Got the translation done a little late because I spent a long time working on that thread (which is still not complete… 
. Tomorrow, hopefully!), but thankfully the show this week was just a VOD show, so there wasn’t really pressure for me to finish the last translation before it.
Something else I wanted to mention first is this tweet from TJPW, which invites fans to share encouragement for Pom (who will be facing Max the Impaler at the next show) by making tweets with the #ぽむがんばれ hashtag. Great opportunity for a little Japanese writing practice here! Or you can post in English if you want, haha.
Since I have a public-facing TJPW twitter account now, I thought it’d be a good opportunity for me to practice output a little, so I drafted up a tweet for this. I haven’t posted it yet because I’m not fully confident on my Japanese . Here’s what I came up with:
難敵ですが、ぽむさんはトリッキーな動きと世界で一番最強なスネ蹴りを持っています！
ぽむさんを信じます。幻惑して倒して！海外から応援しています。
東京女子でみんなを応援できるように、日本語を勉強しています！
#ぽむがんばれ
I used a lot of vocab/wording cribbed from the TJPW recaps, which are floating around in my Anki deck. If anyone notices anything that seems off, please let me know .
Speaking of the recaps, I didn’t actually translate the one from the July 31 show, since I focused on the transcripts of the comments from shupro instead. And yeah, even though it’s more text to translate, weirdly enough I think the comments are way easier to translate this way, thanks to actually having proper context.
This show was the quarterfinals for the Tokyo Princess Cup, and there were some spicy results!
The first tournament match was Suzume vs Rika Tatsumi. This was my favorite match in the tournament so far, I think! I was so excited when Suzume won, I nearly jumped out of my seat.
In Suzume’s comments, she said that even though she got past Rika in the tournament, she can’t say that she’s surpassed her, so her main goal is still to surpass Rika Tatsumi. She said that she’s pretty battered this time, but her wings are safe, and she’s going to keep flying through the tournament.
They asked her about beating Rika, whom she admires. Then she said: “執着心の勝ちかなというか、正直私は自分で無謀なことを言っている自覚はあったんですよ。でもゼロじゃないと思ってて。その数%を1%でも0.なん%でも積み重ねてそこをもぎ取った勝ちかなと思います。”
I felt like I was understanding the words, but not really understanding her meaning, which made me doubt my understanding of the words ? Here was my translation:
I guess my tenacity won out, or honestly, I’m aware that you could call it recklessness. But it wasn’t zero. I think you can accumulate those percentages, even 1% or less than 1%, and use them to snatch away a win.
They asked her about the 十字架固め that she used, and I ran into a bit of trouble trying to figure out what that was. One website said it was a “straight arm lock”. Is that what that move is called?? The interviewer asked if the 十字架固め was an expression of her 執念 (tenacity?).
Suzume said: “何個も何個もいろんなパターンというかこうなったらこういうことをしようみたいなのを、考えてたうちのひとつではあるけど、咄嗟にどうにかっていう感じです。” Some tricky grammar in this .
Here was my attempt:
Well, I had many, many patterns, or rather, if it came to it, I wanted to try doing something like this, that was something I was thinking about, but it felt like it just happened at the spur of a moment.
The interviewer said there’s just two matches left to go until victory, and Suzume said she’s going to keep flapping her wings.
In Rika’s comment, she said that she’ll graciously accept that a loss is a loss! She doesn’t have any excuses. She said: “My tournament is over, so it’s summer vacation for me. I’m not taking any time off, but I want to go to a festival or something. But normal is boring, so I want to go to some sort of strange festival.”
Nao Kakuta faced Miyu Yamashita, and sadly wasn’t able to take the ace out of the tournament, though she certainly put up a good effort!
Miyu’s comment seemed straightforward enough (though if there’s anything I got glaringly wrong, please point it out ). Here was my translation of the first part:
This is probably my first time in the final four, but here I am. This is the year that I will definitely win. But in the final four, you have Yuka-chan, me, Miu, and Suzume. Miu and Suzume surprised me, in the quarterfinals today? In terms of match-ups, Nakajima and Rika were likely to win and go on, but Suzume and Miu won instead, and I’m especially cautious of them. But I already know Yuka-chan’s strength, so I want to face Yuka-chan in the finals. I hope we can both show that we’re still strong at the top, and that the two of us can stay in the running and fight in the finals, and I can finally win the tournament.
They asked her how was the match with Nao, and she said:
I thought she’d come with pretty good tactics, and I was sure that she’d be full of tricks, and that she had been scheming. She attacked my leg pretty effectively, benefiting from my own self-destruction, but despite all of that, I was still able to overcome her in the end. But I think Kakuta-san is also someone who has shown us various colors and strengths within TJPW, such as her tag team with Hikari. I met her as an opponent in this tournament, but I was able to beat her somehow.
