Hi guys! I’m pretty new here but got sent a link to this in another thread.
I’m learning Japanese because my brother and I want to go watch Wrestle Kingdom maybe next year or the year after. The promotion I follow the closest right now is AEW, but I watch all the big NJPW and TJPW events.
Welcome! 
I’m also learning Japanese because of wrestling, though my path has taken some turns I really did not expect 
. I got into wrestling in early 2019 because of the Golden Lovers story, started watching AEW at the very first Double or Nothing (and NJPW shortly after), got into TJPW in late 2019, then, uh, watched way too many companies through most of 2020. I started learning Japanese at the end of 2020, but didn’t get serious about it until around March 2021.
Then, well, at the end of 2021, Mr. Haku left CyberFight and stopped translating DDT and TJPW, and it was a really soul-crushing moment as a fan. I managed to pick myself up off of the ground and stop moping, and I realized that if I wanted to keep following the stories, I kind of had to step up long before I was ready and try translating them myself .
I started out doing very rough translations for DDT, then moved to TJPW after DDT got another translator again, and my friend who was covering TJPW ran out of time to keep up with it. So I’ve been translating TJPW stuff regularly now for like the past six months?
If you’re interested in TJPW, this thread is definitely the place to be, because I share everything from my translations here, and rodan has offered such amazing help to clarify things that were confusing and correct my translation errors. I also have a brand new twitter account for my translations, if you’d rather read the more polished end results.
Of course, this isn’t just a TJPW thread, haha, so you’re welcome to post about other wrestling as well! rodan frequently shares all sorts of fun highlights from shupro, if you’re interested in anything from that magazine.
I used to keep up with NJPW as well, though I stopped watching earlier this year in May after what they did to Kota Ibushi. But for a long time, NJPW was a decent part of my motivation, and a huge amount of my immersion. I can definitely say that if you truly love wrestling, that love can get you pretty far with Japanese.
But yeah, don’t be scared off by the long posts! We just have a lot of things we want to share .
Continuing with TJPW’s August 13 show, the last three matches were actually covered pretty extensively in the shupro recap. I also double-checked my translations for the in-ring stuff with Mr. Haku’s partial live translation thread for the show, which was handy.
Kamiyu and Mahiro teamed up with Haruna Neko against Saki Akai, Yuki Arai, and Moka. I was thrilled to see perpetual underdog Mahiro get the pin here, and over Arai, too! Sweet revenge.
Something that stood out to me when I was translating their comments is that there is a parallel of sorts between Toyo Mates (Mr. Haku translated their name the same way I did. Vindication!) and Reiwa no AA Cannon. The parallel between Kamiyu and Saki already came up earlier this year when they teamed together, and I think Mahiro and Arai’s mini-feud recently has been neat.
But what stood out to me this time was the parallel between the two as teams, with Saki sort of mentoring and looking after Arai, and Kamiyu sort of… not really doing that with Mahiro. Well, she sort of tries, but she’s also not exactly the mentoring type, haha. They have an interesting dynamic because Kamiyu clearly does like her and want her to succeed, but she also has the tendency to be really aggressively controlling of Mahiro, and they seem to have fundamentally different personalities and ideological standpoints which makes a balanced and effective tag team seem impossible to achieve.
I thought it was really funny how Mahiro challenged for the tag belts, in a very characteristically Mahiro kind of way. Here was my translation of the first part:
Kiryu: “I am very sorry to detain you when you are so tired. I’d like to ask you something, if you don’t mind? Akai-san and Arai-chan, when the two of you first formed your tag team, I fought you as your opponent. At the time, I lost. After that, the two of you won the belts, and then I lost to Arai-chan in the singles tournament. I kept losing… this whole time, I’ve been losing. But I can’t just stay silent. After today’s match, you can no longer ignore me, right? So, your belt… please let me challenge for it!”
Akai: “Alright. If you both are ready for that.” (She leaves, taking care of Arai)
Kiryu: “Okay, and now…” (She looks at Kamifuku) “Ah! I’m sorry. I didn’t say anything to Kamifuku-san…”
Then Kamiyu says: “そうだよね？（謝る桐生に）いいよ。突然でビックリしたけど、でもいつかこんな日が来てくれたらいいなって。マヒロが無駄に頭を下げまくるばっかりじゃなくて、もっと主張してほしいって、一番近くで一番強く思ってたのは私だよ。マヒロ先輩についていきます.”
The tricky part for me was the ビックリした line . Here was my attempt:
Kamifuku: “You didn’t, did you? That’s okay. That was sudden, like, ‘oh my god!’ but I’d hoped that this day would come someday. I wanted you to be more assertive instead of just bowing and apologizing over and over, and I’m the one who was closest to you and felt the strongest. I will follow Mahiro-senpai.”
Then Mahiro brings out my nemesis… mahjong metaphors. Here was the last bit of their in-ring exchange (with my best shot at translating it ):
桐生「ありがとう！ 今の状態、私の好きな麻雀に例えるとベルトにリーチを掛けたかんじなので。私たちでツモっていきましょう。一緒にツモってくれますか？」
Kiryu: “Thank you! In this current situation, to liken it to mahjong, which I’m a fan of, it’s like declaring ready on the belt. Let’s win on a self-drawn title. Shall we draw a title together?”
上福「敬語はやめようぜ」
Kamifuku: “Let’s not use honorifics, okay?”
桐生「あ、ツモろうね。なので、みなさんで東洋盟友の応援、よろしくお願いします！」
Kiryu: “Oh, uh, draw a tile from the wall! Everyone, please support Toyo Mates!”
In their post-match comments, Mahiro starts with:
Kiryu: “I won! I did it! Today, I… really wanted to win and announce my challenge. Sorry I didn’t tell you first.”
Then Kamiyu says: “いいよいいよ。いつも私が勝手に決めてる分。いいっすよ、なんすか.”
Some of the more casual language is still confusing to me, and I couldn’t quite figure out “いいっすよ、なんすか” here. Here was my attempt at that line (and then Mahiro’s response):
Kamifuku: “It’s okay, it’s okay. I always decide stuff on my own. It’s fine.”
Kiryu: “Thank you so much. I won today thanks to the help from the two of you.”
Then Kamiyu says: “当たり前だよ！…嘘嘘（笑）”. I translated this as: ““Obviously! …No, no, that’s a lie (laughs)” But I was a little uncertain about “嘘嘘” .
Then Mahiro says: “すげえよ”, which I translated as: “Unbelievable!”
Kamiyu says: “今日は絶対に自分で勝ちたいって目をしてたので。最後は荒井ちゃんを前に顔つきが変わるなって見てたから、あえて見守ってたかったし。絶対に荒井ちゃんに勝ってほしいなって個人的に思ってたから。みんな気付きましたか？（桐生の）髪の毛の色、鉄紺やぞ。東洋大学のイメージカラー、鉄紺やぞ.”
I was just very uncertain on what and who she was exactly referring to, so took my best stab at it based on context:
Kamifuku: “Today, her eyes definitely said that she wanted to win on her own. At the end, I saw her face change when she faced Arai-chan, so I was intentionally watching over her. I personally wanted her to beat Arai-chan. Did you guys notice it? The color of (Kiryu’s) hair, it was iron blue. That’s Toyo University’s color.”
Then the other two said:
Kiryu: “That’s right”!
Haruna: “Oh, I see!”
I fell down a bit of a rabbit hole with the color 鉄紺, since it’s one that we don’t have an exact equivalent for in English, but I know that schools can be really particular about their colors. Here’s a little more about it. Funnily enough, Toyo University is the third result if you google it.
I ended up going with “iron blue”, accompanied by probably the world’s most boring translator note . Something I wasn’t able to determine when doing cursory research on it was if iron was actually used as a mordant during the indigo dyeing process.
From my (very limited) personal experience, you don’t actually need a mordant with indigo, but according to (English language) dyeing tutorials on google, some people do use iron with it. I definitely don’t have the vocabulary to read about this in Japanese, though. So I’ve filed that away under a subject to learn more about when I’m more advanced .
That digression aside, here’s what they said next (and my uncertain translations of both):
上福「気合入れてたからね」
Kamifuku: “She was full of fighting spirit.”桐生「そういうことなのよ」
Kiryu: “That’s what it means.”
Then Neko and Mahiro said:
Haruna: “Today, Mahiro was so cool, and the two of them worked together perfectly, and even I got a ribbon (from Kamifuku). I’m glad I was able to team up with them.”
Kiryu: “Thank you.”
Then Kamiyu said: “ずっと真弥のそばにいたのは、一番近くにいたのはゆきだと思うから。私も真弥と同じ気持ちだし。アラサーの夏、花咲かせよ.”
The first line there was confusing to me. It sort of made sense? But not enough for me to feel confident. Here’s what I had:
Kamifuku: “I stuck by Mahiro the whole time. I think I was the person closest to her. Mahiro and I feel the same. Let’s bloom in the summer of our thirties!”
Then Mahiro said:
Kiryu: “Yes, let’s do it! (Kamiyu punches her shoulder) I will! I have no idea what my next plans are, but I’m definitely challenging for the belt! …Sorry. I’m suddenly at a loss for words.”
Then Kamiyu said: “絶対うちらで力を合わせて真弥の未来を明るくしていくぞ！ 一皮も二皮もむけるぞー！” That last bit was an expression I’d never heard before, so I looked it up, then tried to figure out what seemed like a possible English equivalent?
Here’s what I had for the rest of their comments:
Kamifuku: “We’re definitely joining forces and making Mahiro’s future brighter! Let’s give you an uplift!”
Kiryu: “That’s what I mean!”
Saki, Arai, and Moka’s comments were a lot more straightforward! I think I did okay with the first half:
Miyamoto: “Today I teamed up with Akai-san and Arai-san, and they were really encouraging, but I wasn’t able to help them, and we lost, which was frustrating. I want to improve more and more.”
Akai: “Will you be okay?”
Arai: “Yes. Today, even though I had the reassuring presence of the two of you with me, I still lost to Mahiro-san. It was a really frustrating result… After all, if I lose the title here, I won’t be able to do everything that I wanted to do. I definitely want to win this next match.”
Then Saki said:
私が前に上福選手、真弥選手とやった時よりも今日はなんか何段階かレベルが上がってるように感じました。でも、言っても真弥選手なんて（荒井に）割と最近も当たったよね？ なんで最初からその鞘を抜かなかったんだろうって気持ちと。今日ね、『すみませんでした』みたいな挑戦のされ方をされたのは初めてだったんですけど。挑戦してきて、私たちに敵わなくて。今日挑戦してきたことを謝らないようにしてほしいなって思います。でもこうやって初めてチャンピオンのなって、防衛していくことがチャンピオンとしていい姿をお客さんに見せられると思うので。どんどん挑戦したい方はきてくれて大丈夫です
Lots of stuff I wasn’t quite certain about . Here was my attempt at the whole thing:
Akai: “In comparison to my matches with Kamifuku and Mahiro before, I feel like the level of today’s match was higher. But, didn’t Mahiro face Arai relatively recently? I wonder why she didn’t pull out this strength from the outset. Today is the first time someone has issued a challenge to me like that, with an ‘excuse me’. She challenged us, and was no match for us. I hope she won’t apologize for challenging us today. But I think becoming a champion like this for the first time and defending your title shows the audience how good you are as a champion. If you want to challenge us, come and do it, it’s okay!”
The semi-main event of the show was a semifinal match for the Tokyo Princess Cup, Suzume vs Yuka! I really liked this one. Yuka really comes across as so brutal and terrifying in her final stretch of three tournament matches, starting with her last one against Hikari, and really elevating here with Suzume. I feel like you can really see her desperation and her fear. Suzume really brought out the part of Yuka that is completely no-nonsense and serious, as opposed to her normal playfulness. Which is a testament to how much Yuka actually respects and fears her.
I think I understood the first half of Suzume’s comment?
Suzume: “Since I made it this far in the tournament, of course I was aiming for the overall victory. In the preview match, Yuka-san said that I’m ‘not a threat’, but I wanted Yuka-san to think I was dangerous in some way or another. I was really nervous because I was thinking about all sorts of things, like everyone’s expectations and the future of the company. To be honest, when the match started, I forgot about the tournament, and I thought, ‘in any case, I’m not going to lose to the person in front of me.’ I really fought only with the desire to win.”
Then the interviewer asks her about the new plancha she revealed. Here’s where things fell apart for me, haha. Suzume said:
このトーナメントに挑むに向けて、なんか生み出したもののひとつですね。いっぱいいっぱいながらも自分のやりたいことというか、用意した武器を全部出し切ったと思うので。当たって砕けて粉々になってもしがみついて勝とうと思ってたんですけど、さらに粉々の粉々の粉々にされたので…ここまで粉々にされると、もはや清々しいなと思っています（笑）
Here was my unsure attempt:
“It was something I created for this tournament. Although she took me to my limit, it was something I wanted to do, or rather, I think I used up all of the weapons that I’d prepared. Even if she hit me and smashed me to pieces, I was going to cling to victory, but she shattered the pieces of me into even smaller pieces. Now I think it’s refreshing to be pulverized to this extent (laughs).”
The main event was Miu vs Miyu, and it was my favorite match in the entire tournament (and honestly maybe my match of the year across all companies). I still remember Miu and Miyu’s last singles match, in 2019 right after I had just started watching TJPW, and the two of them wanted to fight before they tried teaming up.
It’s just absolutely incredible how far Miu has come since then. I was riveted the whole match, especially that last stretch of it, when Miyu was basically putting Miu through the absolute ringer, and she just wouldn’t stay down. I feel like it sort of validated my theory that Miu is being set up as a future ace of sorts.
After Miu won, Yuka came out, and the two of them exchanged some words in-ring. I think I more or less got all of this? Here was my translation:
Sakazaki: “Oh, so it’s Miu. Well, I can’t lose. I won’t lose. This is my ninth time doing this since the tournament started, and I’ve been doing this since before Miu came to be TJPW’s Miu Watanabe. So this summer, Yuka Sakazaki is absolutely going to win. I won’t lose!”
Miu: (While crying) “‘I don’t want to lose’ to Yuka-san, either! To get to here, I beat Nakajima-san and Yamashita-san… next is Yuka-san. Before I came here, the three of you built TJPW and made it so awesome and amazing, and I respect you so much. That is why in the 9th year, this summer, I am going to surpass Yuka-san and get the overall victory.”
Sakazaki: “Okay, tomorrow, then?”
(The two of them fist bump. Sakazaki makes her exit.)
Miu: “I beat Yamashita-san! Beating Yamashita-san was my very first dream after I debuted and became a wrestler. It was way too big of a dream at that time, but now, after four years… I was finally able to win! In the finals tomorrow, I’m going to face Yuka-san. Fighting Nakajima-san, Yamashita-san, and Yuka-san, everyone is too strong! But I’ve decided that this summer is going to be the summer I surpass my senpais! So I hope to defeat Yuka-san, too, to beat her and win the tournament tomorrow! Please give me your support in the finals tomorrow. Thank you again for today!”
