#and then have to translate it back into JP

[yuurei20]

I would like to apologize if you did make a post about this and I missed it (I am honestly not on social media a whole lot) but, out of curiosity, has your video upload schedule for 2025 changed slightly? I am okay with it if it has, I just wanted to make sure. Thank you!

Hello hello! Thank you for this question!

You are very correct! I maybe should have made an announcement m(_ _)m My apologies.

YouTube uploads have shifted from every-other-day to once every three days! I appreciate very much everyone's understanding ♡

I usually try to avoid posting personal information to this blog as it is for Twst, not for me, but just for the curious there are details under the cut ^^ Thank you again!

A local company recently launched a new community outreach project and I have been brought on as translator and interpreter! 🥳

This is in addition to my full-time job, and while the income is very much appreciated (I was able to upgrade twstnote.com's storage limit for 2025 🎉) it means that there has been less time for Twst-related research and video-making 💦

October to December was particularly hectic and burned through almost all of my stock content. I was able to mostly catch up again during New Years holidays, but as this new job is project based I never know what is going to be needed or by when. Sometimes I receive three sentences to translate, sometimes I am needed three days in a row for on-site interpretation.

It is exciting but makes me nervous about being able to meet my twst-content deadlines, and something needed to be cut back. Am currently experimenting with every-3-day uploads and hopefully will be able to keep that schedule! If things calm down then I would love to return to every-other-day, but if things pick up then I might need to cut back again somewhere in order to balance m(_ _)m

And that is the situation! Thank you very much for your understanding ♡ Will do my best to have quality improve, even as quantity may go down a little!

[miiversian]

just saw a JP twitter acc post screenshots that they found online from the eng patch of LTPTDNST but machine translated back into japanese... weve come full circle

[raystranslationsfestival]

Dependable Older Brother.

Type: Skit. Character: Luke (First Skit). Characters Featured: Luke, Yuri.

Translation, recording, subbing by Shi. Proofread by Yewfelle.

[brofightiscancelled]

ok kind of an insane ask so feel free to ignore but would you be able to translate "友達バリア" by deco*27? i can't find any translations online and i wanna see if i'm right about the song kind of fitting the matsus... it's also a banger imo

- vocamatsu anon

omg.... tbh i have a feeling deco will make a video for this one which means we'll get an official english translation of it, rendering this completely redundant, but i'm really cheesed to have been asked, so i gave it a shot for you anyways <3

Friend-zoned, love fire, sparks flying HIBANA We're ready, set to lock horns, love's ultimate showdown I'm outmatched- but it's not over yet! I won't let this end! With a dazzling, never-give-up attitude, I'll break through your defenses!

The despair of never getting anything more of this Your behavior, nor what's going on in your head- I can't read it at all! I can't help but envy the kindness you radiate Omnidirectional compatibility- it's just not for me

Carefully-picked down-played words The outcome: A bloody heart True feelings double-crossed by embarrassment; how frustrating, I'm changing sides But that won't fill up my heart What I want is nothing more than to be by your side If you've got something to say, then say it- 'til I defeat you, that is! 3, 2, 1!

Friend-zoned, love fire, sparks flying HIBANA We're ready, set to lock horns, love's ultimate showdown I'm outmatched- but it's not over yet! I won't let this end! With a dazzling, never-give-up attitude, I'll break through your defenses!

I want you to like me! I want you to like me! Friend-zoned, love fire, hey, say "I give up"! With a dazzling, never-give-up attitude, I'll break through your defenses!

Fun things, good feelings- without you, they have no taste at all Sadness, jealousy- if they're cuz of you, then I don't mind them Let's throw down, bro! Better to regret doing it, than not doing it at all! A feeling like I won't need any special moves, YEAH I'm sure everything will be OKAY With an endless supply of love, you're undefeated, AYE Play dead, BYE BYE I'll be the one to throw the first punch

Friend-zoned, love fire, sparks flying HIBANA We're ready, set to lock horns, love's ultimate showdown The lonely and timid me is already no more! With a dazzling, blazing flair, I'll burn through your defenses!

Do you like me yet? Do you like me yet? Friend-zoned, love fire, now, let's immerse ourselves in love! With a dazzling, blazing flair, a never-ending HAO sweetener battle!

Do you like me yet? Do you like me yet? Friend-zoned, love fire, now, let's immerse ourselves in love! With a dazzling, blazing flair, a never-ending HAO sweetener battle!

------

my notes:

my overall interpretation of this song is "I'm trying to break through the friend zone (friendship barrier) so that you like me instead of thinking of me as a friend", so any vagueness in translation went in that direction

The use of "lock horns" in the official translation snippet + the HAO motifs give me the mental image of like, a hand-to-hand kung fu battle, so I leaned towards that imagery whenever there was vagueness (as opposed to like, a military campaign, for example)

deco's official english translations tend to be very liberal, so i tried to keep my translation a little more literal

[dawdlecentric]

Holy shit! Maka & CRONA'S VAs??!!!

[takeshitakyuuto]

Life is so cruel because Kino no Tabi is so good but I can’t even recommend the books to anyone because only the first volume was ever translated and it’s been out of print for presumably over a decade. Plus part of what makes it so good are untranslatable (into English) qualities of the Japanese language such as the general avoidance of gendering Kino. What other book has a motorcycle get into an argument with a dog

[akuma-ren]

is it bad that I don't rlly like Eng rafayel??? I only like him when he sounds serious. Whenever I watch the trailers it's always on mute 😭

I use jp but I like cn too. Haven't listened to much of krn to judge

[camels-pen]

uso-chan....... uso-san....... uso-swan.........

