Representing one of the sponsors of Kanako Ito’s visit was the Nitroplus president himself, Digitarou. After meeting him at Kanako’s press panel, he was kind enough to give us some of his time for a brief interview. We asked him about Nitroplus’s foray into the English-speaking market, from his initial impressions to his hopes for the future.

For those unfamiliar with Nitroplus, it is a visual novel company founded in 2000. Their first release was Phantom of Inferno, which was brought over to the USA in 2003 by Hirameki International. Their works include Deus Machina Demonbane, Saya no Uta (Song of Saya), and the mascot character Super Sonico. Currently, they are partnering with 5pb. Games to produce the Science Novels series (ChäoS;HEAd, Steins;Gate, and Robotics;Notes), and with JAST USA to release Nitroplus games in English.

There was initially no thought given to expanding Nitroplus outside of Japan, but their work with Hirameki exposed them to the American market. In preparation for Phantom’s English release, Digitarou took his first trip to America; he visited Anime Expo 2002 in order to conduct market research. Now, 10 years later, he is still surprised that there is not much difference between the fans in America and those in Japan. Even though the fans are from different countries and cultures, they have the same kinds of reactions to Nitroplus’s works. Digitarou also believes that the core idea of the stories is still successfully communicated — that in order to gain something, you must lose something. He actually estimates that about 70% to 80% of each story will be interpreted in the same way regardless of language.

Moving beyond games, Digitarou is interested in releasing English translations from the NitroplusBooks line of novels. However, he is concerned that the costs of translation will exceed the income from sales of novels. It does not seem like a possibility in the near future. Also, if he had the chance to turn one of Nitroplus’s stories into a Hollywood-style movie, any one would be fine, but Saya no Uta seemed the most interesting. For now, Digitarou would like to keep visiting conventions around the world; Nitroplus is supporting Kanako Ito’s July visit to Germany for AnimagiC. Also the game partnership with JAST USA will continue, and anybody interested in translating a Nitroplus game should contact JAST USA.

We would like to thank Digitarou for giving us the chance to interview him, and George Trombley, the president of Japanfiles, for offering to help translate during the interview. We would also like to thank Nitroplus, 5pb. Games, and Anime Boston for helping make this happen.

The game can be downloaded from the iTunes AppStore for an introductory price of $0.99.

encubed: Why did you decide to translate A Scar of the Doll into English?

Miyashita: I have been making games in Japan for 15 years, but I have always felt that I would like not just Japanese people, but people all around the world to play my games. However, there are many issues to overcome in order to translate and promote a game overseas. This iPhone release is a first step towards that goal.

e: What parts of the scenario do you hope that overseas players will enjoy the most?

M: The character relationships and story development are fairly complex and lengthy. While the main character tries to pursue her missing elder sister, unexpected developments and new mysteries unfold, and a surprising conclusion awaits her.
I believe there are many complex stories in European and American novels and movies, but it seems like with regard to games, simple action types are quite popular. Because of this, I think that there aren’t many story-centric games like this. I hope that people can enjoy this long and detailed story.

e: What are your impressions of the English visual novel market?

M: This is still our first (English) game so I cannot say anything yet, but it seems like there are many high quality games available on the AppStore for low prices like $1. This is good from a user’s point of view, but can be quite a problem for developers. There are many visual novels that have beautiful graphics. Instead, since A Scar of the Doll is an older style game that focuses on the text, so we have to pay special attention to the pricing.

e: Would Child-Dream like to translate any other of its games into English?

M: Yes, definitely! However, if A Scar of the Doll does not perform well, we may not release another game. We create both visual novels and role-playing games in Japan, but since visual novels are simpler to produce, we selected one as our first release. Next, we plan to release a game based on the Mayan Calendar’s 2012 apocalypse theory. In the future, we would like to release RPGs in English too.
Japan’s RPGs are not as popular in Europe and America, but the feeling of an interesting story is something people can experience no matter where they are from. I would like to find out if people will find the stories I created interesting.

October 27, 2011 – Child-Dream releases A Scar of the Doll in English for iPhone and iPod touch.
It is available on the iTunes AppStore at http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/a-scar-of-the-doll/id474442505?mt=8.

[Story]
Asumi’s sister has disappeared! Where did she go?
A shuddering and thrilling suspense story.
Can you unravel this mystery from Japan!?

It is the end of the year in December.
Asumi has lost complete contact with her elder sister who goes to graduate school in Tokyo.
Worried for her sister’s safety, Asumi travels alone to Tokyo to find her–
but no trace of her could be found. Her sister wasn’t in either the laboratory, where she had been assigned to, nor at her apartment.
Asumi is at loss at for what to do….
What has happened to her sister…?

Asumi is determined to find out.
What she doesn’t know, however, is that she is in imminent danger…
and there are frightening facts awaiting her.

[Notes]
- You must make choices to lead your way from danger and solve the mystery.
- The game takes an average of 4 to 6 hours.
- This is the first time this popular game from Japan is available in English.
- There are game hints available on the support site, which can be found on the title screen.
- It is currently on sale for an introductory price of $0.99.

[About Child-Dream]
Child-Dream is a Japanese game developer, and their first English game is “A Scar of The Doll”. Their scenario writer specializes in mystery stories, and is known for the award-winning PlayStation 3 action RPG “Folklore”. Their website is http://www.child-dream.net/. You can contact Child-Dream with inquiries at iphone@child-dream.net.

We had a chance to chat with John Pickett from MangaGamer and Chris Ling from Hendane! about how this collaboration came about.

encubed: So how did MangaGamer and Hendane! meet up originally to form this collaboration?

Chris: We really came together last year when I inquired with John Pickett over using images from a few of the games MangaGamer had licensed in our annual April Fools joke on the website. After that, John approached me again a few months later in regards to actually making what was supposed to be a joke… a reality.

