プロジェクト＝ホームスタック: Homestuck Japanese Translation

[DelitaHyral]

Do you still need a guy to help figure out how to convert the names?

It seems as though there are still some names unchecked in the wiki. Try going there.


I'm sorry, still trying to help.

[misterTeatime]

For pronouns, I also think that "ore-sama" is the ideal pronoun for sober Gamzee, and I can see Vriska using "anta" a lot.

I will also be in Japan starting tomorrow, but I will be hanging around here when I get internet time : )

[MetalKirby54]

ooh! I can totally give ya the names for the felt!
(working right now~)

But before i do, do you want actual names for such characters as Eggs and Biscuits? (like literal translations?)

Here's along the lines of what i was thinking...

イチ - Itchy
ドーズ - Doze
タレス - Trace
クローバー - Clover (now i know what you're thinking, it's a lot like crowbar. got that covered.)
フィン - Fin
ダイ -Die (alternately ダイス or Dies)
バール - Crowbar (Baru)
スティッチ - Stitch
ソウバック - Sawbuck
マッチスティック - Matchsticks
エッグ - Eggs
ビスケット - Biscuits
クォーターズ - Quarters
カンズ - Cans

Also maybe スクラッチ◯ドクター (scratch doctor) for Doc Scratch.

[Kazehane-Rhapsody]

Do you still need a guy to help figure out how to convert the names?

It seems as though there are still some names unchecked in the wiki. Try going there.


I'm sorry, still trying to help.

I don't think it's that much of a problem if you're helping out! But funny, I'm pretty sure I posted how the names go in one of my past posts...

And DelitaHyral brings up a good point about the advertising thing. I agree that we should use one of the Flashes from the original, but I don't know how to edit videos I could help with the translation but that's about it. We seriously need someone who's good at that on our team, since we would be doing the "edit the Flash for the Japanese people who don't understand English" thing more often

[DelitaHyral]

The question is, should we edit out a fresh video, cobbled together from old panels and flashes, or just send over something like [S] Dave: Accelerate?

The beauty of sending one of the [S] files is that, while less effective than a promo made by a skilled editor and manipulator of audiences, it can be sent out almost immediately and will most likely be the more coherent.

It would probably be best if it was something without spoilers, as they usually lose most of their effect when you don't know what's going on, and it would have to be something that fit the theme, rather than the flash about the armies battling it out... Then again, a spoiler-ish flash may be worth it if it can build intrigue...

I suggest:

Dave: Ascend
Rose: Enter
Rose: Ascend
Wake
Jade: Retrieve package
Jade: Strife!!!!!!!!

They either work without prior knowledge, have a lot of action, or result in a lot of curiosity in regards to what you just watched, which will most likely result in some memorability at the very least.

Edit: On another note, if we do make our own video for this, I do have an idea or two for it.

You probably don't care, but I'm just throwing it out there.

[BRPXQZME]

Don’t be afraid to be wrong. We are still nowhere near the stage where mistakes are difficult to fix. And while I do compulsively “fix” things I see that are wrong, that does not mean I hate you, nor that you are wrong all the time.

[Kazehane-Rhapsody]

You probably don't care, but I'm just throwing it out there.

Don't be silly, those are really good ideas! I think that we should, if we are actually using one of those, then we should add something at the end, like "Homestuck: *insert something like "coming soon translated* here" <-translated of course, so that people actually know what it IS.

[DelitaHyral]

You probably don't care, but I'm just throwing it out there.

Don't be silly, those are really good ideas! I think that we should, if we are actually using one of those, then we should add something at the end, like "Homestuck: *insert something like "coming soon translated* here" <-translated of course, so that people actually know what it IS.

I would think that it would be good enough to put it in the description, but that WOULD be more effective... I have to hand it to you, that's actually a great idea when it really comes down to it.


Also, who else feels tempted to advertise with "Heir Conditioning"?

Also, I contacted a fan of Homestuck who has a hand in translating some Nico Nico videos for Youtube. He/she seems rather active, so we shouldn't have to wait too long.

[nocturnalViolet]

All the promotion video discussions here are making me wish I had Flash :[
(Not that I would know how to use it even if I had it - but hey, I can always learn)

I probably can edit some non-animated images with Photoshop as I mentioned before, if that would be of any help, buuuut...

*Felt translations*

Good job on these! ^^
One nitpick though: might just be me, but wouldn't Trace work better as トレス or トレース？
It's just that it's closer to the original pronunciation and I remembered seeing 1,2,3 etc. typed as ウノ、ドス、トレス... (or something like that) in a song lyric or something when I was in Japan...
Feel free to ignore my comment in case I was wrong here XD

[Kazehane-Rhapsody]

Here's another thing that I thought would be awesome, is to try it the way that the Japanese advertise games: it's to put in snippets of the game, with someone narrating what happens in an epic way (idk, like "Two universes, two species, one game that will change everything"*ohgogthatsoundssocheesy*), then presenting the name of the game. It seems more awesome that way, and I think we should drag the trolls into the ad thing, since they're really, really, really important. But that's just my opinion.

