Translation Chat

Season 2 - Episode 10/10

Janet Hsu localization director that has worked in the video game industry for almost two decades.

Janet chats about the English localization of the Nintendo DS Game Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors by director Kotaro Uchikoshi from Chunshoft. Localization by Aksys Games with translation by Nobara Nakayama and editing by Ben Bateman.

"Nine Hours: You only have 9 hours before Junpei and the other 8 kidnapped drown. Numerology, music composition and logic puzzles are just a few of the 32 plus obstacles that stand in the way of their freedom.

Nine Persons: Uncover the mystery surrounding the lives of the 9 captive characters and how their blurry pasts reveal a disturbing future. Help all the characters escape but beware! A wrong decision or careless mistake might put their lives in jeopardy.

Nine Doors: Each hostage is cursed with a digital watch that displays their special number. These numbers are the keys to unlocking the 9 doors. Explore your surrounding for clues to unlock the next door by picking up and examining objects.

You must use everything in your environment and personal experience to get out."

Season 2 - Episode 9/10

Wesley O'Donnell is a freelance Japanese to English translator living in Japan. He's worked on a variety of manga and light novels with penchant towards fantasy and comedy.

Wesley chats about the amazing characterization and comedy in the English localization of Nindento's Paper Mario and the Origami King.

"The kingdom has been ravaged by an origami menace! Join Mario and his new partner, Olivia, as they battle evil Folded Soldiers, repair the damaged landscape, and try to free Princess Peach’s castle from the clutches of King Olly in this comedy-filled adventure."

A podcast where professional Japanese to English translators and editors chat about their favorite translations.

Hosted and edited by Jennifer O'Donnell

Season 2 - Episode 8/10

Taylor Drew is a translator, writer, and manga proofreader based in Tokyo. She writes book reviews for her personal blog A Basket of Words and also does interview translations for Febri. Passionate for all things written and everything to do with Northeastern Japan, she chose to talk about the award-winning Tokyo Ueno Station by Yu Miri and translated by Morgan Giles.

"Born in Fukushima in 1933, the same year as the Emperor, Kazu’s life is tied by a series of coincidences to Japan’s Imperial family and to one particular spot in Tokyo; the park near Ueno Station – the same place his unquiet spirit now haunts in death.

It is here that Kazu’s life in Tokyo began, as a labourer in the run up to the 1964 Olympics, and later where he ended his days, living in the park’s vast homeless ‘villages’, traumatised by the destruction of the 2011 tsunami and enraged by the announcement of the 2020 Olympics."

Websites:

Season 2 - Episode 7/10

Season 2 - Episode 6/10

Season 2 - Episode 5/10

Alexander O. Smith—who goes by Alex—is a translator, writer, and photographer living in Kamakura, Japan. As a translator, he's worked on games like Final Fantasy 12, novels in the fantasy, sci-fi, and mystery genres, and manga. He's written for Magic: The Gathering, DeNA mobile games, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, and is currently writing at game studio Camouflaj on an unannounced VR title.

Alex chose to chat about the sci-fi novel—which later became a blockbuster movie staring Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt, Edge of Tomorrow—All You Need Is Kill, by Hiroshi Sakurazaka and translated from Japanese by Joseph Reeder and edited by Alexander O. Smith.

"When the alien Gitai invade, Keiji Kiriya is just one of many raw recruits shoved into a suit of battle armor and sent out to kill.

Keiji dies on the battlefield, only to find himself reborn each morning to fight and die again and again. On the 158th iteration though, he sees something different, something out of place: the female soldier known as the Bitch of War.

Is the Bitch the key to Keiji’s escape, or to his final death?"

Season 2 - Episode 4/10

Keith Spencer is a visual artist and translator based in Kyoto. His artwork has been exhibited in the US, Japan, and Canada, while his translations have appeared in artist books, galleries, and numerous art-related online publications.

Keith chose to chat about the novel The Emissary (also known in the USA as The Last Children of Tokyo), by Yoko Tawada and translated by Margaret Mitsutani.

Japan, after suffering from a massive irreparable disaster, cuts itself off from the world. Children are so weak they can barely stand or walk: the only people with any get-go are the elderly. Mumei lives with his grandfather Yoshiro, who worries about him constantly.

They carry on a day-to-day routine in what could be viewed as a post-Fukushima time, with all the children born ancient--frail and gray-haired, yet incredibly compassionate and wise.

Mumei may be enfeebled and feverish, but he is a beacon of hope, full of wit and free of self-pity and pessimism. Yoshiro concentrates on nourishing Mumei, a strangely wonderful boy who offers "the beauty of the time that is yet to come."

In this episode we mention a few articles and books.

Season 2 - Episode 3/10

Season 2 - Episode 2/10

Season 2 - Episode 1/10

Christina Rose is a video game and manga translator who enjoys demystifying the J-E media translation industry and its practices for people new to the field or looking to break in.

Final Fantasy XIV is a sci-fi/fantasy MMORPG that has been running in some form or other since 2012, making it nearly ten years old! The most recently released expansion at the time of this podcast is Endwalker, and the expansion right before that is Shadowbringers. Christina discusses the Shadowbringers content, with only minor spoilers.

"Warriors of Light, embrace the darkness and forge a new fate!

Ala Mhigo is at last free from imperial rule, but that liberty may prove fleeting as the Empire moves to both reclaim this bloodied nation and subjugate all of Eorzea. In their hour of need, however, they cannot turn to the Warrior of Light. Nor to the Scions, who yet slumber, their souls adrift. The realm is left to struggle without its saviors, for they have been beckoned beyond time and space─beckoned to the First."

