Reports from Anime Boston 2012

It's kind of interesting. Even when I go to a convention theoretically with a group of people, I end up going off and doing my own thing. Not sure if it's just an "introversion" thing or if it's a special case, given what I usually do at conventions...

Well anyway. Again, I didn't really cosplay, short of the black cloak and Hero of Space god tier T-shirt. Which was enough to get some people thinking I was cosplaying one of Andrew Hussie's appearances in the comic in which he wears a fairly similar outfit. So apparently, I was sort of cosplaying someone without even intending to? Some people assumed one or the other, while others asked if I was trying to go for the cosplay or not. For the record, I wasn't going for that.

The Anime Boston dealers room was surprisingly light on stuff that I actually wanted. For a convention focusing around Japanese stuff, there was a surprising lack of, well, actual Japanese stuff. Translations and English versions everywhere, which I imagine was nice for the majority of people there that couldn't speak Japanese, but for someone who actually wants to read the original Japanese manga, not so helpful. In short, every convention I go to ends up reminding me that there is no substitute for actually being in Japan.

Video gaming was less of a thing this time around too. Mostly because I was royally screwing up. I mean, okay, my definition of screwing up at DDR is getting B's and C's on songs where I'd otherwise be getting AA's, so it's not like I was failing anything, but still. I played one or two of my absolute favorite songs and then found other things to do.

Like karaoke for example. Anyone who was following my old study abroad blog while I was in Kyoto might have noticed how much I love to do karaoke. I took advantage of Anime Boston's karaoke room to fill that particular craving. Sang five songs over the course of two days, too. In order:

First up, the Sakura Taisen theme song. No, I did not do the dance, too. Yes, I should have. I'll try to learn the dance so that I can do it next time. I did, however, do the spoken portion, including the salute at the end, and it got about the same response at Anime Boston that it did in that live performance.

Romancers' Neo, opening theme song to the Nanoha Gears of Destiny game. Asked the audience if there were any Nanoha fans; there was one. Don't know if she recognized the song or not though. (And I can't find a good video on YouTube for that one, sadly.)

Colorful Melody. Again, no dance. Again, I need to learn the dance. Also, I did this one solo, mostly because I could (it's supposed to be a duet), and I said as much before I started. I'm surprised by how well it turned out, actually; there's a section in the middle that's not in that video which I managed to make my way through without even knowing the full lyrics, and usually my attempts to sing songs this thoroughly out of my vocal range sound much worse than it ended up being.

Stardust Dreams. Hilarious because of the reaction from the group of Touhou cosplayers in the room at the time. Also hilarious because two people from that group did a different remix of that song's original right after I finished. They were different enough that if they hadn't said as much, I probably wouldn't have noticed right away.

Finally, No Need to Promise, the Escaflowne theme song. Which had gotten thoroughly stuck in my head since I started watching Escaflowne. I did it with the karaoke version (no vocals in the background) and did surprisingly well considering I don't know the song nearly well enough to have the cues memorized.

When not in the karaoke hall singing, I was also hanging out in the live gaming hall. Got to play a game of an anime-style tabletop RPG called Big Eyes, Small Mouth, which went pretty well. In case anyone was curious, I played the magical girl character. (And everyone who knows me nods along with a knowing look on their face.) She was awesome, especially when I blasted an entire room full of enemies with an AOE spell that could have probably leveled an entire city block had I used it at full power. Let's just say she was my style of magical girl.

I also got the chance to play Arkham Horror. I like board games, especially this kind of board game that's overly complicated and very strategic. We did fail to stop Cthulu's awakening, but it was fun while it lasted.

... Hmm, my priorities are obvious from the amount of stuff I wrote, huh? Damn I like karaoke. Well, that was Anime Boston 2012. If I'm still in the area next year, I'll probably end up going again.

The Nature of Piracy

The link a few days ago to Jim C. Hines's blog was the closest I really wanted to come to saying something about the Oatmeal and that site's recent comic about pirating the Game of Thrones TV show. Then this happened. Particularly this one paragraph (emphasis mine):

Many of them based their retort on the fact that Game of Thrones would ship from Amazon on March 6th and I just needed to wait longer. Truth be told, the show started airing almost 40 weeks ago -- I just happened to publish my comic right around the corner from when it was being released on Blu-ray. 40 weeks is a long time to wait. The sentiment that we pirate because it's easier not because we're thieves still rings true; Game of Thrones just happened to be an untimely example.