John: Yeah, given the frequent requests from our fans and those who haven’t bought our games yet, one other employee at MangaGamer and I had been mentioning to the staff that it was something we really needed to do. However, we had two big questions that needed dealing with if we were going to do it:

1. Would they sell?
2. How would we distribute them?

Our digital distribution has helped us keep costs down so that we can focus on the localization and release of games, but if we were going to sell hard copies, then we needed to address the various new issues that come up with physical distribution, either by ourselves or through another company. It was then that I recalled Hendane and our previous April’s fools joke and decided to see if they would be interested.

encubed: What benefits did you two see in starting such a collaboration?

Chris: Personally, I saw a lot of potential in MangaGamer especially given their access to major publishing companies of visual novel games. Having sold many of these games in the past few years, I know of their popularity and I was willing to believe with proper marketing and a nice package, we could see a major success happen. And frankly, it would allow fans to prove that they really will shell out the cash for what they claim they want.

John: Likewise, our motivation was to see the success of these titles. Our fans have been asking for hard copies for a long time, and as someone who often pre-orders Limited Editions myself, I can understand why. If we could get hard-copies out and moving, not only would we be satisfying our customers, but we would be expanding our audience, reaching new people, and helping to cultivate the western market for these games. If these hard-copies prove to be a success then that means additional income that we can immediately turn around and use to finance the localization of more games, more of the higher-name titles our customers want to see. Koihime Musou is not the only game with an expensive voice cast, and we would like to release many of these titles in the near future as well. So a success with these hard copies is crucial for us in offering some of the titles we would like to be able to see released.

encubed: How long ago did you guys start setting the gears into motion?

Chris: Initial negotiations began during Anime Expo last July and have been ongoing for most of the fall as well. Despite the appearance of major personnel at Anime Expo from the companies MangaGamer works with, the negotiation was strictly between myself, one of the higher ups at MangaGamer, and John Picket, Head Translator.

John: Yeah, that initial meeting and negotiation merely covered the feasibility of this venture, though. It took many more months for both sides to work out the terms and agreements that would be satisfactory to all parties involved and hopefully would ensure a success for all.

encubed: Could you describe to our readers an overview of the process and the effort required to bring this plan into fruition?

Chris: A lot of effort was put into how to package the games in order to make it an appealing purchase to customers. In my personal opinion, you have two camps:

1. Make it cheap,
2. Pack a lot of goodies without raising the price too high.

Given my experience with selling limited edition printings of software, John and I pushed for producing something along those lines. In sheer numbers, we sell more titles that are cheap rather than those of higher quality. However, there is the consideration that within our inventory, there just happens to be more access to cheaper titles. But on the other hand, given the number of people who will throw down $100 for Fate/stay night (First Press/LE naturally) or $250+ for Tsukibako, I am willing to believe that a high quality package will still sell well. It’s a matter of balancing value and price.

John: This, and the fact that I wanted to see our initial venture into hard copies make the most of the unique advantage we have available to us and in turn set us apart from others. This line of thinking led to the decision that we would make our first release a Limited Edition, i.e. the second option in that list.

Once that was decided, a lot of work went into getting this started. Since we were initially a digital download only provider, we had to get permissions from the makers before we could even consider printing their product. Our obvious first choice was to approach Navel on selling a Limited Edition of Shuffle! … We are still trying to arrange for this to happen. In the meantime, OVERDRIVE, Circus, and NEXTON responded quite quickly and put their titles on the table. Then we had to go through and figure out which title would be best for this venture.

Kira Kira already had a hard copy thanks to AX, so that was out for now. The only other OVERDRIVE title we had that wasn’t a fan-disk was Edelweiss, which we were scheduling a re-translation for so we knew that was out until the re-translation was finished.

None of our titles currently offered which come from NEXTON really had a limited edition, so those wouldn’t suit the purpose of this initial venture.

That left Circus’s catalog, which at the time consisted of Da Capo and Suika. One look at our sales figures made the choice obvious. From that point we had to then discuss with Circus what we could use as extras for the release.

Chris: It was also important that bonus items could be made with assets that could be easily accessed. While new content would be nice, we did not want to go overboard and lose sight of the main goal — releasing Da Capo on physical media.

John: After spending some time in discussions with Circus and letting them dig through their files, we arrived at the artbook and OST combo.

Chris: Then of course came the issue of printing them. Printing costs were a major issue and we went through a couple of designs before coming to the current version in which we could make a good looking package without breaking the bank for anyone involved.

encubed: Thank you for taking the time to answer these questions!

UPDATE: Added an interview with the two parties.

Q: For the benefit of our readers, could you please introduce yourself and talk about your role at MangaGamer?

A: Certainly. My name is John, though most will probably recognize me by online name, either Kouryuu or Kouryuu9 depending on the location. I work with MangaGamer primarily as a translator, but I also provide consulting and editing, as well as maintaining a public presence through the Staff Blog and on the forums. So far the projects I’ve worked on are Soul Link, Edelweiss Eiden Fantasia, and Kira Kira Curtain Call. I was also responsible for rewriting the Catalog Entries for our older games when I first started working with the company (so all the Catalog Entries for the games which were released prior to Shuffle, Shuffle, and the games I’ve personally worked on).

Q: How did you get interested in working for MangaGamer and how did you manage to land a job with them?

A: I actually found out about MangaGamer when I was searching for a job shortly after graduation. Before I looked at MangaGamer I had put in my application with several other game companies and the government, but I never heard any word from any of them—a problem that a lot of my fellow graduates are still experiencing. When I found MangaGamer’s website, it was shortly before Otakon 2009, and they were looking for people to help them run the booth. I then volunteered to help, so me and several of my friends worked the booth at Otakon. It was a lot of fun for us, and really gave us a different feel to attending conventions, right when we were starting to grow a little bored with them. As we were working the booth, there were big huge banners for Shuffle behind us, so I realized they had a connection with Navel. That’s why I broached the topic of working with the company to the boss who was working the booth with us. I told him about how I had already done a lot of work towards translating Soul Link as it was, and that opened the discussion between us. The conversation was held in Japanese, of course. So after the convention I was hired to work on Soul Link, and between suggestions I made and other translation projects they decided to give me, my responsibilities just expanded from there.

