TLC Will Test The Borders Of Romance In New Dating Series ‘Love & Translation’ - Deadline - Translation

TLC is getting ready to test whether love really is the universal language.

The network announced a new dating series Love & Translation during Warner Bros. Discovery’s unveiling of the newly combined Max streaming service.

The series will bring three three American men and 12 international women together on a remote paradise island for a chance at finding romance. And here’s the twist: none of the women speak English and none of the men speak other languages. Without being able to speak to one another and without the use of translators, the singles need to count on their senses to help develop their connection and determine the power of their chemistry and attraction.

RELATED: Deadline’s Full Coverage Of Max Launch Event

Based on what they learn about one another, the men will take the women on dates and find out how love translates when the same language isn’t spoken – will they find true love or just a hot romance?

Love & Translation will premiere this winter on TLC.

The series is produced by Sharp Entertainment, a part of Sony Pictures Television, for TLC.

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Love & Translation is basically that Duolingo reality dating show minus the owl - The Verge - Translation

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They did it. They actually made the Duolingo show.

The trailer for Love & Translation

While it was clearly in development long before Duolingo’s very funny and compelling April Fools’ joke, Love & Translation is definitely going to get a lot of comparisons to the viral ad. That’s because they’re basically the same thing.

In the new show, three men who only speak English look for love amongst 12 women who don’t speak any English at all, which is... a little cringier than the Duolingo gag. Also, there’s no green owl looming in the distance and trying to teach people to new languages so they can better communicate.

But if you’re okay with all that, this sure looks like the kind of show you’ll plow through on a rainy Saturday when you forget to put on real pants until like 5PM.

Love & Translation will be coming to TLC this winter, and given it was announced at the big HBO Max rebranding event, you can expect it to probably show up on the streaming service at some point in the future, too. It’s part of Warner Bros. Discovery’s new plan to expand HBO Max (now called Max) from a service focused exclusively on high-quality programming to one that can appeal to a far wider range of viewers, including ones who sometimes want to watch a dumb reality show instead of the next episode of Succession.

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Scientist discovers 'erased' 1,750-year-old Bible translation | World News - The Christian Post - Translation

An original handwritten Syriac (Peshitta) translation of The Gospels from the 9th century is displayed at the "Book of Books" exhibition in the Bible Lands Museum on October 23, 2013, in Jerusalem, Israel. | Uriel Sinai/Getty Images

A scientist claims to have discovered a hidden ancient translation containing portions of the Gospel of Matthew which are said to be the only known "remnant of the fourth manuscript that attests to the Old Syriac version" of the Gospels.

The researchers, including medievalist Grigory Kessel of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (OeAW or Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften), used ultraviolet photography to find the ancient translation hidden underneath three layers of text. 

The study, published last month in the journal New Testament Studies, features an interpretation of Mattew 11:30 to Matthew 12:26, originally translated as part of the Old Syriac translations nearly 1,500 years ago. 

According to the British Library, Syriac was a dialect of Eastern Aramaic used by the Church in Syria and several countries in the Middle East from the first century until the Middle Ages.  Although it was written in the same alphabet as Hebrew, the Syriac language has its own unique characters.

"As far as the dating of the Gospel book is concerned, there can be no doubt that it was produced no later than the sixth century," the study reads. "Despite a limited number of dated manuscripts from this period, comparison with dated Syriac manuscripts allows us to narrow down a possible time frame to the first half of the sixth century." 

According to a statement released by OeAW earlier this month, the discovered text was made in the third century and copied in the sixth century. More than 1,000 years ago, a scribe in ancient Israel erased a book of the Gospel inscribed with Syriac text to reuse it, as the parchment was a scarce resource in the desert in the Middle Ages and was often reused.  

"The tradition of Syriac Christianity knows several translations of the Old and New Testaments," Kessel stated. "Until recently, only two manuscripts were known to contain the Old Syriac translation of the gospels." 

