Ask Sekai Project's CLANNAD team anything!

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#1

Hey guys! I’ve got a bit of a treat for you forum members. We’ve been in contact with the CLANNAD team’s project lead Yui-Man, and they’ve generously granted us the opportunity to interview them, asking any questions we want! I’ve received permission to get the community involved, and that’s why I’m turning to you, our forum members to submit questions you’d like to be answered by the CLANNAD localisation team! We’ll be sampling questions we deem the best and most appropriate from your submissions for inclusion in the interview. You can direct them to specific members of the team or you can leave it open for anybody to answer, up to you.

When asking questions, keep in mind that they may be silent if the answer contains any sensitive information. I’m fairly certain VisualArts and Sekai Project will be screening the answers to make sure no sensitive information is released, so while you’re welcome to ask anything, don’t expect an answer to everything. Try to generate more interesting and productive questions than “Will you translate 1st beat?”.

Questions I plan to ask include:

“Would you mind introducing yourselves? Who you are, your role in the project, a little about yourself, and your relationship with Key’s games. Do you consider yourself a fan? Have a favourite series or character?”

“How did the team come to be formed? Did you all have a previous relationship with Sekai Project, or did you turn up to work on this one project?”

“Who is best CLANNAD girl?”

And more as I think of them. What would you like to ask them?

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Kazamatsuri Community Interviews Sekai Project's CLANNAD Team
#2

“What’s it like being tasked with the official translation of such an iconic work? Considering that this project is one of the first loaclizations of a major VN in the west, I’m sure the expectations (and therefore the pressure) has to be phenominal. Does that fact motivate you all to continue with the project?”

“What are some of the major hurdles that you’ve had to overcome with the translation and transition of the project from Japanese to English?”

“What has been your favorite aspect of the project? Has there been any one facet that you enjoy more than the others? If there is something, could you tell us a little bit about why?”

“Now that the project is moving into it’s later stages, what are the general feelings of the team? Are you happy to see the project approach completion, or is there some bittersweet feeling that it’s going to be over soon?”

I’ll no doubt edit this as I think of others. These are just a few off of the top of my head.

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#3

Will there be another physical release for people who didn’t back the project on kickstarter?

#4

With the announcement of the Rewrite anime will there be a chance that the Visual Novel itself will get a kickstarter?

What was the most difficult part of localising/translating Clannad and have there been any problems as to how certain japanese terms or jokes being turned into english.

#5

Who is best Clannad Boy?

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#6

Was there anything notable that had to be changed in order to work in English?

How come you picked CLANNAD as a (hopefully) first VN to translate?

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#7

Were you introduced to Clannad through the VN or anime?

Were you introduced to Key through Clannad or something else?

#8

It was originally planned that your localization would use the existing fan translation of CLANNAD as its base. Down the road, you decided to scrap all of that and start from scratch. What were significant factors in making the decision to start the translation from scratch?

#9

I’m assuming they are working with rlm, sooo…

“Would anyone on the team consider either translating the current reallivemax documentation, or creating a brief original guide to the SDK?”

Oh, and a more generic one.
“What previous titles have you worked on?”

Wasn’t it an existing translation, but not the currently available one?

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#10

What does CLANNAD mean to you?

#11

Before Sekai Project announced their acquisition of CLANNAD, Doki already had a working translation base which is what I mean when I refer to the “existing fan translation”

#12

Since CLANNAD’s kickstarted funding was very successful, exceeding expectations, and since you’ve also translated Planetarian, do we see you translating any of Key’s other big visual novels anytime soon, such as Little Busters!, Rewrite, and the 1st Beat ? And since CLANNAD’s funding was very successful, is there a possibility of a partnership between Sekai and Key/Visual arts in the nearby future ? (Maybe even for the second beat :wink::wink::wink:)

Did you decide to translate CLANNAD because of the popularity of the visual novel or anime ? Both received generally positive reviews, with After Story receiving critical acclaim.

Who was the person that gave the idea of translating CLANNAD ? And how did you guys contact Key/Visual arts ?

#13

http://kazamatsuri.org/sekai-project-details-how-we-landed-key/

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#14

They’ve also said about a billion times that it all depends on how successfully CLANNAD sells on Steam.

I would honestly have to guess that they didnt have too much of a say in what VNs they were gonna translate. If I had just landed VA, I would be asking them what they wanted us to TL XP

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#15

When’s Little Busters.

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#16

Will you buy physical edition and ship all over the world ?
Have Key and you have any plans for future yet ?
Do you consider about Key Fes for Fan only ?

#17

How extensive did the Dangopedia end up becoming?

#18

A recent backer update stated they’ve got 90~ or so entries in it, with 3 unlocked by default.

#19

In-case this isn’t over because I don’t think there is any indication that this is over, I would like to know what route did the team find the most enjoyable to translate and why.

#20

Just thought of a new question that might be interesting to bring up:

Considering that CLANNAD already has multiple forms of media already available in English, were any of these used to aid the translation process? Or were all translation choices solely restricted by the context of the VN? If so, did the team try to maintain a consistency between the different translated media? (e.g. translating “Botan” as “Button”)

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