TricoBren

Further supporting Yuki's discovery that Takaya named Kurumegnik after a place in Gullivers Travels, I have discovered that he only changed the last syllable from "gu" to "ku" when writing it in Japanese. No doubt he did this to avoid ripping off Johnathon Swift completely. SO, instead of naming his character "Clumegnig" (クルメグニグ) he opted for "Clumegnik" (クルメグニク) instead! Here is the entire story in Japanese: http://www.aozora.gr.jp/cards/000912/files/4673_9768.html and here is a selection of passages. クルメグニグ is mentioned fifth from top. The sentence translates as "At one point we ran into some stormy weather but on April 21st, our vessel safely entered the Clumegnig river." http://yourei.jp/%E4%B8%83%E4%B8%80%E4%B8%80 CASE CLOSED (??)

WOW! Nice find!! Judging by the promixity of the islands from Japan too, I wouldn't be surprised if this book is where Takaya found inspiration for naming his character! I wish there was some way of asking him... As for the datafiles, they are certainly very useful as guidelines but when it comes to romanizing their own words into English, the Japanese can be very clumsy at the best of times. (I have seen my name written as "Burendan" many many times now. lol) One of the biggest screw-ups I can remember is the naming of one of the main characters in Fist of the North Star. For the longest time, overseas fans called the character "Souther" then a range of toys came out saying his name was "Thouzer" (wtf?!) then the anime got licensed and it said "Sauza" (I think) So, yeah... helpful but probably not accurate much of the time.

Ooh, lucky guess! Haha! I went with Kurumegnik in my head so that was good but your suggestion of going with "Jabir" certainly looks very convincing! His appearance resembles somebody from the middle east too so you could be right.

Finally landed back in Japan yesterday and read the chapter this afternoon Another slow 10 page snorefest I'm afraid. The entire point of the chapter being this: "They're probably worried that Guyot will lead Apollyon to them." Salkafar hit the nail right on the head. Looks like these two are gonna be packing their bags... EDIT: Btw, what are the english translations of these zoalords? It's been so long since I last saw them I can't remember! Is it Kurumegnik and Jabil...?

(you know this as your there) In Japan it's supported by a large number of other comics sold with it's monthly distribution. It's kinda hard for western fans to vision it but in Japan if you buy a monthly comic you have to buy a huge book like thing with countless other stories there. Keeping them any length of time isn't really an option as they are huge so if you want to keep your copy of Guyver you have to buy the yearly book. If not for that I don't think Guyver would have survived as long as it has. Yes, what you say is correct but, the other strips in the same monthly publication enjoy 20-30 pages each. The Guyver is only 10. I wouldn't be complaining if he wrote the same amount of pages as his "colleagues"...

This will be Volume 32 when it's finally collected. Half a chapter a month is the current speed though... Yeah I thought the same thing. Quite ridiculous really...

Intersesting points for sure but the latest chapter seems to imply (admittedly via Tetsuro's theorizing) that Apollyon only removed Sho's hand by chance when he fled from the scene. It doesn't appear to have been a calculated move...?

master, subordinate. Yeah it certainly looks like that may be the case...

Seeing Archanfel made Apollyon feel uneasy which is why he quickly scarpered. I wonder what the link between these too is...?

Ok so I just read the chapter.... and it's really uneventful. Damn... ¥590 each month for half a chapter really blows. That's almost the price of a complete volume! So yeah, 10 pages of pretty much no development. Bravo, Takaya-sensei, Bravo. Everyone else bangs out 20-30 page chapters in Shonen Ace and the best you can do is 10? Jeez....

Ah, nice! I'll pick this up during my lunch break today then! Can't wait!

Yeah it's a pretty intruiging chapter right? I too wondered what language Archanfel uses for everyday speech after reading this. I really have no basis for thinking this but, I still have a strong hunch that Archanfel and Apollyon are the same person...

Isn't it this..? Hurry though, you've only got 5 days to purchase!! http://page10.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/m129642404

I have the chapter now too! Now I just need to track down the previous 4!! *fingers crossed*!

