Leaderboard

In a world full of super-speed translation, it's no wonder that many would have to resort to machine translations to get their job done. However, Japanese and English are not one to one. There's grammar, formalities that don't exist in English. For example, ちゃん、さん、様。(chan, san, sama). As well as referring to people by name rather than "you". The change in these small factors is still localization. These intricacies are something that machine translations tend not to take into account. That ends up creating a problem. The script does not end up flowing in English, which leads your readers to believe it's a poor translation. We also have to realize that some gags just don't work in English. Early on in the Nichijou manga, we can see a joke about a ten key keyboard. Most English speakers do not speak a second language, so this may go over their heads. As Yuuko states that the weather "天気" (tenki), is nice, so she should buy a ten key, "テンキー" keyboard. This joke would go over most English speakers' heads, and yet this joke was kept in tact for the English manga release. This whole section is full of puns that I don't understand as a native English speaker myself. If I can't pick it up, how is a machine supposed to? Sometimes putting unrelated politics into your work may be off-putting. Like in Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid, in episode 12, Tohru asks about her new, more conservative outfit. In the English dub, she states that due to the patriarchy. I remember seeing a lot of anitwt and ani YouTube mald over this clip. As in Japanese, Tohru asks the same question, but instead suggests Lucoa should change her body instead. Personally, I found the patriarchy joke funny, as I don't think the changing her body joke would have flown well with audiences either. It reads as body-shaming to me, and that would still turn a lot of heads. It's not 1997, but 2017. The third wave of the body positivity movement was well on its way. Highest quality clip I could find below. But it still ends up being funny anyway because of the performances of the voice actresses and the scripts that they were given. Not all localization is good, though. Dragon Maid's, although controversial, still ended up sharing roughly the same message in tone and delivery. I'd like to provide a bad localization example as Smile PreCure's dub. (Glitter Force) by Saban. A majority of cultural references had been removed, and everything being Americanized to a point where Glitter Force and Smile PreCure are two different shows. With Glitter Force cutting eight out of forty-eight episodes of Smile PreCure. The localization choices in the cut episodes sadden me. Mostly relating to Japanese culture and tradition. Another cut that stuck out to me was the episode about Yayoi's late father being cut, as well as Akane crushing on a boy. Glitter Force's reception was rightfully criticized by the PreCure fandom. With Ella Anders of BSC Kids stating, "With the world being so interconnected as it is now the removal of cultural aspects was saddening. It would be such a great chance to celebrate and focus on Japanese culture." https://www.bsckids.com/2016/01/pretty-cure-glitter-force-graces-netflix/ Now, I know it's a lot cheaper to have an AI or a text scraper help you translate text. Cutting translators and localizers out of a job entirely would make for a great time, would it not? No. No it ever has and never will. Generative AI is already putting artists out of work, and Crunchyroll's transition to using AI will be disastrous for the company as a whole. Admittedly, that's why I revoked my subscription towards them. It's a gross way of saying the money is more important to you than the product you provide. In a late stage capitalism landscape, that $80 a year gets harder to justify for the bare minimum. This will only increase piracy, I fear. As people are asking for more accurate translations that read well in English. This is something GenAI and Machine Translation cannot provide. Genuinely, I think we as anime and visual novel fans alike seem to forget that localization is an important part of translating a work into English. Whether that be simply changing a joke to fit current standards, or using slang like "chill" or using politically correct language to make more sense to English speakers. A machine may be able to translate, but it is unable to localize. ChatGPT and DeepL cannot accurately translate a script writer's work and prose into something that doesn't sound bland. Localization is a necessary evil if we like the way the dubs are now. Good performances and good localization makes or breaks an English release of a game or anime. I'm glad more companies are trying to keep including Japanese culture into their shows more. We are a world that's more interconnected than ever thanks to the internet, and the ability to share what makes us unique is beautiful and should be preserved.

