mj-ackerman

[mj-ackerman]

Translation of Tatsuya Endo's Interview with Katsumaru: (You can read the original here X)

Katsumaru: My wife and child are both big fans of "Spy x Family", so they were both excited for me to be able to meet you today. Why did you choose the theme "Spy" in the first place?

Endo: I didn't have any particular desire to draw a spy story or something like that, but I had always liked military kinds of things and was interested in war related things, so when I combined those aspects with the theme of "lies", it naturally ended up as a spy story. However, I haven't seen many spy movies, and for movies like "007", I've only seen one or two of them.

Katsumaru: What? Really? The information about spies that appears in the story, even for someone like me who's been an avid follower of the genre, gives an impression that it's very well thought out. How on earth did you acquire such knowledge?

Endo: Most of it is from books. And then some of it is from documentary films and the likes. There was an old movie called "Shiri" (This is a 1999 Korean film), it's about the battle between North Korean Special Operation Forces and South Korean Intelligence Agency. I liked that very much.

Katsumaru: The setting, in which the husband, Loid, is a spy and the wife, Yor, is an assassin, reminded me of the movie "Mr & Mrs Smith"

Endo: When the series was just starting, I see that title being mentioned a lot in the comments, but to be honest I've never seen it before....(Laughs). I didn't have much time to prepare for the serialization, and since it's a comedy, I thought I didn't have to be that particular about the settings as I drew it. I incorporated the knowledge I had gained from books, but since it's still a manga, I kept the "No way, that's impossible" aspects to it.

Katsumaru: I think it has a really good balance between realistic depiction and entertainment. Spies are part of everyday life, and some of them even established a "fake family" as in "SPY X FAMILY". In reality, there are cases where married couples had been living together without realizing that their husbands are spies.

Endo: That balance is what I pay the most attention to. I guess you can say it's a process of determining the "minimum level of reality" in each scene.

Katsumaru: How concerned are you about the difference between "reality and manga", Endo-sensei?

Endo: This one is difficult. It's a case by case basis, but in manga, there are many parts where I can just go "let's fake the reality at this part for the time being". When you're working alone, you don't have time to do research about this or that fact. However, in anime, you have to create much more detailed settings, so there isn't much room to put on tricks. When the anime team would ask me "What would happen in this part?" I would often reply with "I'm sorry but I haven't thought about it yet...." (Laughs).

Katsumaru: Have you not strictly defined the scene or time period the story is set in yet?

Endo: I had the image of the period setting somewhere between the 1960s and 1970s. I'm trying to explore what I can do with the technologies in this era thinking "This technology might be possible". I also have softened the reality of things, such as the political form. The cold war between the East and West is also part of the motif, but if you just tell the readers that "it's a conflict of ideologies" , it won't make sense to them. So, I put it into a form that is easy to understand as a manga, there are also some parts that I, myself don't know about after all. Similarly, in the real world, for example, spies probably have very few horizontal connections, right? Like for security reasons. However, as a manga, in order to develop the story, it was necessary for me to depict conversations between spies. All the more that this is a comedy story, so it wouldn't work without conversation. It's difficult to find the right flavor between the two.

Katsumaru: It's pretty unique that you came up with the name "Dalc" which is similar to the name of the currency "Mark" (It's Deutsche Mark which is no longer in use since 2002) used in Germany.

Endo: It's actually a combination of "Mark" and "Dollar". I often use names of places and buildings that actually exist in real life. However, I have a pretty bad memory, so I often ask myself later "Where did I get the name of this place again?" (Laughs)

Katsumaru: Is there any expert historical research or supervision of intelligence agencies involved in this?

Endo: I basically think about all the detailed settings all by myself.

Katsumaru: Since the real-life aspects are well-constructed, I thought an expert in international politics was involved in supervising this.

Endo: There are also some readers who read too deep into the historical situation, but I didn't actually put much thought into the details in writing the story. This is just a fictional country called "Westalis and Ostania" after all.

