The 🤼 プロレス thread! Learning Japanese through pro wrestling

Been a bit of a busy week for TJPW stuff :sweat_smile:. I’m about halfway through the February 18 Nagoya show, which was almost as long as Korakuen :sweat_smile:. Some good developments happened on this one, though!

First up, Shino’s debut match announcement! I only had a transcript for the backstage comments portion.

Miu: “So, with that, Shino-chan’s debut has been set. How do you feel?”

Shino: “Frankly, I’m just so happy that I can finally work with everyone.” (cries)

Miu: “It was an honest surprise and she truly was caught off guard. But she has been preparing so that she can be ready to debut at any time. She was injured for a long time, but even then, she was always coming to the dojo and taking notes while doing as much as she could physically, and that’s why she was able to be ready in time for Ariake.”

Raku: “Don’t let (Miu) swing you!”

Shino: “When they were taking photos for the match announcement, I kept saying, ‘Why are they taking photos when my debut hasn’t been determined yet?’ Now I understand what it meant, and I’m so honored and so glad that I can make my debut surrounded by my senpais.” (crying) “…I haven’t debuted yet, but I’ll try not to get hurt. I’m going to work even harder. I’ll keep my spirits up.”

After that, Himawari got her first win while teaming with Yuki Aino! She defeated Wakana by submission. Here are Himawari and Yuki’s comments:

Aino: “Congratulations!”

HIMAWARI: “I won! I’m so happy. Last week, I lost to Wakana-san in a singles match, by submission. This time, I was determined not to give up. But Yuki-san was there helping me out.”

Aino: “I didn’t do anything.”

HIMAWARI: “I’m still frustrated. Are you glad that I won?”

Aino: “I could really feel HIMAWARI’s emotions, so I thought ‘Go for it!’ as I watched over her.”

HIMAWARI: “I was able to do it because I felt reassured that Yuki-san was there.”

Aino: “Really?”

HIMAWARI: “It’s true!”

Aino: “Not only was I able to be her debut opponent, but I was there for her first victory as well. That was a great experience for me as a wrestler. Thank you.”

HIMAWARI: “Yuki-san has been there for all of my important moments.”

Aino: “I won’t be able to look after you in the future.” (she laughs, then holds her hands above her head) “This is HIMAWARI’s pose.”

HIMAWARI: “I was able to make it bloom. Next will be in a singles match with Wakana-san, and then with Yuki-san… It’ll be juniors overthrowing senpais.”

Aino: "OK, let’s do it. I’m not going to lose.”

HIMAWARI: “I’m not losing either!”

I was a bit confused by the interviewer’s question here: “フィニッシュへのこだわりは?” (Proud of myself for figuring out what she was talking about with the 片エビ, though!)

(Your choice of finisher?)

“I noticed while watching TJPW that there are a lot of people who use a Boston Crab, so I thought it would be better to go with something different, so I choose to use a Half Crab. This time, I absolutely had to get a submission victory, so forcing her to tap out to the Half Crab was my only choice.”

Then Yuki said “こだわり大事”, which confused me again, haha.

Aino: “It’s important to have a speciality.”

HIMAWARI: “The Half Crab is a move that I never want to take myself.” (laughs)

I thought Miu vs Janai Kai was a lot of fun! I was really excited to see Rika come out and challenge for the belt next; I think that’ll be a great test for Miu. It didn’t even occur to me until it came up in her comments that this’ll be her first challenger who’s a senpai of hers…

I think the post-match translation went alright? I had Mr. Haku’s help again, haha (he recently suggested on twitter that he might not be sticking around in wrestling fandom terribly much longer, so I’m enjoying his contributions while we still have them…)

(After the match, Tatsumi comes and puts the belt on Miu.)

Tatsumi: “Miu, great job! Congratulations on your defense. You know, we’ve been fighting together as Daydream for a long time, and I’ve seen from up close as you’ve gotten better and better on your own, getting results and winning that belt, and shining so brightly. I’ve been thinking; I really want to fight you! So, can I be the next candidate to challenge for your belt?”

Miu: “Well… If Rika-san hadn’t been here, I might not have come to love pro wrestling as much as I do now, and because I was with Rika-san as Daydream, I was able to grow enough to win this belt. I want to surpass Rika-san one day, so I want to have a singles match, but, um… I’ll do my best.”

Tatsumi: “Does that mean OK?”

Miu: “Yes.”

Tatsumi: “Say it properly!”

Miu: “Let’s have a singles match at Ariake on March 18 with this belt on the line!”

Tatsumi: “Thank you!”

In Miu’s comments, she confused me right away with her second line, haha: “だんだん見えてなかった景色って、こういうものなんだな、こんな色のものもあるんだなって日々感じることが多くて.”

Miu: “This was my third defense. I feel like day by day, I’m able to see more and more of a view that I hadn’t seen before, things like this, colors like this. I was thinking about this belt at first, wanting to become like my senpais, wanting to see new scenery, wanting to bulk up and become a stronger, better wrestler. Rika-san is a senpai whom I really respect, and while I’m happy that she put her name forward, I have some mixed feelings. But I think precisely because Rika-san came forward here, now is the time for me to surpass her. So I will go beyond her and defend this belt, and I will do my best so that after Ariake, I can go to America as the International Champion.”

In the second part, I think I got the first couple sentences:

(Concerning the title defense against a senpai)

“Rika-san challenging for the International belt was unexpected. I’d thought that I’d like to fight Rika-san after I had become truly capable of standing on my own in the course of defending this belt.”

These two sentences I wasn’t quite sure about: “私が逆に挑戦するぐらいの気持ちだったので、まさかのこのタイミングで、え、となって。しかも、試合終わったあとに急に巻いてくれたんですよ。それがなんか逆に怖くて.”

“I thought I’d be the one who’d challenge her, so when it happened out of the blue like this, I was like ‘huh?’ Not only that, but after the match, she suddenly came up and put the belt around my waist. That’s like the opposite of scary. She grabbed a microphone right after she did it, so I was really scared, but when I saw the awesome Rika-san just coming right out and saying it, I thought, ‘This is the person I admire, the Rika-san who stands next to me,’ and I wanted to surpass her even more.”

(Janai’s kicks were very strong; what did you think about her?)

“Her kicks were awesome. I have seen a variety of wrestlers who specialize in kicks come to TJPW, but this was a kick with foreign blood. She was very intimidating, and I felt a different force compared to the Japanese wrestlers. Her kicks, without shoes or anything, simply barefoot, they were American style… I thought it was amazing. I felt the world.”

Janai’s comments were short and in English:

Janai: “I was this close. This close! Miu, I will say, I did underestimate you just a little bit. But thank you, because this is a dream of mine. It’s a dream of mine to be here. But just know, TJPW, this isn’t the last time that you’ve heard or seen the Kick Demon Janai Kai.”

In Rika’s comments, I think I got the first sentence, but wasn’t quite sure about the rest of this chunk: “未詩とは白昼夢として、若手の時は私が引っ張って、頑張っていかなきゃなって強く思ってたんですけど、いまや東京女子を代表するトップ選手の一人だから。そんな未詩と有明でシングル、闘えるというのが世界中にアピールする、いい闘いができると思うので、楽しみにしていてほしいです.”

Tatsumi: “I’m sure there are lots of folks who didn’t expect that I of all people would challenge for the International Princess belt, but I think I was able to give them a good surprise. I’m with Miu as Daydream, but when I was younger, I strongly believed that it should be me who was working hard and leading the company, and now I’m one of the top wrestlers representing TJPW. In my singles match with Miu at Ariake, I think we’ll be able to have a good match that will appeal to the entire world, so please look forward to it!” (in English) “Don’t miss it!”

I wasn’t sure about this sentence at the start of Rika’s response to the interviewer: “未詩とは白昼夢なのでとなりにいることがどうしても多くて.”

(You want to fight Miu as she is now more than you want to challenge for the belt?)

“Yes. We’re together as Daydream, so we tend to be near each other. We had a singles match when I was holding the (PoP) belt, and we only fought once when Miu was on the challenger’s side. Get your tickets now so that you can see how it goes when we’re in opposite positions this time!”

And that’s it for now! The main event is slightly more than half of the workload for this one, and I’m hoping I can finish it soon.

Then after that, I want to do the translation for the TJPW match at Mutoh’s retirement show, which shouldn’t be too much work, and then they did a presser for Yuka vs Mizuki and Arai vs Aja Kong… :sweat_smile:. I think there’s a VOD show this week, too, but that’ll be my last priority after the rest.

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It’s probably obvious, but just in case – the sign is imitating a sunflower, so it’s both HIMAWARI’s pose and a ひまわり pose.

こどわり is one of those words I think would be useful to have in English. I feel like the best example by a longshot is Shupro’s weekly costume column spotlighting a wrestler’s ring gear: particular points of interest are labeled as like, こだわり #1, こだわり #2 etc. My read is it’s like - a detail you have complete control over, and actively choose to make a certain way for your own X personal reasons, rather than some obvious practical concern. That’s your こだわり. In the same way that wrestlers make their ring gear fully their own, and the costume column highlights details by which they do that that a casual observer might miss. (and if it’s intense or detrimental then it can get to be a hang-up or a fixation).
In this case, the interviewer is asking (more specifically in the video) why HIMAWARI chose to go for a half Boston Crab instead of a full Boston Crab like a wrestler would normally do – there’s no obvious practical benefit, and yet it’s something HIMAWARI actively chose to do for her own reasons, so it’s a こだわり.

And so given the above – well this is why I think こだわり is a word I would reach to even in English since I don’t know a snappy way of translating this :sweat_smile: but I would say it isn’t exactly specialty… but I think it does work. “It’s important to do your own thing” or “it’s important to make it your own” might be slightly more direct? I don’t get the impression a こだわり is like, necessarily especially fruitful in the way a specialty would be.