[DelitaHyral]

Hmm, I guess I'm not the worst at editing static images...

I guess I might try that at some point.



That was my original idea, actually (The mish-mash). Yes, we definitely need to include the trolls. At the very least show Vriska or Karkat. Should we show the exiles? The Midnight Crew? Who would we focus on?

I have an idea or two for it, but I'll sit on them a bit longer.

[Kazehane-Rhapsody]

I know the "Mish-mash" thing was your idea, just adding on to it But yes, add the trolls. Exiles, yes...Midnight Crew? I dunno, I think the Exiles, the trolls, and the kids are the most important IMO. :U

[DelitaHyral]

I know the "Mish-mash" thing was your idea, just adding on to it But yes, add the trolls. Exiles, yes...Midnight Crew? I dunno, I think the Exiles, the trolls, and the kids are the most important IMO. :U

Oh, sorry if I sounded accusatory or something; I was just clarifying that that was what I had originally meant, not gloating.

Also, how will we showcase the comic's humour in this? That is one of the largest factors, after all. Perhaps we'll use that WV video with Sburban Reversal?

If we use [S] Descend, the Squiddle intermission may help with that...

[Kazehane-Rhapsody]

I think those are really good ideas! WERE DOIN' THIS MAN. WE'RE MAKIN' THIS HAPPEN.

[DelitaHyral]

show spoiler

hide spoiler

I made an attempt at removing all of the noticable (Read: Legible) text from the picture. I'm not particularily good at it, though...

Certain titles and names were a little too hard, though.

I submit this to see if I can be of some help.


On the subject of creating a mish-mash, would we include music under the voiceover? I humbly suggest we use the version of "Three in the Morning" featured on album 6. We can put the voiceover at the beginning, leaving the music to do the talking when the Aggrieve remix starts up.

We'd start with the kids doing mundane things like Dave playing video games, John playing 52 pick-up and playing piano etc. As the music continues to build up, battles against the guardians (Dave's and Jade's true battles saved for end) and John trying to enter the medium. Then, as Aggrieve starts...

Imps start appearing. Sledgehammers and sweet catches everywhere. John on the pogo slimer with his shaving cream against the imps for humour. Dave vs Bro and Jade vs Bec, Vriska flying into imps...

And then we close it off with his battle against the Ogres.

All toped off with an encroaching meteor or a closing curtain.

Sorry if that was a little fragmented. I wrote that while listening to the song to get a good idea as to what would fit.

Perhaps we should choose multiple videos? Maybe three? If so I vote for Sburban reversal, Descend and perhaps a custom video if we can find somebody capable of doing that.

[gattycat]

To go back a bit to the subject of accents, while I totally personally dig the idea of kansai-ben!Dave, that accent is pretty much what all comedians use, so it has very strong connotations that are not coolkid. Unless he's using it ironically.

I think the advertising bit sounds like a great idea. If we put out a couple, then it means we can have a self-created mish-mash and an [S] one to cover all bases. We could put them out gradually, increasing in epic as we get closer to our posting start date.

[Tensei]

Just wanted to say that this is a really neat idea and that I'm definitely watching where this will go. I don't really have enough time to help unfortunately, even though I'm currently majoring in Japanese, but you already seem to have plenty of Japanese speakers for this anyway.

E: Also, yeah, if you feel like using Heir Conditioning (or really any of my songs) for an advertisement, be my guest.

[BRPXQZME]

To go back a bit to the subject of accents, while I totally personally dig the idea of kansai-ben!Dave, that accent is pretty much what all comedians use, so it has very strong connotations that are not coolkid. Unless he's using it ironically.

Yeah, that’s pretty much why I was afraid to admit it. But I had to get it out of my system :P

[felicitousArtisan]

Wow, we've accumulated a sizeable team here!

Okay, so one thing that is just as important as the names and titles and things are the phrasings of recurring memes. In fact, will we have to translate SBaHJ as well? That would probably be a good one for less experienced people because it doesn't matter even if they mess up horribly; the comic is meant to be deliberately terrible.

We'll need translations for all of these recurring phrases:
All of the x, all of it!
I am the x. It's me.
I warned you about the stairs bro!
I told you dog!
It keeps happening!
Where doing this!
We're making it hapen!
x the y, You x that y this instant!
What Pumpkin?
Quickly retrieve arms from x
THIS IS STUPID
You figure you've left them hanging long enough
Be the [other person]
Sweet Catch!
PSYCHE!
x2 Psychout combo! (in fact, x2 or more anything combo. It'll probably be just the same in Japanese though, as combo is a common gaming term)
[time] in the [past/future], but not many...
lousy goddamn stupid x
That's really all there is to say on the matter
BLUH!
IS THIS YOU? (this depends a LOT on how Terezi will speak)
Haunting Refrain
Resist urge to x
Huge Bitch
You cannot hope to beat [person] in a x off
Reunite with loving x
This [human/troll] [emotion/disease] called friendship
PCHOOOOOOOO
It's hard [phrase]. It's hard and nobody understands
Who's this douchebag?
Acrobatic fucking pirouette off the handle
YES. FUCK YES. HELL FUCKING YES
This is incredibly x
[person/object]: Land already
Addiction is a powerful thing
Make her pay

[BRPXQZME]

I sort of figured we’d get to the memes later. This is why I have put off applying the neat techwizardry stuff to analyze all the instances. All of them.