Q: What format are the scripts that you get for translation? Are they plain text, text with control codes, or do you use a special program to edit the scripts?

A: So far, the format is generally a Word 2003 document. I’ve worked on a few minor bits here and there which were in a Notepad text document, but I usually transferred those to Word when I worked on them. The scripts typically come with a variety of simple command lines like “FadeAllBustshots( 200, FALSE );” which would be interpreted by the program, as well as simple commands like “//” indicating a line commented out, or a similar two-character command to indicate line breaks, or click-for-text breaks.

Soul Link was an exception to this, however. Since I had previously started working on Soul Link as a fan-translation, I continued to use the tool provided by zalas, which had no ability to spell-check.

Q: Ooh, I feel the burn ;) Yeah, I’m too lazy to implement user interface niceties which is why I’m turning away from using that tool anymore. Anyway, going back to the method, it is surprising that this tool was still used. Did the programmers complain about having to work with an external tool/file format when inserting the text?

A: As a matter of fact, I sent them a sample of the .ns1 that your program produced, and they said the programmer could work with it. Since he had no problems with it, they told me to just keep sending them in that format for the game.

Q: What is something you do during translation that you would’ve never thought you would need to do until you started actually translating?

A: I think the one thing I do most often that I never thought I would ever do, would be cross-referencing words. Before I actually started translating, I never thought I would look up a word in more than one dictionary, but in fact it’s quite common that I’ll look up a word in each one of the three dictionaries I use. I used to think—or should I say trust?—that a dictionary would know how a word should be translated, but that’s not the case at all. They never give you an incorrect answer, but each dictionary will also give you a different set of words that overlap with each other to varying degrees. By referencing a word in multiple sources, I can get a much clearer image of what a word is supposed to mean, the different meanings it can convey, as well as suggestions for how to convey that same image in English.

Q: For the typical game translation project, how many people touch the script and what are their roles? (e.g. translator -> rewriter -> editor -> proofreader)

A: For a typical project at MangaGamer, our boss sends the translator(s) the script files and a copy of the game. Once a translator finishes a script file, the file is sent off to our editor for review and edits, and then it gets sent off to the proofreader. Once the script is deemed complete, it gets sent to the programmer who codes the new script into the game.

The process has been slightly different for each game though. For the ones I’ve worked on so far, I was the sole translator working on the project. When I finish a script, it’s sent to the editor who checks and proofreads it, and then the changes he makes are generally sent back to me for a final review before it’s sent off to the programmer. This lets us catch each other’s mistakes as well as check whether or not something was done intentionally.

A lot of our older games were translated by a group of Japanese translators who were contracted to work on the scripts in tandem, with each one in charge of a different group of story routes. Unfortunately, a lot of these older translations did not go through as many passes or people as the scripts do now.

In the case of Koihime Musou, the script has gone through the translator, editor, proofreader, and I’ll be giving it one final editing pass before our release of it, so I certainly hope it sells well enough to reflect the extra work we’ve put into it.

After I finish work on Koihime Musou, I’ll be editing work done by a few new translators for a game by Circus. If their work on this new game proves to be good enough, then we may be keeping them. We might also be picking up a new editor as well.

Q: Are you allowed to tell us what this new game is? I heard D.C. IF was dropped due to exhorbitant royalties, so is this Da Capo II, AR, or something else?

A: Yes, Da Capo I.F. was dropped for now, but the new game is one in the Da Capo series. As for which one, I’ll let that be a surprise for later.

Q: Approximately how many lines do you have to translate for a full game?

A: Ha-ha, I’ve never actually counted the lines in any game I translated since the thought of how many pages they were was already daunting enough. To give an example though, Kira Kira Curtain Call amounts to approximately 805 pages at Comic Sans 10.5 font.

Q: When you first get assigned to a game, what do you do to prepare yourself for the translation?

A: If I’m simply given a couple pages to look over, I usually don’t do anything special. If I’m assigned to the full game though, I usually play through the game first before I start translating. With Edelweiss Eiden Fantasia and Kira Kira Curtain Call, I played through our original English Release as well so I would have an idea of terms, themes, and ideas that were likely to be shared between the two and would need to be kept unified.

Q: What external resources do you use in your translations?

A: Most of my external resources are various dictionaries. I often use WWWJDIC as a quick reference, and I also use Kenkyusha’s New Japanese-English Dictionary 5th edition as a dictionary and for cross-reference. I also use Nintendo DS’s Kanji Sono Mama Rakubiki Jiten as an additional dictionary, but mostly to look up the Japanese definition of words. I also use Wikipedia as a reference for things that require more than a simple dictionary and also as a means to determine whether a word like “zazen” or “unadon” is acceptable as a transliterated term and easily referenced if it is. Lastly, I’ll often use dictionary.com to double check the word I want to use in a sentence, and thesaurus.com to try and fish out a better word than the ones I have in mind.

Q: Approximately how fast do you translate and is your work for MangaGamer your only job?

A: Yes, MangaGamer is my only job. I can usually finish about 20-30 pages, depending on how much code-line is interspersed, in an 8 hour work day in which translation is all I handle.

Q: What did you feel was the most important thing you did before working as a translator that prepared you for the job?

A: Aside from the obvious work of Majoring in Japanese at college where I studied the language, history, linguistics, and literature of the Japanese, and the practice I got translating Vifam as a fan-translator, I would say the most important thing that helped me was studying abroad in Japan. Not only did my year abroad drastically help improve my understanding of Japanese, but the immersion really helped me develop a deeper understanding of both cultures. I got to see the places that often come up in the material I translate, hear how the nuances and flow of their speech differed from ours as well as their own written style, and experience what certain behaviors are supposed to mean and suggest.

