#His name is Toren and he’s often up to no good

[gcttacatchemall]

Test Muse Added: Researcher Toren!

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🧪Name: Toren Brayden Larnach Age: 25 Gender: Male Sexuality: Asexual 🧪Hometown: Azalea Town but was born in Wedgehurst before moving to Fula City. Height: 5’9” but looks 5’7” because he slouches. Weight: N/A Pokemon On Hand: Chansey, Smeargle, Staryu, Luranits and Vileplume. 🧪Personality: Toren is a very timid and somewhat meek individual, often favouring the company of his Pokémon over people. This also reflects in the type of topics and projects that he researches into. He isn’t very good at interacting with other people, however he has slowly been working on building up his courage; to assert himself and speak for himself. Despite his debilitating shyness, Toren is still happy to assist others. He cares tremendously for the well-being and comfort of Pokémon which gains him the respect of those around him. 🧪Info: Ever since Toren was a little boy, he had grown up with pokemon. Most of his time, he spent playing or simply being in the presence of pokemon. One day, while he was out back playing with the pokemon that lived nearby; a burglar broken into their home and killed their parents, stealing whatever they could before escaping. When Toren didn’t hear his mother calling him to come home, he ended up returning home on their own to find the horror that had been left behind. The pokemon he had been playing with, coming up behind him; to comfort him. It didn’t take long before the police arrived, one of Toren’s neighbours having heard the boy’s sobs along with coming to check what had happened.

🧪He was sent to live with his aunt in Johto, the young boy becoming more reclusive and shy due to the change. But they seemed to get along with the pokemon that lived in the forest and near the well, his aunt was worried about him having no connection with people. She made an effort to get him to open up and make friends with the kids, although it was quite clear that the trauma that Toren had faced made it difficult. Things were only made worse when he was embarrassed in front of the school during a presentation he was doing. Absolutely humiliated and scarred, they ran to the only place they had truly felt safe. To the forest, it was here that he spent the next two days until his aunt found him. Gently coaxing him to come home, he eventually allowed himself to be talked into it. Although not without one of his companions, a young Chansey coming along.

🧪While Toren wasn’t old enough to own a pokemon, his aunt realized how much the Chansey helped Toren. So she spoke with a doctor about getting him a support pokemon, and by support pokemon; she meant the Chansey that clearly cared and worried about Toren to the point that it would stand outside the boy’s window. Once catching it, she gave it to Toren as a gift once the Chansey had gone through the proper training to help the young boy. Toren’s health seemed to improve ever so slightly with this addition. While learning about Chansey, Toren noticed that due to their kind and caring nature; they had the ability to help calm and soothe those around them with some thing known as Healer. This was what began Toren’s interest into pokemon abilities and as well what they can be used for.

#● Falling Asleep... {OOC} #❤︎ Headcanons #Test Muse: Toren #🧪Pokemon are the reason I became a Researcher {Toren}

[recentanimenews]

INTERVIEW: Zack Davisson on Cosmic Horror and the Reality of Translating Manga

  Dark Horse recently released Gou Tanabe's excellent H.P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness manga, which features translation work by Zack Davisson. We had the fortunate opportunity to fire some questions in Zack's direction, so read on for some insight into the world of manga translation, supernatural scares, and more!

  *** 

  With Gou Tanabe adaptations like this, you're working from an English source as viewed through a Japanese author's lens. How did this affect your approach to translating At the Mountains of Madness? 

  Its been interesting. I work on the book with Lovecraft’s text right next to Tanabe’s. I use both an English and a Japanese version so I can see what specific phrases Tanabe intended to preserve, and what he changed. If he used Lovecraft’s language, I try to replicate that. If he wrote something entirely new, then I work to make it fit in and look seamless.

  It’s a somewhat time-intensive method that I haven’t done for any other project, but I think it is worth it to get it right.

  Were you already a fan of the source material? 

  Oh, absolutely. Looking at my shelves right now I have five complete collections of Lovecraft’s stories. I have the Arkham House editions, the S.T. Joshi annotations, and then fancy shelf decoration leather-bound volumes by Easton Press, Folio Society, and Gollancz. 

  I’ve been reading Lovecraft most of my life. I saw Michael Whelan’s amazing painted covers and convinced my mom to buy me the Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre paperback when I was probably far too young. Or maybe just the right age. 

  The sense of dread in Lovecraft's work can be difficult to get across in adapted form. What do you think makes Gou Tanabe's take on the material so special? 

  I think it is the fact that Tanabe takes the source material absolutely seriously. He approaches it with gravitas, free from modern “takes” or “spins.” In modern times Lovecraft often descends to parody or “Lovecraftian” where they do the August Derleth thing of taking his characters and writing new stories void of the original intent or nuances.

