Exclusive interview with the translators of the D.N.Angel manga!
With the upcoming release of D.N.Angel New Edition from Yen Press, I'm sure a lot of fans are excited about finally getting the full series completely translated!
The original English localization was published by TokyoPop in 2004-2011, and they only released 13 volumes before they closed down their American division. The series in its original language was finally completed in 2021, spanning a total of 20 volumes, though only 15 (technically 16) came in printed format, with the rest of the series being released as eBooks only. Shortly after, D.N.Angel New Edition was released, which compiled all 20 volumes into 10 beautifully designed printed format books. It has since been picked up by foreign translators all across Europe and released in many languages... and at long last, the series is finally coming to the English-speaking audience.
I'm so excited about it that I've got a surprise for you all: I got an interview with the translators, Athena and Alethea Nibley! The Nibley twins were the original translators of the TokyoPop version of the manga, and they're back for the re-debut with Yen Press. A little over a week ago, I had the absolute pleasure of having a conversation with Alethea and Athena about their work as translators (though I mostly spoke with Alethea, with Athena popping in a few times), as well as their thoughts and feelings as fans of D.N.Angel itself. I've posted this exclusive interview in anticipation of the upcoming New Edition release. Read the interview below!
D.N.Angel New Edition Volume 1 (Yen Press) Cover
First off, congratulations on getting to translate D.N.Angel again! I'm so excited for this opportunity to interview you! Is there anything you want to say to the fans?
Thank you! We're thrilled that we get the opportunity to finish this series. It was one of the reasons we got into translating manga to begin with, so it's kind of a full circle moment for us.
Speaking of the beginning, then, let's start from there: how did you originally come across D.N.Angel? Were you a fan of it before you started translating for TokyoPop, or did you get assigned to do it and it was history from there?
We were big fans before we started translating for TokyoPop. It started when we were in the dorms at college. There was another manga fan on our floor, and she came to us one time and was like, "You know Japanese, right?" We were in, like, Japanese 201 at the time, but we were so obsessed with anime and manga that we did very amateur translations in our free time. So anyway, she asked us to translate this manga for her, and it was volume one of D.N.Angel. We got hooked immediately, and asked her if she had volume two. She was like, "I'm gonna ask for it for Christmas!" It was around November that this happened, and we were like, "We cannot wait that long." So we phoned home, and since our parents lived near a Kinokuniya, they were able to procure later volumes. I think only volume three or four was out by that time. (Athena: Flower Comics has a new volume coming out every three months like clockwork, so what's wrong with you, Kadokawa!?) Fast forward about a year, and one of our roommates told us that TokyoPop was asking the fans what titles they should bring over from Japan. (This was around 2003, so there was not a wide selection of English language manga at the time.) She also told us that all her friends were asking for D.N.Angel, Saiyuki (our other most favorite manga), or both. We were very possessive, and there was a distrust of professional translators in the fandom in those days, so we were like, "But if they take it, they'll ruin it!" I think that fear is mostly ungrounded—it mostly comes from when you've learned just a little bit of Japanese, so you hear one thing, and you're like, "The subtitle said this, but it actually means this!" Of course, in most cases, either it meant both, or the translator was right. But we were arrogant little college students, and, more importantly, we were very possessive. So really the reaction boiled down to, "No, mine!!!" Then we thought, "Well, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. Is TokyoPop hiring?" We went to their website, and sure enough, they were looking for interns. Interns don't have to get paid, or at least they didn't back then (it was two decades ago; maybe things have changed?), so companies don't mind hiring them. But the point is, we applied for an internship largely because of D.N.Angel, we got in, and we found out that TokyoPop already had the rights to the series, and we told them, "You know, we've actually already translated it." But before we got to that point, we spent many long days at college, pining for the next volume of D.N.Angel. We'd spot someone walking around campus wearing red pants and be like, "Daisuke... 🥺"
Yeah I do that with my favorite characters too. Still, that is an amazing story! So at the start of it all, D.N.Angel was essentially translated by unpaid interns?
Haha, no, they paid us for the translations. This is still true of most manga publishers, but they outsource pretty much all translations to freelancers. When TokyoPop hired us to do translations for them (starting with Fruits Basket, actually, because it was scheduled to be released sooner), in addition to being unpaid interns, we became paid contractors. As interns, our job was mostly to read manga and write summaries so the editors (most of whom didn't know any Japanese) could write the blurbs for the back covers.
