Bruce
and I have gotten a lot of thanks and encouragement by snail mail.
We appreciate it very much. Occasionally ones with specific strong
opinions will be added so that others can read them.
Konnichiwa!
Well, that's a pretty safe way to start a letter, anyway. I'm
not much for writing letters, but I really needed to respond to
your Marmalade Boy Guide and and translation project.
My
name is Dave (last name withheld), and I'm one of the founding
members of our new shojo club, KASHA. I'll take credit for getting
the others addicted to Marmalade Boy as well as my sister who,
like me, is also addicted to Sailor Moon and Magic Knight RayEarth).
I rented Marmalade Boy in Feb. of this year, and it instantly
became my favorite series (surpassing RayEarth and Sailor Moon,
which is no mean feat!) <Karen's note: I'll assume he rented
a raw copy of MB, not one from our project>
I'd
like to point out that I'm a 33 year old business professional,
being General Manager of a family amusement center. My sister
is 5 years older than me, and helps to run a Star Wars club in
Salt Lake City, UT. I point his out simply to give a little background
data on the broadness of age that find many of the "young
girl" shojo shows appealing, as well as the fact that many
males like them, too. It annoys me to no end to read in some magazines
how these shows are "cute", but "childish".
There was many important lessons for young people depicted in
these shows - of course, Marmalade Boy is the best written show
on the market today exactly for this reason.
I have
written a review of Sailor Moon, Magic Knight RayEarth, and Marmalade
Boy (plus a couple of other) for Lorraine Savage's fanzine "The
Rose". I have to apologize for some of the lettering of the
names - I was working from sound alone! One point that I did make
is that Marmalade Boy deals with things in a much more adult fashion
than most of the anime being produced (I specifically mentioned
the affair between Meiko and Namura as an example). I also mentioned
that it was unlikely that we would ever see this series brought
over here, due to its extreme shojo nature. It seems that the
only shows that get brought to Western shores are
ones that have lots of sex & violence (although they can have
some entertainment value, as well) I have to give you guys an
extremely heartfelt "ARIGATO!" for bringing MB to the
fan community in the US.
Personally,
I feel that a show like Marmalade Boy should receive AT LEAST
equal coverage to the latest Street Fighter clone, or the latest
Macross incarnation. After all, these character are REAL (in a
manner of speaking). It should be shown publicly on TV, in campuses
all across the country, and at every convention. Sadly, such will
probably never occur, more's the pity.
If
you have no objections, I will certainly do my best to distribute
your version as widely as possible. It's obvious to anyone who's
dealt with fan productions that you're making a tremendous effort
to make this project adhere to the high standards that the series
itself already possess. Anyone who isn't moved by this series
would have to have a heart of stone, if they had one at all! Ja
ne!
Dave
KD: Just a comment here.
And I believe Bruce will agree. For anyone who knows us well,
knows that we are trying our best out of love for the show. But,
both of us feels that no matter what effort we put into MB, it
will never be perfect enough...because we're not perfect enough.
We DO appreciate kind comments because in some way it's says to
us that you understand what we wanted to do, what we wanted to
say from our hearts, and that what we're doing is not hitting
a blank wall of emptiness.
Rich
Diversity of Spoken Language
...And
what subs they are. I think what I like best about them is the
evident effort that goes into choosing the precisely appropriate
language for specific situations. Other translations, even the
"professional" ones of which we shell out $30 bucks
for an hour of anime, often settle for a single tone of speech
that is consistently applied throughout a story. At best, they
give each character his/her own unique speech style, but it remains
unrealistically consistent across all situations. I applaud you
for bringing out the rich diversity of spoken language: driven
by
different contexts and moods, Miki may speak formally or in slang,
tersely or verbosely: jokes may be elaborate performances or throwaway
lines...and all this comes across in the subtitles. It's unique
achievement.
Lee
D.
KD:
Gee Lee, wanna
come live with us? I could use a boost like this now and then.
(^_^) !!!!! All kidding aside, I didn't know that aspect of the
translations came across until you said that.
Marmalade
Boy Supporters Club (UK Branch)
Dear
Karen & Bruce,
Greetings
from the Marmalade Boy supporters Club (UK Branch)!
MB
continues to grow in popularity with my club, knocking Kiki's
Delivery Service off our charts as the most commonly asked for
anime. I've even been sending off episodes To friends in Australia!
It
was great at last to see episode 25, Miki & Yuu together at
last YEAH!!. I loved the way you translated the insert song, only
at the appropriate moment, it definitely added to the impact of
the ending. Also Miki in her work uniform should have a cute warning
AWESOME ^_^.
However
I've found the first thing I dislike about MB, Sakuma Suzu to
be precise. Maybe it's the way I feel protective about Miki &
Yuu but Suzu seems a little bit too cold & calculating for
my liking. I hope the girl gets an appropriate come uppance shortly!
My
MB merchandise collection is still growing, as I've now started
collection the manga ^_^ I love the additional artwork & SD
chara's in each volume.
