New Terra ForMars OVA announced

Well, I didn't expect this. They're just skipping the Mars Arc right ahead to the Earth Arc. Probably want to boost sales of the current volumes by getting anime people to get into it, I guess. Anyhow, onto the details. From what I've read here, it seems that it's only 26 minutes long so it's most likely just an add for the manga like I thought. However, what does this mean for TF anime in general? Will they use this as a stepping stone for S3 and simply recap the rest or Mars? Or will this be a one-off OVA and they'll do the rest of Mars? Is this simply part 1 of a multi-part OVA? I need answers god damn it.


Ahem. Anyhow, this comes out on May 19th as it's being released with volume 21 which isn't even that far away. Also, notice the difference of the roach's skin colour in the pic above? Well, that's probably because it's an Earth born cockroach which they briefly touched upon during the Earth Arc if you were a bit confused there. But they never said they were a different colour. Hmph. Interesting. In any case, I am excited for this coming out as more TF is always a good thing. However, I'd prefer if they turned Asimov or Rain Hard into an anime, too. I really want that to happen, but it's very unlikely. Sucks to be me. Anyhow, I'll get started on more Asimov tomorrow. Good night, folks!

Saikano: Saishuu Heiki Kanojo English Translation Project (PS2)

Now, this is just something I’ve been having on the side until I finished translating just the prologue of the game, which wasn’t that long ago. However, I don’t want to TL any further since I may or may not even get help to hack the game and rip the graphics nor be able to implement a translation of what I’ve done or if I translate any further. And now we come to the reason for this post. I just want to put out there that if somebody has the know-how of hacking PS2 games and making changes to their respective font files, then please contact me as soon as possible so that progress can be made. I really want to translate this PS2 game, but I don’t have the technical know-how nor the contacts to make it happen. However, translating is my game and that’s what I do, so obviously somebody else has to help out and do the rest.

Chise, what did they do to you?

Anyway, here’s a little about the game from what I’ve seen. It’s a visual novel, obviously, has path routes, granted, has dialogue choices, granted again, multiple endings, granted again again, and mini game dialogue choices and various other minigames? Okay, that one I didn’t expect. Now, at certain points in the game you have the ability to drag your cursor and pick something that you can see on screen, either that be planes in the sky or Chise’s face or clothing and the like. However, you only get one choice most of the time so choose wisely as it does affect the following scene, a few lines of dialogue, or your relationship meter with Chise. Kinda odd since I’ve never seen that in a VN before. Interesting. (FYI, talking about the cursor minigame.)

Riveting, isn't it?

Furthermore, the cursor pick mini game isn’t the only one I’ve seen as there are also a few others. First up is some weird minigame where dialogue flows around the screen and you have to hit a key to select one of them, I think. Anyway, it affects the following scene since what you choose is what you say, again I think. I haven’t bothered TL’ing the minigame parts or their tutorials, was lazy. Moving on. Second is some character card picker minigame which first appeared at the end of the game's first chapter, and from what I can tell, whoever you choose gives you either a bonus or minus in your relationship with Chise. The characters are Chise, Akemi, Atsushi, Fuyumi, and Tetsu, and their respective increase or decrease are as follows:

• Chise + 1
• Akemi + 0
• Atsushi + 1
• Fuyumi - 2
• Tetsu + 2

Moving on. What I like about this game is that it actually gives you the chance to change events in the story. You can stop the world from ending, save Akemi from dying, end up with her or Fuyumi, and that’s actually a great appeal seeing how everything ends in the anime. Hubba hubba. Also, I don’t know if this always happens or not depending on your choices, but it seems that Take doesn’t die during the bombing of Sapporo, and instead lives. Interesting. I wonder what else this game has in store. Anyhow, the music is actually pretty good and I am liking it. And while the graphics may not be the best thing in the world, it manages to maintain the artstyle of the anime which is a major bonus that I really appreciate. 

What? Don't judge me.

