion, Suigurumakan. will the inexplicable tragedy that turned a stormy night a year ago into a nightmare be repeated again this year? What is the mystery of the man who disappeared from the secret room, and the terrifying secret surrounding the posthumous work of fantasy painter Kazunari Fujinuma, “Genshikigunzo” …! This is the second volume of the “Yakata” series, the fully revised and definitive version of the series, which has been highly praised for its restoration of the authentic mystery genre!
English translation I get from pasting the Japanese blurb into the Deepl website:
The Water Mill House, a deformed mansion inhabited by a masked master and a lonely, beautiful girl: will the inexplicable tragedy that turned a stormy night a year ago into a nightmare be repeated this year? What is the mystery of the man who disappeared from the secret room, and the terrifying secret surrounding fantasy painter Fujinuma Kazunari’s last work, ‘Phantom Group’. …! The second volume in the ‘Yakata’ series, the fully revised definitive edition, which has been hailed as the return of the authentic mystery!
Note in particular that the old blurb has several words where it just gave up and didn’t translate, missing capitalisation in the second sentence, as well as the curious concept of a “posthumous work” by a painter. (Though neither correctly guesses the name reading for 藤沼一成, which is Issei Fujinuma.)
@brandon is it worth rerunning the jp->en auto translation for the cases where there has been no editing of the translation on Natively?
Claude.ai, for comparison with a different AI:
“The Waterwheel Manor - a bizarre mansion inhabited by a masked lord and a lonely beautiful girl. Will the inexplicable tragedy that turned that stormy night one year ago into a nightmare repeat itself this year? What is the mystery of the man who vanished from a locked room, and what terrifying secret surrounds ‘Phantom Figures,’ the final work of Kazunari Fujinuma, the phantasmagoric artist…!? This is the definitive, completely revised edition of the second installment in the ‘Manor’ series, boldly proclaiming the revival of orthodox mystery fiction!”
Much better choice for the painting title, gets the correct idiomatic-for-the-genre translation of 密室 as “locked room”, manages to translate 「館」シリーズ, but I think “lord” here is a suboptimal choice.
Just for fun, here's the Amazon blurb for the English translation (which obviously was written from scratch)
A twisty and ingenious classic Japanese murder mystery from the author of The Decagon House Murders
Every year, a small group of acquaintances pay a visit to the remote, castle-like Mill House, home to the reclusive Fujinuma Kiichi, son of a famous artist, who has lived his life behind a rubber mask ever since a disfiguring car accident. This year, however, the visit is disrupted by gruesome murder, a baffling disappearance and the theft of a priceless painting.
The brilliant Kiyoshi Shimada arrives on the scene, but as he investigates the seemingly impossible events of that evening, death strikes again, and again…
Can Shimada get to the truth before the killer gets to him? And can you solve the mystery of the Mill House Murders before he does?