So how did you end up on the New Edition project? Did you get scouted by Yen Press to do the English translation?
We've actually been working with Yen Press for quite some time (starting with Kieli, back in 2007, I think). We know that they're teamed up with Kadokawa these days, so when we saw a headline at Anime News Network about... I think it's a sequel to D.N.Angel? We were reminded that we never finished the series, so we emailed our contact there and said, "If y'all happen to do a license rescue for D.N.Angel, we're here for that." Which is to say, we went to them, and we were fortunate enough to have good timing to catch them before it had been assigned, and to have a good rapport with the good people at Yen Press.
First of all, that's so cool that you got there right in time. Second of all, I was going to save this question for later, but since you brought it up, I'll ask it now: Have you kept up with the sequel, DDNAngels, now that it's being published in Asuka Magazine in Japan? Are you planning to read it, and do you hope to translate that in the future too?
Alas, no, we haven't kept up with the sequels, mostly because we got to a point in work where we had literally no free time—all our waking hours were spent working or eating. It was not a good time. We've managed to get a better balance now, but during that period, we lost track of pretty much all the manga we had been reading not-as-work. That being the case, we haven't actually even finished reading the original D.N.Angel, so no spoilers, please! But yes, we do hope to read the sequel, and we certainly hope to translate it! So everyone buy the New Edition when it comes out, to let the powers that be know there's a high demand!
No problem, I won't spoil it for you! Alright, back on track then. The biggest question from fans is: are you continuing the old translations from TokyoPop, or are you retranslating it from the start?
The answer to that is yes. XD We have been looking at the original translation, and when we think it's good then we'll keep it, and when we feel like we have something better, then we'll go with that instead. But of course all of this comes with an understanding that the editors might make a different decision somewhere else down the line. They might change something from our new translation to go back to matching the old one, or they might change it to something entirely different. We are finding that the original translation is mostly pretty good. We can't necessarily take the credit for that, because TokyoPop always used rewriters. Let me explain about that. One of the things TokyoPop did to start bringing a lot of Japanese content over to the US really fast, is that they hired translators who weren't necessarily good writers—they could tell you what was being said, but not necessarily worded in a way that sounded like good dialogue. There's a misconception that if a translation sounds stiff, that means it's more accurate, but that's not true. Japanese and English are just so different structurally that it takes some creativity to move the words around in a way that sounds natural. But the Japanese dialogue sounds natural to a Japanese speaker, so for a translation to be accurate, it's our opinion that the translation should sound natural, too. (Unless, for example, the character has an unnatural speech pattern.) Anyway, TokyoPop would take those very stiff translations, and give it to an English adaptation writer, who was hired for their creative writing skills. It was their job to make everything a smoother read. The trouble is... and I think it's okay for us to talk about this, because it's been two decades… we read the final, rewritten version of volume one of D.N.Angel before it went to print, and we felt like the adaptation writer didn't understand the series the same way we did. First of all, they chose not to retain the Japanese honorifics, which, for us back then, was an unpardonable sin. Especially for this series, because the use of honorifics is so significant—like you can tell if it's Dark or Daisuke in control based on how he addresses Satoshi. And as identical twins ourselves, we were... well, we were pretty upset about any noticeable change to Risa or Riku's dialogue. (Athena: We were sensitive artistes back then, I guess.) So Riku has that one line where she tells Daisuke, "Stop calling me Harada-san! I can't tell if you mean me or my sister!" And of course, since Daisuke was calling Risa "Risa" and Riku "Riku" the whole time, that line had to be changed. (Our opinion on Japanese name honorifics has evolved a little since then, but generally we're in favor of keeping them when the setting is very Japanese.)
Volume 2, Chapter 4; Japanese vs. TokyoPop English version
The other problem was, as we were translating, there were some lines—I don't remember which ones they were now, unfortunately—that had us going, "Ugh, that sounds so blah... Surely there's a better way to word it, but I don't know what it is. But that's okay! They're putting an adaptation writer on it, they can fix it!" And those lines ended up being exactly the same. But like I said, we're looking back at those English versions now, and while there are definitely places where we're like, "Yeeeeah, no...", for the most part, they held up pretty well. And, also like I said, I'm not sure if the credit goes to our brilliant translations, or to the English adaptation writers... or even to the editors, because TokyoPop editors had a pretty heavy hand back then. Nevertheless, we usually like to change things up, so I'm pretty sure there will be at least minor changes in like 90% of the lines. I can also tell you that the Yen Press style is to keep Japanese honorifics, so we got our long-held wish of having Daisuke call Risa "Harada-san" and Riku "Riku-san." We asked if we could change With's name back from Wiz and got a distinct "maybe." We don't know what the final decision on that is yet.