Season 1 - Episode 10/10

Season 1 - Episode 9/10

Gavin Greene is a freelance localization director, translator, and interpreter specializing in video games. In his ten years in the industry, he's translated more games than he can count (he's better at writing than math), many of them for well-known franchises such as Final Fantasy and the Tales of series.

As a localization director, he organizes multilingual teams bringing fun and games to various corners of the world. And as an interpreter, he talks and sometimes people listen.

For this episode he chose to chat about the sci-fi novel Harmony by Project Itoh, translated by Alexander O. Smith.

"In the future, Utopia has finally been achieved thanks to medical nanotechnology and a powerful ethic of social welfare and mutual consideration. This perfect world isn't that perfect though, and three young girls stand up to totalitarian kindness and super-medicine by attempting suicide via starvation. It doesn't work, but one of the girls--Tuan Kirie--grows up to be a member of the World Health Organization. As a crisis threatens the harmony of the new world, Tuan rediscovers another member of her suicide pact, and together they must help save the planet...from itself."

Season 1 - Episode 8/10

Morgan Watchorn is a manga translator for Seven Seas Entertainment. Titles she’s worked on include Who Wants to Marry a Billionaire?, Desire Pandora, and Call to Adventure! Defeating Dungeons with a Skill Board.

She chose to talk about the English dub adaptation for the 2005 anime Black Cat, which was translated by Masako Ollivier, then adapted by Andrew Rye and Eric Vale for dubbing.

"Completing every job with ruthless accuracy, Train Heartnet is an infamous assassin with no regard for human life. Donning the moniker "Black Cat" in the underground world, the elite killer works for the powerful secret organization known only as Chronos.

One gloomy night, the blasé gunman stumbles upon Saya Minatsuki, an enigmatic bounty hunter, and soon develops an odd friendship with her. Influenced by Saya's positive outlook on life, Train begins to rethink his life. Deciding to abandon his role as the Black Cat, he instead opts to head down a virtuous path as an honest bounty hunter. However, Chronos—and particularly Creed Diskenth, Train's possessive underling—is not impressed with Train's sudden change of heart and vows to resort to extreme measures in order to bring back the emissary of bad luck.

This assassin turned "stray cat" can only wander so far before the deafening sound of gunfire rings out."

Anime dubs involve the translator but then a whole bunch of people who are in charge of the dubbing itself. When a voice actor records a voice to a set video, this is called automated dialogue replacement (ADR). The translated script must therefore be adapted for ADR so the lines will match the lip flaps of any on-screen characters.

As discussed in the episode, here are the credits for the people involved in the Black Cat anime dub.

Masako Ollivier - translator
Andrew Rye - ADR writer
Eric Vale - ADR writer
Tyler Walker - ADR director / line producer
Caitlin Glass - assistant ADR director
Jeremy Inman - assistant ADR director
Tara A. Williams - talent coordinator
Scott Garner - assistant talent coordinator
Chris Cason - assistant ADR writer

Season 1 - Episode 7/10

Wesley Bishop is a localization director at video game developer and publisher Capcom. Wes grew up in Indiana in the USA. After earning his degree, he went on to work at the Japan-American Society of Indiana, an NPO dedicated to strengthening the bridges of friendship between the Japan and the USA.

Wesley moved to Japan in 2013 to become an English teacher on the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Programme. In 2016 he began work for Fukuoka Prefectural Board of Education in an advisory role, and has been working since 2018 to share the wonder of Japanese games with people around the world.

He decided to chat about the English localization of Final Fantasy XII, which was translated by Alexander O. Smith and Joseph Reeder.

"Enter an era of war within the world of Ivalice. The small kingdom of Dalmasca, conquered by the Archadian Empire, is left in ruin and uncertainty.

Princess Ashe, the one and only heir to the throne, devotes herself to the resistance to liberate her country. Vaan, a young man who lost his family in the war, dreams of flying freely in the skies.

In a fight for freedom and fallen royalty, join these unlikely allies and their companions as they embark on a heroic adventure to free their homeland."

Season 1 - Episode 6/10

Nathaniel Hiroshi Thrasher, also known as Rook, is a wildly successful light novel and manga translator who's worked on titles such as Torture Princess, The Eminence in Shadow, Spy Classroom, and High School Prodigies Have It Easy Even In Another World.

Season 1 - Episode 5/10

Season 1 - Episode 4/10

Season 1 - Episode 3/10

Katrina Leonoudakis is a professional translator and localization specialist. In addition to working full-time at SEGA as a project coordinator, she subtitles anime for Funimation and Sentai Filmworks, as well as translates manga for Seven Seas.

She has credits on projects like Persona 5 Royal, the Yakuza series, and anime like Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Gou. Her favorite thing in
the world is translation theory-- ask her about equivalence!

Season 1 - Episode 2/10

Season 1 - Episode 1/10

Daniel Morales is a writer, translator and former association professional based in Chicago. He writes the website HowtoJapanese.com and is a regular contributor to the Japan Times Bilingual page.

Daniel chose to chat about Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami, translated by Alfred Birnbaum and edited by Elmer Luke.

"A narrative particle accelerator that zooms between Wild Turkey Whiskey and Bob Dylan, unicorn skulls and voracious librarians, John Coltrane and Lord Jim. Science fiction, detective story and post-modern manifesto all rolled into one rip-roaring novel, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World is the tour de force that expanded Haruki Murakami's international following. Tracking one man's descent into the Kafkaesque underworld of contemporary Tokyo, Murakami unites East and West, tragedy and farce, compassion and detachment, slang and philosophy."