#Yume Kui Annainin

[kazarinn]

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Sumine Nakajima has an upcoming exam for her music class, and unfortunately for her, her assigned partner is none other than Nishizumi, an ill-tempered boy whose mere presence intimidates her! Marin and Bakuo are on the case, turning Sumine’s recorder into a magical flute that can make flowers sprout. With "Hamelin’s Recorder" in hand, can Sumine grab enough of Nishizumi’s attention to convince him to practice with her?

This is a real release, not an April Fool's joke or anything (our schedule just happened to end up like this). Sorry if it tripped any red flags.

#Dream Eater Guide #Yume Kui Annainin #Megumi Tachikawa #Shoujo #Shoujo Manga

[kazarinn]

Dream Eater Guide — Dream 5: Cinderella's Ribbons

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Miyako Ichinose is short, klutzy, and not very skilled with so-called "girly" things, and everything around her loves to hammer in that she’ll never be girly enough. Worried about one of her classmates constantly mocking her for it and the fact they both like the same boy, Miyako receives a pair of hair ribbons made from the same glass used for Cinderella's slippers, which are meant to be a lucky charm so that she can be "as happy of a girl as Cinderella was". Miyako wears them to school, hoping that they’ll help her become "girly enough" the way she wants, but…actually, what do the ribbons do, anyway?

Up until now, we’d been releasing these at a pace of about one chapter a week, but multiple of the team members are going to be busy in the upcoming weeks, so I apologize if anyone had been expecting us to be making this into a schedule. We’ll still try not to fall too far behind, though!

#Dream Eater Guide #Yume Kui Annainin #Megumi Tachikawa #Shoujo #Shoujo Manga

[kazarinn]

Dream Eater Guide — Dream 4: Ice Lenses

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Resentful about the way she's treated just because she's a girl, Ibuki Toda is determined to get back at all of the boys around her. When Marin and Bakuo drop by, Ibuki asks them to make her into "a girl who will never cry" and is offered "Snow Queen"-branded contact lenses that will prevent her from showing any weaknesses… with the catch that they can't be taken off easily. Ibuki is convinced that there’s no way she'd ever want to take them off anyway, but it's not long before she learns the hard way that being unable to express any kind of emotional vulnerability comes with a heavy price…

When I was looking over Saint Tail's 2001 Tokyopop translation during the consultation stage for the retranslation project, one of my biggest gripes with it was that it had an insensitive way of handling things to the point it would even add offensive nuances that weren't in the original Japanese dialogue. Dream Eater Guide was never officially translated into English, but among Tachikawa's works, it's on the more overt side when it comes to its social commentary aspects, so one of my personal priorities with this translation is to be careful and precise so that it doesn't pick up unintended implications.

As you can probably see by the synopsis, this chapter is a particularly loaded one, and I'd also say it's heavier in tone than most of the other chapters in this series. I'd like to give a shout-out to the other members of the group who were watching my progress and giving advice, especially our QCer, who managed to get through this quicky and efficiently.

#Dream Eater Guide #Yume Kui Annainin #Megumi Tachikawa #Shoujo #Shoujo Manga

[kazarinn]

Dream Eater Guide — Dream 3: Wish Upon a Star Candy

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Chinami Kosaka is self-conscious about the fact she's much taller than the other girls around her, especially since her crush, Hidero Yoshihara, is also the shortest boy in her class! Concerned that he might be turned off by her height, Chinami makes a wish to Bakuo asking him to make her smaller. But when a mishap with the star candy Bakuo gives her causes things to not go as planned, Chinami and Hidero end up having to work together to get out of the mess they're in...

This is where I personally believe the series starts hitting its stride, since now that the formula's been established, the series gets to play around with it a little more. Enjoy!

#Dream Eater Guide #Yume Kui Annainin #Megumi Tachikawa #Shoujo #Shoujo Manga

[kazarinn]

Dream Eater Guide — Chapter 1: Rapunzel's Shampoo

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Here we are with a new project! We’ve started a translation of Dream Eater Guide, a 9-chapter shoujo manga series by Megumi Tachikawa, whom you may also know as the creator of Saint Tail (which we released a full retranslation of last year). Dream Eater Guide happens to be the series she was working on right before Saint Tail, and while it’s not strictly a magical girl series, it has a lot of similar sensibilities and distinctive touches that are in the latter, so I definitely recommend this series if you’re a fan.

Each chapter centers around a different protagonist who’s dealing with some kind of concern in her life to the point it gives her nightmares, and the general flow is that each one will get a visit from Bakuo the Dream Tapir and his caretaker Marin, who will offer her a magical item that she can use to help overcome her troubles and have better dreams. Of course, the item itself isn’t an instant solution; it’s up to each girl to put it to proper use and resolve the problem on her own, and there’s often an underlying issue that ends up needing to be addressed as well. Recurring themes include personal insecurities (especially expectations of femininity) and interpersonal relationships (often romantic, but not necessarily so), so there’s a lot to enjoy in only nine chapters!

Since it’s an episodic narrative, we’ll be releasing each chapter as we finish them, so without further ado, here’s our self-written synopsis for Dream 1:

Yuiko Suga has a complex about her hair always being rough and messy compared to that of other girls in her class, so when she sees a sign that her crush, Asami, might have an interest in pretty hair, it only makes things worse! Wishing she could be a "real-life Rapunzel", Yuiko gets a visit from Marin and Bakuo and is given "Rapunzel’s Shampoo", which magically makes her hair silky the way she’d always wanted. Which means she now has everything she needs to be more assertive…or does she?

Enjoy, and we hope you look forward to more!

#Dream Eater Guide #Yume Kui Annainin #Megumi Tachikawa #Shoujo #Shoujo Manga