To me, arguing that timing has anything to do with it is very much a specious course of argument. Yes, it's been the better part of a year since the show started airing, on April 17th, 2011. And yes, I can imagine that that kind of wait would factor into any decision that one would make. I know this in part because I've faced the same decision.

As I've mentioned, my favorite anime series is Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha. A movie, one that I had been almost intensely looking forward to, began airing in theaters on January 23rd, 2010. I was not in Japan at the time and had no ability to watch the movie, short of looking for pirated copies, until the (Japanese) DVD release on November 26th of that same year. To make a long story short, I did not watch the movie until the day of its DVD release, when I bought a copy of the DVD and watched that. (I was in Japan at the time. To date, there is no American DVD release of the movie, although the Japanese DVD has English subtitles.)

Or, take Puella Magi Madoka Magica, one of the best new magical girl shows. That began airing on the 6th of January, 2011, running until April 21st. (Its run was delayed slightly in the aftermath of the earthquake, as an aside.) The American DVDs are just now releasing - the first released on Valentine's Day this year, and the entire run won't be available on DVD until June, if I recall correctly. As of this moment, I still have not watched the entire series.

I bring up these examples not to denigrate the Oatmeal's choices, but to emphasize my own personal experience in similar situations. 40 weeks is a long time to wait, and it certainly would be easier for me to pirate these shows rather than continue to wait. I can respect that for many people, the primary factor in their decision does have to do with that ease of access - the idea that these people are mustache-twirling super-villains out to suck all of the money out of HBO's or Aniplex's coffers is ridiculous.

All the same, the defense doesn't ring true. Because regardless of the reasons behind it, choosing to pirate the series is in the end a choice to become a thief. Saying that you were acting as you did for the sake of easier access is a mitigating factor, but it is not a defense and does not change the fundamental facts of the situation. As a result, what I want to see from the Oatmeal and from the people that pirate shows is not this kind of evasion, not the "we're really not thieves, honest!" line of argument.

I direct you back to Jim C. Hines: Own. Your. Choice. Take responsibility for your decision, whether that decision was to wait or not to wait, to pirate or not to pirate. I will not outright condemn you for choosing either one, but I can have little respect for someone who refuses to admit to themselves the nature of their actions.

Romancers' Neo Lyrics TranslationROMANCERS' NEO 歌詞英訳

The notes for this translation are here. Please direct any comments about the translation to that page's comment field.

翻訳のノートはこちらです。コメントしたい場合にはそちらにコメントしてください。

Romancers' Neo (Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's Portable: The Gears of Destiny OP)

Lyrics: Hibiki
作詞：Hibiki

Composition: Noriyasu Agematsu
作曲：上松範康

Arrangement: Junpei Fujita
編曲：藤田淳平

Vocal: Nana Mizuki
歌：水樹奈々

Lyrics:

静かに…耳を澄ませば　聴こえる…流星の残響
届けカンパネラ 　生命のRondo
決意に…追いかけたHeart tail　禁じた…剣を掴んで
弱くていい　君の定義　思い込めて往こう

Softly now... If you listen clearly,
you can hear the echoes of the shooting star.
Let the bells ring, life’s rondo.
Decision made, I chase after the heart’s tail,
taking hold of a forbidden sword.
There’s nothing wrong with weakness,
believe in what defines you and go!

感じて僕の声を　聖なるインフィニティ
誓える愛の為に
「今は小さな火花でいい…いつか大きな炎へと変われ」

Feel my voice, a holy infinity;
I can make this vow, for love’s sake.
“Right now, a small spark is fine,
for one day it will become a roaring blaze!”

イカズチでも壊せない　その絆の限りRise
新時代の福音(ゴスペル)よ　夢追人を照らせ
もう迷わないさ　風のままに
未来はまばゆく輝いて　君を待つよ

Rise! To the limits of this bond
which even thunder cannot destroy.
The gospel of a new age; those who chase their dreams will shine.
I won’t lose my way anymore, as long as the wind blows.
The future shines brilliantly, as it waits for you...

