i know kseniya's (@/TrianaNero) already done an absolutely amazing translation of the engeki haikyuu illustrations from frdt-sensei but i wanna talk about the exact words frdt-sensei uses and the goddamn panelling of this insane illustration bc!! good god!! it is a masterpiece

first up though - i think the twt translate function works just fine most of the time but on my desktop the message from @/haikyu_com looks a little butchered so im gonna just drop my own rough translation here

moving on, i wanna say again that i think kseniya's translation of the illustration is amazing and i honestly couldn't have done what she did in the short time she had (she did That in like 6 minutes. please be impressed bc i sure am) https://twitter.com/TrianaNero/status/1391368662251016194?s=20

but like. i just wanna break down the exact words frdt-sensei uses and talk about how they're placed in the illustration (which is gonna be a little difficult bc im personally not willing to repost something so special, even for this, so please bear with me.)

first, in hinata's panel, we have the words 極寒の風, which translate to "the coldest winds". now, we all know what happened during hinata's first ever spring high, in the middle of winter. we've all seen the illustration of a feverish hinata looking out into a cold winter's day

as hibarida says, "today, you are the defeated. what will you become tomorrow?"
and already here we have part of frdt's message - that today, we have been unable to accomplish what we set out to do. in this case, we couldn't see engeki haikyuu through to the end

but this isn't through the fault of any one person. i know i don't even have to say it, but the world is currently experiencing a pandemic and things like stage plays just aren't as important as preventing the spread of the infection and preserving human life

and so this brings us to the next part of the illustration, where hoshiumi is depicted with the words 理不尽な波の中であろうとも, which i'd roughly translate to "even if we face the most outrageous, towering waves". here, i have two things to say

one, that it is insanely perfect that hoshiumi, the boy whose school's name means "seagull perch" and whose character design is based on an actual goddamn seagull, would have the words "even if we face the most outrageous, towering waves" in his panel

and two, that it is a terrifyingly spot-on metaphor for the situation we're currently in. remember how i said that the cancellation of the final run isn't anyone's fault, it's because we're in a pandemic that keeps coming in waves (pun not intended but also very intended)

the phrase 理不尽 is often used to describe something that's so unreasonable or outrageous that you just can't quite come to terms with it. which is exactly how i feel about the final run of engeki haikyuu being cancelled because corona won't stop being such a bitch

like, i know in my head that protecting the lives of the cast and everyone involved in the project is of paramount importance, and that's why they had to cancel. i get that. but my heart is saying pleasepleaseplease just let us have this one good thing in this shitshow of a year

so yeah. so far we have

"even if we face the coldest winds"
(hinata running out into the cold winter)
"and the most outrageous waves"
(seagull child hoshiumi getting ready to fly)

which works both as a metaphor for all the struggles that the staff of engeki haikyuu have faced trying to make a stage play happen in the middle of a pandemic as well as just as a general metaphor for life (which is classic frdt, thank you frdt)

but like im not even done!! there's still the bottom bit, which goes 止まって、たまるか。and just. many things about that line made my whole body shiver. many things about which i feel incapable of explaining but im gonna do my best bc this matters to me and also bc why not

first, at the most basic level, 止まってたまるか could be very roughly translated to mean "(we) won't stop". i say most basic because at the core of this phrase is the sentiment "will not stop", but in context the grammar pattern てたまるか adds a lot more oomph to this statement

so basically it's read more forcefully, like,
"we'll never stop"
or "we refuse to stop"
or maybe even "as if we'd ever stop".

(here i'd also like to suggest the possibility of using other words like "falter" or even the opposite, like "keep going")

here are some examples of the different ways this grammar pattern can be translated, even though in japanese it's always the same てたまるか. (ps huge thanks to @/todokugou and @/TrianaNero for the scans!)

i spent way more time annotating those panels than i should have but you get the idea! there are a ton of ways to translate 止まってたまるか, and i think both kseniya and tricia have done a really good job with their translations

but im not here to critique their work, im just here to talk about why this line by frdt is so impactful for me. it's a common enough grammar pattern, but i think frdt uses it often enough and only in the moments where the characters feel an extreme, intense desire.

in the midst of a game where kageyama seems to almost be lagging behind, he absolutely will not allow hinata to outdo him. tsukishima feels exactly the same way. washijo also refuses to let anyone have higher expectations of hinata than he does.

in the same way, this message from frdt feels like a goddamn call to arms. it's saying, "we refuse to let this stop us". it's screaming, "are we going to let this dumb pandemic crush our spirit?" and it's making me wanna stand up and yell back, "hell no!"

so, yeah. it resonates with me because it reminds me of all the moments where characters have refused to give up, or back down. it hits me hard because the message is something i think we all, especially the staff and cast, really needed to hear right now.

anyway im mostly done, but there's still the second illustration, which is visually even more breathtaking than the first. there it says 世界（みんな）！！一緒に飛んでくれ！！or, very roughly, "hey world (everyone)!! come fly with us!!" with every character from the stage play

and about that bit i think it's really nice how frdt has specified that the reading for the word 世界 (which means "world") here is みんな (which means "everyone"), because it feels like frdt is calling out to all the fans from all over the world

it feels like they're saying that they know it's tough and they understand how we feel. but despite all that, they know we're not going to let that stop us from moving forward, and so they ask, "won't you come fly together with everyone (and see the View From The Top)?"

and i think that's all i have to say. i thought maybe by the end of this thread i'd have a full translation to share, but right now i'm just full of feelings. maybe one day i'll find the right words to show you how these two simple sentences from frdt make me feel, but for now...