Poncho chapter 2 translation

I dunno if you guys still remember the translation I did for this manga months ago. So I actually finished this at like, the start of Summer. But my blog was closed down by then and so I never posted it here. I forgot that I never shared it with you guys. I mean, it'd make sense for me to post it here, right? I figured I might as well post it now. Better late than never, eh? I should probably repost these on /a/ as well or something. I dunno how to get these up on manga hosting sites like Mangafox because I'm too lazy to research what you should do if you want your translations posted places.

This time around, I did take into consideration the feedback I've received from my last chapter (thanks for that, guys) and if there's something still not to your liking, let me know. I still dunno how I really wanna handle sound effects, but I guess it's something I'll eventually get more used to if I ever plan to do full scale translation projects. I usually never have to really deal with that sort of thing, because when I'm usually translating, it's a single 4koma or something that's simple and doesn't require heavy editing or complicated sound effects.

As I said before, I'm not really good with Japanese yet. Some lines could be translated better, some may be a bit mistranslated, but I'm confident that it's mostly correct, so don't worry too much. It's a really short manga anyway, and each chapter is like 5 or 6 pages, which is really short. Especially since it's 4koma. 

Anyway, the download for the chapter can be found here.

 

~ Kirari ミ★

Poncho translation done

Took longer than I planned mostly because I was too lazy to really finish it. Hopefully another group can pick up where I left off. I worked with some of the suggestions given before. I may go back and rework previous text for consistency's sake if I plan on translating more chapters, but for now I'll see if a group decided to pick it up and they may even re-translate chapter 1 to fit their standards or something. It was fun, and it was the most I've edited. Poncho chapters are really short, so taking up chapter 2 in another week or two if nobody else does seems plenty doable for me.

You can download chapter 1 here.

 

 I'll post pages from where I left off on my last post.

 I know I was going to mention something else in this post but it's completely slipped my mind by now. Oh well, I'll just end it here. Hope you enjoy it. Leave feedback if you have any, I'll use them for when I make future released.

~ Kirari ミ★

Poncho translation!

 Hey guys! I was a bit bored today so I decided I'd give a crack at quickly translating a few pages. I plan to finish chapter 1 and then post it on /a/ or something in hopes that translation groups (or individuals that have close ties to said groups) can gain an interest in picking up where I left off.

Keep in mind I'm not exactly fluent in Japanese or anything. I understand maybe 75% of what I read in this manga, and some of what I read I'd have the gist of what it means in Japanese without being able to really word it right into English. It's entirely possible there will be mistranslations, but they (hopefully) aren't big ones anyway. I'd translate the whole thing, but I'd rather have confidence that I can understand it at least 95% before picking up the whole translation on my own.

I don't even know how I'll handle stuff like honorifics. I decided to leave them out for now, I think those work better for certain translations. I do know for sure that I won't over-localize (for example, what GG does with their translations where "Call me Yuki-sama" turns into "Call me darling" or turning "tsundere" into "bipolar"). I'm not a very big fan of that. I do like wording sentences in a more natural manner, and that does occasionally require you to toy around with the literal translation a little and sometimes tweak it, but I hate removing the original connotation of a line, or inserting memes just because they kinda match what the character said ("Come at me, bro!")

Anyway, Poncho is a really cute slice of life 4koma following the every day adventures of Hiroshi and Pon. Hiroshi's just trying to spend time with his girlfriend, whom he's really lovey dovey with; but every time he goes to visit her house, she's busy working! Instead of spending time with his girlfriend, he ends up babysitting her little sister!

I was multitasking with this all day, so I've only got 3 and a half pages done (I'm lazy). When I finish the chapter I'll make a post of it and provide a download link, so just think of this as a preview for now. I'll be organizing the images to be opened left to right, but  read them in normal manga format.

This one is a joke translation I made because someone asked me when the blood and fighting comes in.

I'll probably finish tomorrow, or at least sometime this week. Then I'll let it roam the net a bit and wait for someone to get interested in it. If anyone has any criticism to give, please feel free to post them.

~ Kirari ミ★

They came!

Hey, what do you know, it's not a figure delivery this time. I came home and did some kanji grinding. Then I looked at the anime for this season and decided I'd try giving a few shows a try, even if I don't think I'd like them from the description (I've found many gems this way). After I loaded my downloads, I played some Pokemon and went into the kitchen to make some fried rice. I sat down at the table with my plate and realize my little brother didn't even tell me I had a package.

