Talk:Golden Time

Things to do:

Retranslate summary: All I could figure out from it was that this was a romantic comedy.

Translate first chapter.

(Saganatsu)

At the moment is it just created as a teaser project - continuation is unknown... --Darklor 01:40, 3 October 2010 (UTC)

I hope someone picks it up. it's always good to have a variety of stories. --Saganatsu 05:54, 3 October 2010 (UTC)

The problem is simple: I've still got over two hundred pages of Spinoff 2 to do. --Rpapo 10:00, 3 October 2010 (UTC)

I've slightly redone the synopsis. It would be possible to simply post the translated contents of the Japanese Wiki page, which gives a more detailed plot synopsis and a cast of characters. The only problem with that is that there is a very important spoiler there. Not having read the whole story, I cannot say whether that spoiler is critical, but I can certain say it is important! --Rpapo 10:08, 3 October 2010 (UTC)

My apologies if I was insulting or presumptuous in the least, I was thinking along the lines: "this is what needs to be done to qualify as a full project", not "you: go and do these things". --Saganatsu 17:42, 3 October 2010 (UTC)

Don't worry about it. I was surprised when I saw that one of my earliest attempts at translating the publisher's promotional statement was posted as the story synopsis (I didn't create the web page). I corrected it, but it really needs something a little longer and more detailed. The Japanese Wiki page contains the following:

College is the stage upon which the protagonist, private university freshman Tada Banri, and a cast of supporting characters are interwoven to form a romantic comedy. Banri, due to the after-effects of an accidental fall from a bridge shortly after high school graduation, has lost all his memories from before then. On top of that, at the time of the accident, Banri's soul had escaped from his body, and the “Spirit of Tada Banri” came into being, carrying his memories from before graduation, though you could say those were written from a male perspective.

And this:

Tada Banri, a newly admitted student at a private law school in Tokyo, found himself completely lost after the opening ceremony, trying to find his way to the freshman orientation. At that moment, he ran into another lost freshman from the same school, Yanagisawa Mitsuo, and they hit it off at once. Somehow arriving at their intended goal just on time, there appeared in front of the two a beautiful girl holding a bouquet of roses. The girl then whacked Mitsuo across the face with the bouquet and handed the flowers over to him. “Freshman, congratulations”, was all she said, and then she left. The stylish, well dressed, perfect woman that had swung at Mitsuo was her childhood friend, Kaga Kouko. As children they had promised to marry each other one day, fulfilling their dreams. In order to escape from her, Mitsuo had gone out secretly and taken the examination for this well known private college, but now she showed up in the freshman orientation hall. She too had taken the law school entrance examination, catching up with him there.

It is the whole thing about "Banri's Spirit" that gives the story its special twist... or should. I have not read the five chapters between the prologue and the epilogue, just the beginning and the end.

The end of the story goes like this:

My name is Tada Banri.

I’ve died, an eighteen year old boy.

Unnoticed by anyone, without anybody knowing, I’ve always watched after Tada Banri’s affairs. I see everybody’s affairs.

I’m sitting in the first seat behind, taking it easy, legs stretched out. Today the sunlight is really strong, and the classroom is warm, making everybody sleepy. Staring at the boring back of Banri’s head, I find my eyes are closing by themselves. I’m getting awfully sleepy.

Banri's spirit speaks of being Banri, yet speaks of the physical Banri as being a separate person. I can only imagine what this must do the story dialog as it progresses, especially because at the beginning the reader has no idea what is going on.

--Rpapo 18:41, 3 October 2010 (UTC)

Narrative Perspective

The novel is completely narrated from a third person perspective. It has to do with the story, Banri had an accident where he loses all his memory. Then the character split in two. The original Banri who "died" at 18 with that accident, and the one who lived and spent 1 year in rehab (thus being a rounin for 1 year). The best way to take it is like the story is completely written by a ghost who "says what the living Banri does" or "may be thinking", li. The japanese grammar make it confusing to know who is the agent of the action so its confusing until you take it as a third person narrative AT ALL TIMES. -Zell 186.56.179.92 02:09, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

Thank you for the comment. I had been wondering about that for quite some time, but it had not become completely obvious that I should be doing that. I guess I will have to spend some time going through the translation and adjusting it where necessary. If you've been reading the various forum posts, you will see we've been talking a bit recently about the nature of narrative and how it should be translated. --Rpapo 11:06, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

Actually, it appears at times though the ghost appears to be the narrator, he's not a truly intrusive narrator. That is, it isn't always obvious. Most of the time he's a quiet narrator who doesn't insert his opinions into the story, and simply tells us what is going on. When he starts speaking in the first person, it's pretty obvious. Not from the grammar so much as from the things he says. So far, he's started each chapter, and I know from having skipped ahead that he speaks up in the epilogue. --Rpapo 00:05, 19 February 2011 (UTC)

For the grammar I meant that in japanese agents are omitted, 「○○と思っていた」 has no information of the person or agent who does it. For example p47. "「…ていうか…」　そして気がつけば、結局、また一人だ。". That could fit both Banri first-person or the ghost' narrative. But as the flow of the context, is the ghost all the time. I don't remember a single sentence where an action on the story is using a verbal phrase in first person as Banri. It's no different from the common narrative where the protagonist relates other actions, but in this novel Banri actions are related on the same way (e.g. p16. この声が万里に届くなら). The most clear example is on the very Banri' quotes, when the ghost narrates Banri' state. Ah, you remembered me the epilogue. I got confused with the story there, specially with the drunk man on the bridge with the れ sign. Later Kôko and Banri go to a club and get stamped that sign and Banri recalls it. I got lost at that point. Was the epilogue a dream, a time paradox idk.Zell 00:43, 19 February 2011 (UTC)

ありがとうございます！

Thank you, anonymous user at 65.94.206.69! At least now I know somebody is taking the time and effort to validate at least a little bit of my translation work. Why don't you create yourself an account here on B-T so the rest of us can communicate with you now and then? --Rpapo 12:32, 30 December 2010 (UTC)

Who's the illustrator?

Is the character designer's name really Komato Eiji, or Komatsu Eiji? the way the hair was drawn is Komatsu's style...

Shame on Darklor for spelling it wrong on the initial version of the page, shame on me for not catching his mistake then. In either case I got it right on the public wiki page. --Rpapo 11:34, 8 January 2011 (UTC)