Concerning her title match with Thunder Rosa in AEW, Miyu said that being able to have that match was an amazing experience for her, and it made her realize that she has to become stronger, and she has been taking that experience into account while she fights in this tournament.
Then she said: “優勝を目指してっていうところではいい流れなのかなと思うのでこのまま勢いに乗って優勝したいなと.” Leaning pretty heavily on DeepL, this is what I had, though I couldn’t really figure out what was going on in the first half of the sentence: “So I think I’m in a good position to aim for the overall victory, so I hope I can keep riding this momentum and win.”
Miyu said that this year in particular, she wants to win.
Nao’s comment was really fun but also chock full of confusing sentences for me. Here’s what she said:
今日の山下さんとのシングルは、もちろん去年の一回戦のリベンジでという思いもあったし、去年の角田じゃないよっていう思いもあったんですけど、私個人の今回のトーナメントの目標としては、誰に勝ちたいとかそういうことじゃなくて、一個でも多くトーナメント勝ち進んでいって東京女子の角田奈穂いるぞっていう、自分の名前存在を大きくするっていうのが自分の黙秘だったから、それが今日で終わってしまったし自分の目標達成することは…できなかったんですけど（涙）。でも山下さんと今日試合して、いい意味で、コイツと試合するのやだなって思ってもらえてたらいいかなって思います。いい意味で嫌な存在でありたいなって思いました。以上です
Here was my attempt:
Today’s singles match with Yamashita-san, of course I thought about it as revenge for the first round last year, and also to show that I’m not the Kakuta of last year, but my personal goal for this tournament wasn’t who I want to beat or that sort of thing, but to win as many rounds as possible, and make my presence bigger as TJPW’s Nao Kakuta. But since I couldn’t make an impression, that’s all over today, and I couldn’t achieve my goal (cries). But this match with Yamashita-san, I hope it made you think, in a good way, ‘no way am I going to fight that bastard’. I want to be an unpleasant person in a good way. That’s all.
The next match was Hikari Noa vs Yuka Sakazaki. This match was indirectly responsible for me starting my new twitter account, thanks to one spot in the match where Yuka no-sold some of Hikari’s kicks, which went viral in a bad way on twitter. Lots of people with zero Japanese ability and no knowledge of what TJPW is like behind the scenes saw this spot and theorized that there was backstage heat between Yuka and Hikari, or that the office hated Hikari and was burying her 
.
The wrestlers comments make it pretty clear that there was an intentional story they were trying to tell with that spot, though perhaps it’s an idea that seemed better on paper than it turned out in reality (the camera angle didn’t really help).
Basically, I realized that the fandom as a whole was lacking a great deal of very important context and was jumping to totally incorrect conclusions because of it, and it felt selfish to keep that information to myself if it could stop even a little bit of false information spreading. But who knows, maybe I’ll post these comments and not many people will read them anyway. But at least I’ll have tried .
In any case, here is Yuka’s comment. She starts off by saying she got past the quarterfinals, and then she says: “やっぱりすごい今回の大会波瀾万丈なことが起きて自分の中でも結構プレッシャーだったりとか感じることもあったんですけど、やっぱりここは負けられないと思ってめっちゃ痩せ我慢して、大丈夫なふりしてましたが.”
I feel moderately confident I understood this, but want to double-check. Here was my translation: “There were a lot of shake-ups during this show, and I in particular felt a lot of pressure, but I knew that I couldn’t lose here, so I put on a show of endurance and pretended I was okay.”
Yuka said that she felt that Hikari’s strength is increasing, but she still wants to go much, much higher. For the sake of TJPW advancing, she knew she couldn’t lose here, so she planted her feet firmly and faced down Hikari, and she’s glad that she was able to win. “At least for now.”
Yuka went on to say (in response to a question about her now being two matches away from her first tournament win) that she wasn’t able to participate last year, but since this summer tournament started, every year everyone has been getting stronger and stronger. Winning through to the next round has gotten more and more difficult, so she feels like the value of the tournament itself is increasing.
Then she said, “今。なので、夏はちょっとあんまり私に味方してくれないので、ここで強くなってる東京女子、レベル上がってる東京女子で、この夏主役になれたら.” I got tripped up by this sentence.
Here was my attempt: “Now, since summer is not really on my side, I want to play a leading role this summer at TJPW, where we’re getting stronger and the level is getting higher.”
Yuka said it’ll once again open a door for her, so she wants to get a solid win here, and then next year, she thinks they’ll be able to have an even better tournament, so she wants to keep moving up and up.
