Saturday 15 August 2015

Two Years of Translating

If you're looking for a translation, there isn't one today. However, in celebration, over the next week, I'll be finishing up the Berryz Kobo Last Maruwakari Special from the Winter 2015 Maruwakari book over the next week. 

And having said that:
Today marks my second birthday as a translator! Time to break out the cake!


I'll be quickly listing some of the events that occurred over the last year, then I'll be looking back over translations I've done. Did something like this last year as well.

Over the past year:
- Got my professional qualifications
- Welcomed Morning Musume。12th gen and S/mileage 3rd gen
- Started doing radio summaries for Trattoria Buono! on Hello! Pro Radio
- Translated my first TV show (Girls Live 40, where Bakuwara dressed Berryz Kobo)
- Welcomed Country Girls
- Bid Sayu farewell
- Did a few translations of whole Hello! Project Station episodes
- Anjurumu? Un-germ? ANGERME? Bugger this for a lark - At least I can spell and pronounce 'Country Girls' no problem
- Got a job transfer, entailing more work in my life. This led to the decision of dropping radio summaries, and cutting down on blog translation responsibilities
- Completed my translation of the New Tsugunaga Constitution, finishing an extremely niche set of translations - but one that was honestly a personal goal I had from when I first started translating
- Welcomed Kobushi Factory
- Went to Japan for Hello! Cons and other idol-related stuff
The loot I'm proudest of - a poster signed by Berryz
- Went to Bangkok for Berryz Kobo's Naruchika - got to see the Momochi Musubi up-close at the high-touch at the end

- Bid Berryz Kobo farewell
- Bid the late Sir Terry Pratchett farewell
- Congratulated Juice=Juice on their Oricon Weekly 1st
- Bid the Momochi Musubi farewell
- Made a post on April Fool's... Completely not getting into the spirit of things, this was a serious-ish commentary on a minor controversy
- Bid Tsunku♂'s vocal cords farewell
- Welcomed Tsubaki Factory
- Saw Scandal in Germany


- Worked with MYTGS to translate Tokyo Joshiryu's 'Hardboiled Night'
- Bid Uta-chan farewell

♪♪♪

BabyMetal
Moa Q&A
Yui Q&A
The most viewed posts on this blog, by a wide margin. A testament to BabyMetal's worldwide popularity.

The Tsugunaga Constitution
The Tsugunaga Constitution
The New Tsugunaga Constitution
Super niche, but completing this was a personal goal which I'm proud to have completed. There was a gift counter at the Bangkok Naruchika, where I handed in a printed booklet containing English translations of both, so hopefully it's gotten to Momochi~.


Collections
1001 Nights - This series of talk shows are an interesting challenge - the source material is mainly secondary reports from Twitter, so there's some work involved in weaving them together into a cohesive whole - or in some cases, just focusing on the highlights.
Maachan Kuduu no HaroPuro Senpai Tanboudan - MaaDuu are let loose on the senpai, asking important questions such as 'What's your favourite tree?'
The 2015 HinaFes Blog Relay - Maimi continues with the exercise started by Sayu last year

Top Yell+ 2014 H!P Great Dictionary
H!P Maruwakari Winter 2015
These questionnaire-style translations have proven to be fairly popular. I reckon it's because they're generally (a) bite-sized and (b) broad-based.

Tokyo Girls Style
Hardboiled Night
Joshiryu are about the only non-H!P idol group I follow with any regularity... Though they're not idols any more, I guess. This year, I had the opportunity to translate Joshiryu's Hardboiled Night, a detective story that was initially played out over several concerts, which was then later puttogether into a 2-hour movie, interspersed with clips from their concerts.



Oyasayumi
A message from Tsunku♂
Hyadain no Girlpop
Twitter reactions 1
Twitter reactions 2

Berryz Kobo
Tsunku♂'s message on Berryz's hiatus
Berryz Kobo's final address to the fans
Berryz Kobo's messages to themselves
Twitter reactions to Berryz Kobo's hiatus
Idol Frontline Messages: Chisato & Maro, Fuku-chanTakagi SayukiMinewaki Ikuo, Natsu Mayumi-sensei
Berryz Kobo's 'Kiritsu Rei Chakuseki' radio show special: Part 1 & Part 2

Berryz Kobo 2014 Budokan closing statements
The Berryz Note



Everyone's idol Momochi
Talking with Michishige Sayumi about establishing themselves as idols
Discussing idol theories with Sayu and Ayacho
Discussing the significance of member colours with Airi
Weekly Playboy H!P special - Commentary on Airi, Commentary on the 7 others
Regretfully announcing Uta-chan's withdrawal
Pâtisserie Momochi - First episode, Second episode
Fuku-chan obsessing over Momochi - you can see it in Fuku-chan's eyes
Talking about how she planned out her future

Airi
Talking with Ayumi about admiring senpai 
Talking with Chisato about being songstresses in H!P
Interview with Makita Sako - They talk about being idols, being seniors, and her thoughts about the future, including her university plans
Pâtisserie Airi - First episode, Second episode

Interviews
The legends of Karin-chan
Karin-chan on being an idol cyborg
We get a glimpse into Maachan's mind in her solo interview
Maimi on leadership
RihoRiho on the Musume post Sayu

Others
CanCam waist feature - Midriffs, yum
KanaTomo's reaction to Juice=Juice's Oricon weekly 1st place - Congratulations to the first non-Musume affiliated H!P act to reach this goal!

3 comments:

  1. Congratulations on hitting this milestone! I don't keep up with everything you work on, but as much as anything that's thanks to just how much there is.

    While I'm here, I was pleasantly surprised to see those H!P Station translations recently. Without knowing what they're talking about it's largely gibberish, contextless performances, and previews for music videos that will be released separately shortly.

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  2. Congrats Skoban!
    Really love your work. The amount of effort you put into all the translations and articles is inspiring. Keep the love and passion going, you have my utmost and sincere appreciation

    From a fellow otomomochi. (@hahahanif on twitter)

    P.s, there were way more farewells than I would've liked T-T

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  3. Congratulations!

    Thank you for always bringing us the girls' thoughts and personalities!
    You made me discover more about them and love them more, you ruled it!
    Please keep on updating as long as you're feeling free to do so, you have all supports from us.

    I enjoy every translations even some of them are not from my oshimen but I do enjoy it!

    This blog is my treasured and favorite place to come online, thanks to you.

    From your follower @allbaitong

    ReplyDelete