#i read this when there were like 3 vols of the manga out in eng and literally my first thought was ''what the FUCK happens in this manga''

[cubedmango]

「安達が魔法使いにならなかった世界線の話」 + 「もしもの話」 — english translation

[systematicallycapricious]

Time for English P4AU manga volume 2! Like last time, shenanigans are below the cut and requests for page comparisons are always welcome.

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Overall Opinion

My initial read-through this time was done while I was sleep deprived, so take my impressions with a grain of salt, lmao.

I think the the three most memorable impressions I took away from the translation this time around were:

The syntax felt more markedly stilted to me than last time. As well, the writing was a bit awkward in some places, though I'm unsure if that's a trait of the original Jap writing or if it only arises from attempting to format it into Eng grammar and culture.

The fan-Eng translation took creative liberties with some words that I think were better served by the official-Eng's translation staying truer to the Jap text. Also, the official-Eng transl provided interesting insight into some things that the fan-Eng transl didn't, which I'll go into a bit below.

The scene where Minazuki ambushes Naoto was mistranslated as Sho being the speaker, despite the Japanese text clearly being Minazuki's language patterns. TuT

Overall, I had a positive impression of it and would say that it's worth reading for those who don't mind a few errors and awkward lingual choices.

As for the ミナヅキ・皆月 naming differentiation... Thus far, both Sho and Minazuki have been "Minazuki", as per adherence to the Jap naming scheme. No alternative font, font effects, subtext, special text bubbles, nor anything to clarify the distinction. However, I'm personally reserving judgment until I get my hands on Vol 3, as I have a sliver of hope that the protagonists knowing the difference is permission for the audience to know the difference. I'm not sure how much I actually believe in said sliver, but I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt at the very least. ^^;

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Illustrations and Author Comics

Vol 2 still has the illustration pages and end-of-volume author's comic! The exclusive edition also has the fold-out poster of the original cover, of course.

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The mistranslated ambush scene was, in fact, Minazuki

So y'all can see for yourself that the text in the Minazuki-Naoto ambush scene clearly uses 俺 and 君 rather than 僕 or テメエ. (Though to be fair, I've actually found an instance where Sho uses 俺 in Vol 2. The line is 「テメエこそ俺にカンショーすんじゃねえ!!」, towards the start of Ch14 when Kagu's mocking his Ikutsuki issues (so Sho's pretty irate). He then returns to using 僕 immediately after; and as there are no visual indications that he switched with Minazuki to say this, I'm pretty confident that this is an exception and not the rule, lol.)

(Said instance of Sho using 俺)

The non-pronoun words should be indicative of whether it's Sho or Minazuki speaking as well, but I'm not fluent enough in Japanese to be able to go into detail on those in this post. ^^;

Overall, I think the translator has been doing pretty good at nailing Sho and Minazuki's respective patterns of speech and employing them in the correct moments – and they go back to getting it correct for when Minazuki reveals himself at the end of Vol 2, too. This one scene just got goofed for some reason I guess. P:

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Translation Upsides

Translation Win 1: Ch15's name was translated properly! The Jap name is 「幻月」 (gengetsu), but the fan-Eng translated it as "Minazuki", which would be 「皆月」 if it was in kanji form. Which – I mean, it is the chapter that Minazuki first formally introduces himself as "Minazuki", so it makes sense? But I personally think that "Paraselene", aka the phenomenon called "moon dogs", is a much cooler and more fitting name for how the chapter goes, including Minazuki's reveal. (-v-)

Translation Win 2: At the start of Ch14, Sho says "Tch! Must've fallen asleep. Hate that dream.", which implies that he's had that dream before. I don't know enough Japanese to know if the original line of 「チッ　寝ちまったのか...　嫌な夢だぜ」 also means a recurrence specifically, but it's still interesting fanon-characterization fodder nonetheless.

Puppet-Ikutsuki's following dialog was also a pretty interesting translation, I think. For example: "The smarts to rule the mental battle. The strength to command the physical battle..! You excel in both! In fact, I'd say you're my greatest masterpiece! I'm proud!"

Translation Win 3: In Ch13, Kagutsuchi's first line of reaching out to Sho is translated correctly as "wings of death", versus the "Plume of Dusk" that the fan-Eng transl uses. Conceptually, they're probably the same thing, but literally the word used is 「死の羽根」 (shi no hane), not 「黄昏の羽根」 (tasogare no hane; which is typically "Plume of Dusk" in Japanese). And this isn't a mistake on the part of the Jap writer either, as far as I can tell, as 「黄昏の羽根」 is used in other places, such as when Labrys is explaining what Plumes are to the Investigation Team ([see here]).

Additionally, though the syntax was exceptionally awkward, I thought the essence of Kagu's dialog in this scene was translated pretty well. And honestly, it's fun to headcanon that Kagu could only communicate limited concepts or words before establishing a stronger connection, thus explaining why the syntax is stilted like: "Your suffering will continue. Eternally. End it."

