Hi there, and welcome to the Mirage of Blaze forum!
It's hard to believe that I translated my first Mirage story ten years ago--yikes! Like everyone else who fell in love with the anime and couldn't believe THAT's how it ended, I searched frantically for a continuation of the story and found it: 40+ volumes,to be exact. The only problem? They were in Japanese. Also, international shipping is expensive.
Fortunately for my budding obsession, I wandered into that wonderful used book store called Book-Off while on vacation in New York City and got my hands on my first Mirage novel: Exaudi Nos. And I set out to find out what I could accomplish with a semester of college Japanese, an old-fashioned Japanese-English dictionary, a great big dollop of stubbornness, and the Internet at my fingertips. I guess it didn't turn out too badly.
Then I moved across the country (along with all 40+ Mirage novels), found a new job, bought a fixer-upper and fixed it up (mostly), and finished this site in its newest incarnation. Now I finally have a little time to continue my translations. Yay!
This is my first time running a forum, so it'll be a learning experience. But hey, that's what we're all here for, right? (Also, it came with the site, so minimal extra effort involved, hah.) So come say hello, start a discussion, and let's delight in this fandom together!
I'm really glad to see that you're back here. The site was always up through the years, so even if it hadn't been updated in a long time, I held the hope that you'd eventually come back to it. When it suddenly stopped working, I thought I'd finally have to give up. But lo and behold, here you are! It's almost surreal. I remember when volumes 2 and 3 were being translated, so I suppose that means I've been visiting your site for the last 8 years (yowza!).
As someone who's tried my hand at translating manga after a couple semesters of college Japanese, I'm even more impressed with your early translations. Thanks for all of them, and I'm so excited to be able to read your new ones. After years, it's normal for people to migrate from canons and fandoms alike, so it's a delight to see that you're still interested. I'm also really interested to see who else has stuck around from the old days and what new faces come around!
My name is Hanna, and I will be helping Asphodel run this forum. I'm looking forward to getting to know all of you and sharing the obsession!
I first learned about Mirage in my early teens when I went through every BL anime that I could get my hands on. Mirage was one of the very few ones that I kept coming back to. Then some years ago I found out about the novels and the translations, immediately wanted to read them and fell in love. Sadly I don't know Japanese, so there's still a lot about the story I don't know about. I'm more than grateful to Asphodel and everyone else who has put their time in providing us with the translations.
One of the things I like to do with Mirage is cosplaying Kagetora from the prequel novels, so I will at least be sharing some cosplay photos and resources for anyone who might be interested in trying something similar. I've also been lucky to find a couple of people to discuss Mirage with during the last year and have been doing that a lot, but now I'm happy we have this forum to share ideas and thoughts with more people and hopefully motivate each other to contribute to the fandom.
What else? I'm in my late twenties, I live in Finland and work with climate policies. I have picked up several other pastimes due to reading Mirage, notably iaido and reading about Japanese history, culture, religions and art.
I sometimes wonder which will happen first: other people completing the translations, automatic translation softwares reaching a high enough level, or me finding the time to start studying Japanese myself. I'm determined to read the whole thing eventually, one way or the other. But for now, how nice to be here with all of you and appreciate the series together.
Imperfekti, on a non-Mirage note, I'm heartened to hear you work in climate policies. It is the most important work in the world today. Somewhere in a non-Mirage forum, I would love to hear more about what you do and your thoughts on how we in Oregon can be most helpful. (As you know, the US on a federal level is not interested in being helpful right now, but many states are stepping up. I think in this forum we include people in Washington state, Hawaii, and Oregon, all of which have pledged to uphold their Paris Accord obligations, so yay!) Sorry for the off-topic hijack.
Sorry for the late reply, I just noticed this message now! But I agree, it is the most important thing to be doing right now. I'd be happy to talk about it sometime somewhere else!
Hello hello!
I'm Michiru, I've lived in the US and Japan (currently I'm in the US working at a library), and I've also bee a fan of MoB for at least a decade. I'm like Hanna, I kept coming back to MoB, and I'm thrilled to see new chapters going up. Thank you, Asphodel!