In the video, for that part she’s talking about how she faced 三人目の外国人の方, so she’s speaking sorta metaphorically about like, the new and varied experiences that she’s found from defending the belt against, particularly foreign wrestlers (I wonder if the 外国人 part maybe got left out of the transcript just to make sure it wouldn’t be misconstrued? – the people themselves aren’t the new experience, the perspective is).

A couple comments here:

first – I don’t know how it is in the transcript, but in the video I would say that – the train of thought is like “I was defending the belt and feeling confident, and starting to think ‘I’d like to fight Rika’ (so it was especially a shock that right with that timing Rika coincidentally challenged me)”
I think that the transcript presumably ordering them into two sentences, and then in translation to English the first sentence getting flipped around, obscures that the reason she’s emphasizing the タイミング is that feeling confident enough to consider fighting Rika was more or less a new development, rather than just something generally in the background.
That’s the 気持ち in 私が逆に挑戦するぐらいの気持ちだったので - it was such confidence/interest that she may well have been on the cusp of challenging Rika herself. Hence, まさかのこのタイミングで、え、となって。 What a coincidence!

Secondly – and this is the rare case where I feel like I’ve commented on this point in the thread before, so I gotta underline it, but 逆に怖くて wouldn’t be “the opposite of scary” (I think not ever, but of course I’m hesitant to make an assertion like that… but you know – nah, I’ll assert it! it just wouldn’t be!).
The thing is 怖い, but in a 逆に way.
In the section before this: “私が逆に挑戦するぐらいの気持ちだったので”, the 逆に is like, “Rika challenged me in reality, but almost what happened is 逆に, I challenged her”, not “I felt that I was going to do the opposite of challenging her.”
Same too here – Rika did something nice, so you’d expect that that wouldn’t be scary, but 逆に, it somehow was.
image

The 逆に isn’t reversing what’s being said itself, I guess is what I mean, it’s indicating that tables turned in some way. In this case the table that turned is that a nice supportive gesture became a threat.

Extremely nitpicky English style advice, and I can’t really make out exactly what she says in the video anyway, but I feel like “the Rika-san who stands by my side” would for whatever reason convey more of the like, admiration and support in the sentiment than “stands next to me”

A couple things here too:

First – I think the 若手 is probably just a transcription error? I think she says 組み立て as in like, since forming 白昼夢 which I feel like makes a bit more direct sense.

Secondly – I don’t think “I strongly believed that it should be me who was working hard and leading the company, and now I’m one of the top wrestlers representing TJPW.” is on quitethe right track, I’d say it’s more like Rika’s describing their dynamic as a tag team, with Rika leading Miu into further growth as a wrestler (in other words, what’s being pulled along in “私が引っ張って” is Miu, not the company),
although I’m a bit torn on exactly who’s being talked about where.

I roughly broke it down:
(未詩は)
私が引っ張って、
"頑張っていかなきゃな"って強く思ってた
いまや東京女子を代表するトップ選手の一人だから
As in like, Rika was pulling Miu forward, and making sure Miu works hard bc Miu’s already one of the top wrestlers representing TJPW.

And what I’m torn about, is it could be more like:
"私が引っ張って、頑張っていかなきゃな"って強く思ってた
いまや東京女子を代表するトップ選手の一人だから
As in like, Rika felt a responsibility to work hard and pull Miu forward because Rika’s a top wrestler representing TJPW.
But I feel like probably the 引っ張って、頑張って doesn’t connect up quite like that, and this reading seems to connect a less with the "そんな"未詩 that follows, since in this version Rika would have just been talking about herself. I also feel like the いまや fits more if she’s talking about Miu than if she’s talking about herself.

So I think I would still side with my first breakdown, probably.

This is just another case where I’d punch it up with “we’re by each other’s side a lot” or “we’re together very often” or something like that. “we tend to be near each other” is accurate, but the となり here is speaking of near as in like, your tag team partner is next to you supporting you, and “tend to be near each other” in contrast in English sounds amusingly distant.

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週刊プロレス No.2211 (from October 2022)

There’s an ad for a シンニチイズムミュージックフェス of like, an anniversary concert for New Japan entrance music. It’s got Ayumi Nakamura with Kaze ni Nare and Masayoshi Takanaka with Thunderstorm among lots of others so it actually sounds pretty dang cool to me.

Then there’s a feature about it with Hiroshi Tanahashi and Togi Makabe joined by musicians Rei Atsumi and Marty Friedman.
They talk about stuff like the musicians’ memories of pro wrestling (The Wrestler is mentioned in reference to wrestling getting a hard rock association around the time Friedman was doing Goldberg’s entrance music), what makes good entrance music, and the time Friedman played Tanahashi’s entrance music at the 2014 1.4. Atsumi arranged the first Tiger Mask’s theme, Burning Tiger (this rips).I guess that’s the first Tiger Mask singing on it himself! Atsumi says it wasn’t technically public at the time it was Sayama under the mask, so he wondered if he would show up in the mask to record the song or not, and he did show up in the mask (but after some time recording and some cajoling he did take it off).
An entrance theme mentioned a couple of times as a particular good one is Riki Choshu’s Power Hall (hell yeah I see why). And of course Inoki BOM-BA-YE.
Atsumi is the bandleader and there’s 40 (!) songs scheduled.

Tanahashi’s column is about Antonio Inoki’s death. They talk a little about Tatsumi Fujinami’s deep 永遠の片思い/永遠の弟子 relationship with Inoki. Trivia point: the last time Inoki stood physically in a New Japan ring was apparently at the event in 2006 in Sapporo where Tanahashi won his first IWGP Heavyweight Championship (in a tournament after Brock Lesnar was stripped of the belt). Tanahashi joined New Japan the year after Inoki retired, so he says he attended Inoki’s retirement at the Tokyo Dome as a regular fan, in the cheapest seat since he was a student. His standout Inoki match in his memory is Inoki vs. Vader at the '96 1.4.
The interviewer suggests Tanahashi is in a way, a 猪木イズムの反作用で生まれた逸材.Then Tanahashi shares a trivia factoid that I read at the start of the book I’m reading about him and Nakamura that I genuinely did not fully believe at the time but he repeats it himself here so hey, what can I say - The story goes that the Hiroshi in Tanahashi’s name is spelled 弘至 (even though 弘 could be read as Hiroshi on its own anyway) specifically because Tanahashi’s dad was a fan of Antonio Inoki, and Inoki’s birth name was 猪木寛至 - so Tanahashi quite literally got the character 至 from Inoki, thereby sealing his fate that he would be a great pro wrestler someday. いい物語ですね.

Kenoh’s column is about his challenge with Nakajima against the GHC tag belt held by Kojima and Sugiura, “タカ&サトシ.” Kenoh says they couldn’t let オッサンたち keep the belts, after all, and he was thinking of taking a rest but Nakajima made the challenge so that’s out. In general though Kenoh says he is 欲求不満, with regards to all the 欲s, 食欲、性欲、睡眠欲、海欲、ベルト欲…
When asked about タカ&サトシ he’s surprisingly complimentary other than the オッサン thing, but he says it’s because he watched a lot of the tv show あぶない刑事 featuring (I gather) buddy cops タカ&ユージ and speaking of which Kojima should get out of there and Sugiura should show up with Yuji Nagata to fit the theme better.
About Sugiura roping Kojima into a title run, Kenoh makes a ダジャレ: “小島だけにこじつけただな”, and he says あぶない刑事’s gonna be canceled after one season. Then he teaches the interviewer a famous line from the show: “レインボーブリッジを封鎖せよ!” but the interviewer points out that’s actually from 「踊る大捜査線」. Kenoh presses on anyway and says sealing the rainbow bridge will make Sugiura and Kojima late to the venue and therefore flustered for the title match, but he says the name of the press conference venue instead of Ariake Arena and the interviewer has to remind him where the match is “just in case.” something tells me no matter the match result at least one オッサン is going to be coming out of this with a tag belt…

Antonio Inoki’s 通夜 and 告別式 were held, with 300+ attendants of family, pupils, colleagues etc. at each.
The arrangement is impressive and captures famous Antonio Inoki trademarks: his 卍固め, his 「1、2、3、ダァー!」, and his red “闘魂マフラー”, represented in roses.


The summary mentions his 戒名 was given as 「闘覚院機魂寛道居士(とうがくいんきこんかんどうこじ)」 which I thought was interesting.
There’s also a picture of the 新闘魂三銃士, Shibata, Nakamura, and Tanahashi at the memorial service:

The Antonio Inoki memorial column this week features a heartfelt tribute letter from his famous rival Tiger Jeet Singh. He says his foremost memory of Inoki is 1973 incident where a fight broke out between them at a Shinjuku shopping mall, saying that after that their matches were especially heated, and that in later years they ended up close friends from risking their lives fighting together in the ring. I looked around a bit for a good reference for the specific incident and I kinda like this slightly corny fan explainer video about it.
There’s also letters from Singh’s son, Tiger Ali Singh, The Destroyer’s Son, and “Masked Superstar” Bill Eadie (aka Demolition Ax).

There’s a long interview with meltear, the reigning tag champs in Stardom, Tam Nakano and Natsupoi.
The name meltear is meant to convey the idea of emotional matches where their hearts melt together in the ring along with tears of joy or sadness. They delayed settling on a name since there was another candidate name they were trying to make their minds up on (alas the other potential name is not provided). The interviewer likens the name to プリキュア and they say they weren’t thinking of it when they came up with it, but the comparison fits since they want to be a team little girls can look up to, who make their non-pro-wrestlingish traits into strengths too.
They talk about Natsupoi’s mixture of trepidation and determination at the prospect of facing former DDM stablemates like Thekla or Maihime, and Tam says she can relate because of similar feelings facing Mayu after breaking away from Stars to form Cosmic Angels. They both express that the other understands them better than they do themselves, and fill in what the other was trying to express for eachother.
Tam hasn’t really gotten over the loss to Giulia in the 5 Star GP finals, but she’s glad the tag tournament is starting up already since it means Natsupoi’s there to support her. Natsupoi isn’t going to let Tam retire, and says that Giulia might be the strongest, but Tam commands a unique charm and empathy that more than makes up for it.

