Welcome :D

Let me show you some of my 4koma (about my life with cats).
Nao-p is my nick name my friend Mami Tachibana gave me. And I call her Mami-p. Of course it comes from Wedding Peach "Momo-p". No one calls me by the name except for her, but I love the 4 koma cartoon "Go Go Momo-pi (Gan-bare Momo-p)"(In the paperbacks) so I use it. :)
Oh, I'm a manga artist Nao Yazawa, and author of Wedding Peach, by the way. :)

These "comic strips" come from my 4-koma blog (in Japanese). You can see all of them in original here. If you have a request which 4koma will be next, tell me. :D
http://yazawanao.blog97.fc2.com/
Other Japanese blog

2013/09/30

I'm not going to ComicZulia...?!


This "counseling" is for my trip to Venezuela, to attend a convention named Comic Zulia. But I informed a short time ago, that they had a trouble to get my flight ticket, they wasn't able to find any travel agency which sold an air ticket from Japan. They said they were trying, and would consult with Japanese embassy.

So far, I've got no information - so I'm quite doubtful to get the flight tickets, means my presence of the event. (Comic Zulia itself will be held on 20th, I'm supposed to be for a special event, I guess from what I've heard and read)

Anyway, she(the cat-sitter) assured I can cancel the appointment. Even I failed in this time, I still need a cat sitter because I'll go to Toronto, around Feb-Mar, for a manga-teaching project. (It must be cold....)

Still, I'm interested in Venezuela, still hope things are going well. It seems pretty difficult, though. ^^;

2013/09/19

Story Board of Coffee Party book


I'm working on CoffeeParty's second dojin book, In Search of Lost Coffee. We - Saeko Doyle and I are making the storyboard now, it's our collaboration.

We just decided basic ideas, characters, the start, so on - then draw the storyboard (2 open pages) one after the other. First 2 pages were done by Saeko, and I did the next 2 pages, then pass it back to Saeko.

You don't know how the next 2pages will go when you passed your part. And when you take the back, you make the sequel. You accept the story you get, no touch, no interfere each other, you enjoy the surprise and struggle with it to get the next 2pages.

This is one of the storyboard, I think I can show the manga-style storyboard (コマ割) with this. It can give you a glimpse of how manga stream is oriented 

The "wide gap" between panel 1 and 2 of 2nd page, it shows the place/time was different. It's supposed to work like a wipe in film. This is very common - classical technique of manga.

2013/09/16

Manga locarization and SNS

I got some comment about my link of the previous post.
The Translation of Moon&Blood

It's not surprise because many of my FB friends are manga/anime fan or people who works for the industry and they are from West. Translation matter is a big issue, obviously. (it should be)

People has shared the problem I pointed out on the blog, it encouraged me, I'm not a strange one!:)

One more a good thing - I got a message from a guy who is working on M&Bvol.1 Italian version right now. He said he would like to take Japanese for their translation work if I wanted. We are FB friends. 

Because of the internet, I can work with American publisher like DMP. Thanks to SNS, I got the Italian team directly now. It is nice sometimes, you have your publisher between you and the third publisher, it could work as - a kind of - cushioning, and help you to avoid any troubles. But, at the same time, it can cause a communication problem. I've had it several times - I wondered if they (the third publisher) had been OK with it, because I wasn't satisfied. It turned up they also were not satisfied at all, when got a chance to talk with them directly, much later. 

Usually, you have no information abut the process, only the result you are informed.  

It was nice that I've known what Italian team is thinking, exchange the opinion directly. I've just had similar problem recently, on our Coffee Party's ebook.

The product team made the book file in the wrong way. The book was made in Comic-style, left to right, but they made it right to left, like Manga book. They didn't realize the mistake, I guess because the product team did only what they were supposed to do  - put the images in order as they got. If only you read the finished e-book, you couldn't miss the error, but nobody realized it, until I pointed it and ask the modification. (and the spread 2 pages order was wrong, too. I had to asked to correction again) People has their working field, and not more. 

In that case - it is very nice if you can communicate directly people who are working on your book. You get the information where the problem is, and where you are now.


eMamga/Digital Manga Publising
By Nao Yazawa & Saeko Doyle
The book which the corrections has been completed.

2013/09/15

The Translation of Moon&Blood

I've just found a staring fact. 

As I posted on FB before, my work Moon and Blood German version is in production right now. Italian version is as well (or pre-production, I'm not informed this kind of information). 

The fact is - the translation is not from original (Japanese) but from English! @o@
As I wrote, DMP doesn't tell me the detail of the process, I knew it by the translator's FB post.  She is my friend, I know her in person. Actually, I introduced her to DMP. 

Her post was like this...

