Translator's note - before you read the Persona 2: Inocent Sin novel translation
Hello! I started this translation as a personal project to practice translation from Japanese to English, to see if I might be interested in pursuing it in the future. I figured I'd share it publicly too, since it's never been translated and it presents the events of the game from a different perspective. Persona 2 is one of my favorite games, and I'd love to help share as much of the lore/story as I can.
Speaking of the story, this novel is told from the point of view of Anna Yoshizaka, an NPC. I don't think this novel is intended to be a substitute for playing the game, but more of a supplement material. I highly recommend you familiarize yourself with the events of the game before reading it.
I cross-reference the game in both English and Japanese to ensure consistency when I can. For the most part, I try to use terms established in the English translation ("Cuss" and "shadowman" for example). I may use terms from the original Japanese where I think it fits better (keeping Noriko's "onee-sama" instead of the English translation of "sister" for example). The English translation of the video game takes out a lot of the "sama" honorifics (used for Joker, Lady Scorpio, etc.) so right now I'm doing the same because I like it better that way. But I might go back and add them in later since I sort of feel like I don't have enough of a reason to exclude them. I don't know. We'll see.
Some important things to note:
I'm not yet fluent in Japanese. You might be wondering why I'd even bother translating a novel if I'm not fluent, but the sentences are at a relatively simple level of Japanese, with (for the most part) the only thing I need to look up being vocabulary. It's also a good challenge and I'm learning a lot :)
(but mostly I was tired of waiting until I was "fluent enough" to know what happens)
That being said, this is the first document I'm translating, so it probably won't be the best translation it could be. There are some awkward parts as I couldn't quite figure out what it was trying to say. I can still guarantee that you'll be able to get the gist of the story, though. I'll go back and edit things as I am able/see fit.
I'm publishing my work as I go, chapter by chapter. It takes me awhile to translate and edit chapters. I might get busy, life could get in the way, my health could get in the way, or I might just lose interest. I'll do my best to stick it out til the end, because otherwise I won't know what happens either. But in the end, I figured some translation was better than none.
With that out of the way, I hope you all enjoy my translation!
Speaking of the story, this novel is told from the point of view of Anna Yoshizaka, an NPC. I don't think this novel is intended to be a substitute for playing the game, but more of a supplement material. I highly recommend you familiarize yourself with the events of the game before reading it.
I cross-reference the game in both English and Japanese to ensure consistency when I can. For the most part, I try to use terms established in the English translation ("Cuss" and "shadowman" for example). I may use terms from the original Japanese where I think it fits better (keeping Noriko's "onee-sama" instead of the English translation of "sister" for example). The English translation of the video game takes out a lot of the "sama" honorifics (used for Joker, Lady Scorpio, etc.) so right now I'm doing the same because I like it better that way. But I might go back and add them in later since I sort of feel like I don't have enough of a reason to exclude them. I don't know. We'll see.
Some important things to note:
I'm not yet fluent in Japanese. You might be wondering why I'd even bother translating a novel if I'm not fluent, but the sentences are at a relatively simple level of Japanese, with (for the most part) the only thing I need to look up being vocabulary. It's also a good challenge and I'm learning a lot :)
(but mostly I was tired of waiting until I was "fluent enough" to know what happens)
That being said, this is the first document I'm translating, so it probably won't be the best translation it could be. There are some awkward parts as I couldn't quite figure out what it was trying to say. I can still guarantee that you'll be able to get the gist of the story, though. I'll go back and edit things as I am able/see fit.
I'm publishing my work as I go, chapter by chapter. It takes me awhile to translate and edit chapters. I might get busy, life could get in the way, my health could get in the way, or I might just lose interest. I'll do my best to stick it out til the end, because otherwise I won't know what happens either. But in the end, I figured some translation was better than none.
With that out of the way, I hope you all enjoy my translation!
Thank you so much for doing this!! I've always wanted to read the books but my Japanese isn't good enough yet so I appreciate this.
ReplyDeleteI just want to say thank you so damn much, you may recognize me as Digital Devil Arts25 on most platforms, I really liked Anna but we didnt know all that much about her in depth, this book is easily making her my my top 3 characters and I am so greatful for your work on this novel, I wish you the best and I really hope you can bring this to completion!
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