My 16 days documentary of subbing Million Joe
I sound like it's something worthy of a documentary, hahaha sorry.
If you want the download link, you can just go directly to the post.
What I'm gonna write below is totally my own ramble about this project, and some explanations on the terms that I used in translating the drama.
PS: I have a feeling it's gonna be quite a long one...
Notes: I wrote this when I was waiting for episode 9 encoding to finish. Now that I have finished all the episodes, I might want to say one or two more things XD
Actually I’ve kept my silence about working on this project, since I’ve decided that I will only release it until I’ve finished all the episodes. It gives me the pressure to finish everything quickly too! You know sometimes it’s really annoying when the drama that you’re watching stops halfway, either because the episode or the subs isn’t out yet. Moreover this drama has finished by 4 months, I bet anyone who wanted to watch it at least have tried to watch the raw, so there’s no point to release each episode (although the temptation was soooooo huge lol). Besides, my average pace was one episode per 1.5 day, so it will be considered spamming if I release something almost everyday hahaha.
Unexpectedly, this drama is soooo damn interesting!!! When I first watched it raw in October last year, I pretty much understood the whole story, but I didn’t try to understand each sentence and details. Because I subbed it, I happened to find numerous stuff that I didn’t notice that time! Apparently all lines matter, all details are connected to each other. So brilliant!
Moreover, I think Mitsu is really suitable for playing Kurei. A bit lunatic, a bit morally bent, yet passionate, unwavering and honest (we can’t really say he’s honest because he’s been hiding the secret, but I mean he shows what he feels and stuff). From time to time I also really wanted to shout, ahhhh Ishida you’re a good guy!!! Kishimoto, you’re so unexpectedly loyal to Kurei!!! Mitsu you poor thing!!! LOL.
I first decided to sub it sometime in the beginning of April (since I tried to search the English sub online and couldn’t find any), and actually started working on the first episode on April 10. Because that day I was supposed to be having fun at Tokyo Dome (not in my cramped room…!!!) so I couldn’t bring myself to watch anything and I thought I had to at least get my brain working. At first I can finish one episode per day, until episode 3 & 4. Somehow there were so many terms regarding manga that I couldn’t find the correct simple one-word equivalent in English, thus I’ve been redoing the first 4 episodes back and forth. (Maybe I’ve encoded episode 1 to 3 around 4-5 times because I kept changing my mind about those words lol). That’s also the reason why I decided to release it once I finish everything. Who knows I might change my mind again on the later episodes LOL.
Oh and at first I didn’t do the karaoke, until episode 3. That also contributes to the many encoding attempts, because my episode 3 raw had some unsynced audio without me noticing it, and this stupidly brilliant girl was using that episode as the timing template without checking, thus the karaoke ended up messing the timing on other episodes. I was trying to translate the song lyrics as well, but I was too lazy, tried the first and second sentence but they didn’t really make sense to me, so in the end I just left it that way. And I figured the whole screen will be messy as well, with the Japanese and romaji lyrics, and the production credits. Besides, I didn’t find any translations of Edge of Days on the web as well. Maybe one day if I feel like it, I will make the karaoke version of Edge of Days PV hahaha, if no one had made it yet (who knows).
Apparently, the biggest hurdle was episode 3-4, these episodes had the most lines and somehow quite difficult to listen to (as far as I know this drama doesn’t have Japanese subtitles so I really had to rely on my listening). Then once I moved on to episode 5, it started to get easier. It gets easier and more fun along the way until the end.
So here are the words that were mentioned a lot and I’ve been contemplating to find the most proper, most accurate, and shortest English translation.
Glossary
Manga: Manga; Anime: Anime
I didn’t translate manga to comic as it’s supposed to mean, because I just feel it’s weird. Somehow manga is not a comic although it fits into the category. Same thing with anime. So I just left manga and anime as it is.
Rensai: Serial
The literal translation is “serialization, serial story”. It’s actually a published material that’s continuing. Since Million Joe is published in a weekly magazine, so it’s a weekly serialization. Serialization is too long to write all the time, so in the end I used “serial” throughout the episodes. Maybe series is okay too but I decided serial sounds better. I hope it makes sense.
Fukusen: Foreshadowing
It’s literally translated as “foreshadowing, preparation, precautionary measures”. It is a warning or indication of (a future event). Apparently Million Joe has so many foreshadowings, like clues scattered around the story, and they all connect to the final chapter. I tried to translate it to fore-telling or others, but it still feels wrong. So in the end, as much as I’m unfamiliar with the word, I keep it as foreshadowing.
Neemu: Storyboard
I translated it as storyboard. I don’t know what’s the difference between storyboards in manga and storyboards in movie production, but later Terashi-san also explained it as a draft sketch that decides the frame arrangement to support the flow of the story. So I think storyboard is correct.
