MLP Manga has shipping!

[The Coffee Pony 1,390]

Yep...Tree shipping!

 

 

Yeah, that's going right up there on the weirdness scale next to the episode "Pizza Face" from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2012!

 

 

This only makes it a harsh moment! Typical Japan!

Edited October 29, 2014 by The Coffee Pony

[PROJECT: Simon 3,954]

Dang I can't read japanese. Hate my life

[Moved to Elsewhere 11,331]

Sp, remember that SaveTree petition? Yeah that will never be the same.

[KokuraiNoSenshi 3,463]

My Luna you gave me a heart attack... I really thought they had done it, they did the one thing that would cause the most insane amount of hell this fandom has ever seen. Phew, glad to see it wasn't true... Anyways... Uh... Yay tree? Then again... Maybe sorry tree? Not sure how to react to this...

[AlbaTross 1,586]

Is that manga available in graphic novels? That is epic, and it appears to be at my Japanese reading level, which is probably a little sad considering I once took four semesters of the language. Actually, I only understand most of it without needing my dictionaries to refresh my memory and/or look up new words, and I can't read some of the furigana since it's too small in this scan, but checking out this manga will be a great way to help me get the language down, and there's furigana for all the kanji.

 

If I want to be able to play through the bishoujo games in my backlog one day, I have to start somewhere, so why not with something familiar like FiM? And yes, if we accept this as canon, then a lady died at the end of season 4. Thankfully the Japanese dub is behind, and this manga wouldn't even qualify as B canon like the IDW comic, so it would be C canon at best, if that's even a real thing and not something I just made up.

 

Anyways, in the second dialogue box, where Twilight looks shocked, she's saying "My library!?" Then in the bottom panel, the male tree says in the upper speech bubble "What an elegant lady." There is an extra "what" on the end of his sentence for some reason. It has been ages since I've read Japanese, so I couldn't tell you why that is. Then the library says "Wow, what a handsome...something." Maybe the word is tree. There's a kanji below that, but I can't read the furigana. She continues "I am a library" followed by another katakana word that's either rari, lali, rali, or maybe lari(pronounced more or less like the name Laurie). Perhaps that sentence can be translated as "I am Laurie the library." I'm not 100% positive on that last one though, so don't quote me on that.

 

I'm sorry to say that's all I can decipher for now. Keep in mind it is past midnight my time and I had my last semester of Japanese four years ago. The first speech bubble in the top panel is just a comment, and isn't essential to understanding what's going on though, and my best educated guess for the male tree's second speech bubble is that he's expressing interest in her. He says "boku" which is the Japanese word for the male informal "I".

Edited November 14, 2014 by Tross

[Keen Blade 64]

I like the fact that the trees have pony faces rather than human faces. Little details like that are very satisfying to me.

[Sunny Fox 5,950]

Cue the "got wood?" jokes! Only in Japan.

[Roughshod 719]

This is clearly an abuse of power. Twilight is just trying to play god. I bet Spike and Rainbow Dash don't want anything to do with this.

[Sunny Fox 5,950]

Anyways, in the second dialogue box, where Twilight looks shocked, she's saying "My library!?" Then in the bottom panel, the male tree says in the upper speech bubble "What an elegant lady." There is an extra "what" on the end of his sentence for some reason. It has been ages since I've read Japanese, so I couldn't tell you why that is. Then the library says "Wow, what a handsome...something." Maybe the word is tree. There's a kanji below that, but I can't read the furigana. She continues "I am a library" followed by another katakana word that's either rari, lali, rali, or maybe lari(pronounced more or less like the name Laurie). Perhaps that sentence can be translated as "I am Laurie the library." I'm not 100% positive on that last one though, so don't quote me on that.

.

The first speech bubble basically is "It's that child over there," (the literal translation of 子 (ko) is "child", but here it just designates a youthful woman), which I presume the tree is saying. Then the library line from Twilight.

 

The tree calls her an "elegant lady", and the なんだ or nanda at the end tends to be used to signal an explanation of some kind. Although I believe the form is used in many places where it wouldn't be considered necessary in the English version. 

 

I have no idea what kusu kusu (クスクス) is meant to be, however, and that kanji is pretty hard to read at that resolution. (Actually, I've managed to find it means "tree") Maybe the kusu kusu means the kind of tree he is?

 

Then she makes some sort of comment about him being a hunk (a "well formed" tree). You're probably right about the library (ライブラリー) calling itself "Lari" (ラリー) or something similar. Japanese often features those sorts of puns.

[AlbaTross 1,586]

The first speech bubble basically is "It's that child over there," (the literal translation of 子 (ko) is "child", but here it just designates a youthful woman), which I presume the tree is saying. Then the library line from Twilight.

 

The tree calls her an "elegant lady", and the なんだ or nanda at the end tends to be used to signal an explanation of some kind. Although I believe the form is used in many places where it wouldn't be considered necessary in the English version.