Giulia’s column is pretty straightforward, she just introduces some tag teams in the tournament:
7upp, BMI2000 (she recounts observing Ruaka’s connection with Tora the former used the latters’ pipe to get a DQ loss to Giulia when Tora was injured a year+ ago), Maihime, meltear (a Stardom 定番 tag team…), AphroditE (another Stardom 定番 tag team…), and Mafia Bella (her own team with Thekla).

Good facial expressions in this picture of a match between Takumi Iroha and Mika Iwata.

The history column talks about the future Jumbo Tsuruta’s signing to All Japan after participating in the 1972 olympics and becoming a very appealing prospect to both the pro wrestling world and the sumo world. All Japan was just beginning at the time, and Giant Baba angled himself as the present and Tsuruta as the future guiding the new promotion forward.
A reporter who was there describes some surprise at Tsuruta’s phrasing at the announcement press conference: 「馬場さんの全日本プロレスに就職します。」 saying I think that while it wouldn’t be out of place for a graduating student to use the phrase in a similar setting today, at the time, although it certainly is a job, it came across as bold or naive to phrase it quite so… professionally.

Mutoh’s column is about his time running AJPW and it sounds like roughly he acknowledges that he didn’t follow Giant Baba’s model, and had a certain element of Inoki-ism ingrained in him that might not have been shaken. But it sounds like he’s proud of the “Mutoh Children” he mentored, and he takes credit for AJPW being around at all today, as if he hadn’t taken the baton they may well have been absorbed into New Japan.
He jokes that after he retires he’ll become a Shupro reporter but not bother writing any articles.

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I’ve spent most of the past few days trying very desperately to finish a few writing projects, but I did manage to get the second half of the February 18 show done!

The main event was Yuki Arai & Miyu Yamashita vs Moka Miyamoto & Aja Kong (rip Moka :smiling_face_with_tear:). I had a bit of help from Mr. Haku for the post-match, and I think I did alright on it:

Yamashita: “Today… Arai won, but she still has a long way to go, doesn’t she? Next, she’ll face Aja-san at Ariake. Both as an idol and as a pro wrestler, Yuki Arai-chan is always singing and dancing and fighting with all her might. Looking at her, I can see that she’s gotten really strong. So at Ariake, I want you to beat Aja-san. Aja-san has a massive presence, but I want you to win. Everyone here agrees, right? Everyone’s expecting it, and I think Arai can do it.” (crowd chants “Arai!”)

Arai: “Thank you so much. I won, but… Well, it’s really frustrating. Next month, exactly one month from now, I have a singles match with Aja-san. I think I was beaten today. I was left with the feeling that I’m not at all ready. Even if you all hadn’t told me to do it, I’m going to win. Of course, since we’re having a match, winning is the only thing on my mind. I’m going to do my best this next month so that I can show Yamashita-san as well as everyone else how much I’ve grown after today, so please watch me! I’m really happy that so many people came to our Nagoya show today. Thank you so, so much for coming!”

In Miyu and Arai’s comments, I think I did alright with the first part:

Yamashita: “It was fun teaming up with Arai-chan after a long time, and I’ve been watching as she’s gotten stronger. I was able to face Aja-san for the first time. I knew how big she was, but when we faced off, I thought she was truly a great wrestler. I was dizzy after taking that backfist, but I was really hoping to land a Skull Kick, so I’m glad that I was able to do that even though my head was spinning. Arai and Aja-san are having a singles match next, but I’d have liked to have been able to face Aja-san in a singles match first. Also, when she’s in matches like this, Moka is really strong. I think being able to show her strength in a situation like this is itself a strength. I really enjoyed fighting her.”

Arai: “It was a tag match today, so Yamashita-san helped me out a lot. If it had been a singles match, there were so many moments where I would have gotten pinned. Even though we got this chance to face each other, I feel frustrated… Next time, I will do what I couldn’t do today, and do a better job countering the moves that I just took. In this next month, I want to do my best so that I can beat Aja-san and show her how much I’ve grown.”

In the next part, I think the beginning went alright:

(You got the victory in your hometown show, but you’re still not convinced?)

“Of course I’m happy, but I really feel like I wasn’t able to do anything against Aja-san.”

Arai’s next answer was confusing to me, though, haha. She said: “持ち上げたりが難しいっていうのはあらためて思ったので、もっとブーツだったり蹴りだったりの技を磨いたりとか。通用するなってちょっとでも思ったものにかけて頑張りたいです.”

(What exactly are you going to work on in the next month?)

“I realized just how difficult it is to lift her, so I’m going to work on refining my Big Boot and my kicks. I’ve been using them regularly, and I’m going to do my best to depend on what I think works.”

(Concerning Aoki-san as the referee)

“Well, I want her to do her best. I don’t think that has much to do with me, but… I don’t know. But it makes me really happy to have members coming in for commentary and such. Plus, if a member comes in as a referee, that’ll give me a sense of stability or peace of mind. I’d like to see more and more members coming in to do various jobs.”

Yamashita: “But isn’t it a bit unfair, having Oshirin-san as the referee for Arai-chan’s match? There’s the possibility of her mixing business and her private friendships, and that’s not acceptable. So I want her to be the referee for my match.”

(But that’ll be at the Korakuen show in April, which is during your stay in America)

“I won’t be there, huh?”

Arai: “Won’t you be able to watch it?”

Yamashita: “But it’s not alright for her to referee for Arai-chan.”

Arai: “Please watch it on the stream.”

Yamashita: “Yes, I will.”

Arai: “There’s a possibility that Aoki-san will still be there to referee when you come back.”

Yamashita: “There’s a chance that she’ll keep doing it? Please ask her to do this.”

Arai: “I’ll try to persuade her.”

I laughed at Miyu obviously wanting Aoki to referee for her, haha. I hope Aoki tries out refereeing and decides to stick around. One of my friends is training to be a referee right now, and they say it’s really hard work, especially doing multiple matches in a row. I feel like if anyone has the stamina for that, though, it’s an idol.

Aja’s comments were a bit difficult for me :sweat_smile:. The first part went alright:

Aja: “As I said when this was announced, I don’t think of this as a preview match at all. I was thinking that it wouldn’t matter if it ended today and there was no Ariake, but it seems like we’re continuing until then.” (to Moka) “I’m sorry about what happened at the end there. Yamashita conked me on the back of the head and I wasn’t able to save you, so I’m sorry for the disappointing result.”

I really struggled with this whole chunk: “ただ私はこれが決まった時点で前哨戦ではないと言っているので、ひとつ今日その通りにファイナリー封じということをきちんと考えて、封じ手を考えてありますので。さぁ、ああいう封じられ方をして彼女はファイナリーをあと1カ月間でどう打てるか.”

“However, I said that this was not a preview match when it was set, so the only thing I’m thinking about after what happened today is how to seal away the Finally, if there’s a way to do it. Then, having prevented her from using it, how can she hit a Finally one month from now? At the end, she said in the ring that she has one month, but just as Yuki Arai has one month to prepare, so does Aja Kong. I have a lot of things in mind, and there are still some drawers that I haven’t opened yet. So what will I pull out of those drawers on March 15? Or will I be able to perhaps add something new to my arsenal in this next month? I want to crush her again until there’s nothing left.” (to Miyamoto) “We have different opponents at Ariake, but you seem to be doing well lately, so let’s both show a winning effort.”

Miyamoto: “Yes, I’ll do my best!”

In the second part, her first sentence here was confusing, but I think I maybe eventually figured it out? “成長云々とか、そんなのは見てても分かるように成長してないとおかしいでしょ。成長してない人間がここでタッグのベルトも取れないだろうし.”

(Did you feel how much she has grown compared to a year and a half ago?)

Aja: “Even looking at her growth and all of that, it would be strange if she hadn’t grown. Someone who hasn’t grown at all wouldn’t have been able to win the tag belts. But I think she’s growing at an astounding speed, though I’ve also been growing, albeit little by little, as much as I can. So conversely, I think I was able to show Arai that I have grown a little bit. Please report that I will have grown even more after one month.”

Hopefully I got 逆に right this time…

The SKE48 members also got to give comments afterward. One funny quirk of shupro was that for some reason, all of the idols (except for Arai) got a さん after their name in the transcript. I ended up keeping it in my translation because it’s easier haha.

Arai: “Today the five of us had the opportunity to do a mini live show! How was it?”

Okamoto-san: “Being able to enter a pro wrestling ring was an experience I never thought I’d be able to do in my life, so I’m grateful for that. It was a lot of fun”

Rika Aoki-san: “This was the first time I had the privilege of watching pro wrestling live, and it felt like I was watching a movie. It was really impressive, and I want to go see it again.” (To Arai) “You were so cool!”

Ito-san: “The mini live show was a lot of fun, of course, and I heard so many cheers. I was able to watch Yuki-san wrestle from up close. It was really cool, and deeply moving, too. I was overflowing with so many emotions, and I was really wowed by it.”

Shiori Aoki-san: “I came here today as an idol, but it was announced that I’d be refereeing. In the matches afterward, all I could watch was the referee!” (laughs)

Arai: “You’re already watching from that point of view.” (laughs)

Shiori Aoki-san: “I have been given this opportunity, so I want to do my best.”

Arai: “Do you think you can do it?”

Shiori Aoki-san: “…Yes.”

