#misc asks

[heretherebeturtles-comic]

DID YOU KNOW THAT ANDY SURIANO TALKED ABT YOUR COMIC ON INSTA???????????

YEAH I SAW IT!

really cool!!!!!! nice things were said about my art and story!!!!!! i am so flattered!!!!!!!!!! i am still figuring out how to react to it all!!!

[mambodork]

Oh .. my evil princess with a disorder ( i love him )

[canonizzyhours]

Hello you don't need to publish this. I just wanted to say thank you to whoever runs canonizzyhours. I really appreciate this blog and what it's done for the fandom. I'm sure it's really stressful to run but I hope you'll keep it going.

#524.

(thank you anon i love you)

[that-one-paintbrush]

Yo, what ever you do, don't give that to Shadow Milk cookie

Heyyy, Silly Painty!!

What. What is this.

Aw, you don't wanna play along?

How are you even doing that?!

[tojosuggestionbox]

The Chairman was fine. Your concern is appreciated.

[slugtranslation-hypmic]

Hello slug! Do you have any piece of advice you wish you knew when you first started out as a translator? (Or just something you want beginner translators to know)

I could go on about this all day if you let me, so I sat on this ask for a few weeks and tried to condense it down to five of the most helpful-- if a little abstract-- points. Hope this helps!

Usual reminder that I'm referring specifically to J->E media translation, although I would imagine most of this applies to media translation of other language pairs.

Edit: Ohhh Tumblr's being a nasty little man and not letting me post everything. Try to curtail my verbose ass, eh? We'll see about THAT! More in the reblogs it is.

A translation is a piece of creative writing informed by the unique needs and limitations of its author, audience, and medium. Before I write a single word, I always consider what approach is most appropriate for translating the work. This is informed by many things, including but not limited to: - Author(s). A work with a single author (most books, indie games) usually demands stricter fidelity, as the words you write become representative of this person's views within the English audience. A work with multiple authors (most bigger games, virtually all anime) may allow greater creativity in the pursuit of other goals. The author's purpose is also paramount. If the author's primary goal is to make people laugh, you will often want to make your work do just that. Serious works should read seriously. Romantic works should tug at heart strings. Occasionally, authors will provide specific guidelines to follow. You do not always have the ability to push back, even if you think they are horribly misguided--in many cases, the company you're working with can lose business if translation teams cause too much of a fuss. If the end result looks silly, you may be blamed for it in reviews and public perception. Responding publicly is not a good look and may hurt your chances at finding employment elsewhere. Conduct yourself professionally! (End of tangent.) - Audience. While rewriting a text to cater to an audience is almost never appropriate, it will often make you and the audience happier if you consider their expectations for translations. Fan translation readers often want to receive a black-and-white, "correct" interpretation of the text--an understandable desire; I'm not knocking this--and therefore may be more receptive to inappropriately detailed translation notes while less receptive to looser interpretations of the text. Readers of professional translations, especially paid works, often demand a higher level of polish and are less tolerant of juvenile goofery that can sometimes be gotten away with in fan translation. Similarly, genres affect the work. BL audiences are more likely to be LGBT+ than isekai action audiences and will expect translators to use more politically correct language. Some niche genres expect (at least, the appearance of) stricter fidelity at the word level than genres that attract a wider mix of casual and serious fans. - Medium. Even if one translator works on multiple iterations of the same series, the nature of the medium will force them to produce two very different translations. Anime and manga are often more understated compared to works of straight text (visual novels, actual novels, some RPGs) to avoid overwhelming the visuals. Anything that is voiced (anime, some video games) must follow the tone and sentence structure (Ie, "short clause, pause, long clause" is often translated as "short clause, comma, long clause" even if there are many, many other ways to express this idea) of the voiced line. Anything with character limits (anime subs, video games, manga) must be concise and punchy. In manga, the script's visual presentation--line length, what words should be placed together to create a nice shape, word length in skinny bubbles--must also be taken into consideration.

[formulatrash]

Hey Hazel! Hope you think of this as just a fun little question, but I think your thoughts would be interesting. Disclaimer: I'm from the USA so maybe it's different in the UK? But I wonder why some auto makers with historically emblems on the rear boot have switched to spelling out the brand. Examples are Honda, Lexus and Tesla. Thanks - wish I could visit your pub!