I actually got kind of choked up while translating Miu’s last set of lines there. I feel like I feel the emotion and the power of the promos so much more when translating them, even if it has been several days since I watched the match. Miu’s promo skills in particular have really stood out to me over these shows. She’s so good at this!
After the match, Miu said:
Miu: “I was able to beat Yamashita-san in the finals. Ever since my first singles match with Yamashita-san at the Up Up TJPW event directly following my debut, I have always really wanted to beat her someday, to surpass that wall one day. But at the time, it was too reckless, too big of a goal… But after four years, I finally, finally caught up with her. She is a senpai who has always been a great help to me, and she has watched over me with great warmth and occasional severity, even when I was just starting in pro wrestling four years ago. So I have so much respect for her because she’s a senpai to whom I owe so much. Today I finally caught up with her, and it feels like I finally reached her level, but I have to fight Yuka-san in the finals next, and this tournament… I’ve had to have singles matches with all three flagship members of the roster. They loom overwhelmingly huge to me, and I really respect them from the bottom of my heart. Since I’ve come this far, I want to beat Yuka-san, but I think It’s going to be insanely difficult… But I’ve decided that this summer, I’m going to surpass my senpais and win the tournament. I’m going to do my best and aim for the victory tomorrow.”
In the second half of her comment, they asked her about being in the main event for two consecutive Korakuen shows, and a couple things threw me off. Here’s what she said:
やっぱり先輩たちが普段メインに立ってものすごい試合をしているからこそ、自分もそんな試合をしないと勝てたとしても追いついたことにはならないし。そこもひとつ、自分にとっての課題だったんですけど。どうだったか分かんないんですけど、すごい今回ファンの方が今まで以上に、過去最大に応援してくれて、たくさん期待してくれて。ものすごい応援の声をもらったので、その声だったり会場のお客さんの声はないけど“声援”だったりがものすごく力になったので。明日もメインイベント、後楽園で決勝戦。頑張りたいと思います
One was how to translate the “ホントにやばくて” in her first line. I went with “amazingly terrifying”? I dunno . Her line about the cheers was kind of grammar soup to me, but I tried my best. Here was the result:
“Being in a Korakuen main event makes me really nervous, and today was also amazingly terrifying. My senpais are always in the main event, and always wrestle amazing matches, so if I don’t also have matches like that, even if I win, I’m not on their level. That was one of the challenges for me. I don’t know how, but this time the fans were supporting me more than ever, and they expected more from me than ever before. I received their amazing cheers, and it was their voices and their ‘shouts of encouragement’, even though the audience couldn’t vocalize, which became my strength. Tomorrow, I’m also in the main event, the finals at Korakuen. I will do my best.”
Miyu’s comment was also confusing, or at least, I felt uncertain about most of it, even if it seemed like I had the general idea. She said:
負けた。うーん…まずは素直に悔しいですね。悔しいけど…けどというか悔しいしかないけど、最後終わって未詩の目を見た時に、結果からして『強くなったね』っていうしかないんですけど。でも未詩の目を見て、あらためて未詩の過ごした４年間っていうのは本当に濃いものだったんだなって思いました。私ももうすぐ10年になりますけど、この10年すごく濃く東京女子のなかで闘ってきて。すごく、この準決勝が決まった時から４年前の（新宿）FACEであったチャレンジマッチからの未詩のことを思い出してすごくなってるなって思ったし、だからこの準決勝ホントに最初から倒しにかかってけっこう攻めたと思うんですけど。自力の強さと未詩の本質の強さに今日は飲み込まれてしまったかなっていう風に思います。まぁまぁ悔しいですけど、また負けたら強くなればいいので。次は絶対に負けませんよ。
Here was my attempt:
Yamashita: “I lost. Well… first of all, I am honestly frustrated. I’m frustrated, but… maybe I should say I have no choice except to feel frustrated, but when I looked into Miu’s eyes at the end, based on the result, all I could say was ‘you’ve gotten stronger’. But looking into her eyes, I realized once again that these four years of her career were so rich. It will soon be ten years for me, and my ten years of fighting in TJPW have been very intense. After this semifinal was decided, I thought back to the challenge match at (Shinjuku) FACE, and I thought about how much stronger Miu has gotten since then. So in this semifinal match, from the beginning, I truly came at her to win, and I thought my attacks were enough. But today I think I was swallowed up by my own power and Miu’s true strength. Well, it’s frustrating, but if I lose again, I’ll just have to get stronger. Next time, I will definitely not lose.”
The next part of her comment also confused me. They asked her how she expects the finals to go, and she said:
予想できないですよ。今日未詩と闘って…ユカちゃんも勝って私も決勝でユカちゃんと闘うつもりだったので。ユカちゃんが勝つのかなって思う反面、今日私負けてますし。未詩の勢いとか瞬間的な強さに最後やられたので。どれだけユカちゃんが攻めてても、最後飲み込む力はホントに強いなって思ったので。ちょっともう…分かんないですね（笑）。でも、今回の準決勝の鈴芽と坂崎、私と未詩っていうのは、ここにきて初めて分かりやすく世代闘争みたいな形になってたので。ここはでも、ちょっとユカちゃんに壁になってもらいたいなって思いますけど…予想できないですね。
Here’s what I had:
“I can’t predict it. I fought Miu today… Yuka-chan won, and I had intended to face her in the finals. I think Yuka-chan is going to win, but on the other hand, I lost today. Miu’s spirit and sudden strength got me at the end. Even if Yuka-chan attacks her with everything, I thought the power she took in at the end was really strong. So… I don’t really know anymore (laughs). But, these semifinals, with Suzume and Sakazaki, and myself and Miu, for the first time it feels like a clear generational struggle. Here, though, I kind of want Yuka-chan to be the wall, but… I can’t predict it.”
Then they ask her if she feels happy about the growth of her juniors. My favorite line in this was also the trickiest for me, and I wanted to make sure I got it right: “いま世代闘争って言われるっていうのは、すごく団体としても歴史を重ねてきて…（涙ぐみ）すごく大きくなってるなっていうのもあるし.”
Here’s my translation of the rest:
“Yes, I do. From the position of an athlete, I’m really frustrated, but when I look at TJPW from an outside perspective, I see more and more young girls coming up, which gives me a sense of the future of the company. That makes us get even more fired up. The fact that people call it a generational struggle now means that the company has built up a long history… (breaks into tears). It’s also because we’ve grown so much. I think the young girls… especially Watanabe and Suzume, but also everyone who didn’t make it to the semifinals, are working very hard. It makes me feel like I have to work even harder myself.”
Yuka’s comment was fairly straightforward. The only part that threw me off was this: “でも、上がれたこともすごい嬉しいんですけど、鈴芽とかヒカリとか鳥（喰）ちゃん、当たった子と闘ってる体感は…トーナメントで当たるとよりガシガシくるというか。ガッツがすごいというか.” I wasn’t exactly sure what to do with “ガシガシ” . DeepL suggested “aggressive”, so I went with that. Here’s my translation of the whole thing:
Sakazaki: “Today, I won with stubborness. Suzume also had a strong desire to win, she was truly tenacious, trying to trip me up and roll me up over and over again. To be honest, my stamina was completely whittled down, and it was a close call. But I think my desire to win this tournament was just a little stronger. I’m glad I got to go on to the finals. But even though I’m happy, Suzume, Hikari, Tori(bami)-chan, the girls that I beat, I think they’re more aggressive when you beat them in a tournament. They have a lot of guts. I thought it was great that they’re trying to change, because as everyone’s level gradually gets higher and higher, the tournament gets better and better. I hope that this show makes everyone in the audience think ‘TJPW and their summer tournament can’t be missed.’”
In the second part of her comment, there were a few confusing things. They asked her about Miu being her opponent in the finals, and here’s what she said:
ねー。そっかって思って。裏で見てたんですけど、まぁ心のどこかでは山下だろうなって気はしてたんですよ。けど、なんでしょう。あの泣きじゃくりながら（打撃を）打つみたいな。あれはすごいグッときましたね。渡辺未詩の今年の夏に懸けてる思いっていうのがすごく伝わってきたので。次決まった時は未詩かぁー…。この未詩はなかなかだぞって思って。明日どうしようかなって気はしてるんですけど、でも９回目の正直。夏いつも超えられないので、夏を超えて自分を超えていきたいですね。今年の夏は絶対取ります
I wasn’t quite sure about “けど、なんでしょう”, or really the last chunk of it after the ellipsis. Here was my translation:
“I thought, ‘is that so?’ I was watching from the back, but deep down, I felt like it would be Yamashita. But, I don’t know. The way she hit those blows while crying. I was really moved by that. I could really feel the passion that Miu Watanabe put into this summer. When it was decided that my next opponent would be Miu… I thought ‘this Miu won’t go down easily.’ I’m not sure what I’m going to do tomorrow, but for this ninth time, I’m going to be honest, I’ve never been able to reach the top in summer, so I want to surpass the summer and surpass myself. This summer, I will definitely win.”
And that’s everything I have for that show! I thought it really delivered. I’ll talk about some overall tournament/story impressions when I finish translating the finals, haha.
Hopefully the next one won’t take me quite as long, because there’s quite a bit less to translate.
I’ve noticed she does also sometimes tends towards like - “friendly belittling”, like when she was briefly on guest commentary for the show after this, she did an accurate but unflattering impression of Kiryu, and I remember a backstage promo or two where she was awfully quick to say 馬鹿野郎 when Kiryu wasn’t following whatever she was on about. So I concur on the kayfabe relationship not being 100% conducive for tag team success! (Makes sense character-wise of course! Kamiyu seems like the kind of friend where you overlook the self-centeredness because “well that’s Kamiyu…” and she’s too cool to be mad anyway…)
Clearly the move is for Kiryu to join Stardom and form a faction with Saya Kamitani…
Honestly, I’d just translate it as “you surprised me…”
“突然でビックリしたけど” is like “It was sudden, and I was surprised, but…”
ビックリ is common enough for surprise (as in like “AAAH!! → びっくりした。” for “AAAH!! → that startled me.”) it doesn’t read to me as needing special treatment as a phrase.
This is pretty minor nitpicks, but it’s specifically the preceding thing that she’s saying she felt the strongest, and the bowing and apologizing is particularly 無駄に, so I would potentially spice it up like, “After all, who’s the one closest to you, the one who most wants you to be more assertive instead of fruitlessly bowing and apologizing over and over? Me! So I’ll follow your lead, Mahiro-senpai!”
eyyyyy!!! My time to shine!!
Okay, so this is actually very simple mahjong terminology so I’m quite confident about it!
In Japanese-style mahjong, the goal of the game is to win a hand by fully getting your tiles in order, right? Through a process of drawing 1 tile and discarding 1 tile, repeated over many rounds.
Calling リーチ, is something you can do when your hand is 1 tile away from being ready to go out. I.e. if you draw certain tiles on your next turn - you can end the round.
What it does is it increases your point total if then you do go out, but it prevents you from doing anything other than drawing tiles and discarding them if they weren’t the tile you need.
It’s like saying “I’m close enough to victory – I bet I’ll be able to win as-is!!” and in-so-doing, foregoing the option of potentially modifying and bettering your method of victory, in favor of increased spoils.
(In my limited experience playing mahjong against computer players, it’s extremely common to call リーチ when possible, and as a total novice I definitely just call it when I have the option, unless the resulting ‘wait’ - the pool of tiles I would need to go out - was really really terrible).
Okay - so ツモ then, is drawing the winning tile YOURSELF.
There’s four players in Mahjong, and to get a winning tile, you can draw it yourself (ツモ), OR you can take it when another player discards it (ロン).
ツモ is better, and gets you more points, but obviously it’s completely a matter of chance because at that point you’re just waiting to see what cards you draw, and numerically the other players’ draws (and therefore discards) are going to outnumber yours because there’s three of them. And while you might be able to psychologically intuit what tiles they’re likely to discard, or vice versa they might be able to guess what tile you’re waiting on and avoid discarding it – other than that, the possibility of a ロン is mostly chance too, and there’s 3x the players discarding each time you draw, so the chance of a ツモ is relatively slim.
So when you call リーチ, the only thing left in the game for you to do, is to pray for a ツモ (especially a ツモ on your next hand, since it’s even more points if you go out in the first hand after リーチ!). On a personal note, I’ve never felt any sense of religious faith, and yet – something about calling リーチ just fills you with the utmost faith that your next draw will definitely be a ツモ and that will definitely make your mediocre point total amazing.
And so anyway – it’s a very Mahiro Kiryu sort of thing to say here since there really isn’t anything to do to get a ツモ after calling a リーチ except to do nothing and hope chance smiles on you - you can manufacture the odds a bit beforehand (like, setting it up so there’s 7 remaining tiles that would mean victory for you instead of just one or two), but once you call リーチ you’re locked in (and it will probably be a ロン anyway – or some jerk will go out before you and it will all be pointless), there’s literally nothing left to do except hope for the best outcome.
Anyway that’s some mahjong flavor, good luck with the translation! 
i’s just です being dropped both times – いいですよ, なんですか - “It’s fine, it’s fine, what’s the matter, it’s fine” – she says it in the video like “いいっすよ、いいっすよ、そんないいっすよ、なんすか, なんすか, いいっすよ” like an incantation while patting her leg, so it’s a rhetorical なんですか like “what is there even to be worried about” and Kamiyu’s really trying to tamp down on the Kiryu apologizing front…
No yeah – it’s Kamiyu saying 当たり前! of course the victory was thanks to her,
then softening the joke with 嘘嘘
I would definitely translate it as like “I’m kidding, I’m kidding!” though.
嘘 doesn’t have as strong of a malicious connotation as it does in English - it’s the go-to often when stuff is untrue for any reason, not just active lies (like “嘘!” is the equivalent of “no way!”). And here it’s clearly Kamiyu telling a (characteristically vain and very slightly mean) joke.
Honestly? I’m pretty sure here she’s insisting further that the help from the other two was incredible. I wouldn’t say すごい here has a negative or literally “unbelievable” feeling at all, and it echoes her original comment where (at least in the video) she uses すごい to describe their アシスト. So I would convey the sense more like, “I’m serious!! You were both an incredible help” in response to Kamiyu’s initial joke making light of it.
I think the 今日は絶対に自分で勝ちたいって目をしてたので。 part is fine - I found a result saying 目をしている is about the speaker’s impressions of what the person being spoken of is feeling, so that checks out with Kamiyu saying Kiryu wanted to win herself.
And she pats her on the shoulder kinda emphasizing where 自分 is pointing there
The transcript for the next chunk sounds kind of different to what she said in the video to me, which combined with a stumble or two on her part, and the other two’s reactions after it (Kiryu’s just like “…ありがとう!”) makes me think that maybe her thought didn’t come out 100% well, but it seems like the gist is roughly she’s saying she helped by watching over while Kiryu won because she saw the fire in Kiryu’s eyes (sure).
