Evangelion interview (continued) | |
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Q: What was your first translation project?
Wada - "Evangelion is my first work. To be honest, English translation is stressful work for me." Takeuchi - "Evangelion, episode 10." Takagi - "My first translation hasn't been completed yet. It involves translating a drama from the Gunbuster CD." Arale - "My first project has been translating some e-mail from a German anima/manga-related mailing list into Japanese for our translation group members, in order to introduce German anime/manga influences." Q: For what personal reason are you translating Evangelion -- as opposed to Slayers, for example -- into English? Takeuchi - "For me, it's trivial. I love anime -- especially hard, sci-fi anime. I also love 'kakkoii' (cool, neat) stuffs. Evangelion includes both." Wada - "When I decided to start translating Eva in September, it's because I like Gunbuster and I feel that Eva is the closest to that style of anime. It was true that in the beginning I expected a lot from it, but I was afraid that it wouldn't be a good anime. When I finally saw Eva, I got very, very excited! I thought, 'Coooooool!' I wanted to really introduce Eva to the people outside Japan as best I could." Takagi - "Because I love Eva very much and I hope more people will know and come to love Eva (like I do)." Arale - "Because I'd like to translate it into German in future, if I have the time and the will-power."
Onizuka - "(Well,) my aim is to promote GOOD anime to the world.
People outside Japan think that Japanese anime is just sex and
violence. However, those sex and violence anime well known to the world
are only a portion of the whole anime world. That's why I translate my
favorite animes." Q: How much have you done so far? Wada - "I translated episodes 1 through 5, Onizuka-san did episodes 6, 7, 9, and 10 and Takeuchi-san has done episode 8."
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Q: What specific problems have you encountered while translating
Evangelion?
Takagi - "It is very difficult to translate about words using in talk, or slang." Takeuchi - "Well, because I've never lived in an English-speaking country, basic vocabulary and grammar are serious problem for me." Onizuka - "Military jargon, and expressions based on Japanese culture." Q: What kind of problems do you have translating Anime in general? Takagi - "Translating expressions unique to Japanese. For example in English, it's like 'See you later alligator.' which is in Mr. Takeuchi's signature." Onizuka - "What I've said before, as well as shortened speech, various dialects, and slang." Wada - "I don't know 'real' English. I can only use English via the dictionary. But I have some friends who help me with translation. They help make my translations more natural. They were a great help, and I thank them very much for it. As I mentioned, English translation is stressful work for me. I got burned-out while translating episode 5. Onizuka-san did translations for me after that." Q: What kind of time/resource commitment does it take to translate a half-hour series like Evangelion? Wada - "I'm a slow translator, so it takes more than 10 hours for 30 minutes (of script). I'm lucky that I can use hundreds of dictionaries at work, but I really don't have enough time to consult them. I often use the 'Science and Technology Dictionary' and 'Colloquial Expressions in Dialogue Form' in addition to a general Japanese-English dictionary and the English-Japanese Electronic Dictionary. But since I have so many other things that I want or have to do, the time it takes can be a real problem." Onizuka - "It requires 2 to 3 hours (or sometimes more) to hear and write down the script (in Japanese) from a 30-minute episode. These days, Mr. Matsuoka from the Gainax mailing list does this most tiresome job for us." Q: Are you affiliated with Gainax at all? Everyone - No. Takagi - "Translation of Eva is strictly our work. Gainax isn't related to our translations." Onizuka - "I have contact with one of GAINAX's people. (But it is) Only a slight contact on the Internet." (continued)
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"(As to Evangelion,) I was influenced by Wada-kun."
