A new month, and Act 21 is ready. Very close to the end of the Black Moon arc now, with a certain character making her “debut.” It seems pretty obvious who she is in context, which is why I used the relevant color codes all throughout. But her name is treated like a big reveal, so I left her unnamed through the whole chapter. Do spoiler-phobes agree? Or does everyone already know the story well enough anyway? You can give your thoughts at the site Twitter or something. (Until I come up with a news comment-y system, anyway.)

On schedule again with Act 20! As I mentioned last month, this is double length, so it spans two Acts in the reprints. Now the different numbering will be even harder to keep track of… There was one line I really hit a snag with, and it should be obvious when you get to it. Hopefully I’ll be proficient enough to fix it one day soon.

This chapter also has a bunch of flashbacks, which brings me to something I’ve always wanted to explain. When there’s a flashback to a scene we’ve seen before, they often contain identical dialogue to the original scene. But there are also many times where the flashback dialogue differs from the original dialogue. I always go back to the original scene and compare the lines. If the dialogue is the same, it’s a matter of copy and paste, but if it differs, so does my translation. So if you’ve ever noticed flashback dialogue differing from the original scene, that’s not an inconsistency on my part; that’s a reflection of the original text.

Once again I have another script for you: Chibi Usa Picture Diary #1! I’m sure people were expecting Act 20, but since I’m working from the tankoubon, this chapter is what comes after Act 19 in volume 5. So it’s a lot easier for me to do it now than getting this book out again post-Stars or something. But I’ve tweaked the navigation bars at the bottom to account for both the main story alone and the tankoubon layout.

Also, Act 20 is double length, so this has conveniently given me extra time to work on it. But I won’t get such a convenience for Act 23…

Another script ready for another month: Act 19! The introduction of the chatty transparent guy, and the end of one of my favorite characters. I feel like I did a really good job this time, possibly due to a change in the way I’m learning new vocabulary. Some things were a little loose to make them sound more natural in English, but I don’t think I sacrificed or ruined anything. There were also a few snags in my understanding of some lines again, but I think they’re less obvious than they were last time.

So far so good on my “once a month” plan, because Act 18 is up! Chiral and Achiral use all kinds of crazy science words that I only vaguely understand. If you’re a chemistry nerd and something they say seems wrong, it’s probably Takeuchi’s fault more than mine. Probably. But what isn’t Takeuchi’s fault are a couple of non-science lines I had trouble with. They’re probably easy to spot, because they don’t make a whole lot of sense. But I intend to correct them one day when I know better (which will hopefully be in the near future).

I also added a lot to the translation notes page, including a new section giving brief explanations of the astronomy/mythology references. I’ll add more as it’s introduced in the story (or I remember it), but I want to keep it strictly limited to the astronomy/mythology stuff, because A) these kind of references provide insight to the story that the uninformed might miss, and B) at the moment, I don’t want to make a giant etymology page where I have to start researching minerals and junk.

Finally making a news section for this project! I’ve rearranged the navigation a little, in preparation for further sections. Although I wouldn’t expect to see new sections anytime soon, since certain other projects are higher priority right now. More importantly, I’ve added something new: Act 17! It’s Calaveras time! I’m hoping to average one chapter a month for the rest of the year, while I prioritize other things. No guarantees, but think positive!

Starting with Act 17, I’m trying to be a bit less literal, just to the point that things sound less stiff, and more like natural English. Things should be just as accurate as they’ve always been, if not moreso (due to my very gradually increasing proficiency over the years). I fully intend to keep most honorific suffixes, but I’m trying to come up with alternatives to certain ones (namely “Motoki-oniisan” and “Makoto-senpai”). I don’t like to omit things, but I don’t want to be too Wapanese either. But everything that isn’t translated should be italicized now (though I haven’t gone through the older acts thoroughly yet). And on a similar note, I’ve changed around a few font styles (especially the “thinking” one), mostly to better match the different fonts in the books.