For a bit there I thought the “最後は荒井ちゃんを前に顔つきが変わるなって見てたから” part was maybe referring to Arai’s rather confident and haughty change in expression at the beginning of the match when she took careful watch of Akai and emulated her action - since that was something Kamiyu definitely saw and reacted to (when it seemed like at the end of the match Kiryu’s expression wasn’t particularly different and Kamiyu wasn’t really looking at all), and since the particles seem odd with that 荒井ちゃんを… but honestly my best guess is the transcriber got tripped up a bit (which is fair) or clarified the sentence in a way I’m not seeing (which is fair too - one way they did clean it up is they removed a 自分 later in the sentence where Kamiyu was talking about herself and not Kiryu like before) because the original audio sounds more straightforwardly to me in line with what you said in your attempt.
I think again, she’s probably just lightly talking up her control of the situation in a Kamiyu-ish way. And the sentence sorta starting about Kiryu and ending up being about Kamiyu I suppose reflects that .
These are tweaked too for some reason (I assume to clarify them in print in some way) but yeah, you have the literal meaning.
The tone is like –
“気合入れてたからね!” nod
“そういうこと!!” nod nod “そういうことなのよ…”
It’s like – pep. Like “Because you gave it your all!!” “Yeah!! Yeah!..” (tiredly leads into Haruna talking)
(and to be clear the 気合入れてた connects to the thing about the hair with the から - Kiryu’s offering it as a somewhat nonsensical reason that Kiryu’s hair was Toyo blue)
I don’t really have an opinion about the expression since it doesn’t ring a bell and I can’t really make it out in the video, but “uplift” seems pretty good considering she literally does lift up Kiryu at that part and gesticulate with her arm like a puppet!
(I’ll try to help with the rest tomorrow!)
Could be wrong about these, but I think the “でも、言っても真弥選手なんて（荒井に）割と最近も当たったよね？” is just saying that recently Mahiro’s been succeeding more / firing on all cylinders more (that part I changed my mind about based on how 当たった was used in Yuka’s promo), and the “（荒井に）” is saying like – she said this part TO Arai (and Arai nodded).
The latter parts I think might be another area where the text doesn’t quite gel like it would if it were a fully composed written text.
I think what’s happening with this part:
“挑戦してきて、私たちに敵わなくて。今日挑戦してきたことを謝らないようにしてほしいなって思います。”
is she’s forming the thought one way, and has 敵わなくて open to tack more clauses on, but then the way she says 今日ね a bit abruptly and with a little head shake sounds to me like she interrupts that first formation of the train of thought and replaces it with another.
For this part the video still wins out! She pats Arai on the leg and says specifically “Yuki-chan” is who she’s talking about here.
I would put this one more clearly like this:
いっぱいいっぱいながらもXを全部出し切ったと思うので。
Like - “even there were a whole whole lot of them, I used up all of X”
Then the X - 自分のやりたいことというか、用意した武器 is her referring to them as the things she wanted to do, or rather, the weapons she prepared.
One thing I’d say is the many けど’s here in this part aren’t really like a connective grammary English “X but Y” and more like, uncertain/unconfident flavor for what she’s saying. This tofugu article may be a relevant reference.
Hard to describe exactly, but the ‘buts’ in your English rendition sound a bit odd since they don’t always fit together that they would normally with “but” since the sentences just support each other fine without the “buts.” They’re in there in the original because she’s beaten and shaken and frustrated so instead of say, ending thoughts with よ or ね they’re ended with けど as though each is ended with an unspoken follow-on to the “but” like “… I should have done better” or “… I’m just making excuses” or “… I’m not sure” or that kind of thing.
I think more this whole thing: “今日未詩と闘って…ユカちゃんも勝って私も決勝でユカちゃんと闘う” was her つもり. She intended/expected to fight Miu and for both Yuka and herself to win, and so then fight Yuka in the finals.
I would say the meaning is along the lines of “Even if Yuka-chan attacks her with everything, I was struck fighting her by just how much Miu was able to absorb in the end (so she might be able to absorb Yuka’s attacks too).”
Seems fine to me!
“Breaks into tears” might be over-stating it though – she wells up / chokes up but remains composed.
I think I would phrase it more like “although I’m the one who advanced, … when fighting them in a tournament they’re more ガシガシ than usual, or they showed extraordinary guts” - like, the tournament draws out side of them.
I think the “当たった子” is just - the girl you’re coming up against in the tournament, and トーナメントで当たるとより is like, “when facing them in the tournament, they’re more … (than when not in the tournament)”
That’s all fine I think! I’d maybe go with “but, wow!” or something like that maybe for “けど、なんでしょう” but it’s not a huge deal since it doesn’t really convey any concrete information anyway!
週刊プロレス No.２１９６ (from a few weeks ago, around the start of the 5 Star GP)
Giulia’s column is about Thekla missing the 5 Star GP and how it’s rough for her and a bittersweet opportunity for Momo Kohgo. One point she makes from her own experience dropping out of the tournament last year, is that an especially rough factor psychologically is not having a set daily routine while out injured since your regular obligations are taken away and no one’s supervising you to make sure you replace them in a healthy way. And resting itself takes energy - “「休む」「体を癒やす」ってのもエネルギー使うしね。”
Kenoh talks about regional shows and when asked says the region he would want to take a show is Okinawa. The interviewer insinuates (how dare he!) Kenoh just wants an excuse to visit Okinawa…
Looks like Keiji Mutoh was in an odd match in Dragon Gate.
Apparently for an Ultimo Dragon 35th anniversary show, このまま市川 was announced to fight a mystery opponent… that turned out to be the real Keiji Mutoh! I imagine that was a nice surprise for the crowd… I assume this doesn’t count towards his retirement countdown…
The costume column is about Hikaru Shida with a very cool entirely self-made Dr. Strange-inspired gear! Complete with Eye of Agamotto! Apparently she used her dad’s 3D printer for some parts including the amulet, and she likes the movie (and ベネディクト・カンバーバッチ a lot). The 和柄 Dr. Strange cape is very cool.
Now the special thanks under the copyright for the WWE column says “Special Thanks to WWE, Ms. Stephanie McMahon and Mr. Paul Levesque”
Hideki Suzuki’s column is about his N-1 Victory participation, and it sounds like what he’s interested in most is the opportunity to wrestle new opponents he’s never wrestled before, so he hopes Nakajima doesn’t make it through the other block since he’s wrestled him plenty recently.
The industry column talks with Rossy Ogawa about Stardom as the 5 Star GP gets underway. Mostly topics we’ve already heard about like the 5x growth, and the New Blood and Showcase brands. He says that this isn’t (yet) a “boom” like the joshi wrestling boom in the 80s (that he was around in the industry for), but the goal isn’t a boom anyway since booms don’t last. He makes the point that the Bushi Road guy was talking up the 5x growth, but that just means as a media corporation surely they’ll be expecting continued big growth in the future as well, so his and Stardom’s goal is to prepare for sustainable, sustained growth that’s safe from unexpected eventualities. And with growth comes more logistics, so it sounds his attention is as much or more on prudent behind-the-scenes logistical upgrades than public-facing creative decisions, like they got a new tour bus, stuff like that.
Honestly - a very sparse issue from my perspective, probably since the promotions I follow are all busy with tournaments!
Here’s a couple Stardom pictures to make up for the gap a little bit.
Finished translating the August 14 TJPW Korakuen show! This one has significantly less dialogue to translate than the last one! Here’s the recap for posterity.
The show opened with the Up Up Girls introducing a new member: Shino, who is a former bus guide! I thought it was funny that they introduced the new member on this show, considering rodan’s original prediction. Unfortunately for poor Miu, you were only half right…
They talk a little more with Shino backstage:
Miu: “So, we have held the audition and chosen a new Up Up Girls (Pro Wrestling) member! Please formally introduce yourself.”
Shino: “I’m Shino, 24 years old, from Shizuoka Prefecture. Nice to meet you!”
Miu: “Wonderful greeting right off the bat, well done. As a former bus guide, do you think you can make use of this experience as a wrestler?”
Shino answered: “生かしていきたいなーとは思ってるんですけど、ちょっと…控えめでいろってバスガイドの時は言われていたので。逆にその反動を使って、うまくプロレスでは爆発させられたらなと思っています.”
I wasn’t 100% sure about this, but here’s what I had:
Shino: “I want to put it to good use, but I was told to be a bit… reserved as a bus guide. So I hope I can do the opposite of that and have an explosive presence in pro wrestling!”
Miu: “Your target idol and pro wrestler are Oda-san and Nakajima-san.”
Shino elaborates on this: “初めて試合を生で見た時、中島翔子さんのベルトを懸けた試合で。その試合がものすごく記憶に残って、知識のない私の記憶に一番に残った選手っていうのがあったので憧れに挙げさせていただきました。大変だとは思うんですけど、目標にして一生懸命これから頑張っていきたいなと思います.”
That second sentence was a little tricky for me. Here’s what I had:
Shino: “The first time I saw a match live, it was for the belt that Shoko-san has. That match left a deep impression on me, and she was the wrestler I kept thinking about the most even though I didn’t know anything about wrestling, so I’m naming her as the wrestler I admire. I know it’ll be tough, but I’m going to make that my goal and do my best to work as hard as I can.”
I thought it was neat that the Shoko match that won her over was the same match that got you invested in Shoko, rodan!
Then Miu asked if the others had any questions, and Hikari said: “さっき聞いたから（笑）”. I translated this as “I just asked it! (laughs)”, but wasn’t quite sure. I think she’s referring to the fact that she asked Shino in the ring if she liked deathmatches.
Miu says: “やめてね？ あまり悪影響を与えないように（笑）。あらためて４人でアップアップガールズ（プロレス）にこれからなっていくので、みなさん応援よろしくお願いします！”
I think with that last line, she’s referring to the fact that the Up Up Girls have four members again?
Miu: “Don’t you dare. Don’t be a bad influence on her (laughs). Once again, the Up Up Girls (Pro Wrestling) is going to have four members from this point on, so everyone, please support us!”
The second part of their comments starts with:
(How did it feel to stand in front of TJPW fans for the first time?)
Shino: “Seeing the penlights and the applause, it felt like such a warm atmosphere. I feel like I don’t seem like someone who’d do wrestling, based on how I look (laughs), but the fact that they still welcomed me with applause, that’s something I’ll remember the rest of my life…”
(When you were a bus guide, where did you work?)
“I worked for three years, mainly in the Kanto area.”
I got a little confused starting from this question:
（今度はプロレスラーとしてそういったことも？）そうですね。いろいろ地方興行もされてると思うので、その時は私が図々しくみなさんを案内できればなと思っています。（４人でやってみたいプロレス、曲は？）なんでもありな遊園地みたいな興行？
Here was my attempt:
(Now as a pro wrestler, do you do that sort of thing as well?”
“Well, I think we’ll do shows in various places, so on those occasions, I think I’ll be able to boldly guide everyone around.”
(As a group, what kind of wrestling or song would you like to perform?)
“A show at an amusement park where anything goes?”
Miu gives her own answer for that last question:
そもそも私たち４年近く単独ライブをやってないじゃないですか。なので４人としてあらためてスタートするので、単独ライブだったりプロレスもあるライブだったり、ライブだけのライブだったり。もっとアイドルとしての活動の場も広げていきたいなって個人的には思っています
That second sentence was a little bit confusing . Here’s what I had:
Miu: “To begin with, we haven’t had a solo live concert in nearly four years. Since we’re starting anew with four members, we’ll have some solo performances, some performances with wrestling as well, and some concerts with just music. Personally, I would like to expand my activities as an idol.”
The first match with comments is Max the Impaler & Yuki Aino vs Shoko and Rika. Extremely fun match that made me really want to see Max get a singles match with Shoko, haha. TJPW has actually already announced that Max will be coming back for Wrestle Princess III in October, which I’m really looking forward to.
Backstage, Shoko and Rika said:
Tatsumi: “They had way too much power.”
Nakajima: “I only found out the day before that I was going to fight the Impaler. But Rika is kind of a monster, too.”
Then Rika said: “こっちも大怪獣がついてくれてたから！” This one was a little tricky, but I think she basically said: “Coming from the Big Kaiju over here!” ?
There was an exchange that went like this:
Nakajima: “It felt like with the two of us, we could manage somehow. Even though I was scared, I still had some fun, despite being in a bit of a pinch.”
Tatsumi: “I hope they come to Japan again.”
Tatsumi: “Come anytime!”
Tatsumi: “I’ll be waiting for you, Impaler-chan. We’re friends!”
Nakajima: “Friends!?”
Tatsumi: “We’re friends now that we’ve had a match together!”
Nakajima: “Be friends!”
(Is that power really something that you have never experienced before?)
“It really is.”
Tatsumi: “It blows me away.”
Then Shoko said: “あんなに軽々上げられることがないので、うちのパワークラスもね。あんなに軽々と猫を持ち上げるようにはなかったのでびびりました.”
I think I understood the meaning of this, maybe? But translating it was a little tricky. Here was my attempt, followed by the rest of the exchange:
Nakajima: “I’ve never had someone lift me that easily, because we don’t have anyone of that power level. It wasn’t like they were lifting someone as light as Neko, so that made me nervous.”
Tatsumi: “We made it back alive; we protected peace on earth!”
(Next, do you want to beat the Impaler?)
Nakajima: “Of course.”
Tatsumi: “I want to do it if I get the chance.”
Nakajima: “Maybe we could fight overseas, not just in Japan.”
Tatsumi: “I want to go worldwide!”
Max and Yuki’s comments were fun.
Yuki started out by saying:
センキューマックス、こんな強い人と組んでて負けたの本当に悔しいです。ああ、情けない。でも、コミュニケーション取れないかなと、難しいかなと思ってたけど、最初は。だけど、全然…まあ全然というほどじゃないけど（苦笑）、最後のほうはちょっとは通じ合えたんじゃないかなって思ってます。ねえマックス？
I think I did okay on the first half, but the second half was confusing . Here was my attempt, and the the rest of the exchange:
Aino: “Thank you, Max. I’m really disappointed that I lost when I was on a team with such a strong person. Oh, it’s pathetic. I thought it would be difficult, that we wouldn’t be able to communicate, at first. But it wasn’t entirely like that… well, not entirely (wry smile). At the end, I think we could’ve communicated a little better. Right, Max?”
The Impaler just growls.
Aino: “A super cool wrestler came, and that was super exciting for TJPW, and I learned so much. Thank you! The Big Kaiju and the Dragon were breaking some rules, huh? Big Kaiju and Dragon, very strong!”
The Impaler growls.
Aino: “But, Max is also very strong.”
The Impaler flexes their biceps.
And then the main event, Miu vs Yuka in the Tokyo Princess Cup finals… I really loved this match and was on the edge of my seat the entire time. I was so devastated to see Miu lose!
This result was, shall we say, a bit of a controversial one . It was, believe it or not, Yuka’s first time winning this tournament, so it’s not exactly an “Okada wins the G1” type of result, but it opened the pandora’s box of discourse among the western fandom re: TJPW’s booking style. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about it, especially while spending so much time with the wrestlers’ words over the past couple weeks, but I think I’ll save that for its own post.