Visual Novel Translation Status (14/04/2024) Welcome to this week VNTS Review, and because we have Corpse Party 2 along with Cherry Kiss nukige (Hentai Homewrecker) announced I decided to combine both so we have 'Homewrecker Party' for the title. As for this week, initially it's just another below average one, although turned out this week we have some very notable updates in regard of the release plan so overall this week is an average one to a degree. Let's see what I can write in regard of this week. Once again Cherry Kiss announced their new nukige, Hentai Homewrecker, with the MC was roped into have NTR by the willing housewife. No much comment that I can mention other than it'll be released in two days (19th) later. We also have Team Gris Gris was turned out still active with them silently develop the real Corpse Party 2 (Not the fanfic game one), and the VN will be available sometimes in Autumn 2024 (Between October to December) later. Oh yes, it's also will be availble on PC, so you don't need to buy the console just to play this later. For the premise, it's like the first Corpse Party with the casts dragged into the otherworld with them must do their best to escape from the vengeful ghost, except this time all of the main casts are all female (We may have male side casts reveal later though) and the casts dragged into the otherworld from the abandoned hospital instead of the abandoned school. This week we have both Sekai and Shiravune announced the nukige with summer theme. Sekai revealed that they've been working on Kurikuri Click with the MC was does his best at his job as oil masseuse with his task job is to rub the oil into the customer's body, which eventually lead to the sex scenes when the MC at one instance was going overboard when he got sexy woman customers. Anyway, it'll be available on May 3rd later. Shiravune also revealed they've been working on Nyonin Island with the MC was hired as the island manager, and then it's revealed the MC got nice job because turned out the island has no male before the MC came to the island, so normally the female turned to the MC to have sex. For the release time, Shiravune only list that it'll be on this year. Speaking of release time, Shiravune announce the exact release date for both Mashiro Iro with said date is May 2nd, so keep the date in mind if you've been waiting for Mashiro Iro in English for some times. From fan translation, we have Taima Seiko Alice is at 35% edited along with 10% proofreading, ChuSingura is at 42.22% translated, Akagoei 3 is at 56.28% edited, and Ushieta is past halfway (50.8%) translated with Nagisa's route is at 28.4% translated. Other than regular updates, we also have Sampaguita release, and from what I understand its the third game of Yarudora series with the MC encounter the amnesiac girl Maria who is from Philippine and carrying a gun, which tipped the MC that Maria is involving in something dangerous. Note that the patch is for PSP version, so you need PSP emulator to play it. We also have Loverable translator announce they'll release it in August later after working on it for eight years, although for now it's still up in the air. Last but not the least, we have Daybreak announce the exact release date for Yuzuki's patch release, and it'll be in 26th later so let's see if Daybreak can finally release the last patch for Ginharu at that date. That's all for what I can write in regard of this week, and see you next week.

The other day, I was working with some visual novels to possibly start a FanTL and a question came to mind: Is it possible to make a Visual Novel that will only run if you have your region in Japanese, run in any region? I mean, yes, Locale Emulator exists, but that just makes the program you execute think the region is on Japan. So there must be a way to make it work without the use of those tools. But I needed a game to test on, in first place, so I started working with Karenai Sekai to Owaru Hana. This is what I found out until now: First thing I did was open the game executable with Resource Hacker to find anything that could help me. I found the game reads "Shift_JIS" encoding, at first I thought it'd be helpful in the process to make the game run in any region, I've reached somewhere, but I soon hit a roadblock. You see, kirikiriZ executables have two encoding options: Shift_JIS and utf8. Changing the encoding in the .exe to "utf8" made it executable, at least, in any other region. But you'd get this error: Investigating a little bit into the error I saw that the engine working on utf8 reads the files as UTF16 LE BOM, and since most .ks and .tjs files were in Shift_JIS, I had to make myself a tool to change the encoding of all the files from cp932 (Shift_JIS) to UTF16 LE BOM to see if it worked. And would you look at that, ANOTHER ERROR. However, this one was confusing. The error was this one: "What?" "But the startup.tjs IS in the data.xp3 I created..." The next thing I did was to find out what was happening, and when I saw the data.xp3 of the game, THIS is what I found out: If one startup.tjs isn't there, the game will not work. I searched if someone talked about this before, and I found a fairly recent post on this topic with someone mentioning this when trying to extract the data.xp3 of the VN they've been working on. No one responded, sadly, so I had to keep investigating. I remember that in the official Kirikiri tools, there was a startup.tjs in a folder called "Encrypt", but I don't really think it has something to do with it since it's probably for another purpose, like encrypting the .xp3 files. But now, what can I do? I got stuck now since I can't find a way to get two files with the same name in a .xp3 file. And making two patch.xp3 files with one startup.tjs inside each is contraproducent, as patch.xp3 is made exactly to be able to replace files and those two need to "live in harmony" in order to make the game work. After analyzing executables from other visual novels, I realized I may have been wrong this whole time since they all had Shift_JIS as its encoding property. And yet, they ran in any region. The first two I analyzed were Sousaku Kanojo no Ren'ai Koushiki and 9-Nine- Episode 2. The only difference I could find was that the .ks and .tjs files inside the .xp3 were all in UTF16 LE BOM. I appreciate if you read this hell of a text wall I made. Do you happen to know something I don't and want to add info to this thread? You're free to reply to this thread with your findings! If I knew japanese, I'd try to look inside the whole kirikiri docs to see if there's anything of value. But I don't, so... there's that. This whole investigation was purely made because I wanted to know more about the engine, but it might be of help FanTL if I/we figure a solid way to make the region restriction go away, imo. Might update this if I find something else.

