My Fair Minmay and White Reminicences

[MilSpex]

Well, Tomita's story DOES overlap TV episode 9, but he writes all new dialogue for the story. Which is weird, since he wrote the TV episode, as well...

And it's not VERY different, just stuff like Minmay asking Jamis Merin for an autograph...in the show, Jamis says she doesn't feel well and runs off, in the story she just says, "I'm busy getting ready. Later, okay?"

Anyway, there are footnotes to each story, with all sorts of little bits of trivia nobody cares about.

DID YOU KNOW:

• Nyan-Nyan's specialties include "Dynamite Ramen," "Shooting Star Fried Rice," and "Five Ingredients Parfait"?

• The Choco Parfait Monster was introduced to commemorate the construction of the first Destroid Monster by the Macross's on-board factory?

• Nyan-Nyan is in the Macross's left leg, but the MBS Big Hall (where the Miss Macross Contest takes place) is in the center block?

• Jamis Merin had a big hit in February 2009 with the song "Hibiscus Lady"?

• There are at least two cafés ("Variation" and "Purple") aboard the Macross, and a crepe shop near Minmay's school? (And the crepe she asks for? "Blueberry jam." Coincidence, or Mari Iijima song title reference?)

• Minmay goes to Saint Valencia School for Girls.

I'll update with more annoying trivia as I find it...

Awesome. I love stuff like that. Thankyou for all your work.

[Gubaba]

News news news...

I've finished a first draft of the "Booby Trap" portion of the first SDFM novel (which puts me more than 1/5 of the way through the whole book).

(Seriously, "Booby Trap" has been a never-ending episode for me. First I worked on the subs for the "Macross Special," then for the official Episode 1. Then I worked on it for Macross the First. Then I started the novel. Next I'm doing the film manga. After, no more "Booby Trap," and I can start agnoizing over "Count Down" in earnest. )

I also picked up the Macross II and Macross Plus novels.

Macross Plus looks more like a prequel, talking mostly and Isamu, Guld, and Myung when they were in high school. Although it says "Volume 1" on it, there is no Volume 2.

The "Macross II" novels are strange. There are five of them: the first two volumes are the adaptation of the OVA. The next three are a sequel story (or stories, I'm not sure yet). Should be interesting (I hope).

[Gubaba]

Well, after a couple of nail-biting weeks, it looks like I'm actualy going to finish translating "Dreaming Prelude ~ My Fair Minmay" on time after all. I just finish the fourth story (out of five total) tonight, and if I can hack three pages per day (which is what I've been doing for the last few weeks), I'll be done by next weekend.

Then I finish typing it up, turn it into a PDF or Lit file, and it's ready to go.

So I'm not out of the tunnel yet, but the light is definitely getting brighter.

[VFTF1]

Reading through this thread; these novels sound exciting for one big reason - namely they are literary works, and if there's one thing that's sorely missing in the general sci-fi universe online, and in particular on Macross world, it's literature and discussion of literature. I don't want to get into a "what's better - the visual arts or literature" debate.... but surely there's room for both, and while the mass of fansubs have made anime available to us non-Japanese speaking people.... the literature remains unavailable to us.

May I please ask that you do one more bit of work, Gubaba? Can you write a prologue to your translations, with a literary analysis of the plot, the characters, how it relates to the bigger picture and anything else you find interesting? Often times, translators of foriegn works put such introductory essays into their books, and they are often very long. Also, it would be worthwhile to write an essay on the translation itself, pointing out interesting things which you noted as you struggled to make the works comprehensible and yet true to the original.

I think that these kind of essays need to appear, and I hope that once these novels are released in English, we'll have as many threads discussing the novels as we had discussing the episodes of Macross Frontier.

Pete

[Gubaba]

Reading through this thread; these novels sound exciting for one big reason - namely they are literary works, and if there's one thing that's sorely missing in the general sci-fi universe online, and in particular on Macross world, it's literature and discussion of literature. I don't want to get into a "what's better - the visual arts or literature" debate.... but surely there's room for both, and while the mass of fansubs have made anime available to us non-Japanese speaking people.... the literature remains unavailable to us.

May I please ask that you do one more bit of work, Gubaba? Can you write a prologue to your translations, with a literary analysis of the plot, the characters, how it relates to the bigger picture and anything else you find interesting? Often times, translators of foriegn works put such introductory essays into their books, and they are often very long. Also, it would be worthwhile to write an essay on the translation itself, pointing out interesting things which you noted as you struggled to make the works comprehensible and yet true to the original.

I think that these kind of essays need to appear, and I hope that once these novels are released in English, we'll have as many threads discussing the novels as we had discussing the episodes of Macross Frontier.

Pete

I was planning on writing an introduction of sorts to the Macross books in general (but for the blog, not to be included with the book itself), and perhaps some kind of translator's afterward.

The problem is, as far as SDFM goes, the books are more curiosities and addendum than truly vital parts of the franchise. They really had a chance to shine with the three-volume novelization, but I believe that that became something of a missed opportunity (so far, at least. I'm only about 100 pages into at 750-page trilogy).

