Looking for Japanese translators (many perks, no money)

[monika]

Good morning, everyone.

I'm looking for a team of people to help me put together the Japanese subtitle track for Revolutionary Boy Touga. This subtitle track will be available on the eventual DVD release, because we figure we owe the Japanese something. People on this team will get their name in the credits, get to see the script before anyone else (other than the actors and upper production) does, and get a free copy of the eventual DVD release (something like a $2 value!) Unfortunately, there is no money involved as this is a fan-parody and we are strictly observing the no profit convention.

For those of you who don't know, Revolutionary Boy Touga (www.larself.com/revolution/) is a feature film length parody of Revolutionary Girl Utena. We are using Utena TV footage and reediting and redubbing it with a new story. We are currently in the process of recording the new dub and will soon be starting work on the video editing; the script is complete and, save some ad-libs and some last minute edits, in its final form.

As I would like to have the Japanese subtitle track available as soon as possible, I would like to start work on it now. Anyone chosen to help translate it will be given a copy of the script, which they will be asked to keep fairly quiet about. Once the script is translated, the translators will be kept on call to help with any changes, translations of signs and onscreen text, really any little translation job that comes up.

If you'd be willing to help, please let me know by emailing me at monika@larself.com. Please let me know a little bit about yourself - how good you are at Japanese, how you learned the language (are you a native speaker?), how familiar you are with Utena (not necessarily a good or a bad thing), if you have any experience writing humor in Japanese, translating stuff, etc., how available you are, things like that. Also, if you could pass this on to anyone you know that might be able to help, that would be great. I don't know how many people I'll be taking for the job, nor do I know how long I'll be accepting applications, but I figure maybe early April some time I'll get a team together.

Thank you very much, and I look forward to hearing from you,
-monika

p.s. I will be checking this board for replies even though I do ask that you email me if you are interested. Also, please feel free to pass this message on to anyone else you think might be interested.

[Tofusensei]

You are looking for people to translate your english parody into japanese? In that case you need a native japanese speaker who is bilingual with english. Maybe this isn't the best forum to look for such a person. Maybe check japanese forums and such... 99% of fansub translators wouldn't be able to produce a script that would sound natural and make sense to japanese viewers.

-Tofu

Also note that sarcasm and the like do not translate well in Japanese. They have a very literal sense of humor... It would pose quite a challenge for the translator :D Also the japanese note on your main page has some mistakes in it, just figured I'd let you know, hehe ^^;

[monika]

You are looking for people to translate your english parody into japanese? In that case you need a native japanese speaker who is bilingual with english.

I know. I do intend to actually find a group of people, at least some of whom are native speakers.

Maybe this isn't the best forum to look for such a person. Maybe check japanese forums and such... 99% of fansub translators wouldn't be able to produce a script that would sound natural and make sense to japanese viewers.

Again, yes, I know. This isn't the only place I'm looking, and I thought it would be nice to see if I could find anyone here where I know people have a passion for this kind of stuff. It is a very long script, and I wouldn't want to make one person who really doesn't care about it translate it alone.

Also note that sarcasm and the like do not translate well in Japanese. They have a very literal sense of humor...

Was it Miyazaki who said something to the effect of "It's not my job to explain Japanese culture to Americans. I just provide the movies." No, really. I can't remember who said that. But I think it was him.

While we are sarcastic at points, we're primarily satire, social commentary, metacommentary, metametacommentary, character humor, situational humor, straight up parody, and the occasional absurdity. I'm hoping most of our gags won't be lost in translation.