EX-ARM - Vol. 3 Ch. 18 - Lost Blade

[MangaDex]

 

[Krune]

thank you for another great chapter of this series, so since it was a little hard to follow is Alma concerned that her friendship with Minami is actually one sided and she's only responding to Minami's friendship because she's been programmed to like the droids at the brothel or is it Akira that's trying to determine if androids are capable of real emotions or do they just follow their programming and he's wondering how much of that is the case in Minami and Alma's friendship? The constant switching back and forth regarding whose running her body at the moment is making it a little hard to determine that situation.

 

[Talon13184]

@Krune believe me, I'm as confused as you are! That whole scene was really difficult to translate because the original Japanese text didn't really change up between font styles so I never really knew who was talking. And then you've got two people living in the same body both of whom are sometimes speaking out loud and sometimes just communicating in their heads. Plus people were speaking over the car speaker and so forth. I think I at least got the fonts correct so you know which person was talking at any given time, but I'm not sure I got it completely correct! It was also really tough to translate that particular section of text and I'm sure I didn't nail it perfectly. it doesn't really make sense why Minami suddenly told Alma that she was her friend. It seemed really out of place and that may not be translated just right!

 

[Krune]

@Talon13184 you still did a great job the flow in the other scenes and pages was incredible. I like this arc and understand why its being done since it seems like getting a flashback or flashback arc showing how Minami and Alma became partners and their friendship started is becoming more unlikely as the series progresses and I even get why they chose Akira to explore this since androids are still relatively new to him. I just wish the method used for him to observe and explore this concept wasn't via him copiloting an android part time lol.

 

[Talon13184]

@Krune Thanks! I really appreciate the kind words! I think you got the gist of what's going on in your initial comment. The author really seems to want to explore what the androids are and how similar/different they are from humans. Alma seems to be a bit confused as to who/what she really is. It seems like she's the one really wondering about whether the actions of androids are truly based on their own emotions/feelings or if everything they think and do is just a result of their programming. Seems like she's got Akira really pondering it also though, but I think she initiated it.

Edit: Also, I'm not sure why Minami suddenly thanked her out of the blue. Didn't make sense to me at all.

 

[Lazz07]

Thank you so much for the translation! 😀

 

[shinobanana]

Is Elmira supposed to have Marsha's head or do they just look similar?

 

[Nankurunaisa]

Thank you for one more chapter translated. Nice job!

 

[Angelopolagej]

@Talon13184 I can’t put into words just how grateful I am that you decided to take time out of your life, and translate this manga.

While the anime adaptation is (obviously) atrocious the manga itself, while sometimes following overdone cliché’s, manages to be a lot of fun. It’s not perfect, but the positives heavily outweigh the negatives. So far, the arcs get better than the previous ones (this one being my favorite as of now). I can only hope that this trend remains throughout the series.

The premise and the mysteries are fascinating. The existence of visceral/explicit/ scenes is always a plus from me, because they make everything feel more real and serious. Like there really are stakes involved. I could talk endlessly about what I like about this series.

I wanted to ask whether you have a set schedule, or if you’re releasing the translated scans whenever you get to finish them. I just wanted to know if I can anticipate your releases or if I should just periodically check the site. I would obviously like for them to come out ASAP, but you just take your time to make it as perfect as possible.

Again, thanks a lot for doing this! At least one good thing came from Crunchyroll’s fuckup, and it’s that I found this amazing series that has a tight grip on me. Can’t wait to see where the story goes.

[There are some issues, where Masha’s name is pronounced differently multiple times. And, as someone already pointed out, it’s hard to tell who’s saying what at times. Some lines seem to be out of nowhere, unrelated to anything (mostly when we follow the protagonists after Leon’s flashback, but also after that). Have you checked if some pages are missing?].

 

[Talon13184]

@Angelopolagej Thanks for the kind words. It really means a lot to know that people appreciate my efforts!

I usually try to release one chapter per week, but Ex-Arm isn't the only title I'm working on right now. So, I'm alternating titles with Ex-Arm being every other chapter I do. So, my schedule looks something like:
Week 1: Ex-Arm
Week 2: Some other title
Week 3: Ex-Arm
Week 4: Some other title
Week 5: Ex-Arm
Week 6: Some other title
Week 3: Ex-Arm........and so on....

So, approximately every two weeks, but I try to speed that up as much as I can. I can generally clean and redraw an entire chapter in an hour or so. I've been doing that forever. But translating is new to me and I don't speak Japanese. I do my translations by using several different apps and websites and scouring the Internet when something doesn't make sense. I'm sure that my translations are sometimes wrong, but I think I usually get the general idea across....at least I hope I do!!! lol

It really is hard to tell who is talking at times. That's kind of inherent to this series. I've tried to clarify it as much as I can by using different font types for different characters (such as Karnivore font for Akira), but I may actually be getting it wrong sometimes. I really like this series, but if I had one complaint, that's where it would lie. The author likes to have entire conversation take place on a page without showing the people speaking so you really have to guess who is saying what.

I'll look at Marsha's name. For her and Violet, I found a number of different possibilities for their names and none seemed to be of Japanese origin (which makes sense since they are not from Japan). So I had to kind of pick what I liked best. Initially, I was going to go with Masha, but I switched to Marsha because I thought it sounded more recognizable. The same thing happened with Molau early on. My online sources kept telling me it was Morau, with an 'r'. It wasn't until the first page of this chapter that I noticed a poster on the wall that listed him as Jason Molau so I had to go back and change it in previous issues. Sigh...!!!

 

[Sunnyds]

Unironically enjoying this

 

[Angelopolagej]

@Talon13184 I see. Well, keep at it! We’re relying on you!

[Just noticed you’ve left a speech bubble empty, on the page where the second flash-back begins. The one where Leon and the people of Muanji storm Molau’s mansion]

 

[Talon13184]

@Angelopolagej Thanks for letting me know. I fixed it and I'm uploading the correct version now!

 

[yummyjks]

just came to check the manga version and ended up catching up in one go , good to see its getting translated , keep it up

 

[Sakioon]

@Talon13184


Update: had to reread alot


I think it goes like this

Akira-I don't get it!?

Minami- You know that we're friends.

Violet > Verna/Berna

Marsha/marcia > Masha

 

[Sakioon]

In this chapter Akira is pondering whether are androids are capable for human emotions.

 

[Sakioon]

The other girl's name is Beruna in katakana since she is not asian her name Beruna might be Berna or Verna. This chapter has inconsistent name of the little girl because its switches often.

 

[space_wizard]

it's the doctor from monster