Updates on Projects and Kanon
So, I've been working on my translation projects off and on for the past few weeks. The Tuyokiss 4-koma are proving difficult. Sometimes it's an unclear subject, sometimes it's the self imposed restrictions on the job, and sometimes it's just the phrasiology used. Kinu's in particular has been giving me a hard time. I'm also working on Tawamurerumono, which are some Utawarerumono comics by the A's Nano guy. Which means they are awesome if you have the in knowledge needed.
Those have been easier, but I hate working on the computer except for the editting portion. I'd much rather print them out and work from there, but the amount of ink used would be huge. Which would kinda suck. I do have one done. It's the second, but eh.
So, the Tuyokiss 4-koma will be done at some point. I really don't know when. The Tawamurerumono ones will be done whenever I force myself to translate at the computer.
Now, for my thoughts on the Kanon remake: delicious. I really do love the original. I watch it every winter as my Christmas show since I first discovered it in 2003. Which means I've had it as a 3 year tradition now.
First, and most obvious, difference is that Kyoto Animation has far, far higher animation quality than Toei does. Combine that with a 4 year difference in animation technology makes for a far prettier animation job. That and they basically ripped Kyon's character design straight out of the Meloncholy of Haruhi Suzumiya to replace Yuuichi's old design. That is a significant improvement. Yuuichi's design in the original was pretty eh.
That all relates to the second change that I find somewhat major. Their Kyonizing of Yuuichi. They didn't just rip his character design, they also used his voice actor and some of Kyon's personality in Yuuichi. The personality aspect kinda doesn't really mesh with the source material, but I'm okay with that. I never really much liked Yuuichi. His actions are a whole lot more likable than the original's. He doesn't have the full brunt of the, "Why is my life such a pain in the rear?" attitude of Kyon, Shannon, and Shikimaru, which is perfectly fine. Not every hero needs that kind of outlook.
The next nifty little trick the remake pulled is having all the major characters appear in the first episode. This took a little improvisation, but they did it. Which was cool and nice.
Finally was all the little adjustments they made to the story. The original stuck pretty closely to the source material. Kyoto Animation felt they could play around a little. Little points here and there were different. The largest of these was when Yuuichi drags Ayu back to the taiyaki seller and pays for the taiyaki. Instead of the original's jibes of, "You're a thief! You're a bad person!" but doesn't actually do anything about the problem, he takes the approach of, "You're in the wrong here. We're going to fix this." I really liked that.
A few final notes about the animation. Given that Yuuich's design was pretty ripped straight from Haruhi, it clashes with the designs of the other characters since they use Key's somewhat unique art style. Then there is Ayu's design. She just looks so extremely young when compared to the other characters. Key does that, what with Akiko looking like a kid, but Ayu looks like she's half the age of the rest of the cast. Young Ayu almost looks older than current Ayu. 'sweird.
Visions from the Other Side
This is the first game from al|together 2006 that I finished.
It was very short. I didn't time it, but I would venture to guess it easily took less than twenty minutes to finish. The second thing I noticed about it was that it was confusing. POV changed several times without warning. That didn't help following it at all. I also didn't get the point. I finish and, aside from the pretty CG, I don't know what I supposed to get from it. Nothing really seemed connected. The ending had nothing, except sharing characters, to do with the main body of the game. Several parts within the main body had no real impact on anything else.
The whole thing was just there.
The CG were pretty though.
Utawarerumono
A full post on my thoughts about Utawarerumono now that I have finished. Anyone not wanting spoilers should be warned that things I talk about will have spoilers for unsubbed episodes.
But first, to mark the areas with spoilers for easy breezing over I shall post my two favorite CGs. I should also mention that, given that the naming sequences of the characters is pretty obviously non-Japanese for some and obviously Japanese for others, the romanization will be variable.
That is easily the best CG in the game. The art is quite clearly Leaf. The picture is cute. The scene was cute. Hakuoro talking to Mukkul and the tiger responding with it's pitiful glances.
The beginning was slow. It took some effort, especially with me being new at working through slogs of text in Japanese, to work my way through. It also expanded a lot on the anime's take. The time period felt longer and, most importantly, made the villager's choice of Hakuoro to be the new Elder after Tuskul's death make more sense. A lot more sense in fact.
Quite a few scenes got reordered. The biggest being the Na Tunk arc occuring after the Shikeripechim arc.
The ending, however, was excellent. Excellent denouement. While I wasn't too fond of Yuzuha dying without seeing her wish truly fulfilled, it was partially fulfilled and it was ineviatable. Kuuya still being a loony was really sad.
I'm also somewhat confused about the ending. It seemed that several characters--Kuuya, Sakuya, Kamyu, Aruru, and Eruru--spotted Hakuoro returning. But it seemed pretty obvious to me that he died. I was even the one who issued the killing blow via Karura's might arm.
My main issue with the ending, and I do have some, was that it began out too stereotypically video game-y. Really? Those blob things? While they were fun to fight against, had a real cheesyness to them. Hien and Hauenkua really should have been finished off at the showdown in Kuuya's palace. They kinda came out of nowhere.
Once the first three silly battles were out of the way, that's when things got awesome. Hakuoro's realization that he is Witsalnemitea, his telling everyone, his sudden use of the 動くな power. The fights with Mutsumi, Dee, and finally Witsalnemitea were awesome and well fused with the story.
The dying wishes of Hakuoro were very within character. They took some time to get through for a dying man, but had some good Shakespearean vibes.
The major problem I had following the story was that the flashback portions were very hard to read, and they were rather important backstory. The amount of more obscure words filling the conversations of IceMan and Mizusima made following difficult or impossible for me.
The characters were great. Niwe, Suoncass, Hauenkua, and Dee were awful, but good targets of dislike. You could honestly dislike them because they were dislikable. The heroes were cool folks. Even some of the bad guys were still cool folks, like Orikakan and Kuuya.
The story was well orginized. Each arc set up important information or progresses characters towards important locations. Not all scenes were necessary, but most of those bits were highly enjoyable anyway. The little scene with Touka and the doll was adorable and fun to read despite its complete lack of importance to the story as a whole.
Overall, it was fantastic. Great story. The gameplay was easy to figure out, but still took a little thought to work even on easy. It could use some improvements, though.
Second best CG from the game.
Anyway, tomorrow I'll post something on Visions from the Other Side, which is the first game I finished from al|together 2006. I'm also having slow progress with the Tuyokiss 4-koma. The other project I just started, Tawamurerumono, is easier but is much, much longer.
It is also by A's Nano guy. Which means it is awesome.
Mahoraba 4-koma
Here's my first non-school translation project. I did this last summer. I revamped it somewhat. Used bold text instead of plain. Dropped the honorifics. Dropped most of the '...' things. The Japanese love those and they appear everywhere in manga and games. I find them a little overbearing most of the time. So I cut 'em. Also fixed a few errors I saw, some of them most embarrassing.
These have been translated by someone else when he translated all the volumes up to 10. He did a better job too.
Translation and editing done by me. Not all projects will be so.
Next project is harder. Some Tsuyokiss 4-koma that have a cute formatting I want to try to emulate. That will require nifty English manipulation though. But emulating the つ よ き す format will be worth it, if I can manage it.
