Cal C

did a lil metroid in crochet

(bananas for scale, pattern by MadeleinesMonsters on etsy)

a hallway with Anduril (very long and ornate two-handed sword) hanging on the wall, against a dark wooden plaque. A bookshelf full of manga is to the ldft, while a laundry-drying rack is to the right

last month I gave her Anduril, Flame of the West, for our 7th date-iversary (seven -> sword; made sense to me), after keeping it hidden in my closet for four years.
we have fun 🙂

a card with green Galadriel, saying YOU SHALL LOVE ME AND DESPAIR! on the desk below, out of focus, is a past year's card with Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli, saying You will always have my sword My bow And my axe!

my gf's v-day card selections are unmatched

Snow White with the Red Hair is an oddball, in that characters have undeniably Japanese first names, with euro-fantasy last names, like
-Zen Wisteria
-Yozumi Elys
-Mitsuhide Louen
-Hisame Rougis
-Eisetsu Lugiria

took me a bit to realize that every first name should be a straight romanization -_-

a screenshot from the video game La-Mulana, during the battle with Ox-Head and Horse-Face. the player character - a little Indiana Jones type guy - faces off against a giant anthropomorphized bull and horse, each wielding a spear

picking spellings for fantasy names written in kana is an art unto itself.
is it a direct reference? do you preserve, or tweak?
does it evoke a particular world culture? how would that language spell it?
on the other hand, I try to avoid blatant JPN mora (ji, zu, tsu, etc.) in a euro-esque setting

on my first go through, it eluded me that "Meryz" and "Goraz" are obvious Mezu/Gozu (Horse-Face and Ox-Head) allusions, b/c they show up pages apart. only caught it on the edit pass

doesn't affect the loc, except to confirm that my chosen spellings should deffo have those "z"s in there

makes sense! the more you know 😯

feels harder to get away with that in translation, not b/c ENG doesn't use sports idioms liberally, but b/c an author's eccentricities are forgiven, while translators are met in bad faith

I'll probably go with a cheeky "straight-shooter" (actually fitting! the dwarf happens to be an arbalist!)

a smiling dwarf says that he's never heard his elf friend speak so bluntly

>dwarf in fantasy world using baseball term 直球 (straight ball) to mean blunt/overly direct
>all fantasy authors implicitly benefitting from a universal understanding of Tolkien's hand-wave disclaimer that all text has been "translated" from the fantasy language, thereby excusing anachronistic idioms

two characters discuss a murderous monster called a "vorpal bunny"

three panels showing a cute bunny, an adventurer trying to pet it, and then the bunny slicing the adventurer's head off with a speedy leap

tired: isekai human-centipeding isekai tropes in a closed loop
wired: fantasy drawing on Monty Python

(though apparently "vorpal bunny" is a thing in (JPN) fantasy media? with vorpal being a word invented by Lewis Carroll in Jabberwocky and later appropriated for homages to the MP killer rabbit)

"It's no skin off my jaw."

author: Giant Ants
me: Jy-Ants

The MC comes up with the idea for a Bloodborne-ass wheel saw-sword by combining a spinning grass sickle with a pedal-powered grindstone

The MC realizes the big wheel design isn't great for cramped quarters in dungeons, goes in a more lengthy direction, like the auto-rope-ladder she previously invented

The MC refines the idea, first with a leather belt, then a chain, then hinged hardware in a loop, then making it arm-mounted with a pull-cord

The MC continues daydreaming, imagining a warrior clad in spinning blade armor and wielding a chainsaw sword and shield

I'm doing a new series for Yen out in May (Every Adventure Needs a Weapon!: weapon-smith girl with chuuni design sense in a fantasy world much more akin to Delicious in Dungeon than isekai slop)

and it really grabbed me when she invents the chainsaw(man) from first principles

wow! what a cool find

Suwa (off-panel): And use our steed to do it. Giddyup. Katori: Steed? It's a horse?

Two girls are looking at and talking about the dog/horse-like artificial creature. Katori: Question for you, Hana. What's this thing look like to you? Somei: A dog. Is that a trick question? Katori: Right?! That's what I said!