It's nice that you get to change things. The honorific thing has always been the manga fandom's biggest gripe too, I'm sure. Fingers crossed for With though! (I also side with you on that being his name!) What other changes are you making with the new translation?
Well, again, I don't know what the editor is going to decide ultimately, but we figured that we should translate all of the artwork names, including Towa no Shirube. We're not ones to just blithely use old translations... that kind of got us in trouble when we did the Sailor Moon Eternal Edition. We wanted to change all the item and attack names, but the fans were like, "Can't we have a second of consistency?" But the point is, we didn't just use the English version... what was the original way they/we translated Towa no Shirube? Eternal something... I have a sneaking suspicion we kept it as Towa no Shirube in our scripts back then, with a single translation note… Anyway, now we think it would probably be better to have it in English, for a smoother reading experience. I seem to remember... we turned in the translation of the New Edition a few months ago, so it was a while ago that we checked the original version for comparison... but I seem to remember they did give the English translation once in the dialogue. Before, we just kept it in Japanese, so we probably didn't think it mattered too much, but now, since we wanted it to be in English, we put more thought into it—we wanted it to be nice, and artistic. Something befitting the name of a work of art. So we actually, like, pulled out thesauruses and stuff. (I make it sound like we don't do that on a regular basis, which is wildly inaccurate, but in our early translation days, we were like, "It means this. Here, have words," and it only sort of mattered what they sounded like.) So we changed her name, and it wasn't a decision we made lightly. We did a fair amount of research on the Japanese terms, and especially the meaning of "shirube," and how she demonstrates her powers as a shirube, especially in the first arc that she's in. We're not sure if you want us to spoil it for you. We're also not sure if the editor did/will agree, but we're pretty happy with what we chose. (We've actually had some discussion with the powers that be at Yen Press that indicate they'll be keeping a lot of our decisions, but if we keep saying "we're not sure," we have plausible deniability when it turns out differently. XD)
I, personally, would be perfectly happy with official artwork name translations. I think that not being spoiled for now would be a nice surprise to the readers, but boy do I want to know… especially since Towa (or whatever she'll be named now!) won't appear until… well, in the regular version, it was volume 5. So it's a long way away! I can't wait to see what "Towa no Shirube" will end up being though.
It's actually volume two [of D.N.Angel New Edition]!
Volume 5, Stage 2 Vol.3
Ah, so it's not too far a wait then! I hear that's coming out in February, so you must be pretty far on translations now... Is it too much of a spoiler to ask how far you are in the translations? Like, did you get to the part you haven't read yet?
We haven't quite caught up yet! But we have gotten to the parts we don't remember quite so well. We read the first four volumes like a zillion times, but as the series went on, we had more and more other stuff to do, so... I think fourteen was the last one we translated for TokyoPop? By the time we got to that one, for probably several reasons, we just weren't re-reading them as much. So we made it as far as Argentine's appearance in these new translations, and they go to that tower, and it's like, "I have zero memory of this... but that one panel is very familiar."
I am utterly shocked to hear there was an unreleased TokyoPop volume 14. That's a fun fact! 😮
Yeah, there were a few things we translated for TokyoPop before they closed their doors for a while that never saw the light of day. The only thing we remember for sure was a volume of Maid Sama!. ...It might not be that much, though, because they closed super suddenly, so it depends on how far ahead of schedule we were on things. We do have our own copy of D.N.Angel 15, so it's likely we translated that one, as well, but maybe only for our own personal enjoyment. (We've changed computers a few times since then, so the file is probably long gone.)
What was it like when it came to the time TokyoPop shut down back then? Was it like the end of an era for you, or did you just move on to bigger and better things from there?
It was definitely a big bummer, but we were very blessed back then to be working for other publishers (who paid us better), so we had plenty of work to keep us with a steady income. They did have some fun titles, and we were sad to see them go, but the ones we really cared about, we just bought in Japanese and we could still read them. What was worse was when the manga bubble crashed even harder and all our publishers had to cut our pay. I mean, nobody gets into manga localization to get rich—we all do it out of love—but we have bills to pay, too.