After Yuka wins, she says: “…夏に勝ったぞー！ ９回目のこのトーナメントで、メンバーが減ったり増えてるなかで、こんなにみんな強くなってて…めっちゃだるいけど、めっちゃ嬉しいです！ やべーよ、アイツ！ どんどん選手層も厚くなってて、一人一人がギラギラしてて。キラキラだけじゃない東京女子も見てもらえたかなと思います.”
I actually had a bit of help with this because Mr. Haku did some live translation on twitter, so I fell back on his translations to double check tone and overall meaning. That was especially helpful for something like “やべーよ、アイツ！”, which I pulled his translation for directly.
Here’s my attempt for the above part:
Sakazaki: “I surpassed summer! This is my 9th time doing this tournament. Members have come and gone, but overall the roster has gotten so much stronger… It’s lame, but I’m so happy! Holy shit, Miu was so tough! The bracket just keeps getting tougher and tougher, and everyone is shining. I hope you were able to see a side of TJPW that isn’t just sparkles."
Then Yuka said: “夏に嫌われ続けた女がこうやって新しいトロフィー…ちょっとピンクで気にくわないけど、でもこんなトロフィーが私の中にあって、とっても嬉しいです（涙）。でも今回のトーナメントで結果私以外は悔しい思いをしたみんながいて。トーナメントに９回出てる山下とか中島が負けてる姿を見て、私の中でもなんか変わるものがあって。すごい、このトーナメント中に心が揺さぶられました.”
The main line that confused me was: “でも今回のトーナメントで結果私以外は悔しい思いをしたみんながいて.” Mr. Haku translated it (on the fly) as: “but everyone else in the tournament holds a certain level of frustration.” But it seemed to me like Yuka was maybe being more general with みんな than just referring to the other TJPW members? I dunno. Here was my attempt:
“The woman who hated summer got the new trophy. The pink makes me a little bit sick, but having a trophy like this, it makes me so happy (cries). But everyone was frustrated over the results of this tournament except for me. Yamashita and Nakajima have participated in this tournament nine times, and when I saw them lose, something changed inside of me.”
This whole next part was tricky, haha : “感情がぐしゃぐしゃになって…なんて言えばいいのかな（涙）。私は東京女子のお姉ちゃんだからみんなに頑張ってもらいたいし、みんなのいいとこをもっと知ってもらいたいし、みんな頑張ってる姿を見てもらいたいって思ってるけど。いじわるばっかりして、でも私だって応援されたくって、いろんな感情になったけど…”
My attempt:
“My feelings are so messy… what can I say (cries). I am the big sister in TJPW, so I want everyone to do their best, and discover their strengths, and I want everyone to see how hard they’re working. I’m always mean, but I want to be cheered, too, and I have so many emotions…”
Then Yuka finishes with:
"but I have this gross pink trophy, so I guess I’m good now! Okay, I’ve surpassed the summer, so does that mean I get to challenge again for that white belt? Shoko, I’ve already challenged once, but can I do it one more time? Please? Can you come out?”
Shoko enters the ring, and she says: “調子狂うから（笑）そんな風に、そういう顔されると.”
I wasn’t quite sure about it, but here’s how I translated it, plus the rest of the exchange that followed:
Nakajima: “When you make a face like that, it drives me crazy (laughs).”
Sakazaki: “Sorry!”
Nakajima: “When I beat you at Cyberfight Fest, I thought that this time, I would definitely stand at the top of TJPW and lead everyone. But I lost the tournament… I lost because I was weak. You faced the same adversity but managed to win. I beat you once, but facing you always gives me courage, and you always encourage me to do better. It was very painful to watch, but you showed all of your preparation and pride from the past nine years, all of it. I, from my end, would like to fight you one more time, with the belt on the line.”
Sakazaki: “Thank you.”
Nakajima: “October 9, TDC Hall, please have a championship match with me once again!”
They both bow, then shake hands and embrace. Nakajima leaves the ring.
Sakazaki: “Okay, now that the championship match with Shoko-ta has been set, I have my new goal. Yeah. Now that I’ve conquered summer, I’m going to conquer winter, too. TJPW is going to keep marching on, and everyone is going to do their best, so please follow us!”
She closed out the show with, “Let’s go! Enjoy! Oh!”
Backstage, Yuka said:
Sakazaki: “Well, I’m really glad that I could finally conquer summer. Last year, I couldn’t participate, and that was partially my fault, but this time, I finally surpassed summer, and my bonds with the TJPW members have deepened.”
The interviewer asked: “１回戦から厳しさが目立っていました.” I had a little trouble deciding on a translation for 厳しさ. I think that quality is what a lot of the fans were noticing in Yuka’s last three tournament matches, and it was sort of Yuka, well, deciding to play the villain a bit, I guess. She was trying to make herself into an immovable wall to keep the younger wrestlers in their place, for at least a little while longer. It was interesting to me that they directly asked her about it.
Yuka answered the question by basically giving her evaluation of all of the younger wrestlers she faced. Lots of lines in this I wasn’t quite sure about .
For Kaya, she said: “鳥喰もハイフライヤーなんですけど、どこか自分自身を出せてないのかなって部分があって。私と試合することによって何かつかんでくれたらいいなって気がして…１試合１試合で聞いてるような。『どうしたいの？』って聞いてるような試合だったかなとは思うんですけど.”
Here was my attempt:
“Toribami is also a high flyer, but there’s a part of her that I feel like she’s not able to show. I hope that she can get something through her matches with me… like I’m asking her that in every single match. I think the match was asking, ‘How do you want to do it?’"
Here was her evaluation of Hikari: “ヒカリに関しては新しいサブミッションだったりとか、たぶん本人は言ってないと思うんですけど、グラップリングとか柔術とかもやってるのかなっていう気はするので。そういう部分でもっと伸びて、変わろうって気があったので。優しいので、どこか打撃とかも何回も打てばいいのにって気はしてて。外れてしまったら外れてしまったで、何回でも何回でも相手に効くまで打てばいいので。そういう部分で、もっとおいで、もっとおいでって思ってた試合ではありました.”
I was most confused by the 優しい line, and basically everything that followed after that. Here was my attempt:
"As far as Hikari is concerned, I think she has been doing some new submissions, and although she might not have said it, some grappling and jujitsu. It felt like she wanted to make progress and change in those sorts of areas. She’s gentle, so I felt like her blows could hit me over and over again. If they miss, then they miss; you should just hit your opponent over and over again until it works. In that part of the match, I was thinking, ‘c’mon, c’mon, more, more!’”
Then she talks about Suzume: “鈴芽に関しては、もう来なくていいのにってくらいガツガツきてて。いまこの夏に乗ろう、自分の波を作ろうっていう気があったのかなって.”
I wasn’t quite sure about ガツガツ or the second sentence, haha. Here was my best shot:
“As for Suzume, although she wasn’t able to make it yet, she’s becoming so hungry for it. It felt like she wanted to ride the summer and make her own waves."
Here’s her evaluation of Miu: “今日の未詩に関しては中島、山下を超えてきたって自信が伝わってきたのですごいやりにくかったですけど、でも肌を合わせてるとそれも嬉しくて。でも痛いし、力強いし。すごいヘロヘロになったけど最後は東京女子での姉ちゃんとしての威厳と言うか。ここで負けたらダメだろ、ここで私が食い止めないと…って気持ちがあったので。今回の試合で私もすごい、自分の中で心情的にも精神的にもつかめたものがあったので。すごい財産な年ですね、今年は.”
Just a lot of stuff I wasn’t fully confident on (including whether “ここで負けたらダメだろ、ここで私が食い止めないと” was about Miu specifically or about the younger generation as a whole…). Here was my attempt:
"And for Miu today, her confidence over having surpassed Nakajima and Yamashita came through, so she was very difficult to fight, but I was also happy to link up with her. But she was powerful, and it was so painful. I was utterly exhausted, but in the end, it was something like my dignity as an older sister in TJPW. I thought, ‘I can’t lose here, I have to hold them off here…’ In this match, there was something I was able to grasp mentally and emotionally from within myself. This year has been a great asset for me.”
The second part of Yuka’s comments is thankfully much more straightforward! She says:
(You find the trophy’s color to be displeasing?)
“Yes, I do. It was silver when they were making it. But when I took my eyes off of it for just one second, it turned pink. Why pink? I was a little bummed. But I was still happy to get it, though.”
(About challenging Nakajima)
“As for TDC, I had a match with Mizuki, and now I’m going to have another bout with Shoko Nakajima. TDC… I think it’s a turning point for me. As we head there this time, I intend to get that white belt from Shoko Nakajima!”
(I do wonder a little bit if Yuka keeps referring to it as a “white belt” on purpose just to troll a little )
I think Miu’s comment was pretty straightforward? The only line that confused me a bit was: “でも、私は悔しくなった数だけ、涙を流した数だけ、それ以上に努力して、また先輩たちの壁を追いかけるだけなので,” mostly because I felt like I more or less understood the Japanese, but had a little difficulty conveying the same meaning in English.
Miu: (With tears streaming down her face) “I lost in the finals… I’m really frustrated, but Yuka-san was truly strong and was too large, too high of a wall that I was unable to surmount. But as many times as I’ve been frustrated, as many times as I’ve cried, I just have to keep working hard and chase after the wall that is my senpais once again. From here, I will chase after them and catch up with them again. Someday, I will win, no, next year I will win. I’m going to try my best to become even stronger, and a more worthy wrestler, like the three senpais I faced this year. To everyone who gave me so much support this time, please continue to cheer for me.”
The next part of her comment starts:
(From your point of view, how was this summer?)
“It was more than sufficient. Truly, this timing, I’m so happy to be able to have matches with the three founding members of the company, in the ninth year of this tournament. I’m so, so happy. But it was also a great ordeal."
Then she says: “２日間メインイベントでめちゃくちゃ緊張したんですけど、やっぱりメインとして普段の先輩たちみたいにちゃんとした試合をして勝ってっていうのを決めてたんですけど…”
Got a little bit tripped up by this sentence, but I think I figured it out? Maybe? Here was the rest:
"Being in the main event two days in a row, I was ridiculously nervous, but I was determined to have great matches with my senpais who are used to being in the main event, and win like they do, but… Well, it was a really intense summer. It’ll probably be a summer I’ll never forget… But I want to make next summer even more intense and win the tournament!”
And finally, Shoko’s comment! She started with:
Nakajima: “I’ll be putting my belt on the line against Yuka Sakazaki in a title match one more time, at October 9 at TDC Hall. I was eliminated in the tournament. So I had a lot to think about."
Then she said: “やっぱり、ちょくちょく口にしてしまったんですけど、後輩たちに対する期待感というか。ファンのみなさんの勝ち上がってほしいという期待感を自分の後輩たちに向ければ向けるほど、また負けることを期待されてるなって思ってしまって.”
I struggled over this sentence for a long time . Here is what I puzzled out, plus what followed after it:
"It’s often said, but there are a lot of expectations for my juniors, or rather there was a sense that all of the fans wanted her to win, and the more they turned toward my juniors, the more it felt like they were expecting me to lose again. That doesn’t mean I was weak, but there were times where I felt like giving in to my weakness. But Yuka Sakazaki fought to the end and won after fighting with nine years of resolve and pride, and that really gave me courage. "
Shoko finished with: “情けないなとも思って…でも、こんな私でも『もう１回やろ』って言ってくれるなら、私は同じくらいの覚悟とプライドを懸けて、キャリアのすべてを懸けて、もう一度闘いたいと思いました.”
I wasn’t confident on this either, but here’s what I had:
“I felt ashamed… but if she could say ‘let’s do it one more time’ when I was in this state, then I could put on that same resolution and pride, put my whole career into it, and fight her one more time.”
And that’s everything for that show! Didn’t quite finish it in time for the next one, but I got close!
A nuance I missed while watching initially is that Shoko felt like she wanted to ask Yuka to challenge her (instead of approaching it as Yuka having earned the right to challenge), because Yuka managed to beat the threat that Shoko couldn’t. It sort of restored Shoko’s faith in herself because it showed that their generation is still standing tall (for now…).
Also, Yuka made the front cover of shupro after winning the tournament! I love seeing joshi wrestlers make the cover, and it makes me especially happy when TJPW does, because that only started happening recently (last year, I believe).
There was also a special extra feature on Yuka in the back, for having made the cover. I didn’t really have the time to attempt to properly read it, but I couldn’t resist skimming it, and it was interesting to me because it seemed to touch on a lot of topics, including TJPW’s generation struggle and their overall booking strategy (in a very kayfabed way, of course), which have been hot-button discourse topics among western fans lately, haha.
It’ll be interesting to see what you think when you get to that issue, rodan! I’ll save the rest of my thoughts for another post .
Ah, but I said it was unlikely so I got to smug both when it looked like it would happen and when it ultimately didn’t!
I think this is fine, but the nuance that ties it together is that the 反動 isn’t like, the opposite, but like, the recoil. She’s saying like, she hopes she’ll be able to use the built up tension from having to be reserved as a bus driver, to be let loose in pro wrestling.
For this part, something I’d note is that I guess while Miu doesn’t technically ask a question here (just prompts her a little to comment) – she’s asking Shino to elaborate about something she said in the ring when introducing herself, when she said what kind of wrestler she wanted to be and then said “憧れの選手は中島翔子” and similarly cited Oda as an idol she looked up to.
Miu raises the subject sorta parroting the introductory rhythm those two names were mentioned, and they laugh – it’s got a very like, “this is the fun fact I was told to provide on move-in day at college and now I’m getting grilled on it” kind of vibe to me
Which is just to say I guess that in the English transcript adding a "You said that [ X ]…? " might be good to make it clear what’s happening.
With that context, this is definitely a nitpick since it means more-or-less the same thing, but I would say this alternate rendition is closer to the original tone:
“That match stands out a lot in my memory, and since there was one wrestler who stood out the most vividly to my uninitiated eyes, I listed her as the wrestler I look up to.”
The original doesn’t imply to me the deep, active impact the way “deep impression” and “I kept thinking about the most” do to some extent. And similarly the past-tense of 憧れに挙げさせていただきました means she’s talking about when she said it in-ring.
I’d say there’s an aspirational element to 憧れ in this introducing-her-to-us context where the choice is asking as much about what kind of wrestler Shino wants to be as who she admires (so that’s the sense that informs the transition to her last sentence here about working to that goal) – 憧れる might be one of those words that’s a little hard to get the exact right analog for in English sometimes. I know it’s one I’ve occasionally taken to dropping into English sentences because of that…
Not quite! For me it was Grand Princess when she won it, but for Shino she said in-ring that the first wrestling show she saw was actually 05/03 of this year in Korakuen, so it was Misao’s title shot!
I got the impression she didn’t follow wrestling at all before applying (having done so from more the “idol otaku” direction), and went (or got taken?) to that show to see what it was like because she was far along in the process at that point. But she said she was impressed and she got wrapped up in the show and wanted to do pro wrestling from it! Answering job interview-style questions seems stressful enough without it being on stage too! But she seems really good at providing good job interviewee style answers
Minor language point since I’m already talking about it – It’s entirely possible you were characterizing that korakuen hall match as when I got invested in Shoko Nakajima (which is completely fair! ), but just in case you were talking about Grand Princess, I would say that “中島翔子さんのベルトを懸けた試合” sounds to me like “a match where Shoko Nakajima-san’s belt was on the line” – like, it sounds as a phrase more like a title defense match where she went in as champion than where she challenged for it (even if it could maybe technically apply to the latter too.)