Arai: “I hope we can do something with SKE48 and pro wrestling in the future as well. I’ll continue to do my best in SKE48!”

And that’s it for that show! Phew!

I have the TJPW comments from Mutoh’s show already mostly done (there weren’t many), and then I’m hoping to get around to the press conference shortly after that. The VOD show has a few comments as well, though I haven’t looked at the transcript to see how long the post-match is in addition. Hopefully not a lot? :sweat_smile:

Maybe by the end of the weekend, I will finally be caught up again…

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I think this is ok - I take her logic to be like, because of how difficult it is to lift Aja Kong, she’s going to try to polish up her repertoire of moves that don’t involve lifting her, so kicks and big boots and such.

The
通用するなってちょっとでも思ったものにかけて頑張りたいです.
I would say is more like – the “通用するな” is I’d say like, “that’ll work” and so 通用するなってちょっとでも思ったもの are the things that make her think, even if just a little bit, “that’ll work.” As in she’s still intimidated but she’s gonna work on the moves that feel like they might at least give her a shot.

I think this is fine. The only comment is if the “after what happened today” part is from その通りに, I’d say it’s more like – “so in line with that” as in like her thinking of how to avoid the Finally is in some way confirming her assertion it’s not a preview match. I’m a bit confused about the logic though. Maybe I suppose in the sense that it’s not a preview match since she’s gonna shut down the next one so thoroughly.

I would say the 成長云々とか is more along the lines of like, “on the subject of growth and all that jazz,” or something like that. Like the 云々 is sorta like yadda yadda and through 成長云々とか、そんなのは she’s forming her thoughts in answering the question by restating the subject.
And I feel like then
見てても分かる
and
成長してないとおかしいでしょ
are separate thoughts that she just says really quickly right after the other so the transcript put a ように in there I guess. roughly “You can see it just by looking at her - I mean it’d be weirder if she didn’t grow, y’know?”

えらい! :sweat_smile:

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Finished translating the comments for the one TJPW match on Mutoh’s retirement show on February 21! This match is part of the portion of the show that they streamed for free on youtube, so I’m just gonna link that whole video (maybe it would be a good one to link in the match recommendations part of this thread? hmm):

Not a lot of like major plot development or anything in either the match or the comments, but it was still nice to see. The comments were pretty straightforward, and I don’t think anything really caused me trouble?

Miyu/Yuka/Shoko/Rika:

Yamashita: “The Tokyo Dome, it happened in the blink of an eye. I’m so, so glad that TJPW got to wrestle in the Tokyo Dome on the historic day of Mutoh-san’s retirement. The match was great!”

Sakazaki: “I’m so grateful that we were able to have this fateful encounter. Thanks to you, Mutoh-san, we’ve fallen more and more in love with pro wrestling, too.”

Nakajima: “First of all, I’m so grateful that I was invited to wrestle at a venue like this. Thank you so much. TJPW started with a dark match at a DDT Ryogoku Kokugikan show. And now we’re at the Tokyo Dome in an under match. If we say that we’re aiming for the Tokyo Dome, I don’t think it’s a future that’s out of the question. Please keep supporting TJPW.”

Tatsumi: “I feel the same as Shoko, and I also definitely want to come back to the Tokyo Dome with everyone on the TJPW roster. Thank you so much for today!”

Miu/Mizuki/Itoh/Arai:

Miu: “Today I was so happy that I could stand on a big stage like the Tokyo Dome and participate in such a memorable event. I’m so glad that I could show so many people that TJPW is an amazing and wonderful organization. Thank you so much!”

Mizuki: “I am so happy that I can be here representing TJPW, and on a truly amazing day, I’m just so grateful. I’m so happy that I could be part of such a wonderful day. TJPW is getting bigger and bigger, and we’re doing our best so that we can one day have a Tokyo Dome show of our own, so please support us!”

Itoh: “I’m really happy that I got to stand in the Tokyo Dome today. I’m also happy that I got to do the Cutest Knuckle Punch In The World at the Tokyo Dome. This is not the last time. We’re aiming to wrestle at the Tokyo Dome again, except on our own next time. She already said it, but we’re going to do our best so that we can accomplish that, and I’m going to work hard. Thank you so much for today!”

Arai: “I’m really disappointed that I lost today, but being able to stand in the same ring as so many amazing professional wrestlers, I had a wonderful time. I want to get stronger so that I can see more new landscapes. Thank you very much!”

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I only have one unnecessary comment!

I don’t think this phrase plays in English. I would describe what she’s getting at as a “pre-show match.”
Or, “undercard match” is I think presumably where the アンダー is coming from, if you’d prefer to match it more directly.

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I would agree (in the sense that I don’t think American wrestling has this as a concept), except Mr. Haku and the new DDT eng guy both regularly use “under match” so I figure my target audience is either already used to it, or can learn the concept just as I learned it, haha!

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Finished the MagiRabbi portion of the February 22 presser! I’d been looking forward to this one, but was also afraid :smiling_face_with_tear:. Here’s the video, and here’s the official transcript.

Right off the bat, Mizuki answers with an extremely long sentence which also contains what I believe is a typo in the transcript, haha, so I spent a long time getting puzzled over it :sweat_smile:.

This chunk here “その時点でユカッチが勝つ試合もある中で” was the part that lost me at first, but when I actually listened to the video, I think she said 可能性 instead of 試合, which makes more sense.

Mizuki: “I won the battle royale that determined this title match, and with the possibility of Yuka-chi also winning, I believed in her victory, but was also a bit undecided. But when I thought about which outcome was more fun, which was more exciting, I realized that I desperately needed her to win. My feelings about fighting her are complicated, but part of me was also really excited. I have so, so much respect for Yuka-chi, and she has opened up so many possibilities for me.” (cries) “I wanted to be like her, and I’ve been prepared to carry TJPW this whole time. I think I’ll be able to show everyone a new world, so this time, I will have a strong heart.”

I wasn’t quite sure about this part, either: “瑞希のキラキラは東京女子にあるので、ベルトをユカッチから取るのは瑞希じゃないと欲張りに思うので”.

"Since my sparkle is in TJPW, I greedily think that I have to be the one to take the belt from Yuka-chi, so I want to win it.

Sakazaki: “To be honest, I don’t want to do it, and I don’t want to do anything terrible to Mizuki, but we were born in the same era, met each other at TJPW, and are fighting in the same ring, so I’m prepared to do what I have to do.”

The part in this next chunk that tripped me up a bit was how exactly to translate 越える. I tried several different words, but none of them really felt quite right.

“When we went beyond TDC two and a half years ago, the bond we share changed. This match is our biggest test, and if I go beyond a title match with Mizuki at Ariake Coliseum, I think something within our bond will change. So I also want to go beyond our relationship.”

Interviewer: “So far, there have been no preview matches, though yesterday’s Tokyo Dome show became a preview. What kind of feelings did you fight each other with?”

Sakazaki: “I didn’t really feel like it was a preview match, but there was a certain tension when we faced each other. When we left the ring, though, we returned to our usual relationship. When we’re in the ring, space and time distort, and our feelings become complicated, or I should say there are emotions that we only feel at that time. It’s indescribable. I can’t put it into words.”

Mizuki: “I also felt like the match yesterday was about TJPW more than it was a preview match, but when we face each other, I really feel that she has become different from the Yuka-chi who’s always beside me. It’s unsettling, or it’s a strange feeling, at least. I thought, ‘Why is she in the opposite corner?’ Though I really tried not to think too much about it when we were fighting, and just fought with the feelings I had in the moment, but I couldn’t help but think that she’s so strong and cool.”

Interviewer: “Do you want to face each other in the lead-up to the title match, or do you not want to?”

Sakazaki: “I don’t want to do it. The most important thing for me is that I don’t want Mizuki to hate me, and I always want her to say, ‘I love Yuka-chi.’ So I don’t want to fight her.”

I wasn’t quite sure I understood this next line of Mizuki’s: “闘いたくはないけど、甘やかされてばかり(涙)…いるほうが…嫌です.”

Mizuki: “I don’t want to fight, but she spoils me all the time,” (cries) “and I hate being spoiled even more.”

Interviewer: “This is your first singles match since TDC. What has changed since then?”

Sakazaki: “I feel from being at her side that what was soft inside of Mizuki has become solid confidence. Her facial expressions during matches have sharpened, and her movements have become more nimble than before, and she has steadily been absorbing more and more things.”

In Mizuki’s next sentence, I didn’t feel like I had a good grasp of what she meant with ピリッと. And the first chunk of the next sentence was a bit confusing for me :sweat_smile:

Mizuki: “Yuka-chi makes the place brighter just by making her entrance, but during the match, she doesn’t let up. Yuka-chi carries too many things on her back, and she’s carrying all that and fighting, so she’s gotten so, so, so much bigger and stronger. I think everyone can see it.”

Interviewer: “Mizuki, how do you feel about this belt?”

Mizuki: “Well, it’s very special…” (cries) “It’s not something that’s easy to get.” (cries) That’s why I’m not going to give up, and because it’s a belt that has been worn by all of these people that I respect so much, I need to win the TJPW belt."

Interview: “Part of you won’t be able to know until you fight, but will MagiRabbi remain unchanged?”

Sakazaki: "Yes. That is a future that will never change.”

Mizuki: “I think our tag team will become even more exciting after we fight.”

I think those are all of my major questions! It’s interesting comparing where they are now to where they were two years ago. It seems like they both learned some lessons from that time…

The impression I’ve gotten, at least, is that last time, Mizuki tried to hate Yuka and was ultimately unable to do it and couldn’t win the match, whereas Yuka was able to win explicitly because she loves Mizuki, which was the driving force for her performance in that match. (Actually, I still have links to a bunch of Mr. Haku’s translations from their old feud. I’ll toss some of those up in the replies to this translation, I think.)