ドキドキする

( ﾟ∀ﾟ)o彡°

My dog got in somehow.

Ordered:
・のんのんびより　１ (Non Non Biyori 1)
・空ろの箱と零のマリア (Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria)
・ポンチョ　１ (Poncho 1)
・魔法少女まどか☆マギカ １ (Mahou Shoujou Madoka☆Magika 1)

I normally just get them from my local bookstore, but they didn't have Madoka in yet at the time (I'm sure they do now though) and Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria was sold out. I could ask them to order it for me and ship it to my house though, but when it comes to ordering books I go with BK1 since it comes out cheaper that way. I could have checked some other Japanese bookstores in my area, but was too lazy. Figured I'd just save myself the trips and just order my books online this time. Total came out to 2410円、which is about the price I'd pay if I purchased all these in my local bookstore (the markup prices tend to balance out evenly with the subtraction of shipping costs).　

Came here faster than I thought though. And once again, my bad memory creates nice surprises for me! I'd like to thank Tigoris for some recommendations. I read Non Non Biyori and Poncho and liked them enough to get physical copies. Madoka I got because I wanted to collect the series, and Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria is something I've wanted a physical copy of for quite some time already. Now I'll get back to doing some more kanji and take a break to read one of these guys.

~ Kirari ミ★

Oyasumi Punpun!

Here's something unexpected. I picked up this manga today because I've heard about it from multiple sources. Oyasumi Punpun (Goodnight Punpun) starts out as a cute and funny story with a quirky looking main characters. At first the series seems like it'll be a gag story with the surreal imagery shown. In fact, it even looks like it'll be a kid's story because of the main character, but the story actually dives into some rather real issues. It's a coming of age story about a kid that learns soe of the harsh realities of real life. The story itself is filled with lots of symbolism and metaphors, but you don't need to read deep into the story to enjoy it. Despite the main character and his family being simplistic figures, the overall art style of the manga is really well done. Asano Inio is a really great artist, that can really go into detail and draw some nice panels in his comics.

As I said, it's a coming of age story. It goes into some rather depressing topics about human nature and such, and I feel it's something that some here can relate to in one way or another. I spent most of my day reading this, with breaks in between. I'm currently up to about chapter 45 as I type this, with a tab right next to blogger opened with my current page.

I'm definitely recommending this to anyone looking for a new manga to pick up. I have a hard time writing about stuff without spoiling it, and I feel my "review" doesn't really touch on what really makes the story feel good. I came for the cute Punpun humor and stood to see what becomes of poor little Punpun as the years pass.

~ Kirari ミ★

Presentation in Japanese class

So today I had the Japanese presentation I mentioned before. I decided to just go with manga, it's not like it's so strange for an Asian to like that stuff anyway (in fact, it's kind of expected of us). But I just went into detail about how it's very nice for practicing Japanese and such. I brought seven Japanese volumes of Yotsubato! and 5 English, along with 3 Japanese and 2 English Mirai Nikki volumes. I also brought in Welcome to the NHK!, but only 1 volume since I only have 1 volume in Japanese for it.

Everything was fine. Most people were just reading their presentations from their paper about generic stuff you can tell was paraphrased from wikipedia anyway. But after I went apparently there were more lively people. One girl in the class, the only one that makes it really known she's weeaboo, did an embarrassing presentation on maid cafe's. 

But hey, whatever. I sat through the presentation and didn't say a word. My professor had a face on that looked as if even she was uncomfortable hearing a presentation on a topic like that. A little after some other Asian girl did her presentation on Kanmen Rider. She was pretty damn into it, and even brought some merchandise that others probably wouldn't care much about, but I knew were actually rather expensive. She also made a few of the items herself, apparently from cosplaying. It wasn't a bad presentation really.

Then there was some dude that did his presentation on Japanese game shows, and I was thinking that was such an obvious topic with tons of flexibility. Probably would have been a nice topic for me to pick as well, but too late now.

After class ended my professor asked to borrow some of my Yotsubato! volumes. She said she liked Azumanga but never got a chance to read Yotsubato! yet.

