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XD; Sorry I haven't been on earlier!

Really? o.o Hmn... Well, I got might bugged that not even my electronic dictionary had "kyoumen" in it.
However, I don't know... personally I wouldn't using scintillating, I think. The word is, to me/as far as I've seen, more of... "wave, flicker". Argh! But without the meaning for the word "kyoumen" I don't dare pick on it too much! >_<;; But I would propbably use "from here" in that case, not "there" because... it sounds a little off (even to me who isn't native English speaker XD; ). I might go for something more like: From here I can see them/the flames flickering above the mirror's surface. But the problem is that it is not FINISHED there. >_<;; And...
(*starts swearing as it just deleted a few row of sentences when she pushed "italics"* Gyya. >_>;; *can't remember what it all was* Sigh)
And see that character in the bottom left corner? The overall picture I get, if "kyoumen" now is "mirror surface" is something more like this:
From here, I can see the flames flickering on the mirror's surface forming "Honoo".
I adapted it slightly here by adding the "forming", after all, the "ni" after "upon the mirror's surface" (kyoumen no ue ni) should mean along the lines of "above/upon the mirror's surface". And what can he see upon the mirror from the distance he stands at? The character "Honoo", the Fire Dragon's name. You read it as a name or something spoken not for its initial meaning but as a word/name because of the... what can I call them? Japanese " signs? ^^;;
So... to conclude my report on page 1, I would make a slight change in the dialogue. ^^
>_<;; And does your friend know the reading of the verb in the second bubble on the next page? The one that does not have furigana and I'm not talking about "ryuuzoku". =D Oh, btw, instead of "Dragon family", I would use "Dragon Tribe". Because family, to me, seems to small. They're too amny to be a family and not everyone is related by blood so... but that might just be my preferences. But Seirei zoku means the Spirit Tribe so...

WARNING: If you read this post, you WILL be subject to spoilers. Nothing I can do about it. Sorry.

There might not be much on Arinas to rule, but I’ll bet my feathers Kharl counts as the Demon King of it anyway. I’m probably getting confused because of all the darn kanji in 25 that I can make out part of, but can’t put all together. For instance, Kharl says something that’s three symbols long. The kanji for “I” followed by “ga” followed by the kanji for “king.” He also says something that includes “one lineage.” I hope I translated that right. But I’m even more upset by the fact that Nadil keeps saying the “Eastern king” did this, and the “Eastern king” did that. And I can make out “Kaaru” all through it. So I know there has to be Kharl-related information in there. But I can’t read it! *radiates frustration* But in any case… if Kharl’s master was the demon king of Arinas (who else could it be?), then that would make Kharl the next king. Which makes Rath the heir. To this I hold. Until proven otherwise.

I like the idea that the birds might have been physical incarnations of his wings. It’s just… nice.

Uh, I’m not sure how long Kharl’s been trying to resurrect his master. I got more the impression that it was a sort of passing fancy for a volume or two, not that he’d been trying to do so and failing for over a hundred years. If Kharl really wanted to bring his master back, I believe he still could. I believe he could have ages ago. And his declaration that “I was getting tired of that thing anyway” might just have easily have been because bringing his master back now would firmly place him in a position against Lykouleon, and it was about that point that Kharl started helping the Dragon Tribe in order to help Rath. He does seem furious with the Eastern King for killing his master, but while it probably still stings, he did get his revenge and ultimately lets the Eastern King go. (sorry, working under the assumption that specter is the Eastern King as most all the major DK players seem to agree)

Brilliant! Yes, my friend also theorized that creating Sinistora drained Kharl of some power. I like this idea very much. But then, having Sinistora hopefully allowed him to regain some of that, to make up for it.

Lol. Leeayre, please. That’s my true alias. Everything else is just for fun. And barbecue bird. If you shorten it, please shorten it to “Leea.” Otherwise I’ll wonder who this “Lee” guy is.