I'm about fifteen or so pages from the end of "My Fair Minmay" right now, and I certainly find it interesting. I'm not sure how many other people will, though. Most of what it needs by way of an introduction is already included, since there's a prologue by Kawamori that explains the style of the book (it's written in voice actors' script format) and its intent.

The only thing that (possibly) requires some kind of advance warning is just how WEIRD some of it is, in regards to the size of Macross City and its population. It's like the writers continually forget that there are only 56,000 people on the ship, and the city is not Tokyo. There are multitudes of cafés and crepe shops, at least two major record companies, a number of high schools, even a old, decrepit building. A quarter of a mile is long for a space ship, but does it really need a subway? Because it has one.

The other thing is that people who already dislike Minmay will find more reason to dislike her. She stands Hikaru up more than once, and she leaves another poor guy in the lurch, just walking off in the middle of a date.

But all that aside, a lot of the information in the book is kind of gratifying, and I think the stories themselves are solid. Plus, the script format gives an interesting "behind-the-scenes" feel to the book, especially in the few times where the writers give instructions to the director (my favorite being, "This space battle is not a big, important one, so feel free to recycle footage for it").

But even if it's going to end up being no one's favorite book, it's still a part of the Macross story, and I think it's a shame that more than 25 years after its publication, there's still no access to it for the English-speaking fandom.

As far as translation problems, I have to say most of them have been pretty mundane. The book requires a little more cultural awareness than the show does, but it's still science fiction, set in an international future, and there's very little that is overtly "culture-specific" in it. Well, besides the overall tone and the fact that anyone who's been in Tokyo will recognize it as the basis for the city...but that's true of the show, also, and seems to present few obstacles to comprehension by people from other cultures.

So yeah, it's interesting, but I don't think it's earth-shattering. All the main characters are exactly as you remember them from the show; some of the minor characters (specifically Jamis Merin) get fleshed out a little more, and, if you like Minmay, it's a fun read.

I imagine the Misa novella will be similar, but I won't start n that for another few weeks, so I'll have to let you known then.

[Beltane70]

Well, Gubaba, I'm VERY interested in reading your translations of the novels. I've had them sitting in my collection for years, over 20 to be exact, and have been dieing to see what happens in them.

[Gubaba]

Well, Gubaba, I'm VERY interested in reading your translations of the novels. I've had them sitting in my collection for years, over 20 to be exact, and have been dieing to see what happens in them.

Thanks!

Not much longer to wait now...the file should be ready by October 10th, just in time time for Minmay's sixteenth birthday.

[Vepariga]

Thanks!

Not much longer to wait now...the file should be ready by October 10th, just in time time for Minmay's sixteenth birthday.

sounds awesome,ive been watching thru this thread for an update and a good update indeed! cant wait to read it,im also looking forward to Misa Hayase: White Reminiscences if its still getting worked on.

keep up the fantastic work gubaba

[Gubaba]

sounds awesome,ive been watching thru this thread for an update and a good update indeed! cant wait to read it,im also looking forward to Misa Hayase: White Reminiscences if its still getting worked on.

keep up the fantastic work gubaba

Oh yes, I'm still working on it! Well..."still" is the wrong word. I did the first three pages about a year ago, and then got sidetracked by other things. So in a few weeks, I'll pick up right where I left off, and finish it this time.

Just as "My Fair Minmay" starts on Minmay's 16th birthday (Oct. 10, 2009), so "White Reminiscences" starts on Misa's 20th birthday (March 3rd, 2010), which should tell you when I plan to upload the translation...

[Gubaba]

By the way...here's how one of the illustrations looks in my copy of the book:

And here's how it will look in my translation:

[Gubaba]

Guess I spoke too soon about cultural notes...just today, as Minmay is in a meeting about what kind of movie she'll be in, the producer starts talking abut how he wants it to be a story of "Innocent Love," like "The Dancing Girl of Izu" or "The Wild Daisy."

"Dancing Girl" I know, since I had to suffer through the atrocious Morning Musume version in my Advanced Japanese class, but I just spent the last half-hour tracking down information about "The Wild Daisy."

I think I *will* have to add some kind of note, at least to indicate that both of the stories were made and remade often as movies, and generally starred some up-and-coming young idol as the lead (Momoe Yamaguchi in the most famous version of "Dancing Girl," and Seiko Matsuda in the 1981 version of "Wild Daisy," apparently).

But if I have to add a footnote there, perhaps I should add a footnote about how Minmay's best friends, Seiko and Akina, are named after two of the biggest Japanese pop stars of the early '80s...or that when Minmay orders a "blueberry jam" crepe, it's almost certainly a reference to the Mari Iijima song of the same name...

I dunno. Whaddya think, guys?

Edited September 30, 2009 by Gubaba

[Vepariga]

Well,I,For one would appreciate the notes about where things came from or their inspirations/origins, im a sucker for random trivia.

[Awacs]

Not having weighed in before, forgive for me not previously mentioning that I am impressed by your taking on the undertaking of translating these. I'm impressed with your dedication. (Been meaning to say that for a while but I have a bad habit of doing far more lurking than posting on most web-forums I'm on).

