Hi, I just read Mato-chan and quite liked it. It has a lot of stuff about insects, but at least its cute.

I translated the four first pages. First time I translated manga, so I'm not sure how well I could do it. :P

Second page

Fourth.

Well, since I can't see the original Japanese, it's hard to say how good the translation is, but it reads well in English.

The typesetting could be a little better, though. The font choice isn't bad (although I personally might choose something else), but the feel of the text as a whole could be improved, for example, by centering it better, by not letting parts of it stick out of bubbles or boxes (hard with some Japanese word bubbles, I know), and by rotating it in the second panel of the 4koma on the left in the fourth page to match up properly with the paper as it appears in the comic.

There are a couple parts where the punctuation in the English could perhaps be better, but of course it's hard to tell whether those are just inadvertent mistakes or purposeful attempts to retain the style of the origina.

Keep it up. The humor of these comics kind of reminds me of something out of Azumanga Daioh -- hit and miss -- but I'd be interested in seeing more!

Thank you for the advice. I'll try to get the hang of GIMP. Now I can rotate text! :o

It might also be a good idea to have the text on its own layer...

I ended up using Times New Roman here. The problem is that Mato-chan's lines are usually long when the other characters' aren't.

These look better! Being able to rotate the text is quite useful, and ensuring that nothing sticks out makes it more pleasant to read.

I only have two more suggestions for now. First, although I know it's kind of a pain (and unfortunately it's not always feasible, either), if you try to consolidate the text in a given speech bubble so that it looks more like a single block, it'll probably make things look more professional. For example, right now the text you put into the first speech bubble in the second panel of the left-hand column of the first of the last two images you posted here, the word "I" is on a line of its own in the middle of all that text above and below it. That can easily be scrunched into, say, the line above it, which would make the block of text look a little more solid. I've tried to show you what I mean in the image I attached. Here, I also decided to hyphenate "observe" to keep the same sort of solidarity -- but I'm not about to get dogmatic and say that leaving it un-hyphenated would be bad or anything. It's just that then I would have had a similar problem with the word "to" sitting on a skinny little line all its own. Like I said, sometimes it may not be entirely possible, but in general one should try for a more unified shape inside the speech bubbles. If it's an actual bubble, then the text should be sort of a rounded box. If it's a square, then it should be more square-like. In either case, you often have to go in and tweak with the formatting that automatic centering leaves you with. Otherwise it just throws things out of whack.

The second suggestion I have has to do with the last panel of the right column in the second image you just posted. You put the text "Let's go to the pool already" above the Japanese, which means you had to squeeze it in on top of those speed lines, hanging halfway in and halfway out of the panel. If you had erased the Japanese and put the translation there instead, I think it would have looked nicer and read more easily.

Also, if a single line is just a little bit too long, then you can always go in and reduce the width of just that one line. You can do that in Photoshop (I actually did it with "wouldn't" in the above picture...reduced it to 97% because I thought it was just a little too long at 100%), and I'm sure you can do it with Gimp. That might have been useful to do with the word "swimming" in the line "Oh, swimming goggles" in the first panel of the left column of the first image you posted, since it's pushing up against the edges of the speech bubble at its current size. Oftentimes a small change is enough to tweak things around to a size that's slightly more visually appealing, without actually alerting the reader to the fact that you're changing the dimensions of the font.

Thank you! Really, I didn't expect to get advice this good.

Mato-chan's first line in Japanese is ゲンゴロウの気持ちに・・・・
And it's an answer to the question ・・・まとちゃん、それだけつけてどうするの

Not really sure how good my translation there is. :/

>>10
Seems pretty good. I imagine it's something like "To see/feel what it's like to be a diving beetle."

Your typesetting is looking good. Keep it up!

Pool chapter ends.

Lunchtime.

No more??

And more you shall have.

Nothing about bugs here. Carry on.

I love it. =)

To celebrate me passing JLPT1, a little Mato-chan.

...ok, I'm just bored.

Sorry, shouldn't have left かりっ untranslated.

*From the left on the blackboard:
Soldier and Self Defence Force member.
Policeman and security guard.
Doctor and ambulance driver.

I didn't have enough GIMP-skills to edit it into the board... sorry. And I'm not completely sure about these as you can't read but the じ of the presumed 自衛官・・・

And after consulting with a native speaker of Japanese, かりっ is in fact not clink! but crunch! Again, I must apologise for my incompetence.

Uzu-chan is back! Wohoo!

The way she is about bugs is the way I am about anime.... o_______o;;

"Can you answer that WITHOUT relating it to Cowboy Bebop...?"

^^;;

Thank you, it's nice to know Mato-chan has at least one reader.

What Would Kaworu Do? is my motto. Although, now that you reminded me about Cowboy Bebop, I have this sudden urge to watch it again... Blu-ray version of the movie maybe? ;)

Sentai time! I want to be Cure White.

This time they're going to run a marathon. Only it's a short marathon. How can one run a short marathon?

マラソンなんか言葉、どう使ってんのよ。Marathonとは訳せなかったけど・・・ｗ

マラソンにチャレンジしてるってわけかｗ

Yeah, semantic shift of loan words is a real pain in the ass when you natively speak the language from which the majority of loan words have been borrowed. Chinese doesn't count, because the Japanese don't consider Sino-Japanese vocabulary to be "foreign," even though it totally is. But Sino-Japanese words aren't written in katakana and forever marked as alien -- that dubious distinction is reserved for western loan words... 差別はいけないってみんな分かってるというのに・・・

そんなのドンマイ！と言いたいところだけど、やっぱりちょっとむかつく。

Now, if I may make a few suggestions to your recent work:
>>19 Stupefying Demand
I think this is supposed to be "Supply and Demand" (需要と供給）

>>22　Even though she wanted to say it
I can understand why you'd want to use "even though" here, but I don't think it's a good way to translate the のに in this case. のに is, as I'm sure you're aware, often used not so much logically as emotionally. I think a better translation here would be something less literal, like "No chance to say what she wanted," although that's pretty long for a title. "Things she wanted to say" might be alright, since you could follow it up with "The thing she wanted to say" for the next title, which would jive with the way the phrasing of the two titles matches up in the Japanese.

