On to Volume Two!

Aka “Level 2”. But before I say anything, I have a few words from TOM on the topic of Grimgal, Ashes and Illusion. I think.

—-

I said I would say what happens with us, so now I will tell what shall happen with us.

We’ll lay in the sunset of life’s lust, our joints will fill with limestone crust; our minds to be lost, our bodies husks, six feet in earth, as we meet life’s dusk. But the sun also rises, as it must; in age we lie, but in youth we trust. Those trusting fools will taste the thrust of jagged blades corroded with rust–

in this way we return to dust. There only is one thing to discuss.

Ashes to ashes, as we must. There only was one thing to discuss.

Ashes and Illusion, this quintessence of dust.

—-

…So. LOL. What the hell am I supposed to do with this? But I do think I know what it was. In my last post, I said something about the “official translation” being “Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash”, and then the next time I tried to do a seance with TOM I got nothing but a high-pressure silence. When I woke up the next morning, this poem thingy was painted in black paint all over my bedroom, extending across all the walls of my apartment. All dripping and stuff. My landlord will be so mad…but at least he didn’t get the carpet. So considerate of him.

He even painted the “Ashes and Illusion” thing in red, so I’m really getting the hint that it’s his oblique way of saying “that was blasphemy, hika. I’m the true authority, don’t defy me” or something like that. And I’m also getting the hint that he really likes his translation for the title over the “official” one, lol.

Well, but it’s true that nothing is really “official” until it’s really translated. The title of Oregairu, now known in English as “My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU”, was written in English sometimes in official pre-anime material. But it wasn’t called “SNAFU” then. If you’re familiar with Oregairu, you probably know of the horrendous literal translation “My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong As I Expected”, because that’s what the author called it – but just because the author decided on this name doesn’t mean we have to use it in our own translations. It is “official” in some sense, but it’s not “definitive” until a proper, paid TL comes out. I mean, honestly, those guys don’t know English.

This idea breaks down with “Grimgar” since that’s a madeup word, so maybe we’ll start having to call this Grimgar…and then I have to change every word…sigh

—–

Anyway, that was all sort of an aside. As for our plans for Volume 2, we won’t bring it out for a while. How soon I dunno, but it won’t happen until the pdf is done – in fact, the afterword to Volume 1, the appendix to volume 1, and the first chapter of Volume 2 will all be released alongside the pdf!

We’re working fairly hard on the pdf because it’d suck to notice problems in it later. Me and TOM are going to reread the whole book, fix typos and inconsistencies and so on. Also, I need to take some time to sort out some of the fun Translator’s Notes I found scattered around while exploring the Minotaur’s Labyrinth last month, as well as some other bonus goodies you’ll only find in the pdf version of the book! All this will take some time, but it’ll be nice to have a clean, definitive, portable version of what we’ve been working on since last October. I’ll update you in three weeks about the progress on the pdf, but I’m sure things will slow down with us for a while, because I want to take a break for a bit. Focus on school, life, exercise…

And editing for a minotaur has been kind of stressful…

That’s about the gist of it. Also, considering that TOM is an inhuman monster, it’s hard to tell if he’ll want to keep translating by the time we hit Volume 3, but we’ll talk about that when we get there. Sound good?

See you in three weeks (mid-May-ish) to talk about progress!

-hikaslap, Grimgal editor

This entry was posted by hikaslap.

• April 24, 2015
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