This time, both of them seem determined to go into the match with only love, or at least, they’re resistant to the thought of facing each other leading up to it (last time, Mizuki stopped wanting to tag with Yuka before their title match).

I think their last match truly did bring, like, the entire company to a whole new level because it had a completely different energy and intensity than anything else they’d done before, so I’m really, really looking forward to this next one.

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Yeah, definitely.

気づいたら必死に勝ちを取りにいって、ユカッチと闘える

I wonder if you were going for いる like want/need here? But I would say it’s 取りに行く.
I’m think she’s saying like, she was contemplating it around when she was having her own match, and then before she knew it she found herself extra determined to win and have a chance to fight Yuka.
(this part gets bunched up with the next part in the transcript but she caps it with a ってこと as in like this sudden wellspring of excitement is the / what became the 複雑な気持)

Yeah, pretty much. The video has a little more flavor than the transcript (“大好きな東京女子”, “やっぱり瑞希じゃないと!って”) and it seems like a phrase that’s hard to wrangle in English, but she’s saying since like, she shines in TJPW / TJPW is her home, she got to thinking (greedily) that she’s got to be the one to take it from Yuka.

In this case I would say the 越える is in the sense of going through / overcoming an experience/obstacle, moreso than going beyond/exceeding. Weblio has for the first definition:

1 (越える)物の上・間・境界などを通り過ぎて、向こうへ行く。「打球がフェンスを―・える」「山を―・え、また谷を―・える」「海を―・えてきた便り」「国境を―・える」

And I would pin it as like that, they/their friendship TDCを越えてきた in the same way that in the third example the tidings 海を越えてきた’d.

So I would probably opt for “went through”, “made it through”, “overcame”, maybe something along those lines, moreso than “went beyond.”

I said all that before getting to the part where it was repeated, where I grasp the difficulty more thoroughly. :sweat_smile:

I would say though that I think all three usages match the usage I talked about, and I would probably pick “overcome.” I would say that she’s casting their relationship as an obstacle to cross in the context of this title match. “Get past” maybe also ok: she’ll need to get past their relationship to have this title match, and if they get past this title match, that relationship will be in a different state and they’ll see where things lie.

It’s one sentence interrupted by pauses:
闘いたくはないけど、甘やかされてばかりいるほうが嫌です.
roughly “I don’t want to fight her, but just being spoiled all the time would be worse”
as in like, it’s not like she wants to fight Yuka in preview matches, but it would be more painful to just be treated sweetly and preferentially by her with no fighting when she’s the challenger and needs to resolve herself to that.

For the ピリッと, Weblio has:

3 言動や態度が引き締まった感じを与えるさま。「彼は―したところに欠ける」「―引き締まった文章」

With 引き締まる being like, to pull taught / be tense

1 たるみがなくなり、固く締まる。「―・った筋肉」
2 緊張してしっかりする。「身の―・る一瞬」

So Mizuki is contrasting the warmth of her entrance, to Yuka being tense and ready to go in the ring once the match starts.

The part I think you’re missing in the carrying part is the ぐらい - it’s not quite “Yuka-chi carries too many things on her back” so much as like, “Yuka-chi carries so many things on her back it’s too much / almost too much” or perhaps something like “Yuka-chi carries an overwhelming number of things on her back”

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週刊プロレス No.2212 (from October 2022)

Hey, I didn’t notice Mayu had a tattoo before!

I also like how angular the pose is in this picture of Mayu and Utami.

Giulia’s column is about the IWGP Women’s Championship, since after its announcement there’s been a lot of mixed opinions voiced and people asking her own opinion. She says it sounds like it was Bushiroad owner Kitani’s idea and had been in the works for a while. While Stardom does have 5 singles belts already, she says lately she’s come to feel that having more championships just means more work opportunities for wrestlers, to decide what kind of championship they want to aim for and what they want to do with it. Right now she’s focused on the red belt though, and if she wins she’ll need to make sure not to let a new belt outshine one with history.

Kenoh’s column is about the NOAH show at Ariake. You know – last time when he quoted that cop show about closing the Rainbow Bridge or whatever, I assumed it was some kind of metaphor or something, but it turns out it’s an actual bridge and the view from it at Ariake is nice. Kenoh loves the ocean the way Naito loves the Hiroshima Carp so he likes running around Ariake.
It sounds like NOAH had a training space/dorm at the venue that predated Ariake Arena, ディファ有明.
Kenoh notes that Ariake is close to cosplay holy ground, Comiket venue Tokyo Big Sight, so he exhorts the クソヤローども to get a blond bob wig and red pants and cosplay as him when attending the show.

(being overly aware of being farther behind than I ideally would be, and the danger of being too thorough typing these up, I’m erring on the side of skimming and not mentioning a number of interviews)

There’s an interview with BUSHI about Titan joining Los Ingobernables de Japon, and Naito’s column is also about that. Sounds like they knew him a bit already from wrestling in Mexico, and Titan is determined and studious, so it’s a promising fit. BUSHI is apparently a good communicator and a bit of a social glue type already in LIJ so he gamely communicates as best he can with Titan in Spanish. While Naito says Takagi tries to talk to him in English and seems self-satisfied even if none of it gets through at all.

The Inoki Memorial column this week is with Hisashi Shinma, who was a major backstage figure in New Japan in the 70s, it seems like through 1982 until the New Japan “coup d’etat” where he and others were ousted (I think I have a book about that…).
He shares some recollections of, for example, the early days of New Japan’s founding when Inoki had been fired from 日本プロレス and was getting married, and running the company meant constant loans and Seiji Sakaguchi choosing New Japan meant a lot, but it was happy times for Shinma. He says he still has to be Inoki’s #1 biggest fan and speaks very positively about him.
A tidbit I thought was interesting is he quotes somebody (Masutatsu Oyama) as saying Karate is 恋 while pro wrestling is 愛, apparently because karate is constant offense where in pro wrestling there’s more give and take while grappling for position. And Shinma says I think the two who embodied both 恋 and 愛 in their wrestling are Rikidozan and Inoki.

You’ve heard of 路上プロレス? Well Land’s End Pro-Wrestling held a show at the famous Nachi Falls for the first case in 15 years of 世界遺産プロレス. You can’t ask for a more picturesque backdrop than that.

The history column this week is one of those one’s that’s just a bomb of weird trivia I didn’t know. It’s about the first ever 延髄切り (a move originated by Antonio Inoki and called by the same name in current American pro wrestling), which Inoki hit in desperation on a pro boxer in 1977 when there was still potential for a rematch with Muhammad Ali. Turns out, at the time he had just filmed scenes for the movie The Bad News Bears Go to Japan, and there was a scene where his character knocked down a door, and he actually broke his toe on the door, but in that unhealthy pro wrestler sort of way refused to tell anyone or back out of the fight.
And so anyway, next time you see someone hit an enzuigiri, I guess just think to yourself about how the first one was hit with a broken, swollen toe thanks somehow to The Bad News Bears.

An awfully sweet picture from the Arisu Endo homecoming show!

Looks like Suzu Suzuki’s having fun.
(warning: blood)

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Finished part two of the press conference! It’s the same links as before, but for convenience: here’s the video, and here’s the transcript.

I think I got the beginning?

Arai: “The match we fought a year and a half ago at Ota Ward marked a huge turning point for me, or at least in relation to wrestling, it made me want to learn more about it and keep doing it. It was Aja-san who gave me those feelings, and now I’m about to have a singles match with her. I’m happy because it’s something that I want to do and can do. We had a match at the Nagoya show last week for the first time in a long time, and I did what I could do, but I don’t think I was able to reach her yet. If I can’t use the Finally at all, you might wonder if I’ll be alright, but I’m not going to run away, and there’s still a month to go, so I’m going to try to work hard as usual, and I want to have a match that is so impactful for both myself as well as Aja-san that when I look back on my wrestling career, I can think, ‘That match was really great, huh?’”

Aja: “Was it a year and a half ago? We fought when Arai was about five months into her wrestling career, and at the time, I was asked over and over again, ‘How was it fighting an idol?’, but they’re all top idols, so there’s no point dwelling on that. Everyone standing in front of me in the ring is a pro wrestler. I don’t care about the fact that I’m fighting an idol.”

I had to spend a while on this chunk, first trying to figure it out, then trying to translate it, haha, and I wasn’t entirely sure I fully got there: “それはいまだに変わらないことですし、今度はシングルマッチでやることになりまして、世間のクローズアップの仕方としては、“怪物”アジャコングがアイドルレスラーをどうやって痛めつけるのか。それが世間に届く一番簡単な方法ではあるのかなと思うんですけど、そう思っている方は是非当日は会場に来ていただくなり、WRESTLE UNIVERSEもあると思うので、きちんと自分の目でいかにその認識が間違っているのかを確かめていただきたいと思いますし”.

“I feel the same way now, and this next one will be a singles match, which is a great way to catch the attention of the world by showing just how the ‘monster’ Aja Kong beats up the idol wrestler. I think that’s the easiest way to reach the world, and those who think it’ll be like that will certainly come to the venue that day or watch on Wrestle Universe, so you can see for yourself how wrong that perception is. I’m not going to be taking the confrontation with Arai lightly. I’ll be stepping into the ring with a sense of danger, knowing that she could hit me at any moment. This is true even though we faced each other in a tag match last week in Nagoya for the first time in a year and a half. I was worried about taking damage, so I’ve been thinking about countermeasures since the match was set. Naturally, over the course of this month, I’ll be coming up with various plans for our singles confrontation. Arai will also be planning her strategies, and since I have been wrestling for many years, I’m going to think about what measures I should take, drawing on what I have done in the past. After contemplating a lot of things, I want to meet each other in the ring on March 18, and then as professional wrestlers, we will show the world a pro wrestling match, which I will win without fail. I don’t want to lose, so having a counterplan is paramount.”