One of those fragments is kept at the British Library in London. The second fragment was discovered as a "palimpsest," or reused manuscript that still bears traces of its original form, in St. Catherine's Monastery at Mount Sinai. 

The fragment identified by Kessel offers a "unique gateway" to an early phase of the "textual transmission" of the Gospels. 

"For example, while the original Greek of Matthew chapter 12, verse 1 says: 'At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath; and his disciples became hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat,' the Syriac translation says: '[...] began to pick the heads of grain, rub them in their hands, and eat them," the statement noted. 

Claudia Rapp, the director of the Institute for Medieval Research at the OeAW, praised Kessel for the discovery, crediting the researcher for his "profound knowledge" of old Syriac texts and script characteristics.

Rapp estimated that the Syriac translation was produced at least a century before some of the oldest surviving Greek manuscripts, including the Codex Sinaiticus. The Codex Sinaiticus is a complete text of the Gospels believed to be older than the fourth century. 

"This discovery proves how productive and important the interplay between modern digital technologies and basic research can be when dealing with medieval manuscripts," Rapp stated. 

In February, The Christian Post reported on the upcoming auction of the Codex Sassoon in May, which is reportedly the earliest single codex containing all the books of the Hebrew Bible. Created circa 900, the book consists of 24 books divided into three parts. 

The Hebrew Bible is foundational to three Abrahamic religions, Christianity, Judaism and Islam. The 24 books contain the canonical Hebrew Scriptures: the Torah, the Nevi'im and the Ketuvim.

Sotheby's, the fine arts company auctioning the book, suggests it could sell for up to $50 million at the scheduled auction in New York. Before the auction, the manuscript is touring several major cities, including Tel Aviv, Israel, Dallas and Los Angeles, providing the public with an opportunity to view it. 

Samantha Kamman is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: samantha.kamman@christianpost.com. Follow her on Twitter: @Samantha_Kamman

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Dwayne Johnson Volunteers a Name Change After More Dictionary ... - We Got This Covered - Dictionary

via Warner Bros.

If anyone could have predicted that this would be the year Dwayne Johnson threw caution to the wind and started openly flirting with the dictionary on Twitter, then we’d kindly ask that the next set of lottery numbers are shared with the class immediately.

It would have been much easier to call Black Adam bombing at the box office and ending in The Rock being exiled from the DCU after less than two hours of screentime than it would guessing the actor and producer would voluntarily suggest a name change from the iconic moniker that defined his professional wrestling career after being caught up in a social media exchange with Merriam-Webster.

And yet, this is currently where we find ourselves, with Johnson suggesting a more accurate and academic rebranding that doesn’t quite have the same ring to it.

This made me belly laugh 😂 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
And I, henceforth will known as “The Geological One”.

I’ll see myself out now, Jess 😂🥂

— Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) April 10, 2023

The Geological One has never been known as a shrinking violet, which to be expected when he’s constantly reminding us that as well as being an A-list megastar and one of the highest-paid talents in Hollywood, he just so happens to be the part-owner of an entire football league, rapidly-expanding tequila brand, and an energy drink as well.

If anyone can flirt with the dictionary and get away with it, then you’d have to put Johnson somewhere near the top of the list, not that it was a roster we’d even considered compiling this time yesterday. Suffice to say, Twitter remains as strange a place as it ever was, and that isn’t going to change.

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Divine Discovery: Ultraviolet Rays Illuminate 1,750-Year-Old New Testament Translation - SciTechDaily - Translation

The fragment of the translation of the New Testament is visible under UV light. Credit: © Vatican Library

It is an important piece of the jigsaw puzzle in New Testament history and one of the oldest textual witnesses of the Gospels: a small manuscript fragment of the Syriac translation, written in the 3rd century and copied in the 6th century. A researcher from the Austrian Academy of Sciences discovered the fragment with the help of ultraviolet photography.