Actually, it's simple. Use a hook which calls Locale Emulator function like this, and include LoaderDll.dll and LocaleEmulator.dll, you can run the game from any region.

I think the excessive slurping sounds the VAs make is nasty.

"As people are asking for more accurate translations that read well in English. This is something GenAI and Machine Translation cannot provide." Genuinely, I think we as anime and visual novel fans alike seem to forget that localization is an important part of translating a work into English. Whether that be simply changing a joke to fit current standards, or using slang like "chill" or using politically correct language to make more sense to English speakers. A machine may be able to translate, but it is unable to localize. ChatGPT and DeepL cannot accurately translate a script writer's work and prose into something that doesn't sound bland. Localization is a necessary evil if we like the way the dubs are now." As a counter point, if the current state of translation is far too localized and a much more literal approach would be appreciated by certain fans, like me for example, then DeepL and AI translations should provide a very welcome boost in the apparent quality of translations on a subjective level. Even non-AI, NMT translations, like Sugoi, that preserve honorifics in the translation are a huge improvement over heavily localized translations that are the status-quo, especially because a lot of the meaning of how characters interact with one another dramatically changes if they are removed. Of course that is not to say that pure MTL is acceptable, but Sugoi + a fluent English speaker editing the output is of relatively high quality and ultimately, I would rather deal with incorrect translations due to fixable software errors that are getting better over time than deal with censorship, especially around aspects unique to japanese culture, which is the norm in translations right now. Being able to revert such over localizations and say, re-insert honorifics into the translated text, which AI is capable of doing by the way, would allow it to preserve the original meaning better for those of us who actually want to know what the characters actually said, not someone else's interpretation of what they think they meant after changing the meaning for political correctness and cultural illiteracy. AI, whether we like it or not, AI is here so stay, so learning to work with AI is more beneficial than just resenting it or resenting how certain companies use it. The best use of AI right now is to literally work with it in a collaborative process since the end result of human + AI will almost always be better than just either one alone relative to the amount of time it took to produce something of reasonable quality. I am not sure what Crunchyroll is doing, but we are in agreement that their quality can only decline if they do not use translators because the output of AI still needs to be double checked and only a translator, a human, can make the decision that the output makes sense. Used correctly, AI should be a boost to both productivity and quality, not a way to backslide quality and damage the reputation of one's brand as a result. If Crunchyroll does not understand that, it will only hurt them in the long run.

Bump the thread for obvious reason, namely it got exact release date and it'll be on May 2nd later. Also it'll be simultaneous release with Sana Edition, which to say is quite bothersome compared to just release it as one game considering Sana Edition is also has the common route. Anyway, feel free to note the date if you're been waiting for this.