Shitagaki, Pen ire, kaku: Draw
All of them, I translated as “draw”. Shitagaki literally means “sketch”, pen ire means “inking a pencil sketch”, and kaku means “draw”. In some lines that explains detailed process, I translated pen ire as “outlining”, but when it doesn’t mean anything in detail, I just generalized them as “draw”.
Sakusha: Author
It’s a person, and literally means “author”. Not necessarily a manga, it can be a novel or anything else. I’m a bit confused on this one, because cmiiw an author writes and not draws. Illustrator came to mind as well, but an illustrator draws and not writes. It will be too long to say “writer & illustrator” and it also feels weird to use “creator”. So in the end, I stick with author. Just note, that the author here also draws the manga :D
Sakuhin: Work
It falls into the same category with “Sakusha”, just, this is the work. It translates into a piece work of art, can be a drawing, music, painting, sculpture, anything with art. I translate it as work, but please note that it’s not a work as in a job, but a piece of work of art (it’s just too long to write).
First name-last name
In Japanese, name is written last name-first name. I know I should translate them as first name-last name as it’s the English format. But it just feels weird to me, so in the end I keep it last name-first name format. But in terms of names that come with a position, I wrote it position-name format. For example, Magata-sensei is Master Magata, and Hashizume-henshuuchou is Editor in Chief Hashizume.
Updated April 26, 2020
I've finished until episode 12 yay! Unexpectedly, episode 11 and 12 were so quick to finish! Episode 10 took quite some time for me because of that notes reciting scene! Damn Mitsu talked so fast, I was having problems catching what he mumbled about XD
OMG and I crieeeedddd at the endingggg TT____TT
Was it this sad? Was the ending so painful like that? I didn't remember it being sad at all when I watched it first time! Or I just wasn't paying attention enough? XD No but, maybe because I've been intensely working on this drama for 2 weeks, and I tried to translate anything that is related to the drama, including the manga characters setting and dialog as well. I can feel how Kurei loved this manga so much, and in the end made me fell in love with it too. So I admit I was quite sad that the drama is finished, but more than that, such ending... TT_____TT
Maybe most of the people have watched it (especially Mitsu’s fans lol) and don’t feel the need to have it subbed, but that’s okay. I subbed it because I wanted to and not because anyone requested it :) Most important thing, it was fun! I had fun subbing it, plus, now I have deeper understanding about the story! And it gives me the push and motivation during this work from home period! :( (and thank you for anyone who has read this rubbish until this point XD)
Now I'll be off making the release post! Yay!
If you want the download link, you can just go directly to the post.
What I'm gonna write below is totally my own ramble about this project, and some explanations on the terms that I used in translating the drama.
PS: I have a feeling it's gonna be quite a long one...
Notes: I wrote this when I was waiting for episode 9 encoding to finish. Now that I have finished all the episodes, I might want to say one or two more things XD
Actually I’ve kept my silence about working on this project, since I’ve decided that I will only release it until I’ve finished all the episodes. It gives me the pressure to finish everything quickly too! You know sometimes it’s really annoying when the drama that you’re watching stops halfway, either because the episode or the subs isn’t out yet. Moreover this drama has finished by 4 months, I bet anyone who wanted to watch it at least have tried to watch the raw, so there’s no point to release each episode (although the temptation was soooooo huge lol). Besides, my average pace was one episode per 1.5 day, so it will be considered spamming if I release something almost everyday hahaha.
Unexpectedly, this drama is soooo damn interesting!!! When I first watched it raw in October last year, I pretty much understood the whole story, but I didn’t try to understand each sentence and details. Because I subbed it, I happened to find numerous stuff that I didn’t notice that time! Apparently all lines matter, all details are connected to each other. So brilliant!
Moreover, I think Mitsu is really suitable for playing Kurei. A bit lunatic, a bit morally bent, yet passionate, unwavering and honest (we can’t really say he’s honest because he’s been hiding the secret, but I mean he shows what he feels and stuff). From time to time I also really wanted to shout, ahhhh Ishida you’re a good guy!!! Kishimoto, you’re so unexpectedly loyal to Kurei!!! Mitsu you poor thing!!! LOL.
I first decided to sub it sometime in the beginning of April (since I tried to search the English sub online and couldn’t find any), and actually started working on the first episode on April 10. Because that day I was supposed to be having fun at Tokyo Dome (not in my cramped room…!!!) so I couldn’t bring myself to watch anything and I thought I had to at least get my brain working. At first I can finish one episode per day, until episode 3 & 4. Somehow there were so many terms regarding manga that I couldn’t find the correct simple one-word equivalent in English, thus I’ve been redoing the first 4 episodes back and forth. (Maybe I’ve encoded episode 1 to 3 around 4-5 times because I kept changing my mind about those words lol). That’s also the reason why I decided to release it once I finish everything. Who knows I might change my mind again on the later episodes LOL.