About 1,300 years ago a scribe in Palestine took a book of the Gospels inscribed with a Syriac text and erased it. Parchment was scarce in the desert in the Middle Ages, so manuscripts were often erased and reused. A medievalist from the Austrian Academy of Sciences (OeAW) has now been able to make the lost words on this layered manuscript, a so-called palimpsest, legible again: Grigory Kessel discovered one of the earliest translations of the Gospels, made in the 3^rd century and copied in the 6^th century, on individual surviving pages of this manuscript.

One of the Oldest Fragments That Testifies Ancient Syrian Version

“The tradition of Syriac Christianity knows several translations of the Old and New Testaments,” says medievalist Grigory Kessel. “Until recently, only two manuscripts were known to contain the Old Syriac translation of the gospels.” While one of these is now kept in the British Library in London, another was discovered as a palimpsest in St. Catherine’s Monastery at Mount Sinai. The fragments from the third manuscript were recently identified in the course of the “Sinai Palimpsests Project.”

The fragment of the translation of the New Testament is visible under UV light. Credit: © Vatican Library

The small manuscript fragment, which can now be considered as the fourth textual witness, was identified by Grigory Kessel using ultraviolet photography as the third layer of text, i.e., double palimpsest, in the Vatican Library manuscript. The fragment is so far the only known remnant of the fourth manuscript that attests to the Old Syriac version – and offers a unique gateway to the very early phase in the history of the textual transmission of the Gospels. For example, while the original Greek of Matthew chapter 12, verse 1 says: “At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath; and his disciples became hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat,” the Syriac translation says: “[…] began to pick the heads of grain, rub them in their hands, and eat them.”

Syrian Translation Before Codex Sinaiticus

Claudia Rapp, Director of the Institute for Medieval Research at the OeAW, is also pleased: “Grigory Kessel has made a great discovery thanks to his profound knowledge of old Syriac texts and script characteristics,” she says. The Syriac translation was written at least a century before the oldest Greek manuscripts that have survived, including the Codex Sinaiticus. The earliest surviving manuscripts with this Syriac translation date from the 6^th century and are preserved in the erased layers, so-called palimpsests, of newly written parchment leaves.

“This discovery proves how productive and important the interplay between modern digital technologies and basic research can be when dealing with medieval manuscripts,” Claudia Rapp says.

Reference: “A New (Double Palimpsest) Witness to the Old Syriac Gospels (Vat. iber. 4, ff. 1 & 5)” by Grigory Kessel, 8 March 2023, New Testament Studies.
DOI: 10.1017/S0028688522000182

The Sinai Palimpsests Project aims to make the centuries-old valuable palimpsest manuscripts of St. Catherine’s Monastery in Egypt readable again and available in digital form. So far, 74 manuscripts have already been deciphered. Claudia Rapp from the University of Vienna and the Austrian Academy of Sciences (OeAW) is the scientific director of the project.

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a dictionary of obscure joys [narrative] - The Brown Daily Herald - Dictionary

Here are some words. Some are fabricated from words in different languages, some are molded from combinations of words long dead, and some are words that already exist to which I have given new meaning. Some are words that were reaching out with tantalizing fingertips, begging to be rescued from dusty dictionaries, and some are words to which I have simply added a bit of pizzazz. 

amidantino

n. a walk for a little bit with a friend along a path in the woods in contented silence.

French ami, friend + Italian andantino, a little walking. Pronounced “am-ee-dan-tee-noe.”

ataraxie  

n. an understanding of your own infinitesimal smallness that makes you feel more free. Also known as ‘floating rock mentality,’ wherein the realization that we are all simply little creatures living on a meaningless floating rock empowers you to live your life according to your rules alone.

Ancient Greek ἀταραξία, equanimity or tranquility + free. Pronounced “ah-trax-ee.”

buzzy

adj. tipsy is to alcohol as buzzy is to weed—inspiring feelings of giggliness or bubbliness, as well as silly thoughts and perhaps craving for a snack.

A play on buzzed, meaning slightly drunk.

consense

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n. goofy, unfounded, and unbridled confidence in a skill you do not have. 