Q: If you could give one piece of advice with regards to translation technique, what would it be?

A: My one piece of advice would be to make sure you understand the material you’re going to translate. If it’s a legal document, medical report, or crime report, then you need to understand that so you can use the proper terminology and make it sound like one. If it’s a piece of comedy or a joke, then you need to understand the joke and what makes it funny in order to localize it properly. Phoenix Wright would not have been as enjoyable as it is if the translators didn’t understand the wordplay comedy that makes the game so enjoyable and produced a good localization of the jokes. Likewise, when translating any work of fiction, it’s important to understand the themes of the work, the underlying and overlapping ideas, as well as the terms that repeat and have a later impact or a unique meaning to the story. Without that understanding, it’s hard to create a translation that will accurately convey those same things.

Q: Is there a particular direction that you want MangaGamer to go in?

A: Ever since I started working for MangaGamer, I’ve been pushing the need for us to improve the quality of our translations, and changes are finally starting to be made, so I’m quite excited. My hope is that our sales will greatly improve to reflect this as well. As it stands, they’re nowhere near as high as we wish they’d be. If our sales could reach those goals, it would be much easier for us to license some of the games that are out of our reach right now.

That said, I also wish less people would pirate our games. For a multi-million-dollar console game developer, a few hundred or a thousand copies lost isn’t very significant, but for a small company like ours, every single loss hurts. As it stands, our best seller, Shuffle, has still only sold half the copies we’d like it to, and our next best sellers, Da Capo, Higurashi, and Kira Kira, have sold even less. People have asked us about whether or not we would ever publish hard copy print-runs, but the fact of the matter is that those are impossible if we can’t anticipate sales equating our current goal.

Q: If you could get MangaGamer to license any game, what would it be?

A: Company-wise, and considering the companies we already have arrangements with, I would love to see us start making enough sales so that we could license games like Da Capo I.F. and more importantly, Mai-HiME. These are all games that I think would have great response, but the costs are too high for us if we can’t anticipate a certain level of success.

Personally speaking, I would love to see an arrangement with Xuse. For all I still haven’t finished it, Seinarukana is one of my favorite games so far, and I’ve thought about how I would translate it more than once. It would also be a great honor to have a chance to work on Saihate no Ima, one of Tanaka Romeo’s scenarios. The company also has a wide variety of games that I think would be welcomed by fans of every different genre.

My second personal choice would be Leaf/Aquaplus, though I only really like their catalog of RPG games and Comic Party.

Q: I suppose the super short game developed by CIRCUS that came with a volume of Welcome to the NHK would also be out of the question due to royalties?

A: For now, yes. However, if we can start making enough sales to where we can work out the arrangements necessary with Sunrise to license Circus’s Mai-HiME game, then I don’t see why we couldn’t work something out for Welcome to the NHK’s game. The demand for it would certainly have to be present before we began, though.

Q: Is there anything else that you would like to tell us?

A: We recently met with some of the companies to discuss the next titles coming out in our lineup, and I’m certainly looking forward to them. We have a few more sex-romps from Nexton that are already in the lineup, but we’re also likely to get an Ojou-sama game that the folks at BaseSon developed prior to working on Koihime Musou. We’ll also be getting another game from Overdrive, but not until they actually finish development.

Lastly, the companies we’ve been working with have been talking to a certain other company, and they seem quite interested in working with us. We haven’t started anything official with them yet, but I certainly hope that all goes well.

Q: Ah, so it’s a possibility that MangaGamer’ll get Harukoi Otome ~Otome no Ryou de Gokigenyou~. The premise of the game is pretty funny, and I guess it’s a way to get a main character into a situation with tons of girls. And I guess your other statement indicates that Dear Drops is a possibility in the future as well.

A: Yeah, I’m hoping Harukoi proves to be a lot of fun to work on too. As for Dear Drops, yes that one’s almost certain. What with Kira Kira, Kira Kira Curtain Call, and Dear Drops as well, I’m beginning to wonder if Overdrive hasn’t jumped on the whole music bandwagon that’s been sweeping the states since Rock Band, ha-ha.

Q: Oh, and that last “certain other company” in your previous response sounds fascinating. Any hints you are allowed to drop on this?

A:Let’s just say I’d never want to eat their jam or their bread.

Q: What made you interested in localizing doujin games?

A: For starters, I’ve been a huge fan of gaming in general since I was a kid, with my Sega Genesis, my Sega Saturn, PC Engine… [known as the TurboGrafx-16 in North America] Specifically, I’ve always been a fan of Japanese games.

So, about five years ago, I was in Tokyo, and I saw that there was this whole underground scene of doujin soft — mostly visual novels, and there were a lot of games that were like total copyright infringement, as you well know. But I still found it very fascinating that these kids, individuals, fans per se, were doing these games on their own. So I started looking into it more and more, and then two to three years ago, I started seeing more original titles come out. In the beginning, you had characters from different animes being put into different types of games — totally copyright infringement. A lot of these independent developers took it upon themselves to create original properties, and this is where I got more excited about the market. So, two years ago, I wrote up a business plan, and this last October, I decided to go forward with it.

My first license was through a doujin group called Orange_Juice, and the game was called Suguri. This was one of my favorite doujin games. We’re also working with doujin soft circles PlatineDispositif as well as Team Gris Gris. Now we are working with six doujin circles, but these three are from October.

Q: Are you planning on releasing any games that are not action-based?