I'm doing a little translation myself, and recently put up a summary of the new play based on the prequel novels on my Tumblr, but it's nothing near Asphodel's quality. In particular, I get lost whenever we get into historical details (the who dd what now?), but little by little, as a fan of history and a continuing student of Japanese, I'm starting to get it, and it's always worth going back to get new details. The novels are just so remarkably interesting, with so much detail.
Hanna and I have been having long and detailed discussions for, er, a few months now, I think (wow!) and are really looking forward to getting other people in on the conversation. There's always so much to geek out over!
I look forward to future translations and talk!
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Can't I even dream? Would you shut my heart in my chest? -Kagetora, Yonakidori Blues
It’s so good to see that English MoB fandom is coming back to life - same thing happened with Russian fandom this year too :) I guess with Showa prequels and theatrical plays coming out everyone is inspired.
I’m a Russian native, currently living in the US. I’ve spent 7 years in Japan, so I can speak and read Japanese, and I’ve traveled across the country a lot. Russian being my mother tongue, I translate Mirage from Japanese into Russian. I own the Russian website – not much interesting for you guys there apart from some art and photographs, but I’ll still post the link: http://rumirage.com/
Looking forward to the discussions. I’m currently reading Kaiko-hen and Showa-hen, at the same time :) Going to Japan in a couple of weeks – where I’ll catch both the play and the event with Kuwabara on October 12th. Very excited :)
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So friggin' happy! This is the absolute best news I've heard in such a long time, WELCOME BACK!!
I want to properly thank you for all your previous work, it was through your glorious translations that my love for MoB deepened and I got to experience the awesomeness that is the novels. The anime was the gate into the MoB fandom but I also felt there was a lot more to the story and I yearned for so much more. It was around this point that I discovered your site. Ever since I have become a total addict. As the MoB-fandom seemed to be dying, I vowed to myself that someday I'd finish the entire series, even if it meant that I'd have to learn japanese and hunt down every single book. I still haven't gotten around to learning japanese, still at a beginner level but I hope to deepen my knowledge of it as soon as I finish my other studies. I'm very glad you're back though since it would presumably take me decades to reach your level and be able to read the novels.
MoB is such a special series. For a very long time I've been fascinated by the japanese culture, language and history and MoB is such a great combination of those things. The plot and characters are also very rich and amazing, the amount of details are astonishing!
The absolute main thing I love about it though, that no other aspect of the series can compete with, is the relationship between Naoe and Takaya. No other relationship has captivated me as much as theirs and I don't think I can properly convey what those two do to me, how special their connection is. ARGH JUST SO DAMN BEAUTIFUL!!
I'm so happy right now that I can't really write a good introduction but just want to finish off by saying a big, BIG thank you and welcome back Asphodel! Looking forward so much to the continuation and fangirling/fanboying with y'all!
After a healthy four months of membership, I figured I should finally post... something... ╮(￣▽￣")╭
I had planned on posting earlier, but everyone had such impressive introduction posts that my original message (HI OMG I LOVE MIRAGE OF BLAZE I'M SO HAPPY YOU'RE BACK ASPHODEL-SAN!!!!111111) was not up to snuff and so I retracted my head back into my shell and went on a long journey. Finally, that journey is over. Not really, because I still don't have anything good to say, but boy can I type a lot and make it seem like I do.
I first came across the Mirage of Blaze anime years ago and was struck by the fact it was a BL anime with NICE ART!!! Σ(゜ロ゜; ) After watching this AWESOME BL ANIME WITH NICE ART!!! I altavista'd frantically, found out about the novels and rejoiced, but then cried when the translations stopped, and that despite the ginormous BL community and amount of translators that exist, it has practically no fandom, and moreover none but a few were willing to work on it, and inevitably all of them also disappeared before doing too much. I'm pretty sure this series has some sort of curse on it. ┐( ˘_˘)┌ (Or I think everyone just cared about the sex bits and bailed on the series when those got translated... ...)