>>22 lise
I think you've misspelled "lice" here.

>>23 Ant.
I think this might read better as "Ants." myself. It seems more natural to me to start with the idea of ants in general, here.

>>23 the various onomatopoeia left untranslated
It's a shame these onomatopoeia aren't translated, but I can't really fault you too much for it, since I can't really think of good equivalents in English, either. If you really want to include onomatopoeia but can't think of actual onomatopoeia that work in English, you always have the option of actually describing in a word or phrase what sort of feeling is being conveyed. For example, since "poka poka" describes a feeling of pleasant warmth, and Uzu-chan is being depicted as a cold-blooded creature sitting in the sun, you might write something like "waaarm" or "warmth" or something, perhaps editing the text to make it look...somehow....warm. It ain't easy, though. But doing something to convey the idea that she's sitting there in warmth, not just in lethargy, would be an improvement, I think. As for "Ju ju ju," I'm not sure exactly what it means. I think it means something like sort of sizzling in the sun, so if you dig that you could write "sizzle," although that makes it seem kind of extreme, and I think it's less pronounced in the Japanese than "sizzle" would make it seem English. And finally, regarding "tremble" and "TREMBLE" as translations for "piku piku" and "biku biku" -- which I suppose Uzu-chan is diong because Mato is blocking her warm sun -- it works, but I think it might be better as different words than as the same word, only in capital letters the second time. For example, maybe "tremble" or "quiver" for the first one and "shiver" for the second (which includes a semantic shift from simple oscillation to oscillation with the feeling of cold implied).

>>25 Rubbish Disposal Chute
This could be shortened to just "Garbage Chute," at least in America.

>>25 No!?
Maybe it's just me, but this struck me as a little unnatural in English. "Um, no?!" would be natural to me, but just "No?!" on its own seems kind of strange. Also, and again this may just be my opinion, but to me it's more natural to write ?! instead of !? in English. In Japanese, it's more natural to wite !? than ?!, though.

>>26 Name
This seems like a pretty dull way to render そのなは into English, to me. そのなは carries with it a little bit of dramatic flair, I think, and it implies a continuation that's left out and builds up a sort of anticipation in the reader that "Name" by itself does not. That's why I'd write this as "Her name is..." instead of just "Name." Likewise, I'd write "Her color is..." for the second title, rather than just "Color." Er, "colour," yes. You are allowed to use British spellings, of course. >_>

>>27 A Choice
Although I can see why "wakareta michi" might be difficult to translate here, I think you can do better than just "A Choice." For example, you might title the strip "A Different Path." Although it would be a bit of a liberal translation in that "wakareta" means "split," which isn't quite "different," I don't think there's a good equivalent word for "split" in English that can be used in the same way. And I think that "A Different Path," although perhaps not 100% accurate, is still more accurate than "A Choice," since not only does the word for "choice" or "choosing" not appear in the Japanese, but "wakareta" doesn't convey (to me) so much a sense of "having the choice to choose a different path" as much as it does just the sense of "a different path."

Take what suggestions you will, and leave what you disagree with. I don't mean to criticize your translations negatively, so please don't take it that way. You've done quite a good job of translating everything overall. It's easy to pick out problem spots in a translation, especially when you aren't the one who translated the thing originally. Hope you continue with the translations and bring us more of Mato-chan. :)

引き続き、よろしくお願いします！

そりゃそうっすな。むかつくものはむかつく。１キロメーターのマラソンの響きはちょっと変に聞こえてね・・・でも一番嫌いなのはやっぱしカンニングする。考えるだけで頭痛が襲ってくる。ｗ

You're right about that stupefying demand should be supply and demand. I just had read the と as ど, so it became 需要度胸級。

About 22, maybe something along the lines of "She wanted to say it" and "What she wanted to say".

Thanks for the corrections!

My pleasure. And yeah, now that you mention it, I also read it as どきょう at first, but it didn't make much sense, and once I read the rest, 需要と供給 made much more sense. But that font does make it look like ど, doesn't it...

>>31 "She wanted to say it" and "What she wanted to say"
Yeah, that'd work alright, too.

I'm usually not into these kinds of manga, but Mato-chan has a sadistic streak I really enjoy. Keep up the good work!

Just a little thing I noticed: shouldn't it be "woodlice" instead of "woodlise"?

I humbly request moar.

>>30

I'm terribly sorry, I just realized how long your comment was. :O

I must thank you again for it. Especially your comment about ぽかぽか was something I really appreciate. "As for "Ju ju ju," I'm not sure exactly what it means." I don't think it's じゅじゅじゅ、but rather じわじわじわ, meaning slowness of movement I guess.

>>34 It's only going to get more sadistic. And yes, it should be wood lice. A kingdom I would give to have a spell checker in GIMP. An insect kingdom though. So don't expect too much.

>>35 I always wanted someone to say 'moar' to me! Now I'm teary eyed like a girl from shoujo manga who has just heard that her parents were killed in a mysterious plane crash in Russia.

I shall deliver. By the way, isn't Mato-chan charmingly Darwinian?

PS. That bigger dragonfly is Anotogaster sieboldii.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anotogaster_sieboldii

>>36 Wow, you weren't kidding. Mato-chan isn't the kind of kid who pulls legs off bugs just for fun, she does it for SCIENCE! Anon delivered.

How many more of these are there?

Seven colour pages and about 90 black and white pages left untranslated. Maybe I should try to recruit someone to do the onerous task of editing the text. Or maybe even proofread.

Then there's Chiro-chan, some kind of sequel to Mato-chan. Actually there seems to be a scanlation group planning to scanlate Chiro-chan to English. Though they don't seem to have any plans for Mato-chan...?

http://owlscans.110mb.com/chiro.html

I'm sorry for not posting 4koma but this picture of Uzu-chan. She is just too cute not to be posted. Any ideas about how to translate these のまき -type of headlines? Something like 'The chapter of the class and Uzu-chan'? Or maybe just 'The class and Uzu-chan'? The class and Uzu-chan chapter?