I was trying to answer this yesterday but my laptop decided to install some updates and then I lost everything I wrote and - long story short - I got too busy to rewrite it so. sorry about that.

basically this is the enshittification trend that's hitting everything. logos are becoming less logos and more typefaces across a lot of brands but particularly technology.

car companies are leaning more into selling themselves as technology companies, so following eg: Google, Uber, etc in turning their "logo" into just the word in a proprietary font. in a world where everything is increasingly visual, the death of the logo is really strange but it's basically just the current trend

[every-single-day]

um brody grant and blake roman both propose to you who do you choose

I propose polyamory

[mxtxfanatic]

Hello ....Do you mind if I ask your top 5 (or top 10) favorite moments from any media that you love (can be books, anime/manga, tv series, movies, games, etc)? Thanks if you want to answer. Sorry if I ask too much....

I'll do books I've read this year! In no particular order:

Duan Xu's wedding day from Carrying a Lantern in Daylight

The night Lu Qingjiu got sick in Fantasy Farm

Anytime Guan Suyi writes an essay in Who Cares

When Kong Hou descends back to the mortal realm to help her kingdom in Ascending, Do Not Disturb

When Hua Liuli and Jiamin Junzhu get kidnapped in The Times Spent in Pretense

The assassination attempt on He Heng in To Be a Virtuous Wife

When Gu becomes a mf god??? in Born to Be Rebellious

Shen Miao during the school exams in Rebirth of the Malicious Empress of Military Lineage

Transmigrator Yu Rubing's character introduction in She Is the Protagonist

Lin Qiushi's first mission in Kaleidoscope of Death (yes, the whole arc lol)

[scuderlia]

grid dad is the mind killer

grid dad is the gun they used to shoot me in the parking lot of a walmart supercenter because i asked too many questions

[heretherebeturtles-comic]

When does next part come?

Unfortunately, the whole team of artists (me) and the writer (also me) have gone on strike to protest the unsustainable pace and working conditions placed on them by the company (me again). Negotiations are happening, but it's looking like the next chapter will be posted when it's done and not a moment sooner.

[mambodork]

Thank you for the good times

[unnamedgenerator]

undertale takes so based i got you to follow me DHGSSDFJS

Listen. It is so hard to find sane fans in this hellscape I am CLINGING to the few left 😭

[that-one-paintbrush]

dumps vanilla extract in your inbox MUEHHUEHUEHUEHUEH

Huh. Just cleaned out the vanilla extract and found this random gem left behind...

[ask-calico-jack]

I think the baby would be like the little wooden boy from that one fairy tale

I only know Cinderella and the old woman who lived in the shoe because those were the ones the ones the chick who did daycare for the ladies who worked at the brothel knew, you're gonna have to fill me in on this half man half boat

[slugtranslation-hypmic]

Hey, Slug! Not to be rude, but I noticed some things in your Positive Is My Life translation that I don't think really line up with Hifumi as a character, so I wanted to give my own POV on it. Sorry if this comes off as mean, I'm just very passionate about this.

For starters, I don't agree that the "princess" stuff was meant to refer to his clients. This song is very explicitly performed for the Block Party, and he's not in host mode here. It's not in character for him to be trying to flirt with his clients/women if he's not in host mode, and there are also no clients present. In my opinion, based off of canon, I think the "enchant" playstyle is meant to refer to his host mode, while the "princess" play style is meant to refer to him out of host mode. In host mode, he's shown to be enchanting, handsome, and, well, host-like. Meanwhile, out of host mode, he's meant to be much more cute, bubbly, effeminate, and generally much like the common idea of a princess, or a man who is princess-like.

Second, I can't see how the last verse would be referring to Honobono at all. This isn't really how he talks about her, and especially with the events of the drama track attached to this song, this wouldnt make sense. He has never once expressed the desire to become friends with her, and his playful tone here isn't reminiscent of how he behaves when talking about her at all.

I respect you deeply as a translator, and you've inspired me to want to try to take up translating myself, but if I'm being honest I feel like you might've taken too many creative liberties with this one. Because of this, a lot of this translation is just... kind of inaccurate, in my opinion. No offense of course, and thank you kindly for it and your work in general, these are just my personal thoughts. Thank you for your time.

Hey! Thanks for reaching out, and I appreciate the feedback. You don't come across as mean, but all the same, I'd like to explain my decisions in further detail. It sounds like you may be missing some context.