However, it does tend to borrow a lot from the anime itself which in itself is a little worrying. Event pictures and even backgrounds seem to have been lifted for use with the game, and a ton of anime clips, too. But! I think the reason they did that was to first be cheap, and second, to maintain the artstyle of the anime. And guess what, it worked! Unsure, but I wonder if any other anime VN’s did this. Kinda unique if you ask me. Also, 15 minutes of new animation was drawn for the game and that I was able to rip with help from the God of War himself, Kratos. You can find the video on Youtube, but sadly, the quality isn’t that very good since YT likes to crush vids into ugly messes. Still, I have the original video file and I always will. Hee hee. Lastly, as with many VN’s voice acting, it tends to be rather flat and uninteresting at times. However, it’s not the worst I’ve ever heard so it’s mediocre at best.

And now we’ve finally come to the end of this post. Aww, too bad. I was getting kinda excited. Still, I hope you enjoyed reading as this game is rather obscure. It was only uploaded on JP game sites in 2012 which is the time that I downloaded it, but it died not long after and the only reliable, working link that I know of is the one that I myself uploaded, and that’s worrying. Furthermore, there’s isn’t exactly much information about the game itself on the net, so if anyone ever comes to looking for info, I guess right here would be their first stop. Anyway, if anybody knows of PS2 hacking groups or anyone who has the skills to help me out, then please fire them my way or at least let me know. Thank you for reading, and see you next time.

P.S. - I’ve only played as far as the start of the second chapter, so I’m unsure what the rest of the game holds in content. But if you’re interested in seeing for yourself, then I recommend you to download the game off my blog and try it out. Have fun!

Neon Genesis Evangelion: Girlfriend of Steel Special Edition English Translation Announcement

The greatest love story ever told

Heh heh. Yes, now I have my eyes set on the special edition of the very first Girlfriend of Steel. And while I know that there are only a few new scenes added and that everything else was translated back in 2003, I'm still gonna go ahead and check over the entire game's script to fix things up to become more literal and accurate to the Japanese script, fix those literacy errors, and make it more my own overall. In other words, it's a retranslation for the most part. However, that's not to say that you won't see some similar things seeing how aspects of the previous TL was pretty spot on for the most part, but only for the most part. Here's a few examples. The original TL is the above and my new retranslation is the below.

Don't go inside, you'll get scolded by the policeman.
If you go inside, you'll get scolded by a policeman.

With such a clear physical evidence, they still call it "a mysterious moving object."
Despite such clear physical evidence, they still call it "a mysterious moving object."

I don't want to be late so I'll go ahead.
Since we are late, I'll go ahead. 

Hey you, honor student! Where are you going!?
Hey, honor student! Where are you going!?

You're... Ikari-kun?
Ikari-kun... right?

It's pretty.
Beautiful, isn't it?

Now, while I know that more literal doesn't exactly mean better, I still think that it should be preferred rather than rewriting/rewording lines, and wording here and there. Here's a few more examples. Note how the previous TL is not totally off, but off by a bit. Furthermore, there is a complete lack of "ne" at the end of a shitton of sentences and that's a major glaring issue, as well as adding in questions despite the sentences being used don't have a "ka" or any related particle. Though the TL is from 2003 so I shouldn't be as harsh. Still, the comparisons are below, and note how Asuka is suspecting the new transfer student and not calling her strange. How did that happen? It's totally off.

Must be a strange person.
I'm quite curious, aren't you?

A new classmate is transferring in today.
A new classmate has come to change schools today.

Let's make friends with her.
Try to get along, okay?

I guess I'll have to give her a greeting.
Well then, guess I'll have to give my greetings.

If you don't mind, could you tell me your first name, Ikari-kun?
If you don't mind, tell me your first name, Ikari-kun.

In addition, note how they mention that the transfer student is a girl despite not actually knowing that. Kinda weird, huh? Well, that's because they don't say "her" since Japanese a lot of the time is like that and it's left up to interpretation in a translation. Anyhow, enough of me picking on the original TL. Mine won't exactly be God-Tier, but it'll be an improvement for the most part, or at least I hope. Now, I uploaded a short video to Youtube the other day as a test, but please take note that I will be making changes since I was working off a script and didn't exactly have visuals or context while I was translating.