From confidence + nonsense. 

crisple

n. the act of taking one bite of a fruit, feeling the crunch beneath your teeth and savoring that bite thoroughly, then tossing it away; it’s indulgent, tactless, even cruel. But it was a beautiful bite, and now you’ve finished. 

From crisp + apple.

draíocht

n. the wizened, nostalgic, almost-jealous feeling of watching a wide-eyed child begin to believe in magic.

Gaelic draíocht, witchcraft, magic, charm, enchantment.

elitnaus 

n. perverse pleasure in the conviction that you are smarter than whomever you are talking to; an ego-driven feeling, spurred by erudite hubris and a little bit of elitism. 

English elite + Greek νοῦς (naus), intelligence or knowledge. Pronounced “ee-liht-nah-oos.”

entierity

n. the exploding relief of kissing somebody you've wanted to kiss for a long time; the metal-to-magnet pull between two people that was so strong it was a wonder that they ever managed the strength to prevent themselves from succumbing every second. 

From French, devenir entier, to become whole or complete

etheldream

n. the moment of returning to a childhood place you thought you’d forgotten, only to find that you remember just that shade of ivory the house was painted, or how many steps lead you to the front door, or that the handle had to be twisted to the left twice to open; realizing that your soul retains memory much longer than your mind.

Old English eþel, one’s ancestral homeland + dream, Pronounced “eh-thehl-dreem.”

fêtair 

v. the gleeful anticipation of knowing you have given somebody the perfect gift; hearing them tear through the wrapper and feeling your heart rise, anticipating the smile that will spread across their cheeks as they shout, “No way!” or “You remembered!” in a voice that positively bounces with excitement. 

French fête, party + Gaelic tabhair, to give as a gift. Pronounced “feht-air.”

filoksenia

n. the intimacy of cooking a meal for a stranger.

From Ancient Greek φιλοξενία, friend to a stranger, hospitality. Pronounced “fee-low-seh-nee-ah.”

flaneuse 

n. a female finder and connoisseur of places, who delights in stepping out of the house and onto the street for the purpose of becoming one of a vast army of anonymous trampers, meanderers, adventurers who dally along the streets, not digging deeper than the eye approves but rather briefly glancing over everything we pass as it floats us smoothly down a stream; resting, pausing, and wandering on. 

From French flâneur, one who wanders aimlessly + French feminine ending –euse. Pronounced “flan-oos.”

glamhaut

adj. elegant, feminine, opulent; walking in high heels which click-clack on the ground beneath you while your chin is high because their eyes are on you and they’re seeing exactly what you want them to see: your sculpted collarbone, jaw that could cut glass, and your eyes, which do not so much as deign to look down on them.

From glamor + French haut, as in “haute couture,” meaning high fashion, or “haut talons” meaning high heels. Pronounced “glahm-awt.”

infinite 

adj. feeling your hair fly above your ears because your head is poking out of the sunroof of a car flying down the highway, as if the only sounds in the world are the bass pounding at the seat beneath your feet and the wind whipping past your ears, as if you could scream as loud as you could imagine, but the sound would be left behind as soon as it flew out of your mouth, already in the past.

As referenced in The Perks of Being a Wallflower.

irid

n. the ballooning relief of having shed a secret. Perhaps the secret was dark and looming or perhaps it was festering and starting to rot, but it was a secret which has weighed heavily upon you like a great rhinoceros on your chest, and now it is gone. It has slipped away and you feel you might start floating upwards with the sudden lack of it. 

Ancient Greek ίριδα, irida, goddess of the rainbow + rid, to make oneself free of something troublesome. Pronounced “eye-rid.” 

jigsort

v. to set the last piece of a puzzle into its proper place.

From jigsaw + German Ort, place + to sort. 

klarglee

n. the unbelievably pleasant sensation of clean legs against crisp sheets after a long day. 

German klar, clean + glee, great delight. Pronounced “klahr-glee.”

limerence

n. love for a person who doesn’t exist; a precious, private, fantastical kind of love which can live, sparkling and immaculate, in your mind, unburdened with the ties that bind real-life love to the cold and unforgiving earth.