A. I am also a pretty big fan of RPGs, so that’s one thing we’re looking into right now. As an independent publisher, the problem is the localization, and translation. Obviously, if you’ve played our games you’ve noticed that we’ve picked out games that didn’t have a lot to translate. On the other hand, a visual novel or an RPG do have a lot more to deal with. So, we are actually looking into that — both visual novels and RPGs. As a matter of fact, we will most likely stay away from properties that are too adult, because I used to be friends with some of the guys at Hirameki, and they dealt with some of the adult titles as well as regular titles. For some reason, they didn’t do too well; I might say that the market wasn’t ready for it yet. And I think the market is slowly acclimating to it. So, we are considering definitely moving into RPGs, visual novels and even puzzles.

Q: For translation costs, is it translation costs in terms of time or in terms of money that you’re more worried about?

A: I’ll give an example. We have a wonderful title called Chelsea and the Seven Devils coming out next year, and this game is a Castlevania action-adventure type of game, but it also contains quite a bit of dialogue and text. So that game alone would take us about four to five months to localize. So, it is a time and money issue; as you very well know, the longer it takes, the more it costs. We’re sitting on the game [while translating] and we want to get it out as soon as possible. So we are definitely going to be licensing RPGs. That will happen. Visual novels are second on my list for non-action-oriented games.

Q: Can you tell us a bit about your distribution methods — both online and packaged versions? What made you decide to go with Direct2Drive and GamersGate?

A: For starters, originally, when we took a look at the games, and knowing how finicky American fans are, we decided to start doing DVD-ROM releases as bundles because we felt that for the American audience, this was more bang for their buck and it’s easier for them to get into these types of games with a low MSRP. I wrote into the business plan two years ago that I wanted both digital distribution and physical releases, because I did not feel that it was fair to put these games out in digital format only when you could do both. I think it exposes the brand and the characters more.

Regarding Direct2Drive, I approached them at Game Developers Conference. This was actually the same day that Curious Factory approached them. We sent out a press release literally two weeks before the show that we were going to [publish doujin software] and it spread like wildfire in Japan. So this company that could’ve done it before didn’t do it until they saw an American publisher do it. Now, Direct2Drive took us really seriously because we had a really strong marketing plan, because I personally come from marketing. Right now, Direct2Drive is very happy with our numbers and very happy with our handling of our releases. So to summarize, we approached them, they loved the games and it happened very easily.

And then, GamersGate, from Sweden, approached us and they were very excited about the games, and they’ve been really pushing our games very hard, and so we’re very excited about working with them as well.

Q: So is GamersGate more for a European audience and Direct2Drive for a US audience?

A: Technically, Direct2Drive is more US and GamersGate is more worldwide.

Q: Have you considered perhaps some of the more well-known online distribution channels like Steam?

A: We also actually attempted to approach Steam, but to be quite honest, it would almost seem that we might be little too small to get their attention, yet. I almost believe that we’re getting so much attention in the industry right now that Steam will come to us at some point.

What’s really interesting to me right now and what I would really like to push is distribution through XBox Live and the Nintendo Wii. We spoke to both companies and they’re both very interested in what we’re doing. So, it might take about a year or so, but we’re going to get our developer’s kits and we’re going forward with that. It might take a while, but that’s something we’re excited about.

Q: Do you also have a team to actually make these games play on English systems, because there’s a lot of games in Japan that don’t play properly on US systems?

A: Yes we do. Specifically, the team we have will be working on the Nintendo Wii and XBox Live. As far as localization for the US market, the games are simple enough. One thing I made sure of was that they would translate well for the US gamer before licensing them.

I actually played close to about three hundred doujin games out of the four hundred or so that are out there for the last three years or so. For the last two years, I took it more as work and would make notes about each game — whether I like it, first of all, and how they would play for an American audience. I felt that was very important. I also felt it was important to involve the anime community as much as possible when releasing this; if you want word to spread, you bring it to the anime community, because you have a cross pollination of gamers, manga lovers and anime lovers. All of our games have very cute anime character designs, so it’s perfect to first promote it to the anime community, and then promote it to the comics community and the overall mainstream gamer community.

Q: Do you approach these doujin groups directly or… ?

A: Absolutely. I got a friend translator and just started cold calling these [groups] and said “I want to meet with you.” To be honest with you, these guys are very cool; they’re otaku and I’m otaku. From the first meeting, it was like “what kind of developers do you like?” We just got along so well. They knew that I knew what I was talking about, and I also had experience in the anime community for the last fourteen years through several different companies. It was very easy, because of my attitude and my experience. I came prepared, not only with sample box art but with marketing plans as well.

The good thing is that after the initial meetings, these doujin circles introduced me to other doujin circles and the word spread. Now, we have circles contacting us. In the last week, we had two circles contact us about carrying their games and localization their games for the US market.

Q: Have you considered some of the bigger doujin circles like Shanghai Alice, Tasogare Frontier, French Bread, etc.?

Absolutely. I’m a huge fan of all of them. I have actually met with ZUN twice already. I researched ZUN online first and found out that he loved beer. The guy loves beer and is a beer connoisseur. When I was first meeting with him, of course I brought him imported beer, and I brought him a Corona banner. We actually get along really well, but the thing about ZUN is that ZUN is really not prepared for a US market just yet. He definitely has had many offers in the past both from France and some different countries. He’s definitely content with the Japanese market and he does not need it to grow any larger than it is, because he does have a daytime job and it would only make more work for him. At this point, he’s very satisfied. But, I will say that we’re chipping away at him slowly, and I think in the next year or so, we might be able to do something with him.

Q: Have you thought about bringing over doujin music?

What a great question. I personally love doujin music. Let me put it this way. My first Comiket, in 2007, when I walked into the doujin soft/doujin music room, I imploded my mind. I must have bought 30 different CDs and I became a fan immediately, but I don’t know how the market is going to do in the US for this type of music. One of the things I talked to Orange_Juice about was “could we please license your soundtracks?” It is something I would like to do but it’s probably not something that will happen overnight. It’ll probably take a few years to grow the market to a point where we can include doujin soft music as well.