(but either way yes, when she mentioned Nakajima and a match I’d seen and remember too I thought it was neat and was on her side haha)
Yep, definitely!
(She responded in-ring that she watched a Hikari deathmatch on youtube and thought “気持ちいいな!” and said if there was a possibility of Hikari being willing to train her, perhaps…)
After googling to check if that was ever the case, I agree!
A really minor nitpick / context tidbit is when she says 見た目, she gestures and looks downward from the t-shirt down, so I would say it’s more like, generically “judging by appearances” or talking specifically about how she would come across at the moment in that particular outfit. “how I look” sounds a little more like based on her inherent looks/facial features than the original does to me.
I feel like there’s a decent chance the Japanese transcriber was working off the video and the same bad audio for the non-mic’d reports as me, and that the original question was more like “so next time you’re in that area it’ll be as a pro wrestler, right?”
I feel like I hear a ところ more than a こと… and
“Where did you work as a bus guide?” → “So what’ll it be like going to those places now as a wrestler?”
makes waaaaayy more sense to me as clear follow-up question and train of thought than
“Where did you work as a bus guide?” → “So are you going to be doing that sort of thing as a pro wrestler?”
But who knows!
Just a context note here – the other wrestlers cheer when she says this, so she’s talking about like, guiding the other wrestlers around while touring 
I feel like this guy didn’t formulate his question super duper well because I mean, I can’t ever make out anything the reporters are saying, but this time it seems like everyone stands around for a bit confused trying to figure out how to answer whatever he’s asking about
and he clarifies, I think by saying 主催 and maybe プロデュース - I think what’s happening is he asked them like (maybe following a line of thought from the talent agency raising the possibility of like, all Up Up Girls shows and stuff), what kind of events they as a group would like to hold or produce, but they didn’t have a set answer because… they’re the performers? That’s not really their job?
So that’s why I think Raku gives a sort of empty whimsical answer before Miu shifts around the focus of the question by rephrasing it enough to successfully answer it.
With that context one thing to be careful about is I think the "だったり"s here are like, her providing answers to the question (of events she would like to hold) - “we’ll have some solo performances, some performances with wrestling as well, and some concerts with just music” makes it sound like a surer thing than examples offered to a hypothetical question, and might be one of those things twitter folks jump on and get turned around about
The literal is like – “yeah, but only because I also had a 大怪獣 with me!”
“大怪獣がついてくれてた” is like, “a Giant Kaiju was gracious enough to come along with me.”
So yes – she’s referring to Nakajima and her nickname (commentary also was constantly doing that with respect to her and Max both being 怪獣)
Typo! Nakajima said the middle one 
This one seems like it could use an English tweak – it sounds in yours here like he’s maybe asking about the power of friendship
In the original, the topic broach of “パワーは、” signals the topic change better.
I’m pretty sure the 猫 part is like, a real cat 
I got tripped up a bit looking at the transcript too, but I’m pretty confident now about what’s going on here, and here’s what I think:
She’s excited and talking pretty quick and getting a bit of a clause traffic jam, but the idea she’s communicating is: “I’ve never been picked up so effortlessly – it was like I was a cat Max was picking up! – I was shocked!”
So the end of the sentence is:
びびりました, right?
Why’d she びびりました?
Well, two reasons:
I think the period in the transcript tricks you into thinking that it’s the full end of a thought like in English, but it’s not English, it’s a transcript of a person talking in Japanese so if you swap it out for a comma, I think the structure is clearer. It connects more with the following thought than the clause before.
But crucially, conceptually it works for both! so I’d speculate the transcriber understandably (as I did initially when reading the transcription and writing this) interpreted it as tacking on information to the preceding clause (like “I’ve never been shot – not even by Bob!”) when the only problem with that is then the なかった later on when she ties up her sentences’ loose ends is out of place! (sort of like – “I’ve never been shot! Not even by Bob has such a heinous attempt on my life been made!”)
It’s just one of those things you might not notice got tripped up since it means basically the same thing either way and periods don’t have quite as much stopping power so to speak in Japanese anyway… unless you’re trying to translate specifically the transcript, in which case it’s a sneaky source of understandable confusion!
Does that explanation make sense? I could be wrong, but I feel pretty confident about it! And it felt kinda neat when the pieces fell into place and I saw what was going on.
Was the original 苦笑?
Minor nitpick, but this seems more like a “pained laugh” to me:
It comes across to me like it’s mainly the pain of losing and the physical pain of the match that’s contributing the 苦 element here.
I think the catch here is that the 結果 alone like that particle-wise conveys like, “in the end”
Like, I think grammatically speaking it’s not the 結果 of the tournament that everyone is feeling 悔しい思い about, I think it’s that in this tournament, the end result is, everyone’s 悔しい思い except her.
With that + then her talking about the other participants who lost, I do lean towards Mr. Haku’s conceptualization of the みんな here being everyone in the tournament, but it might be one you can phrase similarly enough to her original to pass the interpretation buck on!
It doesn’t look like the translation for this part got pasted. Just mentioning in case it was overlooked in the translation!
Looks pretty good to me!
Minor maybe-nitpick not super sure comment, Since she’s addressing the crowd, I think the “みんな頑張ってる姿を見てもらいたい” and maybe the clause before it is maybe addressing them.
Also minor, but I think the いろんな感情になった is like, describing the conflicting emotions she’s been talking about - wanting others cheered, wanting herself cheered, being mean, etc.
I don’t really know how best to phrase it or put what I’m getting at into words, but “and I have so many emotion” makes it sound a little like a separate thing to me – like (description of a bunch of emotions), and I have a lot of emotions. When I think it’s more like, various emotions have welled up (like all those ones I just described), if that makes sense.
Another nitpick (apparently I’m picky today?) but the original sounds like もういいや! to me – and… I guess I don’t have a great alternative to offer, so I’m not sure what would be better, but the sense of the original is a bit… harsher? More forceful? to me.
Like, it’s a triumphal moment with crowd applause where she raises her conflicted feelings, then says like, but I won, so enough with all that!
Switching from talking about the conflicted emotions of the moment to basking in the moment that she won, with a half-serious but sincere like, verbal desk clearing to cut the emotional tension.
I guess the point to make is in もういい, it’s もういい in the sense of like – that’s enough already, drop it / let’s make a change, that kind of thing, not いい in the sense of, I’m fine!
Some video context here is that Shoko enters ringside maintaining a serious face, breaks into a little nervous laughter when Yuka asks for her to be provided with a microphone, and then Shoko forgets to turn on the microphone and makes this face right before saying all that:
So I believe that’s why the から is in there in “調子狂うから” like “(if it seems flustered) it’s because I’m flustered!” and so in a sense she’s kayfabing why she’s corpsing
The 顔 される’ing her would I suppose just be teary-eyed Yuka.
“drives me crazy” makes me think more like “getting worked up” whereas this feels more to me like “getting all out of sorts” – Nakajima seems definitively on the shy side (at least as far as pro-wrestlers go…), so “I’m nervous and it’s your fault for looking at me” is a valid complaint…
For some reason (time? Relevancy to the day’s match?) the twitter version cuts directly from the answer to the previous question to her talking about Miu.
I would say the どこか自分自身を出せて part isn’t so much about 出せて’ing a どこか of your 自分自身, but more like, 出せて’ing your 自分自身 どこか, if that makes sense.
Like, Yuka’s wondering if there’s room for Toribami to show more of herself and her personal flair in some way. That lines up with the 『どうしたいの？』 question - her matches are trying to draw that out of Toribami, to help her find her personal style.
Not that much more but I will have to pick up the rest later!
Thank you! I did miss that sentence! Does “My spirit was so shaken during this tournament” sound about right?
That one actually came from Mr. Haku, too! Though of course, he’s translating on the fly (and trying to compress it into a single tweet), and also could have misheard, haha. His translation for this part was: “I’m the big sister here so I want everyone to do well and I want people to see our roster members do well, but at the same time I want to do well too… it’s really complex BUT I GUESS I’M GOOD BECAUSE I HAVE THE TROPHY.”
Maybe what mine lacks is the capslock? ahaha
Thanks again for all of your help!
This year’s TPC inspired some, uh, very heated discourse on twitter. It started with Yuka vs Hikari, then reached nuclear levels when Yuka beat Miu 
. It’s really frustrating to read for a lot of reasons, and I tried to stay away from it, but the consequence of translating this stuff is that you end up kind of marinating in the emotions of the shows a lot…
So, uh, here’s a post?
Something that bugs me about a lot of TJPW discourse in western fandom is that people get really upset over TJPW’s singles title scene being (at least in the present day) heavily dominated by three wrestlers: Yuka, Shoko, and Miyu. It’s a frustrating criticism to me because 1) all three of those wrestlers are really, really good and deserve the title reigns that they got, and 2) men’s wrestling promotions in Japan have had a similarly restricted title scene since the beginning of time??
Like, I started watching NJPW at what is generally considered the tail end of their peak, in 2019, before things went sort of sideways. At the time, it was just generally accepted that NJPW would only give their top title to a small pool of guys (there was about four of them at any given time). One of those guys would be the G1 winner, and the Wrestle Kingdom main would be a match between him and another one of their so-called “pillars”. And, yeah, that was how it went! And this was considered generally great booking!
From my understanding, AJPW and other companies have had very similar booking to TJPW’s style. I’ve heard it referred to as “dojo style” booking, though I have no knowledge of my own to really back this up, haha.
So I guess my question here is why is it considered uniquely bad for TJPW to book their top, most experienced wrestlers, who are in the prime of their career, very strongly? Why can men’s wrestling do this and it’s fine, but not a joshi company?
Obviously it’s a very different approach to the one that Stardom takes, where outsiders are frequently given huge opportunities and lengthy title reigns without having to come up in their dojo system. And I’m glad that other companies are out there doing different stuff so that there’s some diversity, but personally Stardom’s booking style has a habit of frequently ripping the rug out from under me because things change so often there (especially the tag teams… 
). I tried to watch Stardom for a solid two years, and their booking kept bouncing off of me because it felt like it was punishing my investment in tag teams .
I guess maybe I’m just someone who prefers stuff to be on a much longer term scale. Which shouldn’t be a surprise, considering the fact that the thing that got me into wrestling in the first place was a decade plus long story, which I have been faithfully waiting to resume for 3+ years now.
So I really like stories that are slower moving, but which reward your investment the longer you follow them. And TJPW’s booking style is great for this! The growth of the characters and their relationships often happens in small, subtle moments that accumulate over time, but nothing ever really gets forgotten. People sometimes accuse their stories of being static, but I think there are loads of narrative details happening at all times that are just getting overlooked.
And the climb to the top is a very, very long one. Rika only just won the Princess of Princess belt for the first time in 2021. Even Shoko is only on her second reign, despite how long she’s been with the company. Her first was in 2019.
Mizuki, Maki Itoh, and Miu are all on their way there. But TJPW is a company where storylines play out over many years. Their pacing is much more akin to the Japanese men’s wrestling companies I watch (with the exception of NOAH, which makes utterly inexplicable booking decisions…). You have to adjust the timeframe a little due to the relative newness of TJPW as a company, but expect these things to still take several years.
Which I guess brings me to this year. I think Shoko actually set this up really well right before she won the title, though I don’t think I really noticed at the time. She mentioned being afraid of basically losing her place because the competition from the younger members is getting tougher, and so she challenged for the belt with the feeling that it would be the last time she’d ever get to hold it and main event all of those big shows.
She also said that with her reign, that was the start of chapter two of TJPW.
And, well… chapter two is essentially sowing the seeds for Shoko, Yuka, and Miyu’s own destruction. The end of chapter one was establishing them at the top, and now we’re seeing the end of their era looming over the promotion.
It’s an interesting story because it’s sort of a tragedy but a hopeful story at the same time. It’s really inspiring and hopeful to see the younger generation really succeed and thrive, but it’s a tragedy for Shoko, Yuka, and Miyu (who I’m sure will continue to be prominently involved, but won’t have such a monopoly over the top of the card).
The wrestlers themselves have talked about this over and over. Yuka, Shoko, and Miyu all feel super conflicted over it. They want their juniors to succeed, but at the same time, they’re scared and desperate, willing to do just about anything to hold onto their power while they still can. Yuka and Shoko were so extremely shaken by Miu’s performance in the TPC, because she’s their worst fear manifesting right before their eyes.
But Yuka winning means they can hold on for a little longer. That’s why both Yuka and Shoko felt relieved and reassured by Yuka’s victory. Yuka vs Shoko for the title is familiar ground to them. Even if they lose to the other person, that’s not as scary, because it doesn’t portend the end of their era like losing to Miu would.
(Sidenote: I’m not a big fan of rematches, so I wasn’t the most excited for another Yuka vs Shoko match coming so soon after their last one, but I saw someone point out that they’ve only wrestled for this title twice before (once in November 2019 at DDT Ultimate Party, and then a couple months ago at CyberFest), and neither of those times were at an actual TJPW show. So maybe they deserve to have at least this one…)
None of this is really new analysis, I don’t think, for anyone who has been following their post match comments and interviews over the past year . But it’s frustrating to see other fans treating Miu losing to Yuka in the TPC as if it’s a sign of ~typical TJPW booking, where the “pillar” goes over the younger talent at the moment when it really counts 
~
For one thing, this TPC was actually very, very different from how the tournament typically goes. I can’t speak for the years before 2020, but I think that 1) it’s very telling that Yuka and Miyu, despite their reputation in the fandom, had never won it before, and 2) in 2020 and in 2021, it was very much set up to give a big feel-good victory to Mizuki and then to Itoh.
2022 was not like that! The first half of the tournament felt pretty typical to me, but then it all changed in the quarterfinals, which is when Suzume got her big upset victory, and then Miu pinned Shoko. From that moment on, it really felt to me that we’d suddenly entered unknown territory. There was this amazing sense of possibility, like anything could happen. Could Miu really pin all three of the so-called pillars just like that? In a row? It would be completely unprecedented.
Of course, at the end of the day, she couldn’t quite do it. She was almost there. And it was the first time I’ve seen the TPC have, well, a bad ending (not “bad” in the sense of bad writing, but bad in the sense of the good guy loses).
Overall, I think the whole thing will be one of those wrestling things that really sticks in my memory for a long time. I was utterly floored by how Miu had managed to get me so behind her here (after I was rather lukewarm when she won the tag tournament earlier this year ), and naturally I was devastated to see her lose. She got so close…
But she did get her message across (and Suzume, too). The generation struggle storyline is one that has been brewing quietly all year, but it has been a frustrating sticking point in the twitter discourse because lots of fans apparently haven’t noticed it or don’t really believe that it’s, like, the text of the story, or something.
Sometimes it makes me feel like I’m going crazy for seeing something that feels so obvious to me, but which is invisible to other people, but I have to remind myself that I quite literally had access to information that most western fans did not have, so of course it’s harder for others to notice or believe…
In any case, I feel pretty confident in saying that Miu’s legendary but ill-fated TPC run is just the beginning of the story. The generation struggle is not over.