Translation Win 4: It's a small detail, but Ikutsuki specifically saying "If this is all it takes to kill him... Then that's just how weak he was." is heckin' brutal. Switching to past-tense like Sho's already done and over with when he's still alive and listening, oof. (For comparison, the fan-Eng translated it as "If he dies here, it'll just mean he's worthless.")

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Translation Downsides

Typography Loss 1: Kagutsuchi's text still lacks a cool font like the Jap version has, and that reduces the artistic impact a bit, IMO. In the Jap version, it looks a bit like the text was scorched onto the writing surface – which, given Kagu is a kami of fire, is a pretty apt vibe. While in Eng, he's relegated to the font that all the other characters use while speaking. It's probably better like this for readability purposes, but from a stylistic perspective it's a bit sad.

(Also fun fact: In Jap, the Shadow-Kanji and Shadow-Chie puppets briefly use this burnt font in their speech bubbles. It's for about 1-2 bubbles each (S-Kanji calling forth a fighting ring, S-Chie being in disbelief that Naoto had been holding back against her), and the rest of their dialog is in various other fonts. I'm not sure if there are other instances of non-Kagu characters using it beyond that, nor what exactly it's intended to imply through these additional instances, but it's interesting to note.)

(Additionally; examining it more closely, the Japanese typography is really dynamic in general, which is pretty cool. I'm not sure if that dynamicness invalidates any literary significance to Kagu's burnt font though, lol.)

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Translation Intrigues and Amusements

Typography Intrigue 1: They left the page of fiery "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"s as-is, rather than trying to turn the 「あ」 and 「ア」 into "a/A". Which, while I immensely respect the fan-Eng version for trying to transcribe that artistic text, I think the horrific vibe comes through a bit better with the original text and art preserved. (Maybe in part due to the wave effect on the text having 3 dimensions rather than just 2?)

Translation Intrigue 2: In Ch13, one of the double page spreads is translated as "This world doesn't need anyone. There's no one in this world." Meanwhile, in the fan-Eng version, it's written as "I don't need anyone! I'm fine by myself!"; and the original Jap text is 「この世界には誰もいらない　この世界には誰もいない」 (the same line, just minus the ら).

I personally prefer the fan-Eng's take on it, as the official-Eng's version confused me for several weeks after the fact; but as I don't understand the nuance of the Jap version, I have no clue as to which Eng interpretation is more accurate. >_>;

Translation Amusement 3: Yu apparently has the word "welp" in his lexicon. And on the second page, the way that his dialog is worded makes it sound like he's smitten with Sho, lmao.

Translation Amusement 4: Yu's so used to his friends' antics at this point that he can just tune them out like that, lol. I also just appreciate Chie and Yosuke's dialog here in general.

Translation Intrigue 5: Ch13's title is translated as "Crimson Memories" in the official-Eng transl, versus fan-Eng's "Scarlet Memories". The original Japanese words are 「緋色の記憶」.

Translation Intrigue 6: What's typically translated as "the rules of this world" (regarding Adachi) is translated here as "reality's rules". The original Jap text (in this manga at least) is 「現実のルール」, not 「世界のルール」; so literally "reality", like "reality of the situation", and not 'reality' like "world/society".

Translation Intrigue 7: Ikutsuki's iconic "the death of everything... but also the beginning" speech is translated a bit differently compared to the fan-Eng, and drastically different compared to Ultimax's EpP3 Ch1. It keeps the same general concepts, but the cadence, word choices, and syntax are executed differently.

Translation Intrigue 8: Side-by-sides of the kendo/fencing pun because I think the differing translation choices, as well as the original context of the pun, are interesting.

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(If you wanna see the fan-Eng in higher quality than the screengrabs I used, you can find it on Mangadex [here].)

[piduai]

finally sat my ass down and read vol 31 of gk properly

1. i know that i personally was fed like a pig about to be sent for slaughter but i'm greedy so i'm still a bit annoyed there was nothing new for the epic saga of tsurumi and ogata. like i'm feeling antagonized here. is it my own fault for having unrealistic expectations? yes. will it stop me from complaining? no.

2. the line about becoming bait is gone, now he's saying just 'sugimoto and co are coming here'. i thought it was weird af when the chapter came out so i am not displeased

3. reading these chapters reminded me of the convos around each of them i either took part in or saw glimpses of and reaffirms my strong conviction that if you sent a handful of pebbles to first grade they'd put the vast majority of gk readers to shame in terms of intelligence. anyway i remember particularly how much weird fucking discourse that page of sugimoto looking at asirpa after she shot ogata brought. funnily sometimes the volume versions give a little bit more insight into the most controversial things that went down in the eng speaking part of the fandom, so i imagine japanese readers could have had some difficulty with that too. there was an added page in 309 of sugimoto thinking "her alone i can't take with me. her alone i can't put on a vip seat on the train to hell"

and then two additional ones in 310 after ogata yeets himself off the train

in which he's like "at the end of the day, i couldn't treat her like my partner, not truly, not from the bottom of my heart... not until i saw that she's resolved to follow me to hell". don't get me wrong if you're a stubborn dumbass with less emotional depth god granted a rusty kettle no matter how pre-chewed and soft the food you're being spoon-fed is you'll still be fucking stupid i guess. and not GET IT. but the story tried, it tried