Katsumaru: In "Spy x Family", there are some Russian-speaking names such as "Anya" and "Yuri" that appears, but spies in that country uses more analog method. For example, "flash contact", in which documents are handed over to another person as they pass each other, or a "drop dead", in which documents are hidden in an agreed-upon location and later picked up by a colleague. There is also a method for communication. Although this method is considered extremely inefficient, it is sometimes considered to be highly secure because it prevents interception of communications.

Endo: So there's still that kind of analogs even now huh? Now that technology has developed and everything is digitalized, I certainly think it's much safer now. In other countries, there are organization such as M16 (United Kingdom Secret Intelligence Service) and CIA (US Central Intelligence Agency), Japan also has organizations with such characteristics.

Katsumaru: The "Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department Public Security Bureau (Public Safety)", where I worked, is the counterintelligence arm of Japan. In "VIVANT" (It's a 2023 Japanese Drama), which I supervised, Hiroshi Abe and Ryo Ryusei are playing roles with these type of characters. We have obtained as collaborators people who have a lot of information and people who are in position to meet various people such as reporter.

The only problem was that we didn't have enough people. The CIA has a large number of subordinates under it's station chief, and a large budget. When I was temporary transfered to a Japanese embassy overseas, I was alone, my budget was limited, and I was also reponsible for issuing passports, so there is no doubt that working at an intelligence agency overseas with better environment had allowed me to concentrate more on my mission.

Endo: Do you hire locals overseas?

Katsumaru: There are times when we ask locals to work with us by paying them a reward. Or, we can ask them to connect us with people who has information. The Public Safety is very good at finding and training people who can bring good quality information and can do good work.

#spy x family #sxf spoilers #sxf #spy x family interview #tatsuya endo #endo tatsuya #please do not repost

[mj-ackerman]

adrenaline

[mj-ackerman]

It’s incredibly important to me that the anime decided to include this scene that wasn’t in the manga. In the manga, Maomao does pass out in Jinshi’s lap after saving him from what was obviously an assassination attempt.

HOWEVER, the manga cuts off at this point, keeping strictly in Maomao’s perspective, and cuts straight to when she regains consciousness in bed after being treated for her injuries. The manga doesn’t show how she got back. They SAY how, and she briefly mentions, “wow that must have been embarrassing; he carried me back,” but we don’t SEE it. We don’t get to feel the true impact of what that means. But the anime DID show us, and holy shit.

They SHOW us how taboo this is. They show Jinshi carrying her out of the temple, after a public attempt on his life.

They show us the shock and horror on Lakan’s face as Jinshi silently walks past him. Horror at the state his daughter is in, horror at another man—a man with a status he could never dare to question—staking such a public claim over his child, horror at the fact that he could never have this level of closeness with her (as Maomao would never allow it).

Everyone hides their gazes, as is their custom when someone of his rank passes by, but the air is different this time. Jinshi is furious, he’s terrified, and he could not give a single shit about how inappropriate it looks to these palace officials.

The shot that slowly follows her trail of blood—even though it’s a small detail—that in particular leaves such a intense impression of how poignant this is for him.

Maomao talked about this scene in the manga like it was nothing to her. She did what she set out to do: she saved the person who was targeted by the attack. She didn’t even know the target would be someone she knew. But she has no idea that this happened afterwards as a result of her bravery. To her, it likely wasn’t even an act of bravery at all. She acted on impulse; she did what she knew was the right thing to do.

The anime didn’t need to include this, because the manga didn’t show it. But damn, I’m so glad they did.

[mj-ackerman]

GETOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[mj-ackerman]

Despite CODE: White being out for a month now, the official accounts are still dropping new video clips! This time we got the Twiyor train scene, which I'm very happy about! ❤️

Here's a translation of this scene from my movie summary post: They realize Anya is taking a long time to come back from the bathroom and wonder if she got lost. Loid says that Yor's motherly side is really coming out, which causes Yor to get flustered and makes her think that it's not her skills as a mother he could be dissatisfied with but perhaps her skills as a wife. She gets even more flustered when she notices a couple across the way kissing and starts nervously moving her lips, to which Loid asks if something's wrong. She stammers that her lipstick didn't warm up and is itchy, then says she's going to look for Anya since she's taking a long time. When she's by herself, she thinks that they're just a pretend couple and Loid should understand that.