From the work of psychologist Dorothy Tennov, meaning ‘obsessive infatuation with someone, sometimes accompanied by delusions.’ Pronounced “lihm-ur-ehns.”

ludust

n. the small-smile feeling evoked by memories of your very first love who has long since turned to dust in your mind, though you still remember them when you hear a certain song, or smell apple pie.

Greek ludus, playful, young, puppy-dog love + past + dust + lust. Pronounced “luh-duhst.”

macnall tale

adj. delight in your own harmless lies, a kinder synonym for absolute and utter bullshit; a “likely story,” as your mother would say, her voice dripping with sarcasm, or if you asked your father, you’re “full of it.”

Gaelic macnas, playfulness + tall tale.

magpiance

n. the delight in a collection of objects you have amassed—perhaps a small assortment of clocks or pebbles or other eclectic trinkets. 

From magpie, a small black bird famous for its love of collecting. Pronounced “mag-pie-ants.”

melliflux

n. a state of artistic ‘flow’ wherein one’s hands seem to move of their own accord, wild and graceful, as if your artwork and your hands are working with one mind, talking back and forth to each other in a language your mind does not speak, so you must watch with delight from above as they commune.

From mellifluous, sweet sounding and smooth + flux, steady and continuous stream

mirread

v. to read a piece of writing and recognize yourself reflected back, to feel seen and known by an author long dead.

From mirrored + read + myriad. Pronounced “meer-eed.”

piggle 

v. when you laugh so hard and so hysterically that you pee a little.

From pee + giggle

plasconder 

v. to long for spaces that speak to the spirit, spaces that hide the hider themselves (these are places that are small and snug and well-tucked in, secret and quiet and almost intangible, places that are unobservable, yet from which one can observe perfectly well).

From place, a portion of space, a home + Spanish esconder, to hide. Pronounced “play-skon-der.”

punleasure

n. delight in a particularly clever bit of word-play.

From pun + pleasure

quilia

n. a particular care for somebody you love when they are asleep, their face so uncreased and childlike that you want to tuck them in and gently brush their hair back from an impossibly smooth forehead.

From quilt + Greek ϕιλία, (philia), familial love

sensukia

n. a feeling of yearning which inexplicably brings us closer to that place where joy and sorrow meet; the feeling after you wish on an eyelash, or in the middle of a game of “she loves me, she loves me not.” 

From German sehnsucht, yearning; wistful longing. Pronounced “sehn-sue-kee-ah.”

sollevato voce

n. the feeling that, while you sing, your voice is rising and lifted by the voices around you, and you are lifting them in turn.

Italian sollevato, lifted + voce, voice. Pronounced “soll-eh-vah-toe / voe-chay.”

suistalgia 

n. the realization often experienced while looking at your own reflection in the mirror who seems somehow older than you did just yesterday—of what your younger self would think of you now; specifically, that they would fall on the floor in awe of who you have become, that they would be jaw-droppingly stunned by your clothes and your hair and just how grown-up you look, even though you still share the same smile.

Latin prefix sui, meaning self + nostalgia. Pronounced “soo-ee-stahl-gee-ah.”

terrarific

n. delight in being covered in dirt.

Latin terra, earth + terrific.

unwelsh

n. the feeling of being weightless, almost nihilistic, as if you’ve taken a bra off after a day which felt particularly happy and are naked in your bedroom with the windows open.

German Weltschmerz, world-weariness, + unleash, pronounced “uhn-wehlsh.”

vêtemots

n. a kind word, said by a passerby, about something you’re wearing—the article of clothing, of course, will be forever endowed with the power of that compliment and will therefore become something more than it was before. I’ll never wear that scarf again without thinking of that seven year old on the T who told me I looked like her favorite doll. 

French vêtements, clothes + French mots, words.

wynnsome

adj. bouncing, childlike, or perhaps puppylike in one’s bright excitement, joyful like a chanted nursery-rhyme while jump-roping in overalls over steaming blacktop.