And I think the, well, text bears me out here? When I looked at the piece at the back of the shupro issue where Yuka earned the cover, it was labeled: “世代闘争主題のトーナメントに東京の歴史あり自在独立路線を守るため新人育成はに意識.”
One of the pull quotes said: 「新しい選手が簡単にベルト挑戦できなかったり、歴史を重んじている」
And, yeah! That’s basically everything I just said summed up. I like the last part especially, 歴史を重んじている, saying that TJPW respects history, because I think that’s kind of the heart of long-term booking in general, and it shows that that’s an actual deliberate focus for the company.
The piece also appears to talk about TJPW’s evolution as a company. I feel like fans also forget this part, that they’re still fairly young, and only just now reaching the point where they can run Ryogoku Kokugikan on their own, and the like. Even in 2019, that was an impossible dream for them. They’re a promotion that quite literally started with the wrestlers wrestling on a mat in like bars (not unlike Prominence…).
I just think about Miyu tearing up because they have enough history to have a generation struggle now. This is truly only the beginning.
I guess one last note, I saw a little bit of discussion over the term “pillars”, which the fandom had been using for Yuka/Miyu/Shoko. As far as I can tell, this term did not originate at all from anything in the actual canon. Fans just took it from other wrestling and applied it here.
It has got me thinking about what term I would use to describe them, haha. From stuff that I’ve translated, the two possibilities that stand out to me are 看板 and 壁, which have both been applied to those wrestlers. I think 看板 is just an impossible concept to capture in English, unfortunately, so that one is out, but 壁 is used pretty frequently. I actually remember it from when Mr. Haku was still translating (which is why I made the decision to translate it literally as “wall”, because that’s what he did).
This is probably the deepest/most niche wrestling cut that I’ve shared here, but as soon as I thought about them as “walls,” my first thought was actually a metaphor that Hangman Adam Page had used to describe the Elite/AEW a few years ago (which sort of came up during his feud with CM Punk as well, when Hangman took offense at Punk basically trying to take credit for writing the blueprint for the walls that Hangman himself helped build).
He gave this monologue in Being The Elite that is still to this day just about the only media from and about the pandemic that I can tolerate watching. I highly recommend watching the whole thing, but I also transcribed it here.
Basically, the whole monologue weaves together the real person’s real anxieties/ethical conflicts concerning the pandemic and its affect on his career with the character’s anxieties and insecurities.
He employs a long extended metaphor that likens AEW to a house (“does momentum even exist in a house that’s empty?” is one of my favorite lines of all time from anything, ever). “Teaming up with a broom” refers to his tag team with Kenny, and he says: “And I feel like I might have been starting to… patch up the holes of the walls of the house. The walls that made the house what it was in the first place.”
At the time, there had been some conflict brewing between him and the rest of the Elite, so that line is referring to him patching up his relationship with the rest of the faction. I always thought it was interesting because it sort of equates the Elite with AEW itself. They make up the literal building that makes it what it is. It wouldn’t exist without them.
AEW has a set of wrestlers who are referred to as its “pillars,” (for better or for worse, the label has been canonized). But interestingly, to me at least, I only ever see the term used to refer to the next generation of wrestlers. It’s the future of the company. I can’t recall the Elite ever once getting referred to as the pillars of the company, even though they quite obviously have carried the company in many ways, and it would never have existed without them.
They’re not the pillars; they’re the walls. Someday, the walls won’t be there anymore, so the pillars will need to bear the weight, but the building wouldn’t exist in the first place without the walls.
And that’s how I think about Shoko, Miyu, and Yuka in TJPW, too. There was this line in the last set of comments, where Miu said: “この３人は私がここに来る前からめちゃくちゃすごい東京女子を作り上げてきて、とても尊敬しています”. I loved her use of the word 作り上げる here, literally “build up” “create” “construct”. Not only are they holding up the promotion; they literally built it. Without the three of them, there would be no building, and no TJPW.
I think the way 壁 gets used in their comments and interviews is different than how Hangman talked about the “walls” of AEW, but I still think it’s a neat parallel. I think in TJPW, the walls are both support for the building that is the company, as well as a sort of a boundary that the wrestlers are constantly seeking to surmount. It’s like a walled garden. The wrestlers are ready and eager to break out of it and expand the horizons of what they and the company can be.
And none of us know what the TJPW that comes next will look like. It’s uncharted territory. I think that’s part of the excitement of following the company, because although its growth has been very gradual (especially when compared to the high-stakes stress of watching AEW’s growth, haha), there’s something so satisfying about getting to enjoy all of the little twists and turns along the way.
Sorry for the long ramble . I don’t know if any of this is actually interesting to anyone else, haha, but this is where my brain has been at over the past few weeks.
sure, yep! For context, It follows on from the previous sentence - 心が揺さぶられました is the 変わるもの she introduced in the previous sentence, is how it comes across to me.
Yeah, honestly! Not that capslock is the right solution for a translated transcript of course, but his version does retain that wry “but screw all that, I won!!” feeling I get from the original, mainly thanks to the capslock.
For this part, I overthought it a lot last night so I’m going to try not to do that here (especially since the twitter video didn’t include this part), but I read the whole thing as Yuka’s general current impressions of Hikari, with all the 気はする, 気があったs and so on are Yuka describing her own thoughts about her.
like Hikari’s trying new submissions recently and, though she probably wouldn’t say it herself (maybe because it’s not her background training, or maybe because I have a vague sense of やってる implying like, generally being successful enough with it to keep doing it and that’s that part Hikari wouldn’t brag about, I don’t really know) grappling and jiu jitsu too.
And Yuka was of the opinion “そういう部分でもっと伸びて、変わろう”
and Yuka wanted to convey “優しいので、どこか打撃とかも何回も打てばいいのに”
I think she’s saying that Hikari’s 優しいness meant she was hesitant to keep attacking like that, and Yuka wanted to draw that out of her to make a point, to keep attacking until its effective.
Only other very minor thing I’d say is that “もっとおいで、もっとおいで” sounds to me more coaxing and carefully drawing that out than an aggressive ‘c’mon, c’mon, more, more!’ おいで is what you would say to like, draw out a cat for example (cute example I found to doublecheck)
Here the impression I get from the original is more like – she’s already gotten what I can give her and she should ride this summer and make her own wave out of it.
“もう来なくていい” is like, “it’s okay if you don’t come (here)” and calls to my mind, like, someone being let go, but I think in the context of all that stuff with Hikari she’s talking about like, Suzume showed enough drive and hunger that she’s ready to go off and do her own thing.
I would say she’s talking about specifically this match (that’s the ここで), so Miu. (but I mean, the motivation would apply to the younger generation as a whole anyway)
Yeah, she’s referring to what she was saying a match or two ago about wanting to not just be in the main event and not just win, but also to put on a match at their level as well.
Close, but I would say it’s Shoko herself who’s said it, rather than “It’s often said” (with the 口にしてしまった being like, maybe I shouldn’t have said but couldn’t help it).
And I think the 期待感を connects up with the 向ければ向けるほど - the more they turn that expectation to my juniors, the more I realize they’re hoping I lose.
Seems fine!
(I’ll read and comment on the booking thoughts too but I wanted to get the rest of the translation help out of the way first!)
I agree and think your thoughts are well put!
For my own perspective, I think my two main thoughts about the result are:
I think partly why when I mentioned the possibility of Miu winning I still felt the need to couch it in a lot of qualifiers about how unlikely it was, is that as much as I like Shoko Nakajima my impression is she’s a notch or two below Yuka still in terms of fame, and the oucome that did end up happening, of Miu pinning her and showing how determined she is against her and Miyu and Yuka sets up well a future title match anyway (clearly she made a very strong impression), without also having to give up a show with Yuka headlining.
And after all – if the story is about Miu overcoming her intimidating senpais, having the end boss at the culmination of that for the title shot be Shoko seems at-odds with that given that Shoko is incredibly unintimidating and she already pinned her once. Shoko’s more of a plucky underdog type herself, in a way that Yuka and Miyu definitely aren’t, and her own story lately is always about being anxious that she really belongs in the same category. So Miu’s story seems like the kind of story to percolate and culminate when one of those two is champion down the line, perhaps, to make the wall seem as insurmountable as possible.
I don’t know really anything about the backstage politics aspect and how homegrown wrestlers are seen vs. ones newer to the company and don’t want to speculate - but a way I think about it a lot is like – if you had to pick a coworker that you trust to work with for an extended period of time on a critical, highly visible project… it makes sense that the choice is often going to be someone you’ve worked with for a really long time on similar projects and deeply trust because of that.
The dynamic between that and the creative aspect of wrestling is a really interesting one, but looking at it from that perspective rather than just the fan/storyline one, I think a the reticency to pull the trigger on less experienced wrestlers with momentum makes a lot more sense. Like, I imagine there’s an element of - whatever responsibility comes with a big win, it will always be in good hands with Yuka. Whereas with someone who hasn’t been in positions like that before, there’s an element of risk, even if it’s small, and you’d want to make sure they’re as prepared as possible.
And honestly, about Stardom I don’t think the mentality is so different, they just… don’t have a group of major stars who have been with the company since the beginning in the same way. Pretty sure Mayu is the only one who’s been around since the very beginning with no departures in the middle (or wait… maybe AZM, technically?), and she was top champion when I started watching. Even if just Io or Kairi had stayed I have to imagine the title picture would be very different there.
After all, the title shots on the next (or just past) show are big scary former champions vs. the current generation of champions, with Kamitani/KAIRI especially being honestly very similar to the themes with Miu/Yuka, but it’s more of a “blast from the past” feel because Kairi and Nanae have been gone for so long in the interim (and I still wouldn’t have been shocked if Kairi beat Kamitani… if she hadn’t gotten covid)
In the time I’ve been watching, Stardom’s had the same small number of top champions as TJPW (3), with Iwatani being the longest tenured and biggest star in the company, Syuri being an experienced wrestler everyone seems to like working with a ton (they all seem to say she is incredibly nice ), and Hayashishita being the closest thing to a “pillars” type of group they’ve talked about openly in storylines and behind the scenes: the 黄金世代, of I think wrestlers who debuted around ~2018-2019, namely Utami Hayashishita, Saya Kamitani, Maika, Himeka, Saya Iida, and now I think also MIRAI and maybe also Unagi Sayaka might be included in that umbrella. Considering that Kamitani and Hayashishita already both have had very prominent and lengthy title runs, it’s entirely possible that a handful of years from now everyone’ll be like “enough with 黄金世代 winning championships already!”
The drive to bring in outside wrestlers and incorporate them quickly into Stardom seems to me like mainly to faciliate / a mark of the recent extreme growth with Bushiroad, rather than a different approach to booking the top belts. Giulia, Syuri, MIRAI, etc. feel to me more like they’ve been absorbed into Stardom rather than being treated like outsiders. Presumably thanks to having the money and expansion capability to attract them.
Interestingly, the highspeed title right now is edging a bit close to a pillar type of situation, with AZM definitely fitting the extremely trusted and experienced senpai role, and Natsupoi and SLK in the mix very frequently recently, to the point of someone (… Momo?) complaining about it in the build to a recent match. I figure it goes to show how quickly a new status quo can go from “yay change!” to “always these established stars…”
That’s just my impressions though! And wrestling matches/booking seem especially ripe for subjective impressions to wildly vary from person to person… I definitely do not miss seeing a lot more of them from strangers on twitter!
I saw “pro wrestling thread” and immediately felt the urge to post this without any further clarification
I saw the thumbnail and immediately recognized the wrestlers and the promotion . I haven’t seen this match because it was a little before my time, but it was from DDT Judgement on February 17, 2019.
Just a warning for anyone who might watch a match containing Maku Donaruto, some of the spots in his matches can look like sexual assault (though they’re still consensual performances).
Finished the 8.21 TJPW show!
This one had a really fun semi-main event that a lot of people (including the official account on at least one English tweet) were framing as the two Tokyo Princess Cup MVPs facing off against each other: Miu vs Pom.
Pom tried the rather unconventional strategy of dressing up as an オバケ and also trying to terrorize Miu with a block of こんにゃく dangling from a pole. I wasn’t familiar with こんにゃく before this match, so I don’t exactly understand what Pom was trying to do with it here, but I appreciated that when I googled what on earth it even was, one of the uses is apparently in Japanese papermaking! What an unexpected connection for me.
In any case, it was not enough for Pom to get the win, though it did make for a very entertaining match.
Afterward, Miu said:
Miu: “Today I had a singles match with Pom. I had the impression that Pom had also worked really hard this summer, so I really wanted to get a solid win here… but I’m really not good with ghosts! I got scared the instant the lights went out, and played right into Pom’s hands. But, I was able to win. This summer has been really intense, so I want to keep working even harder from here.”
I was a little unsure about her second sentence. The transcript had: “ぽむもこの夏めちゃくちゃ頑張ってたなって印象だったので、ここはちゃんと勝ちたいなってマジメに思ったんですけど…まさかのオバケが苦手なんですよ.”
Pom: “Aaaahー… I used the ghost strategy. Well, Miu had streamed a game before, and she got really scared, so I thought I’d use that against her, but I think she just got really angry instead. She kicked me truly relentlessly. For me, this was a summer of ordeals, but next year I want to make it a summer where I become an ordeal for someone else. …That was scarier than a ghost.”
I wasn’t sure about translating part of her second line here: “いや、未詩さんが前にゲーム配信をしてて、すごい怖がってたので、これは逆手に取ってやろうって思ったんですけど逆に怒らせちゃったみたいで”, but I’m pretty sure she’s referring to the fact that Miu did a let’s play video for a horror game on youtube.
The other thing I was a little unsure about was her last line: “…オバケより怖かった.” I wasn’t quite sure what she was talking about? Maybe she was talking about her recent match with Max?
The main event of the show was a double preview match of sorts, featuring Shoko, Kamiyu, and Mahiro vs Yuka, Mizuki, and Arisu. Shoko won, giving Mahiro the rare chance of closing out the show.
Shoko’s first paragraph in the ring was a bit confusing for me . She said: “トーナメントが終わって、一発目です。敗退した身で偉そうなことを言うのもなんですが、次のタイトルマッチも決まってます。これからそこに向けて負けた分もいっぱいいっぱい成長していきたいなと思ってます。みなさんに10月、成長したチャンピオンの姿を見せられるように、これからも勝ち続けたいと思います。２人も、ね。ほら、名古屋でタイトルマッチがあるんでしょ.”
Here was my attempt:
Nakajima: “This is the first show after the tournament ended. I don’t want to sound conceited after losing the tournament, but the next title match has been set. As we head there, I want to improve as much as I lost. I want to keep winning so that I can show everyone a much-improved champion in October. What about the two of you? You have a title match in Nagoya, don’t you?”
Then there’s this exchange:
Kamifuku: “Yes. We have a title match, but more importantly, the fact that the two of us are here in the main event closing out the show, that may be thanks to NakaSho. Perhaps there’s a chance that she’s a Toyo University graduate? Are you?”