Indeed, my heart was gladdened when Asphodel returned because I had thought it was a lack of interest rather than time that caused the end of the translations here, but 'twas not! And so with renewed hope I look forward to the dawn of the new day with my head held high.
As for me, I'm your average NEET who is bedridden with illness, so I have a lot of free time but not a lot of energy to do things in that free time. I love manga and video games the most, with anime and television on the side, though I haven't watched any of that for quite some time. Currently I've somehow become involved in getting various dropped series picked up which for the amount of effort I've put in has yielded pitiful results. I should really just hunker down on my Japanese studies, but my illness doesn't care for things such as that.
I think that's it. OK bye (๑´▿`๑)♫
Hello! I'm like Ixtli, wanted so much to post something, but I didn't know what to say, seeing all your comments, I got scared. XD and also my English is not that good how can I write something so impressive lol
Anyway I'm Sarah, and I also like mirage of blaze, I came across to the anime a few years ago and I thought reading novels, but sadly I was surprised that the translation are not complete :/ then I decided to learn Japanese but unfortunately I'm so busy studying physics gave me no time to do other things :(
the only thing I can do is wait for the translation from Asphodel :) thanks so much for all your efforts and looking forward to the continuation...
Hi everyone, I'm Labingi (Arwen in real life; I don't care which name you use). I live in Oregon, USA, and am originally from California. I discovered Mirage in 2006 through the sadly now defunked Boys on Boys on Film review site and was very involved with the LJ-based fandom till around 2012, when it kind of petered out, and I drifted away with it, got busy, adopted two kids, and have had little time for fandom of any kind. But now I'm back!
I started the mirage-trans.livejournal.com community for translation links some years ago and have more or less kept it up, though sometimes with many lackadaisical months of neglect. I'm hoping to be more on top of it now. Sadly, I do not know enough Japanese to help with translation. I've had one college term and some self-study, but parenthood has more recently gutted my efforts to maintain/advance my skills. I hope to take more classes in the future.
Mirage is one of my favorite all time stories, based on what I've been able to read. My interest has ebbed and flowed over the years with my life stage, other preoccupations, fan community, etc., but it's never gone away, and I feel it resurging now, not only due to the stage plays (though I'm completely fanning out over them!) but also because life has swung me around to seeing Mirage as personally relevant again, in a different way from 2006-10 or so. I hope to do meta about it.
Labingi - wow, we're neighbours :) What part of Oregon, north or south? I'm in Washington state, Seattle area.
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I'm in Portland. In fact, I work in Vancouver, WA, so I'm not terribly far from your stomping grounds. :)
Hi guys. I owe a big thank you for everyone envolved in the translation project and keeping the fans updated. I fell in love with the story in 2011. It was a wonderful ride and I want to go back to it again so badly. MoB feels like a lost distant lover that I am trying to keep an eye on :D
Hi Zoey! I feel much the same. I'm really hoping we can get translations going again. It doesn't take a lot of people (who can translate Japanese), but it does take a lot of time and, hence, real passion for MoB. I'm hoping the stage plays will spark some more interest; it's too bad they're not released subbed themselves. Anyway, welcome and hope to see you around!
Hi guys. I owe a big thank you for everyone envolved in the translation project and keeping the fans updated. I fell in love with the story in 2011. It was a wonderful ride and I want to go back to it again so badly. MoB feels like a lost distant lover that I am trying to keep an eye on :D
Hello everyone! :)
First of all, thank you for keeping this fandom alive!!
I'm Rina and I have been MoB fan since 2007. I found this amazing fandom when I randomly bought MoB anime collection from the local flee market! I totally fell in love with this series and read every information I got in English. That time I couldn't underdstand Japanese well so it was very depressing to not know how the story will continue from vol. 24... I studied Japanese for years and finally last year I could buy almost all missing novels and read them. Kuwabara-sensei is the best novelist ever!! I really respect and admire her writing skills. I can't understand how anyone can have this kind of imagination to write such a wonderful and interesting story as MoB has. MoB is something special and it even changed my way to see the life. Relationship between Takaya and Naoe breaks my heart everytime. I don't know much I have cried because of it. Novels from 28 were so painful to read because I knew the spoilers what will happen in the end of vol. 40.
