The "Nothing but Nos" compilation reminds me of those youtube channels dedicated to clips of female characters in cartoons sneezing or having swirly eyes or holding their breaths underwater. Interesting that this kind of thing exists across the world and across time periods. All men are brothers, I suppose.
I was really moved by the endpage essay on translation. I wanna say that I deeply appreciate the work the both of you do to bring this manga to us in English. In the English-speaking animanga space, and especially on sites like this that seem like an endless well of niche translated manga, it's easy to take translations for granted, not thinking twice of the effort and personal choices that go into translating a manga of any format, popularity, tone, or genre. The observation that snarky t/l notes are an attempt to fight against the "invisibility" of the role seem very apt, whether or not the choice is done conciously. I've always thought of translation as an art similar to sound design, where the idea is that "when it's done well, you don't even notice it," and it can feel unrewarding or discouraging to work on such an invisible art. IMO, it's one of those things where the solution to these efforts being overlooked is less about changing the works themselves, but moreso about altering the culture and platforms around them to highlight these efforts. I like how MangaDex allows for endpages that allow translator's notes, for example, but wouldn't it be cool if official platforms like MangaPlus or the VIZ website had an area for translator's notes as well?? Wouldn't have to like, lurk on the translator's twitters or anything. Not sure where I'm going with this but yeah translation is a really fascinating field. I think it neat.
Thank you... The Shitty Awful Guys... for everything...