>>38 If you feel like it, I volunteer as text editor. I haven't actually edited a manga before, but I have over five years of photoshop experience. Or maybe it would be better with someone who knows Japanese.

>>38
I think I might go with "Uzu-chan and the class," myself. Though I'd leave out the honorifics. But the kids like them, so it's no harm to leave them in. I can't think of any way to throw in the word "chapter" without making it sound unnatural.

Dear Anonymous number 39, I'd be honoured(not honored) if you would be so kind as to be Mato-chan's text editor.

Five years of photoshop experience is much better than my three months of GIMP experience.

My MSN Messenger address is Zzap@sunpoint.net
It hasn't worked as an email address for five years now so don't bother sending me spam. Or feel free to do so.

>>40 Yup, no "chapter" might be the best way to go. Thanks.

>>41 The honour (I'm a Eurofag) is mine, I enjoy this manga and need some practice anyway. And if it means more updates, I'm all for it. Added you to my list.

My very first attempt at editing ever, and I'm pretty happy with it. Constructive critique is welcome.

And thanks to OP for the translation and raw.

Slightly improved version.

Thank you Mato-chan, for teaching me what spiracles are.

Crud, forgot my file.

I'm horrible.

>>47
lol

As the editor, this page is my favorite. It had like half the normal amount of text, so I barely have to work at all.

I can't believe I just edited a manga titled "Bukkake", starring little girls.

This is nightmare fuel

OP here. All colour pages translated.

To honour this occasion, I'm going to reveal who is Daimonger Green.

...she's Hatsune Miku!

Drawn by none other than Mato-chan's mangaka Yuuki Shinichi! Whose little sister happens to be the artist behind Kannagi.

As OP said, only two strips left, and then we go over to black and white.

Thank you for the translations.
I am greatly enjoying Mato-chan.
Keep up the good work.

OP here.

>>55

Thank you, kind anonymous. With the help of my trusty editor were getting along in quite a good speed.

And now something not so completely different. Btw, there's going to be a shota.

As the translator said, we're picking up pace. But we won't be posting them all at a time.

Editor here, sorry for the lack of updates lately. I've been busy with conventions, orks, nephews and stuff like that, so I'm a bit behind now. And the translator has been kidnapped by the president, and I'm not a bad enough ninja to rescue him. But don't worry, he left a dozen translated Mato-chan strips for me to clean up, and hopefully he'll be back before I run out of material. So stay tuned, kids.

I don't completely understand what's going on in this page, but I do know I'd rather stay ignorant.

By the way, how many people actually read this? Just curious.

Introducing Papa. Apples don't fall far from the trees and all that.

I'm the board admin, and I check it religiously.

Truly,

Cosmo Gunny

I'm NOT the board admin, and I check it religiously.

It's not my favorite yonkoma ever, but it's good. I really enjoy and do check it. Please keep it coming.

Religiously, eh? Dibs on being pope. Bug Pope.

>>64 Hey admin, I have three or so title pages from the coloured pages that we haven't uploaded yet. Problem is they're "pin-ups" (no, not that kind of pin-ups, pervert) and not comics, and we don't want to mess with the rules. So do we have permission to post the title pages?

>>65 To be honest, it's not my favorite either (that would be Afuganis-tan) but I'm warming up to it. Being a biology nerd helps, though.

I love Afuganis-tan! Nobody I talk to has ever heard of it. It might actually be my favorite too. If not, it's way up there.

Mato-chan is NOT a morning person.

I have just read it.

Started reading.

>>59 I don't know if I'd be happier if names had or had not been changed...

Hello, Insect Judas here. Happy to know there are pious followers of Mato-chan. I'm not going to betray our Goddess.

I have started retranslating the first strips. We should have cleaner versions of them this month. Hopefully.

>>69 In the original it was Nami Etsuko. Some obscure talent. Well, all Japanese idols and talents are obscure but anyway.

If we had decided to use the original name, we couldn't have used slug.

Some things just don't translate well. Of course it might just be my inaptitude again.

>>66 sure, go for it.

From translation team to bizarre cult in one week. Surely, nothing can go wrong.

Bug Pope here. Sorry about the lack of updates yesterday, I was out enjoying the early summer. Luckily for you, I never tan and get burnt like bacon almost insantly, so today I've had to stay indoors and edit some more Mato-chan.

To make up for the lack of update yesterday, have one of those title-pages. This one's from the pool chapter.

Bug Pope here. Bad news, everyone. My computer decided to be a complete dick, so now I don't have access to the translated pages, raws or the translation notes. They're still there, but I can't get the computer to start up. Not sure how to deal with that, but I'm working on it. Meanwile, I won't be able to keep up the daily updates. Not that I usually do, though.

Have some Daimonger while we wait.

Lo and behold! Mata-chan rises from the dead after Bug Pope finally got his hands on a working computer.

>>75 And the crickets rejoice.

I think.

Pretty sure.

• Poster #69

>>76 Pretty sure is enough for me.

Have another title pa- wait, what? Isn't this supposed to be a family friendly manga?

>>70
I thought your use of Simon Cowell was brilliant.

Those are called nostrils, Mato-chan.

Bug Pope has run out of translation, so until Insect Judas provides him more he'll upload the new and improved version of the first strips.

>>62
I think this is referring to a particular kind of parasitic worm that infects insects. It can only breed in water, so at a certain stage in its life cycle it causes its host to involuntarily jump into a pool of water and drown itself, allowing the worm to swim out the bug's butt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76BnVsaLiR0

>>82
That is so disgusting.

Hi, I've started translating Mato-chan again. Five new pages translated.

...though I really should study for my entrance exams. Still, Mato-chan is a bit more important to me personally.

>>79 Thank you, I really appreciate your kind words you noble anonymous.

>>82 That is so cool.

Guess who's back, back again? Bug Pope's back, tell a friend.

Ah, this page brings back so many terrible memories of PE class and gym teachers with high ambitions but poor grasps on reality. I think delusion is actually required if you want to get a job as PE teacher.