Interviewer: “What is the significance of having this singles match at a big show like Ariake?”

Arai: "I don’t think it’s very easy to get a singles match at a big show, and having an unusual opponent like Aja Kong is also amazing. I’m still a junior in TJPW, so I want to show Aja-san how far I can go, and show that I’m someone who can spur on TJPW’s momentum from below.”

Aja: “When you see the words ‘Yuki Arai vs Aja Kong’, there are people all over Japan who know the name ‘Yuki Arai’ and ‘Aja Kong’ even if they don’t know TJPW, so in that sense, I think it’s a good tool to reach people who don’t normally watch pro wrestling.”

This next part was tricky: “言葉を考えずに言ってしまえば客寄せパンダなのかもしれないけど、私はパンダになることが大好きなので、それで十分だと思うんです。ただパンダとしての打ち出し方をされた試合を、「かわいらしいパンダで面白かったね」じゃなく、パンダのどう猛性を見てもらいたいと思いますし.”

I think she’s using パンダ as 客寄せパンダ throughout this whole chunk, but is maybe also using “panda” as a metaphor? In which case, I’ll probably just give it a translator’s note and leave “panda” in, but maybe I’m wrong about this :sweat_smile:? It’s also funny because this show involves a literal panda.

“If you say it without thinking about the words, it might be a draw to attract the crowd, but I love being a panda, so I think that’s enough. The match that began as a panda, I want people to see the panda’s ferocious side, not just ‘it was fun with the sweet panda’. I’m grateful that I can be part of TJPW’s big show for their 10th anniversary, and that they have graciously allowed me to participate time after time, and I hope that it will be an opportunity for TJPW’s name to get out there to the rest of the world more and more. I want joshi pro wrestling to get even more exciting.”

In the next chunk, this middle part here was confusing for me: “それがもっと世間に届いて「女子プロレスってすげえぞ」というのを出していけるきっかけになるため、ラインアップされた部分であると思うんですけど、それをお祭りで終わらせるつもりでないですし”.

“I have been doing this for many years, and I intend to keep doing it, but there are so many amazing wrestlers, and in order to get the message out to the world that ‘joshi pro wrestling is amazing!’, I think the lineup is part of that. But I don’t want this to just end with a festival. I’m not going to lose to the other matches, and I want to make it a match that people will say was the most amazing and interesting match on the card.”

Interviewer: “Arai, this is your first singles match with a big-name wrestler outside of TJPW.”

Arai: “It’s true that this is my first time fighting someone from outside of TJPW in a singles match, but that doesn’t really matter.”

The first part of her next sentence confused me: “いつもよく知っている先輩じゃないから、荒井のこともきっと普段近くにいる先輩よりは知らないと思うし、逆に私もあまり知らないんですけど”.

“I’m not like my senpais who know her very well, and I’m sure that she knows less about me than my senpais who are around me all the time, so she doesn’t know me that well, either. But that’s why I want to use this match to make sure that she remembers me, and I think when the match is over, I will have become one or two times stronger than before. I want to do my best so that I can make my presence felt in this organization.”

Interviewer: “Aja, what do you expect from Arai in this match?”

Aja: “This applies to more than just Arai, but I don’t have any expectations for my opponent. I think she’s an obstacle. However, before the last Nagoya show, she commented that she wanted me to see how she has grown.”

In her next sentence, this part in particular threw me off: “名古屋大会が終わった最後に山下選手から促されて奮起した部分もあるかもしれないですけど”.

“I’m not her teacher or her parent or anything like that, so I just had to judge by appearances, but she might’ve received some encouragement from Yamashita at the end of the Nagoya show. For the first time, she said, ‘I intend to win regardless of what anyone says’, and she finally got serious about it.”

This sentence took me a few tries to parse: “だったら私も勝つつもりですし、ただ勝つんじゃなくて、さっき彼女はいい思い出になっていたらと言っていたけど、トラウマになることになるかもしれないし、それぐらいの思いを持ってこちらも全力で潰しにいけるなと.”

“If that’s the case, I also intend to win, and not just win. She said that hoped it would become a good memory, but it might become a trauma. And with that in mind, I am going to crush her with all of my might. When I heard her proclaim ‘I’m going to win!’, I was ready to say, ‘I intend to truly win, and I’m going to truly destroy you.’ So that’s the match, huh?”

Interviewer: “About that remark from Aja just now.”

Arai: “I have a lot of pride, so I’m not going to go for something that I think I will lose, so of course I’m going to do it with the intention of winning.”

And that’s it for that entire presser!

Next up, the 2.25 VOD show (much less work, thank goodness), and then… another presser :sweat_smile:, and the live show from this week, which I don’t think has much to translate.

AEW’s about to distract me for probably most of Sunday, and then I think TJPW has one more show before Grand Princess, but I’m hoping I’ll be able to catch up soon!

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I don’t really have great alternative suggestions to offer, but I think the biggest issue at the moment is the translation breaking this up into two separate sentences more, with the “which is a great way to catch the attention of the world.”
I’d put that part more as like, “in terms of how it’s going to capture the attention of general audiences, it’ll be ‘How is the Monster Aja Kong going to beat up the Idol Wrestler’, right?” or something - it’s introducing the topic continued in the next sentence. And it’s mainly about Aja raising that perception and talking about how it’s over-simplistic, rather than mainly about complimenting its headline appeal.

Yeah, it’s a figure of speech that she’s playing off of literally.
My take: “The first phrase to pop into your head might be ‘star panda.’ Well I love being a panda, so I think that’s just fine. This match might have been made just to bring out a panda, but I don’t want audiences to leave it thinking ‘what a cute panda, that was so fun!’ I want them to see the ferocity of the panda.”
With a note explaining ‘star panda’/客寄せパンダ.

I would say in:
長年続けてきて、この先も続けていくつもりですけど、もっともっといろんな素敵な選手たちがたくさんいるので、
the けど in the middle part is gesturing back at the first part - like “I’ve wrestled for a long time – and I intend to continue, since there’s tons more and more varied, amazing athletes out there.”
And then the part you quoted as confusing is describing like, Aja interpreting the line-up of the show as partly a way to showcase that variety and amazingness of the joshi pro-wrestling landscape right now.
And the festival part is her saying like, she doesn’t want just one big show to be the be all end all of that.

I think it’s probably:
“Since she’s not one of my senpais who I know well, I think she definitely doesn’t know me as well as those senpais who are always with me, although by the same token I don’t know her very well…”

The けど in 成長を見たところでねと思っていたんですけど is I would say another one that’s more a referring back, softening kind of けど then one leading into the next though.
Like, “She said she wanted me to see how she’d grown - well, I’m not her teacher or parent or anything so I just felt like ‘yeah seems like I already saw you grow’ but anyway, – she might have been pressed into this by Yamashita, but – at the end of the Nagoya show she said…”

As in, her main thought is connecting Arai saying she wanted Aja to see her growth, with Aja noticing her seriousness in saying she wanted to win. But it’s tempered with the asides of like “I’m not your mom though” and “Yamashita might have had a hand in this”

I think this is okay.

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Finished the February 25 VOD show!

The beginning of this one announced Touga’s debut match, and she said, “楽しみな気持ちもあって緊張もあるのですが、先輩の胸を借りるつもりで全力で頑張ります.” I think I got this okay, though I was just unsure enough about 胸を借りる, I thought I’d double-check :sweat_smile:.

Touga: “I’m looking forward to it and I’m also nervous, but I will do my best and fight with the intention of learning from my senpai.”

As far as the actual show goes, the main thing happening here was the first preview match for Rika vs Miu. It was Miu, Yuki Aino, and Raku vs Rika, Suzume and Mahiro.

I checked to see if shupro had Mahiro’s apology, and sure enough! There’s a fun pun in here: 桐生はボディースラムから「“睡魔”に負けて“すいま”せんでした」とシャレの効いた謝罪。I’d like to try including this if I can, just for fun, but I’ve been trying to puzzle out if there’s any possible way to translate the joke without needing to basically just explain the entire thing in a translator’s note, haha.

Mahiro’s apology: “I’m suima-sen for my ‘suima.’”

The post-match promo at the end of the match made me laugh, haha. Here’s how it started:

Aino: “I think with this white color here, Raku is even cuter and brighter.”

Raku: “This is a little awkward. Please stop.”

Aino: “Miu, how was it?”

Miu starts with, “未詩は…白いなぁって。そっちじゃない?” Is she asking if Yuki was asking her what she thought about the color? haha.

Miu: “For me… the white? Not that, right? Well, I faced Rika-san in a preview match, and I felt how amazing she is. I also felt her craziness. There’s less than a month until Ariake, so I wanted to get fired up here and work even harder as we head toward Ariake. Since there’s less than a month, I hope everyone will be waiting with their tickets in hand, ready to cheer. Thank you so much for today!”

The post-match comments were pretty funny. I don’t think I had any trouble with Rika’s:

Tatsumi: “Well… that’s not good. It was really not good, and I think I’m a little out of shape. Miu really has the dignity of a champion, and since I don’t have the time before Ariake, how can I recover my former strength and challenge her in good condition? I think that’s the question now… I’m anxious.”

(It has been a while since you’ve gotten spun by the Giant Swing)

“It’s still a bit of a hazard. I’m not very good with getting spun around, so I was very much on guard there, but she has so many ways of transitioning into the Giant Swing… If you leave her any opening at all, you’ll get swung. So not letting her swing you, it’s exhausting. I have to take countermeasures.”

(Is it difficult to face her?)

“Yes, it is. When you are beside your partner, it’s very reassuring, and the stronger they are, the more support they’re able to give, so it’s like having the strength of a hundred people. But standing on opposite corners, it’s the worst. She becomes like a devil. She’s a demon. A demon!”

