Merchant Meats Spicy Wolf ~ Review

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Krikit
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Merchant Meats Spicy Wolf ~ Review

Post by Krikit »

The Review of Spice and Wolf
A Baka-Tsuki Hosted Project


_____First off, I want to say how much I hope all of you reading this will enjoy it, even if only a little. Second, I want to let you know that I will try my best at portraying this history as accurately, and enjoyably, as possible. So without further adieu, please enjoy the history of the Merchant who met a Spicy Wolf.

____ On February 10th, 2006, the very first volume of Spice and Wolf was published by Mediaworks, and made available for distribution. It then went on to win the Silver Prize in the twelfth Dengeki Novel Prize contest, pushing it to fame within Japan. The series continued as a light novel for just under two years, until finally, January 8th, 2008, the first Spice and Wolf anime episode aired in Japan. On January 23rd, Animesuki officially opened up a new section on their forums devoted entirely to this new craze, Spice and Wolf.

____ Around the same time, a post was opened on the B-T forums, asking the required question for new projects, “Would you like to see this series translated?” Currently there are 223 [yes] votes, to 4 [no] votes. The forum continued from late December 2007, until early February 2008, with no luck in securing an actual translator for the novels. There were a lot of comments about OCR programs and broken computers from Mr. Oni. However, February 5th, a rough translator by the name of Alephnull made himself known on the forum, stating that he had been working on the beginning of chapter one, and offering up his services as a beginning JapaneseEnglish Translator. From the way it seemed, his translation would have mistakes, as he was just a beginner. Thus Onizuka-gto officially decided that the format would be a line of Japanese text, followed by English, as the “explanation” for the poor translation which was being expected. One of his most famous quotes about how this project began is as follows:

It'll be like a group of disabled people without the aid of prosthetics, helping each other run a relay race....

____ And so February 8th, the Spice and Wolf Project page was officially started. Alephnull began translating, posting the original Japanese text, followed by the English translation below, on the discussion pages for its respective chapter. He continued in this format through the prologue, and up to 45% of Chapter 1. At this point, he sort of faded from the forums, no goodbye posts, or anything…He just disappeared…Actually, I really hope he didn’t have some form of accident… Really though, it seems after Matt122005 brought up the fact that there was a fluent Chinese translator that would work on the novel, Alephnull lost the gusto for translating. Anyway, after Alephnull faded from the picture, there were now three translators left, myself (Seaghyn), the Chinese Translator (Firedoo), and Ulrezaj. However, as time has told, I withdrew from translating Chapter 2 as there was no way I could bring out a translation that was anywhere near the level of accuracy that was needed. This was my mistake, and someday I hope to be able to actively serve the B-T project with Spice and Wolf, but as for now, that is going to be on hiatus. Anyway, Firedoo soon released his translated Chapter 3, and to the horror of readers such as me, it was almost impossible to piece through. It sat like that, stagnant on the wiki for well around 4 months; from March until July. But far be it from me to criticize someone who went through the trouble of translating this. On the contrary, while it may not have been easy to read, it was relatively easy to edit. All the required words were there…they just needed to be rearranged, and grammar fixes added. Finally, Ulrezaj translated 10% of Chapter 4, and gave out. Phew what an interesting history of drop-outs this novel has.

____ Volume 1 had now become a dead-zone. Alephnull had left, I couldn’t fulfill the role of translator, and after Firedoo had posted Chapter 3 he disappeared from the project, then Ulrezaj dropped out. However, at the end of March, Barbsicle made himself known as a Chinese translator, and on April first, Judgement26 made himself known as a Chinese translator as well. During discussions on the Animesuki forums, Judgement26 decided to go ahead and start translating Spice and Wolf at Volume 3. Barbsicle decided to clean up, and was sentenced to start on Chapter 5. This was because Aleph was supposed to do 1, I was to do 2, Firedoo had done 3, and Ulrezaj was on 4. All of us stalled with one obstacle or another.

____ Needless to say, Judgement26 continued bringing stories of the Wolf and Merchant to readers such as myself, meeting everything except our desire for more. Barbsicle lay forgotten, locked in the throes of an older section of jumbled translations. However, recently Barbsicle started over at one, bringing to us a read we can finally follow, and Volume 1 has begun anew to recapture interest. With Barbsicle on Volume 1 and perhaps 2, and Judgement26 on Volume 3, it looks like this project has finally, after 7 months, achieved a sense of stability. To make up for me not translating Chapter 2, I edited for three days, Firedoo’s excellent, if slightly muddled, translation, and finally posted it.

____ As for a timeline, that, I cannot give you. But hopefully we can see this project finish both Volume 1, and Volume 3 by the end of the year. What a wonderful Christmas present that would be.