On your point about footnotes, I have to say that I love them - for me it adds to my understanding of what I am reading when the cultural references and injokes are annotated.

Karl

[Gubaba]

Not having weighed in before, forgive for me not previously mentioning that I am impressed by your taking on the undertaking of translating these. I'm impressed with your dedication. (Been meaning to say that for a while but I have a bad habit of doing far more lurking than posting on most web-forums I'm on).

On your point about footnotes, I have to say that I love them - for me it adds to my understanding of what I am reading when the cultural references and injokes are annotated.

Karl

Thank you!

And yeah, I'll probably throw in a few Translator's notes...but I'm 100% positive that there are MANY in-jokes that I'm missing, so don't expect TOO much.

[Awacs]

Thank you!

And yeah, I'll probably throw in a few Translator's notes...but I'm 100% positive that there are MANY in-jokes that I'm missing, so don't expect TOO much.

Don't worry about it, I find that there are often lots of in-jokes I miss in things that are in my first language, English, let alone anything else, so I know how you feel there.

Karl

[VFTF1]

about how Minmay's best friends, Seiko and Akina

Are these the same two girls we see walking with Minmey when Roy is waiting for her (smoking) and tells her about Hikaru having gone missing (captured along with Misa actually). I forgot the number of the episode, but I remember clearly Minmei was wearing green short shorts and walking with two girls who she seemed to be good friend with.

Pete

[Gubaba]

Are these the same two girls we see walking with Minmey when Roy is waiting for her (smoking) and tells her about Hikaru having gone missing (captured along with Misa actually). I forgot the number of the episode, but I remember clearly Minmei was wearing green short shorts and walking with two girls who she seemed to be good friend with.

Pete

Well...this is one of those weird things that doesn't really match up. In the TV episode, Minmay calls one of her friends in that scene "Riko." However, in the book, that exact same scene happens (same dialogue, everything) but she's with Seiko and Akina.

When I worked on the subs for the episode, I toyed with the idea of changing "Riko" to "Seiko" to make it fit better with the book, but then decided against it.

So the answer to your question is "yes and no."

[Gubaba]

A few hours ago, while sitting at the Starbucks a couple of blocks from my house, I finished the translation of My Fair Minmay.

*sigh*

Good feeling, that.

Now it's time to finish typing it up and make any last-minute corrections...

[VFTF1]

Congrats! Although I hate Starbucks because I can't get my head around how you can have a cofe shop that doesn't allow smoking But I guess I'm letting my midwestern yokel side show ;-)

Anyways - we're all looking forward with Baited breath and much anticipation.

As to Riko and Seiko... I imagine the pronounciation in Japanese in pretty much identical... easy to get them mixed up.... Heck - I probably didn't even spell them right here

Pete

[VFTF1]

Well, since this is the My Fair Minme and White Reminicences Thread - please permit me to give my impression of Gubaba's work.

First- of course - thank you Gubaba for your effort, and for giving me the chance to read this.

Now onto some thoughts about the story itself:

1. I started to get the feeling that everything that is slightly "annoying" about Minmey isn't really her fault, but rather the result of being too popular with everyone. Think about it - if EVERYONE wants to date you, then going on a date with a guy isn't something exciting - it's routine, and pretty quickly you realize most guys are generally the same, and it just gets boring. Thus, I don't really feel "annoyed" by Minmey sticking up Max or walking out on that other guy. You just have to imagine to yourself that she likely has five dates a week and look at it this way: she wants to be nice, she doesn't want to dissapoint or upset anyone. Guys keep asking her out - so she agrees to be nice. But she can't force herself to be swept off her feet, particularly since guys are tripping over themselves to ask her out - so the process gets kind of boring. And of course, each guy (and we as the audience) get the impression that she's full of herself because we (and the guy) ONLY look at one particular date. To the guy - it's a big deal - HE got the date with Minmei. But, he doesn't consider that HE is just one of a ton of other guys who "went on a date with Minmey" and that Minmey is just being nice to everyone. And by doing so, she actually starts keeping people at a distance... She has more fans than friends. This episode is kind of sad because it shows how her popularity is creating a bubble around her that makes it so she doesn't really have close friends. Seiko and the other girl are just vaccuous female friends - they're fun, but I don't get the feeling that they're really close to Minmei. As for Hikaru - it's almost as though the only reason she gives him more thought is because he isn't shy about expressing displeasure with her, while other guys - even if they get shafted, probably STILL oogle over her and shout L-O-V-E Minmei the next morning as if nothing had happened. But here one also glimpses the tragic trajectory of Hikaru and Minmei's future love - because it's not really love, it's just a contrast. Hikaru is just a stark contrast to the "fanboys" - so Minmei feels like Hikaru isn't routine. But just because Hikaru isn't routine doesn't mean that therefore the feeling is true love - it's just a novelty. This is why it is destined not to last.

2. I don't understand what the mouth-stretching scene is about... is it suggested tha someone got to kiss?

So much for my first impression

Thanks again Gubaba for your work!

Pete

[Vepariga]

sounds like a good read, i want to read it now! will it be posted in this thread for use? or distrubited via pm's?