I think that's true of a lot of professions. Do you do anything else other than translating?
Actually, no. We kind of feel like we don't have any other marketable skills. 😅 We've been very blessed to get enough translation work that we've managed to do okay for ourselves.
So is this your only project? Do you work on multiple series at once, or do you focus only on one until you're finished with it?
You kind of have to be working on multiple series at once. Let me think... For Yen Press, we're in the middle of about ten different titles? But they come out with varying degrees of frequency, so you have to learn how to prioritize. We've got three or four for Kodansha... some simulpubs... and like three or four for Seven Seas. And we're even doing some stuff for Disney [and] occasionally translate anime for Sentai Filmworks.
That's a lot, wow. So you're freelancing a lot, then. As a translator, what's your process like? You've been talking a lot about the changes you're making to D.N.Angel to make it sound smoother. Does that mean you're more involved with the actual adaptation now, not just the translation? Or do you still have an editor/adaptation writer for that?
Most publishers started moving away from the adaptation writer model, and prefer to use translators that have better dialogue writing skills... even as far back as 2006. I think it's just easier for them that way (and probably cheaper). Seven Seas still uses adaptation writers. I'm not entirely sure, but I think for the titles we translate, they only use an editor who also does some rewriting. But as for our process... we like to start by doing a very rough first draft. Athena will read the dialogue and sound effects out loud in Japanese, and I'll type the first thing that comes into my head in English. Ideally this phase goes very quickly, so it's really annoying when we come across an important word that we don't know, because then we have to stop and look it up or we'll have no idea what direction to take the dialogue in. Anyway, this is where we get an idea of what's happening in the story. Sometimes the dialogue that I put in there sounds really bad, because we're intentionally not trying. Sometimes I'll put extra words that make it sound super clunky, to make sure we have all the information. [Here's an example] that sounds pretty bad. We're actually in the middle of volume six of D.N.Angel New Edition (we were working on it when Yen Press asked us to prioritize something else; as mentioned earlier, we're pretty far ahead with this series). Kosuke's talking about Dark, and he says, "I was just thinking that Dark and the Niwa boy that houses him never both had their love requited."
Volume 12, Stage 3 Vol.18
Technically, the information and grammar are both correct, but it sounds really clunky and unnatural. So in the second phase of our process, we find ways to make it sound more natural. [It is] where we do all the research on words and dialects and things like that.
So after you find ways to make it sound natural, does it go through your editor?
Yeah, pretty much. We actually do a third pass, just a final readthrough to make sure we didn't introduce too many typos while making so many changes during the second pass. Also, if there's a character who uses an unusual speech pattern, the final readthrough helps us to know if we've gone over the top with it. That reminds us, Keiji uses a dialect, and nothing was done with it in the original TokyoPop version... and we only did a little bit with it in the new version.
I think Keiji Saga is an underdog when it comes to being a fan favorite, so it's good to hear that his character is getting some love!
We always loved Keiji. He's great. He didn't make it into the anime, did he?
D.N.Angel Anime, Episode 17: A Summer Without Dark
No, he didn't, but did you know he got a cameo?
We might have known that many years ago, but we also might not have. We were very obsessed with D.N.Angel when the anime came out, so we're sure we would have scrutinized every detail... Oh, that reminds us! We wrote into Boy's Angel! Do you remember that? Miyu Irino and Shunichi Miyamoto did an internet radio thing to promote the anime. They took emails from listeners, and we sent one in! [...] And they read it on the air! Then Miyu Irino made Shunichi Miyamoto give us a message, because he was the one with better English. XD It was the one where they brought in Ryotaro Okiayu, so it starts out with, "We have a bit of an international feel today." I feel a little guilty about it, [...] if I remember correctly (which I might not), the reason we were motivated to send an email is that someone contacted us and asked us to summarize the episodes for her... and we never did. Sorry, fellow fan! DX
When you watched the D.N.Angel anime, did you watch it in Japanese, English, or both? What did you think about it, then and now? I know a lot of fans have mixed feelings about the anime now that we're older.
