Act 21 Script
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.)
Episode of Bardock 2 and 3 Summaries
Before I had a chance to finish the second chapter, I already had my copy of the third. So, here’s both together: “Episode of Bardock” Chapter 2 and Chapter 3! That’s the whole mini-series, so I can stop spending crazy import money on V Jump issues for the time being. And now I can get back to working on stuff from the 80s.
Act 20 Script
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.
Chibi Usa Picture Diary 1
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…
Some Screenshots, Other Little Things
Lots of little things today. First, I’ve started adding screenshots to the anime and movie pages! Just a couple of small ones per finished page, though. I don’t want them to be too large, for copyright reasons. But there’s a good chance I’ll go larger and/or add more per page in the future, once I figure out how I’d want to implement that stuff (in-line images? fancy gallery thing?). I’d also like to do the same with the manga pages, but for the time being I can’t use my scanner. (A reverse of the old days where I could scan but not do screenshots!)
Second, in addition to the two screens, I’ve (finally) fleshed out the miscellaneous section for the first movie. And third, I’ve added more to the terminology page. Not more people names, but place and thing names. Still not going past the revised/new summaries with it, or else that page would be the only thing I ever do.
On that note, there’s something I forgot to mention in the “Episode of Bardock” update. None of the name spellings are exactly “permanent” yet (which is why I haven’t added them to the terminology page). I’ll probably try to decide something for the new characters after the series is finished, and the old characters probably not until I get to the Freeza arc. Not that any of my spellings are necessarily permanent, because I’ve changed my mind and gone through massive find+replace operations more than once.
Episode of Bardock Summary
So here’s something new and spur of the moment: a summary of the first chapter of “Episode of Bardock!” If you haven’t heard, this is a new three-part series that just began publication in Japan this week. It also ends up being the debut of a new “specials” section I’d been considering, although I don’t have anything else to put there right now.
I took a break from working on some other things to do this, which should be ready in the next couple days.
Act 19 Script
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.
Act 18, More Notes
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.