Of course. But if you're gonna translate something, I prefer it to be thorough. Not using honorifics doesn't make the characters any less Japanese nor the setting any different. Does using honorifcs really make the manga sound more authentic to you? If it does, that's fine, but to me it's irritating. The Viz releases didn't use them either right...? Different strokes for different folks I guess!

In my mind, he is French/German, maybe even a product of the German occupation of France. On the other hand, his last name is Guyot, suggesting his father was French. Maybe he's from the Elzas? Trico Bren, while I get it can chafe, how should - for instance - Shizu's relationship to Agito be properly expressed in the way she addresses him? I would personally write 'Master Agito', but even as I type it I feel it's inappropriate. In the same way Alfred calls Batman "Master Bruce" it would make sense. She's somewhat of a family servant role so this way of addressing him would be normal right? My deal with honorifics is that a great deal of the time, they can simply be omitted but in this instance you raise an interesting relationship... The key, in my book, is always ask yourself how would these people address each other if they were British or American. Of course they wouldn't say "Sama" so it's about translating their speech to reflect the respective tones in which they address their superiors. This of course can be tricky which is why *many* choose to cut corners and just leave "sama" in the text despite it having no meaning whatsoever in English.

I stand corrected! I never knew that "Richard" was romanized differently depending on the person's nationality! How interesting! Thanks for putting me straight!! I should probably apologize for my first post. The stuff that bugged me is long-time translation peeves that I'll perhaps never get over (my problem, I know) but after a second look, I noticed that most of those things were mainly evident in the earlier stuff you put out and not so much the recent stuff. I didn't mean to ruffle feathers but looking at my first post I certainly do come across rather abrasively. Sorry about that. Since I'm here, allow me to explain myself... The reason I hate seeing honorifics in manga is because, you only ever really see it in fan translated manga. I'm not sure why the majority of other JPN-ENG translated media, documentation etc never displays this phenomenon and I can't help but feel that it's like a habit of Japano-philes to use them because of a "we know what it means" mentality. I'm pretty old school when it comes to stuff like this. In English, I have never referred to anybody as kun/chan/sama/dono/shi etc which is why I don't feel it has a place in localized material. Too often (and I'm NOT saying you guys are doing this!) honorifics are used because the translator is being lazy or is simply not smart enough to convey the meanings into the target language effectively. Again, I know some people love it but for me personally it just drives me nuts. It's not translation, it's transcription. The other thing is the romanization of Japanese words and spelling the "u"s. Again, this largely seems to be a phenomenon that the anime/manga fan community has popularized over the past decade. I know you prefer to call Sho, "Shou" and that is of course entirely your own choice but it really doesn't sit right with me personally whenever i see it. It's like calling the nations capital "Toukyou". it just looks all kinds of wrong. Incidentally, I went on a trip with friend last year whose family name happens to be æ–Žè—¤ (Saito). When I looked at his passport, the name was printed as SAITO as opposed to SAITOU so I'm guessing that the Japanese government have no plans to adopt the "u"s anytime soon either. Basically, I just wanted to say that when it comes to translation, pretty much everybody thinks they're right (just look at my previous Richard post! lol) but I feel that my arguments against these common fads in western localization of Japanese media should at least provoke an interesting debate. Again apologies for the "amateur" comment but I'm sure you can understand how easily I can get my pants in a knot over these things! Peace!!

I have been flicking through some of your english translations and I see that some of the translators have made some classic errors commonly made by amateurs The most glaring of these is the insistence of using honorifcs when we don't use those in english. They're pretty jarring and sound really unnatural in an English localization. The other classic is the literal translation of "kore wa..?!" to "This is..?!" Definitely a huge pet hate of mine. I saw this and was really taken aback. The Japanese phonetically pronounce "Richard" as リãƒãƒ£ãƒ¼ãƒ‰ or "Richardo" not "Rihyaruto" as you seem to be implying here. Guyot certainly isn't intended to be named Richard as it's a common foreign name and I can assure you that there is no way they would have ballsed his name so spectacularly if it was! Besides, with a name like Guyot, Richard hardly seems like a good match does it..? sorry, I'm certainly not trying to come across as an nitpicking ass, it's just that I noticed this thread and after looking at random points of the scanlations was left feeling puzzled as to why there was no consistency.