4. the close up page of ogata blowing his brains out has been wiped, now it's a distant focus and shiraishi, asirpa and sugimoto are shown looking at him in shock. very disappointed, it was my favorite page in the chapter

5. the whole seemingly random exposition in 309 of tsurumi's plans he just tells us because he wants to is not random at all, it was strategically placed there as a set-up for the omake. lmfao. so that has always been planned as the true ending i guess. except in the volume he tells all of this to a corpse because why not

6. 306-308 were gk's greatest flop era, genuinely the worst 3 chapters in the entire manga. i was mad as shit when i read them as they were coming out and i was mad as hell reading them now. absolutely disgusting. and also 0 improvement on them too, tho i guess since they're unsalvageable it would have been a waste of effort. but i am tired of those two. i am tired of everything related to them so i'll just pretend they don't exist

7. in the mag version sugimoto only punches ogata once, but in the vol he goes oraora mode on his ass. lmfao

8. the way the tsurussy has been kept shadowed for half a chapter before he lost his bones (which he kept in his HEART POCKET) and THAT page... chef's kiss

9. also not pertinent to the volume alone but i love how sugimoto beat ogata's ass but tsurumi gave him a good fight <3 close combat competent king

10.

i love her

[birchworld]

Manga Recommendation - The Golden Sheep

金のひつじ (Kin no Hitsuji) / The Golden Sheep

Author: Kaori Ozaki Publisher: Kodansha  English Publisher: Verticle

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Run Time: Sep. 25th, 2017 – Feb. 25th, 2019

Volume 1 Release: March 23, 2018 Volume 2 Release: September 21, 2018 Volume 3 Release: April 23, 2019

Eng. Volume 1: September 24, 2019 Eng. Volume 2: December 10, 2019 Eng. Volume 3: March 10, 2020

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Summary

“ Winter of junior year. Not quite able to become adults, we couldn’t stay as we were as children, either. Our tale explores a group of teenagers and their impatience and rebirth. “They say if you write down your wish, bury it under Sheep Tower and then dig it up after 7 years and 7 months, your wish will come true … ”Tsugu Miikura, a high schooler who loves to play guitar, had moved away due to family circumstances from the rural town where she spent her childhood. After several years, she’s back in her old hometown. She reunites with her childhood friends—Sora, Yuushin, and Asari—the friends she’d buried a time capsule with back in elementary school. Tsugu is overjoyed to be with her friends once more, but the bonds that she thought would never change have in fact started to grow major cracks … “ 

Source: https://kodansha.us/series/the-golden-sheep/

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*Spoilers Beyond This Point* For review, and links....

Review - 4/5 

Content Warning: Discussion of s*cide and similar themes, bullying, absent parents, and animal cruelty/abuse.  If any of those topics are triggering to you, or upsetting, feel free to skip to links

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Volume 1 of The Golden Sheep was a single sit read for me! I read the majority of it in the car, and for the most part it was a great first volume! This series is Kaori Ozaki’s second manga, preceded by “The Gods Lie” in 2013.

The manga, itself, deals with heavy themes from the get go.  Main character, Tsugu Miikura, and her family struggle with an absent parent. Their father stays in Tokyo as the five girls move back to their old, rural town. Here, she meets up with three of her old friends: Asari, Sora, and Yuushin.

However, the group begins crumbling beneath Tsugu’s feet. Asari, jealous by Tsugus connection and relationship with Yuushin (her childhood crush), begins to neglect and ignore her. The group Tsugu used to eat lunch with abandons her, leaving her to eat alone.

Tsugu, awhile after, realizes Yuushin isn’t the same “good kid” with good grades he was when she moved. His father was revealed to have slept with a high school girl, and the school quickly turned on him. Saro began to leave Yuushin behind, avoiding interacting and hanging out with him. As a result, Yuushin begins to gain ties with the bad crowd. He begins to bully Saro, beating him and stealing his money.

Tsugu realizes this when she’s on a walk with her sister’s daughter and finds the group standing on the bridge, with Saro about to jump off at Yuushins request when Saro had come to get his dog back from the other.  Saro runs off, and Yuushin leaves with his friends.

Following this event, Tsugu attempts to return the dog to Saro after finding that Yuushin is about to allow his friends to stone the animal to death. However, when his grandmother reveals he hadn’t come back, she goes on a search for him. She finds him locked in an abandoned car, in an attempt to pass from the exhaust from an open flame cooking some meat, and breaks him out using her guitar.

They speak for awhile, Saro fills her in on what she’d missed while away in Tokyo. The two decide to run away to Tokyo to live out their respective dreams, Tsugu a guitarist, and Saro as a manga illustrator.  There, they find Tsugu’s father after he responds to one of her texts. The manga ends when they arrive to an apartment he’d told them to stay at.