I'm looking forward to see how MoB prequels from Showa era will continue! :) Sensei said there are only few volumes left! I hope she will write next about what happened before Showa prequels when Naoe's former body before Naoki (Yamazaki if I remember right) was still alive. :D
Hi Rina! Thanks for introducing yourself. I admire you for boning up on your Japanese and learning to read MoB. I've known the series for about the same amount of time but have not been able to study Japanese consistently enough (yet) to be able to do that. I hope I can when life lightens up a little.
Do you have any interest in summarizing any of the vol. 25-40 material for English speakers (whether in detail or very generally)? If not, no worries. I know all this stuff is a time commitment.
Hi labingi!
Yes, actually I'm planning to write some reviews about vol. 28-40 so that everyone gets information what is generally happening in those volumes! Right now I'm still making review about vol. 28 but I'll finish it soon.
Yay! I'm so excited. When you have your review, I'd be glad to add it to the list of Mirage_Trans links. Thank you!
Sure! :)
My summary/review/thoughs of vol. 28 is ready now!
I have finally figured out how to use the forum.... I think.... anyhoo, hello! I am Jenn also known as jazzy2may. I am very excited to see a new translater summary person join the fnadom. I have finally been getting the forum update emails. so happy!
I was wondering if anyone has thought about creating Audio-book/PodCast? maybe read it in original japanese first record it and post it then maybe work on the english version later then post it? I don't know. I am good at listening to a different language and sort of figuring it out but reading another language is pretty difficult; unless i use google and that sort of doesn't work well, unless its russian, in which case, google seems fine at translating that! ha~ha.
also. I love audio novels. I would love to have mirage of blaze in audio book form. i wish the publisher or sensei would make audio books for the series. sigh.
love the translations. love the summaries. I love how lively this forum has become and I am so happy I have figured out how to use it somewhat. ;D
thank yousincerely,jazzy
jazzy2may
Hi Jenn! Good to have you here. Regarding an audio version of Mirage, I don't know of any movement to do this. My focus has been more on textual translation/summary. You're probably familiar with the audio CDs published in Japan, several tracks of which have been translated (textually) in English (links on http://mirage-trans.dreamwidth.org). Maybe getting some folks to do audio versions of those translations would be a place to start. It might be kind of fun for a voice actor in English to try to match the general emotion of the Japanese tracks, especially given how different the languages sound. That's what comes to mind.
Thank you.
I will definitely give the tracks a look see. I do so hope someone will take up audio book movement challenge. I'd really love some audio books. sigh.
hugs
jenn
jazzy2may
Hello！I am a fan of Mirage of Blaze from China.I am really excited to see there are some people in America translating the novle and the site is such a surprise.I want to say there are many missing translatings in this novle in China,and we are trying our best to translate the whole novel, including Showa ,Bakumatsu,etc...I just want to say that......support you!!
Hi Sakura! I'm glad to hear Mirage fandom is alive and well in China. I thought that all 40 original volumes had been translated into Chinese (I've been very envious!). I know that years ago Quaint-Twilight was translating from the Chinese. She didn't translate the whole thing into English, but I thought she had access to the whole thing in Chinese. I could be wrong, but I wonder if some links might have been taken down and if she might have a copy of older translations. You can message her on Dreamwidth at quaint-twilight.dreamwidth.org/profile. (She's not active there, but she still gets message alerts). Or if you don't have a DW account, I'd be glad to message her on your behalf.
Thank you very much!Could you please help me ask if she has the whole Volume from 1 to 20 in Chinese??About 17 years ago,a translator named Hinako translated the whole Volume from 1 to 20 by herself.Her translations are excellent and prolific,her speed of translation almost overtook the original.But some people infringed on her rights and interests.She had to stop translating.Her site had already closed,and some Volumes she had finished translating got lost,new fans like me can hardly find the whole thing.We didn't have formal translation team until 2008,so the translations are scattered,in addition some links have been taken down.So if I can find the whole Volume from 1 to 20,I will be praticularly grateful.My e-mail address is konahanawww@sina.com,it can contact me more conveniently.
