OTASSHADE!

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Back In Black #4

From part I, "Neo-Saitama In Flames": "Back In Black" #4

(Previously, on Ninja Slayer: The ones who rule Neo-Saitama's underground are Soukaiya's ninjas. However, right now, there is a presence of a mysterious killer who takes down one ninja after another. That person's name is Ninja Slayer. Hatred and murderous intent build up, about to lead him down the path of madness and indiscriminate slaughter, but...)

NinSatsu Language: Writing Dojo For Newbies

(This post is based on the article of the same name from the official wiki.)

Have you ever browsed the #NJSLYR tag, saw the NinSatsu writing style that the 'heads use, and thought something like "I want to write like this!" or "Tatsujin!"?
This page is filled with instructions for such newbie-heads.
(Even though he's acting all high and mighty, the author of this page is a newbie, too. Sugoi-experienced 'heads, do feel free to edit it!)

Back In Black #3

From part I, "Neo-Saitama In Flames": "Back In Black" #3

(Previously, on Ninja Slayer: the electro-cybernetic metropolis of desire, Neo-Saitama, ruled by the brute karate of dark ninja presence, the Soukaiya. And, a demon of revenge who slays those ninjas... Some say that he calls himself, Ninja Slayer.)

Back In Black #2

From part I, "Neo-Saitama In Flames": "Back In Black" #2

(Previously, on Ninja Slayer: agents that work behind the scenes in the decadent acid-rainy megalo-city of Neo-Saitama, that's ninjas. Even this night, they carry on their brutal, violent business. However, a mysterious ninja that calls himself Ninja Slayer appears out of nowhere and murders a ninja...)

Neo-Saitama In Flames: The Timeline

Since the start of the anime, a lot of people have been discussing the "canon episode order", whether the anime shuffles the episodes around or not, and how closely that order follows the novels. That confusion is perfectly reasonable, as Ninja Slayer's legend is all about poor Japanese translators translating the episodes they can get their hands on in random order. However, some people also tend to state their assumptions as facts, which makes the matters even more confusing. An especially popular misunderstanding is that the Otakumode translations are divided into volumes 1, 2 and 3, even though they are single episodes taken from volumes 4, 1 and 1, respectfully. Before I begin, I'd like to note that all information in this post is taken from the official Japanese wiki, so you can double-check me if you want. All I'm doing is translating publically available info. Oh, and I'm only going to cover the first part, "Neo-Saitama In Flames", since that is the one being adapted in the anime. Now, let's dive in and make sense of it all.

Back In Black #1

It's long past midnight. The rain polluted with heavy metals consumes blinking neon signs, making their chemical-colored blinking even brighter in this drenched night. The citizen hide themselves under bamboo hats with tired expressions, as if everyone is enduring something. "Cheap, cheap, actually cheap". "Aka-chan..." Attracting the late-night crowd, the advertisements are even louder now.
POWPOWPOW... As a vehicle loudly honks with an automatic horn generator while sprinkling water from the puddles, overworked salarymen grip their wallets and credit chips even tighter, while the street yotamono punks turn around and show it the kitsune sign. In the narrow gap of the night sky between the skyscrapers, a maguro zeppelin passes by.
"Very uplifting stuff!", "Tanning salon", "Waana MIRROR store", "Horse racing bookmaking", "Lots of hot yoga". The sheer mass of neon signs, crackling and blinking from poor cable protection. The steam rising from the foot carts. Chaos. Voices. Death. This is Neo-Saitama. For the capital of Japan, secluded both physically and electronically, this sight is all too familiar.
Busy people, idle people, businessmen, yakuza, oiran, tourists, runaways, suicidal people, Gulf Defense Force scouts, scouts for dangerous work, fast-food store hawkers, karaoke hawkers. Here on the main street, the noise won't cease until it greets the coming of a yellow dawn. On the other hand, just by walking into a certain alley, one will see, darkness.

From part I, "Neo-Saitama In Flames": "Back In Black"

Swan Song Sung By A Faded Crow #5

From part I, "Neo-Saitama In Flames": "Swan Song Sung By A Faded Crow" #5

(All around Yamoto, the sakura-colored origami shapes start dancing once again. "Doomo, pleased to meet you. Me is Yamoto Koki." As she greets her new opponent, she keeps staring at him. "Doomo. Yamoto Koki=san. I am Silver Karasu." The dark-grey ninja returns the aisatsu. And then takes out his katana. "Why don't you show me? Your wazamae.")

NinSatsu Language: Silver Karasu And His Cigarettes

As you could've guessed from my Yamoto post, I prefer my translations to be consistent with any other English text, especially if it comes from Japanese sources. I don't have anything against the Otakumode/Funimation translations, but sometimes they're a bit more imaginative than I'd like. Anyways, I'm writing this because one part of my translations ended up having an official translation that I wasn't aware of. Of course, what I'm talking about is Silver Karasu's favorite cigarette brand, 「少し明るい海」.

