Act 28, 21-23 Revised

April 1st, 2012

Despite the date, this is a completely genuine update. Act 28 is done! As is the reprint version, Act 31! Also, Acts 21-23 (23-26 in the reprints) have been revised and given separate scripts. And it all has comparisons, of course. With this, the gap between the old stuff and new stuff is now gone, and everything I’ve done so far has comparisons and separate scripts.

So from now on, it will be all Death Bastards all the time (at least until the arc is over). After a whole year of doing things once a month, I want to try bumping the pace up to two Acts per month. That would still include separate scripts and comparisons, of course. So that means 29-30 (reprint 32-33) is the goal for next month. But we’ll have to see how that works out in practice.

Also, I apologize if this update breaks the RSS feed. I’ve done my best to avoid it, but I’m currently setting up a new site-wide news system and changing stuff around. You can leave comments now!

10th Anniversary, 21st Budoukai

March 29th, 2012

It was ten years ago today that I first started “Dragon Ball Daisuki” on Tripod. It was a place to put existing active projects, like my American dub edit list and Region 1 DVD charts. But I also started a new project there that day: manga summaries. Although I finished the summaries in 2004, they were a (somewhat intentional) mess, because I chose to write them in a very “casual” style full of my own commentary. But I was a silly teenager back then, and now I’m a much older and more boring person who wants to make things more formal and encyclopedic. Although it doesn’t show much nowadays, my love for Dragon Ball hasn’t changed at all, and I really wish I could devote as much time to writing words about it as I could back then.

But on that note, this update does feature something from the 80’s: improved summaries for Chapters 32-54, including additional analysis and whatnot. I wanted to have the corresponding anime summaries done too, but I haven’t had time to do them yet. I guess it’s fitting that this is manga only, all things considered. I don’t want to make any promises about when the anime summaries will come, but if it takes too long, I’ll try to add some other kind of bonus to go along with it.

Also, yes, I do know about the new Episode of Bardock pages, and I’ve had the V Jump issue with them for weeks already. EoB makes me feel like Sideshow Bob stepping on all those rakes. But I’ll get to it in the near future, after more 80s stuff, probably.

Act 27, 19-20 Revised

March 1st, 2012

March is here, and so is Act 27! And the reprint version, Act 30! This marks the actual halfway point of the main story, which is reflected better in the PGSM structure. As for the older stuff, I now have Acts 19-20 revised and page number’d, which is more than it sounds because that’s 20-22 in the reprints. Of course there are script comparisons for all of this stuff, too. The revision/comparison gap is nearly closed now, and then I can put more time into 100% new stuff.

You may or may not have noticed that I skipped Chibi Usa Picture Diary 1 this time. (It comes after Act 19 in the old tankoubon.) I wanted to get the main story re-done ASAP, so I’m leaving the book on my desk until after the Black Moon arc is fully revised. Maybe I’ll wait and do it at the same time as Picture Diary 2, which comes after Act 33 (end of the third arc) in the old tankoubon. The reprints group all the side stories together, after all.

Episode of Bardock Anime Summary

February 10th, 2012

I really wanted my next update to be something from the 80s, but someone apparently told Shueisha I like importing magazines. So I just got the DVD and wrote up a summary of the Episode of Bardock anime. I wish it was just a simple copy+paste job from the manga summaries, but there were tons of tiny changes, and a few larger ones too. On the bright side, Ipana was voiced by Masashi “Andy” Ebara. Yes, that Andy.

Act 26, 15-18 Revised

February 1st, 2012

I’m (sort of) halfway done now, because the script for Act 26 is done! Along with the reprint version, Act 29! I forgot to do the reprint script until last night, but luckily for me there were very few changes. Also, I have revised and compared Acts 15-18 (16-19 in the reprints), which means I’m finally done cleaning up the 2006-2007 stuff. So now it’s just a matter of getting comparisons done for the rest of the 2011 stuff.

Act 25, 12-14 Revised

January 1st, 2012

New year, new month, and new script: Act 25! As well as the reprint version, Act 28! I’ve also finished revisions of Acts 12-14 (13-15 in the reprints), and of course comparisons for all of it. The Dark Kingdom arc is done again, and the rest of the old old stuff should also be done very soon.