Anybody else who gets flashbacks to Azumanga Daioh's shoe-kicking scene?

Testing a new font.

>>87
Loggerhead shrikes are awesome. I remember seeing photos of their prey in my college ornithology class.

>>88 Somehow, it's very fitting that Mato-chan would be a bird also known as "butcher bird."

End of the omake chapter. I don't know about you, but Mecha-Mato is going to haunt my nightmares together with Horse Head forever.

Bonus title page, 'cause I felt like it.

New chapter.

>>90
You want to talk about nightmare fuel, just wait until you get to the giant pillbugs near the end.

Is this project still being worked on? It's been a while since the last update.

>>95 Bug Pope here. No, we're not dead yet, even if it really looks like that. The Mato-chan project is still alive, but in a sort of coma because of real-life things that got in the way. Like moving, travels, zombies and so on. Luckily, this busy period in both our lives is calming down a bit, so we should get new translations done soon. I hope. Thanks for your patience.

>>96 Good luck with the zombies. Remember, go for the brain pan!

>>97 Actually, I was one of the zombies. Zombiewalks are awesome, but distracting.

Better version of an old page. Not much, but it's something.

Rejoice, new page!

Yay, random image of the day. Hopefully this will get us more readers.

>>101
Well, it got me to read. Good stuff.

>>100
Just in case anyone was curious, the river Mato-chan sees is most likely the Sanzu River, the Buddhist equivalent of the River Styx, which people cross on their way into the afterlife.

>>103
I'm curious, did you intentionally translate the title of the strip on the right that way? Literally it's more like "Finishing Warming Up."

>>104
Thanks for pointing out. It was not intentional. For some reason I translated the title of the strip on the left twice...

Though I'd translate it as "The warm season is over".

>>104 Bug Pope here, I take responsibility for messing up the titles. Long story short, there was some confusion between me and Insect Judas, but here's the corrected version.

Riki-chan is our favorite character, he's like a fuzzy little animal staring into the headlights of an approaching truck. And that truck is life.

TMI, Uzu-chan.

I feel slightly uncomfortable about the recent focus on Riki-chan's penis.

Just out of curiousity, who's your favorite Mato-chan character?

Thank you so much for translating. :3 I like Matochan. Please continue?

>>110 Thanks! Insect Judas have been lazing about for awhile, it's time I start nagging him about getting some more translations done.

That is win. For cataloguing reasons, how many chapters have you uploaded (if you can really apply that term to 4koma)?

>>112

Hm, good questions. I don't really feeling like counting right now though, you can do that yourself if you're really curious. And actually I think the term chapters isn't that unaccurate, especially not with Mato-chan. One chapter, one storyline.
And for those wondering, we've not even reached the halfway mark yet. Still plenty of pages left.

Bugpope

True believers, rejoice. Insect Judas translated another page of the holy scripture, where we learn more of Saint Riki-chan the Terrified, soiler of pants.

Insect Judas here. I just came back from Tallinn, and translated a page of Mato-chan for Bug Pope to edit. I am doing most of my translations at work when I feel bored. So I really hope I don't have that much work to do, that way I would get more work done on Mato-chan.

I was enjoying that focus on Riki-chan as much as anyone. But all good things must end.

Actually I don't think anybody enjoys Riki-chan quite as much as you seem to do, Judas. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

The tables have turned! Now it is not me who is being lazy, it is Bug Pope. I've translated more Mato-chan. We get to see a new character, who doesn't quite share Mato-chan's fondness of insects.

I must thank you for this.

Its rather amusing.

>>117 By our lazyness combined, we're Captain Lazy.

Either this is some untranlatable pun, or Mato's brain finally broke down.

Don't eat the yellow snow, kids.

I had the Katamari theme playing inside my head while editing this.

Then again, I ALWAYS have the Katamari theme playing inside my head.

>>116
I hate when that happens.

You know what, I'll upload an extra page today because I feel bad about keeping you waiting. That and I'm getting fed up with the snow chapter. Tomorrow: boobs.

Damn, Mato-chan grew up nicely.

You know what? Screw college. I'm going to Bug University.

Hey, who is this new mystery character?

Cute and great! Keep em coming!

>>127 You bet we will! We've already made it across the halfway mark, and we have a few plans for this project. Stay tuned.

Yeah, I don't think this is gonna work.

>>129
Mato doesn't smile often enough.

>>130 This chapter is one of those few rare moments when she shows any emotion at all.

And can you hear that? That's the sound of Mato-chan's heart breaking.

Experimenting a bit with fonts here.

What's this? Conflict, in my Mato-chan? It's more likely than you think.

Summer in December! Also a kaiju joke.

You're creepy uncle Bugpope here. I was gonna post page 72 today, only to find that my computer ate my edit. I'll remake it tomorrow, hang tight.

If you want, I could edit for you.

It's all right, I just had a busy week. The new pages will be up soon, along with a special surprise. Oh, and happy 1 year anniversary of this thread.

Bug Pope, where art thou? It's Mato-chan's anniversary and you aren't online! :O We should celebrate this in Stockholm with champagne. Maybe some fried grasshoppers with it.

Just translated a page of Mato-chan. I'm now 2 and half pages ahead of Bug Pope... I just hope my Christmas holiday is a boring one and I'll get more work done on Mato-chan.

>>136

Thanks, but I think I'll go to the bitter end with Bug Pope on this project. But maybe we could start work on some other manga? I don't know if I'd find the motivation to do two translation projects at once though... even if I do have the time.

Gah, sorry guys. I've been really busy this time of the year, I hope BALLS will make up for it. Looking on the bright side, I'm unemployed this spring which could mean more updates for you. Let's see.

Oh, and I'm all for a meeting in Stockholm, maybe later in the spring. We gotta discuss this further.

Just read this, it's extremely amusing. I think I may have to convert to your religion.
By the way, it's perhaps a bit late to be saying this, but I think in >>119, she's just replacing various things that have "snow" (traffic reports, Sapporo Snow Festival, snow viewing daifuku) in them with "bug".