I really enjoyed the story! There aren’t too many manga out there that depict those in Saros situation who, instead of getting help, react negatively. As someone who’s struggled how he has, I know the feeling and could really feel myself in him. The four main characters feel real and alive, they don’t just feel like plot devices to either feel sorry for or to hate. They’re complex characters motivated by the wrong reasons, or their own problems. The content was raw and unfiltered, providing a warning at the beginning, and it was almost comforting to know that my old struggles, and so many’s current struggles, were real and that it was okay to go through.

I think my only issue was Asari and Tsugu as characters. I felt they were rather plain, but Tsugu got better as the story progressed. I felt myself having to close this manga more often than others that deal with serious topics as well. I felt like I couldn’t bring myself to read it, but couldn’t bring myself to stop either.

It’s probably one of my favorite series of this genre and I can see myself picking up the second volume.

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Links - Shop, Reviews, etc.

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Amazon

At the time of writing this, the paperback version of “The Golden Sheep” is unavailable, however the kindle version is available for $7.49 

https://www.amazon.com/Golden-Sheep-1-Kaori-Ozaki/dp/1947194801

Barnes and Noble Available for both paperback and kindle with $12.95 and $7.49 (respective) pricetags

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/golden-sheep-1-kaori-ozaki/1130055509?ean=9781947194809

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Review!

Kodansha US https://kodansha.us/series/the-golden-sheep/

My Anime List https://myanimelist.net/manga/113409/Kin_no_Hitsuji

Good Reads https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/45554788-the-golden-sheep-vol-1

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That’s all for now! Thank you for reading and have a good day <3

[orbit-intl]

210129 KStyle Vol. 1 ― ORβIT, the 7 members are finally together. “The short time we can be together... We are enjoying it with lots of laughs.”

Vol. 1 ― ORβIT, the 7 members are finally together. “The short time we can be together... We are enjoying it with lots of laughs.”

ORβIT is a Japanese-Korean group composed of 7 unique members. They released their long-awaited debut album in November last year, to which many fans responded with enthusiastic support. 

It has almost been a year since ORβIT was formed and announced on February 9, 2020. We asked them about the steps that led to the decision of forming the group and about the reason for their career choices as an artist.

ENG TRANSLATION BY ORBIT_INTL  Source: KStyle News DO NOT RE-USE, REUPLOAD OR RE-TRANSLATE WITHOUT PERMISSION 

― The 7 of you are finally together for the first time in a long time, but how are you spending your time together? 

HEECHO: We spend our private time just relaxing together. Watching movies late at night, having deep talks. 

YOUNGHOON: We watched the movie “Midnight Runners”, it was interesting. We watch movies where we need to hold in our laughter.

YOONDONG: We watch Netflix together, but just simply being together is fun.

HEECHO: It’s been a long time since we’ve spent time together, so we try to have a fun time together. We can’t be together for a long time, so we are enjoying it with lots of laughs. 

TOMO: We made grilled chicken skewers with a special grill for it. Heecheon-san and I were the ones in charge of the grill (laughs). Other than that, Jun and I read manga often. 

JUNE: As for “Jujutsu Kaisen” and “Demon Slayer”, we even went to watch the movie and cried together. I also liked “Chainsaw Man”, which Tomo introduced me to. 

TOMO: I like the “Weekly Shonen Jump” (weekly manga anthology) type of manga, and my all-time favorite one is “Hokuto no Ken”. I’ve been re-reading it lately, and my inner child is getting excited. My favorite move is “Hokuto Shichishi Seiten” (Seven Star Points of Death). Even the sounds when the enemy loses are funny, like the famous ones “abeshi” or “hidebu”, but there’s also minor ones like “nani wo para~” (the word “what” followed gibberish), it’s the funniest. (laughs)

― You spoke at the last interview that you wanted to eat Yoondong-san’s cooking, but did that come true? 

SHUNYA: Yes, we ate it! It was so good~!

YOONDONG: I made them kimchi fried rice.

HEECHO: Wait, when? I didn’t eat any (laughs).

YOUNGHOON: When everyone left for BUGVEL’s recording, Shunya, Yoondong and I ate together.

HEECHO: We were eating takoyaki that time at the studio. I love takoyaki.

― There were some comments from overseas fans on the last interview, but are any of you studying any foreign languages? What word did you learn lately?

SHUNYA: I read Korean vocabulary books sometimes, but I watch a lot of Korean drama and I’ve been starting to understand some words that are said a lot in drama. 

HEECHO: My hands are already full from learning Japanese and I haven’t been able to learn other languages. I still need to work on my Japanese…

TOMO: But all 3 Korean members have been naturally studying Japanese, so they are very good in Japanese.

HEECHO: All the Japanese words that the members have taught me were all bad words… (laughs). 

TOMO: Hey, that’s the other way around! (laughs) I ask them to teach me Korean, but they always teach me bad words. 

HEECHO: (laughs). The world out there is dangerous these days, you need to know some strong words (laughs). 

TOMO: Other than bad words, they taught me how to say 삼겹살 주세요, which means “can I have pork belly?”

SHUNYA: (Heecho whispers something in his ear.) Just now, I learned how to say 그렇게 하면 죽도 밥도 안돼, which means “it’s going to be half-baked if you continue like this”.

