I'm a self taught artist who makes silly comics about whatever is on my mind at the moment, feel free to stick by! English is not my native language!! https://linktr.ee/omnikko_
The discus was fucking deadly and homophobic what the hell?? TWO different gay lovers of 2 different gods killed by a fucking metal frisbee?? And then both dudes were turned into purple and yellow flowers??
Also imagine being the fastest god and not being fast enough to save your boyfriend. Imagine being the god of medicine and not being able to heal your boyfriend. Fucking tragic.
Hello Slug. I hope this finds you well but may I ask if you may be able to translate Hifumis solo, “ポジティブ my life” from the Block Party album?
Thank you very much.
Sure thing! Under a cut for length.
The playful tone is crucial to the source, so a similar goofiness is present in the translation. With that said, I'm not adding anything extra for silliness. Some light fluffing on vague lines to convey (what I'm understanding as) the meaning. No attention paid to line length, rhyme, or rhythm.
Heya, friendos! (Hey there, Hifumi!)
Hm? Gosh, you seem like a bunch of gloomy Gusses today.
Wait, I have an idea! Let's play a game!
I'm logging in to Buddy Quest and
speedrunning character creation
so we can get to the open world and goof off! (Heck yeah!)
Perfect! There's those happy smiles.
So now, what're we gonna do first? Set off on an adventure to make new friends!
I may not be able to claim the hero's sword. I may not have it in me to smile all the time.
But my friendships and the good vibes we make together are the best equipment I could ever ask for. Yeah, yeah, yeah!
There's no one like my party! We're friends! (Friends!)
And even if we lose at the end of the day, we still all have each other.
I cast SMILE. It's super effective!
Next thing you know, you're one of us--YOU have joined the party! A full, amazing party! (We! Are! Hoods!)
Pick showboating mode, and we'll live it up tonight!
Yeepers, that was a close one. Almost ran out of HP! (Positive! Up! My life!)
Or, on other nights, opt to be carried--we all want to be protected sometimes.
Either way, let's "positive up" my life! (And yours!) [1]
All righty! We're kilin' it. Keep it up, gang!
Next up: lemme run you through how I "positive up" my life.
Step 1: Take a cool selfie, upload it to the character creator, and let the game handle the rest. See? Looks just like me. (Sure does!)
Step 2: Forget the haters. If the vibes are rancid, I don't wanna hear it! (Yeah, yeah!)
Step 3: We all have tough days sometimes. But you gotta try to smile anyway.
Because you're braved and you're loved, y'know? Once you realize how much your friends care for you, you can get back up and keep fighting the good fight! (Get 'em, Hifumin!)
Step 4: Sometimes, you just can't beat that one level.
But don't you ever give up. Hit that CONTINUE button, you hear? (Positive! Up! My Life!)
Because we still all have each other and the good vibes we make together in our full, amazing party! (We! Are! Hoods!)
So we meet at last, final boss! [2]
Say, you know what? You wanna be friends? (Positive! Up! My life!)
We can still beat the game together, and no one has to get hurt this way.
So what do you say? "Positive up" my life? (And yours?)
[1] The two play styles I describe as "showboating mode" and "opting to be carried" are standard video game terms (魅せプ and 姫プ) whose literal translations--"enchanting play" and "princess play"--are evocative of the host club imagery often present in Hifumi's songs. I initially wrote this verse directed at the same implied "you" as the rest of the song, but have since updated it to be more ambiguous such that, like the rest of the song, Hifumi could be describing his own behaviors--and, in particular, the desire to be safeguarded by loved ones--too.
[2] The intended recipient of this line is not the same implied "you" from the rest of the song. The difference in tone suggests it's Honobono.
Heya! I've been futzing around in old song TLs recently, double-checking the text and tidying up language. Most edits are trivial (to the point of being non-interesting) or cosmetic only. However, since there was some commentary on this TL when I first posted it, I wanted to share that I've updated the "魅せプ決めて..."/"Pick showboating mode..." verse to have more universal applicability. It can now be read as applying to Hifumi or a generic listener. I've also removed some clumsy language in the attached TL note.