We're... sub snobs, so we watched it in Japanese. We haven't seen it since we bought all the DVDs. We remember really liking the first episode, and then it kind of went downhill from there. We do have both of the soundtracks and the vocal collection (as well as the Trilogy CD with character songs using the CD drama cast) that we listen to while we work on D.N.Angel. We probably should pull out the DVDs and watch them again... if they still work. There was a fire at our apartment, and they stopped the fire halfway through the apartment next to ours, but our DVDs were against that wall, so they might be fried. All I remember is that they made it through the Freedert arc and then they introduced that new character.
It's free on Crunchyroll now, actually, if you wanted to watch it online.
Oh wow. We might do that! Thanks for the tip! I just looked up the English dub cast, and [...] Athena reminds me we actually talked to Vic Mignogna while cosplaying Risa and Riku at Anime Expo.
Oh my gosh, you guys cosplayed Riku and Risa?! That's so perfect!
Of course. I mean, who else are we going to cosplay? XD
So, the anime back then was made before the ending of the manga... actually, I think it was way before even the huge hiatuses. So they definitely had to make their own ending, like many anime series at the time (the original Fullmetal Alchemist anime comes to mind). Do you hope for an anime reboot?
On the one hand, I feel like we as a society could stand to not do remakes of everything, but on the other hand, we would definitely like to see an anime adaptation that follows the manga more closely. Of course, we don't know how the manga ends yet, so I can't necessarily say I'd like it, but so far, Yukiru Sugisaki's storytelling is pretty great.
Would you ever want to work on the translation team if the anime did get a reboot?
Yes, of course, we'd love to translate an anime reboot if given a chance. We always want to translate everything... but we're also really tired, so we're often very conflicted. But most of all... this is kind of an odd wish, but it's how we roll these days… We have become completely and totally obsessed with Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Chat Noir, and we love love love the French voice of Chat Noir, to the point where we'll track him down in French anime dubs on Netflix. So most of all, we'd want to hear him as the French dub voice of Daisuke.
I love Miraculous too, so it's fun to know that about you. Also, I very much agree. He has a great teenage protagonist voice.
Right!? And he's so charming. But I think about the scenes where Adrien is talking to Gabriel and feeling very sad, and so pitiful, and it makes me think he'd be a great Daisuke. XD
Got any other fancasts for the other characters? (In any language.)
Hmmm... Well, we've kind of been falling behind on the Japanese seiyuu scene, but Mamoru Miyano would probably make a really good Dark. And Kouki Uchiyama tends to play a lot of Satoshi types… They already had Sora as Daisuke, so now they can just have Riku and Roxas. Maybe Uchiyama-kun doesn't play so many of that type, but he just is that type in my mind. And it would be pretty cool if Soichiro Hoshi played Kosuke. Or Akira Ishida. That would be pretty funny. [...] We like Miyuki Sawashiro in everything, so let's make her Emiko. She could make a really good Towa-chan, too.
So Akira Ishida or Soichiro Hoshi as Kosuke? Both had D.N.Angel roles before. I guess they have matured since the anime back then, the voice might fit better.
It would be symbolic, because Hoshi-san would be the former Daisuke, now playing the father of Daisuke. Like how Charles Martinet played Mario's father in the Super Mario Bros. movie. I mean, Mario is way more iconic than Daisuke, even if I do love Daisuke much much more.
That would be super cool. Back to the main topic at hand though, the translating bits. Do you two always work as a team? Or do you have independent projects?
The two of us do always work as a team, yes. (Although Athena has been doing some French translations for fun all on her own.) [We translate] just Japanese professionally. Our grandfather was a semi-famous historian who was known for speaking about a thousand languages, so whenever people ask us how many languages we speak, we'd always be like, "Just two. DX" But Athena's been studying French more diligently since Miraculous took over our lives.
It's as good a motivator as any.
Anime is what got us learning Japanese, too, so we have priors. XD
What challenges do you face as translators? What challenges did you face when you were translating D.N.Angel, both back then with TokyoPop and now with Yen Press?
