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Rocketknight
07/23/09

In reply to Japanese Scifi Smackdown! Power-Armor Warriors Vs. Alien Dirt-Eaters
It bother the hell out of me that the novel is called "All You Need is Kill". That makes no god damn sense. How about "All You Need is the Kill" or "All You Need is a Kill"?

I know I shouldn't care as much as I do, but... gbyvh nybtvvtbgfhgvybjnum

I might buy the book because the plot sounds sort of interesting, but the title is just retarded.
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Edited by Rocketknight at 07/23/09 12:43 PM Rocketknight was starred Rocketknight was unstarred

MrTim
07/23/09

@VergessenHeld: "It bother the hell out of me that the novel is called "All You Need is Kill""

Setting aside the irony of your own typo, I suspect that is the untranslated title. There's a sort of "Engrish aesthetic" in Japan at times that may be rearing its head here. Either they didn't realize it was bad grammar or thought it sounded cooler to the Japanese ear. When the book was translated, they decided to leave the title alone.
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Grey_Area
07/23/09

@MrTim: I'm suspecting it might be a play on the Beatles song. Rest assured, the actual text of both books has been excellently translated with an ear for English conversation and idioms.
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Edited by Grey_Area at 07/23/09 3:03 PM Grey_Area was starred Grey_Area was unstarred

Rocketknight
07/23/09

@Grey_Area: I'm not a big fan of the Beatles, so that may have been why it slipped by me. Glad to hear the book itself is well-translated.

@MrTim: *looks at the article, then his own post* ... *headdesks repeatedly*
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unigon
07/23/09

In reply to Japanese Scifi Smackdown! Power-Armor Warriors Vs. Alien Dirt-Eaters
Yoshitoshi Abe didn't really do the character design for the anime...he just drew the cover for the original novel. If you compare Misaki from the novel cover and from the TV anime there character designs are sort of different.
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Grey_Area
07/23/09

@unigon: Thanks! I'll amend that.
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Grey_Area
07/23/09

In reply to Japanese Scifi Smackdown! Power-Armor Warriors Vs. Alien Dirt-Eaters
In other Non-English language SF news: the July issue of Locus has some articles about the state of the genre in Columbia and China. There is also a review of Javier Calvo's Wonderful World and two anthologies from the Phillipines. Okay, the speak English in the Phillipines, but you get the idea. Pinoy...in space! Mabuhay!
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Grey_Area
07/23/09

@Grey_Area: I also just found this new site via Jay Lake's Blog. It's a SF site from Japan in English. Looks very well done and not at all a manga/anime site.

http://www.26to50.com/en/index.html
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pheersum
07/23/09

@Grey_Area: I certainly wish VIZ good luck with the Haikasoru line, and I intend to read The Lord of the Sands of Time. I can't help but wonder if this will be another flash in the pan for SF in translation. Tor's Orson Scott Card presents started off so well with the translation of Andreas Eschbach's novel The Carpetmakers, but then nothing. DAW used to publish a bit of German and French SF. And MacMillan had a series of Soviet bloc SF. I was told by an editor that the cost of translation is prohibitive when it comes to publishing and promoting an author with no track record in the world of English speaking SF. The lack of any continuous program is a cause for concern, but if VIZ can pull this off then maybe there's hope for more European SF in translation as well.
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Grey_Area
07/24/09

@pheersum: Fingers crossed. I'd love to see some of the East German stuff from the 80's translated and am wondering what the rest of the world is up to SpecFic-wise. I'm too damn lazy to learn new languages but am still curious. Here's hoping.
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