Nakajima: “High school graduate.”
Kamifuku: “Ah. Well, it can’t be helped.”
I was a bit confused by ナカショー until I realized it was just a nickname for Shoko, haha. (Hopefully the readers of my blog also realize that…)
Shoko’s next lines were a little confusing for me. She said: “真弥もね、せっかくつかみ取ったチャンスだもんな。頼もしくなったもんな。やっぱ、ここは真弥にビシッと今日のトーナメント明け一発目の興行をね、かっこよくクールに決めてもらいたいなって思います。せっかく３人で勝ったんだしさ.”
Here’s what I had:
Nakajima: “Mahiro, too, you managed to seize a chance. She has become reliable. Just as she did here in the first show after the tournament, I want to see her get the victory in a cool and unshakable way. The three of us managed to win.”
I think I more or less got the last set of exchanges in ring, but I was unsure about most of it, haha.
Here it was:
桐生「私たち、東洋盟友は９月４日名古屋で絶対にベルトを取る！ 中島さんもちょっと後になりますが、防衛戦があるということで…勝ちましょう！」
Kiryu: “We, Toyo Mates, are absolutely going to win the belts on September 4 in Nagoya! Nakajima-san, it’s a little later, but you also have a title defense… Let’s win!”
中島「じゃああれだね。未来のチャンピオンチームチームってことだよな？」
Nakajima: “That’s that, then. You’re the team of future champions, right?”
桐生「そういうこと！」
Kiryu!: “That’s right!”
中島「もう一声！」
Nakajima: “Someone say one more thing!”
上福「からの～？」
Kamifuku: “From who?”
桐生「えー、こんな貴重な締めのお時間に私のお話を聞いてくれて…（座り込んで）大変ありがとうございました、アンド、大変申し訳ございません！」
Kiryu: “Well, for listening to me when I have the honor of closing the show… (sitting down) Thank you very much, and I am so very sorry!”
中島「３人で頑張ります！ ありがとうございましたー！」
Nakajima: “We’ll do our best! Thank you!”
Backstage, Shoko said: “トーナメント明け一発目ということで。やっぱりトーナメント勝ち残れなかった者たちにとっては再スタートの興行だったと思っています。10月にタイトルマッチが決まっていますが、この夏私は出し惜しみをしてないので。やっぱり出し切った分、新しいものをどんどん作っていかないと次は勝てないなって気持ちがあります。なのでこれから10月まで時間ありますので、成長していきたいなと。全部の試合でいろんなものを吸収して、大きくなっていきたいなと思います.”
That chunk in the middle was confusing. Here’s what I had:
Nakajima: “This was the first show after the tournament. For those of us who didn’t win the tournament, I think this show was a fresh start. I have a title match scheduled for October, but I haven’t been reluctant to show what I can do this summer. If I don’t keep coming up with new ideas at the rate that I’m using up all of the ones that I have, I feel like I’m not going to win my next match. I have from now until October, and I want to keep improving. I want to absorb all sorts of things in all of my matches and keep growing.”
Then Kamiyu said: “今日は東洋大学feat.ナカショーということでですね、私たちも９月に名古屋でエーエーオーみたいなところにチャレンジするのでね。今日は連係とかも…いつもだったらゆきが真弥ちゃんを助けに行くようなところを、今日はナカショーがいるのにも関わらず、真弥ちゃんが率先してゆきがピンチのところを救いにきてくれて。普通にすごーいって思って。ちょーいい日になりました。ありがとう。ナカショー勝ってくれたから、こんないい景色も見れましたとさ。終わり.”
I got tripped up after the ellipsis, but I think maybe I figured it out? Here’s what I had:
Kamifuku: “Today was Toyo University feat. NakaSho, and we’re going to be challenging for the belts at a place like AAO in Nagoya in September. Today, we had good teamwork… normally I’d always be going to Mahiro-chan’s aid, but today, despite NakaSho’s presence, Mahiro-chan took the initiative and came to save me when I was in a pinch. I just thought she was sooo cool. It was a great day. Thank you. NakaSho won, so we got to see a beautiful view. The end.”
Mahiro’s second sentence here confused me: “名古屋でタイトルマッチが決まりましたので。やっぱり個人としてもチームとしてももっと上にいけるように、連係とかもね。自分自身も上にいけるようにタイトルマッチまで頑張って進んでいくので、是非応援していただければと思います。勝てて嬉しい！”
Kiryu: “We have a title match set for Nagoya. So I want to improve as an individual as well as a team, and improve our connection as well. I’m going to do my best to keep advancing up until the title match so that I can also move up, so I hope you will support me. I’m happy to win!”
The interviewer asked Shoko if she felt any change in Yuka.
She said: “けっこう緊張して試合してたと思うんです、夏の間は。その肩の力が抜けた分の軽やかな強さを感じました。けど、いまはちょっとお互い様子見しておきたいなって気持ちがあったので。そこはちょっと触って感じるなってところでした.”
The line about the shoulders and the last line were tricky .
Nakajima: “I think she was quite tense during her matches this summer. It felt like her shoulders were more relaxed and her strength was lighter. But it felt like now we’re both in a bit of a wait-and-see situation. I could sense that when we briefly touched.”
I think I did okay on the rest of the exchange, but wasn’t quite sure .
桐生「（斬新な締めでした）私、こうやって興行を締めるというか、最後の言葉を言うなんていままでできてこなかったことなので。自分らしさを出したいなって、気持ちの表れじゃないですか、今日は。合ってるのかな？とは思ったけど、でも合ってるんだと思います」
(That was a novel way to close out the show)
Kiryu: “Until now, I had never been in a position to close out a show like this, or do something like saying a closing remark. I think today was a manifestation of my desire to show my own individuality. I thought ‘does it fit?’ but I think it does.”
上福「大丈夫、間違いはないから」
Kamifuku: “Don’t worry, there’s no wrong way.”
桐生「じゃあ私がこれを正解としましたので、正解です」
Kiryu: “Then I did it correctly, so it’s right!”
Yuka, Mizuki, and Arisu’s comments were both harder and easier haha.
Yuka started off by saying: “トーナメントも終わって通常運転の東京女子なんですが、今回も全力でみんな変やったな.”
The last part was confusing to me, as was Mizuki’s response . Here was my best attempt:
Sakazaki: “The tournament is over, and it’s back to business as usual for TJPW, but everyone went all out again for this show, and everyone was weird.”
瑞希「一緒にせんとってや」
Mizuki: “Don’t lump us together.”
This exchange follows:
Sakazaki: (Looking at Endo) “Your hair color is amazing!”
Mizuki: “It’s strange.”
Sakazaki: “Mermaid lagoon.”
Endo: (laughs)
Mizuki: “I like Ariel.”
Endo: “I want to go with you.”
Mizuki: “Then when Arisu-chan gets her first (singles) victory, let’s all go to Disney!”
Sakazaki: “We’re going!”
Endo: “Please take me! I’ll do my best.”
Then Yuka says: “なんでもこうたる.” Is this basically “We’ll do whatever you want!”? Arisu seems excited, at least .
Endo: “HAPPY HAPPY!”
Mizuki: “We’ll have at least three bags of popcorn.”
Endo: “I’ll carry everything!”
Sakazaki: “Let’s go to Disneyland and do street wrestling!”
The interviewer mentions that this was Yuka’s first match with the champion after the title match was set.
Yuka’s response is confusing to me. She says: “ちょっとピリッとする部分はあるんですけど、でもまだ心の余裕があるというか。10月なので、まだ遊んでいいかなと思ってるんですけど…ダメですかね？ ちょっと一息つきたいところではあるんですが。でも当日、印象的に負けてると流れで負けちゃうので。印象でも負けずに、いまの期間は夏を楽しみたいと思います.”
I think I was confused by almost every sentence in this one, haha, though by the end, I feel like maybe I was on the right track?
“There’s a bit of tingling, but there’s still room in my heart for more. Or maybe I should say it’s in October, so I’m thinking I can still play… right? I want to catch my breath a little bit. But if I lose in terms of impression on the appointed day, the tides will change and I’ll be defeated. But even if it gives a worse impression, I want to have fun this summer!”
Fun show, albeit very much a house show, haha. Going to have another busy couple of weekends ahead, then it looks like things are going to calm down a bit in terms of TJPW’s schedule, and we’ll be going more or less back to the one show a week formula.
I’m really excited for the 8.27 show because the card looks pretty awesome, and it’s a Korakuen show with an all-women audience! I keep hoping that TJPW will build more of a non-male audience, and they seem to be steadily improving on that front (this is by far their biggest all-women audience show yet), so that’s encouraging. I’m not sure if this one allows cheering or not, but I really hope they get to do one of these shows with cheering someday…
I found a yahoo answers that’s pretty straightforward about the こんにゃく was for :
Q: おばけ屋敷でこんにゃくがたまに吊るされてるじゃないですか。あれは何故ですか？？
A: 単純にヌメっとする物が顔に当たると怖いから
こんにゃく’s one of those foods I tried to reinforce the vocabulary word. It’s good! Would not want it to touch my face…
Yours looks fine to me! In the video she mumbles a “、私” after the “オバケが苦手なんですよ” to clarify the subject.
Yours looks fine to me! And yes, ゲーム配信 is streaming games (for people to watch).
In the video before this she very clearly and definitively wraps up her comments with a declarative tone “(…)と思います！” and then even a bow and she yells アイ! (as in, I suppose, like 'ai!)
Then she says オバケより怖かった as she slinks away.
Which is to say – context is completely reset to zero and she’s not talking about the end of her comments before. To me it’s a general comment additional comment about the match thrown in at the end, and she’s saying Miu was scarier than a ghost.
The other bit of context from the video is she says the “オバケ作戦したんですけど。” part in a sad ghost voice because she’s wearing the ghost wig at the time. I also notice that ending part is an echo of what she says here because she follows this part in the video with “みうさんオバケより怖かったです” before taking off the wig.
I would nitpick yours a little and say even if that second bit was excluded in the transcript for redundancy and it wasn’t followed up with anything, the したんですけど has a sense of like “even though I used the ghost strategy…”
This is the most nitpicky of nitpicks since it involves counters and I don’t have a great back-up source for this, but I feel like 一発目 would be talking more about the match and their victory, sort of like, “this is the post-tournament starting gun” or “this is just the opening salvo!” or some other much better English phrase than those… I think that’s probably why she walks back the slightly 偉そうな tone in the next sentence. If it were more netrually saying it’s the first show, I think a different counter would be used (but don’t ask me which one ) and/or paired with a noun to clarify it.
I think this is fine. Again a very small nitpick but I would maybe go with “especially since I lost”, or “to make up for my loss” and then figure out a good-sounding English way to get the いっぱいいっぱい in there. I think the 分 is just saying like, she 負けた, so accordingly she いっぱいいっぱい成長していきたい all the more, but it certainly sounds to me like she wants to 成長 a larger amount than she lost (which ultimately was, like, once)
This looks okay! The sense I would add into this, is she’s aggressively psyching up Mahiro ahead of her (Mahiro’s) title match – the first two sentences are addressed very directly at her and the だもんなs are like “, RIGHT?” and Mahiro somewhat meekly affirms them. I would change at least those (and probably the longer sentence as well) to second-person rather than third.
Not sure how best to phrase it in English but the connective tissue for the last sentence also, is the しさ, like, throwing in some extra supporting evidence for the feeling in the previous sentence, like “after all, the three of us pulled out a win here today” or something.
It’s definitely Kiryu who’s supposed to say one more thing!
They’re agressively cajoling Mahiro into a confident ending promo.
I’m not sure exactly what’s going on with the「からの～？」 but Kamiyu is also cajoling Kiryu to speak there. My best guess is it’s like, “and so…?” like a prompt for Kiryu to start forming her thoughts.
They’re going out of their way to make sure Kiryu takes the platform!
Nitpick, and you could probably guess since it’s Kiryu and all, but “kneeling” seems like it would be more accurate in English
I think this is fine! An interesting tidbit is that in the video, この夏私は出し惜しみをしてないので is この夏私は出し惜しみをしたことはないので, and it seems like that tense change might have contributed to the confusion.
。。。と思います。
Do you know what she’s talking about here? Because I don’t
It seems like the scheduled venue is 名古屋国際会議場イベントホール so I’m not seeing the connection.
The others seem initially confused as well (Nakajima imitates her エーエーオー under her breath and Kiryu mimes confusion) so it seems like a Kamiyu-ism of some kind.
mildly interestingly, the ellipsis in the video is more like a hyphen, like a quick beat and train of thought gear change as her thought forms. I guess it makes sense that a hyphen wouldn’t be used in Japanese since when I tried to type what I was hearing, I was like, “oh right that just looks like ー”
(translation looks fine)
minor nitpick / just some additional flavor here, but something like “I’m so happy we won!” might be more natural in English. She’s expressing joy at winning in a somewhat desparate/Charlie Brownish/Mahiroish way that makes Shoko go through a whirlwind of emotions in a very short span of time:
I don’t think the shoulder part is so literal. 肩の力を抜く would be to release strength/tension from your shoulders (which you can imagine easily doing yourself when you go from tension to relaxation), and it comes up in weblio as リラックス-ing and releasing tension. So that part’s just referring to the comparatively less tense state now than the tournament matches. Accordingly with that release of tension, Sakazaki’s strength was more 軽やかな than before. (I would say probably more easy-going or casual - but strong in a less intense sort of way).
I don’t think “I could sense that when we briefly touched” is right for the last part. The sense I get structurally is that そこは was 触って感じるなってところ to a ちょっと extent.
I think she’s saying that given their situation, the match felt like just feeling each other out more than anything else.
… I think, anyway…
I think this part and the exchange after might be more like “I wondered if I succeded (in trying to show my own personality)? I probably did I think though” → “oh no doubt about it, don’t worry”
but I’m not 100% sure.
I’m not exactly sure what she’s on about here either, but it might be clearer noting that the 全力で is modifying the following verb, not saying they went all out. I think the train of thought is like this:
“The tournament is over, so it’s back to business as usual for TJPW, and as usual, everyone was thoroughly unusual!”
They’re being very kansai here in this exchange aren’t they!
The train of thought here with the previous part, is Sakazaki is surprised that Mizuki objected to the 変 characterization, so she’s picking an example, pointing out Endo’s unusual hair color.
Mizuki’s 変 is her seeing that train of thought and agreeing it’s 変 and Yuka also says 変 in agreement.
Like I said before, Yuka and Mizuki are sounding very Kansai here, and it seems like from what I can tell こうたる would be the equivalent of 買ってあげる, so they’ll buy her anything she wants, probably.
I would say for the first part she’s just saying like, she felt some pangs of tension/sparks/whatever, but there’s plenty of leeway still emotionally/mentally – after all, she’s in the frame of mind that the match is all the way in October, so she can stay loose and not take things seriously in the meantime (with the “ダメですかね?” like, but I probably shouldn’t, right?). In the last bit I think she’s saying that if she just loses throughout the lead-up to the match, she’ll accordingly lose on the day.