The misc JP lies elsewhere and not in the exe, FYI.

Moving on. I also translated the setup utility so you too can also fiddle around with the settings beforehand. I hope people appreciate that. Anyway, what excites me about the special edition is that the game can go up to 1920x1080 and it actually looks pretty good, aside from the subtitle cut off that is. However, I fiddled around and found the best option for a widescreen monitor supporting 1920x1080 and the like is the 1680x1050 option. There is room for the subtitles if you use that setting. However, please take note that any or most lower resolution settings in windowed mode shouldn't have that problem. Furthermore, a recent Microsoft security updates disabled an old driver from Windows Server 2003 that allowed the game and many others to not run, and that is a major problem. However, I posted on fuwanovel and got an email from somebody not from that site who noticed my post and ran into the same problem not long after I posted informing me about the solution and what caused it since I had no clue why the game stopped running. Anyhow, that's just for reference since I know more people will run into that problem. Lastly, have a Mana, and I hope you are excited to replay the game with an updated translation, new scenes, and the game in general in higher resolution. See ya! Bye!

Neon Genesis Evangelion: Girlfriend of Steel 2nd English Translation Announcement

Well, there you have it, Girlfriend of Steel 2 (or the Iron Maiden 2nd) is my next translation. Although I'm guessing you already knew that judging from my interests and such. However, it was either this or Ayanami Raising Project on the PC, which I do plan to translate eventually just so you know and I've actually already started on it, kinda. That said, I didn't expect Asuka's ass in my face (it totally jumped out of the screen) the moment I started the darn game, and I already knew there was fanservice in it but I never expected this. I mean, has Gainax really gone that low? Stupid question, I know. Enter Mari "the semen demon" joke here. Anyhow, her butt hits the screen right after it says "Gainax Presents", as if "Gainax presents Asuka's butt". That's probably the title of a doujinshi knowing Evangelion fans. Jab jab jab.

I can see the 4chan topic's right now.
"I want to sniff Asuka's butt"
"I want Asuka to sit on my face"

Anyway, sadly this Eva game isn't on the serious side, but more of a slapstick comedy, for some reason. However, hopefully it's funny and not stilted as I really wouldn't want to translate something that irritates me. That said, it's based in the alternate world seen in the final episode of the show, and is a dating sim/visual novel style game with only two endings, although there are a few silly game over ones like Robocop Shinji. That said, the two main endings are one Rei and the other Asuka, with no variation may I add. Anyhow, that's all I've got to say so I'll just end things here. And I hope people are interested in a translation of this game. I mean, who wouldn't? It's Evangelion, after all. Also, I recorded a video for some testing purposes and so you guys can see something ingame. Enjoy!

Terra Formars live action film adaption announced

Ugh, it seems the terrible has happened. Yes, a Terra Formars live action has been announced,and it will directed by none other than Takashi Miike. The idiot who brought us Zebraman, Ichi the killer, and such great classic's like two men form into a giant penis and kill another Dead or Alive 3. Spells success, doesn't it? Yeah, I'm sure it'll turn out great, just like all the other abominations Takashi Miike likes to fart out his stinky ass these days. Ugh, why am I getting such punishment, I did nothing wrong and my body was not ready, why!? This project spells disaster, what, are they just gonna cast Japanese actors for all the foreigners or change the entire mission to Japan solo? Probably will, and what about the actual roach men, CGI fest I'm guessing, or something along the lines of this.

