This is also how many manga "scanlation" groups work. Some of the translations are incredible, especially of comedy manga. One, called Grand Blue, is ostensibly a manga about a young man joining a scuba diving club while in uni. In reality, it's a drinking gag manga with an incredibly funny and absurd sense of humor. I can't read Japanese, but apparently the main scanlation group is incredibly good at translating the japanese jokes into english, even going so far to completely rewrite the jokes but keeping the core idea of the joke intact with quite in-depth footnotes explaining and justifying their changes. The translation notes are fascinating in their own right.