Translation Notes

Translation Notes

Translating a foreign language work is a challenging task that can result in a lot of sleepless nights and headaches for the production team involved. The general rule of thumb for any English-language release is to make sure that it retains the intricacies of the source material, while not reading like a literal translation. It’s a difficult line to walk, but we at Seven Seas believe that preserving cultural nuance is of utmost importance.

For this reason, we’ve strived to present a translation that is as close to the original as possible, while keeping the flow of the novel intact. The following pages of translation notes are presented here as a way to offer some additional insight into many of the terms, characters and other cultural items that you may not have understood while reading the novel. These notes also offer a further look into some of the choices that the editorial staff at Seven Seas had to make while bringing the work to you. Enjoy!

 

The Prince Connection

If it hasn’t become clear from reading the first three Boogiepop novels, it should be pointed out that Boogiepop creator and author Kouhei Kadono is a huge music fan. This is evidenced in everything from Boogiepop whistling Wagner’s “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg” to many of the character names and chapter titles found throughout the books. In fact, it is this last point that we’d like to comment on.

In the translation note section of Boogiepop Returns: VS Imaginator Part 1, we explained that the 1936 movie entitled Camille starring Greta Garbo seemed to thematically relate to Orihata Aya’s character. While this is still a valid explanation, as Kadono-sensei does make numerous other literary and movie references in his novels, gomanga.com forum user “Elric of Grans” was kind enough to point out a much simpler explanation—“Prince [the singer/songwriter] claims to have a personality that he calls ‘Camille,’ who wished to prove his critics wrong, and another called ‘Spooky Electric,’ who urged him to create The Black Album.”

With that knowledge in mind, it’s easy to see even more Prince references jump right out. Boogiepop Returns: VS Imaginator Part 1 uses the Prince song titles “Sometimes it snows in April” and “If I was your Girlfriend” as interior titles, while Boogiepop Returns: VS Imaginator Part 2 has “Do U Lie?” and “The Sacrifice of Victor.” What’s more, all of these individual titles have an impact on the novels themselves, as they tie into the events thematically. It makes you wonder what other clever references are still to come.

 

CHAPTER I

Dance Club

Literally a “live house” in Japanese, this type of establishment is the sort of bar where bands play. We opted to use the term dance club to clearly convey the setting, but keep in mind that a “club” in Japan tends to be of the bar hostess variety.

 

CHAPTER II

Shishou

In case Masaki’s usage of the term “shishou” isn’t clear, it means “master teacher.”

 

CHAPTER V

Harite

A move from sumo where you slap the side of your opponent’s face with an open hand.

 

CHAPTER VI

Calorie Mate

Tasteless, extremely dry cookie-like bars containing a lot of calories and a balanced range of vitamins. Needless to say…they are horrible.

 

CHAPTER VII

Sun Tzu

Boogiepop references the great Chinese strategist Sun Tzu and author of The Art of War with the quote, “Everything is already decided before the battle even begins.”

 

CHAPTER VIII

Terre des Hommes

The quote by Antoine De Saint-Exupéry on Chapter VIII’s title page is taken from his work Terre des Hommes, which was translated into English as Wind, Sand and Stars. In the English translation of this book, the passage in question reads as follows:

“And I, in my turn, shall recognize you in the faces of all mankind. You came towards me in an aureole of charity and magnanimity bearing the gift of water. All my friends and all my enemies marched towards me in your person. It did not seem to me that you were rescuing me: rather did it seem that you were forgiving me. And I felt I had no enemy left in all the world.”

As you can see, there is quite a noticeable difference between the above version and the one we used. In the case of this quote, the original novel Terre des Hommes was translated into English from French, but in our case, we have a passage that was translated from French into Japanese and then into English. Thematically, the wording in the English version is so different from the Japanese version that it no longer seems to relate to the themes present in the Boogiepop Returns: VS Imaginator novels. For this reason, we have decided to go with our own version of the quote to remain accurate to Kouhei Kadono’s original thematic interpretation of the passage.