First page of the decade. Insect Judas forgot to translate a few small words in panel 2, but the awkwardness is still intact.

>>141
In panel 2 those are just sound effects of kids screaming ('waaa' and 'kyaaa').

When I translate cidada noises, I personally like to use "Zree" and "Zreet."

Bugpope here, I still haven't left "Lazy Holiday Mode", but the next page is under editing. In the meantime, enjoy this hastily shooped inofficial Azumanga Daioh/Mato-chan crossover I just crapped out.

>>142 Hm, I like "Zree", might change it in a later special edition.

I've now translated Mato-chan until page 82. And I like zreet too.

Zreet it is then.

More fanse- OH DEAR GOD, THE HORROR!

New fan from /mgn here, hoping for more moe bug horror...

>>147

Welcome to the show. Also noticed that the BALLS! page is the featured image of the day. I suppose I have to get more edits done, then...

Gotta get my act together like Mato-chan has.

Nice to see the translation project is still going. (Another immigrant from /mgn/ here.)

The more the merrier. Too bad you guys arrived in the middle of the only chapter without any glasses in it, but everybody loves goggles right? Right?

Goggles are cool too. In fact, they look kind of like "bug eyes" to me...which is particularly fitting for Mato-chan.

this is cool

Go go Mato-chan (And translators).

*is also from /mgn/

I'm glad to see new people here.

Bug Pope has promised to do more work on Mato-chan.

I don't feel an urge to translate any more Mato-chan now because I have so many pages already translated, so I really need him to pick up his pace so I can pick up mine.

Don't worry Insect Judas, all these new readers have pleased my shallow, selfish desire for attention and motivated me to get on with it.
And look, in today's page Mato-chan even smiles. What a rare treat.

Bonus page, just 'cause I felt like it.
Yeah, nothing good could ever come out of that box.

Ah, Mato-chan's smile! So innocent, and yet so bone chilling...

Next page is %98 done, I'm just waiting to hear back from Insect Judas about a confusing typo.

She has so much to live for!

Bonus page, because it's so short.
Apparently, it's about an untranslatable chinese proverb. There was no way to preserve the put and make it understandable at the same time, so Insect Judas went for accuracy instead.

Jizō (also known as Ksitigarbha) protects and guides the lost souls of dead children, and statues of him are often placed near roads and cemetaries. Ironically, he "holds a monk's staff called in Japanese a shakujo (jingle staff), which is used to alert insects and small animals of his approach, so that he will not accidentally harm them." (Wikipedia) which doesn't apply to Mato-chan at all.

>>162
I thought "enlightened into a mummy" sounded kind of weird, so I looked at the raw, and when I did a search on 'Sokushinbutsu' (即身仏)....

All I can say is holy shit.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokushinbutsu

Also, isn't that the statue that Mario can turn into wearing the Tanuki suit in SMB3?

>>163 You're right about tanuki suit!

http://blogs.ign.com/PikaPal13X/2007/11/24/72612/

Wow, pretty cool to actually know this now. I want to play SMB3 again.

And that 即身仏-thing really got me when I was translating that page. :D It's a shame they don't do it any more. A good way to get into nirvana. Also, I translated page 84 today.

Bug Pope here, I honestly understood the mummy part right away. Then again, I know an unhealthy amount of gruesome trivia, so it's not normal.

Read about a monk that did it quite recently, like twenty years or something ago, and became a tourist sensation. His mummy now wears sunglasses after a lizard made its nest inside one of his eyesockets.

AND KNOWING IS HALF THE BATTLE!

I got the mummy part too (thanks, Inuyasha), but I'm not sure how it applies to a frog.

>>166
Well that part I understood at least, it's just a dried out dead frog that Mato found.

I didn't realize frogs would just spontaneously mummify like that...

>>168
I guess if you leave one out in the hot sun all summer they do.

Insect Judas here. Nothing to do with Mato-chan really, but thought this might interest some of you:
http://zepy.momotato.com/2010/03/07/yuuki-shinichi-does-kannagi-spinoff-on-rex/

Bug Pope here, with the very, very delayed episode. Sorry about that, but I don't know how long I can keep this up. I love Mato-chan and I love all you guys, but the truth is I'm a bit fed up with editing. Long story short, my real life has changed quite a bit since I started as editor over a year ago, and I don't have as much spare time and energy as I used to. It's starting to feel like a chore sometimes, and that's not good for anybody.
And that's why updates are so slow. I'd still like to edit more Mato-chan, but at the moment I just feel like taking a break for a few months. Maybe let somebody else take a shot at editing, at least for a while. If Insect Judas is okay with that, of course.

>>171
The one on the right is specifically a reference to Episode 29 of Mushiking, which shares the same title, and according to google images has a similar scene (although the title is somewhat mistranslated here, it's closer to "Grave of the Roses").

Could the one on the left be referencing To Heart? I'm not familiar with that series, but I'm not sure how とうはと = "Have Some Candy."

How many of those strips exist out there? Are they still being made?

>>173
There are a little over 120 pages worth. The book came out in 2006 though, so I don't think new ones are still being made.

There's also a sequel/spinoff featuring one of Mato's classmates called Chiro-chan.

>>172 Bugpope here. Regarding the title, Insect Judas' notes says:

"title: It seems to be the name of a candy company, touhato. Might have something to do with that company going bankrupt. I suggest 'Have some candy'"

Personally I can't read moon-runes at all, so I have no idea what it's supposed to say. "Have some candy" makes no sense within the context, but it's the best I could do with what I had. I'm just in charge of cleaning the raws, typesetting and sometimes some small corrections to make the english sound more natural (neither one of us are native english speakers, which probably shows at times).

>>175
Well just based off a cursor google image search, "touhato" seems to be "To Heart" although it's usually written with an extended 'a' sound (and also in katakana: トゥハート) and since I'm not faimilar with the series I can't say for certain if the strip is related or not. Based on the fact that it's a romance series though, it seems like there could be some kind of connection.