Time management is a big one these days. XD I think ultimately the biggest challenge, though... I mean, aside from the fact that it doesn't always pay as well as you'd like... is that no one is ever really 100% fluent in a language. Like, you can speak English all your life, but if someone starts talking about a subject you don't know anything about, there will be all kinds of words you've never heard before, or that you have heard but not in that way, and you won't know what they're talking about. Obviously, that's going to happen when translating manga, too. There are all kinds of series about all kinds of things. So then you have to figure out what all of these new words mean, and how someone who is an expert in that field would use it in English. And sometimes there will be a word that you have heard before, but only once or twice and a very long time ago, so you have to learn it again. We have learned and forgotten the rules to Mahjong many times. As for D.N.Angel specifically... Back when we worked on it for TokyoPop, it didn't feel like a challenge at all, really. I think part of that was that we loved it so much that, even when it was hard, it didn't seem hard, because even if we weren't translating it professionally, we had an intense need to understand every detail. (The need is less intense these days because we have way more experience with Japanese, so it doesn't feel like we need to search as diligently. Knowing stuff—what that sentence means, for example—comes more naturally.)
It's definitely interesting to know about though. I have some questions suggested by some of my fellow D.N.Angel fans: What do you take into account when translating? Were there any instances where a word or sentence had multiple meanings and you had to choose one, or any that had more poetic connotations that's hard to translate in English?
[For some translations] I'm like, "Wait, how is that kanji different from the usual one? What's the different nuance?" etc. We do consider those things; we just don't always remember when it happens, because it can happen quite a lot. But our biggest concern is what will best serve the story. [...] Looking at the flow of the dialogue [for this page] it looks like our main concern would have been giving him a heartfelt answer to Risa's question.
Volume 9, Stage 3 Vol.3
The first thing we're noticing is that there are emphasizers on the word "koko (here)," so we would have paid more attention to that. [...] So now we want to look up the specific kanji used and compare it to the more common one. In this particular line, Dark uses 聴く, instead of 聞く. The latter is the more common one, and is more passive. Like if there's a crash, you "hear" a sound, but you didn't necessarily listen for it—it just came into your ears. You can actively listen with 聞く, too, but with 聴く, you're definitely intentionally listening. I think in the case of this dialogue, it's going to be the phrasing and staging rather than the specific word that makes it sound like he really sincerely cares. Sugisaki-sensei took care of the staging for us, by having Dark point at his heart. For our part, our attempt to make him sound more intentional came by breaking up the sentence, which we hope added emphasis. So Risa asks Dark if her words are reaching him at all, and in our script, we have him say, "I hear them. Right here." [...] Oh! There was a thing that gave us trouble. They were talking about Argentine... The Niwas are all trying to figure out who/what Argentine was, and Kosuke says "according to this history, it doesn't exist." But the Japanese word was for a specific kind of history.
Volume 11, Stage 3 Vol.16
It had the kanji for "history" and the kanji for "edit/revise/compile." And we couldn't tell if it was an edited history, a revised history, a compiled history, a history of revisions... and the only time it comes up anywhere in Japanese (or at least on the Japanese internet) is when they're talking about studying the way the Bible was compiled/edited throughout history. So we couldn't get an exact meaning of the word, and it still drives us nuts, but we figure it wouldn't hurt the story too much if we just used the word "history" and left it at that.
That's really fascinating to learn about! It's a good look into your thought process. Here are more questions from my fellow fans, following up on that: Whose dialogue was hardest to translate, and who do you think has the most interesting speaking style? How difficult is it to convey certain speech patterns or manners of speaking in English?
Keiji is probably the hardest, because we do like to try to replicate dialects, but we don't really do a lot with him, even in this new edition. Mostly we just have him drop some Gs, I think. It kind of breaks my heart, but we're not sure what else to do with him. He's also difficult because he's so crazy, and he's supposed to have a lot of double entendre, which isn't always easy to get across naturally in English. I think probably the speaking style that will be the most obviously different in the new English edition will be Towa-chan. She has a very feminine speech pattern in Japanese—like, almost excessively girly, so we wanted to indicate that. The inspiration we used for her speech pattern is from... we think her name was Lila, in Hey, Arnold! (the old Nicktoon). For whatever reason, we don't remember much about Hey, Arnold!, but one thing we remember was this line, "As I've told you ever so many times, Arnold, I don't like you like you, I only like you." At any rate, we had fun with Towa-chan. (I should probably add that the editor may or may not have had different ideas, so the version in our heads might not be the version that makes it to print.) Of course, we do try to make sure all the characters have a distinct character voice, and most of the time we feel like it's all vibes. Like, I can't point to exactly what we did to make Emiko sound like Emiko, but she definitely (ideally) sounds like Emiko. The same thing goes for Dark, Kosuke, etc. I do remember paying careful attention to Krad's dialogue, making him speak more formally to indicate his use of teineigo. And Argentine is the sort of character that you might want to deliberately make him sound unnatural sometimes. (I don't think we do it very much, but I seem to remember there being a few lines.)