<- reminded of old sanuso fics they used to read and getting nostalgic

[toestalucia]

btw

[shiawasekai]

I always find funny how so much of the jp media I like is extremely obscure in the West but, like, outright award winning in its country.

[tariah23]

Omg….

I had not idea that kotteri’s works are finally being translated to English, I’m buying everything-

[miiversian]

"Let us explore the world of nothingness together."

[raystranslationsfestival]

People Who Understand Without Words.

Type: Skit. Character: Stahn (First Skit). Characters Featured: Stahn, Yuri, Repede.

Translation, recording, subbing by Shi. Proofread by Yewfelle.

[solradguy]

Since there's no physical evidence of the stuff I've translated, I don't really think about just how much I've done until I go to the Archives page on my Neocities and see the giant list and then I go "damn, how many hours have I put into this"

[drenched-in-sunlight]

one thing that i find interesting is that even though we never get to interact with Marika directly, only knowing her via obscure cutscenes and other characters' dialogue... she actually displays a wide range of emotions as much as any other NPCs.

her statues depict her as having a warm, gentle smile:

the Mimic veil description points to her playful, mischievous side:

(it's a popular theory in the JP/Asian side of the fandom that it's sth from her childhood - hence the "Marika's Mischief", not "Queen Marika's", and she used it to escape the grisly fate befalling her family.

additionally, its equivalence in Dark Souls is also something described as "the mischief of a young girl who sought relief from the solitude of the woods at dusk", aka Princess Dusk who hails from "Oolacile, land of ancient golden sorceries", but i digress)

her portrait, the story trailer's "Queen Marika was driven to the brink" and Gideon's dialogue after the player defeated Malenia pointed out her sorrow:

(back when i first played the base game, this is the portrait that drove my eyes most in Roundtable Hold. i kept gazing at her - the Queen with permanently lowered eyes, and thought "there is a girl in there")

The bat lady's song, Messmer's entire Crusade, all those conflicts to establish the Erdtree, shows her anger, and the cruelty she's capable of:

Then there's Shaman's village, the clinic underneath Shadow Keep, the golden braid, the Minor Erdtree, the sealing of Death - that points to grief, trauma, survivor guilt, kindness, and the ruinous drive for revenge that results in the above path down hell:

(there's also a theory for the Crusade's headless statue being a reminder for the Hornsent of what they put Marika's mother through, but it's not concrete canon so here is the link if you want to check it out)

The fact that all of Erdtree's incantations are heal and protection spells (with only one exception of Wrath of Gold spell which was found after the Elden Ring was shattered), the Capitol's Perfumers originally being blessed healers, and that all Erdtree blessings come in the shape of tears give the picture of Marika's gentle wish at the beginning: to heal everything and everyone.

(and to me personally, there's a kind of vulnerability and honesty in showing your tears to the world and let it be your power to heal at the same time.)

the eye she blessed Messmer with (i do think the Eng translation at some part lost the sentiment of the JP text - that the eye is always referred to as a blessing)

the blessing flask that - unlike its Dark Souls equivalent (which ranges from 6-13 flasks), only have 4 available to us player, heal all ailments and status effect, and specified as sth made for Messmer.

the Marika's soreseal in the Haligtree + the waterfall near Godwyn's final resting place

the Regal Omen Bairn (that was fashioned after the Jizo statue - sth made by grieving parents wishing for protection for their deceased child in the afterlife)

the blessing, gifts, equipment that Messmer and Godwyn's personal knights all get

the fact that Marika's bedchamber and the Impaler's Catacomb (which is the only catacomb in the base game to have the spike trap mechanic used in catacombs in the DLC) remain the proof of Messmer's existence in the base game

how Godwyn's ending is the only ending where the mending rune is placed on the position of Marika's womb (the lower arc or the Elden Ring - also referred to as the basin in which its blessings pool)

that's a whole barrage of motherhood. the love, the fear, the postpartum depression, the guilt and anxiety, (the occasional scheming for revenge with her son). and despite how flawed and tragic that love ends up being for all of them, it is there.

(there's a whole subplot about how Messmer is the only demigod to be called ugly in-game (Hornsent npc dialogue) while Boc's questline is about how his mother being the only one to always assure him he's beautiful, despite everyone else calling him ugly. and how each NPCs questline does reflect a wider theme seen in Marika and her children. but again, i digress)

every time i think of her, Marika is a constantly shifting kaleidoscope, holding everything from within (the beauty and the malign, light and dark, birth and death, she's warm and gentle, she's cruel and unjust, she's strong and kind, she's weak and resentful, she's sweet and she's bitterness made flesh)... and i could only stand there and admire it all.

[clannfearrunt]

Sorry to hop on here just correcting something in the tags:

#important to note that technicolor syndrome is implied to also make her chronically fatigued (via @apolloendymion )

This is not true! That is a misconception introduced by the wording of the main english translation going around. Her being able to produce different colors and her being sensitive to changes in atmospheric pressure and tending to be tired most of the time are two separate ideas that are not marked with any correlation in the original Japanese. It could be a neat thing to incorporate into your own headcanon! But it’s not something that is said in canon.

Trying a new format to break my long squid science silence with ^^