TOMO: This is the type of thing they teach us (laughs). 

YUGO: 멋있지？I look cool, right? (laughs)

Everyone: Yugo is so cute~!

JUNE: The word I learned lately is “kaibyaku”. It means the beginning of the world, of time. I found it while searching for a more complicated word during the lyric writing process because the expression felt off and I thought there was another way to say it. 

HEECHO: For me, it’s “mugi to kome no nimousaku” (double cropping of rice and wheat). I learned it while studying a kanji practice book for Japanese grade school students and it left a strong impression on me. 

YOONDONG: I learned the word “kyakuashi” (customer traffic). The meaning was different from what I intended to say, but I learned the word. Is it a bad word?

TOMO: No, you can use it as “customer traffic increased, or decreased”. It’s not a bad word. 

YOUNGHOON: For me, it’s “waruagaki wo suru” (futile resistance). I resist fate in a futile way. I learned it while writing lyrics. 

What about the debut date? “I felt emotional at the CD shop… It didn’t feel real.”

― You debuted on November 11, but how does it feel like to have debuted?

HEECHO: Nothing much changed just because we debuted, but we got here as a result of pursuing what we wanted to do. That is why there wasn’t any big change, but I hope we can continue with the same mindset.

YOUNGHOON: After releasing our debut album and seeing everyone’s reactions, I thought a lot about our situation and our responsibilities and it made me feel like we need to make even better songs and show an even better version of ourselves in the future. We are preparing for our next release with utmost effort. 

― For Heecho-san, Younghoon-san, and Yoondong-san, this is your second debut. Did you give any advice to the 4 others?

HEECHO: I think it’s just a number, and there isn’t much to mind about just because it’s our second time, but there are things we can say because we have experience debuting once previously. It is the first time (for the Japanese members), so I’d like to teach them what I know. 

TOMO: I think they do have a certain emotional leeway. There were hardships until we reached our debut, but there were a lot of moments the 3 helped and cheered us up. 

YOUNGHOON: If we could do more activities, I think there is more I can teach them, but there isn’t much we can do amidst the pandemic situation… Later, when we will be able to do more, I’d like to relay more of our experience. 

― How did you spend your debut date?

YUGO: Nothing much different, we just practiced as usual.

TOMO: I think we were doing voice training.

HEECHO: The Korean members were learning choreography and practicing dance. 

YOUNGHOON: Yoondong was buying pyjamas that day (laughs).

JUNE: We were just doing lessons as usual even though it was debut date, so although I was internally excited like “today is debut date!”, I was a little bit sad that the lesson menu was hard as usual (laughs). 

SHUNYA: The Japan members had the chance to go to CD shops for greetings. I was surprised seeing that the store decorations were, very, big? It made me really happy. It didn’t feel real. 

YOUNGHOON: I saw the pictures too and it made me really happy that the shop staff wrote descriptions of our songs in so much detail. If we have the chance, I want to cook for the shop staff (laughs). 

Everyone (laughs). 

YOUNGHOON: I also read the messages from EαRTHs in the notebooks placed at the CD shops. There were a lot of messages written in hiragana so that we understand too, it made me happy. EαRTHs are really nice. 

Struggles experienced especially because they are self-produced. “Thankful for all the support from many”

― The album “00” was definitely a challenging work, like you spoke about it in the previous interview. A lot of comments from fans were sent to Kstyle too. How were the reactions from fans after the release?

Everyone: Ohh~! (Clapping)

YOUNGHOON: We’re very grateful and happy. Every song was made with a lot of attention to details, so I hope EαRTHs listen to them a lot and enjoy it.

YOONDONG: My wanting to make something better and to perfect our performances got stronger, especially because we debuted. 

― Last time, we asked you about the recording process. How were the parts separated within the songs, and how were the solo songs and unit song “Mizutamari.” (written by Yugo-kun) chosen?

HEECHO: First, we all sing equal parts and then we adjust as we sing because some members suit some parts better. I chose the parts, but nobody complained. 

SHUNYA: ORβIT’s absolute leader (laughs). Heecheon-san knows everyone’s uniqueness and attributed the parts, so it turned out really nice naturally. 

HEECHO: For me, the part I thought over the most while making the album was attributing the parts. As for the solo song and unit songs, we just went with whoever wanted to do it. 

YUGO: I thought “Mizutamari.” could be the three of us (Yoondong, Shunya, Yugo) who don’t sing chorus parts often. I attributed the parts as the writer as well. It was my first time writing lyrics and I had never thought of doing it before, but after becoming part of ORβIT, I’ve been wanting to try new things such as piano as well. It’s a memorable song for which I challenged lyric writing for the first time. The track was composed first, onto which I wrote lyrics. 

― In Younghoon-san’s song “MOONCRYSTALPOWER”, the sole Japanese part amongst the Korean lyrics was also a hot topic. Many said that it’s a very “Younghoon-san like” song. 

