Well, seeing the chapter list in Japanese answered my question already, which was going to be “what’s the word they use for the nine types of magic affinity?”
See, in the Vertical translation, they’ve been using “Nine Paths” right up until this volume, at which point they use “kokonotsu” purely to preserve Chinatsu’s “kokonatsu” pun, and after which they continue with using “kokonotsu”, and ouch it bugs me so much. “Nine Paths” fits the tone far better in the English version.
What we didn’t realize is that the “Yes” option had an implied two month break
I’ll go ahead and shift the start dates for a longer chapter 44, to make the old schedule. Essentially, chapter 43 is off-schedule, chapter 44 starts a little early, and everything else lines up as if we had a full one-week break that everyone was too shy to vote for. =D
I’ve tried hard to think of something they could have used instead, and while I feel I almost came up with something, I’m left empty-handed. Sounds like they should have gone with linear notes or something. Sacrifice the pun and save the term. It’s not like the pun really survives intact the way they went.
Yeah. Or use “kokonotsu” once, and then go back to “Nine Paths”. Though that’d sound even weirder. Maybe you could go "Nine Paths, traditionally called “kokonotsu” "?
I’m still reading but haven’t reached this part yet
I’m dropping this book
0voters
This week’s a little early again as we’re shifting back to that Thursday/Friday start date. Normal start date resumes next week, but feel free to wait a day or two more to start this week if you’d prefer =D
Next translation question: what’s the name of Enigumo’s machine in the Japanese version?
In the English version (bottom of page 44), he calls it “The handy, beloved, solid Compound Model Information Processor for Sentient Organism Behavioral Principles, Kokonotsu Classification Device Manufacturer BEN-03”, which (to his annoyance) Taros abbreviates to “Mr Hanbesoben”.
Aside from leaving out the obvious “Hanbesoben-san” pun, this sounds like a direct transliteration of the nickname in the Japanese version, but how that relates to the actual name of the machine is so excruciatingly laboured that even Herakles would turn up his nose at it. It looks to me like they’ve translated the name of the machine as best they could, then just tacked “handy, beloved, solid” on the front so it can be abbreviated to “hanbeso”. Could they find no way to reword the name of the machine such that “HANBESO” is its initials? The “Sentient Organism Behavioral” already has the “SOB” initials from the end.
I just took what words I could from that panel (such as 情報), and moved on without worrying about the rest, so I can’t say for everything in it. Thus, a screenshot:
It honestly kinda looks like they just ran the whole thing through Jisho, picked out the first (or sometimes second) definition for each word, gave it some slight rearrangement to suit English sentence flow, and… then absurdly just tacked “handy, beloved, solid” on the front. And also threw in a “sentient” - not too sure where that came from.
The Samurai was a relatively hard to understand, though. Not sure if it was because of the long sentences or if he indeed did speak a bit different (since he’s an samurai from 400 years ago) I got through it somehow for most of it (at least I think I did xD), but I need a big clearance here though:
Page 79
そして拙者は人として生まれ変わりまた世のために新たな生を全うしようとしたのだが周りに止められた
そして拙者は - and then I
人として生まれ変わりまた世のために新たな生を全うしようとしたのだが - I think it means something along the lines of “reborn as a human for the sake of the world to try to live a new life, but”… but I can’t make sense of how things work together. And what’s the 変わり doing there?
周りに止められた - stopped by people(?) around me
４００年も休んだ魂では時代が余りにも変わった現世で送れないかもしれないと
“they said for a soul/spirit that rested 400 years, the time might have changed too much to be able to live a life” the と at the end I guess is a quotation.
Not really sure about 時代が余りにも変わった現世:
時代が余りにも変わった現世
The times changed excessively in the present world? I can’t make sense how this works really works together. But afaik it’s all modifying 現世? That word and 時代 in one sentence/clause appears a bit confusing to me right now, though.
送れ - this should be the “to spend (time), to live one’s life” meaning? Everything else seems to be about sending, departing etc.
A (maybe) subtlety: 全うする - Jisho.org - to carry out, to fulfill
(I think this makes more sense together with ために、maybe?)
Other than that, I think you got it pretty much:
“Rebirth as a human, to again try to fulfill a new life for the benefit of the world, but” (I take this to mean that he wants to be helpful to the world, to serve it in an abstract way, if that makes sense)
周りに止められた - I was stopped by the “people” around me / my environment (who were where his soul was chilling all this time)
And then he goes on to explain why they stopped him:
４００年も休んだ魂では時代が余りにも変わった現世でまともな人生を送れないかもしれないと
(you skipped a column here, see the bolded part)
時代が余りにも変わった - I think this is just saying that “the times” changed drastically
現世で - in the real world (i.e. from the world that he was used to before)
All together maybe “in the present world where the times have extremely changed (= are different)”
送れ - this should be the “to spend (time), to live one’s life” meaning?
From your skipped line this seems to be extremely plausible: “I can maybe not live a normal human life”
Yes, it is as if this gets inserted into the previous sentence, to explain it more:
周りに。。。と止められた
TL;DR: He was allowed to come to the current world and so he thought he would be reborn as a normal human, but “they” told him that he would probably not get along too well because his mindset is too far from the current world, and so [next pane:] he was sent to the current world as a ghost to get used to it.
Ah, no worries! It was a tricky monologue, I also had to go over this again and think about the details, and I also had to check back with somebody else regarding one or two points, so I’m glad you asked and helped me deepen my understanding as well
Gotta say, it didn’t surprise me at all to learn that Akane is a Light witch. Even though the odds of having both a Light witch and a Dark witch in the same room are one in four hundred million, according to Enigumo (with the possible caveat that perhaps affinities run in families?).
)
this seems to be extremely plausible: “I can maybe not live a normal human life”
No wonder I felt like the sentence was missing something. I knew it had “honest” or “upright” in there but it was gone when I made the post. 
