May 2012
9 posts
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the last chapterrrr!
I finished tweaking (the first draft of) the last chapter of Facing the Incoming Wind. Oh my gosh, no more Makoto & Kei! I’m all attached to them and it’s only been two volumes; I can just imagine what I’ll be like if I ever work on a long series. (Let alone what it must be like for a mangaka actually drawing one of those series that hits 30+ volumes!)
This chapter had what...
DMP has brand recognition! (overheard at Source...
Guy 1: Wait, you have to check for this company's mark. Look.
Friend: Where?
Guy 1: Right here, on the spine. See, this June thing?
Friend: Oh okay. So all their books are, uh...the boy-on-boy stuff?
Guy 1: Exactly.
Friend: Okay thanks. I'll remember that.
Guy 1: You BETTER thank me. I had to learn the hard way.
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Now that Love Soul is out on emanga, Kindle and Nook, it’s time to get things organized and bring you a new, improved, multi-platform announcement!
The Summary:
Kei Arimoto and Makoto Ohtaki had been bosom buddies since middle school, but their relationship begins to change as college forces the two to spend more time apart. Kei is using all his wiles to take their relationship to the next...
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I was sidetracked by some other chores and events (and a pathetic inability to concentrate), and this final chapter of Facing the Incoming Wind is taking twice the time it should. I’m beginning to suspect that I subconsciously don’t want to finish…-.-
Which is odd, because about a chapter ago I couldn’t wait to move on to the next book (The Pain in my Heart) and spend some...
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Chapter 6 already! True to its title, Facing the Incoming Wind is blowing right by me. You’ll be able to catch up on Kei & Makoto’s high school days before you know it.
April 2012
8 posts
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Anonymous asked: why did you decide to translate Love Soul first if it's a sequel to IMKK?
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"Wind" Chapter 4 goes slow...
…partly because I hit a certain line of Kei’s and just kind of…stopped dead for a little while. Couldn’t move past it. Nope.
Dammit Makoto, if you don’t want to jump up and glomp the guy when he looks you in the eye and says something like that then I don’t know what’s wrong with you!
Hats off to Agawa-sensei for making characters real enough that I...
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Incoming Wind, chapter 4!
I’d been away from this chapter so long I nearly forgot what was in it.
I’ve come to wonder just how and why Agawa-sensei decided to make Kei a quarter foreign in the first place. It seems like the sort of thing you’d come up with just because you want an excuse to draw a blonde guy…and then you realize you’ve made your character exponentially more complicated....
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Where manga happens, 2nd library edition.
Yesterday I finished up Chapter 3 of Facing the Incoming Wind—in my local branch this time, in the odd little table-for-one by the biographies. Maybe I should make a project of translating manga in every branch library in the metro?
I feel like a terrible person for laughing at his suffering, but Makoto’s total panicked confusion in this chapter cracks me up every time.
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I’m getting close to finishing the script for Incoming Wind Chapter 3. Being away from it for a while, I’d forgotten it has one of my favorite pages—one in which you don’t see anyone’s face at all.
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where manga happens, when the weather's nice.
OUTSIDE! With the ducks!
As we get over the giant hump that was finalizing and turning in Love Soul (more on that soon!), I return to the editing and rewriting of Facing the Incoming Wind Chapter 3. I feel as if I’m finally getting into a good rhythm for translating chapters, smoothing out my process and finding little tricks along the way. And it only took what, two volumes and a third of...
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The Fujoshi were right all along.
fuurinkazanfordmg:
Normal view: Oh, it’s the freeway, with a bit of traffic.
Fujoshi view: Oh god, the cars, they’re being so forward, driving down the road like they own that road’s ass, and they SO DO, pounding down on that road like that, and the road, the road, he’s just taking it, taking all the cars, and he still wants more, oh my, and HOW CAN YOU NOT SEE THIS.
And then I find this in...
March 2012
13 posts
6 tags
The revising for Chapter 2 went surprisingly quickly once the vocab-check was done. I should break those two steps up every time from now on.
I have only done a little bit of straight-prose (i.e. non-manga) translation as of yet, but in one way it was definitely easier than manga—not having to worry about the lines fitting inside those $#*& speech bubbles!! It doesn’t help that...
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I’m trying some adjustments to my translating schedule, and as part of it put Chapter 2 aside for a day and charged through almost all of Chapter 3 yesterday. Big drama in this one!
I’m not laughing at you exactly, Makoto, it’s sort a sympathy laugh. (^_^;) You poor confused kid…
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where manga happens, most of the time.
My worktable at home. Looking at this, I feel like I turned a corner somewhere along the way without knowing it… (_ _);
Chapter 2 proofreading moves along slowly, just as I expected.
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Chapter 2 finished!
But the proofreading for this one’s going to be time-consuming…compared to other chapters I’ve done, it’s pretty text-heavy in spots, and there’s a fair amount of vocabulary I’m going to be looking up. Which I guess makes it a good thing that I finished a day earlier than I thought I would.
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continuing with "Incoming Wind," Chapter 2...