Oh and at first I didn’t do the karaoke, until episode 3. That also contributes to the many encoding attempts, because my episode 3 raw had some unsynced audio without me noticing it, and this stupidly brilliant girl was using that episode as the timing template without checking, thus the karaoke ended up messing the timing on other episodes. I was trying to translate the song lyrics as well, but I was too lazy, tried the first and second sentence but they didn’t really make sense to me, so in the end I just left it that way. And I figured the whole screen will be messy as well, with the Japanese and romaji lyrics, and the production credits. Besides, I didn’t find any translations of Edge of Days on the web as well. Maybe one day if I feel like it, I will make the karaoke version of Edge of Days PV hahaha, if no one had made it yet (who knows).
Apparently, the biggest hurdle was episode 3-4, these episodes had the most lines and somehow quite difficult to listen to (as far as I know this drama doesn’t have Japanese subtitles so I really had to rely on my listening). Then once I moved on to episode 5, it started to get easier. It gets easier and more fun along the way until the end.
So here are the words that were mentioned a lot and I’ve been contemplating to find the most proper, most accurate, and shortest English translation.
Glossary
Manga: Manga; Anime: Anime
I didn’t translate manga to comic as it’s supposed to mean, because I just feel it’s weird. Somehow manga is not a comic although it fits into the category. Same thing with anime. So I just left manga and anime as it is.
Rensai: Serial
The literal translation is “serialization, serial story”. It’s actually a published material that’s continuing. Since Million Joe is published in a weekly magazine, so it’s a weekly serialization. Serialization is too long to write all the time, so in the end I used “serial” throughout the episodes. Maybe series is okay too but I decided serial sounds better. I hope it makes sense.
Fukusen: Foreshadowing
It’s literally translated as “foreshadowing, preparation, precautionary measures”. It is a warning or indication of (a future event). Apparently Million Joe has so many foreshadowings, like clues scattered around the story, and they all connect to the final chapter. I tried to translate it to fore-telling or others, but it still feels wrong. So in the end, as much as I’m unfamiliar with the word, I keep it as foreshadowing.
Neemu: Storyboard
I translated it as storyboard. I don’t know what’s the difference between storyboards in manga and storyboards in movie production, but later Terashi-san also explained it as a draft sketch that decides the frame arrangement to support the flow of the story. So I think storyboard is correct.
Shitagaki, Pen ire, kaku: Draw
All of them, I translated as “draw”. Shitagaki literally means “sketch”, pen ire means “inking a pencil sketch”, and kaku means “draw”. In some lines that explains detailed process, I translated pen ire as “outlining”, but when it doesn’t mean anything in detail, I just generalized them as “draw”.
Sakusha: Author
It’s a person, and literally means “author”. Not necessarily a manga, it can be a novel or anything else. I’m a bit confused on this one, because cmiiw an author writes and not draws. Illustrator came to mind as well, but an illustrator draws and not writes. It will be too long to say “writer & illustrator” and it also feels weird to use “creator”. So in the end, I stick with author. Just note, that the author here also draws the manga :D
Sakuhin: Work
It falls into the same category with “Sakusha”, just, this is the work. It translates into a piece work of art, can be a drawing, music, painting, sculpture, anything with art. I translate it as work, but please note that it’s not a work as in a job, but a piece of work of art (it’s just too long to write).
First name-last name
In Japanese, name is written last name-first name. I know I should translate them as first name-last name as it’s the English format. But it just feels weird to me, so in the end I keep it last name-first name format. But in terms of names that come with a position, I wrote it position-name format. For example, Magata-sensei is Master Magata, and Hashizume-henshuuchou is Editor in Chief Hashizume.
Updated April 26, 2020
I've finished until episode 12 yay! Unexpectedly, episode 11 and 12 were so quick to finish! Episode 10 took quite some time for me because of that notes reciting scene! Damn Mitsu talked so fast, I was having problems catching what he mumbled about XD
OMG and I crieeeedddd at the endingggg TT____TT
Was it this sad? Was the ending so painful like that? I didn't remember it being sad at all when I watched it first time! Or I just wasn't paying attention enough? XD No but, maybe because I've been intensely working on this drama for 2 weeks, and I tried to translate anything that is related to the drama, including the manga characters setting and dialog as well. I can feel how Kurei loved this manga so much, and in the end made me fell in love with it too. So I admit I was quite sad that the drama is finished, but more than that, such ending... TT_____TT
Maybe most of the people have watched it (especially Mitsu’s fans lol) and don’t feel the need to have it subbed, but that’s okay. I subbed it because I wanted to and not because anyone requested it :) Most important thing, it was fun! I had fun subbing it, plus, now I have deeper understanding about the story! And it gives me the push and motivation during this work from home period! :( (and thank you for anyone who has read this rubbish until this point XD)
Now I'll be off making the release post! Yay!