Happy New Year.

Hey there. Yep, it's 2013. That's pretty crazy. I never even got used to writing '2012' when having to write the date. My perception of time is as sketchy as ever. Before it always seemed like the numeral gregorian year designation defined the year for me. Lately it just seems like a ticker on the bottom of the screen as things just keep happening way too fast.

But whatever.

So, I was looking back at my first post of 2012. Good times. I actually covered a lot more ground translation-wise than I expected since then.

Click the [info] link for a lengthy recount of the highlights and commentary on stuff from 2012~!!
Oh, come along with me on a trip down memory blog lane!!

Here we go:

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Summer Vacation is actually the most downloaded of any translation I've ever done according to my MediaFire account numbers, by a very wide margin. You guys really dig 23's futa. Not that I blame you or anything.

Oddman 11, chp. 1+2 - I found this back when I didn't even know Dowman was currently being published. You can imagine how giddy I was. This was also apparently back when I didn't know how to level pages. Live and learn. Shiraishi may be the best cat-girl ever.

The Tale of a Cowgirl on a Farm - If I'm remembering correctly, another blogger kindly linked back to this post back in the day, so this one ended up pretty popular too. It remains pertinent in my mind as containing the biggest translation mistake I've ever made before releasing. Japanese can get very context-heavy and abbreviated, so absent mindedly skipping over an entire panel can do that to you. It didn't help that it was kind of a twist ending as well. Pfff. Again, live and learn.

Let's Believe Again! - My first collaboration with 4dawgz. You can thank him for all the Hroz we ended up doing.

The Voynich Hotel, chp. 01 - Pretty much my favoritest manga ever. I spent a lot of time tracking down the first 15 or so chapters' worth of raws from Young Champion Retsu magazine, and had begun scanning my hardcopy to fill in for the rest, when raws for the entire volume showed up on the internets. It was for the better, as I'm not so great when it come to scanning stuff.
Was fun doing a chapter a day for as long as it lasted.
 Here's looking forward to Feb. 20th, 2013, when Vol. 02 is supposed to drop.

Nickelodeon [Red] - A collection of short stories, also from Dowman Sayman. Like the twighlight zone but quirkier. Spent a while deciding on a how to translate what the elder twin tells her younger sister, went with "We have to balance out," and am still pretty satisfied with the integrity of the translation.
Which actually touches upon my favorite part of translation: it takes both the commonalities and discrepencies all our cultures have and makes them blatantly obvious. So many languages in the world, but overall, as humans, we all say the same things, in one way or another. Then at the same time, there are concepts and nuances that just can't be put into certain languages or cultures. It's beautiful, really. Now excuse me, I have to wipe this tear from my eye.
Eagerly awaiting a 2nd volume to show.

Captive Market -  The most involved translation to ever appear on this blog. It's not for everyone, but damn, if it's for you, it is so for you. To this day still gets the most hits out of any post here on average. You'd think anyone who'd be interested would have played it by now, or at least would head over to where both the game and my patch are packaged into one download.

     For as much as I enjoyed it and as far as the game goes, (Daness is teh hotness) I thought the game could have been a lot better. I know everyone else is thinking this too, but come on, no Jean scene!? Say what!? The writing was pretty bad, too. I can't remember how many times Gagoze thinks to himself "but it was easy to see why." and how he's "not interested in beastiality." Okay Gagoze, we get it, you're a jackass. I tried to add variation to the translations so they wouldn't be as repetitive as the original Japanese, but I think half-way through I gave up. I mean, I know this is an H visual novel, so I'm not expecting Shakespeare or anything, but come on guys...
    It just seemed like there were so many opportunities missed during the production of this game. That said, the only reason I feel so strongly about that is because I really liked the game overall. Anastasia and Noa's characters grew on me by the time I had completed the translation. And hey, elves in tanks, I am so down for that. Just, it had a lot more potential than was actually utilized. Kind of disappointing it never ended up popular enough to get an animated adaption, though.
      Looking back, also surprised with how many typos I'm capable of, but hey, I sifted my way through the approx. 70,000 lines of coding and text of the game script with nothing but your basic notepad application, blindingly guessing where the text box might cut me off when text was insterted back into the game. Live and learn.

The End of Sexual Instinct and the Hydrogen Bomb War - As the first Dowman book I ever read, was kind of neat going back through this and translating it from cover to cover. The imperial-style worded afterword was surpisingly fun to translate as well. His readiness to parody the A-bomb drop is unique, to say the least.

Blade Play, vol. 01 - The whole series comes off as kind of dialed in and not that well thought out. Aomaru Seta knows how to draw some awesome figures though, and the light-heartedness works. I like this series way more than I probably should. Just finished vol. 02 as well.

Futanari Gym Teacher Morita Ritsuko - I don't think I've ever laughed so hard during translating in my life. Oh, Japan, you never cease to make the best/most ridiculous pr0n.

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And that wraps up 2012! A lot more thoughts on different translations, but this is getting boring as it is. Enough of dwelling on the past, let's look forward to what will come!!

And that brings me to my first translation of 2013. Thanks for reading.

-thetsuuyaku