CVST-0018: AKAI KATANA ORIGINAL SOUND TRACK

[Another Soundscape]

Samples up at CAVE store:

http://www.cave-shop.jp/fs/caveshop/fes_cd/cvog0018

[Chris]

It would be good to have a full English translation of this one if anyone is willing. Thanks for consideration.

[Cedille]

I once considered posting a thread to discuss as to whether we should keep most tracks in Romaji as well as to ask for an assist if any. Several stage themes here were actually named after the specific segments of a katana (Track 05~08), which I regarded a kind of proper names we shouldn't translate (do we translate "Katana" as "Sword"? No). Some others were also known as a loanword (e.g. "Tsubazeriai") outside of Japan, even if it could be replaced with an English equivalent. The rest of the tracklist was still translable ("Nirvana Gate", "Flash", "Anemone" blah blah blah), though.

[Dag]

I've attempted a translation/adaptation for this and the sequel (15~26 are character names so I didn't translate).
But I kept the romaji tracklist as default, in the spirit of what Cedile said.

[Despatche]

Shin is a "fat port", not a sequel. Also, should it be "sheathe"?

[CHz]

Originally Posted by Despatche

Also, should it be "sheathe"?

The Japanese word seems to refer to the act of sheathing a sword and not the sheath itself. So "sheathe" is the correct choice, but the phrasing is a little awkward as is.

Maybe "Sheathing a Sword" or "Sheathing the Sword" would be better? I like "Sheathing the Sword" a little more, it's a bit more final (this is the game over theme, after all).

[Despatche]

(Oh, I was just referring to how it had been "Seathe" before I changed it.)

I don't think it matters either way. I'd go with "Sword Unsheathe/Sheathe" for whatever reason. Maybe it's "awkward", but it's simple and goes with the rest of the translation (and the original characters, if you think about it).

[Dag]

Yes, sorry for the "seathe" typo before.

About the wording I don't really mind, you guys decide.
But probably other tracks should be worded similarly -> "Tip of the Scabbard", etc (same style).

But maybe we should use "Katana" rather than "Sword"?

[CHz]

Sorry I wasn't clear, I made two changes with my suggestion and didn't say which one I thought was more important.

I reversed the word order just because I thought it flowed a little better. There's absolutely nothing wrong with it being the other way around.

My issue was more that it's not very common to use the bare infinitive as a noun like that. Usually you'd go with the full infinitive ("To sheathe a sword is to...") or the gerund ("Sword sheathing is..."), but not the bare infinitive ("Sword sheathe is..."). So if you want to keep the word order, I'd recommend "Sword Sheathing" instead.

[Cedille]

http://vgmdb.net/album/25968

There is another album for Akai Katana, btw (which I don't even know which classification would fit most. As long as the tracks are used in the game, I'd use "Original Soundtrack", regardless of whatever the album title suggests, but nowadays I don't follow Cave and their games so much).

[Despatche]

as far as shin goes, that's an original soundtrack. there are three fm tracks, which serve as a preview to the fm album (they seem identical to me). thus, i'd tag both albums with "arrangement" or "remix" (would it be the latter here?)