Magical Girl Witch Trials / Puella Magae Iudicium blog

fan translations and general sideblog for Puella Magae Iudicium! any pronouns, 20+

[hasumileia]

plans for a manosaba english translation were officially acknowledged in the famitsu interview today, alongside others! it's stated that they plan to release it 'as soon as possible'.

『魔法少女ノ魔女裁判』畑俊行プロデューサー＆桜羽エマ役・三木谷奈々さんインタビュー。10年愛してもらえるキャラクターを作る。でもひどい目にはあってもらう | ゲーム・エンタメ最新情報のファミ通.com

2025年7月18日にSteamにて発売されたアドベンチャーゲーム『魔法少女ノ魔女裁判』について、畑俊行プロデューサーと、桜羽エマ役を務めた声優・三木谷奈々さんへのインタビューをお届け。

[emasakuraba]

ManoSaba is out!

Sorry for not finishing my translations before the game came out, I just got super busy. >.<

[emasakuraba]

nanoka.png

[emasakuraba]

warden.png

[emasakuraba]

nanoka.png

[emasakuraba]

it seems like they updated the objection CG?

[emasakuraba]

For the record, I do think an English version of ManoSaba might be likely. However, I do worry if the translation itself might be bad, or only the VN itself gets translated...

[emasakuraba]

Prisoner 660: An-An Natsume (CV: Azusa Aoi)

“Thou shall not order me around. ‘Tis time for my slumber.”

Magic: ???

Trauma: ???

Birthday: March 28th

Original Sin: The 《Tale》 of Sleeping Beauty

Hobby: Writing novels (has never finished one)

Skill: Has the ability to write novels (has never finished one)

Height: 145cm

Weight: 41kg

Short Profile: A shut-in girl. Hardly ever utters a word, she prefers to write in her sketchbook to communicate. When communicating, her vocabulary is rather archaic.

Long Profile:

A shut-in girl. Though she has always been a poor communicator, it seems that certain circumstances are preventing her from using her voice. She has a reserved personality and prefers to stay inside to play video games. Her bar for self-praise is low, as she starts praising herself for merely brushing her teeth. Since she is not good at putting in effort, she tends to take it easy no matter what. Due to her taciturn nature, she communicates via writing instead. When communicating, her tone is exaggerated like a literary author.

Translation notes under the cut, per usual:

Original Sin: Like Sherry's, this one also uses gikun, though I struggled a bit to keep the original meaning. 虚言 (the original kanji) means Lie/Falsehood, but the gikun ソラゴト means the same thing.... in theory. It can also mean "fake/fabrication", a very subtle difference. I ultimately went with "tale" though, because it can mean a "story" or a "lie" (i.e. a tall tale). It was a bit of pain to find information on the word though.... Unlike Sherry's though, I did not put the "original" word here, just the double-meaning one, since I feel like it's a bit clearer than Sherry's.

It's mentioned quite a bit throughout her profile, but An-An speaks in a rather archaic way, and it's a reference to Soseki Natsume (they even share the same surname!). In particular, her short profile's literal translation is "When communicating, she uses the personal pronoun 'Wagahai'." Wagahai is the personal pronoun of the protagonist in Soseki's novel I am a Cat. "An-an" itself can mean 'gloomy' in an old-fashioned way. Unfortunately, I don't really know much about Soseki's works, so this is where my notes end...

[emasakuraba]

you are my lifesaver. ive been insane about PMI for months and i was so sad i couldn't properly get any info about anything since im not great at japanese yet. YOU ARE MY GOAT.

Thank you so much! Apologies for the lack of posting, though. I do have the translations for most of the characters done, but I keep getting a bit busy and forgetting to post them.

Frankly, I'm not the best at Japanese either, and I mainly do a lot of research before writing out how I think it sounds best in English.

[emasakuraba]

Prisoner 659: Hiro Nikaidō (CV: Haru Shinonome)

“I hate you so much. Your very existence is a mistake.”

Magic: ???

Trauma: ???

Birthday: January 10th

Original Sin: Executrix of Justice

Likes: Good Deeds

Dislikes: Bad Deeds

Height: 157cm

Weight: 50kg

Short Profile: A perfect girl with perfect grades. She is serious, polite, and a proper lady. Her strong sense of justice is merciless to those who commit misdeeds.

Long Profile:

A girl with perfect grades, strong athletic abilities, and a good family. Her peers trust her immensely; she has taken care of various important jobs at her school. She lives with a strong sense of responsibility and pride, so she tends to focus on “right” and “wrong.” Due to this black-and-white way of thinking, she is rather narrow-minded. Her wish is for a pure world without horrible people. Despite this, she has a sensitive side that holds special feelings towards her friends. Interacted with Ema at one point in the past.

Translation Notes under the cut:

Proper Lady: Refers to "Yamato Nadeshiko", referring to the "ideal, traditional Japanese girl".

taken care of various important jobs: It's a bit hard for me to explain how this sentence is weird. 学校でも重要なポストを歴任 is the original part of that sentence, and it mentions "Important Jobs" and also "successive jobs", like she had completed them. I hope this sentence is the best way to phrase it?

Unfortunately, no motifs here.... mainly because I have no idea. Nikaido is a notable Samurai clan with an onna-musha (Japanese female warrior) named Onamihime, but I can't find many relevant connections there.

[emasakuraba]

Prisoner 667: Sherry Tachibana (CV: Yuka Hiiragi)

“A locked-room murder!? Quite a mystery!~ Perhaps there will be even more!~”

Magic: Super Strength

Trauma: ???

