(Ms.) Tomo Kimura’s Translation/Tokyo Notes

Since the item is available for pre-order at amazon, I guess I can write that I’m doing the translation for “Mission: Protect the Waterfall Village!”.

Seems to be out already.

Iolite

Iolite is sold here at “power stone” shops as stones of vision, that it helps you see the true nature of things. It’s also believed to soothe the hearts of people who tend to be too emotional, and to help them solve their problems calmly. Thus it seems to be a fitting stone for Kyoko to have and cherish.

心（ハート）に火をつけて

The original subtitle for this chapter. “Haato ni Hi o Tsukete” is the Japanese title of the Doors song “Light My Fire”.

舞闘会

The original subtitle of this chapter. 舞踏会 (Butokai) = the ball. Here the kanji for “to” has been changed to the kanji that means “to fight a battle”.

言霊

天使の言霊 (Tenshi no Kotodama) is the original title of this chapter. Tenshi = angels. Kotodama (literally, “word spirit”) is the spiritual power that’s believed to dwell in words here in Japan. It’s also written 言魂 (”word soul”).

The words you speak is believed to affect reality. So if you utter good words, good things will happen. If you utter unlucky words, bad things will happen. So when Shinto prayers are read, whoever reads them takes the care of not making any mistakes. Even in current times, there are words that are forbidden to be used at weddings and at funerals. Words that are forbidden at weddings are words such as “to cut” and “to end”. Instead of using these forbidden words, you use different expressions that mean the same thing.

一蓮托生

The original title of this chapter. “Ichiren Takusho” is originally a Buddhist term that means “to die and go to Buddhist Heaven, and everybody be born on the same lotus leaf there”. So even if someone dies first, you’ll eventually be reunited with them. Now it’s used to refer to people sharing a common fate.

manzai

The funny man = Boke, the straight man = Tsukkomi. Good manzai pairs have great boke. They react weirdly or say things that come so out of nowhere, you want to make a tsukkomi at the TV screen yourself (^^)

What I miss about not being in Kansai is that there’s all that manzai I could watch on TV. When manzai pairs become famous and start appearing on TV nationwide, they usually appear on variety shows or host their own shows, and you don’t get to see them doing manzai much anymore.

FictionJunction YUUKA - I’m here
(It does begin with the line “God will not forgive a lie like this”…)
I’ve - Automaton
(the first chorus)
Bryan Ferry - Seven Deadly Sins
(Kaname-sama silently raging at what Yuki has done)
Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart

I went to this event, which was held at club asia in Shibuya, last month. It was held on the day Matsuoka Hideaki’s 20th anniversary best album (2CDs+DVD) went on sale.

If you’ve seen the Tokyo Babylon OVAs or listened to the soundtracks, you’ve heard some of his songs. The live started with Matsuoka-san wearing a gorgeous princely costume. He then appeared as TV-NOIZ, a techno trio with him, a DJ, and a VJ, plus two dancers dressed up as maids. (I saw TV-NOIZ at a techno event last year, and they did his songs in punched-up techno style.) The last third was done rock-band style, with him and guitar/bass/drums.

He sang the theme songs from the OVAs, “Kiss Kiss” and “Deja Vu”. I didn’t think I’d get to hear the songs performed live, almost 15 years after the series has ended.

This one came out last month.

The audition arc is one of my favorite arcs so far. In the second half of the volume, I did the audition scenes with Moko and Kyoko first, then started from the beginning, working up to the climaxes.