So, contrary to those previous questions, what was the most fun part of working on this translation? What were your favorite scenes to translate?
Ooohh... Darnit, I know there were several scenes that had us giggling, but I can't remember them off the top of my head now. I'm pretty sure the majority of them involved Daisuke trying to argue with Emiko. I feel like Emiko is probably the character I relate to most at this point in my life. Takeshi is also pretty hilarious. It's weird when he shows up, though, because I feel like the story doesn't move forward when he's there, so it's like, "Get out of the way so we can talk to Daisuke and Satoshi!" But he's also so funny, how he's always got recording devices on him. I seem to remember loving the dialogue in the scene where Emiko is planning the date at Azumano Joyland, but we also hated that scene, because there are so many pamphlets and brochures to translate. But that was kind of fun in its own way, pretending we were writing descriptions of Disneyland attractions. [I'm] not sure if those will make it into the English version. I'm not entirely sure what Yen Press's policies are on background text.
Volume 9, Stage 3 Vol.4
Well, that thought might be related to this next question then. Do you ever get to work with the people involved in the printing process, like the artists doing the lettering and layout to put the translations on the page? Or do you only get to see the final product after it's ready for publishing?
It depends. Most of the time, as translators, we turn in a script and it feels like tossing it into the void. I think that can be a good thing, because no feedback means the editors don't think there were enough problems to specifically email us about. There are situations where there's more of a back-and-forth, but usually after we turn in a translation, we immediately move on to something else, so when we get the questions our minds are in a completely different world (in another series), and it can be difficult to shift gears back. I mean, I know that ideally, the process is completely collaborative, and it's good to make sure everyone is happy with the final product, so it's good to have that back-and-forth, but we never got a chance to get used to it, so for us personally, we'd almost rather be left alone. (I feel like that's a bad take, but I'm just being honest. Other translators' mileage may vary.) But we also happen to be friends with one letterer in particular who has worked on many of our translations, so sometimes we'll squee over favorite scenes together when she's doing her thing.
That's fun. Have you ever done the more graphic or visual side of things? Would you ever want to?
Okay, this gets into our dark history. We actually did three scanslation chapters. We were desperate for validation at the time, and the latest scanslations of Naruto were late for some reason. The fans were dying to get it, so we volunteered. I'm not even sure what forum we were on that we got connected to that. But the point is, we had to do the lettering ourselves, and that is when we learned that that is not one of our talents. Now we are happy to do only translation. I really admire letterers, though. They can identify almost any font on sight. It's wild.
I wish I had that skill. It's good that you know where your strengths lie at least!
And I'm glad that we live in a world where we all have different talents. I mean, if everyone could translate manga, we would be out of a job.
Were you excited when you found out D.N.Angel was completed?
I don't remember, but knowing us, it would have been more of a regret that we hadn't been keeping up with it. To be honest, I'm not sure we knew it had concluded until we found out about the sequel. And when we found out about the sequel, that was when we were really like, "Okay, time to catch up on this thing!"
At least you're back with it now! What are you currently most excited about, now that D.N.Angel is coming back to an English audience?
Most of all, we're excited that we get to read the ending! But we're also excited that the name honorifics are back, and we're excited to correct any mistakes we might have made in the previous translation. I mentioned before that we're finding the previous translation was pretty good, but I hope we're able to get a little bit more of the nuance to match (our interpretation of) the original Japanese. And on a more petty note, we're excited that (hopefully) the New Edition won't use that font for all of Dark's dialogue. I understand why they would have made the decision to use it, but we disagree with that decision.
You don't get any input on that?
[If] they were going with that reasoning, they should also use it for Krad, Towa-chan, Argentine... If we made a suggestion, it would probably be considered, but we usually leave that to the letterer and editor. I mentioned that we saw the final version of TokyoPop's version of volume one right before it went to print. I don't remember if we felt as strongly about that font at the time, but even if we did, they would not have had time to change it.
Let's do some more fun questions: who are your favorite characters, and what are your favorite parts of the story?