Never ever translate from one language into another via a third one ... it NEVER works out right.
In my case I'm supposed to translate a text from English to German, the original being in Japanese. So now I was looking through the original script and I'm going all 'wtf did I translate?! That's not even close to the actually meaning!'.

Whaaaaaaat?

Example:

月… (Mond / Moon)
月の…王子様 (Mond ... prinz / Moon ... prince)
…なんてバカな言葉が頭の中に浮かぶほどに (... was für ein dämlicher Ausdruck, der mir da einfällt / ... what a stupid line to pop into my head)
彼は月に似合っていて… (Weil der Mond zu ihm passt / beacuse the moon suits him ...)

So the English translation I got was:

The moon ...
It's as if he were the prince of the moon ...
It's so stupid ... how he looks like a prince of the moon ...
... there's really no other way I could begin to describe it.

WHAT?!

That's ... IDEK!!! I can't find words right now ... it's just ... fucking my brain over so badly right now.

The German/English in the brackets is a pretty lose translation, but you get my point ...

The frame 2nd & 3rd of the first page and 1st of the second



I was so surprised and asked to DMP. The answer was, the right DMP had was only "English" version, so all the translation works would be from English to other language.

When they asked my agreement about German& Italy editions of my works, they didn't mention about this point. They had nothing against me, just they thought it is nothing - not so much important, at least.

This is a - sort of - issue, that they don't think I care about it. This is a moment you sometimes have when you work with non-Japanese publishers. You don't share the sense.

I agree with the translator, my friend E.

During the translation process, some information will be lost. You can't avoid it even if you are one of first rate translator. This one is not journal article but short dialogues with cultural background (high context one). It has many possibility of translation, it can be different by each person , or the culture of the translator.

The result -  German, in this case -  can make a sense, the readers can follow the story, see Five W's and One H (Who, What,  When, Where, Why and How). But the impression might be far from what I meant.

Even if you translate from original, it happens sometimes.  I know it can't be helped when you put one language into another, there are many elements you can't keep. It means if you did it in double, like Japanese - English - Germany, the result is ... (I don't want to think about it).

Still, there is the theory of nothing better -  you have to accept the triple-multiple-acrobat work, maybe.

Better than nothing.

Anyway, the bright side is, because the German translation is my friend E-chan, German edition will be translated from Japanese edition, at least. She knows Japanese well.

2013/09/09

Comic Zulia

I'm going to go to Venezuela coming  Oct., to attend a convention named Comic Zulia, on 26th and 27th.


I asked the time table of my flight to make a plan for my cat sitter, what time she comes to my place and so on. Comic Zulia said the certain time was not sure yet, but the departure time would be in the afternoon.

The flight takes about 24h, transfer twice, (Tokyo - USA -Maracaibo) and 2 days! @.@ I checked some flight schedules on the web, according to the result, you have 10-19 hour lay-over in US airport. 10- 19 hours! I've never had such a long journey before!

I've not thought that I travel to South America by myself  - it's very far, I don't speak Spanish at all, it's safety problem, so on. (Package tour is very expensive) So this one is really a good opportunity!

And of course it is great pleasure to meet manga fans in Venezuela. It's my first visit to South America & Spanish-speaking world.  I'm really looking forward.

2013/09/05

THE LOST ARTICLE


...and I'm searching for some doc.files in my PCs, as usual... -.-
I thought I didn't use it anymore and the files everywhere in my note and desktop PC (could be in my old notePC) , and they are in many version, like first draft, second draft, something draft....... I'm not sure the file I got is the final draft or not....

2013/09/04

A Baby Old Cat

We have a heartwarming moment - on rare occasions, though.

He wasn't like this when he was young...because he had companies (other cats)?

2013/09/02

A poo trouble 4


End of the story. ;)
I hardly wash him, want to keep him comfortable as much as I can. I think it makes him tired, too. BUT there was no choice!

Interview and drawing video

I went to Nakano today, for shooting video. My interview and drawing - a kind of tutorial.

It was soooo hot today. We have had a few comfortable, autumn like days and I thought the hottest season has been over. But I was wrong - X( 

The video was took at one of the class room of Manga School Nakano, school let us use it. The interview was in Japanese, they said it would be uploaded with Spanish Subtitles. (It's done by DebittoinJapan) I'm not sure about English subtitles, but DIJ said you can change the subtitle using Youtube translation service. I think it's just a joke about English-Japanese translation, but Spanish - English can be not do bad.

After the interview, they shoot that I draw Wedding peach and some hands drawing. These videos will be uploaded sometime soon. 

Wedding Peach / from pencil to ink (G-pen and Maru-pen)


Hand drawing /from pencil to ink(felt-tip pen)
I was asked to sign on it, then  I did.  I had no idea why.