I would say 印象でも負けずに is the opposite of “even if it gives a worse impression” I’m afraid! I would put it as more like “without losing even in impression”
(I suppose the 印象 business is probably Yuka distancing herself from the loss a little since – I’m assuming – she didn’t take the pin).
Thanks for your help as always!
Not at all, haha. I just translated it literally and included it without a translation note . If the wrestlers were confused, then I suppose it’s only fitting that the readers of my translation blog are also confused. My guess is that she’s trying to liken the venue to something else that we don’t have enough cultural context for?
The impression (ha) that I got was that she was talking about coming across as lighter/less serious/not as 激しい as she was in the tournament. She wants to play, but feels a bit conflicted because she doesn’t want that to hurt the image she’d just established of being a really tough opponent. But who knows haha.
I thought I’d share a few other fun things. I’m not exactly sure what’s going on here because I only watched a bit of it, but this seems to be some sort of drinking competition with Kamiyu, Asuka, Marufuki, and Kotoge?
I also commissioned one of my artist friends to draw Sakisama as a cat, haha (they threw in a Mei Saint-Michel as a bonus). The fanart turned out super cute:
I read a few more pages of the glossary section in the NJPW English book a few days ago! Here are some observations:
In the entry for “desperate”, they also define “desperado”, but mention that it’s Spanish, haha. One of my friends said that one of the words they mentioned, “ならずもの”, is a nickname that Japanese fans sometimes use for El Desperado. The other word the book gives is 無法者, which is also a neat word!
For “excursion”, the book mentions that it can mean 海外武者修行, 他方遠征, and 修学旅行. Whoever wrote the definition finds the word おもしろい! It’s funny what details stand out to people from the other side about words that I hardly ever think about.
In the entry for “eye poke”, they mention that heel wrestlers use their index and middle fingers to do it, and then finish the entry with “絶対にやってはいけません！”
For “feature,” they say that it’s used more and more in katakana in Japan, but lots of people say フューチャー (future) instead, haha. The correct spelling is フィーチャー.
I think I might have already mentioned this, but they define “get over” in the wrestling sense. They also define the literal meaning of the words, and give the definition that people are likely to see on things like the TOEIC test (which is unsurprisingly not the wrestling meaning).
I think I remember reading a review of the book where a Japanese fan was a bit surprised by the book teaching more insider language and that sort of thing. But honestly, if you talk to English-speaking fans about wrestling (or even just watch, like, normal AEW programming), you do sort of need to know the insider language, I think.
A useful note to me as a translator was that they define “hard-hitting match” as “激しい試合”. This was handy to me because 激しい recently came up to describe how Yuka was in the Tokyo Princess Cup, and I got a bit stuck on how to translate it . I’m going to keep that in mind for the future, I think.
Also, in the entry for “iron man”, they mention that it’s the name of a Black Sabbath song, which made me laugh, haha.
They define “locker room,” and then also tell the reader to keep in mind the meaning of “locker-room conversation”. Yeah, that’s probably worth knowing…
They also define “lucha libre” as “free fighting”, which is something that lucha fans get weary about hearing because it’s said so often in English-language wrestling stuff. I wonder if Japanese-language broadcasts also frequently define the term when it comes up?
The entry for lucha libre also mentions that “llave” and “tope” have made it into English as well as Japanese. This reminded me of when I first tried translating some Spanish articles a couple years ago, and I hadn’t yet encountered the word “llave” in a wrestling sense, and I could not for the life of me figure out what to do with it in the translation. Turns out that I did not actually need to touch that one! It was fine as is!
I’m honestly considering buying that pro wrestling dictionary that Takagi was involved with, because I feel like I’m probably at a point where I can start to approach it? Especially since it’ll probably take a while to ship overseas, haha.
On another note, I forgot to mention in the last post that GM Imabayashi’s DDT contract is ending, and unfortunately as a consequence of that, the upcoming Hiragana Muscle show is going to be the last one.
I’m bummed because I had dreamed of one day being able to watch Hiragana Muscle and be fluent enough to not need the live translation, but unfortunately it’s ending before my Japanese is advanced enough… alas! In any case, I recommend you try watching it, rodan! I think you’d be able to pick up on most of what’s going on .
I suppose predictably, my wrestling stamina is on a bit of a downswing again! So possible things to watch are piling up and perhaps passing by (Wrestle Peter Pan for example).
I (technically) watched the whole G1 Climax though!
I was hoping I’d be motivated enough to watch the block finals and beyond with full focus, but in the end I watched all of those as background noise too. I feel like they really coulda put some other title matches or something on those cards… isn’t that a thing at previous G1 Climax finals shows? (It was nice to catch a glimpse of KUSHIDA though! He was briefly one of my favorites when I initially got into NJPW before he left for WWE)
I think a good way to gauge a round-robin tournament is to look back on which wrestlers loom larger for me afterward than before, and I think from that perspective, it’s:
With honorable mention to Tama Tonga – Tonga/White was probably my favorite match of the tournament (I think I – mostly – made sure to watch it). I don’t… know how far they’ll push face Tama but I’d be happy to see it go further.
I think all that kinda highlights what I think the biggest problem with NJPW storyline-wise is right now, based on the tournament – all the Japanese wrestlers feel extremely static right now? I didn’t feel like there was any chance that any of them would come out of the tournament feeling remarkably different (at least once the inevitable death of my yearly “hey who knows maybe Ishii will sweep the whole thing out of nowhere” dreams), so other than like, a general “oh, a Tanahashi match is happening, nice!” sort of thing there wasn’t anything in particular to catch my distracted attention.
I think wrestlers often naturally sort of settle into a permanent persona when they hit on something that works, and it’s often a good thing (Yuka’s solidity for example is part of what made her a good foil for Miu in that tournament) and some folks like Tanahashi are really good at turning on the emotional heat from zero to 60 when necessary, but it seems like maybe a problem when YOSHI-HASHI is arguably the Japanese wrestler with the most character development momentum right now…
And meanwhile so many of the non-Japanese wrestlers are wrapped up in Bullet Club that most of the character momentum there is like, innovating new ways to be rude and annoying.
In the end, I’m sure I’ll remember it as “the one with KENTA’s book tour”
And I’m committed to at least roughly keeping up with the 5 Star GP!
I was secretly kinda hoping that the upped production values of the opening shows would mean the middle shows would have commentary too, but alas! No such luck. They’re still fun though, although they can definitely be a blur of 15 minute tournament matches!
One thing I was struck by in the first few post-opening shows was what a big difference venue makes! These shows are like, a perfect case study in exactly that because it’s 100% a Goldilocks situation three shows in a row:
the first, in Niigata, is in this like, weird compact like, banquet hall? And there’s no cameras except right at ringside so every shot is extremely close-up from a low angle with unusual acoustics because of the compact room (for wrestling venue standards) that make it feel like you’re sitting right there, so details like the seconds, or the ref saying things to the wrestlers are especially noticeable, and knee-slaps are super clear high-pitched SNAPs.
… And then the venue the next day in Nagano is the complete opposite of that! It’s in this giant, empty, awful like, gymnasium or something. All the audio is incredibly echo-y, and acoustically it might as well just be a distant thunderstorm because of how much the rumble of the mat reverberates, knee slaps barely cut through at all.
… And then the show after those is at Korakuen! So it’s just right!
They really packed the place too! I was very impressed at the boldness to just book 11 tournament matches and nothing else and fill up the hall like just like that.
… I’m remembering now, come to think of it, how that phase of wrestling enthusiasm peaked , I stayed up much much too late watching that Korakuen Show because it was just so easy to say “okay sure, one more match!” when they were at most 15 minutes, and at the end of it was Suzu Suzuki’s postponed tournament debut opposite MIRAI. I ended up watching the whole show and enjoyed it very much! But it definitely also helped trigger a much-needed “okay hold on, let’s settle down and be sure to sleep somtimes…” phase…
Wrestlers who have especially gone up in my estimation so far, are MIRAI (she’s been calling herself a “future ace” in the tournament, and you know… I think I might believe her! She’s endearing, good all-around in the ring, and with a powerful style that works great in tournament matches. And the clapping thing has maybe joined the ranks with Utami’s roses of “entrance routine that I thought was too corny at first but now I like a lot” and it took me way to long to realize that with it she’s getting the crowd to essentially chant み・ら・い！み・ら・い！ in the no-cheer era.), Hanan (I was impressed at her gumption in attacking Mayu early in their match together), Syuri (lots of opportunity to look cool and championly!), and I mean, Hazuki being undefeated so far definitely makes her stand-up, with her and Koguma both having the most matches so far and consistently being a highlight.
A random match that impressed me recently also was Risa Sera vs. Momo Kohgo – the giant swing outside the ring into the audience chairs didn’t look fun!
Some stuff surrounding the tournament I liked:
I mentioned Syuri seeming cool and championly and her match with Mai Sakurai was a really good example - I liked this moment a lot.
There were some fun tweets where Konami visited and God’s Eye especially being happy to see her! This one, with MIRAI trying not to smile and then extremely not trying to do that anymore, is especially fun.
There was also a bit where Saya Kamitani composed a poem for a particular spot in her match with Shirakawa where they held hands as Syuri kicked them both, which lead to a back-and-forth of more poems. Fodder for the senryuu thread? 
I also remember watching a pretty innocuous but kinda fun variety show style minigame hosted by Miki Motoi for NJPW Strong Spirits (that mobile game they’re pushing a lot) where Syuri and Saya Kamitani had to… estimate the weights of fruit. Not the most exciting task in the world, but it was sort of fun. Being a pro wrestler seems like a weird job.
I also enjoyed the TJPW Princess Cup, but don’t really have anything additional to say about it!
I’m not caught up yet on Stardom’s big mid-tournament show (or New Blood for that matter) so I suppose there could be a new champion and I don’t even know it yet! 
I’ll also try to watch the N-1 like I did the G1, but with a much higher level of wrestling-satiation going in, and a much lower level of backstage promo convenience, we’ll see how it goes.
(those cats are really fun, by the way!)
Finished TJPW’s 8.27 show! The translation for this one was blissfully short (Korakuen the next day however… ). I was a little surprised that it even had a recap on the site.
The main event of this show was Shoko and Miu vs Daisy Monkey. It was a fun house show, nothing too special.
After Shoko got the win, she said:
“やっぱり試合を重ねるごとに、一筋縄ではいかなくなってる後輩たち…私にとってはすごく刺激的です。やっぱりそれに負けないように成長していかなきゃいけないし…今日、頼もしかった未詩に借りもあるし。明日からロゴが変わるんですよ。東京女子の団体の。いろいろ変わっていくものはあると思うんですけど、やっぱり常に新しいものが一番いいって思われたいって思ってるんです。だから、何か変わっても私たちがお互いに切磋琢磨して、お互いに成長して、頑張って一生懸命試合するっていうのはこれからも変わらないので…みなさんもこれから見守っててください。（未詩に）横浜いくんでしょ？”
I was a little confused by the 一筋縄 line, and then the second half of the rest of what she said. Here’s what I had:
Nakajima: “As the matches pile up, the juniors aren’t following the normal methods… From my perspective, it’s really exciting. I have to keep improving so that I don’t lose to them… Today I owe it to Miu, who was a really dependable teammate. TJPW’s logo is changing tomorrow. Lots of things are changing, but even so, I always want people to think that the newest things are the best. So even if something changes, we’re going to keep working hard together, keep improving, and keep doing our best to put everything we have into our matches, and that’s not going to change. Please keep watching us, everyone! (To Miu) You’re going to Yokohama, right?”
Here was the rest of the exchange in the ring (according to what the transcript gave me at least):
Miu: “That’s right. As soon as this is over, I’m going to go perform at an idol event in Yokohama. Please come, everyone. It only takes 10 minutes to get there on the Shinkansen.”
Nakajima: “Just 10 minutes! And look, the Up Up Girls have a new member. I think a new wind is blowing, and if you all keep following us into the future, that would make me really happy. Thank you so much for your support today!”
Backstage, Shoko said: “なんと明日から東京女子プロレスのロゴマークが変わるということで。９年一緒にいたので寂しい気持ちはあるんですけど、やっぱり何かが変わるってことは私たちも変わっていかなきゃいけないって言うことだと思ってます。でも、これからもいままでと同じく一生懸命やるっていうのは変わらないので。みなさんにこれからも見守っていただけたら、それ以上幸福なことはないです.”
I think I understood this, but was just unsure enough I thought maybe I’d get a second opinion . Here’s my translation of the above, plus Miu’s next line:
Nakajima: “Tomorrow, TJPW’s logo is changing. We had it for nine years, so I’ll miss it, but I think that something changing means that we have to change, too. But we’re going to keep working as hard as ever; that part isn’t changing. I would be so happy if you all continue to watch us.”
Miu: “I was happy to do everything on the pink mat, but I’m also looking forward to the new one. I’m excited to see how things continue to evolve, and I’ll do my best again tomorrow.”
They ask Shoko about the show the next day, the first women-only show at Korakuen. She answers: “新しいものをみにくるというか、初めての方も多いし、私もお友達がいっぱい来てくれたりするので。ビックリしないで、とにかく自然に楽しんでほしいなと思います。私たちはいつも通りやるしかないので.”
I think I got the long sentence there, but I’ve thought that before in the past and have been wrong, haha. Here’s what I had:
Nakajima: “Many people are going to come and see something new, or maybe I should say it’ll be a lot of people’s first time, and a lot of my own friends are coming. I hope it won’t scare people off, and the audience will enjoy the show spontaneously. We’re just going to do what we always do.”
Next, the interviewer asks Miu about the Up Up Girls entering their sixth year. She says: “アイドルとしてが６年目で、プロレスの方は違うんですけど。このタイミングで新メンバーが加わって、プロレスは知らなかったけどめちゃくちゃ前向きに筋トレの方を始めているので。みなさん、楽しみにしていただければなと思います.”
It was mostly the middle sentence here that tripped me up a bit. Here’s what I had:
Miu: “I’ve been an idol for six years, but haven’t been a wrestler that long. We just added a new member, and she didn’t know anything about wrestling, but she’s starting to be really proactive about her training. I hope everyone is looking forward to it!”
The other set of comments were Suzume and Arisu’s! These ones were… fairly easy, actually? (Famous last words…)
Suzume starts off with:
Suzume: “Two really strong people were on that team, and I thought ‘eep!’ but then I thought if we’re together as Daisy Monkey, it’s not so scary. But they were really strong.”
Then Arisu says: “強すぎるー…バッキバキや.” I couldn’t figure out that katakana word, and google wasn’t much help . I just tried my best and went from there.
Endo: “They were too strong… Oof.”
Suzume: “It has been a while since we’ve teamed together, but let’s keep working on getting stronger as Daisy Monkey.”
Endo: “Tomorrow we’re teaming again.”
Suzume: “Yes! Let’s do our best as Daisy Monkey at the women-only show!”
Endo: “Come see!”
Suzume: “I actually came to love TJPW as a fan, so I hope that many girls like me will discover TJPW tomorrow.”
Endo: “Come have fun!”
And that’s it for that one! The calm before the storm…