YOUNGHOON: I always get the comment that the phrase “yuusha no sakebi” (a hero’s scream) is very “funny”, but I meant it in a serious way (laughs). At the time, there was a manga I liked a lot and I also thought of the word “boukensha” (explorer, adventurer), but it became this in the end. The lyrics are about a hero parting ways with his friends and waiting until they come altogether, but it felt like ORβIT and EαRTHs. I thought that maybe fans will understand if I put it like this, so I wrote the lyrics like that. 

HEECHO: It’s Younghoon’s scream, in the end (laughs). 

JUNE: When Younghoon-san asked me about the lyrics, I listened to him and gave advice. Every time people tell him that the lyrics are funny, he blames it on me and says “Jun said they’re nice!” (laughs). 

YOUNGHOON: It was all good as a result! (Younghoon and Jun exchange a hard handshake)

―You released from an independent label and even produced your goods on your own, but was there anything hard during the production process?

HEECHO: There were a lot of hard things, but we don’t want to make excuses about it because it’s something we chose to do. It was hard, but I think this was a good way to do it. It’s something we were able to achieve because of the members and staff we have now. 

TOMO: We separated the tasks between the 7 of us, and Shunya thought a lot about the goods and the CD jacket art. 

SHUNYA: There are many things I was able to learn because we are self-produced. For example, there’s a lot of scheduling in order to meet deadlines for production and other small tasks too. It has made me realize that making music isn’t just about singing, but there are a lot of people behind it who support it. I am glad I was able to realize this by releasing from an independent label. 

JUNE: The 7 of us are the ones on stage, but there are a lot of people behind it that you cannot see… Our work can only be done with the support of many, so we are very grateful.

ENG TRANSLATION BY ORBIT_INTL Source: KStyle News DO NOT RE-USE, REUPLOAD OR RE-TRANSLATE WITHOUT PERMISSION

[consecotaleo]

BNHA Light Novel Vol. 3 – Eng Translation – Chapter 3: “Crisis” (Part Two)

T/N: Here’s Part Two of the Chinese > English translation for BNHA Light Novel Vol. 3, Chapter 3.

Make sure you read Part One first.

Other BNHA Light Novel Vol.3 Content

Chapter 1: “Cheers!” –> After UA home visits, the teachers go out for drinks.

Chapter 2: “Dramatic Makeover” –> Class 1-A moves into the Heights Alliance dorms. Todoroki-centric, interspersed with scenes from the other students.

Chapter 3: “Crisis” –> It’s an ordinary day at the 1-A dorms.

> Part One –> Class 1-A gets a surprise visitor.

> ***Part Two –> The game is on!

Fantasy AU, translated by aitaikimochi –> Dragon!Kirishima confirmed.

(Fan works relevant to the light novel)

Useful Manga References

Chapter 98-99

Class 1-A students

Class 1-B students

Chapter 3: “Crisis” (Part Two)

 (Part One recap: A surprise visitor comes to the 1-A dorms! It’s Class 1-B’s Monoma, who wants to explore the building and harass the 1-A students. Kendo, Tsunotori, and Tetsutetsu show up to drag him back. Just earlier, Monoma gripes about not being served some tea as a hospitality. Kirishima and Tetsutetsu continue to be Epic Bros.)

Soon after, Yaoyorozu and Satou return with translucent black tea and delicate cakes for Kendo and the others.

 Tetsutetsu and Tsunotori are amazed that Satou could produce such carefully hand-crafted cakes. Kendo dips her head. “Sorry to trouble you further. Monoma’s remark was out of line.”

 But Yaoyorozu is eager to serve the first guests to ever show up to the Class 1-A dorms and urges them to try everything.

 “Delicious!” “I usually don’t eat sweets, but this is excellent!” “The tea is superb as well!” Kendo, Tetsutetsu, and Tsunotori freely sing their praises.

 Meanwhile, Monoma looks a bit like he’s just swallowed a bug. “Ugh, don’t actually treat us hospitably.” Unable to come up with a single complaint, he glares at the offerings. But his hand reaches out for another cake.

 Still bitter from the 1-B boy’s scathing review earlier, Kaminari leaps at the chance to strike back. “Hah, so even the great Monoma is defeated by Satou’s sweets!”

 “As if I’m going to listen to someone with a room like that!” Monoma retorts.

 Kaminari fumes. “Sounds like your own room must be great, given your impeccable taste. If it’s painfully rustic and boring, I’ll fucking laugh in your face.”

 “Yeah?” Monoma challenges. “And if it’s not?”

 The bet is on. “I’ll boil water with my own electricity and serve you tea with it. No, I’ll heat up all of Class 1-B’s baths!”

 It’s on. Monoma whips out his phone, then shows Kaminari. “This is my room.”

 Kaminari stares at the photo, speechless.

 Ojiro and the others peer over to look as well. The room is silent.

 Hagakure finally manages to find her tongue. “Holy crap! What a European style!” She resumes staring.

 It’s barely recognizable as a dorm room. The walls have been repainted in soothing pastels. The standard dorm furnishings have been replaced with antique white furniture. The soft colors and elegant arrangement of furniture come together in perfect harmony. What a lovely French-style room! Looking at it, the viewers are filled with a sense of detachment and longing. It’s as if they could walk up to the window and be greeted with a magnificent view of the Eiffel Tower.