何度も…倒れた日々よ　雫で土を濡らす程
強く芽を息吹く　大志(カルミア)
優しき…背を押したTrue shine　温もり…何かを教える
太陽さえ　見た事ない　煌めきのファーブラ

Over and over... these are fallen days;
to the point that drops of water soak the ground,
with a sprout’s strongly growing ambition.
Kindness... the true shine touches my back,
warmth... may it teach me something.
Having never seen the sun, a glittering fable...

遥かな空の果てに　聳える理想郷(ユートピア)
信じた友の詩
「僕らは心のあるままに…きっと宿命を越えられるはず」

At the limits of the distant sky,
utopia towers over us...
The song of a trusted friend:
“as long as we have heart,
we can change our destiny!”

いまだけなら泣いていい　全部抱きしめるよBrave
そして君は気づくんだ　尊く光るチカラ
伝うこの気持ち　永久に咲いて
ゆずれない明日があるはずさ　さあ…世界へ

If it’s just now, crying is fine;
embrace everything, be brave!
And you notice, the precious glowing power...
I will share these feelings, blooming for all time.
A tomorrow we will never surrender will be there,
Yes, let’s go out into the world!

震える日は暖めよう　凍える日は隣にいよう
切なき日は…嗚呼ずっとずっと離さずいるから
君と云う名の下　始まるレジェンド

Let’s warm the shivering days,
set the frozen days aside.
The miserable ones...
oh, I will always be by your side, so
under your name a legend will begin!

イカズチでも壊せない　その絆の限りRise
新時代の福音(ゴスペル)よ　夢追人を照らせ
もう迷わないさ　風のままに
二度とない今日を生きてゆく　君と共に…！

Rise! To the limits of this bond
which even thunder cannot destroy.
The gospel of a new age; those who chase their dreams will shine.
I won’t lose my way anymore, as long as the wind blows.
Let’s live through this day which will never come again,
together with you!

Translation Notes: Romancers' Neo

Romancers' Neo first caught my attention as the opening theme song of the Nanoha PSP game Gears of Destiny, which I've mentioned before. (The OP version runs until the end of the first chorus, where the translated lyrics are "it waits for you".) If there's one interesting thing about it, it's that the lyrics are liberally sprinkled with... I would say English terms except I'm not actually confident that they are all English. If they are, they're obscure enough to evade my fairly expansive vocabulary. In short, one of the hardest parts of being a translator is that you have to be everything else too, or at least be able to fake it well enough.

Which brings up an interesting question, really. When translating, do you leave the original text in (where it makes sense to do so) or do you translate for meaning instead? Another good example of this is Only My Railgun by fripSide, the opening to A Certain Scientific Railgun. Presented with what is nominally English but which makes little sense to English speakers, what do you do when translating, whether for subtitles or for a blog like this one?

The second line, thus, provided no end of problems. Partly because it took me forever to figure out what "campanella" was supposed to be. Once I did think to look more closely at Italian, rather than English, the idea of talking about a bell ringing came shortly thereafter. This is a case in which I felt leaving the Italian term in the final product would have been almost completely nonsensical; simply replacing "bell" would only produce confusion, and trying to avoid adding the reference to ringing (which is not really in the original text) would have been worse. ("Reach, campanella!" Yeah, no thank you.)

Of course, then immediately after that I did leave a fairly obscure term in. For the record, "rondo" is a word in English, referring to a work or movement of music with its own particular subject. This time, though, trying to shoehorn in a definition would have been the less optimal choice. Any attempt to do a single-word replacement (such as "melody") would be materially different, and putting in an entire explanation would quickly descend into an overly-long string of words. So, rondo stays in, and anyone who wants to know what the song's exactly talking about can look it up, as I imagine many Japanese would have to as well with the original text. (It does show up in Japanese dictionaries too!)