I agree that Hifumi isn't in host mode throughout the song, but there are definitely elements that hearken back to the flirtatious attitudes he takes in host mode. 笑顔の魔法に釣られてきた (dictionary-definition literal: you are lured in by the spell of a smile) is one such example. This notion of being "lured in" is common in Japanese romance and is indeed reminiscent of the things Hifumi says to his clients. Here, since it's being used in the context of friendship, I thought English "lured in" suggested a sense of manipulation that's not emphasized as strongly in Japanese 釣られてきた. Since the smile is being used like a video game spell, I wrote it as "I cast SMILE. It’s super effective!" and moved the notion "the smile draws you closer and makes you one of us" into the next line. I would consider all of those decisions to be perfectly valid--and even commonplace--in translation.

We also see more of the host-esque language in the lines 魅せプ決めて騒ごうよ！TO NIGHT! and 姫プ決めて守られたい夜も… As mentioned above, 魅せ ("enchanting") is a staple of Japanese romantic conventions--the idea of someone being so hot/charming/skilled/whatever that the other party goes against their "rational" judgement and lets their emotion take the wheel. 魅せプ is indeed a regular video game term, and it refers to when someone is so damn good at the game that you can't take your eyes off of them. However, with the "tonight" element as well, it suggests the romantic connotation of 魅せる. Hearkening to "night" is another staple feature of Japanese romantic imagery and one Hifumi uses quite frequently.

We see that night (夜) image appear again in the 姫プ line, along with 守られたい (dictionary-definition literal: on nights when [agent] pays like a princess and wants to be protected). The notion of protection once again creates a strong romantic image, especially coupled with "night" and "princess." 姫プis, once again, a normal video game term. However, it's not a positive term. To play "like a princess" is to sit there and let your teammates do all the work. To me, this doesn't make sense to ascribe to Hifumi, as it suddenly switches the agent from the listener/friend in the rest of the song to Hifumi himself. It also doesn't align with the image we've seen of Hifumi in the rest of the song (doing everything for friends, as opposed to selfishly demanding others do work for him). I could see an argument for this being him referring to himself on nights when he wants to let his guard down and let others take care of him, but that again requires a grammatical subject switching that isn't substantiated by the rest of the song. Passive voice doesn't automatically make the speaker the agent, as you can see in 笑顔の魔法に釣られてきた: [the agent] is lured in by the spell of a smile. It doesn't make sense for Hifumi to be drawn in by a smile, so the reader automatically assumes it's the "you" in the rest of the song performing the action.

Finally, I don't think the 姫プ person is Hifumi because the line is strongly feminine-coded. Outside of the word "princess"/姫, the entire notion of sitting back, "selfishly letting others do the work," and "being protected" is associated with women in Japanese romantic conventions. I'm not saying I agree with this idea--I don't whatsoever--but I can also recognize that this line sounds romantically charged, as it plays into a bunch of romantic tropes, and therefore would be a little odd if Hifumi is taking on the female role. (I don't see Hifumi's bubbly persona as supposed to be inherently feminine in Japanese, fwiw.) This is also why I hesitated to write the romantic tone in English; it's founded on misogynistic ideas that tend to stand out as offputting to English readers. Since it's not supposed to be offputting, I thought it would do the translation a disservice to introduce that tone and instead steered around it. I would again consider this to be a completely valid and commonplace translation choice, but I also see the drawbacks. It's clear now that my word choice wasn't as transparent as I would have liked it to be.

As for the final verse, this one does appear to have a different audience than the rest. Previous audiences (the listener, friends) are キミ, a word that, in this instance, denotes a kind of emotional closeness. It must be someone that Hifumi feels comfortable with. In the last verse, Hifumi says お前がラスボス. The お前 is not as close, which suggests both that this is someone Hifumi is not as familiar with and also is perhaps an adversary. The " お前がラスボス" phrase is commonly used in action/adventure stories and thus gives this line a dramatic tone as well, which also makes me think it's supposed to be an adversary. This may partially be him pretending to be more HRGGH MANLY ADVENTURER for the fun of it (evidenced as well in なろうぜ on the following line), which I can see as the biggest argument for this not being Honobono. However, if it's not her, then I don't see why the writers would specify 誰も傷付けず (no one has to be hurt) or include this verse at all. Especially given his line in the second Block Party drama track (仄々…僕は君の友人だ。今までも…これからも… "Honobono, I was once your friend...and I still am!"), I would argue that he explicitly and canonically has expressed his will to be her friend.

Finally, I agree that the overall playful tone of the song doesn't match the serious tone in which he normally addresses her, but to me, this can easily be explained by a difference in mediums. The drama tracks allow for topics to be explored much more seriously than this overtly bouncy and upbeat song.

Again, thank you for messaging me, and I hope this clears up some of my thought process!