foxinthestars

Maybe I shouldn't post this so fast, but wth, have another After 0 story!

This one is called "Manga Recommendations;" it's actually the last story in the volume, but I skipped ahead to translate it because I just had to know wtf. Now that I know what's going on, I can't quite decide if this story is really pretty fun or annoyingly self-righteous; for me it's apparently both. So what about you? What popular manga artist (or other comics artist) would you like to see transformed into a hideous monster? ---I swear to god this guy's name is a coincidence, btw.

You know the drill, half-assed scans plus translated (rtf) script:
http://www.uploadstation.com/file/q6ZuCf8/after0_1-13.zip
(If you find the link dead, leave a comment and I'll see what I can do.)

And the script under the cut:

After 0
by Okazaki Jirou

Shogakukan Bunko Edition
Volume 1
ISBN # 978-4-09-196181-5

Chapter 13

[295]

Panel 1:
Title: Manga Recommendations
“Episode 13”
Narration: A top manga artist like me is allowed a certain amount of arrogance.

Panel 2:
Suit: Watase Sensei, the boss is saying he wants to have a party to celebrate “The Three Kingdoms of Hell” volume 3 breaking the 3 million sales mark.

Panel 3:
Watase: What a pain.
Tell the boss to come to me.

[296]

Panel 1:
Suit: Yes, thank you, thank you, sir...
Watase: Anyway, let’s go for drinks sometime.

Panel 2:
Narration (Watase): My current girlfriend is the actress Asaka Yumi.

Panel 3:
Narration (Watase): Myself, I’m not devoted to some calling.
Manga is just a way to make money.

Panel 4:
Narration (Watase): I write novels and appear on TV, too.
I’m what you’d call a multi-media guy.

Panel 5:
Narration (Watase): Of course, envy and jealousy come with the territory.
Fangirls: Eeeee! Mr. Watase!
Aspiring artist: Crap.

Panel 6:
Priest: You pitiable man...

Panel 7:
Watase: What’s that, Old Man?

Panel 8:
Priest: I have come to save you.

[297]

Panel 1:
Watase: From what, Old Man?? I think I’m doing just fine for myself.

Panel 2:
SFX: rustle
Watase: If you want a donation, just say so.

Panel 3:
Priest: That arrogance reveals the emptiness in your heart.
No matter how you try to dress up the surface, it won’t fill the hole inside you.

Panel 4:
Watase: Are you nuts!?
Priest: However, you can still be saved.

Panel 5:
Priest: I came here after reading your manga.
I believe you have the power to draw something true.
Book Title: The Three Kingdoms of Hell

Panel 6:
Priest: Not superficial things like this...
But drawing a true work of art would surely save you.
Woman in first panel: EEEEK!
Magician in second panel: MAGIC VEIL!!
Monsters in last panel: Stop! It’s too dangerous to touch his body!

[298]

Panel 1:
Watase: What do you mean “true”?? What are you trying to say, Old Man?

Panel 2:
Priest: I mean this: to draw as a human being. As it is, your manga is only a dull, tired parade of oddities and trickery.

Panel 3:
Watase: All right, what’s your problem!?
The point is to be popular with readers!! It’s just manga, isn’t it!? I’m not writing literature here!!

Panel 4:
Priest: I think manga is itself an excellent means of expression.

Panel 5:
Watase: Hmph. Amateurs talk dreams like that.
In this world, it’s just whether it makes money or not. Supposing I did “draw as a human being” and make a “true work of art” like you say, it doesn’t mean anything if the readers don’t bite.

Panel 6:
Watase: I’ve made a big hit with “The Three Kingdoms of Hell” because I know how to please readers!!
Monster in first panel: Wragh!
SFX in third panel: D-doom!
Shadow on page underneath: Rar! (kanji means “scold; raise one’s voice,” seems comical)

[299]

Panel 1:
Watase: How can I surprise the readers; how can I excite them? I calculate it perfectly and set various traps in my manga.
That’s how I make a hit.

Panel 2:
Priest: But no matter how popular now, such work will eventually become tiresome.

Panel 3:
Watase: Don’t lecture me with the obvious! When that happens, there’ll be another genre to exploit.

Panel 4:
Priest: Pitiable... Then you would go on starving your empty heart forever.

Panel 5:
Watase: SHUT UP!

Panel 6:
Watase: Fine, I got it, Old Man!
You came to save me, huh!?

[300]

Panel 1:
Watase: You want something true, I’ll give you something true...
I’ll be sure to draw you a manga dripping with true horror!!