The next incidence of an unfamiliar term came in the first stanza after the chorus (fourth overall). "Kalmia" is apparently a type of plant, assuming that that is in fact what was intended when these lyrics were written. (It's what comes up in the Japanese dictionary for the katakana カルミア, at any rate.) And there's a distinct way in which that reference makes sense, in that the rest of the line refers to a sprout... breathing strongly? In all likelihood, I made hash of that line, but I feel like the characters as written make... little sense. What I did in the end was to associate breathing with living, and connect that back to plants and growing, but that's very much a workaround.

Of course, the other problem is that the kanji there has nothing to do with plants. If you were to ignore the reading given, you'd see the word for "ambition", which is where that part of the translation comes from. Kalmia is apparently a decently pretty plant (if Google Images is to be believed), so perhaps it makes sense for "grow to become like this" to be a sprout's ambition.

And then we hit the end of the stanza and the Japanese katakana "ファーブラ", with which all I can really do is give you the near-direct romanization "fabula" and leave it at that. I can't even suggest what that might mean, because I have literally no idea. Searches in three separate dictionaries (the English, the Japanese, and the other Japanese on my phone) each yielded no results. If someone does have a theory they'd like to defend, by all means tell me about it. UPDATE: Aaaaaand I should have paid more attention to the possibility of Italian showing up again. Apparently "fabula" translates as "fable" in that language. Barring any better explanation, I've edited the translation slightly to reflect this information.

Once I got through the incredible mess of unfamiliar words, though, the translation was reasonably straightforward. I did flip around sentence orders in a few places, most notably in the chorus, where the word "rise" starts the line in the translation and ends it in the original text. Needless to say, I do think that the alteration is a more effective way of getting at what the song is saying.

Let me know what you think of the translation (or the song) in the comments!

The Gears of Destiny

On Christmas Day, I received the limited edition version (which they decided to tag as the "God Box" for no apparent reason) of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's Portable: The Gears of Destiny, a game that officially came out two days earlier on the 23rd. (Incidentally, I now have two decent-sized boxes with Nanoha characters on them, that and the 1st Movie limited edition DVD set. Pretty soon I will be able to store all of my stuff in Nanoha boxes.) Since then, I have logged nearly twenty hours of play time, unlocked all the characters, and ran the entire story mode through to completion.

Yes, I like what I got for Christmas. Is it that obvious? Anyway, I figured I'd ramble on about my new game a little, so I guess you could call this a review of sorts?

The game itself is a fighting game at its core. It's distinguished particularly by a mechanic that's carried over from the last Nanoha PSP game, the distinction between close and long range combat. At first, at close to medium range (defined by a circle around your character), the game is a 2D style fighting game, although lacking anything like the combos that you get in most such games. Once you open the range, however, battle shifts to a long range mode, and your controls change over to provide you with a new set of attacks.

Of course, like pretty much any Japanese game I can think of (certainly any of the ones I play), the game has a well-developed story, presented in visual novel style interludes between individual fights. I rather suspect that it helps for the game to call upon an existing cast of characters, and there's no doubting that the story would be much less understandable to someone who didn't know anything about the Nanoha world. (Setting aside, of course, the fact that it is all in Japanese. I'm sure I'm not the only one thinking of translating it, but I haven't bothered checking to see if anyone's actually gotten anywhere with that yet.)

The story itself is very typically Nanoha. Unknown new people arrive in Nanoha's world, and the antagonists from the last game are revived along with a whole host of new issues. The two original characters for this game, Kyrie and Amitie (or usually just Amita) Florian, are at the center of it all, and they're fighting with each other on top of that. Like pretty much every Nanoha story, it's gloriously over the top (time to save the world again!) and yet it's good at bringing out the characters and making them unique and interesting. Especially the original characters, or the original characters from the first game (the Materials, dark versions of Nanoha, Fate, and Hayate), all of whom get their own personalities and idiosyncrasies.

The game play itself is honestly a little more forgettable, to tell the truth. The AI in the game is... somewhat spotty. At close range, it's far more capable than I am, most of the time. Which doesn't stop me from scoring my own points in close range combat, but usually I just back away until I'm back into long range combat. And while the AI in the game is not half bad at defending or dodging in long range combat, it attacks infrequently at best, and even sometimes without thought for its attacks' actual capabilities.