 “So cute,” Hagakure adds after a moment. Beside her, Yaoyorozu concurs. “That’s really a lovely room.”

 The girls clearly love it, and even Kaminari can’t find a single bad thing to say.  

 “So when are you going to come heat up that bath water?” Monoma fixes Kaminari with a beautific smile. “But oh dear, should I worry that you’re going to use your remaining reserves to electrocute us? Ooooh, how scary, how scary –”

 “Enough.” Kendo whacks Monoma extra hard. It seemed the stupid blonde would never change.

“Hey, what is Kendo’s room like?” Hakagure queries.

 Before Kendo can respond, Tsunotori pipes up. “Kendo’s room is super cool! Weathered wooden table, black metal furniture, pictures of motorcycles.”

 Tetsutetsu nods sagely. “Kendo’s room is manlier than all of ours.”

 Embarrassed, Kendo mutters, “Sorry, I can’t really relax if everything is super cute.”

 Hakagure barrels on. “And what about Tsunotori’s room?”

 “My room… Um, it’s like this.” Tsunotori shyly pulls out her phone. The room is filled with anime posters and figurines. “I love Japanese anime, it’s the coolest!”

 “Ah!” Hakagure sounds delighted. “I love that anime too!”

 Tsunotori and Hakagure start chattering animatedly, occasionally shouting out lines from the show.

 On the side, Iida and Todoroki notice Izuku staring intently at the photo of Tsunotori’s room. Iida furrows his brow. “What’s wrong, Midoriya? Your face is so close to the screen!”

 “Your eyes will go bad,” Todoroki chides.

 Ignoring them, Izuku looks up at Tsunotori with starstruck eyes. “This… this is the XXXX All Might figurine, not produced in Japan!”

 “Oh, indeed it is,” Tsunotori verifies. “Of course I also like All Might!”

  “Uwaa, amazing! Even though it’s available, it’d be terribly difficult to get it imported. Um… that is… next time, could you take some close-ups of it…!”

 “Of course!”

 “A-a-a-ah!” Izuku thanks Tsunotori profusely.

Seeing the Class 1-A and 1-B members happily intermingling, Monoma scowls. “We should probably head back. There’s no point staying any longer.”

 (During all this, Monoma has polished off all the tea snacks.)

 But Kaminari and Ojiro block his way to the door. “Hold it right there! You barge into our dorm, insult our rooms, eat all the cake, and now want to leave? You think you can just do whatever you want? Don’t even think about waltzing away like this!”

 “Oh no, I wasn’t degrading anyone!” Monoma replies coolly. “I was just being honest. ‘Tell it like it is’, you know?”

 “You were just being honest?! That’s even more insulting!” Ojiro looks ready to throttle Monoma.

 “Calm down, I never said normalcy was bad. ‘Normal’ is quite important. It’s the standard against which you compare everything else, you know…”

 (The tension mounts. Boys with bruised self-esteem? As dangerous as wounded beasts. Except the wounded beasts are actually kittens.)

 It’s evident that no one is going to drop the matter, and both sides are ready for a confrontation.

 “Hey, hey. What do you guys want to do then? I said I would leave, but you won’t allow that. So now what? You want a decisive winner? A clear decision on which side is the strongest?”

 The 1-A boys, usually strung along by Monoma, finally get the chance to be the ones to ensnare him.

 (The saying is usually ‘a little cute, a hundred times more annoying’ but somehow it seems more like ‘a little annoying, a hundred times more cute’…)

 Watching the events unfold, Kendo makes to separate them. But Monoma and the 1-A boys aren’t listening anymore.

 “Let’s have a showdown! Don’t run away!”

 “We’re the ones who are gonna win, so why would we run?”

 Iida steps forward to stop them, but Monoma won’t let him spoil an opportunity to win again Class 1-A. He quickly cries out the UA motto: “Plus Ultra!”

 Ah, so the competition is to practice and improve themselves. Even outside of class, they’re so devoted! Mollified, Iida stands down.

 Iida taken care of, Monoma continues. “So how will we do this? Whatever method is fine!”

 “Er…” Kaminari looks to Ojiro for help.

 Ojiro blinks, and eventually settles on a hesistant, “Arm wrestling?”

 “Arm wrestling again? Is this revenge for last time? So unimaginative,” Monoma sneers.

 ** This refers to BNHA Light Novel Vol. 2 Chapter 5, where Class 1-A and 1-B have an arm wrestling competition and Monoma sabotages it when it looks like 1-B is going to lose.

 “What about sumo?”

 Monoma sniffs. “Isn’t that along the same line as arm wrestling? Besides, why does it have to be a show of strength? That’s so brutish.”

 “You just said anything goes! But fine, you choose something then!”

 “Don’t just suddenly dump the decision on me! You’re the ones who wouldn’t let me leave and started the fight.”

 “I bet! You’re clearly the one who was trying to antagonize us first. You can’t think of anything either!”

 As they squabble and scramble to come up with something, Todoroki, who had been quietly watching from the sidelines, suddenly goes “Ah!”