Random observations of the day: You don’t realize how much of a calming influence Makoto is until you see Kei without him. Yeeee~~! And we get to see their first meeting in this chapter! Not spoiling anything, but it’s another of my favorite moments in the book.
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...straight into the wall.
Today I told myself I’d sit down and quickly knock off a few pages of Incoming Wind chapter 2….then the first two turn out to be the Wall-o-Text kind. (Or as close to Wall-o-Text as I’ve seen Agawa-sensei get.) Aagh!
Though actually, I liked the cocky attitude of the opening lines. But when there’s lots of text-box narration it takes longer to get through; no denying...
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off and running.
Annnnd done with the first chapter of Facing the Incoming Wind!
Does this chapter ever have a lot of little asides floating around the speech bubbles! I hope it doesn’t make life too complicated for our letterer.
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Where manga happens, library edition.
Finished the rough draft for the first chapter of Facing the Incoming Wind! This would have been the very first episode of the Kei and Makoto series and I’m ridiculously fond of it. It’s a touching story and there are panels that make me smile every single time I get to them, even with all the rereading I do as I translate!
There you go, that’s me. The woman sitting in the back...
February 2012
30 posts
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Free Plug time
I am so glad I stumbled across the ClipboardManager desktop gadget soon after I started working for DMG. It is saving me from having to type, for example, [FX REPLACE] five jillion times!
(The other gadget is a stopwatch I time myself with; it motivates me to not get sidetracked while I translate. So far I’m at 10-12 minutes per page).
ClipboardManager available...
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New (Old) Volume.
Today I got a good start on our next volume, Facing the Incoming Wind. The protagonists are our guys from Love Soul, but we’re going back in time to see their high school days. Agawa’s artwork in this one is a little softer than in Love Soul, which suits the characters’ younger ages.
I’m glad I got to do a two-volume work; Love Soul gets another level once you know this...
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http://genmanga.com →
Holy cow this project looks amazing! Normally I avoid signing up for stuff, but this looks to be worth the price of admission.
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Where manga happens, round 2.
Naname—localizing manga, crossing state lines, and taking terrible blurry photos all at the same time!
Shortly after this I noticed that the person in the seat ahead of me also had a laptop, and that I could see her screen reflected in the window (Facebook, what else?) I hope the guy in the seat behind me wasn’t doing the same for my screen, because, um…*blush*
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Chapter 6 done~~
Maybe I’m just a sucker for fantasy elements, but this story could go places. For one thing, Atsushi’s whole family ought to be coming after him with “extreme prejudice” in a day or two.
Fantasy or not, I find I always like love stories better when the romance is only one part of the storyline. It feels more realistic and relatable that way—I’ve never heard of...
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Where manga happens.
Today’s segment of Love Soul is brought to you by the fabulously sketchy West 7th Quick Wash!
I actually love working in here. With nothing else I can do but wait for the machines and a built-in time limit, I’m far more focused and efficient than at home.
(At least it feels that way).
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Double Face, cont'd
Heh…I’ve changed my mind about our protagonist Atsushi. I think he was trying to be all cool and focused, but when you try to act cool like that, life has a way of calling your bluff.
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"Localization group for DMP's Digital Manga...
All this time, and only now does it occur to me that we don’t have this properly explained! So, for any of you who may be wondering about our description…
What is DMP?
Digital Manga Publishing, an up-and-coming publishing company working out of California to bring new and classic manga to the States. For more details, see their main website: www.digitalmanga.com
And the Digital...
To Fujoshi, Everyone is Uke or Seme
Fujoshi: Everything is seme and uke! EVERTYTHING AND EVERYONE.
Non-Fujoshi: Um, sure.
Fujoshi: So in Star Wars, Luke would be an uke.
Non-Fujoshi: ...what?
Fujoshi: You know, 'cause he's gentler and a more kind person.
Non-Fujoshi: ...gentler and more kind THAN WHO.
Fujoshi: And then Han Solo would be the seme!
Non-Fujoshi: Are you pairing them up!?
Fujoshi: Because he's so agressive and rude and violent!
Non-Fujoshi:
Fujoshi: And Leia would be seme because she's very dashing and is such a fighter!
Non-Fujoshi:
Fujoshi: And Yoda would be uke because he so passively guides and trains Jedi!
Non-Fujoshi:
Fujoshi: So anyone can be uke and seme, even if they aren't really homosexual or whatever!
Non-Fujoshi: what
Fujoshi: Do you need me to go into inanimate objects?
Non-Fujoshi: WHAT IS STAR WARS
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After a complete bust yesterday, made a bit of a start on Chapter 6 (“Double Face”) today. Our protagonist this time is a cold & calculating type—mm, not so much calculating as focused, maybe. Goal-driven. Anyway, he’s something different from the other Agawa characters I’ve seen thus far.
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aaaaand that finishes Chapter 5! I’m looking forward to the next one; it has a bit of a fantasy angle.
Come to think of it, 5 and 6 are similar in that they were both probably originally written as “pilot episodes.” It must be tricky to plot a chapter 1 not knowing if there will be a chapter 2. You have to wrap it up neatly yet leave something incomplete for readers to keep...
