Long time no see, it"s the author Takehaya.
With this volume we have returned to the main series. Thank you for purchasing it.
In this volume, the strongest invader legend finally manifests and begins to invade Koutarou"s normal life. More specifically, an unexpected problem arises for Ruth and at the same time Valentine"s Day is rapidly approaching, so it"s a volume with various content. Because of these, Ruth who had mostly been in the shadows gets the spotlight on her.
When writing this volume I had something on my mind. And that was regarding translation.
Currently, there are two foreign versions of Rokujouma no Shinryakusha, a Taiwanese version and a South Korean version. There has been talk if another version is going to be added or not, but I have started by thinking about these two.
In the j.a.panese version the characters can be distinguished by how they call themselves, below is generally what they call themselves.
Ore ――― Koutarou
Atashi ――― Sanae
Warawa ――― Theia
Watashi ――― Yurika
Waga ――― Kiriha
Watakushi ――― Ruth
Oira ――― The Haniwas
On top of this, they can also be distinguished by what they say and the tone. Through this, you can omit who is talking.
However, a question popped into my mind the other day. Would this convey if it was translated to other countries?
I believe English would be an easy example. In English all subjects refer to themselves as I. As a result, Sanae, the Haniwas and everyone would call themselves I and it"s not possible to distinguish them.
Moreover, there are not as many tone variations between the genders and social groupings as in j.a.panese. While there might be a difference when actually spoken, and expressed through body language, that wouldn"t convey through just characters. So in English novel there are often dialects and slangs.
But this isn"t about what language is more superior. It"s only a difference between methods of communication. From an English speaker"s point of perspective, j.a.panese must look like an incredibly inefficient language, trying to convey everything through words, rather than also using expressions and body language. Compared to westerners, the j.a.panese have flat faces, so we developed a language that didn"t require that. As a result we get a language that has a large variation of words.
So how do the Taiwanese and South Korean version of this novel look? I have gotten versions of them as samples, but since I"m not very proficient in any foreign language, I can"t read either of them. But I am sure that these kind of differences exist in abundance. So I can imagine that the translators are putting in a lot of effort behind the scenes to fill in those differences.
So in conclusion to what I want to say... I am very grateful to the translators. And I hope we can work together in the future as well.
This afterword is four pages (which I am sure will shift depending on the translation. It"s a surprisingly tough job) so, I will say my farewells now.
I would like to give my thanks to the editorial department that publish this novel, to Poco-san who always manages to make amazing ill.u.s.trations for the strange stories I write, my friends who take me drinking whenever I get stuck, and to those who bought this novel.
Well then, let us meet in the afterword of Volume 10.
January, 2012
Takehaya