Got another manga translation for you. Thanks to Ragey (twitter and website) and his excellent scanning efforts I’ve found some fun video game comics from Japan. This comes from a Star Fox guide book included in a Dengeki magazine, I think; see the whole guide’s raw scans here. The comic is in full colour and read left-to-right, so very accessible for English readers. All I had to do was clean it up a bit and translate it to English, which I did with the help of Horseypope.
The comic is by Ayumi Konomichi, and although it’s short (2 parts of 4 pages each) it has some good gags and character-based jokes. I also included some illustrations from the guide that introduce the concept of polygons, and a 4koma strip from Famitsu that I also found recently, because why not?
So enjoy, and share! I included a few more-or-less direct quotes from Star Fox games in the translation where they would fit, see if you can spot them. And there’s more comics in the scanlation tag of this blog, or this Mega archive of all my comic work.
I’m on record as a booster of the 1993 live-action Mario film. It’s got great effects and design, fun performances, and a fascinating reinterpretation of the Mario world and characters. So when I found references to the movie in various manga, I knew I wanted to translate them and bring them to a wider audience.
This package is a collection of pages from various manga sources: two 4koma gag strips, an excerpt from Yukio Sawada’s Super Mario-kun, and several sections from Kazuki Motoyama’s KC Deluxe Mario manga run. I’ve cleaned the scans and translated all text into English, while localising game and character names. I also inserted handy intermissions providing context for each of the pages as they come up.
Translating humour is always tricky but even if the jokes don’t land, at least we’ve got some amazing depictions of Bob Hoskins, the animatronic Yoshi, Dennis Hopper, etc. to look at. It’s interesting too seeing how the characters within the manga react to the existence of the movie and alternate versions of themselves; there’s a few different takes on this throughout.
Anyway please enjoy, there’s more information and credits in the images. If you find any more references to the movie in any manga source, please let me know and I’ll gladly add to this collection!
I’ve translated other Club Nintendo comics before from German to English (check the tag). The Game Boy Pocket Adventures comics were bonus features, taking about a quarter of the back page of the magazine. The comics are a loose series of mildly amusing situations involving anthropomorphic Game Boy Pockets. They ran in only six issues in 1996-7 before disappearing.
They probably weren’t missed. Maybe it’s because the comics feel a bit lame, with no punchlines or fun situations; merely a cynical attempt to boost the brand of the Game Boy Pocket line? Eh, they’re cute and they exist so I translated them.
A warning that the final comic page contains some pretty offensive stereotypes with cartoonish Native American and Chinese Game Boy characters popping up. I make no excuses for this and present them as they were originally written, although I think they were a horrible idea conceptually.
You might know this manga as the one where all the women have unrealistic anatomy and clothing. But it’s also an adaptation of the Pokemon anime with more personality and realism, as well as cool Pokemon reinterpretations and futuristic technology. Anyway it was localised officially by Viz back in the day, but they left some things out. This release is about translating the pages they cut and the bonus content only found in the Japanese release. They did censor some things too, but this is not about reversing those changes; you can find such efforts elsewhere.
What I’ve translated is mini-comics from all four volumes, some of which are in colour, as well as bits and pieces from volume 4 that were cut to save space. This includes the entire epilogue chapter! I’ve also included illustrations that were not featured in the English releases.
There’s more commentary within the pages of this scanlation, but suffice it to say that these translations go towards making a more complete version of Dengeki Pikachu for English speakers. To that end, I’ve also compiled an archive of material drawing from both of Viz’s releases of the comic, Chuang Yi’s Singaporean release that translated an additional two pages, and with my own translations slotted in, to form the “ultimate” English reading experience of Dengeki Pikachu, so all of us here in English-land can enjoy Toshihiro Ono’s work to the fullest. Please check it out, you can download it at the link below, as well as see the scans I used as sources and my standalone English supplement.
In collaboration with dkgirder.com, here’s my newest scanlation project! The official Nintendo “Wonder Life Special” guide for Donkey Kong (Game Boy), aka DK94, contained a short comic by Kotobuki Shiriagari about Mario and DK Junior having a little adventure together. I.M. Gibbon ( @imtherealgibbon ) scanned it for me and I’ve translated it from Japanese into English.
Unlike a lot of manga, this is in colour and also printed in English-style left-to-right. This makes it very natural for English readers to digest. There are a couple of cultural allusions though; big pipes are common in Japanese playgrounds apparently! You might know Shiriagari for his absurdist, surreal manga and art, or you might know him as the guy who did Mona’s comic strip collection for WarioWare DIY (which you can read here)! His style certainly shines through in this comic, it’s quite funny. I also like seeing Mario and Junior being pals (and shaving their body/facial hair).
As always, check out the scanlation tag on this blog for more of my comic projects. Sorry it’s been a while between comics!
Thanks to Number One Lufia Fan Sinrevi for scanning these pages from various Estpolis books and guides. Here we have some 3koma (3 panels as opposed to the usual 4), 4 of them relating to Estpolis Denki/Lufia & The Fortress of Doom and 6 for Estpolis Denki 2/Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals/Lufia.
