Translation Chat J-EN Translations

Season 2 - Episode 10/10



Janet Hsu localization director that has worked in the video game industry for almost two decades.

Janet chats about the English localization of the Nintendo DS Game Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors by director Kotaro Uchikoshi from Chunshoft. Localization by Aksys Games with translation by Nobara Nakayama and editing by Ben Bateman.



"Nine Hours: You only have 9 hours before Junpei and the other 8 kidnapped drown. Numerology, music composition and logic puzzles are just a few of the 32 plus obstacles that stand in the way of their freedom.

Nine Persons: Uncover the mystery surrounding the lives of the 9 captive characters and how their blurry pasts reveal a disturbing future. Help all the characters escape but beware! A wrong decision or careless mistake might put their lives in jeopardy.

Nine Doors: Each hostage is cursed with a digital watch that displays their special number. These numbers are the keys to unlocking the 9 doors. Explore your surrounding for clues to unlock the next door by picking up and examining objects.

You must use everything in your environment and personal experience to get out."



Janet Hsu
Janet Hsu's Capcom Dev Blog

Translation Chat
A podcast where professional Japanese to English translators and editors chat about their favorite translations.

Hosted and edited by Jennifer O'Donnell

Music by Alex Valles

Logo by Katherine Soldevilla

Season 2 - Episode 9/10



Wesley O'Donnell is a freelance Japanese to English translator living in Japan. He's worked on a variety of manga and light novels with penchant towards fantasy and comedy.

Wesley chats about the amazing characterization and comedy in the English localization of Nindento's Paper Mario and the Origami King.



"The kingdom has been ravaged by an origami menace! Join Mario and his new partner, Olivia, as they battle evil Folded Soldiers, repair the damaged landscape, and try to free Princess Peach’s castle from the clutches of King Olly in this comedy-filled adventure."



Translation Chat
A podcast where professional Japanese to English translators and editors chat about their favorite translations.

Hosted and edited by Jennifer O'Donnell

Music by Alex Valles

Logo by Katherine Soldevilla

Season 2 - Episode 8/10



Taylor Drew is a translator, writer, and manga proofreader based in Tokyo. She writes book reviews for her personal blog A Basket of Words and also does interview translations for Febri. Passionate for all things written and everything to do with Northeastern Japan, she chose to talk about the award-winning Tokyo Ueno Station by Yu Miri and translated by Morgan Giles.



"Born in Fukushima in 1933, the same year as the Emperor, Kazu’s life is tied by a series of coincidences to Japan’s Imperial family and to one particular spot in Tokyo; the park near Ueno Station – the same place his unquiet spirit now haunts in death.

It is here that Kazu’s life in Tokyo began, as a labourer in the run up to the 1964 Olympics, and later where he ended his days, living in the park’s vast homeless ‘villages’, traumatised by the destruction of the 2011 tsunami and enraged by the announcement of the 2020 Olympics."



Taylor Drew
Websites:

A Basket of Words

Book and Bao

Tokyo Weekender

Twitter: @mollymay5000



Translation Chat
A podcast where professional Japanese to English translators and editors chat about their favorite translations.

Hosted and edited by Jennifer O'Donnell

Music by Alex Valles

Logo by Katherine SoldevillaTranslation Chat 18 – Taylor Drew chats about Tokyo Ueno Station

Season 2 - Episode 7/10



Erica Friedman is the Founder of Yuricon and has run the world's oldest and most comprehensive blog on Yuri, Okazu, since 2002. She has edited manga for JManga, Seven Seas and Udon Entertainment, most recently Riyoko Ikeda’s epic historical classic, The Rose of Versailles.

Erica is the author of By Your Side: The First 100 Year of Yuri Anime and Manga, out now from Journey Press.

She chats with us about the English translation of the manga for Whisper Me a Love Song, by Eku Takeshima, translated by Kevin Steinbach, edited by Tiff Ferentini, with lettering by Jennifer Skarupa.



"An adorable new yuri manga for fans of Kase-san and Yamada and Bloom Into You.

One day, high school girl Himari sees a girl, Yori, sing in a band, and it awakens feelings she doesn’t understand… but Yori does!"



Erica Friedman
Website: Yuricon

Twitter: @OkazuYuri



Translation Chat
A podcast where professional Japanese to English translators and editors chat about their favorite translations.

Hosted and edited by Jennifer O'Donnell

Music by Alex Valles

Logo by Katherine Soldevilla

Season 2 - Episode 6/10



Stephen Meyerink is a freelance Japanese to English translator, writer, and author who has worked on video games, books, albums, manga, and more. He is a massive fan of video game music (in terms of both a historical practice and a listener), loves cooking (and eating) all kinds of food except meat loaf, and Final Fantasy.

He joins us to chat about the English localizations of 1998's Final Fantasy Tactics and 2007's updated localization Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions, which was translated by Tom Slattery and Joseph Reeder.



"In days now long past, the War of the Lions rent the land of Ivalice in two. And it it here that two young men of note first stepped onto history's stage.

The first is a man named Delita Heiral, the hero who would draw the curtain on the War of the Lions, this dark act of Ivalice's history. The other, whose role is now forgotten is a man by the name of Ramaz Beoulve.

Peer through the eyes of these two young men, and uncover the secrets that lie hidden within history's darkened folds."



Stephen Meyerink
Website: Stephen Meyerink

Twitter: @sjmtaelus



Translation Chat
A podcast where professional Japanese to English translators and editors chat about their favorite translations.

Hosted and edited by Jennifer O'Donnell

Music by Alex Valles

Logo by Katherine Soldevilla

Season 2 - Episode 5/10



Alexander O. Smith—who goes by Alex—is a translator, writer, and photographer living in Kamakura, Japan. As a translator, he's worked on games like Final Fantasy 12, novels in the fantasy, sci-fi, and mystery genres, and manga. He's written for Magic: The Gathering, DeNA mobile games, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, and is currently writing at game studio Camouflaj on an unannounced VR title.

Alex chose to chat about the sci-fi novel—which later became a blockbuster movie staring Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt, Edge of Tomorrow—All You Need Is Kill, by Hiroshi Sakurazaka and translated from Japanese by Joseph Reeder and edited by Alexander O. Smith.



"When the alien Gitai invade, Keiji Kiriya is just one of many raw recruits shoved into a suit of battle armor and sent out to kill.

Keiji dies on the battlefield, only to find himself reborn each morning to fight and die again and again. On the 158th iteration though, he sees something different, something out of place: the female soldier known as the Bitch of War.

Is the Bitch the key to Keiji’s escape, or to his final death?"



Additional
J-EN Translations translation review of All You Need Is Kill



Alexander O. Smith
Website: Kajiya Productions

Twitter: @aokajiya


Translation Chat
A podcast where professional Japanese to English translators and editors chat about their favorite translations.

Hosted and edited by Jennifer O'Donnell

Music by Alex Valles

Logo by Katherine Soldevilla