Well, that and trying to get Pesterchum 3.14 working on Mac OS X for collaboration purposes. Alas, I am about as good at coding as I recall being before, therefore there is no Pesterchum 3.14 on Mac OS X.

[MetalKirby54]

One nitpick though: might just be me, but wouldn't Trace work better as トレス or トレース？
It's just that it's closer to the original pronunciation and I remembered seeing 1,2,3 etc. typed as ウノ、ドス、トレス... (or something like that) in a song lyric or something when I was in Japan...
Feel free to ignore my comment in case I was wrong here XD

Well...
Alright *shrugs* c'est la vie. (wow, this is a japanese translation and i'm speakin' the french. -_-) I think トレース

[bellipotentObjicient]

Hopy shit! This has gotten so much bigger than I expected!

For the Nico Nico advertisement, I always thought that Heir Conditioning sounded a little bit like an anime theme anyway so that's my pick for any sort of ad. But Three in the Morning wouldn't be bad either. Rose: Enter is probably a good option for an ad as well, but if we're willing to do the work, I think it'd be great to throw something together ourselves. The question there of course, is whether anyone would be willing to. As for myself, I am horribly inept at any such thing. Hmm... I think I'm going to go watch some Japanese movie trailers to get some ideas.

[DelitaHyral]

One of the best reasons for using Heir Conditioning here would be the fact that it samples from Cirno's theme. I don't know if anybody else has noticed, but there seems to be a startling amount of Homestuck fans that happen to love Touhou as well. I don't know why, myself. It may be a combination of good taste in music and the well-handled characters. It may be the women. All I know is that as much as I wish for Homestuck to become as popular as it becomes, I sure as hell don't want to leave it to the "mainstream" audiences. Touhou fans, though, seem to appreciate it as is, so I thought that they, being both numerous and devoted, would be the best audience to aim for when publicizing this. I don't want to shove the song in their face while screaming "LOOK SOMETHING TOUHOU RELATED READ THIS", but I do think that adding the song into at least one trailer and tagging it appropriately might result in a sizable number of potential fans going "Huh, what's this odd thing in the search results? Why, isn't that a pleasant remix of "Beloved Tomboyish Girl"! I wonder what all of this backround stuff is about? I guess I'll check the description...". I don't know, feel free to disagree, but I think that Heir Conditioning is both a perfectly good song for the action scenes, as well as a great tool for attracting new audiences without any trickery involved to turn them off.


Three in the Morning is also perfect, but for different reasons. That song is the perfect metaphor for Homestuck. Many will believe that it starts out slow and boring, mirrored by the mundane events that will occur in the video. Soon enoguh it begins to accelerate as John and Rose fight their Guardians and John enters the Medium, but that still won't be enough for most...

The music nearly stops as he wakes up in the Medium; his father, gone. The video will fade to Hero Mode Dave surrounded by enemies, then Jade as Bec warps in front of her to intercept the package. Rose's house must be vacated, for she must get to an internet connection before John runs out of time (Note: I know this isn't how it really went. This is how I visualize the video going). The frst imp appears before John and various images flash before the screen. Suddenly, the Aggrieve remix kicks in and the battles commence. Shots of Vriska fighting and WV being Cantown's mayor are strewn through out as they all fight for their lives. As the battle music climaxes John wins against the two ogres and does his little victory dance. Bec retrieves the bullet for Jade and Dave is falling down some stairs, even though he told him, bro.

He told him, dog.

It's at this point that everybody present realizes that they're in for a hell of an adventure.


Whoops, went off on a tangent again. Tl;dr The music makes a perfect storyboard to fit the adventure that awaits them. Sure, there's quite a bit of sillyness mixed in there, but that doesn't stop it from being the best god damn story to ever grace the Earth.

I just wish to thank all of you for making this possible. Also, not calling me out for being the over-ambitious fool that I am.

On another, more serious note...what will we even tell them it is? An animated webcomic? How do you classify Homestuck?

[bellipotentObjicient]

Hmm, if Delta's overly ambitious rants could come to fruition, I would be a very happy guy. The touhou fanbase is massive so it'll certainly help out to have that little snippit in there as well.

On a side note: How does one notate a lisp in Japanese?/Have you ever heard a Japanese person lisp before?

[Wessolf27]

Hrm... haven't really studied Japanese as much as everyone else here but I thought that this might be said.

I think there was one time when a person (long time ago, not sure who) said that Dave would just mix English into his vocabulary in whatever language he speaks in. This would solve the HASH modus, though I guess it's up to you guys if that retains his coolkid status.

Alright, I'm off, gonna be watching this thread, can't wait to see how it goes.