Nitty-gritty TL information under the cut.
In English and Japanese both, song lyrics are often written in sentence fragments with unvoiced or uncertain "agents"--the person or thing committing the action described in the line.
Even so, unspoken agents in English are virtually always one of two options:
The speaker, "I." This manifests as a declarative statement lacking a subject.
Example: Frozen inside without your touch, without your love
Who is frozen? The speaker. "I am frozen inside without your touch, without your love."
The listener, "you." This manifests as a command.
Example: Call my name and save me from the dark.
Who should call the speaker's name? You, the listener. "You, call my name and save me from the dark."
The agent in "Wake me up (wake me up inside)" is the listener, and the agent in "Can't wake up" is the speaker.
But these lines are relatively rare because--with the exception of second-person "you" commands--English requires a voiced agent in every grammatical action.
Not so in Japanese, and as such, unvoiced agents are very common. Because, again, English requires a voiced agent in every grammatical action, a Japanese-to-English translator needs to assign an agent to each action or write sentence fragments. (The latter option is valid! It's just not my preference for clarity.)
As in English, the unvoiced agent is determined via the verb conjugation and the broader context of the song. How did we know Evanescence's singer character was "frozen inside without your touch," as opposed to, say, an ice cube? Because the rest of the song tells us the singer character feels dead inside and wants "you" to revive them with "your" touch.
We can find similarly obvious examples in Positive, My Life, too. In the second line "あれ、ちょっと元気ない感じ~?"/"Oh, [agent] seems kind of gloomy." we can reasonably assume the agent is the friends Hifumi met in the previous line. His friends are being gloomy Gusses! :( We may also wish to assume that this group of friends includes the audience, a second-person "you" that is often present in Hypmic songs.
In the next line, "みんなで一緒にゲームでもやっちゃー!"/"Let's have [the plural agent] play a game with everyone!" we can assume the plural agent is Hifumi and the friends. We're playing a game!
But from the next verse on, obvious grammatical markers vanish. "友情クエストにログイン" / "[agent] logs into Buddy Quest" does not contain any verb conjugation (technically, it doesn't even contain a verb...). The translator must ask themselves who would make the most sense logging into Buddy Quest, given the context.
We know that Hifumi has just invited his pals to play a game with him, so it could make sense to write Hifumi OR the pals OR the audience OR some combination of the above logging into Buddy Quest. Because the third line in this verse contains a volitional verb--a "let's do this!"--it was convenient to assign the agent to a single person, Hifumi. (It's weird to say "let us do a thing!" without an "I" in the "us." You can see me attempting to write around that in one of the examples listed above, "Let's have [the plural agent] play a game with everyone!")
Most of the song continues in a similar fashion. This is, first and foremost, a song about Hifumi and his approach to his own life, but a cast of other characters come along for the ride to listen--the friends, the audience. There are therefore lots of valid ways to express the ideas in this song. It's not just Hifumi can't draw the hero's sword to slay his inner demons; we all struggle with that sometimes. The line I wrote as "We all have tough days sometimes" applies to Hifumi too. And so on.
Outside of a few very specific places (the final verse is unequivocally Hifumi speaking to the "last boss"--presumably, Honobono--, the second line as mentioned above is the friends frowning, etc.), there's room to switch around the agents of each line so long as it's clear that Hifumi is talking to other people about the way of life he follows.
For the verse I updated, I set the agent to "you" and wrote it like this:
If you're a top player? Sweet! Let's live it up tonight!
Yeepers, that was a close one. Almost ran out of HP! (Positive! Up! My life!)
Or if you're more of a novice? No sweat. We'll carry you!
Either way, let's "positive up" my life! (And yours!)
Per feedback and mulling it over, I set the agent to a more inclusive "we" and wrote it like this:
Pick showboating mode, and we’ll live it up tonight!
Yeepers, that was a close one. Almost ran out of HP! (Positive! Up! My life!)
Or, on other nights, opt to be carried–we all want to be protected sometimes.
Either way, let’s “positive up” my life! (And yours!)