Ushinawareta Mirai o Motomete (In Search of the Lost Future) Description At Uchihama Academy, the number of new students at the school has been increasing every year, so a new school building is constructed. Before they move to the new building, the school will hold one last cultural festival at the old building before it is closed down. Each of the clubs decide to give it their all to make it a success. The student council asks the astronomy club to calm the uneasiness among the students in regard to mysterious incidents at the old building. Sou Akiyama, a member of the astronomy club, is inspecting the old building when he finds a mysterious naked girl, Yui Furukawa, who appears to know him. The next day, Yui expresses her desire to join the astronomy club. (Description taken partially from VNDB and Wikipedia.) VNDB link: https://vndb.org/v4880 Where to purchase The game can be purchased legally from DMM (https://dlsoft.dmm.co.jp/detail/tin_0002/), but a Japanese proxy/VPN may be necessary to purchase it. In addition, there's an extra layer of DRM which requires the installation of the DMM Game Player software which then allows you to download and install the game. A Japanese VPN is necessary to use DMM Game Player, both to download the game once purchased, and also to launch the game, although once launched the VPN can be turned off. This is the copy I have obtained, but the patch will work with both the DMM version and the original disc version released in 2010, although the only difference will be in their encryption and the addition of one extra file to get the disc version to work on modern systems. Project The English localization project is being conducted by Studio Frisay as its third project following Imasugu Onii-chan ni Imouto datte Iitai! in 2022 and H2O √ after and another Complete Story Edition in 2023. As before, I (Tooko) will be doing all of the translating and editing of the script, along with probably most of the image editing, and working on the game engine. Also as before, nReus has agreed to help with the rendering of the game's videos and also some of the image editing (you can largely thank him for the design of the logo above). Studio Frisay discord server Progress Programming: The game uses the Kirikiri engine, one of the most popular and versatile engines around. I've already taken care of the preliminary engine hacks necessary to construct the patch after a lot of trial and error, and also received some help to streamline the patch creation process once the project is complete. Translation: The translation officially commenced on January 19, 2024. However, I already translated about 25% of the script by the time I announced the project a couple months later in March. The game has 35,416 lines across 180 scenario files split up between the five heroine routes: Kaori: 8519 / 8519: 100% Airi: 7368 / 7368: 100% Nagisa: 2087 / 7356: 28.4% Yui 1: 0 / 8334: 0% Yui 2: 0 / 3839: 0% Total: 17974 / 35416: 50.8% Relatively uncommon for this type of game, it doesn't have a separate common route and instead incorporates elements similar to a common route into the beginning of each route. There is also a set order the routes must be completed, which is the same order they're listed above. A full walkthrough will be provided with the patch to view all CGs and endings. Progress link on Google Sheets

Visual Novel Translation Status (07/04/2024) Welcome to this week VNTS Review. For the title, because we have Tengoku Struggle with the female MC being the step daughter of King Enma tasked to return the prisoners from Hell, I decided to make the parody of the old anime Yu Yu Hakusho with it has the son of King Enma as one of the major character by changing 'Ghost' in its direct translated title (Yu Yu Hakusho: Ghost Files) into 'Prisoners', so we have 'Yu Yu Hakusho: Prisoner Files' as the title. As for this week, we have several releases which to be frank not really interesting to me. Another thing to note is that finally Ninetail announce their timeline for Ragnarok Kickstarter, and ironically it's the most interesting news in this week. Overall, this week is another below average week and let's see what I can write in regard of it. Aksys did release Tengoku Struggle, and for the premise we have female MC Rin who is the step daughter of King Enma tasked to return all of the escaped prisoners that suppose to face their punishment. In order to have good chance to successfully capture the prisoners, Rin enlist the help from Goemon and several others handsome prisoners to do her job, and obviously we'll going to see the romance blossom between Rin and one of her helper. Go get Tengoku Struggle if you have Switch and want to play it, and have fun. Dramatic Create announce they'll localize Nie no Machi along with it's fandisc, and from what I see Nie no Machi is BL VN with the MC is stranded in the world of between the living and the death. For the release time, the main game will be released in this year and the fandisc will be released in 2025. Also there'll be PC version as well, so you didn't need to buy Switch if you want to play this. Shiravune released Holy Slave Academy, and well no much to say other than it's old nukige with the MC was the teacher who tasked to mold his student into the sex slave by using any means. Speaking of nukige, Cherry Kiss also suddenly released their nukige back in April 1st, and it's about the MC who has his own bunny suddenly transform into the girl which of course will have a lot of sex with the MC. Ninetail announce the time for their Ragnarok Kickstarter, and they say the KS will start some times in May later. Ninetail also mention some difficulties in regard of their upcoming KS, such as no gameplay demo thanks to the engine issue, the increased shipping price because of the rising cost, and the increased price for one of the pledge. For fan translation, we have Taima Seiko Alice is at 30% edited, Akagoei 3 is at 53.37% edited, ChuSingura is at 41.91% translated, and Ushieta is at 44.9% translated with Airi's route is fully translated. For Ushieta here, obviously this is quite big achievement seeing the old project was stopped at 35% translated, so good job to the translator for finishing Airi's route. Anyway, now that Airi's route is fully translated, the translator planned to working on Nagisa's route next. That's all for what I can write in regard of this week, and see you next week. PS - I know there's some significant update in regard of Ginharu, and I decided to save the talk for next VNTS Review.