Birthday: July 29th

Original Sin: Destructive Detective 《Crusher》

Likes: Solving mysteries and logical reasoning

Dislikes: Playing pretend

Height: 162cm

Weight: 55kg

Short Profile: A self-proclaimed great detective. Cheerful and free-spirited, she jumps into anything fun without hesitation. She is curious about everything that piques her interest. However, she lacks any sort of moral sense.

Long Profile:

A cheerful girl who smiles and speaks politely no matter the circumstances. She has a calming aura, and her nickname at school is “Kitkat” (derogatory). As a self-proclaimed great detective, she loves mysteries and logical reasoning. After participating in a mock trial for a bully in order to save a classmate, she realized that being a detective is her life’s calling. Her strong curiosity scares those around her; when she has her eyes set on something, she does not care about how other people see her and will leave no stone unturned. For the most part, she is unable to read the room.

Translation Notes... and motifs under the cut! (this one is kinda long)

Her quote: She speaks in a polite way as mentioned in her profile, so I hope that kinda goes through in this.

Original Sin: I believe this is using gikun, which is kanji that's given an alternate reading of the usual meaning of the kanji and can be used to make Katakana/English words. I'm not really good at explaining it, but... "Destructive Detective" is how the kanji is typically read, but it's meant to be read as "Crusher". I still kept the original kanji meaning though, as I feel like that can be interpreted better than just crusher.

Logical reasoning: This is a bit weird, but this is specifically referring to inferences, or the steps/types of reasoning (deductive, inductive, and abductive reasoning). I just thought that 'logical reasoning' is a bit more of a common phrase than inference. Please refer to the Wikipedia page for inferences cause my brain hurts after re-reading it a bunch of times.

Play pretend: The term used here is more "playing house" than "playing pretend", but it can be either or, so I went with the term that can encompass both.

Kitkat: The original term in the Japanese text was 妖精さん, which means "fairy" literally. It refers to an older employee who doesn't actually do much work in the workplace, typically because of low motivation and seem lazy (though that isn't necessarily the case). There's not really a good English word equivalent, so I decided on "kitkat" - a boomer-ish joke for lazy employees (they always need a break). Some other candidates were "Miss Slacker" (straight to the point), Barney (term for a ditzy police officer), and Gumshoe (Wikipedia says this is derogatory?). If anyone has any better suggestions, let me know.

mock trial: The term used in the original Japanese has a few meanings. つるし上げて can refer to someone being hoisted up, but it can also refer to kangaroo courts or that she denounced the bully. I went with the kangaroo court meaning, as I feel like that would make the most sense this context? I can't imagine chewing out a bully would make her be like "yippee! I want to be a detective!"

Anyways, if you're curious about motifs.... Sherry is obviously inspired by Sherlock Holmes, yes, but there's more than meets the eye in that connection!

Sherry's eyes are orange, and her surname, Tachibana, refers to a specific type of orange (the.. Tachibana orange). This could be a possible reference to the story The Five Orange Pips. It's an interesting story to reference, because it's a story that ends in a tragedy of sorts. To condense the story, the client Holmes was working for is killed (along with his father and uncle), and the killers end up perishing in a storm, thus evading justice in Holmes's eyes.

Sherry's blue hair and the bird on her head could be a reference to The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle, but the bird doesn't really look like a goose... This is also where my knowledge of Sherlock Holmes ends; there could be more connections, but I'm not really sure of them.

If you're wondering why I didn't do this for Ema, well.... I honestly don't know if she has a literary connection yet.

[emasakuraba]

[After this, I will die.] 2-panel comic #1, featuring An-An and Coco

[emasakuraba]

Prisoner Profile 658: Ema Sakuraba (CV: Nana Mikitani)

“Witches don’t scare me! As long as we work together, it’ll be okay!”

Magic: ???

Trauma: ???

Birthday: March 5th

Original Sin: Anathema

Likes: Eating

Dislikes: Eating Alone

Height: 156cm

Weight: 48kg

Short Profile: A positive, cheerful girl. She is kindhearted but yearns for the company of others due to her fear of being alone.

Long Profile:

A friendly girl who speaks like a tomboy. She is clumsy, error-prone, and always needs help. Due to her autophobia, she acts cheerful and yearns to be around others. Though rather smart and a good judge of character, her phobia often causes her to make mistakes. When she wants to help someone, she has surprisingly good deduction skills. Her strength is her strong perseverance that prevents her from ever giving up.

Translation Notes under the cut:

Original Sin: Anathema. So, I wanted to make the "Original Sins" the most to-the-point i could, and I think Anathema works the best here. The term used is 忌み嫌われるもの, which in a more literal sense, means "Hated Thing".

A friendly girl who speaks like a tomboy: The first sentence, in a more literal aspect, is "A friendly girl who uses "Boku" as her personal pronoun." However, I take more of a localization approach to translating, so I decided to change the sentence to saying she talks like a tomboy.. Though I'll admit that doesn't really make a lot of sense... I will keep sentences like this in-tact in the translation notes, however, so don't worry too much about it.

her phobia often causes her to make mistakes: I had a bit of trouble translating this sentence, but I want to emphasize that she makes mistakes on purpose because she's afraid of being alone. I hope that comes across in the sentence?

This is the only profile I'm going to post for now, as I do want translator feedback. I'm not really good at translating (I suck at Japanese), and I want to do my best to translate this the best I can.

[emasakuraba]

hello! this is gonna be a sideblog for Magical Girl Witch Trials / Puella Magae Iudicium! I want to post my own translations here, though I can't guarantee they'll be super good...