Azuma: At this range, we're in *their world.*

honorable mentions to Suwa's "giddyup" (leaning into the horse/dog comedy bit) and Somei's "Is that a trick question?" (see previous) and Azuma's "their world" (for むこうの土俵)

World Trigger could be pretty dry in the wrong hands so I try to pounce on every morsel of potential characterization

a World Trigger manga panel. Five agents are speeding down a city street, two are riding on a dog/horse-like artificial creature. Osano: I'm still lost. Koala: Basically, you're a hitchhiker who joined Katori on her errand? Ikoma: Exactly. This guy gets it.

fave loc bit in the latest World Trigger:
Ikoma's そそそそういうこと

1) It's not stuttering! The first three そs are just rapid-fire for comedic effect
2) My TL emphasizes "this guy" b/c he's pointing at Koala (manga dialogue should jive with visuals)
3) alt was "Yeah what he said" but Option A felt funnier

a character expressing shock at the typically non-diegetic visual effects somehow being visible and capable of affecting perception, suggesting that she herself can perceive them, thereby rendering her shock nonsensical.
practically a zen koan!
Coro Coro Comics is out here making the children think

a panel from the Animal Crossing manga. A gloomy boy says he can't see the screen because of the vertical lines. The girl tsukkomis about the lines actually being there for real.

"Can't see the screen..."

"Those gloom lines are diegetic?!"

Toei pls contract me for whatever translation needs

The side of the box, with a sentence etched in gold: "The journey of Goku and Bulma in quest of the seven Dragon Balls which are said to grant whatever wish, started."

Find something in life you're as dedicated to as this horrendously translated sentence is to preserving what is obviously the source text's syntax and matryoshka stacked subordinate clauses

A pair of glasses resting on a large rectangular orange box with four golden stars on top

A closeup of said glasses, showing that the tip of the part that goes over the ear is shaped like Goku's flying nimbus

The open box, with a cleaning cloth featuring color art of Bulma and Goku, and the glasses placed inside a transparent capsule with the Capsule Corp. Logo

don't exactly have "health care" so while in Japan I went to Jins, where you get a free eye exam/rx and just pay sticker price for frames

the DB collab glasses were the funniest option (half-price too!) and that was before I knew they came in a giant stupid box with exclusive capsule+cloth

Much appreciated!

dragon lore exposition with fictional jargon? I sleep

believable dialogue between mother and daughter in service not of plot, but characterization? I activate

The former is the Jump tax paid by the author. The latter is what he clearly enjoys.

the second line is a case where the JPN is, as is typical, a direct statement of the speaker's action (I'm going ahead) that in ENG often warrants a polarity swap (I'm not waiting) and/or spelling out the implication for the addressee (*you* catch up). The two terse sentences also reinforce the tone

Three RuriDragon panels. Ruri and mom are leaving their apartment. Ruri: Hold on, I forgot my phone. Mom: Oh, for the love of... Mom: I'm not waiting. Catch up.

my fave spot in RuriDragon ch44

mom's lines are
バカなの？ (lit: Are you stupid?)
先に行っとくよ (lit. I'm going ahead without you)

Good ex. of how baka usually has to be softened for English (esp. in a casual, slice-of-life setting, between family/friends). Also a sly capital-G God idiom, without the God.

In solidarity with today's ICE OUT OF MINNESOTA blackout, MinnMax is donating $1 to the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota for every share of this Bluesky post for the next hour.

a portion of a staff interview translation, in MS word

Ah, the thing is, I did do the scripts for volumes 5 and 6 (odd to have those scripts sold off with my name attached, but that's life in the salt mines!).

...But I definitely translated the staff interview at the end 🤷‍♂️

🚨HOLY CRAP. An ICE whistleblower just revealed a secret memo authorizing ICE officers to break into homes without a judicial warrant, which DHS's own legal training materials say is unconstitutional!

ICE then hid the memo from the public, passing it along by word of mouth and private conversation.

Adabana is one of mine!
Hope you enjoy, despite the grisly subject matter 😅

a model of a white futuristic motorcycle used by Bulma in Dragon Ball. Says Capsule 9 on the side

realistic knotted bundle of earphones with a tiny plastic sniper hiding in the coil of wire

two Hiroshige landscapes, recreated as 3D plastic dioramas with depth

figures of Gold (the trainer character) and Typhlosion from gen 2 of Pokemon

other minor but cherished finds:

-diecast Bulma bike from Tomica
-sniper in fake earphones gachapon
-3D Hiroshige dioramas
-to-scale Gold and Typhlosion