Ah, on this I disagree. I don’t think Kharl sold Rath to Nadil. I don’t think Kharl ‘ever’ intended anything similar for Rath. If anything, Kharl created Rath to be very special. To be an heir/child/companion, whatever. Arinas is pretty lonely. *solemn nod* It’s almost like Kharl created Rath very specifically to reflect a mirror version of himself (wings and all—even the white streak in his hair—is it from Illuser or Kharl?) down to the power he gives him. Why would Kharl give a creation going to Nadil enough power to be a demon prince? NO, I very definitely think Kharl intended Rath to be like, I suppose, the child he’d never have. The epitome of all his creations. He made sure Rath had the power he’d need to rule. And he NEVER intended to give it to Nadil. But something went wrong. Rath died. His soul wandered until it found a body it could inhabit. The body of the dead dog Illuser. How long this took, it’s hard to say. But Rath says something like “Did I choose to be made from that creature, or was it the creature that chose me?” Is it possible that Illuser ‘let’ Rath take his body? As a sort of way of saying to Lykouleon “it’s alright?”

The question of whether or not Kharl could best Nadil is interesting. It probably has to do with Kharl being my favorite antagonist that I tend to think he’d win. Kharl doesn’t seem to ‘want’ to. But the few times we’ve seen him fight… as I remember it, he didn’t get a single scratch. But he seems to tend to skulk around in the background without attracting notice. Sometimes it makes me want to shout “DO something already!” *prays for Kharl’s safety in ending* It’s true that Nadil seems to be leasing a lot of his power. But we’ve never seen the full extent of what Kharl can do either now. Just what we ‘have’ seen seems limitless.

Regarding true forms. *agrees* The human form seems to be indicatory of much power. So the closer a demon is to human form, the more powerful they are. Yes, Shyrendora’s true form is revealed in 25, but it’s also revealed previously in 24, which of course has now been released in English.

As for the translations. Leeayre = @_@ *starts beating her head against the wall* I shall pass on all your notes, oh mighty demonship. Besides, I think my friend shall find this challenging. For the record, though, she said there were a few things that bothered her as well. She came up with scintillating as a form of “to go back and forth” or “fluctuate.” But we don’t usually say a fire fluctuates obviously, so… Personally, I still like flicker. She also had little slashes all over the place. Like “family/tribe.” But I couldn’t fit all the alternate forms into my little speech bubbles when I scanned. So I did my best. If there’re errors, I’m sure they’re my fault. Oh, and that verb you couldn’t figure out? *giggles uproariously* I’m almost 100% positive that’s the same one she couldn’t find. I found that one, thank you very much. It’s a 14-stroke? Yes? Then it’s probably “uba(u).” It means “to rob, to take by force, to captivate” says my kanji dictionary. If you cross-ref it with my kana dictionary, it might also mean “to fascinate.” But we took it to mean “rob” aka “steal.” All together: “Yomigaetsutemomada.” Then “Ryuuzokuniubawasurerunoka.” Did I get all that? She’s the Japanese genius. Talk to her. I just look up kanji and try to make sense out of things like “flicker” “mirror” “face” “up.” @_@ I’m determined to take Japanese classes in a year. Oh, and I’m working on a Japanese translation program. Well, it’s actually more like a flashcard/dictionary program. When completed it’ll hold 2000 kanji. That’s 8000 lines of code. Unfortunately, I’ve only gotten through the first 600 lines. *hits self* I really want to finish it now…

And Nadil, *polite laughter* you really don’t check comment boxes that often, do you? *finds this amusing* I have been amassing an army. *nod, nod* We have a drummer, a general, an ash-wielder, and two evil henchman for sure. And we are bent on overthrowing you and taking over Kainaldia. *much happy nodding* ^_^ SO! *declares war* You really ought not to leave for such long periods… we find things to amuse ourselves with when you do. *all sneaky, sneaky into basement*

This got too long. So I’m separating different parts into different posts.

The scans!

*is clung to—squawks in surprise* Scans! Right! *frantic—whirring, grinding noises from background* OK! ^_^ They’re done! A moment of terror there for a sec when the scanner seemed determined to malfunction. But oh, all electronic devices warm up to me eventually. ^_~ *hides hammer*

*worries* You really don’t mind translating?

The program!