So it was pretty fine. I just hope I didn't raise any flags for people to come rushing at me. I think I did a pretty good job not making it seem like some kind of obsession and making it seem more like something interesting to use to help me study (which is kinda is anyway).

~ Kirari ミ★

I hate beavers

 So today I went out to the Japanese bookstore in Manhattan, Kinokuniya. I always go there to pick up some Japanese stuff, since it's usually cheaper than importing and I can browse around physically to spot titles I wouldn't have remembered to look for if I was searching online. I was quite surprised that a lot of the stuff was more expensive than it used to be. I remember before, I was able to get manga for maybe $2 more than the original yen value, so I'd be able to get a volume of Yotsubato! for maybe $8 or so. But now, I checked the price and those volumes rose to $11! Stupid economy. Value of the yen increasing while the US dollar decreases.

That aside, they didn't have the light novel in stick that I was hoping to buy, which was a bit of a letdown. Guess I'll have to import it if I want it on my bookshelf. While I was in the area I decided to drop by the Barns and Noble around there (48th and 5th avenue? Dunno, too lazy to check right now), and I notice that the sidewalk is more packed than usual, and there are police cars and such. I see a police officer in front of the bookstore talking to a few people. 

"What the hell is this?"

 I was talking to myself when I said that, but some girl creeped behind me and said
"Oh my god, you don't know? Are you even from Earth? lol" (Yeah, she really said "ell oh ell" at the end of her sentence)

So, I have no idea what the hell she's talking about, and she explains to me that Justin Beaver, or whatever the hell his name is, is inside the bookstore for his book signing. That's when I notice the huge line of people, and actually listen to what they're saying to hear every one of them gossiping. "Did you see him going in?", "My friend spent the night here and is still waiting on line, I wanted her to save me a spot but the security won't let me cut!" etc. 

They closed down the whole freaking bookstore for him to do his signing? Of what, his autobiography? Isn't he like 14 years old? What the hell is he going to write about? 

I hate going outside.

~ Kirari ミ★

Series you like that were pretty much turned into troll bait?

So how many of you guys like series that eventually just got turned into trollbait? The kind of series that, if ever mentioned, lead into instant trolling. Doesn't only apply to anime. I myself actually like Katawa Shoujo,but of course any mention of it would just lead to instant trolling. Then of course, there's stuff like Toradora and Bakemonogatari. Not that I'm a huge fan of these series, but I did enjoy them, but they were trolled to the ground when they were airing.

Any of you guys have series that you like, but can never really have a proper discussion is most places you frequent because of how they just attract trolls that derail the thread completely?

~ Kirari ミ★ 

Delivery!

I know a lot of you like showing off your figure deliveries and such, but my crappy camera won't do those justice. So here's my newest delivery! Just what I wanted to see in my mailbox after a long day. I wasn't even expecting this until November 1st, but it seemed Amazon felt rather generous and sent out my books early so they can get to me on the same day that they're supposed to be released on.

Not a long nor interesting post, I know. Right now I'm in the middle of reading (as you can see from the above image). Maybe I'll make another post later today to review these guys or something. I mean, I already read Disappearance, so maybe I should hop onto Suzumiya Haruhi-chan first or something. Back to reading, I'll post a bit later (probably, if I'm not lazy).

~ Kirari ミ★

Girl Friends

This manga will make you feel really girly reading it. If you're already a girl, you'll feel extra girly if you're not normally girly. I don't normally read Girls Love, but I saw this over on Uboachan somewhere and decided to give it a try since I was curious. At first I thought it was cute, but before I realized it I ended up marathining the whole series. Really, it got me by surprise. It;s just generic romance though, for the most part, it's just something about the lovable characters that make it really enjoyable to read.

As you can guess from the title, it's about girls. Girls who are friends. Girls who are friends and develop feelings past friendship. It's only 5 volumes long, so not too much of a read, really. Still surprising how I got sucked into it though, a series like this would have normally been one that I pick at slowly once a week or something, but I really couldn't help it.

I feel I can't get too much into the details without spoiling, so if you're interested, you can read the series here. The scanslators put it for online reading, so even if you don't like downloading manga, you can give it a read with good quality.

~ Kirari ミ★

(And yes, my ear buds did indeed die today, had to order a new pair. This time I just got some cheap ones.)