Swan Song Sung By A Faded Crow #4

From part I, "Neo-Saitama In Flames": "Swan Song Sung By A Faded Crow" #4

"Wait." The ninja in a dark-green suit halts the large copper-colored ninja that goes behind him. "Traces of the target's ninja soul are split in two here." The dark-green ninja is Third Eye of Soukai Syndicate. The copper-colored ninja is a bounty hunter, Sword Dancer.

The cross-katana emblem on their suits demonstrate their allegiance to Soukaiya, and the eyes behind their menpo masks shine with cold bloodlust. That's especially true for Sword Dancer and his mystical Oceanian mask, giving the freelance killer ninja an especially frightening atmosphere.

NinSatsu Language: Yamoto's Speech Patterns

This is a copy-paste of a post I've made earlier, but I might do more later if something that needs explaining pops up in the translations. Like all those words I left in Japanese, for instance.

If you are watching the anime, you might've noticed that Yamoto is the only person using the "Atai" first person pronoun; since Japanese has so many more pronouns than English, everyone kinda got used to translating them all as "I". But the Ninja Slayer team just had to make it meaningful!

Swan Song Sung By A Faded Crow #3

From part I, "Neo-Saitama In Flames": "Swan Song Sung By A Faded Crow" #3

(It took six tries to kill the salaryman. Only one of them got cruelly killed, and one of his pals got badly hurt in his shoulder. "...Namu-Amida-Butsu." [Okay], Smiling Jii is heard over the communication device. [And now, go to the corpse and take a picture of it.] "What? Me?" [Hai.])
("Do I really have to go now? The mappo's going to come any minute." [Hai.] "That's too much trouble." [Please do.] "Send someone..." He doesn't finish. "Okay, roger that. But I expect a bonus for this." [Hai, otasshadee.] Silver Karasu gets up, shakes his head with a fed-up expression, and jumps down from the rooftop. "YEEART!")

Swan Song Sung By A Faded Crow #2

From part I, "Neo-Saitama In Flames": "Swan Song Sung By A Faded Crow" #2

"...Doomo. Ah..." Silver Karasu nods. "I am Kagi Tanaka." Kagi Tanaka is an alias of his. That is also the name he used while buying the house. "Doomo", the girl returns the nod. "Me is Yamoto Koki." The two introduced themselves without a second thought. There's nothing surprising about this. Even if you are complete strangers, an aisatsu is in order when you sit together. That is how it goes in Japan.

Swan Song Sung By A Faded Crow #1

The dim electronic light of a sign "Barowaiko". The silhouette of a mohawk man that suddenly appeared in front of it is long. On the ground, a dropped and forgotten iron plate "Low-Grade Lodging" is brown from rust. As the mohawk man steps on it, an irritatingly loud noise echoes through the alley. The annoying rain polluted with heavy metals.
The mohawk man wields shock guns in both hands, looking for his prey with cloudy eyes and walking with the characteristic stride of a drug addict. A sound obliquely behind him. He turns around with an "Ahhe!", aiming his shock guns. The source of the sound is not a person, it's a sewer bio-rat. "I wanna shoot someoone", the mohawk man cries.
As you can see, this man is a hopeless designer drug addict, and he is broke. Also, he is armed. In other words, he is an extremely dangerous being. Such yotamono can often be found in the dangerous districts of Neo-Saitama. Even if they kill someone, it won't appear in the news. There are many other things to report in the news. Such as the story of a sea otter that appeared in the city.
"I wanna shooot... I wanna shooot...", the man moans. "I wanna blow all my looad... Ah!" His clouded eyes open wide. KADOOM! The shock gun shoots a flash of light. "ABAAH!?" As an old woman who wandered into the alley tries to turn around and run, the lightning hits her. Tragically, the old woman dies from the burn.
"Ahhe! I shot her", the mohawk man trembles. "Yabai, kowai", mumbling as if in delirium, he approaches the face-down corpse. As the highway robber crouches down, a new figure enters the scene. "Ah!" Reflexively, the mohawk man once again pulls the triggers of both his shock guns. KADOOM!
Because of his shaky grip, the flash burns the sign "Moo-like Field" near the figure. "Abunai... Abunai", the figure mutters emotionlessly. "I missed!?", the mohawk man cries, drooling. "I missed!" "Yes, you did", the figure replies in a careless voice. Even though his life was on the line. "What a shame."

From part I, "Neo-Saitama In Flames": "Swan Song Sung By A Faded Crow"

Ninja Slayer From Animation: Hiroyuki Imaishi Interview

This interview was published on animeanime.jp in April, around the time the first episode aired.