We are looking into starting a separate division that will carry imported doujin soft and doujin music that we have not licensed, just to see how the consumer reacts. Hopefully it will be positive enough that we will slowly be bringing in some of these techno and rock remixes these guys do.

Q: What about original songs from doujin music groups?

That’s a good question. I hadn’t really thought about that, but now that I think about, there’s some really good stuff out there, that some of this music is good enough to stand on their own. And if produced properly and released through the proper channels, beyond the anime community, they can get more exposure. The question is, no one’s really tried it before and I think it would be something really interesting for Rockin’ Android to look into more and possibly attempt in the next year or two.

Q: For a high risk market, do you think it would be possible to do some sort of iTunes release?

It’s really difficult. We looked into iTunes for the Suguri soundtrack and it is really difficult, but right now our particular website has really picked up a huge amount of hits since we opened up in March. So, we’re actually going to revamp our site and we’re going to start offering our games directly as downloadable games. We might actually use that platform as a way to maybe acquire some of the music we’ve been discussing here, in order to test out the market to see how it goes, kind of like the JapanFiles model.

We would like to thank Enrique Galvez for taking the time to answer our questions.

Ms. Kagesaki started drawing game CGs for Himeya-soft (姫屋ソフト) in 1993, but since 2001 has been focusing on manga. The game companies she has worked for include KID, CIRCUS/Kadokawa Books (角川書店), JANIS, May-Be Soft, and BELL-DA. The previously mentioned series Karin began serialization in May 2003 and ended in April 2008. She also has a more recent doujinshi circle, Tsubuan Doumei (つぶあん同盟), which does parody works.

We would like to thank Ms. Kagesaki for letting us interview her and the Sakura-Con staff for their assistance in arranging and facilitating the interview.

encubed: How did you start working on game CGs?
Yuna: Job searching. As long as the job was drawing, anything would work. At first, I wanted to become a manga artist, but I wasn’t good enough yet so I looked for a different job.

e: Which game’s work do you feel the best about?
Y: Which game… infinity? Like Never7 (ed: Never7 -the end of infinity-).

e: What made you start to create manga?
Y: I was scouted at a doujinshi event.

e: When you make your own manga, you have complete freedom in the drawings, since you are writing the story. How much freedom do you have with game CGs? How much input do you have to the character designing process?
Y: It’s hard to fit the characters into the dimensions of the window. It’s probably the same as with anime.

e: How is it drawing for the Da Capo series, where the characters are already well
known?
Y: I was an outsider for that job (ed: did not have any influence). It was my first time having to be careful to draw like the original images, so it was interesting. But in the end, people could still tell they were my drawings.

e: Do you prefer working on game CGs yourself, or collaborating with other artists?
Y: There are times where I drew all the images, but now that I think about it, it’s probably better to draw with other people.

e: How large and detailed do you draw game CGs?
Y: I draw according to the maker’s decision. I usually only draw the character line art, not the details.

e: The graphics up to now have been mostly 640×480, what has changed as the resolution has increased?
Y: Honestly, I don’t know. My latest work hasn’t really been much other than Da Capo. Most of my work as a game illustrator was in the golden age of the NEC-9801. When the age of full color came, I was pretty busy with manga. And with Da Capo I was only doing character design and line art, so I wasn’t really involved.

e: Were you an outsider for other games as well?
Y: Yes, it was mostly like that. The makers pretty much just gave me drawings and told me to do what I like.

e: Are there differences between drawing game CGs and manga?
Y: The screen size and the work schedule. Also, with manga I create the story so I can decide on the frame size I want.

e: Are there any artists that you look up to?
Y: There are so many illustrators, I can’t think of any names. For manga artists, Rin Okamoto (岡本倫), Kazuhiro Fujita (藤田和日郎), and many others. I read a lot of manga.

e: Do you have any recommendations for someone interested in drawing professionally?
Y: Draw a lot. Also keep in mind that other people will look your work.

e: What do you think of translations of the games you work on, both official and unofficial?
Y: With manga, I think, “Oh, this is how the words fit in.”

e: Would Tsubuan Doumei ever consider working on doujin games?
Y: I draw jacket art for voice actor drama CDs from Tsubuan Doumei’s partner circle LIPS. I’ve thought about doing doujin games, but I can’t do anything really high level.

Links:
Personal Website: “Garakuta Ichiban” (Japanese)
Sakura-Con

Mr. Kikuta started his professional career composing for some minor TV anime series, and sound effects for Romancing SaGa (ロマンシング サ・ガ) in 1992. After leaving Square in 1997, he founded Sacnoth and produced Soukaigi. However, due to internal conflict, he left the company and later founded Nostrilia Corporation, a game design and music company.

We would like to thank Mr. Kikuta for taking time to speak with us and answer our questions about his work in depth, even past the end of the scheduled time. Also, we would like to thank the Sakura-Con staff for arranging this interview.

encubed: Your music uses a lot of familiar synthesized sounds. Why do you still prefer this versus more real-sounding samples?
Hiroki: I do use synthesizers, but I really like to use samples from real instruments. However, I believe that using real instruments, synthesizers, and samples are all ways of performing. The form that works best should be chosen when expressing through music.

e: How has the transition from 8-bit synthesizers to the programs available today changed the way you make music?
H: It has, in terms of being simplified. Playing instruments and singing are forms of expression. Singing is a very simple form of expression. Hitting something, like drumming, is also a form of expression, playing a guitar is another form of expression — using whatever tool you choose is its own form of expression.