 “What’s up, Todoroki-kun?”

 “Well, since no one seems to be able to decide, I do have something.” Todoroki goes up to his room, returning with a barrel-like toy.

 There are many slots along the barrel, but only one results in a pirate head popping up from the top. Everyone takes turns picking a slot to poke their toy sword into, and anyone who gets the pirate head loses. The game resets until there’s only one person left, and they’re the winner.

 ** This is Pop-up Pirate. Todoroki got this toy from Hatsume in Chapter 2

 “Wow, I didn’t expect Todoroki to have this,” Yaoyorozu says.

 “Someone gave it to me,” Todoroki explains.

 “But… was the barrel supposed to be this big?” Ojiro seems to recall the toy from his childhood being able to fit in one hand, but the one before him is as big as a basketball.

 “It’s probably just an advanced edition. Please, let’s just use this…”

 Finally they set the rules for their showdown. 1-A and 1-B will take turns picking slots, and the side that triggers the pirate head loses.

 Since 1-B’s side only has 2 girls and 2 boys present, 1-A has to choose 2 girls and 2 boys to represent themselves too:

Kaminari, who’s bitter about his room being insulted earlier,

Ojiro, who thinks it’ll be fun and wants to participate,

Hakagure, who cheerfully raises her hands,

Ashido, who’d just come out of the bath.

 When they do rock, paper, scissors to decide who will go first, Monoma wins against Kaminari. “Ahahaha, it looks like luck is on the side of Class 1-B!”

 The smug and confident Monoma decides to go first. “Then, let’s start. To the victory of Class 1-B, the first sword!”

He thrusts the sword in. A sudden loud crack… “BZZT ZZ ZZ ZZ ZZ ZZ”

 Electricity floods into Monoma, who’s quite literally stunned into silence. Everyone stares at this unexpected development.

 “Monoma? Are you okay?!” Tetsutetsu asks, alarmed. “Monoma? Get a hold of yourself!”

“I’m not dead yet.” The frazzled Monoma glares up at Kaminari. “You dare do this, huh?! To think you’d launch a sneak attack… you Class 1-A lot really have some nerve.”

 “Wait, it wasn’t me! Everyone saw, right?”

 Ojiro comes to the rescue, declaring that the electricity had come from the barrel itself. A debate starts up. The pirate head hasn’t popped out so Monoma technically hasn’t lost, but there must have been some tampering that triggered the electrical shock.  As everyone argues, Izuku turns to Todoroki next to him. “Won’t the instruction manual tell us something? Todoroki-kun, do you have a manual?”

 “No.” Todoroki’s response is as curt as always, but even he looks a little shaken. “This is from one of the members of 1-H, the Department of Support. I think her name is Hatsu-something? Because it was something she made, she wanted to know our thoughts after we tried playing it…”

 “… Eh??” Izuku and Iida immediately yell, both having been on the receiving end of Hatsume’s inventions before.

 Todoroki hadn’t anticipated anything like this happening. “I feel pretty bad though, sorry,” he says in a small voice.

 Izuku fears that Hatsume has done some nefarious things to the toy and proposes that they stop the game. Iida wholeheartedly agrees. But Monoma won’t have any of it. “Hahahaha! Are you kidding me? Just for such a trivial matter?”

 Kaminari points out, “But didn’t you get hurt pretty seriously?”

 Monoma aggressively tries to fix his hair as he taunts, “Running away?”

 “!”

 “So Class 1-A is going to back out on a silly game like this? Oh, I’m so sorry! I’ll just declare my win over you weak-hearted lot and let you go. You guys accepted earlier but were ready to bolt at any second, huh? Go on back to your rooms to have a good cry in bed.”

 “As if! The game must go on!” Though everyone is very worried, Kaminari blurts out the response without thinking. Now it’s too late to take the words back.

 Monoma’s provocations have hit their mark. He refuses to be the only victim here – it’s not about the physical pain, but rather the blow to his ego.

 Decision made, everyone agrees to see the game through until the end.

 “Then it’s Class 1-A’s turn,” Monoma proclaims. “Who will be the next victim?”

 “I’ll go.” Kaminari steps forward.

 Monoma protests. “Don’t you have resistance to electricity? Isn’t that a little too cunning?”

 “Hey, it’s not like I can do anything about having this quirk.”

 Come at me, I’ll take whatever you can give! With that thought, Kaminari shoves his sword into the barrel.

 But there’s no electricity this time. Perhaps the toy had just malfunctioned earlier? There’s a short moment of confusion. Then the toy partially transforms, suddenly crushing Kaminari’s extended fingers in a vice grip. He shrieks.

 Before everyone’s eyes, the toy silently returns to its original state.

 “I see!” Izuku blurts. “Hatsume designed this to combine the pirate pop-up game with elements of a batsu game.”

 ** i.e. Japanese punishment game.

 Knowing Hatsume, there’s no way electrocution and pinching are the only two punishments available… But they can’t stop now.

 .

–– End of Chapter 3, Part Two  ––

Chapter 3, Part Three

Additional Notes:

Hmmm