ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to explain changes in the agency exercised by manga translators and publishers in using multimodal resources to reconstruct meaning in the Malay translations published in the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s. The major concepts of this methodology include the sign maker, motivated signs, modes, semiotic resources, modal affordances, multimodal ensembles, agency and interest. The preceding explication of terms demonstrates that the social semiotic multimodal approach proposed by Bezemer and Kress is suitable for the systematic and diachronic examination of the changes of agency in multimodal translation. Nevertheless, the agency changes are noted in the application of translation procedures in translating four types of semiotic resources: the Japanese-specific cultural elements, ateji, giongo/gitaigo and inscriptions. Nevertheless, the changes in agency can be traced through the translation procedures employed in the rendering of Japanese-specific cultural elements, ateji, giongo/gitaigo without speech balloons and inscriptions.