Panel 2:
Watase: Now get out of my sight!!
SFX: kick

Panel 3:
Priest: You pitiable man...

Panel 4:
Watase: Old idiot. What the hell is “true manga”?? Hmph!

Panel 5:
Box: But that old man was just the beginning, and soon...

Panel 6:
Yumi: Mm!?

Panel 7:
Yumi: Hey, that hurts!

[301]

Panel 1:
Yumi: Honey, is there something wrong with your teeth?

Panel 2&3:
No text

Panel 4:
Yumi: What... What is it??

Panel 5:
Box: My body began to change little by little.

Panel 6:
Assistant: Sensei, what do you want here??

Panel 7:
Watase: Just put whatever tone looks good.

Panel 8:
Watase: Dammit!! What the hell is happening to me!?

Panel 9:
Watase: Dammit!!

Panel 10:
Watase: Son of a bitch!!

[302]

Panel 1:
Suit: Aaah! This is excellent!!
SFX in panel: simmering
Dialogue in panel: Look! He’s melting away!

Panel 2:
Suit: Sensei’s gotten even better lately!
You can just feel the intensity!

Panel 3:
Suit: Huh? What’s the meat for?
Assistant: Eh? It- it’s... um...

Panel 4:
Watase (off panel): Hurry with that meat!!

Panel 5:
Suit: Ah, Sensei! Another masterpiece, eh??
SFX: gobbling food

Panel 6:
No text.

Panel 7:
Suit: AAAAGH!

[303]

Panel 1:
Watase: Shit, what the hell was that about!?

Panel 2:
Box: I don’t see Yumi anymore.
Even my assistants got scared and quit one after the other.

Panel 3:
Editor: What!? You want a transfer!?
Don’t talk like a spoiled child! Watase-sensei is the most popular artist in the business right now! If he turns into a monster---if he turns into anything!---you bring me that manuscript!!

Panel 4:
Box: My manga grew more intense with each passing day.

Panel 5:
Box: True demons, true hell...
Yes, this is true horror!!

Panel 6:
Watase: G’ha ha ha ha!!

Panel 7:
Watase: That damn priest!! I really did it!!
Hah! Bwa ha ha ha!!

Panel 8:
Watase: Hee! Hee hee hee hee...!!

Panel 9:
No text

[304]

Panel 1:
Suit: It’s no good, Editor, sir!!
There’s no way we can publish something this scary!!
Colleague: Whoa...
Editor: Hmmmm...

Panel 2:
Box: So my work was dropped from the magazine.

Panel 3-5:
No text

Panel 6:
Priest: Watase living secretly in this backwater... Has it been three years already?

[305]

Panel 1:
Priest: In this hermitage where no visitor comes... Watase still continues, alone and in silence, to draw.
He still has the form of a terrifying monster...

Panel 2:
Priest: But look! Those eyes...

Panel 3:
SFX: pen skritching

Panel 4:
Priest: Those clear eyes, filled with the satisfaction of a deep love...

Panel 5:
Priest: ...Truly beautiful...
SFX: pen skritching

[306]

Panel 1:
Priest: The manga he draws has also turned to Humanism.
The characters are vividly drawn; the reader is not manipulated into excitement.
Man in comic: ... I think.
Woman in comic: ... is that it?

Panel 2:
Priest: When he became a monster, for the first time he understood what it was to be human.
Now, he derives deep satisfaction from his drawing, in a state that resembles enlightenment.

Panel 3:
Priest: Yes, this is true manga.

Panel 4:
No text

Sidebar: Originally published March 1993

*Translation by Laura Fox (foxinthestars@yahoo.co.uk; http://foxinthestars.dreamwidth.org), September 2011*
Any rights I hold in my translation, I release under a Creative Commons Attribution license (see http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ ---i.e. as far as I’m concerned, you can do anything you want with it as long as you preserve that line between the asterisks); the rest is between you and the original owners.
This translation was produced as a means of study and should be viewed as student work; I’m sure it’s clumsy and at times inaccurate, but if it will even let you follow the gist of the story, I thought it was better to share it than to hoard it in secret.

Hope you enjoy it!

This is the last After 0 story that I already had translated. There's one more that I had started on and will finish, although I've hit a little stumbling block; you see, the last panel looks like this:

And those are all real words, so I'd feel like I was copping out if I didn't try to translate them...

Once that story is done, though, I might try my hand at the first Allison novel...