Kajiri Kamui Kagura Ezoushi: the Takashi Masada interview

Frohe belated Weihnachten!.. Okay, that really doesn’t work almost a month after Christmas, but trust me, I did want to write this post around that time. I can’t really say it has become a tradition to do something Divine Throne-related on December 25th, but I did say I might translate the entirety of the Masada interview from the Kajiri Kamui Kagura artbook one day, so why not do it now? Unfortunately, the timeline didn’t quite work out, so I decided to publish it some other day… which came much sooner than expected. Twenty years ago, on January 16th of 2004, Paradise Lost came out, setting the stage for the entire Divine Throne series. I don’t know about you, but I think that sounds like a worthy date to celebrate.

So yeah! Below, you will find the entirety of the Q&A session with Takashi Masada, published in “Kajiri Kamui Kagura Ezoushi”, the official artbook for Kajiri Kamui Kagura. I often found myself trying to cite it, but never really having a good way to do so, meaning I simply had to do all the work myself. Even if I may not need it right now, I’m sure it’s going to come in handy time and time again later on. You’re welcome, future me.

Now, for the disclaimers. First, this might sound obvious, but expect lots of spoilers for Kajiri Kamui Kagura, as that is what most of the interview is dedicated to. Second, keep in mind this interview was published around 2012, so some of it might have become outdated, while some might have already come true. Third, while I am very careful with my writing, this is a lot of text, so some typos did probably crawl their way in. I’m also the sort of person who tries fixing them as soon as they’re found, so do let me know if you see any! The same goes for any potential translation errors: the last thing I want to do is contribute to the general misinformation within the community, so if you have any constructive criticism, feel free to share it. Just be civil about it, okay?

Lastly, special thanks to my fellow translator and Masada enthusiast ZackZeal for lending a hand along the way. Having you around to work things through mattered more than you might think, Kamerad.

The Abyss: The greatest villain of the greatest series

So this post came a bit out of nowhere.

For most of this year, I’ve been brewing another Avesta-related post to finally try and talk my soul out about some of its aspects, but since being a freelancer makes it a bit difficult to make room in your schedule for things you earn no money for, I decided to wait until some memorable date that would make this especially fitting. One such date was July 16th, when Avesta has been completed in 2021. Unfortunately, last Friday (so, two days before July 16th), something interesting happened that has set the entire Divine Throne legion abuzz. Naturally, I could not just stand by and decided to tell my Twitter followers about it… only to quickly realize this topic is a bit too long-winded to put on Twitter. Or maybe I’m unable to express my thoughts succinctly, that works too. Either way, that is why Avesta will have to wait for another day (and don’t you worry, there’s another anniversary coming soon), while today’s spotlight is unceremoniously usurped by Naraka himself. To be specific, we’re going to talk about what we know about him, how we have arrived to where we are, and what exactly made him even more of a bastard than we ever thought. If that sounds like fun, read on ahead.

“That day will bring all the gods together”: Dies irae Pantheon, Episode 0 [EN TRANSLATION]

Frohe belated Weihnachten! My productivity wasn’t really at its best this year, which made me all the more eager to at least do something before it’s over. And while my backlog of projects is getting pretty long, there is one item on the list that keeps coming up over and over again. Back in the old days of 2018, I’ve written a summary of Pantheon‘s so-called episode 0, jumbled together from various sources giving their impressions on what they’ve heard. Obviously, it turned out to be pretty inaccurate, and yet no better source on this subject has come up since then — even after the voice drama in question has been released. I personally care a lot about accuracy, so it does get a bit hard to sleep at night when you know you are the one who can be traced to be the cause of a bunch of misinformation. And so, today I’m proud to present you the complete translation of the coveted audio track, done as accurately as I could by my lonesome. That being said, I can’t deny the possibility of some inaccuracy slipping through despite my best efforts, but surely this should still be better than that summary, right? Either way, make yourselves comfortable and let the imaginary voices of Suwabe, Toriumi, Yui-nyan and RenYama caress your heart’s ears.

EDIT: You can now listen to the whole thing (with some edits to my TL), subbed by SterrnerDeem, over here!

