Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Gate - Thus the JSDF Fought There! Volume 1 Afterword

Translator: Nigel
Editors: PervySageChuck, Nate


To those readers who have just obtained this volume, or to those who have started reading it, thank you very much.

This story is about how an otaku becomes involved with a world where the modern military meets a fantasy world.

Although I don’t think anyone will want to join the JSDF after reading this book, if you decide to enlist, and they ask you why you want to join, please don’t mention this book. There’s a 90% chance they’ll reject you. However, don’t be too idealistic either, like saying you want to protect democracy, the nation and so on. In short, don’t say anything you yourself would not believe in. The interviewers know all about that, and I can confidently say that because I’ve enlisted six times. These interviews are where you show off your attitude and your will.

If you say you’re choosing this path for yourself, the interviewers can accept it. At a stretch, even if you say, “I just want to eat”, as long as you can convince them of your determination, you might still make it.

The protagonist of this story, Itami Youji, is a man who lives for his hobbies.

During Itami’s interview, he probably replied like that when asked for his motivation.

“I want to join to protect my everyday life (when I can read manga and etc…)”

The interviewer was convinced of Itami’s conviction from the way he replied. No, he definitely felt it. Of course, if he had heard the parts in parentheses, it might have gone differently. And so, that was how a singularly unmotivated person like Itami made it into the JGSDF.

That said, Itami did not forget the debt he owed his country and the JSDF. While he was a slacker under normal conditions, he was quite animated when push came to shove, which was why he could show his stuff in the Special Region.

Dear readers who have stepped into the world of “Gate” through this novel, I am certain you will enjoy Itami’s antics. I’m sure that those readers who are starting on the manga tankoubon will enjoy Black Lion-sama’s insert pictures.

Then, I look forward to seeing you again in the future!

Yanai Takumi
   柳内たくみ


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31 comments:

  1. This afterword should have come sooner. Would have beaten down everyone who said this book was JSDF propaganda.

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    1. :shrug: In my admittedly limited experience, I find those complaining like that is usually NOT a military reader. They are who usually dont read John Ringo, or Clancy, etc... and try Gate and they hate it. But, and this is important, they dont want to admit that they are not military reader (because reason). They want to say they read all kinds of fiction (god know why). So they will downgrade the series. They dont read it because it's bad, not because they dont read it~

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    2. This post is really confusing, how is stating that this work is so japancentric somehow dependent on reading military novels? You might as well be telling me I can't say that studies that say vaccines cause autism are bullshit because I have not read textbooks on nutrition. Then you somehow increase the strawman by including the statement that all those everyone who thinks this novel is japancentric always say "that they read all types of novels", and then you state that the only reason people who disagree with you read this novel is so they can pat themselves on the back for reading all sorts of novels.

      And then your last line of "They don't read it because it's bad, not because they don't want to read it" is just non sense. They do not read it because it is bad (so are you saying that is novel is bad, it seems to conflict with the rest of the paragraph), and the rest of your sentence is just bullshit "not because they do not read it." What I think you are conveying with your last sentence is "people do not read this novel because it is bad, not because they do not read it" People do not read this novel because they dont read it? Are you talking about military novels? You need to put more thought into making posts not non sense

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    3. Tip for the future, trying to unravel layers of bullshit/bad writing results in an even more confusing (and longer) sentence/paragraph/comment.

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    4. Andrew, if you read Clancy, it is very US-centric, you learn to ignore the leaning tendencies of writers early or you'll forever be ranting at the books. Hell, I don't think there was not a major country that the US in Clancy's books did not piss off or beat up.

      You learn to ignore the "Amurica-World Police!!" or "Nippon-banzai!!" of military stories or you'll just end up dropping the entire genre from the amount of chest thumping testosterone and nationalism in it.

      Sometimes, to enjoy a story, you just have to ignore certain things.

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  2. Hello everyone, I'm an American and I decided I wanted to join the JSDF because of this book. But first I have to learn Japanese desu, I already know a lot like "senpai" means boyfriend "kawaii" means cute and "sama" means master desu.

