#misc asks

[heretherebeturtles-comic]

Hi hello I am studying your art under a microscope and scuttling on the walls from excitement because it brings me so much joy. Keep up the good work!!

This ask is genuinely delightful, thank you XD

[that-one-paintbrush]

Yo, what ever you do, don't give that to Shadow Milk cookie

Heyyy, Silly Painty!!

What. What is this.

Aw, you don't wanna play along?

How are you even doing that?!

[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.

[formulatrash]

Hey Hazel! Hope you think of this as just a fun little question, but I think your thoughts would be interesting. Disclaimer: I'm from the USA so maybe it's different in the UK? But I wonder why some auto makers with historically emblems on the rear boot have switched to spelling out the brand. Examples are Honda, Lexus and Tesla. Thanks - wish I could visit your pub!

I was trying to answer this yesterday but my laptop decided to install some updates and then I lost everything I wrote and - long story short - I got too busy to rewrite it so. sorry about that.

basically this is the enshittification trend that's hitting everything. logos are becoming less logos and more typefaces across a lot of brands but particularly technology.

car companies are leaning more into selling themselves as technology companies, so following eg: Google, Uber, etc in turning their "logo" into just the word in a proprietary font. in a world where everything is increasingly visual, the death of the logo is really strange but it's basically just the current trend

[every-single-day]

um brody grant and blake roman both propose to you who do you choose

I propose polyamory

[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)

[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

[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

[heretherebeturtles-comic]

Buenaas, quería decirte que amo tu arte (⁠◍⁠•⁠ᴗ⁠•⁠◍⁠)⁠❤ and I love your comic as well.

What program or software do you use to create the comic and what kind of pencils and brushes do you use? I love that it looks like it was painted with an alcohol marker such as Copic or Ohuhu. (⁠ ⁠╹⁠▽⁠╹⁠ ⁠)

Thank you! I use Clip Studio Paint (EX). The brush used for that illustration was the default Flat Marker brush that comes with clip.

It's so cool that you immediately picked up on the marker look! I used to be a traditional marker/acrylic artist until I got into digital art a few years ago and Hikari Toriumi's work has really inspired me to try to bring back a marker look to my colours.

[that-one-paintbrush]

dumps vanilla extract in your inbox MUEHHUEHUEHUEHUEH

Huh. Just cleaned out the vanilla extract and found this random gem left behind...

[smthsotn]

Sprunki trans characters

Hmm, Raddy, Owakcx and Jevin… I guess?

[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.

[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.

[every-single-day]

do u lik.e sweeny todd. or carrie

Not a huge Sweeney fan

I’ve listened to Carrie in full once, now there’s only 2 or 3 songs I still listen to but I’d be willing to go deeper