I think I got the first part of Miu’s:

Miu: “Today was our first proper preview match. It has been a long time since I’ve experienced Rika-san’s amazing strength and greatness… I really felt the power that only Rika Tatsumi has. It’s hard to put it in words, but I feel it even when I’m beside her. But when we stand on opposite corners, I can feel Rika-san from a different angle, face to face. I thought she was really scary. When I was at her side, I wanted to be strong like Rika-san, so this is my chance to beat her. When she challenged last week, I was surprised, but it doesn’t matter how it happened; Rika-san came forward now, so I think now is the time for me to beat her. I’m going to work as hard as I can in the month before Ariake so that I can beat Rika-san.”

I think I got the second part, too?

(Tatsumi said that she’s not in good condition)

“It has been a long time since I have properly faced Rika-san, and I feel like since our singles match two years ago, she has just been continuously growing and getting faster… If this is her in poor condition, then she’s going to get stronger and stronger… I’m scared! Rika-san is scary. What should I do? I’ll do my best!”

(Was it difficult to face her?)

“Yes. Naturally, I like teaming up with Rika-san more than fighting her because it’s easier and more fun. Seeing Rika’s face for the first time from the opposite side of the ring, seeing her like that… Frankly, I got nervous because she’s scary.”

(Can you manage your fear by Ariake?)

“Yes, I think so. I have to get a hold of myself there. But I’ve held the International belt for half a year, and for the past several months, I’ve been fighting with the force of surging waves as I’ve faced international wrestlers for the first time. I’ve learned to change my fear into fun, so when the month is up, I think I’ll be fighting Rika-san in a happy state.”

I got almost all of the third part, I think:

(Tatsumi compared you to a demon.)

“What, me?? No!” (laughs) “I don’t think so! If I’m a demon to Rika-san, then she’s… something like… hmm… a yokai? Not a demon or a devil or anything trendy like that. They’ve been passed down since ancient Japan.”

(She’s a yokai, then?)

“Yokai? But that might make her angry.” (laughs) “Be careful!”

I wanted to make sure that I got the last couple sentences correct: “白昼夢が組んだら正統派、王道派アイドルタッグなので。そこは誤解しないように、お互い高め合ってこのシングルに清く正しくかわいく臨みたいと思います.”

(Daydream is made up of a yokai and a demon?)

“No! No it’s not! When we’re together as Daydream, we’re a real orthodox, King’s Road style idol tag team. To ensure that there’s no misunderstanding, I want to approach our singles match nobly, justly, and cutely, and raise both of us up.”

Miu explicitly mentioning 王道 caught my attention, after all the TJPW twitter discourse in the past year. Sadly, I don’t think any of the people making the King’s Road comparisons with TJPW follow my account or read/listen to the comments on their own, so I guess they’ll have to miss out on this one :sweat_smile:. It amused me that the word came up in a truly TJPW context.

This is the last of the February content! We’re finally into March! I have one more presser and two shows left to finish before the 18th. Hopefully I can get the Night Before GRAND PRINCESS '23 show done before, uh, the literal night before Grand Princess…:sweat_smile:

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Yeah, this explainer describes it as a sumo-derived term meaning like, getting the opportunity to spar with a higher ranking person to improve your skills as part of your training, type of thing. So I’d say your version here works fine.

“My falling asleep… was unexsnoozeable!!”

I feel very proud of this one :sweat_smile:

Miu’s really thrown off her guard by just how white the arena is (before this bit there’s a part that maybe didn’t make it into the transcript where she says 今日は、初めてのね、なんか白い会場ですけど)
(it does look very white, especially from what would be her perspective)

Yuki tries to steer it away from that by turning it into a compliment for Raku and then prompting Miu for promo-y thoughts,

But then yeah, Miu is still stuck completely on the whiteness of the arena, and the
“未詩は…白いなぁって。”
Part is more like “I was like… well it is very white…”
Like in that critical kind of way where she doesn’t really like it but doesn’t want to say something bad about it. (The なぁ here is a classic “isn’t it X” な rather than a “it isn’t X”)
image

At which point Yuki laughs with the audience, and waves her off:
No, that’s not what I was asking about.
image

And the そっちじゃない? is yep, like a “oh, that’s not what you meant?”

I wasn’t 100% positive it was an explicitly 王道プロレス reference (just since I think 王道 is more of a preexisting phrase than King’s Road is in that way in English), so I did a bit of searching around…
And I think she’s maybe talking about idols. In the video it sounds like she says
”正統派 王道アイドル タッグ” with slight beats where I’ve put spaces,
and I found this blog post that tries to put into words a distinction between 正統派アイドル and 王道アイドル、matching Miu’s phrasing exactly.

And the two descriptions… Well, I mean, they sound a lot like Miu and Rika to me:

いつも明るく笑顔を振る舞うアイドルは、正統派と言えるでしょう。

「王道アイドル」は「尊い」(神々しい)「よくわからないけどとにかく可愛い」アイドルだと思います。

Now – that said, of course we’re in a wrestling context so I could be off-base with that speculation and 王道 as in Baba-lineage, 四天王, 王道プロレス could be meant.
But I was curious to try to check if it was just one random blog using these phrases this way, and it seems like I get a surprisingly large number of results for the phrases “王道アイドル” and “正統派アイドル”(~700,000) and surprisingly few for “王道プロレス” with similar relative results if I try taking pieces out of quotes and stuff.

Not 100% clear cut evidence, and it’s frustrating that it would be difficult to translate this way, but I’m maybe leaning towards a ”正統派王道アイドルタッグ” as being like a tag between a 正統派アイドル and an 王道アイドル, rather than an アイドルタッグ that is 正統派王道.

I wondered if it was a phrase pattern she’d used before that could clinch it one way or the other but I didn’t find anything except the title of the youtube version of her comments. Which doesn’t seem to helpful.

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Omg this is incredible ajkgdfdhg :clap:

How does this sound?

(Daydream is made up of a yokai and a demon?)

“No! No it’s not! When we’re together as Daydream, we’re an orthodox idol + a royal road idol tag team. To ensure that there’s no misunderstanding, I want to approach our singles match nobly, justly, and cutely, and raise both of us up.”

I went with different phrasing other than “King’s Road” because if it truly is something entirely unconnected, I didn’t want people to get the wrong idea. I might give it a translator’s note, though I’m not confident I understand idols well enough to be able to explain, haha, but at least I could mention that she references two different types.

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hey wait oops maybe technically it should be “inexsnoozeable” huh. Still very proud!

I think that sounds fine. Mentioning the shared wording in the note just in case might be good too, although it’s tricky since the two possibilities are so different… I suppose sticking to your guns on whichever one you go with is good too.

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Finished the Miu/Rika half of the March 2 presser! The transcript for this one is here, and the video for it is here.

I think the first chunk went alright:

Rika: “This will be my first singles match with Miu since we fought for the Princess of Princess title two years ago. I think we’ve grown so much that it’ll be beyond compare, especially Miu, who has the air of a champion about her now. She gets the crowd so excited, I feel like she’s grown into a wrestler whom even I am jealous of. So I am going to fight her with everything I have, without hesitation. I want to have a title match that is worthy of the International Princess name, and which gets the world riled up. I’ve already won the Princess of Princess belt and the Tag belt, and if I win the International Princess belt, I’ll achieve the Grand Slam, so I definitely want to win.”

Miu: “Ever since I won this belt, I’ve been thinking as I fight alongside it that I want to see new scenery and experience a lot of things. Moka (Miyamoto), my first challenger, was an opponent I’d yet to experience in the sense that she was challenging for a belt for the first time. And with my second and third challenges, I was facing foreign wrestlers for the first time, so I was able to experience something new there as well. Rika-san, who is always beside me and who is probably closer to me than anyone, came forward to challenge, and I thought she was the most known to me, but after our preview match (2.25 Ota City Industrial Plaza), I started to think that Rika-san might actually be the biggest unknown. Her fighting style is such that you can’t predict what she’s going to do, and you never know what will happen. It’s a lot of fun, and I’m also fighting alongside her day after day to get stronger together as Daydream. So in that sense, I can see the most unknown scenery that I have seen up to now, and I hope we can have the most not-yet-known match, and the most international match. I want to see more and more scenery through this belt, and I want to fight Rika-san, beat her, and then see what kind of scenery lies beyond that point. It’s different from when I challenged Rika-san two years ago, because I want to confront her with this version of myself that has gotten stronger. I will do my best to successfully defend my belt this time as well, so that I can achieve V4.”

Interviewer: “This is your first time challenging for this belt. What are your impressions of it?”

Rika: “I feel like this belt’s position is unclear. TJPW has another singles belt, and I feel like the white belt is a symbol of strength. Since this blue belt is the International belt, I think it’s a belt for reaching more of the world and attracting global attention. I’ve only just realized that I’m international, too. Since foreign wrestlers have been coming to TJPW, I wanted to catch the world’s attention a little more, so I’m happy that I could challenge.”

Interviewer: “Your positions have been reversed since the match two years ago.”

Rika: “Before, I was on the receiving end, the person defending the belt, so I know that defending it is very difficult. This time I’m on the challenger side and I have nothing to lose, so I can go all out. That might make it easier for me. But I am afraid because my opponent is who she is.”

Miu’s second sentence gave me a bit of a headache, haha. This chunk in particular was extremely difficult to parse, and I’m pretty sure I did not successfully figure it out, haha: “いっぱいいろいろ考えた上なんですけど何も考えずにいっても怖くないみたいな思いがあったので、勢いでどうにでもなれじゃないですけど、もちろんいろんな覚悟を持って闘いはしたんですけど、失いもののない怖さとかまだ若い世代と言われていた頃だったからこそいけた気持ちみたいなものはあったので”.