From Old English Wynn, delight or joy, + winsome, pleasing and engaging often because of a childlike charm and innocence. Pronounced “wihn-suhm.”

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How one of the greatest visual novels got an English translation because of its fans - Rock Paper Shotgun - Translation

You might not know what Muv-Luv is. I hadn’t even heard of it till a few years ago. Which is strange, since Muv-Luv is considered by many to be one of the most greatest visual novels of all time. What begins as a light-hearted slice-of-life high school romantic comedy eventually pulls the rug out from under the player, and transforms into a war epic featuring mechs and aliens with a much darker tone. In Muv-Luv’s original Japanese release, this twist was hidden and only briefly hinted at in the marketing.

Today both Muv-Luv games are easily available on Steam, marketed specifically with this twist, and where they sit fully-translated and with Overwhelmingly Positive reviews. iOS and Android ports are apparently in development, and other Muv-Luv spin-offs continue to get translated. But the first time anyone experienced a complete English language version of Muv-Luv was in July 2010, when a fan translation group called Amaterasu released a patch localising the first game.

This was announced on Amaterasu’s now-offline blog, where they also hosted all of their fan translations. At the time the majority of English language Muv-Luv discussion on the internet at the time was kept to forums, imageboards, and the comment sections of YouTube videos. In the months leading up to the release of the patch, waves of new people started to discover the series. After its release, the Muv-Luv fandom continued to grow, propped up entirely through word of mouth and driven by the fact that the first game was finally accessible for English-speaking players.

Muv-Luv’s a visual novel in the most traditional sense of the term. Picture games like STEINS;GATE and Hatoful Boyfriend, and you’ve basically got the gist. There’s a lot of reading to do and your input boils down to selecting choices that lead to a specific ending. The series in general stands out for having a very high production value by visual novel standards, using plenty of unique images and animations.

February marked the 20th anniversary of the release of the first game in the series, simply titled Muv-Luv, and developed by a studio called âge (now known as aNCHOR). For years, its sequel — 2006's Muv-Luv Alternative, released after numerous delays — was ranked by players as the number one highest rated game on VNDB, a database for all sorts of visual novels. It’s still the second highest as of writing this. In Japan, Muv-Luv’s extremely popular. The series is far reaching enough that even the creator of the manga Attack On Titan has cited Muv-Luv as a huge influence on the series. It has several spin-offs, anime adaptations and manga. As you might expect, if you like visual novels, it’s hard to write off the success of Muv-Luv.

It's also deeply flawed. Both Muv-Luv and Alternative originally contained adult content, but an “all-ages” version of both was put out later in 2006, and it's version that’s persisted. In general, the series suffers from pacing issues, tonal shifts that don’t always work, and being needlessly, repeatedly crass. If you don’t already like visual novels, it probably won’t change your mind, particularly because the first and second game together span just over 70 hours. It’s not exactly puzzling why a business wouldn’t want to take the risk of localising it for a foreign market.

It’s not exactly puzzling why a business wouldn’t want to take the risk of localising it for a foreign market.

Interestingly enough, Amaterasu’s patch for Muv-Luv was only available online for a few months, and was taken down at the start of 2011 by Amaterasu themselves. In a blog post, Amaterasu mentioned they were currently negotiating a deal with âge, wouldn’t be hosting any of their translations as a result, and that Amaterasu wouldn’t “be asking for any money in exchange for the translation.” A few months later, in March, Amaterasu’s still-in-progress English translation of Alternative leaked before it was complete. For the majority of Muv-Luv fans this was an opportunity to get their hands on more Muv-Luv, and Amaterasu announced in response that they’d be staying silent until they had anything to show.