    I'm cringing so hard right now... de...d... I cant say it, I can't end the sentence with that word again! GAAAAHHHHH!

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    1. lol I might do this, if I have the chance xD

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    2. err... senpai doesn't mean boyfriend... not even close, it's an honorific to refer to someone with more experience in a given field, like people of higher years in school, older members in a club or anyone who's working in a company since before you started working there.

      Also, sama is an honorific that denotes the highest respect, but doesn't necessarily mean master.

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    3. "senpai" does not mean boyfriend, it means senior, like a person that is older than you, by age and experience.

      Example: 2nd Year high school student talking to a 3rd year high school student.

      An Animator ,who just started, talking to one of their counterparts, who has been in the business for a few years.

      "Senpai" does not mean boyfriend. Final words

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    4. The joke ---------->>>>>>>>>>>
      ┌--------------->>>>>>>>>
      |
      |<<<<<<<<-------┐
      paul -w- and gandog77<<<<<<<<<<-------------


      tl;dr - nowhere near each other.

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  3. This explains many things on this book, like gun and military knowledge and political views.

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  4. thanks for the hard work!!!! Nigel's a translating beast!!! YOU ROCK!!! btw, how many volumes are out already??

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    1. I believe that there are 10 original volumes which have been split up into smaller volumes and reprinted as 16 volumes in Japan.

      Nigel is currently working on translating volume 5 and we lowly editors are working furiously, trying to keep up with his frenetic pace. I honestly don't know how Nigel does it... We've decided to rename him as Saitama, the One Volume-At-A-Glance Translator!!!

      (With our apologies to One and Murata Yuuske!)

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    2. Now, if we could only convince Nigel to start wearing a cape and shave his head bald...

      http://i.imgur.com/F6mv1Qc.jpg

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    3. wait, you mean vols. 2-4 are already translated and stalled at proof-reading?? damn, nice work :D

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    4. Time the bring out the guns and force em to slave away...i mean, work faster =P

      Ty guys for our daily Gate ^^

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  5. *remembers every single WW2/cold war/middle east hollywood movie i have ever watched*

    i don't see anything out of the ordinary.

    nobody would have said anything about "propaganda" if it were an american author writing about the american army doing the same things.

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    1. Heh, true. But they would cry it's unrealistic, NOT ENOUGH FOCUS ON OIL AND GEORGE BUSH JOKES!!

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    2. I totally agree with you, if it was a american actor.. oh hell, even if it was a british, no one would ever say about this "propaganda" stuff or called this america stronk or anything like that. Thank you very much Nigel and the skythewood staff that brought us such amazing work.

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  6. I always find it amusing how some people will comment on something that they don't like by quickly calling it a name, without giving any supporting evidence.

    Of course, if Anonymous-kun had given any evidence at all as to why this story is propaganda, (And I am not saying that it is OR is not propaganda), it probably would have shown his bias against one country as opposed to his own, UNLESS he is one of those rare types who will equally blast his own country's propaganda. The fact is, EVERY country's media tends to favor their own country over all others, so why should we be upset at seeing this sort of thing?

    Personally, I prefer to put such things out of my mind when I am reading an enjoyable story, although I will admit to occasionally telling myself how I would react if I were such and such character in the story. But that is part of the fun in reading a good story, in my opinion.

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    1. Don't bother with them, pervy-chan. The moment you bother with those scum, you drop to their level. So ignore those scums in the future <3

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  7. PDF

    Volume 1 - http://www.mediafire.com/?z255wsll80gwu9c

    Enjoy

    Thanks to Sky & Co. for the translation.

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    1. Above link doesn't work anymore. Use this:

      Volume 1 PDF: http://www.mediafire.com/?8qb5v9eluw2d353

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  8. Thank you for Sky, Nigel and various editors for translating Gate so fast and high quality too.

    And excuse me for being a leech but does someone have an EPUB of the volume?

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  9. thanks for the translation. There were some points where i was like "how they leave fr thus point to another? What happened in between?" Maybe it's caused I watched the anime and read the manga that I didn't mind it so much?......Eh

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  10. Say, does anyone know if there's a link to the web novel in English can share?

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