Nora’s Ark chapters 1-3 are complete!
Phew, it was a surprisingly busy time of the year. So much stuff getting released, so little time to attend to them. Decided I had to finish this project NOW so I had one less thing to worry about in the back of my head. The only remaining piece of Nora media left is the webcomic, which is mostly lost to the winds of time. But from what little I was able to scrounge up, it appears to be an adaptation of Twinkle Nora Rock Me, so… eh.
Keep in mind, what I translated here is the reprint from the second volume of the Nora tankoubon. From what I recall, Nora’s Ark had its own tankoubon printing earlier, and was also originally printed in a magazine, so who knows what differences there may be across the three editions.
Now that Nora’s done, I can take a break from scanlating. Not that I have any projects queued up. I was considering doing the third volume of Outlaw Star since only two volumes had ever been translated, but that’s since been picked up by Lasagne and I’m grateful for that and looking forward to their progress. Thank goodness the community doesn’t have to suffer my take on it!
On the subject of MTL scanlating, there are a bunch of MTL translated manga chapters out there that are just… not good. Apps are being developed to automate the process, but speaking as someone who has been doing this for years, it’s not something that can ever be truly automated. Just having a set of human eyes take a second look at the word salad that Google Translate or other machine translators output isn’t enough. Sometimes you have to look at the second, third, or seventh definitions of words to get the right meaning. Sometimes, no literal definition is accurate because it’s part of an obscure idiom that means something entirely different. Sometimes, the work you’re translating was written in the 1970’s and the meta has changed. Yes, my translations are ultimately MTL, but that’s only the first step I take, and the extra work put in is why it takes me so long to release. If you’ve ever thought of picking up a project that no one’s touched, at the very least, please know what you’re getting into. You may come across people who say its easier to learn Japanese properly than rely on MTL, and it’s hard not to agree. Although, I suppose it also helps if you’ve got nothing else going on in your life and don’t have an 8-5 job (7-7 including commute).
All that to say, the community should better appreciate all of our translators – both fan and professional.