The important thing is that each instrument has its own structure. A piano has its own structure and limits, and so does a guitar. Just like those, oscillators have their own unique forms of expression because of their construction. Even 8-bit synthesizers have their own sound. Famicom (ed: Family Computer / NES) has its own ‘atmosphere’, and you can make good music with it. If you use an SNES, you can make fitting music with it too.

e: Are you restricted to a certain timbres of sounds or styles of music for a given game?
H: Using a SNES’s ADPCM, 8 sounds can be used at once. Managing that is quite difficult. For example, to create band sound, first there is a bass drum. There is a snare drum. There is a cymbal. There is a bass. How many are left? Adding do-mi-so, you’re done. You can’t combine the bass and snare drums. If you want to combine the data from two tracks, you have to do it by hand, which is quite difficult.

e: How much influence do you have on the rest of the game production and vice versa?
H: It’s more about how much you want to be involved. If you don’t try to be involved, even if the game is successful, it won’t make you as happy, because you weren’t involved. Whether it succeeds or fails, it’s about how much you put yourself into the game. Just trying to make the best use of your time, trying to make yourself involved in the game, is interesting.

e: What did you think of the Soukaigi soundtrack, since that was recorded using live instruments?
H: That time, we had money. I probably mentioned it somewhere before, but the sound director said, “I got the budget!” When I asked how much we had, he said 30,000,000 yen, so we could do anything. Having that freedom, and that good work was so valued, meant that everybody shared the passion. I think it was just the timing of working with Square (ed: now Square Enix).

e: Would you like to use real instruments with other games?
H: First, can they be used? Second, is it right to use them? If I have both of those reasons, then I would use real instruments. With humans playing instruments, you have a certain massiveness or heaviness. But if the game’s world and graphics are simple, but the music is heavy, it’s bad. If the image is light, the music should be light too. For example, cheap is not necessarily bad. If the design is cheap, the music should be cheap too. Depending on the feeling the entire game is aiming for, like cheap or pop, there are factors to consider. If to achieve that, real instruments are needed, then they should be used.

e: What did you think about writing vocal songs, like Soramizu (ed: theme song of Sora no Iro, Mizu no Iro) and Lovely Strains.
H: Soramizu is a visual novel, so there was a lot of freedom. The game has its own world, so first I had to try to express that through music. I have my own personal style, and it was difficult to combine the feelings. Also, I like to make music that can be sung, but if you don’t have experience it won’t turn out quite how you want. I think I could have done more a interesting job, so I would like to write more vocal songs.

e: How did you come to compose music for visual novels?
H: I do music composition, but I also do production and scenario writing. Through those jobs, I meet other people. Those people may let me know about available jobs, and ask if I would like to write music for them. I tell them I don’t care what genre it is, it just matters that I find the job interesting, and how much freedom I will have. And most importantly, whether or not the person requesting the work will appreciate my music. Considering all of those, I will decide to do it. Even if it is a visual novel, it doesn’t matter.

Within visual novels, there are different people that make music. Of course, I have heard wonderful songs they have written, so I think they enjoy writing music for visual novels. You probably like groups like I’ve, composers like Orito-san (ed: Shinji Orito / 折戸伸治). Listening to those, I like the music, and I think, “Genre doesn’t matter. They can make interesting music for it.” If the circumstances are right, the genre doesn’t matter. You can create good music wherever the place. In a market for visual novels like in Japan, by buying the work you are praising the project. If the players feel moved by emotion, I think that the passion of the creators is real.

e: What differences are there between composing music for RPGs and galge?
H: They are different. Their goals are different. With RPGs, there is a certain playing style. For example, the characters walk all over the field. The field music is heard for 20-30 hours by the player. So that music can’t be ordinary music. But if you go to Tower Records and buy the CD, are find out you have to listen for 20 hours, that’s no good. You would give up. So RPG background music isn’t ordinary music. You have to make something that achieves its goal. With galge, there is music that fits the genre. Thinking about the type of music that best fits the style is most interesting for me. Meeting the goal is most important. There are times where you don’t know the goal though.

e: Do you often play the games you work on?
H: In general, I play the games when debugging, but when it’s completed I usually don’t like the game anymore. When the job is complete, it isn’t as interesting as before. I listen to my music for many hours when composing it, so I’m tired of it at the end.

e: Might you compose for other visual novels in the future?
H: As long as I’m interested in it. What are you looking for in galge? I think if someone can truly accept and even cry for the expression in the game, then I would put all of my effort into it. Whatever field, whatever expression, I think that it’s a wonderful job. For that goal, I would consider many ideas to pick the best way to express with music. Even with galge, there is very good music. If you don’t have that result, expressing the feelings isn’t very interesting. How the music can influence the entire work is very important. Working for that result is the best job.

e: Do you have any suggestions for someone starting out creating music for games?
H: First of all, discover your best way of expression so that whoever listens to it can recognize that you wrote it. Games’ background music is a mechanism to reach the final goal, so it can easily become something that doesn’t have individuality. If it doesn’t, then it doesn’t matter who makes it. Always keep in mind that losing individuality is dangerous. That intent is very important. It’s not good to think that anybody can do the work. Starting out thinking that you are the only one who can do it is absolutely necessary. Your style may not be understood at first, but if you throw that away, you won’t become anything. So what I want to say is keep working using your own style.

e: Finally, what do you think of translations of the games you work, both official and unofficial?
H: Nothing in particular, though one time I insensitively wrote many hard to translate parts for an RPG. When I read the translated version of the script, it was ‘fixed’ and made completely different. I wanted to say it in one way in Japanese, but in the English was completely different. When I noticed the translation was strange, I asked why that was so. Of course, there was conflict in deciding the best way to express it in English. Without that it’s not a complete work. If a game that I wrote was translated into English, I would need to understand the translation, even though I can’t speak English. But if I can read it, I can understand it. This is accepting the translated version, and taking responsibility for it.

