Remembering 2017 Part 2: Getting Lost in Translation

As most of my regular readers and friends would know, this last year has been a little crazy for me on the translation front. First of all, I seem to have started a little side-job. Over the past year, around half of my work has appeared on other websites, commissioned by others in the fandom. I know that I probably can’t make a career out of this, and to be frank, I’m not entirely sure I want to. Nevertheless, I’ve learned A LOT with this experience. Not only have I become more careful about double-checking that I’ve gotten the meaning correct, I also push myself to find the right words to convey it. The staff and cast of the shows we love are people too, and I really hope that their personalities come through in my work!

Speaking of which, here’s the latest interview I’ve done: Kajiura Yuki and Takahashi Ryo talking the music of Princess Principal, commissioned by Nachi and co-funded by Canipa, the Pauseandselect community, and JackUTS!

And for the record:
1. Rakugo Shinjuu: Ishida Akira x Hayashibara Megumi, from Febri (one, two)
2. Yuri!!! on ICE: choreographer Kenji Miyamoto
3. Yuri!!! on ICE: Kubo Mitsurou from Spoon.2Di vol.18
4. Yuri!!! on ICE: Kato Taihei, the Bento announcer!
5. Rakugo Shinjuu: mangaka Kumota Haruko
6. Yuri!!! on ICE: Otsuka Manabu from Mantan-web
7. Yuri!!! on ICE: Real-life skaters on the show (one, two)
8. Fujiko Mine: Yamamoto Sayo x Kikuchi Naruyoshi
9. Kizumonogatari: The Making of Kizumonogatari
10. Yuri!!! on ICE: Aria 《Stammi vicino, non te ne andare》

Unfortunately, there was also a downside to my slightly increased presence in the fandom this year. I’ve gotten pushback before, with Macross Frontier and Chihayafuru coming to mind as a comparison. But I can say that this past year has been far more frustrating that either of those other two experiences were. There’s a lot I could say about some of the ‘feedback’ I’ve received or comments I’ve seen about translations I’ve either done or made statements about, but I honestly do not want to revisit any of it. All that matters is that the people whose opinions I care about would back me most of the time; when they don’t, then theirs is the feedback that I take on board. I won’t name them, lest they become targets (they should know who they are), but I am truly grateful to them.

Let me also take the opportunity to thank a few people specifically. Thank you to Josh for starting me down the freelance path back in 2016. Thank you also to Nachi, Canipa, and anyone else who’s ever commissioned something from me, or otherwise contributed to funding an interview I’ve translated. I’m indebted to Frog-kun, Tora and the two offline-only friends who helped me with the interview snippets that I wasn’t 100% sure about. And thank you also to the three translators whose work I checked and edited—whilst you might feel that you gained more from the experience, let me assure you that it was invaluable to me too.

But most importantly, thank you to one of my oldest friends, who believed in me and invited me to be part of something that I will never forget. Interpreting at that event was challenging, and there were definitely moments where I feel I could have done better. But no joke, I’d do it all over again, in a heartbeat.

Code Geass’s writer takes a trip down memory lane 6!!

Now that I’m back home from a certain convention I was prepping for, here’s Okouchi’s latest round on tweets on Code Geass. He hasn’t tweeted anything new since then, so I’m not sure if this will be the last time — perhaps he’ll be back when The Rebellion Path has reached Japanese screens… Though I should be back before then, doing something else Geass-related. Not entirely sure how it’ll go down, given that this will be the first time I’m discussing the show with other fans! But it should be ‘interesting’, at the very least, so do look forward to it!

Code Geass’s writer takes a trip down memory lane 5!!

Against my expectations, Okouchi tweeted another 10 or so tweets late last night, and that reminded me that I’d actually forgotten to post the last three or so tweets he posted at the last minute before the first film landed last week. So here they are! (Along with the last one from last week, which is related.) I’ll try to get to the new ones later this weekend, in between all the figure skating, perhaps (^^;).

Code Geass’s writer takes a trip down memory lane 4!!

And here we are at the end! This time, at least. Code Geass Lelouch of the Rebellion: The Awakening Path is the first of the three films in this retelling of the show, and Ōkouchi may have some more memories to share when the next two films are released. But that first film opens today, and in celebration, Ōkouchi talks about the relationships that sit at the centre of the entire story.

Code Geass’s writer takes a trip down memory lane 3!

I kind of wish Ōkouchi had given me another 1 day break! In any case, this set reveals some broad world-level decisions that have interesting implications for story decisions that writers might make. Quite obvious once you think about it, but really does show the importance of worldbuilding!

Code Geass’s writer takes a trip down memory lane 2…

As I suspected, Ōkouchi has a few more snippets to share about Geass 11 years ago. This time, though:

** WARNING ** SPOILERS AHEAD **

Please click only if you have already seen the first season!!