  Tanabe is the visionary director who says, “Hey! I’ve got an idea! Why don’t we stage Hamlet as Hamlet? Exactly as written? Not as a clever spin on corporate culture or boy bands or something like that? Just, as intended. Even in period costume?”

  Tanabe also has a grasp of mood, which is essential to Lovecraft. And pacing. And his art is simply phenomenal. 

  Beyond Tanabe, do you have a favorite take on Lovecraft? Are there any films or other forms of media you think have come close to capturing the essence of his horror? 

  Before Tanabe I would have said my favorite was Richard Corben’s comics. Although he very much made “Richard Corben comics,” his vision of Lovecraft was truly frightening on the page. No one does that grin of madness like Corben.

  For films, I can’t think of a single one that does it right. I love radio plays, however, and the Dark Adventure Radio Theater does excellent adaptations. I buy everything they make.

  Can you talk about your own encounters with the supernatural? How have they informed your work on titles like At the Mountains of Madness?

  I hold that it is perfectly acceptable to believe in weird things so long as they are of no consequence.  I have had a Loch Ness Monster sighting and gone hunting for mysterious ghost spots in Japan… Including my own house. I lived in one of Japan’s notorious jiko bukken haunted apartments.

  I like the idea of there being mysteries still in the world. I think it helps to believe in the supernatural at least a little bit in order to work in the genre effectively. When I am working on things like At the Mountains of Madness, I buy into them completely and allow myself to be amazed. 

  What scares you more, ghosts or the notion of greater cosmic horrors?  

  Definitely ghosts! I love Lovecraft, but I find cosmic horror to be too grand to be truly terrifying. Horror is personal. Sitting home alone in my own house, in the dark, working away and feeling that tingling feeling on the back of my neck that someone is standing behind me will always be more frightening than mythological scale frightmares.

  You've worked on plenty of titles I think it's safe to say many would consider dream projects, from the works of Go Nagai to Shigeru Mizuki, Satoshi Kon, and beyond. Do you have any favorites, and are there any specific authors or series you're still dying to tackle in the future? 

  It’s true. I’m fully aware I’ve been blessed in my career. I started out with a very specific agenda, of artists I wanted to work on and works I wanted to translate. When I finished Leiji Matsumoto’s Space Battleship Yamato I realized that I had accomplished them all. I had a bit of a crisis of purpose because… what then? Do I just start translating stuff I have no passion for just to cash a paycheck? That didn’t seem very fun.

  Fortunately, with artists like Gou Tanabe I was able to find new passions. I’d never seen Tanabe’s work before Dark Horse hired me for The Hound and Other Stories, but now I want to work on everything he does.  Discovering new favorites is the best feeling. And there are still piles of Shigeru Mizuki comics for me to tackle! 

  What is the most misunderstood aspect of translation? 

  That we are technicians instead of artists. Translating is writing. Plain and simple. I translate, and I write my own books, and they come from the same part of my brain. 

  Translation is like performing a cover song. My voice is never going to be the same as the original. There will be personal nuances and variations, turns of phrases that I will never be able to entirely mask. So, it’s a matter of making my cover version as good in its own right as I possibly can.

  It seems it's only been in recent years that translators have been more thoroughly and visibly credited for their work. Do you think the manga industry in particular is in a good place now as far as this is concerned, or is there more to be done to convey just how much influence a translator has over the final product? 

  Strangely enough, the opposite is true. If you look at the early days of manga the emphasis was on the translator. People like Rachel Thorn and Toren Smith were getting cover credit. My own idea on this is that manga was still strange, so companies wanted to put “English names” on the cover to dilute some of the “foreignness.” They also were having well-known comic writers like Lein Wen and Marv Wolfman doing adaptations.

  Then, when manga took off and TokyoPop boomed, things flipped. Manga artists themselves became the superstars and translators were hidden to prevent any perceived barrier between reader and artist. Readers didn’t like the idea that they were reading a translator’s dialog, not the author’s.

  I think things are settling into a better equilibrium now. Manga artists SHOULD be the superstars—they absolutely are; but readers should be aware of how much the individual translator affects the experience. There still is a way to go before we get there. One of my proudest accomplishments was getting translators listed on the Eisner Awards as part of the creative team.  

  Now we need to get manga letterers credit.

    I won't ask you to break down your personal process—you did a fantastic job of that in your TCJ article a few years back—but has it changed at all since then? 

  Thanks! And now, my process hasn’t changed much. Translation for me is intuitive. I absorb the original, process it emotionally, then think about how to portray those emotions in English. It's not a logical process.

  Is there any advice on the industry or translation work you wish you could go back in time and tell your younger self? 

  Hmmm…. Start earlier. I wish I had been brave enough to have been an exchange student in high school. Knowing my interests, some of my teachers encouraged that but I was too scared to step away from friends and family and everything I knew.  