Now MoB have only 1 volume to end,and we only have 4 volumes left to translate(not include side stories).Hope everything goes well.Besides,if you have any difficulty about reading MoB,I'm glad to help.
Sorry for the delay in my response! I have forwarded your message to quaint_twilight. She used Hinako's translation, so it may that it's just gone now. :-( But I asked if she had access to anything she'd feel comfortable sharing. I'm sorry Hinako had problems. That's very sad, especially since she clearly put in a huge amount of work.
Ok,that's all right.Thank you very much for your help and I can totally understand the thing.It's a big pity since Hinako stopped translating on her site but other fans will continue to do it.Hope all of us can finish translating.Thank you again for your kindness.
Hi Sakura, I've dropped you an email. :)
//Endless Blaze//My DW//
Hi everyone! I'm Quaint-twilight or you may call me Gina. I live in Singapore. My love for Mirage started back in 2006 when I came across the anime while going through Seki Toshihiko's catalog of work. After that, I began to do a little translating using Chinese translations while studying Japanese so that I can eventually read the original novels. I got to a point where I could finally understand enough Japanese to do a passable translation but, unfortunately, RL kept getting in the way that I couldn't really keep up with translating and the fandom. But here I am now after a long hiatus mainly because the plays (thanks to Arwen mentioning them!) have reawakened my love for this series. I wish I could get back into translating but I'll have to see what I can do about my crazy work+study schedule.
//Endless Blaze//My DW//
Hello,Gina! I'm glad to see you here and I am a big fan of Seki-San too,he is my favorite Seiyu.But I must apologize for my carelessness that I had given a wrong email address.....I would appreciate it very much if you have time to send it to the right address:konohanawww@sina.com. Really sorry for my mistake.
No problem, I've sent you another email :) Seki-san is my favorite seiyuu too!
//Endless Blaze//My DW//
Thank you very much!!!!I have got your email.
Seiki-san is so cute~How lucky I am to know him~
Oh nice, it's good to see you're here! I read Japanese so I get the novels/plays that way and check this site only sporradically, which is why I'm so late replying after your introduction. But I loved the summaries you wrote years ago, still have them saved and bookmarked. Have a belated thank you for all your hard work, I've enjoyed it for a long time.
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Can't I even dream? Would you shut my heart in my chest? -Kagetora, Yonakidori Blues
Hi Gina! So nice to see you on this forum and back in Mirage fandom (as time allows). I also saw your post on Dreamwidth and want to read it and reply but haven't had a chance just yet. I'm looking forward to it. I agree the plays are exciting!
Hi!
My name is Alicia and I'm from France.Seeing all these comments I also wanted to introduce myself. ^^I apologize in advance if my English is bad, I still struggle with this language.Otherwise I am a very big fan of mirage of Blaze for some years and my frustration was immense when seeing the translations stopped, which is why I am really happy to see the forum resurrect and the translations resumed.
I hope to have the pleasure of talking with you for a long time.
Hello Alicia! I'm very interested to see a fan from France, because I'm studying French myself (and am still terrible, haha!) How did you discover Mirage?
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Can't I even dream? Would you shut my heart in my chest? -Kagetora, Yonakidori Blues
Hi Michiru,
Like many people, I discovered MOB thanks to anime about five years ago and then I became interested in novels that are better ! ^^ So, I'm not one of the oldest fans unlike others who have known MOB for at least ten years. It must be said that at the time I discovered it, I was at the beginning of high school. ;)
Today, I am a student at the university and I hoped during these five years that the translations of MOB resume and that the forum is active again. Now my wish is granted. ^^
I wish you good luck in learning French. ;)
Haha, don't worry, you'll be a ten-year veteran soon enough. ^_^
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Can't I even dream? Would you shut my heart in my chest? -Kagetora, Yonakidori Blues
Hi Alicia! It's great to see you on these forums. Wow, we are certainly an international group! Your English is good--and infinitely better than my French.
