Friday, May 12, 2017

Chameleon 2

Well, he's back.

Yes, Yazawa Eisaku, pint-sized wannabe delinquent, returns in the second episode of Chameleon for another round of hi-jinks, braggadocio, and narrow escapes from doom and his cross-dressing would-be girl(boy)friend. Having won the reluctant admiration of the hoods at Narita Minami High, he becomes the target of gangs at Kasu High, who hope to establish their reputation as "bad hombres" by taking down the formidable (and did they but know, cowardly) Yazawa. Fortunately or unfortunately, he's rescued by Kyuuko Akio, a bullied student turned psychopathic fighter. Kyuu, as he's known, "adopts" Yazawa as his brother and defends him against all comers - including Yazawa's friends. While Yazawa likes having protection, he's increasingly uneasy about the ferocity of Kyuu's temper and the over-the-top aggressiveness of Kyuu's responses. He tries to reign his protector in, but that makes Kyuu suspicious. They end up in a confrontation, and Yazawa ends up back in the hospital.

I liked this episode of Chameleon considerably better than the first. There's far less gross-out gags and toilet jokes. The humor seems to flow more organically from the story, and there's an actual plot. The songs are good, particularly the doo-wop pastiche used as the OP and ED. And the voice actor for Kyuu (Nakao Ryuusei) is outstanding, with an idiosyncratic delivery that can change from comic to menacing in a heartbeat. Nakao has been a voice actor for more than fifty years, starting in 1965. He's had recurring roles in Dragonball and One Piece. His most recent role was King Falke II in this year's ACCA: 13-ku Kansatsu-ka.

As before, Moho Kareshi did the initial translation. convexity checked the dialog translation and translated the songs, which are just great. ninjacloud timed, I edited and typeset, and Vigorousjammer and konnakude did QC. The raw is from the Internet.

A few translation notes:
  • When Yazawa is released from the hospital, he says, "It's so bright out here in the free world." He's trying to act like a yakuza released from jail.
  • "Stop multiplying like Matsudaira Ken in a Konaka ad!" The ad is online here.
  • Short Peace in the OP/ED refers to the 70mm length version of Peace cigarettes.
When will episode 3 be ready? I don't know. Because the episodes are double length, each one requires a substantial block of the translation checker's time, which is at a premium right now. So enjoy this dose of Chameleon. Maybe there will be more, someday. Meanwhile, get it from Orphan|Arutha in #news or #nibl on irc.rizon.net or from your friendly local torrent site.




4 comments:

  1. Nice work thank you very much, please do translate episode 3 Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for this. I really enjoyed it. Can't wait to see what happens next!

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  3. thx
    when the next episodes will be released?

    ReplyDelete