Act 24, 10-11 Revised

December 1st, 2011

The day is almost over, but I do have Act 24 ready! And its reprint counterpart, Act 27! Also revisions of Acts 10-11 (10-12 in the reprints), and comparisons for both the old and new stuff. (Farewell, Street Fighter and Terminator references…) It may not sound like it, but everything combined amounts to roughly the same amount of pages as I did last month, so I guess I’m still keeping a pretty consistent pace.

Act 23, 6-9 Revised

November 1st, 2011

It’s only taken, what, four years? But the Black Moon arc is complete with this script for double length Act 23! At least I’m consistent now. And I’ve also revised Acts 6-9, with separate scripts for each version (and of course comparisons) and some much needed clean up work. One tankoubon a month is a lot slower than I expected for this sub-project, but I think it will speed up when I get to the stuff I did in 2011.

Speaking of the revisions, one thing I didn’t mention before is that things are more colorful now. If a character has colored manga art somewhere, their name is in color. But at the same time, attack names won’t be colored anymore, because I now think it’s a little obnoxious. And I’ve also been de-Wapanizing things a little further, like removing a lot of old quirks (“GC”) and reducing the amount of in-story translation notes. Names are now written in Western order (Usagi Tsukino, Mamoru Chiba, etc.), and certain honorifics (oniisan, senpai) are now translated. I remembered it’s a plot point that they don’t know Motoki’s name at first, so that’s something you definitely can’t omit or change to his name. You can find more details about this and other stuff on the notes page.

The next act is double length in both versions, so it would certainly be a fitting/annoying start for simultaneous double script releases.

Japanese Disclosure

October 6th, 2011

So obviously a lot of my projects involve translating Japanese to English. But I’m not yet an expert or a professional at it. I often try to explain this in casual conversation, but I feel like I should finally explain it in detail somewhere publicly.

Back in roughly August or September 2000, I started teaching myself Japanese because I wanted to play some video games with no existing translations (at the time, anyway). A noble endeavor, right? Anyway, it wasn’t long before I’d mastered the grammar basics and learned to read kana almost as well as I can read the Latin alphabet. But that’s the easy part.

Fluency is about vocabulary and ease of use. Eleven years would sound like plenty of time to gain that fluency, wouldn’t it? Except that I did not spend the full eleven years actively studying. Probably not even a fourth of that. It’s not that I’ve been lazy about it so much as I’ve been undisciplined and unfocused for most of the past decade. I’ve also been hindered by the fact that I haven’t had a teacher to guide and correct me, or a pen pal or someone to converse with regularly.

But I have learned a great deal. Far more than the average fanboy. And I constantly see improvement in myself whenever I look back on old translation attempts. (The fact that I can go back and correct my old errors is the main reason I pretty much only do translation work on my site, rather than in any outside group projects.) So I’m confident that my unorthodox learning methods can work (along with some new study methods I’m trying). I’ve also recently gained the focus and discipline I need, so I’m going to bump up my immersion in the language.

Which finally brings me back to the website, and that stuff I mentioned a couple weeks ago. You’ll be seeing an increase in translation projects, as part of this increased focus. I know people would prefer that I went back to the Dragon Ball guidebook translations, but frankly I think it’s a little out of my league at the moment. Instead, I’ll be focusing heavily on my Sailor Moon projects for the next few months, until I feel more confident about going back to the guidebooks. I need to surpass myself and climb over the wall of Super Translator before I can defeat the Daizenshuu.

Act 22, 1-5 Revised

October 1st, 2011

October is a relatively big month. First, here is Act 22! This is the penultimate chapter of the Black Moon arc (at least in the older books), and I’ve already made a lot of progress on the final chapter (which is double length), so yay.

Second, I’ve finally started a related sub-project that I’ve always wanted to do: separate scripts for both versions of the manga! Here’s the indexes for the old books and the new books, and another page for comparisons between them. I acquired copies of the reprints a couple months ago, but I wanted to finish the Black Moon arc before I started on them. I’m close enough now that I decided to go ahead with it anyway, but so far I’ve only managed to do up to Act 5.

With those separate scripts also comes a lot of translation revisions I’ve been meaning to do for a while, which is part of why I haven’t gotten many separate scripts done yet. I’ve also been reformatting the pages to include page numbers from the corresponding books. Act 22 doesn’t have most of these changes, and neither does what I have done of 23, but ideally everything will be updated to have all the new changes before it’s time to start the Infinity arc.