Knowledge of the games probably helps and knowledge of Japanese culture and language is also useful for a couple of these: for example, knowing how strict they are with sorting waste is important for the gag with Lexis, and one joke is simply untranslatable due to a distinctly Japanese pun (so I sort of left it and explained it in a sidebar note). Also, the North American version of Lufia 1 has a stuffed pig item which in the Japanese version is a monkey.
Anyway I translated these into English myself so that Western Lufia fans could appreciate them. Please share them! Remember, read right to left. And if you know about any more comics you’d like me to translate, let me know!
Thanks to Shizumon and the other mangaka, Konami, Castlevania Realm, Castlevania Wiki, and my friends who supported this endeavour. Please share this post around to any fans you know!
[Comic] Pachislot Akumajo Dracula III official 4koma, unofficial scanlation
For my final Castlevania comic release, here’s my translations of the 4koma that were published on the official site of Pachislot Akumajo Dracula III. This is the third slot machine game based on the Castlevania series, this time set during Castlevania III using Trevor’s Curse of Darkness design, and guest-starring Alucard with a new 3D model inspired by his Symphony of the Night look, and a brand new look for Sypha. It’s still a fairly exploitative gambling machine, though.
But! We got some good gags out of it. After skipping the second game, Shizumon is back with some nice comics. Thanks to Castlevania Realm for archiving them. I think Dracula is singing the theme song of the game in the first strip (there’s some impressive production values with these; each of the three has a full soundtrack release), which I chose to leave in Japanese because the song itself is and because it would have been really hard to change it all; besides it doesn’t need to be translated for the joke to work. Right? Anyway enjoy, and stay tuned for a final post linking to all my Castlevania scanlations in case you missed any.
[Comic] Pachislot Akumajo Dracula official 4koma, unofficial scanlation
Konami has been cutting back on real games and focusing on gambling. But they still produced some comics even for a Castlevania-themed slot machine. This is a slots game with interactive cinematic scenes, some of which include gratuitous erotic content, based on Castlevania: Curse of Darkness (Trevor Mode). The new character Angela supports Trevor and heals him when necessary.
These Shizumon comics were on the game’s official site in Japanese, and I’ve translated them. They used some obscure phrases related to Japanese gambling so translation was difficult! Luckily most of the cutscenes it references can be seen in its trailer. Thanks to Castlevania Realm for archiving the raw comics.
[Comic] Castlevania: Curse of Darkness official 4koma, unofficial scanlation, Part 2
Again the 10-photo limit means I have to split this up. These comics by Shizumon originally appeared in Japanese on the official Curse of Darkness website for Japan, and I’ve translated them. Thanks to Castlevania Realm for archiving them. Part 1 here.
I love the idea that Isaac doesn’t normally have tattoos, Dracula just drew them on for a laugh. Or St Germain regretting his time powers.
[Comic] Castlevania: Curse of Darkness official 4koma, unofficial scanlation, Part 1
Again the 10-photo limit means I have to split this up. These comics by Shizumon originally appeared in Japanese on the official Curse of Darkness website for Japan, and I’ve translated them. Thanks to Castlevania Realm for archiving them.
My name for Part 1 of this comics set is “Hector mistreats and is mistreated by his Innocent Devils”. Poor Mr. Fairy.
[Comic] Castlevania: Harmony of Despair official 4koma, unofficial scanlation, Part 2
I can only post 10 at a time, and there’s 11 of these, so here’s the last 5 (first 6 here). As with other Castlevania games, there was a set of 4koma by Shizumon published on the official Japanese Harmony of Despair website. I wanted to read them too, so I translated them. Alucard is great, and I love the surprise return of silly old Julius.
[Comic] Castlevania: Harmony of Despair official 4koma, unofficial scanlation, Part 1
I can only post 10 at a time, and there’s 11 of these, so here’s the first 6. As with other Castlevania games, there was a set of 4koma by Shizumon published on the official Japanese Harmony of Despair website. I wanted to read them too, so I translated them. I love slow-reaction-Soma.
[Comic] Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin official 4koma, unofficial scanlation, Part 2
Following Part 1, here all the comics from Portrait of Ruin’s official Japanese site by our old favourite Shizumon. These comics were only available in Japanese, so I’ve translated them into English. Jonathan and Wind are amazing. Thanks to Castlevania Realm for archiving the original strips.
[Comic] Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin official 4koma, unofficial scanlation, Part 1
Like Dawn of Sorrow, Portrait of Ruin had on its official Japanese website a selection of gag comics; some by the regular artist Shizumon but also others (along with some other illustrations that are worth checking out). The strips have been archived here, but none of them were available in English, so I’ve translated them. These are the non-Shizumon comics, as well as two bonus mini-comics. The artist for the first comic, and the artist of the middle four and the bonuses are unknown, but “Charlotte” was labelled with “Poncho”, for what it’s worth.
The Medusa comic relied on a Japanese pun; the word “ishi” can be interpreted as “stone” or “doctor”. Thanks to my wife for coming up with an equivalent joke in English. Hopefully the rest of the jokes are clear!
