About Kitty (translator/coordinator/acquisitions manager):

I am a college student studying Japanese, currently with an Associate’s Degree in Japanese and a JLPT N2 certification: I just started taking Japanese at university and was able to skip a year’s level of classes.

I started translating Takarazuka shows when my sister insisted on being able to watch Angel’s Ladder, the Takarazuka adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, and I’m now addicted to translating despite constantly wanting to shout at all the characters to talk slower (especially MRS BENNET). Once I discovered that scripts could be found in Le Cinq I immediately became addicted to those too (not to mention the pretty pretty pictures that I love to cry over).

Over the 2016-17 school year I studied abroad in Kyoto and could be found at various Takarazuka theatres up to 3 times a week (I’m sorry teachers). I gathered a ton of scripts, programs, and other translation materials, and my Japanese skills have also improved a ton which is helping me post more consistently. If you want to know more about what I got up to you can ask over on my main ^^b

Translation updates (aka constant grumbling) can be found under this tag at my main blog.

I also post detailed write-ups once in a while here under this tag.

About Lee (subtitle maker/proofreader/site admin):

College student, studying engineering. The extent of my Japanese understanding is, perhaps, brushing toddler level; somehow it’s enough to time subs correctly (mostly).

I’m not entirely sure how I found Takarazuka, but my earliest memory is of Youtube diving and stumbling upon clips from Soragumi’s 2004 production of Phantom. And that was it – I was hooked. It was the only time I’ve ever experienced love at first sight. Subtitling came much later, after discovering fan-translated shows (took me a couple years, tbh). Started out in Notepad (that was interesting, to say the least…lots and lots of typing.) before switching to the highly superior Aegisub. Now, I’m just as obsessed with subbing as I am with Takarazuka itself.

Since I’m not going to Japan any time soon, I’ve resigned myself to living vicariously through Kitty. My inbox is always open to questions about Aegisub, hard/soft subtitles, and subtitling in general.

About Chemicals (editor/translator):

I’m a translator/interpreter with a JLPT N1 and a degree in English, with a linguistics and translation minor. I edit, translate, fill in holes and catch adlibs, mostly.

I’ve delved into all sorts of Japanese media, and found out about Takarazuka years ago, through OGs in jdramas (Amami Yuuki, Maya Miki and Dan Rei especially), but my Japanese not being up to par at the time prevented me from getting into it for good. But then, Romeo and Juliette 2011 crossed my path on the year I was sitting for N2, and it was all downhill from there.

I watch all troupes but I’m mainly a yukigumi and hoshigumi fan. It is my wish that more people outside of Japan discover the wonderful world of Takarazuka, and hopefully this blog helps with this goal even by a little bit.

About Alex (Subtitler/Translator)

Hi! I’m Alex, sometime university student, sometime translator, and I’m really just muddling through. I fell in love with Takarazuka in the summer of 2016, when I got rather dragged into this rabbit hole. Unfortunately, or perhaps very fortunately, I can’t leave, and Takarazuka has rather dominated my life since then. I’m a Japanese Studies student at a university in England, but I’ve got a masters in the field on the horizon, and plans to take N2 in the near future. Most of what I translate is either articles for school, or articles for fun, but I’m very much taking on the slightly bigger challenge of shows as a whole. Generally, I’ll be found working on either the most incoherent show possible, or something that makes me cry laughing, though I haven’t found a show that fits both categories yet. if you find one, let me know, and I’ll be very very grateful.

About Ani (Subtitler/Translator)

I am a biostatistician, working in medical research in the US, and long time musical theater and anime fan. I became fascinated by Takarazuka after attending my first performance in Japan of “Rurouni Kenshin.” I had been studying Japanese on my own as a hobby before then, but my love of Takarazuka and Japanese history a desire to better understand their works led me to continue on with that study. I currently have a JLPT N3 certification and plan to soon take the N2!

About Harpy (Site Admin/Apprentice Subtitler)

College graduate with degrees in music performance and pure mathematics. Works full time as a coder in algorithm development. Japanese skills mostly involve daily beating of head against wall. Can only catch words here and there but is desperately trying to get better.

I was introduced to Takarazuka by Lee so that I’d a get a joke. My first show was Romeo and Juliette (Hoshi 2013 B cast). I hate the RetJ story so why I stuck around, no one knows. My favorite show is the Scarlet Pimpernel (Hoshi 2008) and I enjoy most things Hoshigumi (Benigumi is my favorite) — but the other troupes are amazing as well.

Team organization:

While in general all of us will be involved with a project at some point, projects are given different team designations depending on who is head translator for that script. Projects with kittychan as head translator are under Kittygumi, and projects with chemicalperfume as head translator are under Chemgumi. Projects kittychan and chemicalperfume share are under Feelsgumi (bc we enable each other into a spiraling disaster of feels…) And of course there are various other collaborations and shared projects.

Subtitle/Software info:

Zukalations uses Aegisub, a free subtitle-making software. The first couple releases (while poor Kittychan was muddling along by herself QWQ) were made with another free software, AHD Subtitle Maker Professional. 

For the hard-subbed clips, we use MKVToolNix and Handbrake (both freeware – ask Lee for details).

Any other video clip editing is done using VideoPad (which has a free version).

Please ask if you have any questions about how we do things!

Disclaimers:

All material translated here belongs to the Hankyu Corporation/Takarazuka Creative Arts. We are not making money off of this, nor attempting to in any way. These translations are intended for private use to help more people understand Takarazuka shows.