Hikari said that during her first time participating in the Princess Cup, Yuka was her first opponent, and she has always admired her, from before her debut up until their match today.
I wasn’t confident about various pieces of this whole chunk, though I think I got the general idea:
たくさんユカさんに教えてもらったことがあって、今の自分がいるからこそ超えるっていう意味で恩返しがしたかったんですけど、やっぱりユカさんはもっともっと強くなってて。タッグのタイトルマッチでもたくさん怒らせちゃったりして、でも自分の中で憧れに嫌われる勇気っていうのがあと一歩踏み出せなかったのが大きいかなって思います
Here was my attempt:
Yuka-san has taught me so much, and I wanted to surpass her because of who I am now, and repay her in that sense, but she has become even stronger. I made her really angry in the tag title match, but I couldn’t quite muster up the courage within myself to be hated by someone I admired.
Hikari finished by saying that she’s going to keep following in Yuka’s footsteps, and one day she will walk next to her, and then past her. She said, “ユカさんが私のこと大好きになってもらえるように頑張りたいと思います” which I believe means: “I want to do my best so that Yuka-san will love me.”
The main event was Shoko Nakajima vs Miu Watanabe, which was awesome. Probably my second favorite match of the tournament so far. I came into it sort of rooting for both of them, but I was fully on Miu’s side by the end, and was thrilled to see her win!
Shupro provided a transcript of what she said in ring, which was helpful, though the first sentence really threw me off. I think she’s sort of trying to find her words, hence some of the repetition? She said: “中島さんに、勝つことができましたー！ いつかは先輩たちの高い高い、高すぎる壁をいつかは私たちが、私が越さなきゃいけないなと思ってて.”
Here was my attempt: "Nakajima-san, I was able to win! Sooner or later, I thought that we’d—that I’d have to pass over that high, high—too high wall that is our senpais.
She continued, and the rest was more straightforward, I think:
But it was so hard. Today, amazingly, somehow… I got beat up, but somehow was just barely able to win! Now that I’ve won, the path to victory has really come into view. I made it into the final four… and since I made it into the final four, the semifinals at Korakuen Hall are next. I still have a long and difficult road ahead, but I’m going to do my best not to lose, to keep winning. So please support me, and thank you so much for today!
Something that was interesting to me is that they transcribed part of her comment like this: “ベスト４（よん）になれたので…ベスト４（フォー）になれたので、次は後楽園ホールで準決勝になります.” I didn’t have time to go back and rewatch the end of the show, but I’m assuming it’s saying that she pronounced the first 4 as よん and the second one as, well, “four”! I just thought that was neat, haha.
In her comments, Miu said, “自分のなかで、この夏は先輩たちを超えなきゃなとか、そういうぼんやりした目標とかじゃなくて、越えなければいけないってものすごく強く思ってたので.”
I translated this as: “This summer, surpassing my senpais wasn’t just a vague goal, it was something I felt very strongly that I absolutely had to do.”
She said she was in pretty rough shape, but was somehow able to scrape a win. As a result, she was able to advance in the tournament. It’s still a tough road ahead, but from here…
Then she said: “去年まではベスト４までいっても優勝がものすごく見えるっていうのはなくて。去年はぼんやり、すっごい遠くにあるなって感じてたんですけど、今年はチャンピオンの中島さんに勝ったことで上も見えてきたし.”
I was confused by this at first and thought she was speaking more generally (“even if you made it into the final four”), but then I realized that she was probably talking about her own chances specifically? Here was how I translated it:
Just last year, even if I made it into the final four, I didn’t have a great shot at winning the tournament. Last year, it felt so distant and far away, but this year, with my win over the champion Nakajima-san, I can see the top.
She said that it means a lot to her precisely because she was able to beat Shoko, whom she respects so much. She’s going to do her best to keep winning from here.
They asked her how she won, and she said: “今日はホントに負けたくない、勝てなくても負けたくないっていつも歌ってるんですけど、勝てなくてもじゃなく、勝ちたいから負けたくないっていう思いがただただ強くて。それとプラスして普段やってきてることを、自分が自分をどうやって信じてあげられるか.”
This was a mixture of tricky grammar and also just things that were difficult to translate . I worked on just the first sentence for probably 20 minutes. I think this is what she said:
Today I really didn’t want to lose. Even if I don’t win, I always sing ‘I don’t want to lose’, but it’s not that even if I lose, I want to win, it’s that my ‘I don’t want to lose’ desire is incredibly strong. That, plus how was I able to believe in myself and the things that I usually do?
Miu said that she doesn’t really believe in herself, but today she persevered because she decided to believe in herself.