It seems they've already started production on the porno spoof

We deserve better, not this shit. Tojo live action adaptations suck ass 99% of the time so what's the point, it only makes us cringe watching the things we love turn to utter shit. Take those god awful Samurai X (Rurouni Kenshin) live action movies for example, complete trash. But speaking about Miike himself, he's not a very good director. He only has a cult following and niche fan base who love to act as his personal fluffers and praise his works as masterpieces, like most Asian directors, Park Chan-wook anyone. I mean, Zebraman was fucking terrible and Miike actually made Zebraman 2 worse, however the fuck that happened, and Ichi the killer was a complete joke, I laughed my ass off watching that shit fest. He's just a moron, he may have made a few good movies in his time like Dead or Alive 1 & 2 but even then they still have problems and for the most part were all in the past. Now, he's just a washed up Tojo jerking dogs off for a living to pay off rent and for crabs infested hookers from Shinjuku. In short, I predict a shitfest like Gantz for the upcoming live action adaption of Terra Formars. And hurry up with new chapters and volumes of the manga ya lazy bum, scanlate faster! Johj johj johj johj johj!

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Hou English Translation Announcement

Yea, I probably should have done this a while ago, seeing that people interested already know and found out  on Higurashi's Animesuki forum and elsewhere (Since I put some vid's on Youtube) that I'm working on an English translation for Hou. Albeit, machine translated like Ayanami Raising Project, but I am taking good care with the translation using both infoseek and an online dictionary, plus Google translate to read it phonetically, although I will admit it has gotten choppy at times for me. Anyway, I'm nearing the end of Hou so I guess you could say it's nearly done, although they'll be alot of fixing to do afterwards. But, in the meantime there is a bunch of vid's I have posted on my Youtube channel so feel free to check those out if your interested.

Outbreak

Hinamizawa Bus Stop

Kamikanshi-hen

Neon Genesis Evangelion: Ayanami Raising Project (DC) English Translation Announcement

It can be done, I successfully edited text in a Dreamcast game. I didn't realize that you could translate Dreamcast games the same way as you do on the DS, this leaves alot of games open for translation. I translated some of the opening text as a test for this video and to see how the text would fold out, it appears smoothly compared to the choppy DS English text.

Kawai desu.

The only bad thing is that the text doesn't auto shoot onto a new line so I'll manually have to enter spaces. That is kinda bad as I will probably have to redo the pointers for that one, one task at a time. Anyway I plan to translate the Dreamcast version of the Ayanami Raising Project after the DS. It will be much faster that way so you Dreamcast fans will have something new to play in the future. I hope some people will be interested in a Dreamcast translation so thanks for reading and wish me good luck.

Romhacking Page

Neon Genesis Evangelion: Ayanami Raising Project (DS) English Translation Announcement

Im really excited for this, it's good to finally get a translation as it has been left alone for quite a while. You'd think fans of Evangelion would have done it already and I just watched the show recently, anyhow it's fairly simple to implement a translation into a visual novel type game for a DS. You simply type in the text using Crystal Tile 2 and like magic it's implemented.

A response on Youtube, just some asshole.

The only bad thing I would say is that the English text flows on screen in blocks, I hope that won't bother you guys. Im just happy that I can get it into English so I don't mind it, I will be in for a long haul on this one but don't worry as I'll get it don.e Below is a short video of what I did so far just as a demonstration, I hope you enjoy it and look forward to my translation of Ayanami Raising Project for the DS.

Aretha Translation Announcement (Game Boy)

A guy on The ISO Zone mentioned this game series when I asked about what game people want translated a while back, I looked at the games and they seem pretty nice. I plan to translate the 3 Game Boy games eventually, they have an anime art style which intrigues me and the sprites eyes and mouths move like a good visual novel game. My translator Kiiri has been busy for the past week so sadly I haven't been able to get much work done, to fill my spare time I have been researching and discussing how to Hack and Translate Sega Saturn and PC games. Im unsure if I'll even make any progress in that area but I hope I do, meanwhile I have collected all the hex's and made a table for first Aretha game on the Game Boy. That will allow me to find the Japanese Characters in the game and replace them when I get around to working on it, hopefully my translator will be available to translate for me as I can't do anything without him. This Saturn business is driving me insane, I doubt I'll get anywhere.