Your English sounds perfectly natural when you post, but I'll admit that it comes across as kind of awkward in several of strips. I always kind of chalked that up to the translation scripts though.

>>176

If it is a ToHeart referance, it's pretty subtle in my opinion.

I'm quite familar with the original ToHeart anime, and I've seen most of the spinoffs. I can't recall anything in the anime that matches this manga. However, it could be a scene from the ToHeart game(s). The game came first, after all.

The other strange thing is that "ToHeart" is always written in English letters, even in the official Japanese media (titles, credits, packaging, etc.) It seems odd to write it in Hiragana here if it is a ToHeart reference. Even if they didn't want to use English, then Katakana would be the logical choice rather than Hiragana.

An Update for those who like the little Mato-chan

From /azu/, Bug Pope said:
Just wanted you to know that the translator and I have decided to drop translating Mato-chan due to us getting bored and having too little spare time left. So if you're still interested, you're free to translate the rest. Just wanted you to know

Ralen said:
Thanks for the heads up. I was getting kind of depressed seeing that the thread on the 4koma board hadn't updated in so long.

I may pick it up in the near future (I'm working on the Ichigo Mashimaro volume 6 compilation right now), although I think I'll probably start over from the beginning (minus the pages that were already covered in Watashi no Oniichan).

Bug Pope Replied:
Sure, even if it sort of makes our work redundant since your translations will probably be better. But as long as Mato-chan is kept alive, I'm okay with anything

Bug Pope here, with some news. After a lot of discussion, Insect Judas and I have decided to drop Mato-chan. We tried to keep it moving for a long time, but it turned out that neither of us actually had any fun with the project anymore, and we just don't have the time anymore. As we see it, it's better to just drop the project so that others may pick it up (Ralen's been interested, if I recall correctly) than to hold on to it and release only a page or so every month or something, and only because we feel we "have to". Mato-chan deserves better than this.
We might do another translation project later on, but there's no solid plans.
Last but not least, I want to give a big, heartfelt thanks to all the fans and readers who cheered us on over the past year or so, without you we would never have made it this far. You've been a great audience/cult, and I hope some other translator will get interested in Mato-chan so that the whole thing gets completed some day. Thanks for the great times, we've both learned a lot, but it's time to move on.
Your Holiness, Bug Pope

I really appreciated your efforts, and I hope that you find something else that spurs your interest.

>>180
Thanks, buddy. We have a somewhat Mato-chan related project we might try our hands at some day, but right now we both need a break. Thanks for understanding.

Ralen here, I just finished my work on Ichigo Mashimaro volume 6 a few days ago, so I'll likely be starting on Mato-chan next week. I plan to re-do it from the beginning, but I'll wait until I'm caught up to where this thread left off before I start posting here. I'll upload my translations of the earlier pages in a rar file or something at that point.

How interesting--I only discover Mato-chan and this thread today, at the same time Ralen posts. Kismet!

>>182
Bug Pope here. Sounds like an excellent solution, best of luck buddy. And if you want any help with fonts or stuff, just ask.

Just a taste, and also because I want to share my pain.
The strip on the left was murder to edit.

>>185
Yeah, it could take me like two to three hours to do one page. After about fifty pages, I felt a sting of dread just opening up Photoshop.
Neat work this far, by the way.

I just noticed that there's a very brief mention of Mato-chan on TV-tropes, on the page for Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant. As much as I hate that site, it made me way more proud than it really should.

I know the comic is just trying to be silly, but I always get a little depressed at the pages where Mato and Hisa disappear forever.

Especially since the page where Mato disappears was the end of the original series run in Watashi no Oniichan.

>>57
Ralen here with a question for the previous translator, if you're still around.

Were you actually able to interpret the words that Uzu is trying to say here? Because at first glance to me it just looked like "Hargm ahm gam aghm magm aghm."
If it's meant to be actual words, then I'm at a complete loss, except for possibly はっほう = 学校.

>>189 Hi, I´m still around. After that To Heart mistake I haven´t posted though.

I don´t remember that, and I moved to Taiwan and have a new computer now, so could you post the raw of that page?

>>190
Sure, here it is. I just can't tell if Uzu's dialog is supposed to be unintelligible, or if I'm just not figuring it out.

And do you think that other one was supposed to be 'To Heart' after all? I was never really sure, I just made that guess since the scene at the end of that strip kind of evoked images of a romance series.

Actually maybe はは is not mother there, but just some unintelligible muttering.

はっほうへ does sound like to school.

Other than that, nothing. :D

I´m pretty sure it was To Heart.

>>192
Alright, well thanks for your input.
Here's hoping I'm not missing something that will end up making me look dumb.

>>68
I just noticed Mato's awesome pillbug sheets (and the pillbug plush toys in the background).

>>87
I remember mentioning having seen photos of Loggerhead Shrikes' prey before, but I had no idea the Japanese actually had a word for the trees where they impale their prey.
速贄. It translates loosely to "Hasty Offering", I presume because it looks like an animal sacrifice that someone just slapped together.

Can which parts I've been translating yet?

>>195
Can you tell which parts...

>>125
Still making progress.

I couldn't find an English common name for トホシテントウ, so I made one up. I went with "Hairy," because in the photos I saw the ladybug looked kind of fuzzy, and also, because it's larvae look like this:
http://www.insects.jp/050406tohositen1.jpg

Pope Bug here, just stopping by to cheer Ralen on. It takes a special kind of man to stay motivated long enough to translate several dozen pages before actually getting to show any of it. I'm impressed.

Thanks for the support Bug Pope, it does help to have your encouragement.

Well, in honor of this thread's 200th post (and a little later than I had anticipated) we have some new Mato-chan!

As promised, here are some links to an archive containing my versions of the first 83 pages.
(the links are getting caught in the spam filter)
megaupload (dot) com/?d=CXZRMW0Y
rapidshare (dot) com/files/409728769/matochan.rar

Now that I'm caught up, I'll begin posting new pages as I translate them.

I hope this series hasn't lost too many of its followers during the downtime.

Anybody still around?