I would like to be able to test the fighting out when playing against another human being, but for that I have to find another human being with a PSP and a copy of Gears of Destiny. I rather suspect close range combat with another human being would be an exercise in irritation, as it's set up somewhat like rock-paper-scissors. Attack beats throw, throw beats guard, guard beats attack. As for long range combat, well, that would be a little more interesting, especially with the wide variety of Nanoha-verse special attacks on display.

On that note, there are 23 characters in the game. Don't ask me who my main is, because I haven't decided. They're all fun to play as, although again I suspect a lot of that is my being familiar with all of them as a result of being a fan of the series in general. Some are better at close or long range than others, depending on their attack strength and available long range attacks. Though the game makes no outward note of this, they seem to have different amounts of health, even. Some attacks are repeated between characters, or at least versions thereof; usually there's some relation between the characters in question, and it's explained away in-universe with the "character X taught a version of that to character Y."

So what does this all boil down to? Like any game of its type, I certainly agree that Gears of Destiny appeals almost exclusively to fans of the source material in question. I'd like to believe that the fighting is exciting and interesting enough to be fun anyway, but first we have to see how long even I stick with it, and a week isn't quite enough time to judge. If you have even a passing interest in the Nanoha series, it's absolutely worth it; otherwise it's an odd kind of fighting game with a lot of shiny explosions and not a whole lot else.

A Japanese (Cultural) Invasion

As long as I'm thinking about games, I suppose I might take a moment to wonder how many other people on this side of the Pacific share my particular gaming preferences. Or to put it differently: is there anyone else in the entire state of Maryland (or Massachusetts) that actually owns a copy of either Weiss Schwarz Portable or Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's Portable: The Gears of Destiny? Does the number of people with those games in the entire U.S. break into four digits? Or even three?

Normally, it's safe to say that out of a sufficiently large sample, the odds are that the answer to any question of that type is "yes". I can't be the only one to take an interest in the Weiss Schwarz card game, after all, and I'm certainly not the only one to be interested in Nanoha. But what actually are the odds that I'll meet another such person? Even when I was in Japan, I met pretty much no one who shared my interests. That was, of course, partially my fault, as I failed to seek out Doshisha's anime club. And there's a lesson that could perhaps be discussed about making your dreams happen. But that's for another time and another post.

What is certain is that the normal "well, plenty of other people are out there" is not necessarily as reliable. I know that I like to think - or perhaps "hope" is a better term - that it would be possible for Japanese media to do well in American markets. That if the Nanoha movie was a region 1 DVD rather than a region 2, it could sell as it is (it has English subtitles); if Weiss Schwarz was translated, it could find its own following here.

This necessarily assumes that there are a sufficiently large number of others like me who would buy these things, of course. Is that a valid assumption...? I don't actually know. Of course, some companies are finding out already. Fate/extra is one of those American PSP games I have, and pretty much all that was done to it was a straight translation of the dialogue before it received an American release. (As far as I can tell, anyway.)

Part of the problem is the fan base. We descend now into my rampant speculation... but I would suspect that Weiss Schwarz gets by on fans of each individual anime and game that see their characters in trading card form. Likewise, this new Nanoha PSP game has its own story and even some unique characters, but it's quite obviously directed pretty much entirely at someone who has played the prior PSP game and seen most if not all of the anime series plus the movie.

I'm not going to say that those people don't exist in the U.S., because I'm clearly a counterexample to that. But to bring the card game, or either of the aforementioned PSP games, over to the U.S., they would first have to be translated, and that costs money. So the question is, is there enough of a fan base to make enough money back in return for that investment?

Fans try to make up for the lack of demand by creating fan translations of works. Even I might do that for the Gears of Destiny game... I don't have the skill to create a patch for the game (or the desire, for that matter), but I damn well might translate at least the story. But then, what need is there to create a localized version? The fans have their translations, and can buy the original version. No one else will even notice that the game exists.

In short, if I want to see these kinds of games sold in American stores (as they manifestly deserve to be, in my most likely highly biased opinion), all I can do is ensure that Japanese media gains wider exposure and wider mainstream acceptance in American society. So that's what I'll do.