All of them. XD Seriously, they're all amazing. Daisuke is adorable, Dark is... I wouldn't necessarily call him charming, but he can pull it off when he tries. I really like how, under the cool guy surface, you can tell he really cares about Daisuke, all the Niwas, pretty much everyone except the Hikaris. Back in the day, we always liked the brooding, angsty characters, so Satoshi was a big favorite. Daisuke's family is the best, like every single one of them. Of course, we have to give a shout out to Risa and Riku. With is just the cutest. [...] Also, I think Kosuke is a real hero, because he married into all of this craziness—he chose to jump into this bizarre world and do what he can to help, just because he cares, and I love him for that. Plus it's fun to basically watch a grownup Daisuke. And I love how Daisuke seems so pathetic and helpless but is actually extremely competent. [...] The Saint White arc has always been a favorite of ours. Daisuke just has the cutest angst. This second time around, I really appreciated the Ice and Snow arc, because that's where they start to go into how art is magical because of the heart that the artist puts into it. I think it's very important for any story to have heart.
You are not alone in liking Kosuke. I think as the fandom got older we started to empathize more with the older characters—I certainly noticed a lot more fans of him these days than way back when. I'm partial to With as my favorite character, and I think the Ice and Snow arc has a special place in my heart. I love Freedert's story.
And Elliot's pretty hot. XD
Volume 8, The Second Hand of Time Vol.7
Are you a fan of any of Sugisaki-sensei's other works, or did you just check them out a few times? Do you hope that you can officially translate those works someday?
We actually did translate The Candidate for Goddess, Rizelmine, and Lagoon Engine for TokyoPop. And yes, we're fans of all of them. XD Yen and Jin are the cutest. [We] have at least one volume each of Ascribe to Heaven, Coffee & Cat, and 1001 Knights. [...] We never actually got a chance to read Coffee & Cat, which is partly our own fault. Since we're such big fans of Sugisaki-sensei, instead of just taking turns reading the book, we liked to sit down and translate anything by her, so we could read it together and enjoy all the plot twists at the same time. But that meant carving more time out of our schedule, and worse, sitting at the computer longer. I remember having a hard time getting into 1001 Knights, but it was a long time ago.
Do you think Yen Press might pick them up, or is this something we fans have to suggest en masse for them to consider?
It's definitely going to depend on the fans. Suggesting it en masse will help, and buying lots of D.N.Angel will help, probably more. If something turns out to be profitable, they'll definitely want to print more related material.
Hopefully anyone reading this interview will hear this then! Now, for the next question: If you could say anything to Yukiru Sugisaki right now, what would it be?
Thank you. Thank you for making all this amazing manga, with all these amazing characters. Just like Daisuke's art has magic because of the feelings he puts into it, your manga is magical because of all the heart and soul that goes into it. And we hope our translations do it justice!
We're almost at the end, so let's look to the future for a second. As veteran translators, do you have any advice or tips for any future generations aspiring to follow in your footsteps?
I'm sure we could probably write a short book of advice for aspiring translators. I think there are better sources of advice on how to get jobs translating, but as far as being a good translator, we're going to echo the advice given by Sebastien Thibaudeau (the head writer for Miraculous) on how to be a good writer: Analyze everything. To translate accurately, it's important to figure out not just what each word means according to the dictionary, but to recognize how the characters are saying those words, why they're saying them that way, what's the emphasis, how does it work with the art, could there be any foreshadowing here? You also have to pay attention to English dialogue (in movies and TV shows, everyday conversations, etc.), and how characters with certain personalities speak in English, so you can reflect the Japanese personality in the English. All that kind of thing.
Good words of wisdom. Now, let's circle back to the beginning: do you think that one friend of yours in college knows how much of an impact they had on both you and our little fandom? Let's give a big shout out to them, wherever they are!
You know, we haven't spoken to her since that year in college. But Becca, if you're out there, thank you!!!
That was all of my questions. Thank you for answering them! Any parting words for the fans reading this interview?
Thanks for reading! We can get pretty talkative, so we hope it wasn't too overwhelming. Thanks for being fans of D.N.Angel! We hope you like the new English edition!
D.N.Angel New Edition Volume 1 is coming out on October 28, 2025! Pre-orders are open now wherever you buy books online! It's super exciting, so let's show our support and welcome our beloved series and its old fans back, and hopefully we'll also be welcoming some new fans around here too!
(PS. D.N.Angel New Edition Volume 2 is also available for pre-order! Releasing February 24, 2026!)