Hello labingi,
Thank you very much ! It's true that there are many different nationalities, It's great! It's also pleasant to see the forum anew active after years of abandonment. ^^
Hi everyone!
I can't say I'm new to the site, i've been browsing it for many years now. I never stumbled upon the forum however, and I was surprised to see so many MoB fans! So I wanted to take the time and introduce myself as well and show that there are still plenty of MoB fans around ;)
So my name is Sara and I'm from Belgium. I fell in love with Mirage of Blaze about 11 years ago I think and still madly in love with it to this day. I bought all the books in Japanese even though I can't read them =p It's my dream to one day understand enough Japanese to read the whole story.
Which brings me to my next question: I'm studying Japanese in my free time and I'm around JLPT lvl N5, which is beginner. I'm dedicated to the cause though and I want to keep learning, as I read from many others that they were able to read the novels after years of studying. For the people that have been in a similar sitiation, how long did it take you before you could somewhat read the novels and how much/ how often did you study? I try to do my lesson every day and am planning to take some university courses next year.
Also cheers for all the lovely people translating and summarising! <3
Hi Sara, it's great to see you here ! It's really a joy to see so many fans coming back to this forum. ^^
If you came from Belgium, do you speak French ? ;)
I hope you can one day read all the volumes of mirage of blaze.
Hi Sara, nice to see you here! I can't answer your Japanese question as I am also a beginner. (I share your ambition of being to read MoB one day.) All I can say is for me taking a class is infinitely easier than self-study, but MoB is good motivator either way. (I love how geographically diverse MoB fans are. We have people from so many parts of the world here.)
Hello to a fellow fan. It's amazing how long we can be fans, isn't it? Many of us became fans years ago, and it tends to stay with us!
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Can't I even dream? Would you shut my heart in my chest? -Kagetora, Yonakidori Blues
Hi Sara, welcome to the forum :) Good luck with studying Japanese. It's really doable, just takes a lot of effort. For me learning Japanese was easy because I lived in Japan at the time. Still it took a lot of effort, especially the reading part. I started learning Japanese in 2001, and reading Mirage - in 2004. I probably could have started earlier, but somehow I was convinced that this is impossible, too difficult, not my level yet etc. for a long time. So, when I finally gave it a try I was surprised, because it was not beyond my level at all. It was reasonably comfortable read with the help of a dictionary.
Now I'm in a similar situation as you with my Chinese. I'm studying it outside of the country, progressing slowly but steadily, still elementary level after 1 year of intermittent weekly classes. It will take me much longer this way, but I'm hoping to be able to read (at least manga) in 2-3 years. Study tips - all the same: take regular classes (or self-study, if you can motivate yourself), watch a lot of drama/anime, start to read manga as soon as you can.
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Hi Sara and welcome! :)
Learning foreign languages is always tough and hard job, but it's very rewarding after reaching the goal! I mainly studied by myself, but I also lived in Japan for several months and studied at Japanese language school. Having a teacher is definitely the most effective way to learn! For me it took around 6 years to read novels without any big problems. Good luck with your studying! :)
Thanks everyone for the welcome!
@Sankia: I'm from the Flemish part but i can understand and speak some French :)
I'm a big fan of taking classes as well, but with my fulltime job that's not possible. Fortunately next year I'll be working parttime and will have some time to get into some classes! The self-study is going ok, I love Japanese and my boyfriend has a master in Japanese studies so he helps me when he can. But I miss the pressure of deadlines and tests ^^
Hi, I'm a nearly thirty years old italian woman who fell in love with MoB a long time ago, since 2011. The interest started with the anime, intensified with the OVAs and became love once i found out there was some angels that was translating the novels in english! I'm so happy to have checked after a long period of time and find the community active again, with new discussions, translations and summaries. Now that I have a little free time I'm going to devour all these new translations! Just a big THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart to everyone who keeps alive this wonderful fandom!^^
Hi, Imagase! Welcome to the forums. I know for a while someone was translating Mirage into Italian, but I don't know how far those translations got. I'm glad you're enjoying the translations here.
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