About

The point:

This site is pretty much home to my Ginpachi Sensei translations. In the realm of Gintama translation, the spin-off Ginpachi light novels are a noticeable blind spot. Some people have translated parts of the novels over the years but never fully, and they have varying rates of quality (including my own original translations that I uploaded to this site lol). A younger, stupider version of me once said:

“Another problem is that a lot of the English translations you’ll see online are actually from Chinese translations, and not directly from the original Japanese, meaning that a lot is potentially being lost in translation. So the aim for me is to not only try and produce these translations at a decent quality that are directly from the original Japanese, but to eventually do so for all of the novels so they have a consistent style that doesn’t change drastically from translator to translator.”

I originally thought it would be cool if all the novels could get translated someday back when I started this in 2017, but spending all of 2018 in Japan, and then job hunting until I finally got a professional translation job in 2019 kind of put a damper on that ambition. Not only that, I’ve become a little older and a little less stupid, so when I looked back through my old translations after all that time, the awkward prose and genuine mistranslations compelled me to redo them.  Currently, I’m just aiming to finish the first novel sometime this year. I might get to the other novels, but now that translation is literally a full-time job for me, I can’t make any promises. (Update: Ginpachi Sensei is now finished!)

One thing that hasn’t changed after all this time, however, is that I hope you enjoy my translations!

Another very important thing to note is that these Ginpachi Sensei translations are completely unofficial. I am not getting paid to do these; they are being done out of my love for Gintama. While I do want to bring these novels out to a wider English speaking audience, I would also recommend that you go out of your way to buy the original novels, even if you can’t understand a word of Japanese. Not only can you support the series, but also have something nice to put on your shelf, especially since all the novels come with some cool art/extras.

I got my copies through eBay, but here’s a link where you can buy the novels:

https://www.yesasia.com/us/gintama-3-nen-z-gumi-ginpachi-sensei/1004121028-0-0-0-en/info.html

https://www.yesasia.com/global/gintama-3-nen-z-gumi-ginpachi-sensei/1004121028-0-0-0-en/info.html

And here’s a link for a digital version:

https://bookwalker.jp/de7e8bf962-530c-4c07-b176-bab41feec227/

It’s worth noting that it’s best to look through multiple sites in order to get the best deal, but this should hopefully give you a place to start.

Interviews:

Here are links to all the interviews I’ve translated for Wave Motion Cannon and Sakuga Blog if you’re interested in viewing my previous work.

Gintama: Looking back and thanks: A series of 3 interviews from the Animage July 2017 issue with the current director of the show, Chizuru Miyawaki, the colour designer throughout the entire show, Ritsuko Utagawa, and a producer who was previously on production desk, Hiromitsu Higuchi.

Also from the Animage July 2017 issue, an interview with the screenplay writer and series composer of Welcome To The Ballroom, Kenichi Suemitsu. The most interesting thing about this guy is that he created a stage version of Millennium Actress, which I suspect few people knew even existed, and it was part of how he met up with the director of ballroom.

From the animage February 2017 issue, a short interview with the director, Takeshi Koike (Redline), about Lupin the Third: The Blood Spray of Ishikawa Goemon.

From the Animage July 2017 issue and my most ambitious work at the time, this is a long interview with industry veteran Atsushi Takahashi conducted by the anime critic legend Yuichiro Oguro as part of his series “I’d like to ask about this person’s story”. The main reason I attempted this is because upon skimming the interview and his resume, it seemed like he would have interesting things to say about legendary people such as Hayao Miyazaki and series such as Paranoia Agent and Monster. That didn’t quite turn out to be the case but what I did find here was much more interesting, as it was a look into his unpatronising attitude concerning children’s works as well as a look into a series that is an cultural institution in Japan but few people in the west really know about, Doraemon.

Here’s the first interview I posted on Sakuga Blog. A dual interview with Kemono Friends Director, series composer, scriptwriter, storyboarder (Christ that’s a lot of work) Tatsuki and Animation Director Yoshihisa Isa. What’s interesting about this translation is that it got posted on the very same day Tatsuki was fired from the Kemono Friends anime. I can’t help but feel I cursed myself by translating this interview and having it come out on the day he got fired (well it was Kvin who uploaded it, but still). Hopefully some terrible misfortune won’t befall me in the future.

Here’s the second interview that got posted on Sakuga blog. It’s with character designer and chief animation director Tadashi Hiramatsu. It was also posted on Yuri’s birthday, which was yet another case of good timing on Kvin’s part, and at least this time I don’t feel as if I’ve cursed myself.