 

I have no idea what kusu kusu (クスクス) is meant to be, however, and that kanji is pretty hard to read at that resolution. (Actually, I've managed to find it means "tree") Maybe the kusu kusu means the kind of tree he is?

 

Then she makes some sort of comment about him being a hunk (a "well formed" tree). You're probably right about the library (ライブラリー) calling itself "Lari" (ラリー) or something similar. Japanese often features those sorts of puns.

I caught the word "ko" in that one speech bubble, as I do know that kanji, but I couldn't connect it with the rest of the sentence, so thanks for that. I'll reciprocate with a brohoof of my own, especially since you're better at Japanese than I am. The "kusu kusu" part didn't make sense to me either, but your logic seems sound enough, so I think I'll agree with that. I've understood "suteki" as a comment female characters make on how fine a male is, but translation is more art then science, so I went with handsome, but your translation is more punny, so I like yours.

 

I have observed the Japanese using alliteration before. If you're familiar with the Hatsune Miku franchise, the names of the Kagamine twins are actually supposed to start with the same letter, but they were translated as L and R names respectively for the Western release of Project Diva F, which kind of ruins that. Anyways, katakana can be tricky since L and R share the same sound, so I have to consider all possibilities and go with what sounds right. As Lari is the katakana equivalent of both an actual name, and one that provides decent alliteration with the word library, I went with that, and yes, Laurie is a pun on Laurel. If the staff behind the anime and manga for Venus Versus Virus couldn't agree whether to translate a character's name as Laura or Lola, then anything's possible as I'm no professional like they are.

 

I must say though, this manga looks interesting. I forgot to factor in the novels, so it may even be D canon, if such a thing exists, but it looks like a lot of fun. It's full colour which isn't particularly common with manga, and the art style doesn't seem to be as Japanized as I'd expect(and I may have made up that word too). It could almost be like reading the IDW comic, but in my (distant)second language, and it will be a good learning experience.

 

Edit: This is hopefully the last of several edits I've already made to this post, but I decided to buy the manga on a whim. Long story short, I now have a Japanese Amazon account, though it doesn't take PayPal for some reason, which leads me to believe the Japanese don't use PayPal. Anyways, I bought this: http://www.amazon.co.jp/マイリトルポニー-コミック-クイズ-ぷっちぐみベスト-AKIRA/dp/4092805063/ref=pd_ybh_1 Hopefully it's the right one, because I also saw this: http://www.amazon.co.jp/シールであそぼう-マイリトルポニー-小学館のテレビ絵本-ブックinバッグシールであそぼう-堀内/dp/4091163653/ref=pd_sim_b_15?ie=UTF8&refRID=1CVJ6PVPP7DZ0QBVQSZ7 Now for a closing joke: the manga has shipping, but it isn't free.

Edited November 14, 2014 by Tross

[KokuraiNoSenshi 3,463]

I am seeing a TON of you posting bits and pieces of the translated version, would any of you be so kind as to post what you are translating this as for us non-Japanese speaking counterparts?

[Fricklefrackle 184]

That's new

 

TwiTree AF!!! 

 

okay sorry don't hate me

[Pinkamena-Pills 6,839]

....so they are shipping a tree with a tree? Meh, ive seen weirder. 

[AlbaTross 1,586]

....so they are shipping a tree with a tree? Meh, ive seen weirder. 

I take it you're a regular consumer of Japanse media, and yes, compared to some stuff I've seen, this almost makes too much sense.

[AlbaTross 1,586]

My manga arrived today. If you have any questions, ask away. It is the only manga I've ever seen with a dust jacket, not that I've ever delved too deep into manga reading, or even checked out anything not translated for a NA audience.

[Alex Z 848]

I didn't even know an MLP manga existed until now. Maybe I should read it because I love anime and manga. Has it been released in English or has someone translated it?

[AlbaTross 1,586]

I didn't even know an MLP manga existed until now. Maybe I should read it because I love anime and manga. Has it been released in English or has someone translated it?

I've seen translations of bits and pieces of it popping up online, but I couldn't tell you whether the entire thing has been translated. From what I've gathered from just flipping through the manga(I haven't attempted to read it yet), Twilight appears to have cast a spell on the bigger tree to bring him to life, and there are multiple pages dedicated to this story, where the mane six interact with this tree, and they were sitting up in his branches before he started chatting up the Golden Oak Library. Perhaps he has the powers to bring other trees to life, but I won't know for sure till I read through it, and don't really want to spoil too much. The other story I'm looking forward to the most is one where Applejack saves Applebloom from Timberwolves, and Granny Smith has a flashback where she befriended a Timberwolf during her younger years, and gave it her bonnet for some reason.

 

Oh, for a bit of context, it appears that the tree expressed interest in the library, and when it supposedly said "it's that child over there" Twilight's response in this context meant "are you talking about my library?"

Edited November 18, 2014 by Tross