Miu: “Two years ago, when Rika-san won the belt, I decided to challenge for it. I thought about it a lot, but I feel like I would’ve been afraid even if I hadn’t thought about it at all. So I didn’t know how to do it with momentum, but of course I came prepared for the fight. I was able to do it because of having nothing to lose and all that, and I was still considered to be part of the young generation. In a sense, I had nothing to be scared of, but it also felt like there were so many scary things! But this time Rika-san is challenging me, and she’s my senpai, not to mention I’ve been able to become stronger as part of Daydream thanks to Rika-san being there. Having my senpai come forward after that is scary, and it’s scary to want to fight her and protect my belt, and I just feel a lot of anxiety right now.”

Interviewer: “Is there a sense of a generation struggle?”

I think I maybe got this next part (with about 60% certainty):

Miu: “I’ve heard all of the voices from people saying that they wanted to see me surpass that summer and surpass my senpais. That is something important, but because I’m facing my senpai Rika-san now, it’s really difficult to think about how far I can go, or what I can do, and whether I can surpass or not surpass her.”

Here’s where I got a bit lost: “日本語的な意味も含めて超えた先に何があるのだろうと思うと、それはすごい難しいなと思ってから、すごい考えるようになって.”

“I wondered if I could go beyond even the meaning of the word ‘surpass’ in Japanese, and after realizing how difficult it would be, I really started to think about it. I want to surpass my past matches, like that summer, and also that match in February two years ago.”

Interviewer: “Rika, Miu compared you to a ‘yokai.’”

Rika: “I’ve been thinking about what kind of yokai I’d be. It’s really unsatisfactory, but if I were a yokai, I think I’d be like a zashiki-warashi that brings good fortune. I called her a demon without thinking, but I don’t actually think that.”

Miu: “Huh? But you scared me!!!”

Rika: “What can I say? I had to come up with a metaphor, and I thought that she’d become a monster, an indescribable creature, so I reflexively called her a demon.”

Miu: (whispering) “No…”

Rika: “She’s really more of a Cerberus than a demon. Before, she was like a puppy, obedient and cute, but now she’s like an uncontrollable monster.”

Miu: “…What is a Cerberus?”

Rika: “It has three heads…”

I couldn’t quite figure out the beginning of Miu’s sentence here: “私は思ってないとか、私が妖怪と言ったことが重大なヤバいことみたいになってますけど.”

Miu: “Oh! Scary! Huh? I guess me calling her a yokai wasn’t so bad of a thing to say after all. I did some searching, trying to figure out what kind of yokai she’d be, but there were so many scary images, I wasn’t able to figure it out. But I can definitely say that she would for sure not be a zashiki-warashi. Sorry.”

Rika: “Yes, I would be!”

Miu: “No, you wouldn’t. If Rika-san says so, I will do my best to defeat the unknown yokai.”

I was losing it at the yokai conversation, haha! Definitely one of those moments where I was like “I’m so glad that I’m translating this.”

Just have the Suzume/Arisu half of the presser, and two (fairly short) show translations left to go!

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Finished the Suzume and Arisu portion shockingly fast! I decided I’m just gonna go ahead and post it because I surprisingly don’t think I have any questions?? Either I’m getting better, or my brain has blended into soup and I can no longer tell what’s right or wrong :sweat_smile:.

The video and the transcript are the same links as the previous post.

Endo: “Since we formed a tag team as Daisy Monkey, we’ve challenged for the tag belts together, and participated in the tag tournament together, but I’m the one who always loses at the end. I think that’s really frustrating for both of us. I’ve thought time after time that my own strength isn’t enough. I started to think that I had to win on my own, and I finally got my first singles victory not too long ago. And just when I’d started to feel a little more confident in myself, this singles match with Suzume-san was set. I was a bit surprised, but even though we’re tag partners, she’s also someone I want to surpass. I’m going to give it everything I’ve got and get the victory.”

Suzume: “First of all, I’m so, so happy that we’ll be in the opening match at such a big show and a big venue for TJPW. I’ve recently had a lot of people talk to me about Arisu, saying things like, ‘Arisu, she’s really gotten stronger, huh?’, and they’re right, but she has always been really strong, and she’s amazing. She was a great junior when she debuted, and before I knew it, she was standing alongside me, or maybe she’s even run out ahead of me now. As her senpai, I should be saying that I can’t afford to lose here, and I should be thinking that, but honestly I think that I won’t know until we have the match. There are complicated feelings in a confrontation between tag partners, both for the wrestlers themselves and for the people watching. But for me, it’s not because she’s my junior or my partner. It’s a simple story: which of us is stronger right now, Arisu Endo? That’s all.”

Namba: “I would like to ask some questions for both of you. Do you have any comments about being in the first match at a big show at Ariake Coliseum?”

Endo: “It’s the first match, huh? I think the first match will have a lot of eyes on it, so Daisy Monkey’s power? I want to show them that.”

Suzume: “Even though we’re opponents, we’re thrilled that we’ll be starting things off. There are a lot of matches on the card after us, but we’ll be on first to kick things off, so please get excited!”

Namba: “Yuka Sakazaki vs Mizuki in the main event, and Miu Watanabe vs Rika Tatsumi are also matches between tag partners, so is that something you’re aware of?”

Endo: “That’s true, isn’t it? I am aware of that. I think that our senpais, MagiRabbi and Daydream, are the strongest tag teams, so we want to work hard so that Daisy Monkey will also be considered one of the strongest teams.”

Suzume: “As Arisu said, I think in the strongest tag teams, each member is the strongest opponent for their respective partners. So I think by fighting each other, we can learn more and more about each other, and we’ll also be able to become even stronger as Daisy Monkey.”

Namba: “For Arius Endo, what kind of mood were you in when you came dressed like this today?”

Endo: “That’s an actual question? I’m dressed properly! I wore a proper jacket, too, and I came dressed to attend a press conference. Formal wear? Formal?”

Interviewer: “You were Arisu Endo’s debut opponent. How have you seen her grow in the two years that you’ve been at her side?”

Suzume: “As everyone can see, she’s grown a whole lot. But the part of her that I respect the most hasn’t changed since her debut match. She gives 100% of her power and beyond. I remember being surprised by that as her opponent at the time, and I’ve felt that grow even stronger as I’ve been watching her over the past two years. It’s an aspect of her that grows more and more throughout the match, and it’s what I respect about her, as well as what I’m most wary of.”

Interviewer: “What do you respect the most about Suzume?”

Endo: “Everything. She’s so fast that I can’t even make out her face during the match, and there are times where I can’t keep up. Is it respect, or is it longing? I guess you could call it admiration. I want to be like her, too.”

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This is unbelievably picky, but I would remove the “which.”
in the original the two descriptors feel closely related to me (riling up the world is what makes it fitting “International”), although probably moreso rhetorically than grammatically. Anyway, “and which” just seems to, in my head at least, make them two separate concepts in a way that just “and” wouldn’t.

For this part:
いっぱいいろいろ考えた上なんですけど何も考えずにいっても怖くないみたいな思いがあったので
“何も考えずにいっても怖くない” wouldn’t be “I feel like I would’ve been afraid even if I hadn’t thought about it at all” - the “wouldn’t” should be a “wouldn’t’ve.”
Also, a small characterization tip:
in the video she starts with 何も before interjecting the いっぱいいろいろ考えた上なんですけど before it, so the second part is her main thought, with the stuff up to ですけど clarifying that it’s a hypothetical since she did think a lot.
My rough attempt: “I did end up overthinking it a ton at the time, but I felt then like even if I didn’t think through it at all, there wasn’t anything to fear.”

For this part: 勢いでどうにでもなれじゃないですけど
I don’t think “So I didn’t know how to do it with momentum” is right.
I would put it more like roughly "it felt sort of like ‘well I’ll give it the old college try and what happens happens!’ "
I’d say she was going in 勢いで, with a どうにでもなれ! perspective.
When Rika said it earlier I found a good answer of じゃないですけど it sounds sortof like a hesitent affirmative - like ~“I’m not saying it’s X, but (I do think it’s basically X)”.

In this part:
失いもののない怖さとかまだ若い世代と言われていた頃だったからこそいけた気持ちみたいなものはあったので
This is sort of picky but I don’t love the “and all that” for the “とか”. I would say as she’s speaking through this thought, she’s elaborating the reasons she’s getting at as she goes, so the first phrasing gets とか. So I guess I’d say it’s less like it’s gesturing at an unmentioned other set of reasons, and more like it’s a small bit of structural glue indicating she’s not speaking, like, definitively. Like “like” or that kind of thing I suppose.
My rough attempt: “I felt like I could do it because I had nothing to lose, especially because I was still considered part of the young generation at the time.”

I think it’s more along the lines of “Even thinking too just in terms of language, what comes after you ‘surpass’ something? It’s hard to even picture, so I got to really thinking about it”
like
日本語的な意味も含めて,
超えた先に何があるのだろう
と思うと…

I think what’s 怖い here is actually Rika’s “I don’t actually think that” and her tone/eye contact with Miu when she said it:




It’s only the “思ってないから” that provokes the big reaction.
I think because there’s a subtle threat built into it :sweat_smile:
Like along the lines of “don’t worry, I don’t actually find you intimidating” while making direct eye contact.
Rika goes out of her way to say directly to Miu that she doesn’t actually think she’s a demon, when she could have just left it at 思わず言ってしまった.

I think she’s quoting scary things that Rika said here:
私は思ってない (per my point a little while ago)
私が妖怪
The fact that Rika’s saying stuff like that means 重大なヤバいことみたいになってますけど
Like, “suddenly it’s getting real” sort of, or something like that. Reacting to Rika’s threatening aura :sweat_smile:

Nice! I’ve got no notes – WAIT!!! I SEE A GRAVE MISTAKE!!!

:smile:

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