I don't think there's a meaningful difference in the information being delivered, but I wanted to shift more of the focus back onto Hifumi in light of the song's message and the feelings of the fans involved.
I also wanted to make two additional changes--lean into the entertainment angle on "showboating mode" (vs "top player") and use "pick" and "opt to" highlight the JP word 決め (choice), which suggests the agent (Hifumi, the listener, the friends, etc.) is switching between two different options or modes.
Finally, I want to briefly reattempt to explain the interesting word choice on 魅せプ ("showboating mode") and 姫プ ("opting to be carried"). Both of these are established video game terms and literally translate to "captivating play" and "princess play." "Captivating players" are top players who play so well it's "captivating" to watch--think speedrunners and other skilled streamers. "Princess players" are (generally) novice players who can't hold their own in multiplayer games and thus need to be carried by their teammates. It's not a polite term, and people generally don't self-identify with it or "princess play" on purpose. (I made a throwaway comment previously that I think was misunderstood, namely that the name comes from the sexist notion of the damsel in perpetual distress--ie, a princess that needs to be rescued. To be very clear, I didn't invent this term, nor do I think there's anything sexist with people engaging in princess roleplay or leaning into damsel-in-distress tropes for personal enjoyment... That's just not what this term is.)
The word choice is interesting because the "魅せ" ("captivating") and "姫" ("princess") images are reflective of host mode and the host club imagery present in so many of Hifumi's other songs. We see so little of that imagery in this song.
Gently, because 姫プ ("princess play") is a set phrase that has little to do with real princesses, I do not think the writers intend readers to interpret this line as Hifumi calling himself a princess. But if it makes you happy to think of him as such? Fuck yeah, Princess Hifumi all the way. (Or Queen Hifumi, if you prefer the phrasing of this official short.)
Fanart to @plushieray2 's Insane Heartslabuyl Riddle but kind of with a mix with my merman Riddle AU.
If I'm being very honest, it could've been my entrance to the DTYS if I had thought about it before, but since I already sent my part, I'll leave that as a fan art lmao.
I made this because I just remembered I have this Pink Dolphin Riddle AU, and the Amazon River dolphins (or pink dolphin, idk) are smiley, have deep black eyes and look very creepy. They always seem happy and very nice but still give off weird vibes, as if something is wrong with them, so I thought: "you know what? Hell yeah" and since I've been getting invested in this AU, I drew it.
Either way, I'm surprised and rather pleased by the results, hope you enjoy.
Fanart to @plushieray2 's Insane Heartslabuyl Riddle but kind of with a mix with my merman Riddle AU.
If I'm being very honest, it could've been my entrance to the DTYS if I had thought about it before, but since I already sent my part, I'll leave that as a fan art lmao.
I made this because I just remembered I have this Pink Dolphin Riddle AU, and the Amazon River dolphins (or pink dolphin, idk) are smiley, have deep black eyes and look very creepy. They always seem happy and very nice but still give off weird vibes, as if something is wrong with them, so I thought: "you know what? Hell yeah" and since I've been getting invested in this AU, I drew it.
Either way, I'm surprised and rather pleased by the results, hope you enjoy.
According to most recent chapter's note, the author will be undergoing right hand surgery soon and is taking a necessery break for healing and rehab for the next two months (at least). Please everyone send best wishes and/or prayers for her recovery! And regardless of who you are, please you take the time to take care of your health as well 🫂
My little contribution to @plushieray2 's insane Heartslabuyl DTY
I was actually planning on doing a ship art since I'm a huge Keirido fan, but tbh Keirido would not make sense in this au. At least on in a reciprocating way.
I really like the idea of Cater being obsessed with Riddle since he is finally allowed to be "truly happy" thanks to the blot roses he accidentally made, so this is a little silly drawing inspired by that.
Also, the entire budget went to their hair and skin because idk why but I unlearned how to shade clothes and fabrics halfway through the drawing, sorry for that😭 this is also an attempt to reconcile with those two ugly fanarts I made earlier to this AU. They might have been doodles, but they looked so bad in comparison to my usual art, sorry😔 I hope you like my silly art style