Again, many thanks for your kind help! I don't suppose anybody here has the raws for ch.195-198?? I would be very grateful!! Cheers!!

THANKS for the reply!! I wondered how many had been released and this answers my question perfectly! I saw that thread but it's all in chinese? Don't suppose you have the Japanese raws by any chance? I can read Japanese fine but not Chinese! Many thanks!

Does anybody recall when the last chapter was released in Shonen Ace? I picked up vol.31 on the way home from work today and that runs up to Ch.194. Have any further chapters been published in the monthly magazine yet? If so, how many? Thanks!!

Nice thread! Let me see... I was in high school when the original OVA series was first licensed and released in the UK. (Can't remember the exact year, maybe 1993?) Manga Video Entertainment already had me hooked on their releases with the incredible "Akira" and "Fist of the North Star" so I was spending my pocket money each week on a new VHS title. I was an anime addict and constantly on the look out for anything new/violent/sexy when Manga Mania magazine (anybody remember that?) ran a one page ad saying "Coming next month, a brand new monthly video comic - The Guyver!!" with a full cover shot of Guyver I & II. I knew I had to get it, so was REALLY happy to discover that not only was it coming each month but that each tape was only 5 pounds! Cheap AND Amazing! I got "Data 1" on the day of it's release from Our Price records (anybody remember those too?) and I bunked off school and watched it instead! HOOKED! The data entries of the Zoanoids with the amazing figures and the hilarious spelling errors were really cool too! Ah.... Happy days!

I loved the Guyver since I was in high-school and have just recently started reading the manga. It's been great because I've just read the first 25 volumes during the past 5 days. I am also acutely aware that this has been going on since 1985 and that after 30 years, we only have 31 volumes and no ending in sight. It's gonna suck when I put down Volume 31 next week and start twiddling my thumbs whilst waiting for the next chapter but, hey what can you do right? The reason why the Guyver isn't popular is very simple. The Mangaka himself is lazy and can't be bothered anymore. Simple. I was a big fan of Vinland Saga, a Norse manga which was winning awards all over the place and had a huge readership but you know what? The moment that switched from weekly to monthly, its popularity took a nosedive. People became tired of waiting for the next chapter and before long that mangaka took breaks too. Switching from weekly to monthly is probably a very welcome proposal as far as the mangaka are concerned as it means they can actually sleep and have a life but unfortunately, it's also the kiss of death when it comes to popularity. Takaya is obviously burned out and probably wishes he didn't have to do the series anymore but in all likelihood, it's probably his only source of income right now. God knows how his editor puts up with his snail pace but I can only imagine that it's because the Guyver enjoyed a modicum of popularity in the 90s. This year is the 30th anniversary so who knows, maybe he'll put his back into it and finish the story once for all. God knows it's taken him long enough!!

Guyver Advocacy has some of their free reads here if you're interested in clicking on the link. It was very kind and gracious of Yuki and her team( Guyver Advocacy) to translate these for people. Cheers and enjoy. http://japan-legend.com/guyver_advocacy/01_-_Emergence_of_Bio-booster_Armor Many thanks for sharing! Actually I need to find vol 5-7 so I'll probably spend an hour or 2 in a manga cafe and read those (if I can find them) then switch back to English! Thanks for trying to help anyway! Much appreciated! Also, I noticed that the Guyver is being published at a deathly slow pace with the most recent chapter being several months (?) old now. Does the current vol 31 include the most recently serialized chapter? I'm hoping to catch up to vol.31 over the next few weeks so that I can read the Guyver in "real time" whenever it gets published in Shonen Ace.... Thanks for the help guys!

Wow! I wasn't expecting such a warm welcome! Many thanks guys! I am reading the Guyver now but the english translations that I am reading appear to jump from chapter 25 to chapter 47... I guess it didn't take long for my efforts to get thwarted then! LOL Guess I'll have to track down the missing chapters somehow... Anyway, thanks again and I hope to get to know you all better in no time!