#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!!!

[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.

[that-one-paintbrush]

SOMEONE ASKED ME ABOUT YOU! i will find you. i will know where you reside at all times

run

-animatic (of @animaticaskblog)

Wha-

Wait, what?! You're actually a real person? And you're gonna find me?! I- uh.. oh fuck-

[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)

[formulatrash]

Congrats on new feline motorsport companion! Hope she (or he?) likes it

ha I forget people who follow me on Instagram also follow me here. Artemus is our new cat pal, he's 17 and has a list of problems (kidneys, cataracts, high blood pressure, arthritis) but he's a funny little silly guy who's very gentle and cute and loves to play and be tucked into blankets.

I also just found out he likes Oscar and Lando because I was watching their dumb asses doing their garage tour thing and he jumped up to sit right next to me and stick his face 1mm from my laptop screen so I'm going to take that as good news he'll get on with me and my flatmate since we are also fucking idiots.

[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

[every-single-day]

OH JYLLIAN IMPORTANT NEWS IM FINALLY SEEING WICKED ON TUESDAY

WOOOOOOOOOOOO

REPORT BACK WITH ALL YOUR THOUGHTS

I think I should see it again

[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 😭

[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

[canonizzyhours]

can I just say how proud I am of all the work you're doing here? several months ago I went thru the arduous character development of 1) realizing I like izzy and 2) becoming more open about liking izzy, and I'd like to imagine you are facilitating that for other people who are likeminded to me. we love the izzy jar guy renaissance! we are ofmd fans and izzy is ours! cheers to izzy, my loathsome calamitous bastard 🥂

thanks so much nina 🥰

best case scenario we get a cycle of people posting takes anonymously through this blog -> people seeing that the canyon view of izzy as a sad innocent victim is not the only view out there -> more people post anonymously -> jar guy renaissance takes off -> people feel more able to post on their own blogs without worrying about canyon nonsense

worst case scenario. we get some fun takes and people have a place to put izzy in jars and occasionally vent about the canyon

win win

[heretherebeturtles-comic]

Absolutely NO rush, but may I ask if we have an ETA on the next set of pages? Again no rush, I just LOVE ur work

I appreciate the patience! I wish I could give you a solid time schedule, but I'm not sure.

Chapter 2 was progressing well with 5.5/24 pages coloured, but life decided to hit me a few times with the ol' tragedy sledgehammer back in July. All my freetime personal projects have been frozen for the past month or so, but I'm itching to work on this comic again.

I'm still a bit swamped and can make no promises, but I want to begin posting pages again by the end of October!

[valyrfia]

I LOVELOVELOVE hearing people who speak more than one language speak about it. which one is the most difficult? are you a different person in each language`? which one is your favourite? hi please tell me

- from a lowly monolingual english girl

English and French are the only ones I speak well enough to have any sort of personality in, I will say I'm definitely a lot more 'French' in French like I don't take things to heart and I feel like I can be a little more snippy and dramatic lmao. English I'm overly polite and proper.

I find Gaeilge the most difficult out of the ones I want to learn! That's mostly because it's still an endangered language so there isn't the same opportunity for immersion, but it's great to see how my friends who went to school in Ireland can speak at least moderately well in the language. Also, all the others I either have prior background in or they're romance languages, and once you know one of Italian/Portuguese/Spanish, you kind of gain special fast tracked access to the other two.

I love Portuguese for the culture of it all, it's a modern language with archaic traits which add such an elegance to it. Combine that with the (European Portuguese) accent which is SO intricate like...speaking it is such a workout. It sounds like Russian to the untrained ear but then you start to pick up on Latin words, it's absolutely wild I love it so much. I also adore the literature (ie. Fernando Pessoa and his seventy five heteronyms.....ao3 authors could never) and sentiment of the language, I mean it gave us 'saudade', what else do you want.

I also have never learnt Italian formally, only picked up bits from friends and media but I have such a special place in my heart for Italy and Italian. Most of my best friends are Italian..I support Ferrari...I've got it down.

I have to also say that ever since being in Nice/Monaco for the GP French has reclaimed its spot in my heart as my favourite language, especially since I found people to be so lovely! For context, I have a near flawless accent in French but if you get me into a proper conversation it's obvious I'm not 100% fluent, but I often asked people if we could keep speaking in French when I was in Nice/Monaco for the GP because a. it is technically a mother tongue of mine and I don't want to be an annoying English speaker and b. I really don't get to practice it nearly enough and everyone I spoke to was so overjoyed and happy about it. I don't get this stereotype that "French people are mean", they're reserved and they can be a little abrupt and sure you get the odd person but all in all I've found the culture to be guarded but once you get past that initial layer, so hospitable and friendly. Obviously I do have an accent power up there but I'm sick and tired of seeing this "the French are awful!" take all over social media, personally. French is the most beautiful language in the world, in my opinion.

And then English, well it's the language I spend the majority of my life in. It's versatile as hell but I find it's a language that favours practicality over beauty–which makes it an incredible lingua franca! I feel very privileged to have known it since young. Also, gets one incredible access to ao3, so all in all can't complain.

[slugtranslation-hypmic]

hello! i'm a longtime fan of your translations, thank you for working so hard.

i have a usage request - i would love to perform your english translation of ~OSAKA BIG UP~ on stage as a real manzai act. would you allow me to do that? and if so, would you like credit if i post about it on social media? thank you!

I'm flattered (??) and pretty embarrassed. It's not exactly optimized for performing live, but... go for it! I don't care if you credit or not.

[that-one-paintbrush]

Hahaha, what the FUCK.

[mxtxfanatic]

I think you have probably read a lot of my all time favorite danmeis so I'm going to recommend one that I loved that was pretty different from what I usually enjoy.

"Little Mushroom" is pretty dark; I'm sure you should check content warnings before reading it, but if you got through all of MXTX, you'll probably be okay. It's an enemies to lovers story about a mushroom that becomes human and an executioner set in a dystopian world on the brink of annihilation. It gets super bleak at times but somehow manages to have a happy ending. I won't lie, when reading it I didn't know if it would end well or not and was despairing pretty intensely. More than once I thought while reading it, "well actually death is a release," and just started to accept that all the characters were going to die.

I'm not selling it well am I?

There are some very sweet moments that happen even in the midst of angst and tragedy and they seem so much softer for it. For how fraught the romance is, it develops tenderly.

This book is chocked full of existential dread which I usually don't like. This book challenges the readers to think about what it means to be human and if our choices strip us of our humanity then what are we even still fighting to preserve.

It gets pretty intense at times, but you get to follow the softest, gentlest mushroom as he navigates an apocalypse while learning to become human. And fall in love.

Little Mushroom was already halfway on the list, but you telling me it has a body count def just pushed it to the bottom 😭😭😭 I’ll read it eventually, but probably not as a liveblog.