  It took until my 30s to say, “fuck it” and throw away everything I knew to jump on a plane to Japan. And then I didn’t get into translation until I was almost 40.

  Working in comics was always a dream of mine, and it took me quite a while to find my niche. Things have worked out well, so I can’t complain too much.

  Are there any manga out right now (besides your own) that you're particular excited about? 

  Like many who work in creative industries I find I have less and less time to just be a reader. But I always try to keep up on a few things. Recently I finally tackled the mountain that is Lone Wolf and Cub, and I am hooked. One of the best things I have ever read. Classics like that are classics for a reason.

  I also wait hungrily for any new volume of Delicious in Dungeon. 

  Thanks for taking the time to do this, your work on At the Mountains of Madness is fantastic. Do you have any parting words for aspiring translators out there?

  Thanks! My main advice is to move to Japan. I don’t think I could have the life and career now if I hadn’t taking that plunge. I spent seven years in Japan, and that gave me the skills I needed to translate professionally. Jump into the deep end! You never know what is waiting for you! 

  ***

  If you want to see a sample of Gou Tanabe's work, check out our preview pages for a peek into At the Mountains of Madness. 

    By: [email protected]

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

[jancisstuff]

Downstream

“True humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less.”

She was drained, the soft comfort from the crystals Jancis lived above would have been welcome a bell before. In her hands was a piece of over-sized cake, on a plate of china. A plate she could return whenever.

It was borrowed to carry the cake to make her feel better. But also to be a favor to Ghalleon, otherwise the cake would go stale. There was too much of it, a large slice. The priest of Nald’thal had, of course, made a trade in attempt to comfort. Make. Help. Create. Cause.

He had been smiling when she was leaving. That had been her goal, but the cost had been high. She felt underwhelming once again, the power the priest had desired to feel was secured as Jancis’ feelings were laid bare. But it was honest. It was her truth.

And at the end he had hoped for all truth from Thaliak. Jancis had decided Ghalleon forgot how much she revered the Scholar. Lacking good faith in-between when truth was missing, or truths were different between people. Thaliak meant such a great deal to Jancis, and now here it was being told to her as if she didn’t know the Scholar’s moon. She’d just gotten an ashen wand from Nathaniel, another priest of Nald’thal, the night before - thanking her for her oration on Thaliak. A night Ghalleon abstained from.

The plate with the cake sat there on the shelf. One bite taken of it. One more, if only to clean up the slice. She’d take it to someone. Ask them to finish the task the priest had given her. Master Ghalleon’s intention would not be wasted, at least. Nor the cake - wasting food was unthinkable.

She did know Thaliak. That was the name that came after Rhalgr. She had learned the truth of her existence and slavery because of the idea of Thaliak. And she had showed Ghalleon when he asked. The mark of a slave. The mark a madman had given, carved into flesh. He wanted an answer to why Jancis didn’t follow tradition. She had learned that Spoken and supposed priests could find excuse for their own motives in the Divines’ names and corrupt. She had discovered that the purpose of tradition remained, even if the practice of it changed. In a room full of Ishgardians and veterans of war making progress, that tradition of chastisement after raw emotion did not apply.

Jancis gathered up Torene, now that her emotions were settle enough to not expose the child to. Not yet. When she was older, when context could be given. Gathered in her arms, Jancis headed to the baths - the other task Ghalleon had given her. Was this what he did when he felt lonely? The conjurer pondered the vices the man had shared with her for comfort. If this was all.

No, surely there was also prayer. And his wife. His wife, though he felt alone. Jancis had witnessed their bonding ceremony by chance, a guest of the uncle. The uncle, Barengar, who was tolerating her company. Jancis had ended up sparing him from that burden. And burdening someone else.

And now the second time she saw Ghalleon, Turns later, her bonding was failing. And was now over. Starlight night Jancis had given Denz a necklace to match Torene’s bracelet, and he told her he didn’t want to be her husband anymore.

Jancis washed up with Torene, drying and dressing again to head back down the hallway. There was truth in Ghalleon’s words, what he had done for others time and time again, and brought them hope. How could she expect another judgement from Menphina? Jancis was already close enough to feel the ice from the Lover often enough.

But that was seen as being controlling. So it was. In the conjurer’s eye she had taken care of the people she invited that night and their interests. And to respect their integrity. And doing so, gave Ghalleon a sour impression that didn’t meet his traditional standards. It had clearly enforced her feeling, though.

That she had other purposes in this life than to be a lover, to be underwhelming, and was lucky to have the glimpses she did. By all rights, it was pretty good for someone who was only a tool most of her life. Important without being important. Included and being alone.

Torene fell asleep, and Jancis watched her awhile. 

At least Ghalleon smiled. That helped her feel a little better.

“A great man is always willing to be little.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson

#jancis milburga