Listen, these aren’t the best raws in the world or anything, but I’m going to put behind the cut screens of my own version of the magazine. That should do the trick for those that want to see the raws. You can ask about any scene if you want later, everything will be behind cut and tagged.
Hello friends, long time no see! I know things have been very quiet on the Starbuds front these last few months, but we are definitely still here and in the game! I hope you've all been enjoying everyone else's translations of Gray Log, since I’ve been flaking on that so super hard. (Sorry. In my defence, I’ve been very busy and also had pneumonia.) >__>
On with the show!
You can read the chapter HERE on Mangadex, courtesy @krorys.
1.) HOW BEAUTIFUL IS THAT COVER
SO BEAUTIFUL, RIGHT
2.) Kanda being all annoyed that Johnny didn't summon him when he needed help is just so. Overwhelming. He's come so far! Can you imagine vol. 02 Kanda, Mr. "if you fuck up have fun dying I guess", being mad because someone didn't ask him for help? His character arc has been so damn satisfying.
3.) Tiedoll's greeting in Japanese was "Yaa," which I had to struggle not to translate as "yo" or "sup." Cool as a cucumber, that guy.
4.) Allen suspecting Johnny and Kanda of still being loyal to the Order stung so much. This from the guy who's been willing to trust the literal enemy in the past. Seeing him reduced to suspecting Johnny, who is so obviously genuinely devoted to him (to the point of dropping his entire life to follow him), is so upsetting. :((
5.) That "culprit invocating this prison carriage" line is going to haunt me, oh my god. I know it doesn't sound like something anyone would ever say in English, I know, but it was honestly the best I could do. The original Japanese was this:
目の前にこの檻馬車を発動してる張本人がいるんです
Me no mae ni kono oribasha wo hatsudoushiteru chouhonnin ga irun desu
Oribasha is an invented compound of "prison/gaol" and "carriage," chouhonnin means "perpetrator/ringleader/originator," and of course hatsudou is the word used throughout the series for the invocation of Innocence. I could not find a way to translate that less literally and still keep all the meaning, so I had to lean more literal than readable this time. Sigh.
6.) Yes, I realize that "kick his ass and bust out" is rather Red-like of Allen, despite the Mana-like tone of much of the rest of his lines in this chapter, but uh.
ぶっとばして逃げるに決ってるでしょ
Buttobashite nigeru ni kimatteru desho
I didn't take all that many liberties with this one, tbh. It’s a very shounen line.
7.) Ohhhh nooooo, Krory. ;A; Chaozii won't mind fighting Allen at all, considering his opinion of our bleeding heart hero, but Krory obviously minds very much and I'm really worried that Allen won't manage to give them the slip and he'll have to fight against his friends in the Order directly. That would be excruciating, soooo Hoshino's probably drawing it as we speak.
8.) Kanda and Allen snarking at each other while trying to murder each other (but not murder Johnny) in a magic carriage driven by fairy godmother Tiedoll is pretty much everything I've ever wanted in my life. The end, bye.
9.) Allen saying hurtful things in order to push them away for their own safety is so painful but also so so lovely. He's too good for his own good, honestly. And then realizing what he’d done but miserably sticking to his guns. I could weep.
10.) Can I just point that Kanda has like half a dozen speech bubbles in a row that are just [GRITTED TEETH] followed by an insult and then a threat of violence. That pretty much sums up my boy's way with the world, doesn't it.
11.) Honestly, thank god Johnny's here. They'd never get anywhere without him to mediate between their high-strung, dysfunctional asses.
12.) The whole page with Tiedoll gently and teasingly encouraging Kanda to talk to someone like a human being is just beautiful. He's just like "hey I know you're super bad at this but it's a skill you're about to need a lot soooo do your best my son! I believe in u!" Best fairy godmother.
13.) Oh my god, the """"""salt."""""" I hadn't slept the night before and was literally so out of it when I got to this page that I didn't realize it wasn't actually salt until way later and it was awful. I actually thought at first that Johnny and Allen had misheard Tiedoll's shoikomu (to shoulder something, take it on, see something through) as shiokomu (shio = salt), and had a whole punny wordplay there regarding "betraying the salt," but blessed @togaochi gently steered me back to reality. After that we just made terrible salt jokes and now I need someone to photoshop Tiedoll's face onto Salt Bae because of reasons.
ETA: The splendiferous @krorys comes through again:
14.) I love how Kanda asks what the fuck Apocryphos is and then... answers his own question, lmao? He actually might know more than Allen at this point, I think?? At least until Allen recovers all his memories. So I have to wonder if Kanda only asked his questions to ease his way into telling Allen that Tim had ~returned to dust~ because he knew Allen would be really sad and wasn’t looking forward to it.
15.) Relatedly, if Allen ends up crying on someone's shoulder in the next chapter I will Die.
16.) That last line of narration on the last page:
相棒の変わり果てた姿。。。
Aibou no kawarihateta sugata...
Togaochi saved my ass again here, because I initially translated this as if it were something homophonous with it but with one different kanji:
相棒の代わり果てた姿。。。
Aibou no kawari hateta sugata...
Which would have meant "The form of that which met its end in its partner's place."
Kawarihateta as a compound verb, however, means "to have changed form completely," as in "to have become unrecognizable." Which actually is not as firm about Tim being permadead as I thought it was at first. There's still some hope! Some!!
—
In summary, this chapter was a gift from on high and I loved working on it. I love working on this series more and more every time a new one comes out, honestly. I'm so grateful to the rest of Starbuds for making this possible. I love you guys, and I'm looking forward to our future endeavours so much. ♥
@panthaleia out~
