My first light novel with Seven Seas just got announced!

Know a letterer or translator? Tag them below! 🌱 Kodama is a passionate team on the lookout for freelance LETTERERS and TRANSLATORS to help us bring new projects to life! Sounds like a fit? Please fill out the form below: forms.gle/Jtgm3pMhtWWg...

An agency I’ve been working with over the past year to translate songs and videos for informed me they’re switching entirely to MTPE from here on out for half my usual rate.🙃 I was scaling back my work with them anyway, so I guess now I’ll be asking them to remove me from their list of freelancers.

Hey, I got my certificate! And only slightly creased after being shoved in my tiny mailbox. Cat also pictured because she was determined to be in frame.

I’m currently reading through Shiba Inu Rooms (my goal this year is to read more manga, and not just for work) and it is adorable and hilarious but omg the chapter I just read (39) has me literally sobbing. I did not expect this cute little manga about shibas to wreck me emotionally (in a good way)

Manga companies, please pay us $8/page! The small and new publishers can do it, surely the big companies with owners who make $3 million+ per year can afford it too!! x.com/MangaAlerts/...

College student Sakurako takes in an alien cat named Mumu who's interested in studying human technology to help restore his planet's civilization! Read our review of Me and the Alien Mumu Volume 1 by @kodamatales.bsky.social buff.ly/idbFxWV #manga

Got my comp copies for volumes 1 and 2 of Me and the Alien Mumu! I love how they turned out. The jacket and inside cover look incredible and they even have the translator/letterer names on the back cover! Super honored to have been entrusted with the translation. Thanks @kodamatales.bsky.social!

Translating a behind-the-scenes for a music video and I go to watch the original MV. I think to myself these lyrics are super familiar. Check my files for this client and yep, I translated that song 🙈 (in my defense, it hadn’t released when I was working on it so I hadn’t actually listened to it)

First year as J>E translator complete! This year I translated: -33 manga volumes -32k+ game characters -63 songs -37 misc projects (interviews, short videos, ads, etc.) -Graduated from JVTA -Got 2nd place in JAT competition -Went to IJET Looking forward to more in 2026!

Oh hey, I translated this one

Have you preordered Me and the Alien Mumu yet? 👀 Depending on your answer… 😒 Don’t end up in a situation like Mumu. Secure your copy today! 🚀✨ 🔗 buff.ly/74xN0CI

Fall in love with Japanese ➡️ get a job that has nothing to do with Japanese ➡️ quit my job and move halfway across the country with my spouse ➡️ start looking for translator jobs because why not ➡️ profit

Ahhhh I cannot wait until April! It looks so good!

Just finished translating my 30th manga volume today. I’ll be turning in my 31st and 32nd next week as well. I can’t believe it’s been an entire year since I started translating full time!

The Witch Hat Atelier manga is getting a novel on November 21 that will tell 3 short stories.

Oh hey I worked on one of these (I Died at Your Behest).

So excited for this

I had the honor of translating Mumu. Can’t wait until it comes out! (And yes I am now an expert on home appliances)

Final transmission loading...T-minus 21:30 hours 🙀 How would YOU survive living with a curious alien cat? #MangaOutOfContext #SundayComics

🚨 Transmission from: Figgy 🐾 Subject: Earth Appliance #004 — [Washing Machine] Figgy reports that Earthlings use this swirling contraption to erase dirt from their “clothes” 🤔 Got any laundry wisdom to share? Drop your Figgy Facts below and stay tuned for more tales from 🚀🐱 #catsinSTEM

🚨 Transmission from: Figgy 🐾 Subject: Earth Appliance #002 — [Vacuum] We're back with breaking news on a curious Earth appliance Figgy, our intermittent CEO kitty, just discovered 🤔 Drop your own Figgy Facts below and he might just crash-land into your home to say thanks 🚀 #catsinSTEM

🚨 Transmission from: Figgy 🐾 Subject: Earth Appliance #001 — [Microwave] Introducing… Figgy Facts! Our intermittent CEO kitty is here to share what he’s learned about common Earth appliances today 👀 Stay tuned for more Figgy Facts as we count down to news that’s out of this world 🚀🐱 #catsinSTEM

I translated the second manga mentioned in this article (Don’t Mind Me, I’m Just a Black Widow x3). It was a lot of fun to work on and I’m excited to read through the finished work!

Hi everyone👋 We're now on Bluesky!🥳 (Please RT to help spread the word!) We're JVTA (Japan Visualmedia Translation Academy), a Tokyo-based school that offers a fully online course for learning Japanese-to-English media translation! Check out our website to learn more: www.jvtacademy.com/english/

English is way harsher on repetition than Japanese, so part of a light novel translator's job is tweaking the wording so it says the same shit, but without sounding redundant. I thought I'd do a rundown of a few tricks that help with this.

I did the translation for The True Value of the Throwaway Bride! It’ll be available this Friday, so check it out when you have a chance! It is a very adorable fantasy/romance and I really enjoyed working on it.

僕はとんでもない誤解をしていたかもしれない。 I fear there has been a grave misunderstanding on my part. #amtranslating

So I recently started translating song lyrics for a client and wow is it a challenge! Pretty much all of the lines have random (often nonsensical) English words/phrases thrown in. I feel like I should add Japanglish to my list of languages I translate from now 😅

かわいくて悶えてる Cuteness overload! #amtranslating

The entire Ghibli ethos is tied up in the idea of craftsmanship. It's a textual subject of the films (hand carving violins in Whisper of the Heart, for just one example) and the meta work that goes into the films themselves. Their films feature hard workers, and are animated with sweat and tears.

while doing a QA, came across "saying the quiet part out loud" as a TL for "本音が出た" furious at how good that is; excited to appropriate it in the future :)

I am excited to announce that I was selected as runner-up for the Twenty-first Annual JAT Translation Contest! The text was such a fun challenge and I am looking forward to reading the judges’ commentary next month. jat.org/news/twenty_...

San Francisco's de Young museum will open the first major U․S. manga exhibition in September. It will feature over 700 pieces from Fujio Akatsuka, Hirohiko Araki, Tetsuya Chiba, Eiichiro Oda, Gengoroh Tagame, Rumiko Takahashi, and more creators!

Like lettering, manga translation comes with its fair share of compliments and complaints. I spoke with Stephen Paul, David Evelyn, and Casey Loe about the ins and outs of the job and what happens when spirited discourse turns to harassment. gizmodo.com/why-harassme...

We’re having a koto exhibition next month and we’re going to be performing “Merry-Go-Round of Life” from Howl’s Moving Castle. Love this song. Although the tuning is one I haven’t done before and it even involves retuning during the piece (moving a few of the bridges), so it is definitely tricky.

Figured I would formally introduce myself on here! I’m Alyssa and I’m a Japanese-English manga translator. I made the switch from administration to translation Fall 2024 and haven’t looked back since. I have two adorable cats, play the koto and piano, and love gaming. よろしく！

Just finished watching season 2 of Kono Oto Tomare! and it’s a crime that there’s no season 3. Time to go binge read all the manga~

#Δ帽子 #とんがり帽子のアトリエ #witchhatatelier #atelierofwitchhat #happyholidays