In addition, over the past couple weeks we got a few more of these uninterrupted, full-scene clips, which I'll link below. If you're curious about the full context of any of these scenes and don't mind spoilers, they're all mentioned in my aforementioned movie summary post). And shoutout to @mj-ackerman for translating the below videos on Twitter.

Link 1: Scene from the very beginning of the movie where Twilight disguises himself as a woman for one of his missions (translation from MJ here).

Link 2: Next is a scene at Eden where the class is informed about the cooking competition from Henderson (translation from MJ here).

Link 3: And lastly (for now) is the scene where Anya opens the trunk on the train and accidentally eats the chocolate (translation from MJ here).

#spy x family #spy family #sxf #spyxfamily #loid forger #yor forger #bond forger #sxf movie #sxf code white #spy x family code white #sxf spoilers #sxf movie spoilers

[mj-ackerman]

Yor Forger (Thorn Princess)

#spy x family #yor forger

[mj-ackerman]

Oh wow I didnt know chapter 249 already leaked lol

[mj-ackerman]

i may be stupid but i have no idea where the damianya camping one is, is it here or idk (dying)

Hello, as for part 1 of the light novel, the damianya camping one, I wasn't the one who translated it but you can read it HERE. pls tell me if the link is working, if not I can send it to you through dm, thanks

#mj answers #spy x family

[mj-ackerman]

Imagine yor forger being a cheerleader? Wanna hear a story idea I have for it.

Sure! I'd love to hear the it

#mj answers #spy x family #yor forger

[mj-ackerman]

I've seen Japanese fans say they're happy that the season is ending with ch58 because it is the "true ending" of the Cruise Arc: Loid's words for Bond (“You gotta be careful. Because there’s someone else back home who’d be heartbroken if anything happened to you”) can be seen as a reply to Yor's determination during the climax of the arc (“I don’t care if I have to bloody my hands. Even if it means living a life that could end at any moment. Even if it means having to leave the Forger family…”)

It’s a nice chapter to bookend the season with!

[mj-ackerman]

Happy Birthday Shoko <33333

[mj-ackerman]

Hi! I was wondering if you would allow your translations to be used on quote bots. I want to make a quote bot for Paradox Live and some of the voice dramas were translated by you, but I saw on your twt that you don't allow reposts, so I just wanted to know if this counts as reposting or not?

If you allow it, I'll link your profile and credit you for the translation!

Yeah, sure no worries as long as you credit me, its fine ^^

#mj answers #paradox live #pararai

[mj-ackerman]

Why is maomao's thoughts on jinshi always like

"He's the most beautiful man ever. Women swoon for him, men want to RAWDOG him. Countries would go to war for him"

[mj-ackerman]

Local spy normal fellow is now a feminist

[mj-ackerman]

Another hint that Westalis and Ostania are based on the FRG and the GDR respectively, is this small detail – Ampelmann. West and East Germany (prior to German reunification) had different images of standing/walking pedestrian figures. This traffic light man is like a hallmark/symbol of East Germany.

[mj-ackerman]

A little late but Happy Halloween! My country doesn’t celebrate it so I’m kinda jelous of these guys 🥹

[mj-ackerman]

Yuri getting in college at the age of 14 was really impressive, and I love that it's not because he's some kind of genius / prodigy or something, it's bc he worked and studied so hard for it. No wonder Yor is so proud of him and always talks proudly of him to other people.

when i read in the official fanbook that he skipped grade, i thought he didn't attended college and worked straight after high school, i didn't expect that he skipped high school and went straight to college.

As mentioned in the novel, he really didn't get to enjoy his childhood because he was too busy and occupied with studying to have time for it. It makes sense that he acts like a kid whenever he's around Anya like Yor said

#spy x family #sxf spoilers #sxf manga #yuri briar #yor forger #yor briar #briar siblings #sxf chapter 89