Regarding My Translations of Yoko Taro’s “Thou Shalt Not Die” Manga

Posted on January 11, 2018 - 12:58 am by Rekka Alexiel

“Are you still translating ‘Thou Shalt Not Die’?”

→No, unfortunately I’m not. I stopped my fan work on the series and delete everything because it was officially licensed by Yenpress, as it was stated at Anime Expo 2017. Please check out the clip of the official announcement and my editorial about it below!

I have made summaries of additional chapters here.

Editorial:
This is where I get super picky about the details, so please excuse me.
(spoilers may be present)

Audience Member: How about the author?
Panel Spokesperson: The author?
Audience Member: Yeah.
Panel Spokesperson: In terms of…?
Audience Member: What else he’s done.
Panel Spokesperson: -intelligible- We will look into that.

As a fan of Yoko Taro and his previous works and also one who has been working on the unofficial English releases of this series, this passage was nothing more than CRINGE. They didn’t know who the author was or what his prior works were? What about the illustrator!? Those are the TWO most important things that you *need* to state when you’re introducing a new series. The story synopsis ought to come later.

And that summary about the story…. makes me very leery if they even read any of it. They probably just skimmed through the pages to look at the artwork. “Ohh, it’s a military story. I see. Oh, they’re kids with special abilities. Ok. I got it. We’re all set for the announcement!”

When you introduce a new series you MUST do the following:

State the author and his prior works
State the illustrator and his prior works
Briefly explain the plot of the story, given what is already known

Knowing NOTHING about the author or even stating the illustrator’s name is beyond unconscionable for the first official announcement of this sort. Please do your due diligence before holding conferences like this. You want stuff to sell, don’t you???

Panel Spokesperson: They are being trained to fight in the war.

My problem is with the phrasing “the war”, which suggests there is one, singular war. There has been NO STATEMENT regarding a specific war in the total 27 current chapters. None other than that the world’s resources have been depleted to a dangerous level, causing international relations to plummet and tensions to rise.

If you’ve read my speculation in how this story connects to the early timeline from NieR…then maybe you can see where the story’s going, but they should not have stated anything about a specific war at all.

I sent YenPress an email and tweeted at them on September 1, 2019 and received no response. This was not the first time that I have contacted them regarding this topic.

EDIT: August 2020

On August 25, 2020, the manga has concluded with 59 chapters. With literally no word from Yenpress after their initial announcement, it may be that Square Enix has rescinded their license to release the manga and will be releasing it themselves as part of their new Manga & Books label. The manga has already been released there in Japanese.

This is Square Enix’s Manga & Books English page.

EDIT: May 23, 2021

A friend of mine just reached out to me regarding a recent inquiry to YenPress regarding the status of TSND, and this is what I was sent:

I believe this contact was made just a couple days ago, so this is the newest insight that we’ve heard since 2017 when YenPress announced they were planning on releasing the manga series in English…

This, of course, does not mean that an English release is entirely out of the picture. On the contrary, Square Enix has since started up their own self-publishing label “Manga & Books”, so it may be likely that they well release the series that way rather than relying on a out-sourced third-party.

At any rate, I will continue to inform everyone on any updates that I may hear regarding this! Let’s hope something gets announced soon!!

Lastly, for simple posterity sake, here’s the final screen shot of the counter that I had running ever since YenPress announced that they would be licensing the English version of TSND… Alas, it is no more… It has now been 3 years, 10 months, and 22 days since their announcement… Wish we could have been told what was up sooner…

Yoko Taro’s Doujinshi from Comiket 93 with Moriyama Daisuke

Posted on January 1, 2018 - 4:10 pm by Rekka Alexiel

This post is a work in progress. I will add additional information when I can.

Copyright Notices: All copyrights belong to Yoko Taro and Moriyama Daisuke. I don’t intend on making raw scans available. All images in this post were either taken by me or scanned, translated, and edited by me.