Regarding the program… *groan* Boy, that’s a big subject. Let me start with the beginning. Basically, back when I first decided to attempt to teach myself Japanese (and failed miserably, might I add), a friend gave me a program that flashes through all the kana so I could memorize them. It was a lot easier than making 200-some flashcards by hand. But there are a set number of kana. And then I got to kanji. *louder groan* And I ran into problems all over the place. For one, it’s a pain in the butt to flip through 5 different dictionaries trying to find the 8-stroke section, or the 13. It takes forever! And half the dictionaries I found gave stroke order, but didn’t organize them BY stoke order. There were some organized by grade, and others organized by… *forgot the name* …certain shapes similar to different kanji. And half the dictionaries I ‘did’ find weren’t large enough… So I got tired of it. I want a program like the kana one that will flash through all the kanji for memorization purposes, but that’ll also double as a dictionary—one in which the user can type in a stroke number of 8 and be able to shuffle through all the correct kanji. Or on-reading, or kun-reading, or English. But I have a problem… Building the program was easy (have I mentioned I’m a programmer? ^_^). It already works. It’s just missing all the kanji. For every kanji I want to add, I have to add four lines of code. One for English, one for stroke count, one for on-reading, and one for kun-reading. I worked on it a little last night. I now have 1060 of the lines completed. *even LOUDER groan* It’s pretty tedious, but easy at least. The code needed for the very first kanji looks like this:

'strokeNumArray(0) = "1"
'onReadingArray(0) = "ichi, itsu"
'kunReadingArray(0) = "hito(tsu)"
'englishArray(0) = "one, unity"

And the second kanji like this:

'strokeNumArray(1) = "5"
'onReadingArray(1) = "u, yuu"
'kunReadingArray(1) = "migi"
'englishArray(1) = "right, right wing"

And so forth. The number in parenthesis always one less than the kanji #, and the answer always between quotation marks. What I’ve been doing is going to “Kanji land.” It’s a site online that has images of all of the first thousand two-hundred-and-some kanji, along with a list of each of the things I need. So I’ve been copy/pasting from there. Making sure that the kanji # I’m looking at on the site is always one greater than I put in the parenthesis in the code. (ex: If the site says I’m looking at #500, then “499” is what goes in the ()). I’m halfway through grade 3, with grades 4, 5, and 6 yet to go. And junior-high.

Having said this, I wouldn’t wish this sort of tediousness on anyone. I didn’t expect any favors when I started this project, I don’t expect any now. Nevertheless, I admit that the above examples are what I need (except, of course, starting somewhere around kanji #800 or so, rather than #1). Anyone who has copious amounts of time with nothing to do, I’m not adverse to receiving PMs with nothing but code I can copy/paste. But don’t feel obliged! This is not anyone else’s problem but my own, and should anyone decide to help, I expect I shall owe them many favors. *earnest nodding*

Reply to Scans
Aaargh! Nooo! No skipping out on Sabel! >=E *latchesonto neck with fangs* Sabel be good! We want to know what happened to him and if he's still-- O.O NADIL!! *-* o__O;;; But where did he get that outfit? It looks like something of a mix between his and Shydeman's usual long robes. XD;; Because I can see no end on it. Crap, man, gimmie that. >w> .......... But still.... Saaaaaabeeeeel.... w>

And, uh... <.< >.> You think it possible to get bigger scans? >.>;;; Hmn... Some kanji are a bit blurry at the edges. ^^;;

*begins to jump between replies/topics because she has little time today* Ihave quite some things to do before I graduate. *sigh*

Reply to Everything else
o__o;;;; "Kharl-sama"... ate... you? There's none left for ME to eat!? D= ... XD; Kidding. I'll just take Karill as he is, raw and fresh and bloody. *goes by the mazoku way in Lumen Lunae* (Since, hey, they ate Jilge! XD; Damn, I liked her. >w>)

And what would themagic ash/dust do? >->;;; Make me go to sleep like Sleeping Beauty? XD; Or perhaps turn me into something else? *laughs* But as for midnight snack... yeah, gimmie Karill and I'll be fine. >D Though, good luck catching him.

Well... "arekara", literary, my (electronic) dictionary says means since then. Since there is no blank spaces in Japanese (damn them), it's hard to determine what would be most fitting - are kara or arekara. When these things happen, I say go for what seems to fit in best or make most sense. And so I found "since then" being more fitting. However, I don't know about the "are kiri", I must confess, but I do know the individual meanings of "are" and "kara".

