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Rebranding a Makoto

Two posts back I mentioned speaking to Makoto from JAST USA. For those of you who do not know, Makoto is one of a rare breed of fan translators we have because 1) He is an exceptional translator, 2) Contributed an overwhelming amount to our fan translation scene and 3) Found employment through his fan work (now working as employee for JAST USA). Saya no Uta was the third visual novel I’ve played in my life, after Wind -A Breath of Heart- and Ever17 and the brewing of my love for VNs was definitely owed to the works of Makoto and many others. You guys pioneered it and it changed my life!

Completed Translations (In Chronology):

Jouka no Monshou —– 2009-01-15 Release [TLWiki]
Saya no Uta
, —– 2009-02-24 Fan Release —– Preorder at JAST USA for $24.95 [TLWiki] Kikokugai —– 2010-02-05 Fan Release —– [TLWiki]
Hanachirasu —– 2010-11-14 Fan Release —– Preorder at JAST USA for $19.95 [TLWiki]
Demonbane
(Al route only) —– 2011-05-13 Official JAST USA Release [TLWiki]

On-Hold:
Muramasa (Chapters complete: 5/5 Common, 0/4 Ichijo, 0/4 Kanae, 2/5 True, 0/1 Epilogue)


http://novelnews.net/2009/07/17/jast-usa-is-working-with-fan-translators-for-nitro-titles/


Recounting History: July of 2009
In one shocking revelation, back in July of 2009, I remember a bunch of patches on TLWiki were taken offline (to the inconvenience of many). For me I didn’t understand it well back then but fan translators were going legit. A collaboration was enacted between JAST USA and NitroPlus and it appears Peter Payne had struck a deal with some of the TLWiki staff. So Makoto has actually had a long history of working with JAST.
But they’re all NitroPlus Titles!
Yep. Makoto was one heck of a Nitro+ fanboy. Everything he translated is from Nitro+, except for Jouka no Monshou which is a fanfic written by Gen Urobuchi (best known for being the script writer for Madoka Magica the anime).
He’s also quite the docile type.
Makoto doesn’t participate in forums chat and there isn’t a great deal of talk about this guy apart from the occasional praise you get in the comments. I punched through a section of the internet and it was difficult to find traces of anything he had left behind. I suppose the lot of it is now tossed into the Ethers of 4chan and IRC chat logs. Of course I have no idea what he is actually like in person, so docile is my wild imaginative guess. But, “Mysterious” is indeed a fitting word.
What is the RL relationship between Moogy and Makoto?
It is actually a tantalizing point to dwell on. When I attacked JAST USA two posts ago, Moogy got pissed. In one enraged sweep he labelled me some three character… thing, and progressed to kick me out from the relative warmth and safety that was #TLWiki. (Of course, left out in the wilderness I was unshackled and I howled all I wanted like the crazed lunatic I was). But what is notable is that my banning was caused by an intense displeasure at having had his precious Makoto’s name “dragged in the mud”. And so, given Moogy’s tsun-tsun nature, and based on what limited interaction I have had with the two, I conclude that Makoto was the Seme and Moogy the Uke. I could be wrong. (it could be the other way round.)
But what is important is that I would not insult Makoto personally. I was just angry at JAST USA’s policies. Their view of fan translation was a bit distasteful. 


Makoto is Love.
This guy is love. He loves his Nitro+ big time, enough to propel him to single-handedly translate three of their games. If that’s not just plain bat-shit insane, I don’t know what is. So put your hands together for this one most respected member of the VN translation scene. Makoto lives up to his name – because the Kanji for Makoto can be written as the character for Ai 「愛」 or “Love”.

Tay

I'm the Fuwanovel community admin and a big fan of Visual Novels. The easiest way to get a hold of me is via a PM on the Fuwanovel Forums, by twitter (@ArchmageTay), or by email.