I had been using "rumble rumble" for the ゴゴゴゴ sound effects (sounds of menace) but I tried something different with this one.

Kind of makes me think of the Jaws theme.

So Riki-chan is a chubby chaser.

I can't honestly say I'm that surprised.

Without having looked ahead, how much do you want to bet Mato will be back to normal in the next page?

This is probably the last page I'll do today.

I'm moving through these fairly fast, but I can try to slow down and stretch them out if people prefer.

I can only guess that Riki's mind jumps to sumo wrestlers because they wrestle nearly naked.

The return of the Daimon Ranger/Daimon-ger.

When I originally translated Watashi no Oniichan, I translated 大文寺西 as 'Hirofumi Teranishi,' but given the existence of 'Daimon Ranger', 大文 should probably have been Daimon instead of Hirofumi.

Reposting because I didn't realize this was a Kamen Rider Kabuto reference at first. I originally had 'Kabuto' translated literally as 'beetle'.

Sure is quiet in here.

I kind of took a wild guess at the interpretation of the title on the left.

It was literally 大文字の穴 which would ordinarily refer to the holes in capital letters (like how the letter 'P' has a hole in the closed loop portion) but considering the character 大 doesn't have any openings, I'm not sure what it was supposed to mean. I could only guess it was either A) referring to a 'gap' in the process since it only works sometimes, or B) referring to the trash chute opening itself.

Also, the note about Watashi no Oniichan Vol. 4 was in the original text, not added by me. If you're familiar with that series you may recognize several of Mato-chan's classmates (like Harusame or Mion).

YAY! Mato chan is adorable

The kabuto mushi (rhinoceros beetle) gets its name from its resemblance to a traditional samurai helmet called a 'kabuto', which was often adorned with crests or horns.

A couple of notes about this one:

Limonene is a chemical compound derived from oranges that's commonly used in cleaning products to remove gum or adhesives (it's one of the main active ingredients in Goo Gone).

The English word Brown, when spoken in Japanese, sounds like 'Braun', as in the electric razor manufacturer.

Go Go Daimon Rangers...

Bug Pope here. Yaaaay, finally new pages! Good to see the holy scripture keeps getting translated, spreading the gospel of Mato. I approve.

Read through all the new pages, and it was good. But uploading several pages at a fast pace, instead of maybe two every month (if we're lucky)? What kind of witchcraft is this, Ralen?
Seriously though, well done.

Bug Pope

I know the Daimon Ranger symbol is supposed to be a 大 (dai) inside a Superman-style diamond, but I can't help but think it resembles a pair of briefs.

Farewell Orange Ranger.
You truly were an orange among rangers.

Page 100, and Mato-chan enters puberty.

Page 101 and Riki-chan enters puberty...

Notes on this one:
130/108 refers to height in centimeters. For those not accustomed to using the metric system (such as myself) 130cm is about 4 feet, 4 inches, while 108cm is only 3 and a half feet.

A piggyback grasshopper is a species of grasshopper where the male is significantly smaller than the female (around half the size judging from photos) so in a mated pair, the male often rides on the female's back.

New Mato-chan? Awesome! Thank you!

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for Mato-chan"

>>221

Riki-chan's got a cru~ush! D'aaaw.

By the way, I've declared you to be Saint Ralen of Idlechan. I'm pope, I can do all kinds of crazy shit like that.

>>218

I still suspect that Uzu-chan is actually a younger Tomo-chan, or at least an alternative dimension version of her.

Nice to see the followers starting to trickle back in.

>>224
I've noticed the resemblance too, although Tomo never had any supernatural powers (thank god).

So many ways to translate "onee-chan"...
Young lady
Pretty lady
Grown up lady...

>>225
One of the disadvantages of posting these so fast is that sometimes I'll notice mistakes I've made, or I'll change my mind on something halfway through.
For instance, in >>218 I switched from "Wonders" to "Mysteries" since it seemed more appropriate (so for consistency I retroactively changed the previous pages as well).
Or in >>219 I made a dumb mistake and wrote "Summer Break" when it was supposed to be "Spring Break" (another change I've made on my personal copy).

Once I finish the whole series I'll do a final review and release a .rar file with all the tweaked pages and a set of notes.

I'm with Yachiho on this one.

Just google image search メガボール for the horrors that are mega balls.

In Japan, people actually keep these things as pets.

Technically they're not pill bugs though. (pill bugs are crustaceans while mega balls are millipedes)

For some reason all the photos in my English search for "giant pill millipede" showed relatively small specimens compared to my search for メガボール.

Maybe it means the Japanese are way better at breeding mega balls than the gaijins? Good for them.
"Mega Balls" makes me think of something entire else, though.

>>228
Actually, according to my research when translating that page, most mega balls live for a few months at most in captivity, for unknown reasons. So most of the ones that you find were caught in the wild, rather than bred.

Speaking of bread.
"Let them eat bugs."

You just had to say it, didn't you...

As you may have deduced, yotta is the next unit prefix above zetta (and the largest unit prefix in use by the SI).
Who says comics can't be educational?

Also, another subtle reference to Mato-chan's roots in the series Watashi no Oniichan here.

The last one...

Okay, that wasn't the last one.
But didn't it make it seem more precious?

I get the feeling the strip on the left is a reference to something specific, but I'm not sure what.
Or, it could just be a references to the famous Schrodinger's Cat experiment.

>>233
*a reference

We really are nearing the end though. Only about 10 more pages to go.

Of course there's always Chiro-chan...

>>229
As a very nearsighted person who's over 187 cm tall, I can relate to this page. A lot.

>>231
Mato-chan's roots? Care to explain that? I'm confused.
Also, I've been wondering what the deal was with the giant pillbug for over a year, as I've had the raws but can't read a word of moonspeak. But her BROTHER? Woah. Consider my mind officially blown.

Bug Pope

>>237
rapidshare(dot)com/files/236670742/Ralen__Watashi_no_Oniichan_1-5__ENG.rar
Sorry for the mangled link, but the board thinks it's spam otherwise.