____ Anyway, I just wanted to end by saying thank you to all those out there that supported Spice and Wolf, as without you, the pace of translation would undoubtedly have been much slower. I hope you enjoyed this History!

Until next time,
Seaghyn

PS Here is a download link to the Word Version I wrote, hosted on sendspace. http://www.sendspace.com/file/8zzepb
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Re: Merchant Meats Spicy Wolf ~ Review

Post by onizuka-gto »

did i really say that? :?:

i can't remember.... :roll:

*getting old*
"Please note, we have added a consequence for failure.Any contact with the chamber floor will result in an unsatisfactory mark on your official test record, followed by death. Good luck."

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Krikit
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Re: Merchant Meats Spicy Wolf ~ Review

Post by Krikit »

took me a while cuz I wanted this written right =).

http://baka-tsuki.net/forums/viewtopic. ... a&start=45 it's half way down, or do a CTRL+F and type race. it'll take you right to it =).
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barbsicle
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Re: Merchant Meats Spicy Wolf ~ Review

Post by barbsicle »

12/10.

need more.

lol!
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Re: Merchant Meats Spicy Wolf ~ Review

Post by Darknemo2000 »

Well it is nice for the storing purposes, but i doubt other projects will do that. Nevertheless, a good job.
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Re: Merchant Meats Spicy Wolf ~ Review

Post by Krikit »

@Barb: 12/10? I don't get it...

@Darknemo, I'm pretty sure your right, the other projects won't....but at the very least I want to do one more. Haruhi, the project started by TheLastGuardian, and the beginning of B-T. I think that would be interesting as well. As for the other projects, yeah, they prolly won't make their own reviews :mrgreen: more work for me....^_^

but seriously, is there any series more interesting that Spice and Wolf? It's had the weirdest translation effort so far. Though rivaling is Haruhi, the beginning of B-T. That has to be very interesting, but will probably take a LONG time to compile.... :cry:

But the end result should be extremely interesting. If these start to get any kind of + feedback of a decent level, I could probably do another projects review. if this doesn't get any real feedback, then....probably Haruhi will be my last. If I decide to do it....Need enough readers that want a review before I attempt climbing that mountain. :D
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barbsicle
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Re: Merchant Meats Spicy Wolf ~ Review

Post by barbsicle »

12 out of 10.

and you praise me too much.

lol.
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Re: Merchant Meats Spicy Wolf ~ Review

Post by onizuka-gto »

It was an interesting read and as for calls of a "fantastic waste of time" well i have to say Baka-Tsuki has been built on that very philosophy, so more power to you.

:wink:

:mrgreen:
"Please note, we have added a consequence for failure.Any contact with the chamber floor will result in an unsatisfactory mark on your official test record, followed by death. Good luck."

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TheGiftedMonkey
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Re: Merchant Meats Spicy Wolf ~ Review

Post by TheGiftedMonkey »

Should have put "waste of time" as a poll option and construed it as a "yes" choice. 8)

Oni, this color hurts my eyes. :(
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fiendmaw
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Re: Merchant Meats Spicy Wolf ~ Review

Post by fiendmaw »

Referring to the name of the topic,instead of 'meats' it should be meets(I just had to..).
Regarding the post,good job,it was pretty funny actually,all the come-and-goes.And now I can taunt Ulrezaj on IRC,mwahahahahah.
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Re: Merchant Meats Spicy Wolf ~ Review

Post by Krikit »

http://www.baka-tsuki.net/project/index ... you_VI.jpg

:mrgreen:

Don't know why either, but the author also wrote it as "Merchant Meats Spicy Wolf" on all the volumes, so that's why I chose it ^_^
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barbsicle
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Re: Merchant Meats Spicy Wolf ~ Review

Post by barbsicle »

well apparently "meats" is an engrish pun off "meets". and according to wiki the author says it's supposed to mean "keeps a secret". i guess that's fairly well used in context.

and i vote the yes option. (splendid waste of time)
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Re: Merchant Meats Spicy Wolf ~ Review

Post by Krikit »

"Splendid waste of time"

Haha, it really was...I could have been editing or something else, but no....I decided to waste time...but hey, it may be a waste of time, but what else you do for fun isn't? Look at WoW...yet millions play each day =)
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barbsicle
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Re: Merchant Meats Spicy Wolf ~ Review

Post by barbsicle »

Krikit wrote:Look at WoW...yet millions play each day =)
i used to be one of those millions. lol. so i understand your feelings.

but yes, it's all for the glory of Horo. so let's keep working at it!

EDIT: oh, and for the glory of Baka-Tsuki, the bossman, oni, and whoever else who would like the glory. yeah there we go. hehe.

Barbs.
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