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Anonymous
Anonymous
12 years ago

I LIKE TRAINS

Aaeru
12 years ago

And here is your Jirai:

Most people deep down, know that Fuwanovel can’t really do that much bad. You are taking a set of foreign games, to an area of the internet where it has not existed before. It is being marketed to the “casuals”. You couldn’t exactly… Say that the Japanese devs will lose their bread money because NEW people are discovering their work. It’s free publicity, and bigger audience means the possibility for more fan translation (or cultivating new fan translators).

“But Hey Maan! Piracy is stealing maaan~ you’re killing the industry!” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5SmrHNWhak

… well that is what the publishing industry would tell us. But are they really telling us the truth? With all this free content up on the net and technology getting faster, cheaper and more accessible, you would think that the media business is taking a massive hit from piracy… well hmmmm….. not the case. In fact, the Sky is Rising.

[img]http://cdn.techdirt.com/i/theskyisrising.png[/img]
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120129/17272817580/sky-is-rising-entertainment-industry-is-large-growing-not-shrinking.shtml

Consider that we’ve just been hit by the BIGGEST world recession in 70 years. The people are NOT going to pay for stuff if they can just get it for free. Surely? …But……… the stats are showing otherwise.

Honestly It’s hard to take the argument seriously that more piracy is going to hurt the industry when Peter Payne spends BIG CHUNKS of his advertising dollar at Nyaatorrents! The very place that holds PIRATED COPIES of his own Games! Seriously, why is he bothering with pirates?

The reason why is because Peter knows the biggest industry secret (…or public info) that Piracy is actually Good for business. https://www.google.com.au/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ie=UTF-8&ion=1#hl=en&sclient=psy-ab&q=piracy%20leads%20to%20sales&pbx=1&oq=&aq=&aqi=&aql=&gs_sm=&gs_upl=&gs_l=&fp=3b6b42e17dd83c7b&ion=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.r_qf.,cf.osb&biw=1858&bih=1115

The Money is There! It has not gone. In fact the entertainment industry right now is Booming. If you are an entrepreneur, you don’t go chasing after where the money isn’t. You go for where the money IS. That means… who gives a crap about the people that AREN’T going to pay? If you spend your time chasing the ones that won’t pay you will NOT succeed at turning a profit. I’ve spent thousands of my own assets to funding Japanese Devs for their work on visual novels. I’m not about to reverse all that by making sure that their industry fails.

The biggest threat, to the expansion of the visual novel medium into the West is certainly not piracy, but Obscurity. When you are competing against millions upon millions of pieces of free content on the internet, if you are an artist, you better pray that people will copy your stuff. The money comes after you’ve gotten some spotlight.

I am done with being niche. We’re going to reach for the Anime & Manga crowd first and then move on to a main stream audience. Also I want less middle man (aka gatekeepers). Doing things JAST’ way and going through JP publishers is INEFFICIENT AS HELL. We’ve got people right here who are willing to publish for Japanese devs – and they’ll do it For Free! Let’s talk to the doujin VN creators first and organize them a pledge.

And btw I didn’t even TOUCH on how ridiculously immoral the copyright laws are in the way they are written.

“Libertarians have the intellectual ammunition to show people that what they are feeling and doing online is right, and what the big media and government want to do to them through IP laws is wrong.” http://mises.org/daily/5025/The-Fight-Against-Intellectual-Property

http://fuwanovel.com/other/ME_341_CantEatPrestige.png
http://fuwanovel.com/other/free_culture_graph.png

Metaler
Reply to  Aaeru
12 years ago

I believe that piracy does hurt a small, very small, percentage of the entertainment industry… But the biggest problem is that companies refuse to acknowledge that this is the 21st motherfucking century. They still think they can operate the same way they did 50 years ago, when that’s actually nothing short of a delusion.

Oink
Oink
12 years ago

I see no more rainbow diarrhea!

Cybersteel
12 years ago

Way to go for bringing up that piracy topic again. Regarding that policy makers are way too pre-occupied with that when there’s other more important stuff at hand. The real ones that take all the artists money are the big associations like the MPAA. Cutting a contract with them is somehow the equivalent to selling your soul.

Anon
Anon
11 years ago

rofl

moogy is a good guy

john@doe.com
Reply to  Anon
11 years ago

Go away, Moogy.