Watashi no Oniichan (Dearest My Brother) was a 5 part weekly comic and figure series that ran in early 2004.
I translated it about a year and a half ago, which is how I originally discovered Mato-chan.
This series is where Mato-chan began. Each issue had segments by various artists like Yug, Barasui, and Shinichi Yuuki.

Each of the color chapters from the beginning were the ones that originally ran in Watashi no Oniichan (Wata-Oni for short, which I translated as 'My Bro'). I believe it was meant to be a stand alone work at first, but it was popular enough that Shinichi Yuuki decided to continue it (although he rebooted the series when the series began to run on its own, which you can se in the transition from the color chapters to the black and white ones).
The author still makes references back to Watashi no Oniichan, such as including the original featured girls as Mato-chan's classmates (Mion, Ashita, Sonome, Harusame, and Lron). The note in >>210 specifically references the issue of Watashi no Oniichan when the trash chute and Daimon Ranger were first introduced. And now this introduction of Mato-chan's big brother ("Watashi no Oniichan" is how she introduces him, and "Wata-Oni" is the title of the latest chapter) seems to be another nod to the series' origins.

Also, in the very beginning of the book there's a sketch page (which I included in the archive file in >>200) of Mato squishing bugs by a tree, which is a reference to the figure sketches that were included at the beginning of each issue of Watashi no Oniichan (each of those had a stamp saying "Great Job!" though, while Mato-chan's sketch has one that says "Try Harder").

It looks like the board doesn't like the formatting of the link anyway... there needs to be an extra underscore (_) on either side of the file name (one before 'Ralen' and one after 'ENG')

G*ger, as in H.R. Giger, the designer behind the original creature design from Alien, and painter of nightmares.

We finally get to see Mato's mother (sort of).
Is anyone else afraid of what might be behind that curtain?

And who knew Mato's father was so close minded...

>>242
More like painter of genitals.
Now the strip to the right, THAT is what I call nightmare fuel.

"I won!? What did I win!?"

"OH GOD NO!!!"

For some reason the titles on this page were in phonetic English.
I've updated the past pages that reference Insect World to be consistent with its name.

>>229

>"Let them eat bugs."

I... I wasn't serious...

Mato-chan is looking soft and yummy...

This is the last page for today.
Only 4 pages left.

The hardest part of this one was translating the pun for mushi (bug) + shiro (castle) = mushiro

I don't know why, but for some reason Mato's dialogue in the third panel on the right (which should have been fairly simple) gave me a tremendous amount of difficulty. I'm still not sure I got it completely right.

結婚してからじゃだめなんですか

It was the だめなんですか that tripped me up. I'm guessing it means "What's wrong with~" but it still doesn't seem right somehow.

>>238

Well, that was a disturbing read. Don't get me wrong, I normally like cute, but there was waaaay more totally-not-semen-smeared-on-a-very-young-girl and so on than I'm comfortable with. It was just a bit too obvious that a lot of it was intended to be erotic, and that creeped me out.

Even more than Mato-chan's fantasies about cannibalism.

>>246

It's like a horrifying version of Harry Potter or any other "you're actually SPECIAL, now we're off to a magical land" story, only way more awesome.

>>253
It was only those character drawings by Yuuki Ooshima at the beginning of each chapter, wasn't it? I wasn't crazy about those either.
The rest seemed pretty tame to me (especially considering some of the other stuff that YUG has done in his other works).
I loved those letters from Sawara to her older brother near the end of each chapter.

>>255 I dunno, I got some pretty strong pedo vibes from quite a lot of the other stuff as well. But hey, could be that I'm just paranoid.

Well... that's a downer...

The End.

There are a few more bonus pages after this that I'll post a little later.

>>259
Man, dad is BUFF.

Dai Dai Dadada-dai!

Fun fact about >>258 (which you'll see in the translation notes once I post the full book in a rar file), Mato's words here are famously taken from Shoichi Yokoi, a Japanese soldier who hid on Guam for nearly 30 years after the end of World War II before finally being found/captured in 1972.

Why must all good things come to an end?

Somebody should translate Chiro-chan next.

>>262
Ralen here.
I was planning on it.

Of course once Chiro-chan is over then I don't know what we'll do...

Bug Pope here. Finally, the holy scripture has been completed. Good work, St Ralen.

Also, the theme song is fantastic, I'll sing it all day now. Dai dai dai dadada-dai!

I've finished my final proofreading made some minor consistency changes throughout, along with some correctiosn (mostly dumb mistakes like in >>248 where I wrote 'Year 2 Class 2' instead of 'Year 4 Class 2') and organized my translation notes into a .txt file.

Here's the complete book with notes, as promised.
Sorry again for the mangled link, the board has a really strict spam filter.
put this at the end of media fire dot com
/file/bs41ybxe32ozkg3/matochan_english_complete.rar

I plan to start on Chiro-chan fairly soon.

Thanks a lot for finishing this! Looking forward to Chiro-chan.^^

Just in case anyone has this thread bookmarked, rather than visiting the 4koma board directly, there's a new thread for Chiro-chan here. http://secchan.net/4koma/kareha.pl/1282188525/

>>263 Well, there's always the mangakas current series. I don't remember the title, but it's apparently more T & A oriented (with some lolis, because a leopard can't change its spots), and plotbased rather than 4koma. Also plugsuits.

>>266
I've decided to take the old file offline and upload a revised version with the name of the elementary school corrected (I hope I didn't miss any instances) and the Daimon Ranger lyrics changed slightly to match what's in the Chiro-chan thread.
/file/i7jcowxcd83s0mt/mato-chan_english_complete.rar

I found this 4koma only recently and wanted to tell that I appreciate it and your work. vc: joy

You're fucking awesome, Ralen.
I enjoyed this a lot.

link is broken

>>275
Try the one in >>270.

Did you ever translate the extra (sixth) volume of Watashi no Oniichan, Ralen?

Insitghs like this liven things up around here.

>>277
I've never seen a raw scan of issue 6 before (the one with Tetra-chan, I believe).
If you have one, I'd be glad to translate it.