Translation Work – Kiss Day

May 23rd is Kiss Day in Japan, commemorating the 1946 release date of はたちの青春 (Hatachi no Seishun), the first Japanese movie to feature a kissing scene. Komugi, an artist I follow (whose work I’ve translated in the past), posted two short manga pages to mark the occasion, and I reached out about translating this one as well. Since there was so little to do I finished pretty quickly and was able to get it out in time for the 23rd in the US (as Japan is one day ahead).

I don’t have a ton to say about the translation this time, since obviously there isn’t a lot of text. One thing I do want to mention is the use of “pretty” instead of the more typical “cute” for かわいい. Ryuji isn’t trying to pay Ann a compliment here, he’s just stating an obvious fact without really thinking about how it comes across. I felt like “pretty” did a better job of carrying this nuance.

As always, matching fonts between the original and translated versions is something that I have a lot of fun with, and I was happy to see that Komugi appreciated the effort:

Also, I didn’t notice until I had uploaded it, but he even went to the trouble of matching my handwriting when translating the title! Please take a look at both versions to see how they compare!

Many thanks to Komugi for letting me translate for her again!