XD;; Well... my dictionary said "flicker", "going back and forth" and "wave" or something if I don't remember wrong. So I chose what seemed most fitting of the meanings I was given since I wasn't too content with her word (or rather, the exact meaning of it perhaps). The problem with such a different language as Japanese is that sometimes, different dictionaries have a bit different way of translating some words. But it's understandable since the language of most of the western world and the two Americas (sicne I don't know what language she speaks originally ^^; ) are from a completely different family than the Japanese.
But personally, I prefer to adapt as little as possible when translating Japanese because, truly, I have had enough of murderous adaptions from Tokyopop's side. ^^; So it's a policy of mine to adapt very little. I feel like the true meaning is lost if you adapt too much.

I can be hard to sometimes find the purpose or meaning for all the words in Japanese, trust me, so I understand why she cut out the "see". But it also means "be visible" so that meaning might have been of more use. But then again, I'm very picky. Haha.
(Oh, and a "nice" example on Japanese words. XD;;;
Seikou - kanji used in this word (or verb if you add "suru") is gender/nature and intersection/coming and going. Could anyone here guess what the word means?
Answer: Sexual intercourse/to make love - it's a rather... graphic description isn't it? Genders intersecting/comign and going... *coughs* ^^;;
So, yeah, just an example. XD;; *saw it as a word example in her kanji learning book that she bought privately*)

^^ Well, that sounds even better, I must say. If you don't like nitpicking, ignore this. XD; The reading for the kanji flame is "honoo", some words are specifically double "o". Like "tooi" (far), if you write "toui" you get another word completely so... but that's for grammer nazis like me. XD;

Ah. Well, it's all about the translator's preferences so I can't really complain. But family still sounds too small for me, considering their number.

I migth end up translating it all/as much as I can. XD; ... When I have the time. ^^;

Sometimes translating can sure be a bother. I likethe final that version of hers but the "there" still bugs me a bit. Hmn... Given more time, and perhaps also more material to work with? (sometimes you need more to see what they meant before) I migth be able to get out something else. Hnn. I'm taking Japanese on the University asap. >->;

Reply to DK discussion

Hmn, true... Perhaps Cesia too, as you say, was a "for the moment" interest. We haven't seen him talking about it/her or trying to get her much since the faliure back in the earlier volumes so we can't know for sure, can we? But he's REALLY... what do you call it, when somebody can't concentrate? XD; I forgot the word. Ah well, whatever.
But yes, the things he really wants and continuately tries to get he finally gets, it seems. Or mostof the time... *thinks of Black Education*

It's not a very usual name over here and when we say it, I guess it gains a softer tone.

Hmn... you got an interesting idea there. But, correct me if I'm wrong, it seemed there as if you were putting it to around the time he got a body, or when the knights went there to cut off Nadil's head/collect it... What we don't know, and would need to know, is whether he and Nadil were tied together before Rath took on Illuser's dead body or not? Because it's before that (Illuser's death) that he seems to be trapped in Nadil's castle after all...
*shakes head* I can only applaude Ohkami-sensei for her brilliance, as always.
o.o XDD *begins to laugh at the "shanghai" part* Yeah, Garfakcy isn't (yet) nearly... powerful or youkai enough to help him with resurrection of any kind. XD; *laughs more at the Kharl and fried egg comparison*
Yes, but sometimes, being cautious can make you miss a lot of opportunities. But it doesn't seem too unreasonable, your version.

XD;; Were there any translations? *saw mostly words* >.> But when you look for kanji, you go on strokes, or? Since there are no furigana (small kana standing beside the kanji to help with the reading) at quite a few of Ohkami's kanji. ^^; Something I dislike because I'm not superb at kanji yet myself. >.>; But I'm trying.
XD;; Yes, I think you did. But for the "uba", thank you very much. ^^

Page 9, I've got one of Nadil's lines (I think). And god, is it ever a so revealing line... >.>;;;

*edits as she goes along*
... Ouch.... *is on page 13 (if she doesn't remember wrong)* First of all. XD; *covers eyes* >__<;;; Augh! The horror! Nadil! Stop bending your finger like that!! XD;; On the right side of the page, top.
Secondly... that's... nice. XD;; And he says it so calmly and nicely. >w>;; "Growing angry, the *title for Kharl* blah blah blah* killed the Eastern King in a very horrifying way, or so I heard." Nadil... that's not something you say "or so I heard" about. >_<;;;; Ugyu... >.>; XD;