Code Geass’s main writer takes a trip down memory lane

With just one week until the first of the Code Geass recap films hits Japanese cinemas, Series Composer and main writer Ōkouchi Ichirō took to Twitter yesterday to reveal some early production soundbites about this decade-old anime behemoth. Some of these might already be known—I do remember hearing rumours about timeslot changes and how they affected the plot, especially when R2 was moved back to the Sunday 5pm slot. Going by the wikipedia entry, Ōkouchi apparently talked about it in his BD/DVD interviews. It’s something I’ve been meaning to verify, but I simply haven’t gotten around to it. Well, perhaps this 10th year anniversary revival might finally galvanise me into creating another series masterpost! For the moment though, here’s what Okouchi had to share.

Lost in Translation: YOI characters’ handwriting!

Well, turns out that another of those “Lost in Translation” pieces found its way into my head this week, courtesy of Twitter and tumblr. But hopefully, this one’s just going to amuse you as much as it did me.

Early on Wednesday morning, Yuri!!! on ICE animator Itou Noriko posted the following image on twitter:

勇利文字#手書きの文字はその人の性格や特性を端的に表していると言われています pic.twitter.com/8OHtQ1PUlV

— 伊藤憲子／Noriko Ito (@nrkito) October 10, 2017

It reads: “It is said that your handwriting can reveal your personality and traits,” with the tweet noting that this was “Yuuri’s writing.” I think we’ve heard about this before, but Itou-san is the person responsible for all of his writing, not only on the famous “love” placard at the the TV Asahi Grand Prix series opening press conference, but also on all the chalk board explanations throughout the series.

Of course, this tweet has gone viral. In fact, it hit the English-speaking fandom within a few hours, on Twitter and on Tumblr, with both translators pointing out one of Itou-san’s subsequent comments about Yuuri’s writing looking like a/his mother’s (お母さんみたい).

Yuri!!! on ICE, one year on…

It’s hard to believe that it’s already been a year since that first episode dropped on us. Whilst I have yet to make it to an actual skating competition or ice show (it WILL happen!), Yuri!!! on ICE certainly changed my life. One year ago, I would never have thought I’d go to another anime convention, much less one in the US. I wouldn’t have encountered many of the people that I met there, whom I now consider my friends. And I may have gone many more years before discovering Yamamoto Sayo and the “relationship without a name” theme that runs through so much of her work, a theme that means a lot to me personally.

Hence, to celebrate this anniversary, I bring you another translation. But I’ve put aside my rule of “full interviews only” for a day, in order to focus on the few minutes in episode one that captured so many of our hearts. I present, thus, a collection of translations on Victor’s free skating program, Aria 《Stammi vicino, non te ne andare》.

Where I’ve been, Summer edition

Not a very big update this time, because I’ve already written about the major event that dominated my summer (well, winter, technically)! Actually, I also thought that I’d only have one thing to report, but looking back through WMC, it turns out that I’d built up a bit of a backlog of contributions there. I should really do a better job of crossposting them here ^^; In any case, here are four more behind-the-scenes pieces I’ve touched that came out this last quarter.

First up is another of those editorials on anime writing. When megax began putting together a series of posts on anime pre-production, I figured that it was time for the posts I’ve first envisioned when I began this project in April last year: From Story to Script.

Featuring Aldnoah.Zero, Yuri!!! on ICE, SHIROBAKO and more!

The second and final piece in this series has been completed — I really don’t know when it’ll be published, but I’ll post it here as well as on twitter.

Following on from that, WMC ran a Lupin month, which you should all check out if you like any of the works in that long-running franchise. With help from Nachi-san, here’s an interview on the musical soundscape of Lupin III: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine, with Director Yamamoto Sayo and the Jazz maverick Kikuchi Naruyoshi whom she invited to do the music.

A bit later that month, Josh published the first snippets of the Kizumonogatari work I’d been doing for him. It’s basically a glimpse of how words from a script make it to the final product that we see on the screen, so do check it out if you’re curious about how anime are made!

And finally, I also helped frog-kun check the second part of an interview with Shinbo Akiyuki, on Le Portrait de Petit Cossette. It was quite a while back, actually, but it is a pretty interesting discussion between the famed director and the best anime journalist in the business: Oguro Yuuichirou. (And yes, that’s a nudge for you to follow him on twitter!)

What’s next?

That’s it for now. I was going to write that there wouldn’t be a Reflections on Summer post, as I didn’t actually pick up any of the season’s shows. But then I remembered that I have seen several anime films that did make their first appearances in the West this summer, so look out for that, along with a brief Ghibli retrospective!

I also have about 5 other translations at various stages of completion, though I have yet to decide where and when they’ll be posted. But just a little teaser: there will be a little Yuri!!! on ICE special next week, celebrating the first anniversary of the first episode that blew us all away! So do look forward to that （＾＿－）≡★