After eight months of silence surrounding what was happening, Amaterasu finally posted a giant statement to their blog covering what had happened behind the scenes. Mangagamer, a video game publisher that deals with English localisations of Japanese visual novels, was negotiating with âge on Amaterasu’s behalf. Despite months of discussions, Amaterasu were told that âge were not willing to licence the Muv-Luv games, and instead had offered the option to licence another game called Kimi ga Nozomu Eien (an older visual novel that has little to do with Muv-Luv).

Attached to Amaterasu’s statement was a free link to their finished translation of Muv-Luv Alternative, and a reupload of the original English patch for the first game. Mangagamer, as you might expect, were not happy, and issued a response in 2011 saying as much.

I reached out to Amaterasu through a Facebook page to ask them more about this and, surprisingly, actually got a response from a member:

“We were uncertain about the future of securing a licence. A patch had already been leaked with the translation, even though we had declared secrecy on the matter," they said. "A combination of uncertainty in 2011 and with the patch being leaked led us to deciding to release our translation officially when we were able to get together a proper patch.”

For the next few years, the only legal way to play Muv-Luv in English required importing a copy of the game from Japan somehow, and then applying the unofficial Amaterasu patch to it. After the whole ordeal, Amaterasu moved on to translating other games - but the popularity of their patch had proven that there was an English-speaking audience that wanted more Muv-Luv. Another fan translation group called Alternative Projects formed to fill the space that had been left behind. As their blog aptly self-describes itself, it was “Muv-Luv Translations by the fans for the fans.”

Seemingly out of nowhere, in 2015, a Kickstarter campaign to officially localise Muv-Luv in English was launched. At the time, there was a precedent for other Japanese visual novels getting localised through Kickstarter; Clannad, for example, had raised over $540,000 earlier that year. But visual novels in general still weren’t commonplace on Steam — the first few had only started appearing on the platform in 2012.

I contacted Aalt, a fan of Muv-Luv who runs an English language blog that partially covers the series, to find out more. He was asked to join the translation team for the Kickstarter but couldn’t at the time, so instead helped contribute to other areas of the campaign. Aalt tells me that he wasn’t aware of how the Kickstarter began but that he does think “Alternative Projects was an instrumental part of it though, as their translations were high quality for fan translations.”

The campaign was being run as a joint project between âge and a Japanese software company called Degica (perhaps best known for localising RPG Maker). In a podcast featuring Aalt, the leader of Alternative Projects, Degica’s community manager, and Degica’s global manager, it was clarified that Degica and âge had been introduced through a mutual client. But âge’s parent company ixtl was very enthusiastic about the idea of an English translation being funded through Kickstarter.

Within seven hours of the campaign going live, it had already reached its goal of $250,000. By the end of the campaign Muv-Luv had raised over $1.25 million. That's more than Double Fine raised for their game Massive Chalice, and with a fraction of the backers,; Muv-Luv had only 7,890 relative to the tens of thousands for Massive Chalice.

A key feature of the Kickstarter was a re-translation of the series helmed by figures in the community, where the team was made up of both members of Alternative Projects and professional translators that were fans. Amaterasu confirmed to me that Degica bought the rights to their fan translation, and that the re-translation was done using the original Amaterasu translation as a basis. In the end it worked out slightly differently, as Aalt clarified. “The team ended up translating the whole thing from start to finish," he said, "with less than 3% of Amaterasu’s script being used if I remember right.”

Over 13 years after Muv-Luv launched initially, on the 15th of July 2016, Muv-Luv was finally purchasable on Steam for English fans. Muv-Luv Alternative was later released in September 2017. Looking back at it, it strikes me that at every key moment in the history of Muv-Luv’s localisation, it was the involvement of fans that spurred everything on. Every step required volunteers who wanted nothing more than to share what they enjoyed with other people.

“Fan translations ultimately have to carry the torch before the official translations happen,” Aalt said. “Fan translations have shown that the market exists, it's all about tapping it.” The Amaterasu member had simlar thoughts. “It seems localisation tends to be limited to titles that have already been translated, for the most part," they said. "I do not believe (Muv-Luv) would've gotten to that point if no one had translated it, Amaterasu or anyone else.”

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