Kokubyaku no Avesta: References of Black and White

“Kokubyaku no Avesta”, the latest installment in the Divine Throne series, has been going pretty strong so far: there is already enough material for a single printed volume and even an entire drama CD in the works. And I gotta say, Masada really pulled all the stops with the mythology references this time (even if my speculation post missed most of them). A lot of it is pretty obscure, mostly concerning the Middle Eastern cultures, so unfortunately, there isn’t as much to read about it than, say, on Japanese or Scandinavian legends. This gets even more frustrating when you’re trying to translate it from Japanese, facing so many bizarre words that may or may not mean something in another language you can’t Google. And so, the purpose of this post is twofold: on one hand, I’m going to share whatever findings I have, making a reference list of sorts for whoever is interested in Avesta. On the other hand, if I miss something, you will hopefully tell me so, and I will add it to the list for others to see. I’m sure Quinn would be proud of us making this sort of miracle happen.

After the Promised Day: Analyzing Pantheon gameplay

An entire week has passed since we got our first good look at Pantheon’s gameplay, and to my surprise, not too much has been said about it so far. Sure, it’s basically what people expected, with nothing too complicated to hide, but I do feel like it has enough wrinkles to make for an interesting and deep game. And so, this time I’d like to try and describe what I’m seeing and figure out what it might mean for the game as a whole – so, basically the same thing I usually do. Sounds good? Good.

Before I begin, here’s the obligatory disclaimer: what we’re seeing is a pre-alpha version of the game, so everything might change by the time the game comes out. Sure, the overall direction is likely to stay the same; the minute details we’re going to discuss, not so much.

Strongest Warriors of Every Era: Pantheon roster teasers

It’s finally here. Dies irae‘s Switch version is out, and the amount of data it gave us vastly exceeds our capability to process it. Of course, there was no way I wouldn’t write a few words about it, but since there’s so much to discuss, I have to pick a certain topic and stick to it. Because of that, this article might end up shorter than you’re used to, but I still don’t think it’s going to be short enough to fit, say, a Twitter thread.

Anyway, what is going to be? For now, I’m focusing on a small scene near the end of the extra scenario, where Kouha and Mithra discuss who they should recruit out of every Throne. Obviously, this scene is ripe speculation material, as it has multiple hints at the Thrones we haven’t seen much of, so I believe it deserves some extra attention. If that sounds fun, read on!

One last thing, though: this entire thing wouldn’t be possible without Coelho‘s contributions. I really can’t stress enough how much the entire English-speaking legion of fangs owe him for what he did. Tonight, I drink in your name, Kamerad.

Creating the perfect Pantheon: a mobile game think piece

Illus. by Kaya-san

Mere days remain until Light finally – finally! – reveal some proper info about Dies irae Pantheon. Naturally, I can’t wait, although it means that there isn’t that much time left until our vague expectations are shaped by definite reality. Which means that this is the last opportunity for me to write down my own hopes and expectations for what Pantheon will be. And, since this is my first time writing about mobile games from the gameplay standpoint, I might as well share my personal thoughts on the medium (and genre) as a whole. I have played a whole lot of them, and I believe I know a thing or two about game design, so hopefully it will be fun to read. That said, I’m not quite sure it will flow well, so let’s just begin and hope it turns out alright in the end.

“That day will bring all the gods together”: Dies irae Pantheon, Episode 0

EDIT: Check the complete translation here!

“Creation Figment: Wewelsburg Castle”, one of the most anticipated Dies irae events in recent history, took place yesterday. It promised a lot, including a new anime trailer, the airing date for the rest of the episodes, and, most importantly, “Episode 0” of the upcoming Dies irae Pantheon. Although it did not reveal much, it certainly did not disappoint, fueling the legion’s speculation for quite a while. As there is currently no single English source to read it all, I would like to do my best to gather it all here, both factual evidence and speculation.

Before I begin, however, please note that we have no actual script on our hands: all I can go off are a few tweets of reports, so it’s bound to be a bit fragmented. If it doesn’t look that way, it’s only because I tried to make it read like a proper text; the events might not have happened in this particular order, but I did not come up with anything else on my own. That said, Light have promised to release it as a drama CD, so any confusion will be cleared up sooner or later.

And, of course, beware of spoilers.

Sakakibara Yui: Fanatiker (ENG)

Fanatiker (Dies irae Pantheon OP theme)
Vocals: Sakakibara Yui
Lyrics: Sakakibara Yui
Music: Yonao Keishi

Special thanks to ZackZeal and Kaya-san

Looking forward to Pantheon with Zoroastrianism

It’s been quite a while since I was looking forward to something as much as I am to Dies irae Pantheon. It’s not just because I like good mobile games, but also because it promises to fill the blanks in the history of the Divine Throne. Unfortunately, for a project of such scale, Light have been very quiet about it ever since its announcement. Even the teasers we’ve been getting have been mostly related to Dies irae, which we already know more than enough about. Luckily, we have also learned some things beyond that – and can deduce even more.