Links:
Official Website: “Angel’s Fear” (Japanese)
Personal blog: “kiss twice” (Japanese)
Sakura-Con

Her schedule for this convention was pretty packed with two Q&As, two autograph sessions, a concert, and much more. The concert was very popular, and everybody who attended got involved, jumping with glowsticks provided by Momoi’s official fanclub’s members. 14 of the fanclub members were in front of the stage doing ‘calls’, a combination of shouting and moving with glowsticks, and the audience copied. Momoi was impressed that everybody was so into the concert. She even performed an old song, “Popotan” (ぽぽたん), because one of the people she met during the convention was cosplaying as Mii, whom Momoi did the voice for. Other songs she performed included “LOVE.EXE” from the PS2 version of Baldr Force EXE and “Tenbatsu! Angel Rabbie” (天罰！エンジェルラビィ) from Magical Twirler Angel Rabbie (まじかるトワラー・エンジェルラビィ☆).

The Q&As were interesting too. Perhaps the highlight of it was when someone asked if she was able to get boyfriends when she was young. Everybody in the room was laughing by the end of the question, and laughing again soon after Momoi started her answer. She started her response with, 「いっぱい彼氏いたか？いっぱいいたか？いないよ！！」, “Did I have many boyfriends? Did I have many? I had none!!” After the laughter died down, she went on to explain that she can do what she’s doing today because of that. But she had lots of boyfriends in her mind. And even became the boyfriend when she was playing galge (ed: orz). She also did an Utamaru voice for everybody at the second Q&A session, from the Da Capo series.

In addition to all of this, she managed to find time for us to have a private interview about visual novels. It was quite interesting, and is included below. Also, we have included links to where you can get her music. We would like to thank Momoi, her staff, and the Anime North staff for all their hard work.

Also, a minor note. On the episode of the weekly internet radio show Chou! Momo-i (超!モモーイ) that was published while she was at the convention, she mentioned that the previous weekend she attended KSL Live World 2008. It was a live show from Key Sounds Label, which primarily publishes songs for games from the game company Key. It sounds like she’s a fan of them too.

encubed: Do you play visual novels?
Momoi: Yes, I do. Recently, I’ve been playing a game called CHAOS;HEAD

e:Do you have a favorite game or brand?
M: I don’t really have one. It’s not like I’ve a fan of any particular studio. I don’t really have a preference for major or minor games.

e: Have you watched the anime versions of these games? Like SchoolDays.
M: I have watched some.
e: What do you think of them?
M: The game had various endings, but the anime only has one final episode, so I thought about how difficult it must be while watching it.

e: How did you become a singer for these game theme songs?
M: I was walking in Akihabara in 2001 and saw a huge gathering of people. As I wondered what it could be, I saw they were doing a PC game demonstration at a computer shop. Then, I thought, “Oh, PC game music is something people will listen to – something popular”. That was around the time when music downloading techniques were developed. I thought, “I always wanted to have a musical profession.” There was a time when I knew I wanted to do songs, but I didn’t know which genre to choose. I felt this was a genre suited for Akihabara and anime. Bishoujo game songs. As if it was fate, the next thing I knew, I was given the chance to sing a PC game song. That made me think about trying to write these songs too.

e: Would you like to make games too?
M: I would like to, but from what I’ve seen the creators have a hard time, so I think making a game is hard. They all just tell me they haven’t slept. However, I have always thought I want to work on game music.

e: What is your favorite bishoujo game song?
M: I like Tokimeki Memorial (ときめきメモリアル) songs, like “Motto! MOTTO! Tokimeki” (もっと！モット！ときめき). I remember attending one of Mami Kingetsu’s (金月真美) concerts. But I like my songs the most. I make songs thinking that, like this is the best.

e: Omakase! Trouble Tenshi (おまかせ！トラブル天使) is scheduled to come out next year.¹
M: Ah, it’s finally coming out? I was wondering when
e: Though the release date hasn’t been announced yet, it’ll be next year.
M: I see.
e: But the previous game, Prism Ark, was released in 2006. Recently, have bishoujo game makers been asking you to sing for them?
M: Recently? For bishoujo games, it takes an extremely long time from recording until the game is released. A recording from a year ago is only now being released. What was it, that song I sang and wrote. CROWD’s X Change (ed: X Change Alternative 2 -キミノヒトミニウツルキミ-). That was recorded a year ago, and is being released soon. That’s the most fun thing, something being released.

e: Is the feeling when working on theme songs versus CD-only songs different?
M: Probably when I work on theme songs, I think about whether or not it will fit the game or not. However, recently I’ve been told not to worry about that too much.

e: Do you want to voice more game characters? Your voice roles have been primarily anime characters.
M: Recording for games is quite different than for anime. I think both are interesting.

e: Do you have any message to English-speaking fans of these games?
M: Do many English-speaking people play these games? Japanese is hard, isn’t it.
e: English versions…
M: Games that have English versions? Tales of the Abyss in places like America is talked about a lot. Just earlier at the autograph session, a person brought a printout of it. I would like to visit Canada or America again. If I do come, let’s have fun. Let’s have fun at my concert!
e: Unofficial English versions exist too.
M: Ah, like fansubs?
e: But for games.
M: Games too?
e: Like Tsukihime (月姫).
M: Really!? Amazing!
e: How about to those bishoujo game fans?
M: This is partly for myself as well, but I want to do more game voices. How would I do business in North America? I might perform a role in another game. When I do, please play it. Huh? I wonder if that’s okay. Something like that. Is it okay? I feel like it would be better to say something more interesting. I want to see a game made by an American person! American or Canadian. I want to do a voice for it!
e: Games made by fans exist too.
M: Really? I’d like to try one. It seems like something else that would be different from the ones in Japan.

e: Thank you very much. And thank you for the concert too.

Links:

Official blog (Japanese)
Profile and discography at Right Gauge (Japanese)
Official website at Right Gauge (Japanese)
Official website at avex (Japanese)
North American iTunes store

2008-06-12 update: Momoi appeared at Connichi in 2007, not early 2008. Thanks Akira fan.

2008-07-11 note: Omakase! Trouble Tenshi (おまかせ！トラブル天使) has been cancelled acording to Getchu. News from Namidame News.

Thanks to byndhrzn for the heads-up.
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