Need someone who can read Japanese...

[sarea]

Is there anyone out there who can read Japanese who'd be willing to help me out?? I found scans of the last chapter of HG and am DESPERATE to find out what happens. I wouldn't make you translate the whole thing, but maybe just the last three pages or something, get the gist of what's going on? Plleeeassssee....

Comments

[seldon.livejournal.com]

The last blurb? It says "..they lived happily forever after"

Just kidding :p But I know people who translate japanese for fan projects and they owe me some small favors ;) Send me a link to the scans and let me see if I can contact them...

[sarea-okelani.livejournal.com]

AAHHHHH! *goes into paroxysms of joy*

Sadly, I suspect that is NOT what it says at all. :(

Here's a .zip of all the scans: http://fan.whiteplums.com/hotgimmick/hg_ch54_raw.zip

Like I said, I don't need the whole thing translated, but I *do* want to know what the end take away was.

THANK YOU FOR TRYING!

[seldon.livejournal.com]

Got it. Let me see what I can do...

[seldon.livejournal.com]

OK, that was quick....

This is the gist of it - my friend told me that since he doesn't have context this might not be 100% accurate (japanese is all about the context, according to him) but he promised me a more detailed translation tomorrow - so if you want to wait just erase this post and wait 'til tomorrow ;)

Basically, the guy with the glasses asks her to marry him. She doesn't know what to do and tells him not to rush into anything. He gets sent into a "Ryou" - a sleeping quarters for company employees - and then she arrives and tells him she wants to be her fiancee. They sleep together (not without some cliched japanese shyness from her) and then and the end you see they are an (engaged) couple, but he still is rude to her. He says some things have changed, some other haven't, but that is their destiny.

He has some doubts about the last word - he says it might no be destiny, but order (as in opposite to chaos) - but he'll tell me for sure tomorrow night, wednesday morning tops.

And all I had to do was to promise him I'd read HBP for tomorrow night so we can exchange wild theories for Book 7. We all win!

[sarea-okelani.livejournal.com]

There are no words for how much I love you.

I would NEVER have guessed that was the ending from the pictures. O.o But squeeee!!!! Okay, I won't get my hopes up too high yet in case "in context" that's not the case at all, but still, I can't imagine it would be completely bad, right??

Anyway, you and your buddy TOTALLY ROCK, I so appreciate your doing this so quickly. And at all. I only hope I can repay the favor some day!!

You haven't finished HBP yet?! You must! I want to know what you think, since we had the same favorite book before it!!

[seldon.livejournal.com]

OK, you are going to want to kiss my friend... Check this: http://www.prodigyweb.net.mx/positronic-brain/hotgimmick.txt

[sarea-okelani.livejournal.com]

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Sorry for the high-pitched squealing. That makes my whole week. How amazing is your friend? How amazing are you?? I can't thank you enough! That was such a treat. Please express my gratitude to your friend for me. I wish there were something I could do for him in return, but my heartfelt thanks will have to do for lack of anything else! And I totally owe you one. Thank you thank you!!

[sarea-okelani.livejournal.com]

I was so excited that I posted the translation to a Hot Gimmick community ... and then I realized I really should have asked first. Is it okay with your friend that I did that??? Since it's up already I'll leave it up, but if he doesn't want it up, I'll take it down. I'm sorry for not checking before... :-S

[seldon.livejournal.com]

Don't worry, I don't think he'd have a problem with that... But I am meeting him tonight, so I'll ask.

[sarea-okelani.livejournal.com]

Cool deal. Also, if you remember, can you ask him what the deal is with the Japanese suffixes? I've seen that all over, but I'm curious as to what the 'rules' are. Like, why does Hatsumi call Ryoki "Tachibana-kun"? Is that how it's done in Japan, you call someone by their last name, followed by a suffix depending on whether they're a guy or girl? I am insatiably curious about language/culture differences like that. :D

[seldon.livejournal.com]

I think I can help you with that - or at least point you to the Wikipedia page with the info ;)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_honorifics

[sarea-okelani.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I've actually been doing some research on it, and I get the general gist, but I'm still unclear on the specifics. Like, here's the entry for -kun:

-kun (くん，君). -Kun is an informal and intimate honorific primarily used by superiors in addressing inferiors, or by males of roughly the same age and status in addressing each other. In some circumstances, young women may also be addressed as -kun, but almost exclusively in business settings by older male superiors. Schoolteachers typically address male students using -kun, while female students are addressed as -san. -Kun is also used among friends of similar social standing, and by parents and relatives to address older male children (instead of -chan).

But is it typically used behind a given or family name? Why doesn't Hatsumi call him Ryoki-kun instead of Tachibana-kun? The reason I ask, of course, is that the answer reveals certain things about how the characters relate to one another. And without being familiar with Japanese speech and interaction, it's hard to know it instinctively.

Specifically ... I can't tell whether Hatsumi addressing Ryoki this way is an indication that she feels she has to be formal with him, or whether she's being intimate with him, or whether it's just standard and doesn't mean anything at all. Ryoki normally calls her by her last name ... what does that mean? If he doesn't use a suffix does that mean he's not trying to be polite (deliberately rude)?

It's so complex!!

Complex is an understatement

[seldon.livejournal.com]

From what I've gathered, Japanese people usually call themselves by family name only. Given names are used only when the people are very, very intimate or when they want to be extremely rude. The -kun suffix is used almost as a standard, and the lack of suffix can be due to either a wish to establish a gap between speakers (either intentional or becase of a lack of familiarity) or because the friendship has gone beyond suffixes. This is one of those small details that are entirely rooted in culture...

This can cause some interesting situations... one of the plot threads in the epilogue movie to Kimagure Orange Road is that in the future the protagonist calls his girlfriend by her first name (Madoka) while in the present he still uses her family name (Ayukawa). This is a small detail that went over my head, but the fact that one of the characters makes a big deal about it (and the fact that you eventually find out he started using her first name the night they first made love) proves that the writer expected the (japanese) audience to notice this discrepancy and start wondering when the protagonists got so intimate.

It's also telling that during the entire series the main character had always used "Ayukawa" without any suffix, while he always used "Hikaru-chan" to refer to his then girlfriend, even he was always secretly pinning for Madoka...

I think I only confused myself even more :p I'll run this through him, see what he can add...

Re: Complex is an understatement

[sarea-okelani.livejournal.com]

LOL! Actually that all made sense to me. However I am now intrigued by this movie you linked...

Re: Complex is an understatement

[seldon.livejournal.com]

However I am now intrigued by this movie you linked...

If you are interested in KOR you can try any of these
three sites. Warning, it is a japanese romantic comedy written in the 80s, so expect some weird stuff ;)

[fiannan.livejournal.com]

I have a friend who can read Japanese, I believe. If no one else is able to help, I might be able to bribe her into lending a hand, if you'd like :)