encubed

After a previous attempt to translate Katahane stalled back in January on the TLWiki, a new translator, Yeah321, has decided to pick up the title from where the previous translator stalled.  The old translator, “I failed jp302″, translated roughly ten percent of the trial version of the Katahane between December 2009 and January 2010 before deciding he was in over his head, and Yeah321 has began translating from this point.   “I failed jp302″ has joined in this new effort to translate the title once again, this time as an editor instead of a translator.

Yeah321 is currently working on TLWiki with scripts of the trial version that were uploaded back when “I failed jp302″ began translating originally rather than scripts from the full commercial release of the game.  The tools that are being used at this time are not compatible with the full version of the game, and it remains to be seen whether or not this new translation project will continue onward past where the trial ends.

Shortly before “I failed jp302″ began translating Katahane, this title made the finals in Amaterasu’s last poll in November 2009, finishing twelfth in the preliminary poll, and finishing fifth in the final poll.  The fan translation group Wings of Yuri, who finished their translation of Aoishiro last year, originally made an attempt to get a translation started on Katahane back in 2008, however this never ended up taking off.

Katahane is an adult visual novel with yuri elements that was released in the beginning of 2007 as the last game created by the now defunct Tarte.  One of Tarte’s earlier titles, Hinatabokko, was a launch title for MangaGamer, who released it under the name Which girl should I choose? back in 2008.

Katahane is a tale that is split into two parts.  One tale, Kurohane, takes place a few hundred years in the past in a world with three kingdoms, the Red Kingdom, the White Kingdom, and the Blue Kingdom.  This is a tale that follows the events at the end of Christina’s reign of the White Kingdom.  Another tale, Shirohane, takes place in modern times and follows the young Wakaba as she writes a play that differs from the present day belief of the events that lead to the demise of the White Kingdom, and while writing this play she beings to search for the actual truth behind these events.