They asked her about the semifinals, and she answered “やばいですね…” and laughed. I spent a lot of time on google trying to figure out how on earth to translate it… . I ended up going with “It’s… terrific (laughs)”. Though maybe there’s a better choice? It’s a weird tricky word!
Right after that, Miu said: “でも、なかなかの強敵だし、鈴芽もリカさんに勝ったということで、ちょっと驚きすぎてるんですけど。ものすごく強いんだなって…” I struggled to wrap my brain around this one, but ended up going with: “She’s a really strong opponent, but Suzume beating Rika-san, it’s a bit of a surprise. She’s gotten incredibly strong…”
Then she said: “誰と当たるから分かんないから、鈴芽とは一緒に後輩が頑張っていこうっていう気持ちでいきたいし.” I think this meant: “I don’t know who I’ll be facing, so with the feeling that us juniors should do our best together, I want to advance with Suzume.”
She said: “先輩たちはホントに強すぎて、東京女子の看板である先輩たちなので.” I wasn’t quite sure on singular/plural, but then I realized she was almost certainly talking specifically about Miyu: “Our senpais are really strong, and this senpai in particular is the figurehead of TJPW.” (There’s that tricky word, 看板, again . Maybe one day I’ll find a translation for it in this context that I’m happy with. I keep changing my mind…)
She said that she wants to overcome that wall as well.
Shoko said: “未詩とはけっこう道場で一緒に過ごすことがホントに多くて、今回のトーナメント、私たちの世代が勝ち上がるとやっぱりファンのみなさんの後輩たちに対する期待みたいなのを痛いほど感じて.” I think I understood this? Here was my attempt:
I’ve spent quite a lot of time with Miu at the dojo. During this tournament, when my generation wins, I feel all of the fans’ hope for the younger generation to a painful extent.
Shoko says that day by day, when she’s with Miu, she’s watched her get better and better from close up. She felt strongly that she didn’t want Miu to surpass her, so she really didn’t want to lose today, and did her absolute best with everything she had.
Then she said: “ここで決められないっていうのは、まだまだ鍛え方が足りないことなのかなと痛感しました.” I translated this as: “But the fact that I couldn’t win here means that my training wasn’t enough, and I feel that keenly.”
The interviewer asked when they trained together, did Shoko feel threatened by her growth?
Shoko said that she did. She said there were a lot of surprises, and while she’s happy about that, there’s also a part of her that feels frightened to see it. Because she was watching Miu so closely, she was the opponent she really didn’t want to lose to the most.
And there we go! The semifinals are set!
I think that’s actually the most likely prediction, honestly! I don’t know about the Up Up Girls announcement, but I think this is absolutely set up to be Miu’s year. Especially if she truly beats Shoko, Miyu, and then Yuka back-to-back to win.
I really like the poster for the semifinals:
Something I realized while typing up that twitter thread and revisiting TJPW’s stories from the past year (and while I was thinking about why so many people were so wrong about Yuka and Hikari’s entire dynamic) is that TJPW has absolutely had a huge overarching story this year concerning the younger generation vs the established top three people (or four if you include Rika).
TJPW doesn’t really have traditional heels, outside of the notable exception of Sakisama, so I think some fans might not realize I guess the subtlety of the story here? We’re meant to root for wrestlers like Miu and Suzume and Hikari and Arai and such to succeed against the top three. It’s supposed to feel like an impossible hill for them to climb so that when they finally do it, we’re overjoyed. (Though, I’m absolutely guilty of sometimes just rooting for my favorites to crush the younger talent haha).
Before Shoko even got the belt, she talked about feeling like this was maybe her last chance, because the new generation is getting stronger, and she’s worried she might not be able to essentially keep her position. Shoko and Yuka are scared of Miu and Hikari.
Everyone at the top of the card in TJPW, except for maybe Miyu (who I don’t think fears anything, haha), is terrified of the younger generation getting up to their level, and losing the position they’ve enjoyed for most of TJPW’s history. There’s a tension there, though, because at the same time, they want the younger talent to succeed, because they know it’s better for the health of the company, but they’re afraid of personally losing their own position.
I feel like the TPC sort of embodies that struggle, if it goes how I think it’s going to go. Already, we’ve had several matches pitting a younger wrestler against the senpai they admire the most (Suzume vs Rika, Hikari vs Yuka).
Miu vs Miyu is a personal favorite of mine, because I’ve always felt like Miu is sort of set up to maybe become the next generation’s ace, though I don’t know how much of that is intentional story being told, and how much of it is wishful thinking . But in any case, I think Miu beating Miyu for the first time would be really, really cool, and I’m really rooting for her to finally accomplish it!