Slayers - Volume 1 - Chapter SS

Bonus Translator/Editor Chat!

[Meg/ED]I’d like to formally kick things off by saying that you’re one of the most talented translators I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with. Would you mind telling me how you wound up in the field?

[Liz/TL]Oh, jeez. Well I was going to do a Lina Inverse-style thing where I jokingly talk up how beautiful and brilliant I am, but now you’ve gone and caught me off-guard... imagine me waving my hands and saying “ie, ie...” very urgently instead.

As for how I got started... I’d say I got pretty lucky in a lot of ways. One was getting to realize as early as high school that this was what I wanted to do. We didn’t have a Japanese language program there, but I did well in Spanish, and late on into those classes, when you’re getting into actually reading poetry and literature in the language, something sort of clicked for me. It might sound cheesy, but I remember this moment when I realized that there was something sort of magical about the act of translation. That you could convey the meaning of these beautiful words that would be a total mystery to so many people otherwise, and that the more care you put into it, the more deeply it would resonate.

It was around that time I was getting into anime, through Sci-Fi Channel late-night programming and Pokémon dubs and VHS tapes... it didn’t even occur to me that learning Japanese was a thing that was even possible, you know? When you’re seventeen years old and no one you know IRL does this, and the internet is AltaVista, webrings and Javascript chatrooms, it seems like, how would I even... start... doing that? But I got me a book and some printed-out song lyrics, and I just started trying and never stopped. I loved learning Japanese, I love continuing to learn it. And I love making amazing things accessible to others.

[Meg/ED]So, where did Slayers come into the picture for you and what was your first exposure to it?

[Liz/TL]Well, I mentioned VHS tapes, right? Yeah. Suncoast Video, baby! Slayers was the third series I ended up collecting, in part because it was recommended to me, but also in part because the tapes were so cheap. I think it was $20 for four or five episodes, subbed only. I’ll leave readers of the streaming generation to imagine what “not cheap” anime looked like by comparison!

[Meg/ED]Them’s was different times, for sure.

[Liz/TL]Obviously it was also a really funny and likeable show, but when you’re a high school kid spending your babysitting money, the price offers a certain extra incentive. 

[Meg/ED]I believe Lina would appreciate the business, regardless. And in the grand scheme of things, it’s kinda crazy to think that this snazzy little production of ours is going to be some folks’ first exposure to the series!

[Liz/TL]It’s pretty humbling. Did you know the novels were a thing when you were first watching the series back in the day?

[Meg/ED]No, not a clue! My introduction to the anime was before the books were ever available in English, so I didn’t even know they existed until years later. I happened to stumble across a couple of them at a convention and thought, “Oh, nice! Slayers got a novel adaptation!” (Ha!)

[Liz/TL]Oh my gosh.

[Meg/ED]Oh, how young and foolish I was... And surprised at both the subtle and not-so-subtle differences between the two versions!

[Liz/TL]Yeah, I was vaguely aware of the novels when I was watching the series. For me they were kind of this nebulous thing that existed only in rumor. You know, the novels, where Lina’s sister is a real character and they reveal the other alt worlds besides the one from Lost Universe! But I never actually read them myself until we started doing this, and even from the start, the differences were shocking. First, the elephant in the room: Lina doesn’t do a Dragon Slave!

[Meg/ED]Nope! I dare say she has better tricks up her sleeve.

[Liz/TL]I think the differences are exemplified by the first scene we get. In the anime, they start by showing you her raid on the bandit camp. We see her chucking Fireballs and raising havoc willy-nilly... and THEN you get to the scene on the road, the first scene in the book, where she’s just snarking her way through and using her wits. Both versions suit their medium, but give you a very different view of her as a main character.

[Meg/ED]And it only continues from there! I think, in general, the anime is really pinned on the hijinks and the fun of the series whereas the novels are quite unafraid to stray on the darker side of things. That’s not to say the novels aren’t simultaneously fun, however, because I got several laughs out of this first volume.

[Liz/TL]Yeah, like the trolls scene in the inn. In the anime, her spell just kind of makes them poof out of existence! But in the book it’s this totally grody thing. That’s humor too, but it’s a darker kind of humor—the joke is her going, “erk, maybe that was a bit much.”

[Meg/ED]

Exactly! And that’s such a great aspect of the series. Even when things get grim, the humor never really stops. I personally live for Lina and Gourry’s banter, particularly in moments of peril.

[Liz/TL]Yeah, it’s so good it’s kind of intimidating. Translating anything that has that kind of peppy flow is a push and pull between “preserve that flow in English” and “make sure it’s what they’re really saying.” It’s there where having an experienced and talented editor comes in handy.

[Meg/ED]I confess that I have two siblings who remind me of Lina and Gourry constantly, so I just try to imagine them arguing when I work on those scenes.

[Liz/TL]That’s amazing. Yeah, I think people will read a book like this and be like, “Oh, who’s the translator?” But the editor plays such a huge and important role in any translation, and in this book especially, I feel like it’s really fifty-fifty. There’s a lot of your voice in the finished product.

[Meg/ED]If I’m allowed to say so myself, I think we make a great team! Your work is of such superior quality that you really inspire my own work on the series; I want it to have the treatment it’s always deserved, down to the tiniest of details. Really, Slayers is just such a fun, wild ride that I want to share it with as many people as possible.

[Liz/TL]Agreed. When I look back, I think... wow, this was the start of my journey, more than twenty years ago. And now I’m here, I get to be a part of it. It’s hard to express what an honor that is.

[Meg/ED]Likewise. But no getting mushy yet! I feel like we’ve only just gotten started, and Atlas City is already on the horizon...

[Liz/TL]Next time: Megan’s backstory, Slayers NEXT and mazoku???

[Meg/ED]Oh my!