Interview with Cally, Translator for Yuri Espoir
What are your pronouns?
My pronouns are she/them.
How do you identify with the LGBTQIA+ community?
I identify as bisexual.
What does “pride” mean to you?
To me, it’s the joyous celebration of the long road I took to get to accepting and loving myself for who I am, and the found family I’ve built for myself so that I could finally make myself a home. It is also the reminder of all the queer senpais that came before us and the baton we’ve been passed to keep working towards a future where we all can live with structural rights and without fear of discrimination.
Do any LGBTQIA+ identifying people in the publishing community inspire you?
My coworkers inspire me every day! Our team is pretty small, so being able to work so closely with people that I admire and respect is truly a privilege to me, and I’m grateful that I’m able to bounce ideas off them and ask for help with certain tricky lines or expressions at any time. Talking to them always helps me see things from new perspectives!
Tell us about your previous experience translating, and how it compared to translating Yuri Espoir.
Yuri Espoir is the first LGBTQIA+ manga I’ve ever worked on actually, so I was really excited to do it.
Compared to previous stories I’ve translated, I think Yuri Espoir has the most number of levels/storylines ongoing at one time. The main storyline coupled with all the fantasies and realities of the girls that they meet was challenging and very fun for me to work on because I got to switch gears on the language every few pages and figure out the voices of all the new characters, both through Kokoro’s eyes and as who they actually are. I’d never worked on a manga with new characters appearing in every chapter before!
It is also the angriest yet most intriguing manga I’ve had. There’s something about the cute art style juxtaposed with Kokoro and Amami’s (very real and very relatable) frustrations, and the sinister feeling of something brewing under the surface that I both love and am intrigued by. It feels like the series has something it wants to tell the reader, and the message is both from a place of softness and joy as well as a place of hardness, of darkness, of wanting things to change. It’s got all these poetic lines, mixed in with just Kokoro going “GIRLS!!!!” with hearts in her eyes, which, like, I get it. So it’s just really fun for me to work on.
Who are your manga and anime inspirations? What series did you grow up with?
Not going to lie, my parents weren’t big on 2D series, comics, or video games when I was a kid, so I didn’t grow up with anything more than the rare few times I was home on Saturday morning to watch Pokémon.
I’ve always loved reading and movies, though. My favorite series growing up was the Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer and A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. I’m drawn to slightly magical and slightly dark stories, so I think that’s why I adore Yuri Espoir so much.
Since joining my team, I’ve started reading and consuming a little more manga and anime, and I’ve been enjoying My Hero Academia, Kieta Hatsukoi (My Love Mix-Up!), and Watashi no Shiawase na Kekkon (My Happy Marriage).
Is translating queer stories something you’re passionate about?
Yes, for sure!!! Representation is always great, and I think the more shades of the queerness that manga gets to depict, the better!
I also feel passionately about acknowledging the differences between queer communities worldwide that are very much rooted in the histories and social cultures of a specific region or country. I think a lot of times we can get stuck in viewing events or narratives through the lenses that we’re used to, and judging them based on what we think is right or “should be”, but progress isn’t linear. A lot of times there are a lot more shades of identity that maybe English queer vocabulary doesn’t have the words for just yet, and knowing that gives us more space and permission to just be.
In that sense, I think manga is one of the ways Western audiences can see that, which makes me really excited to be able to be a part of it.
Also, personally, I just get a lot more excited when I get to work on queer stories, haha.
Do you relate to any part of Yuri Espoir? If so, how?
Man, I really relate to Amami and Kokoro’s frustrations of feeling so helpless as teenagers and having adults run their lives.
And the girl who had a crush on a best friend. Because who hasn’t been there before?
Have you translated any other titles in our LOVE x LOVE line?
I haven’t, actually! But my coworkers have done quite a few LOVE x LOVE titles that I’ve helped to proofread. My ultimate favorites have been the Our Not-So-Lonely Planet Travel Guide series (Mone Sorai, translated by Katie Kimura), The Cat Proposed (Dento Hayane, translated by Katie Kimura), and The God and the Flightless Messenger (Hagi, translated by Massiel Gutierrez).
Are there any other LGBTQIA+ stories you’re excited to translate?
As I mentioned, I didn’t grow up reading any manga, so as embarrassing as it is to admit given my line of work, I’m always the person having to ask my friends for a rundown on what certain (really famous!) franchises are about, haha.
Still, I would really like to work on more yuri stuff, with a focus on bi/pansexual characters! I would be especially excited to see wlw storylines of older ladies living their lives.
When did you first get into translating, and how did you get started?
It was kind of an accident in all honesty. I actually joined our company through customer support and was doing that for a year and a half. Our translation team is still really tiny now, but it was even tinier before I joined, so when one of the team members took maternity leave for a few months, I was asked to help out in the way of translating and proofreading between my customer support tasks.
I’d been writing all my life, and I’d always been interested in languages and translation, and as it turned out, it’s something I really enjoy. So when the powers that be asked if I’d like to transfer teams, I thought I’d give it a proper shot!