Yoko Taro’s OL Doujinshi Literally Features a Little Penis Alien Named “Dick”

Posted on December 31, 2017 - 6:45 pm by Rekka Alexiel

Today was the final day of the winter Comic Market aka Comiiket! Although I arrived a little later than I wanted, I was still able to pick up the three new books sold at Yoko Taro & Moriyama Daisuke’s booth!!

◼️ A Brief Look

The fake game is called 「OL戦記」and was even given an English title: a Record of OL War. Of course, OL = Office Lady.

On the front cover, we’re told It is a “Survival OL Action” game for the PTA, the PlayTerminalAdvance. It has a “GERO” or “Vomit” rating and is geared toward 47 year olds (note that Yoko Taro is 47).

The basic gist of the story revolves around an alien invasion in which researchers have determined that unique and powerful waves radiate from “Japanese OL”. These waves are able to penetrate the enemy alien shields, and so OLs become the world’s only hope…

Among the battling OLs, the strongest 3 make up the final stand against the aliens.

Kato Uzuki (24)
Tachibana Yayoi (20)
Minazuki Akane (27)

Interestingly enough, Yayoi has an alien friend… who’s literally a little dick.

…and its name is “Chinko”… aka Dick.

▲ Alien Navigator, Dick

This post is a work in progress. I will add additional information when I can.

Kimi Shini Signed Poster by Yoko Taro and Moriyama Daisuke

Posted on May 24, 2017 - 10:01 pm by Rekka Alexiel

Big GanGan and Square Enix recently hosted a giveaway for a large signed poster by Yoko Taro and Moriyama Daisuke for their manga series “Kimi Shi ni Tamou Koto Nakare // Thou Shalt Not Die” that was advertised in this live broadcast:

Toward the end of the broadcast, they introduced a hashtag on twitter to participate in the giveaway, which of course, I did!

Continue reading →

3rd KimiShini Signing Event

Posted on May 14, 2017 - 9:57 pm by Rekka Alexiel

Today was the second book signing event in the Tokyo area for the release of Book 4 of Yoko Taro’s manga series “Kimi Shi ni Tamou Koto Nakare // Thou Shalt Not Die”.

I managed to get a participation ticket back in March and I knew this day was coming for a long time… but my brain is super stupid sometimes, especially when my usual rhythm gets thrown off. I haven’t worked on Saturday in a long time since I’ve been busy with chorus practices and concerts, so for whatever reason, I was thinking that I had today to just lay around the house and do nothing, then tomorrow would be the signing event. Turns out, this was wrong, today was Sunday, and I had already missed the first session that I was scheduled to attend. orz

I read the fine print on the ticket and nothing said that if I missed the time that I would not be able to attend either of the other two sessions, so I threw clothes on quick and ran out the door. orz orz

Luckily enough, I got there just as the 2nd session was beginning and they allowed me to join it. I was taking my seat just as Yoko Taro and Moriyama Daisuke made a very brief greeting before starting the signing event. WHEW!! So, yay!! I was able to get the 4th manga volume signed by both of them! <3

There was also a little time to chat, but… I’m horrible with small talk and I get really nervous sometimes. Hopefully, I didn’t seem too nervous this time, but I still felt a little at a loss of words. We talked a little bit about the KimiShini stage play…and that I went to every, single show. haha And we talked a little bit about the last manga all-night event and how I’d really love for them to do another one. I told them that I stayed at a hotel that night since I live in Yokohama and the event got out well after the trains stopped for the night. I probably could have just gone to an internet cafe or a family restaurant for a couple hours before the morning trains started, but I already had plans in the early afternoon the following day in Tokyo, so it made more sense for me to stay in town.

ANYWAY, it’s always a pleasure and a joy to meet with my favorite director/creator no matter how brief. I completely, honestly, sincerely hope that he’s not sick of me stalking him to all these events. LOL

Here are a couple photos that I took at the event!