Red Data Girl - Series 1 & 2

The First Makeup - 1

An American Girl in Japan

Red Data Girl: The First Makeup
By Noriko Ogiwara
A Translation

I’m so happy to be posting the first piece of Red Data Girl: The First Makeup this week! The First Makeup is the second book in the Red Data Girl series by Noriko Ogiwara. If you didn’t read my translation of the first book, The First Familiar, feel free to check it out here.

I posted the back cover eye catch for The First Makeup earlier in the week, but if you missed it, here it is again.

“There are things I want to do here. Don’t let me do them.”

While still overwhelmed by her new life at Houjou Academy in Tokyo, Izumiko Suzuhara becomes fast friends with her roommate Mayura and her brother, Manatsu. However, when a strange classmate’s true colors are exposed, circumstances change suddenly. Then Mayura start a rivalry with a medium named Tanayanagi over the position of student body president. What secrets does Houjou Academy hide?!

I hope that everyone will enjoy the story and my translation! Once again, I want to point out that I’m not a professional translator. I’m an English teacher living in Japan who has studied Japanese for the past five and a half years. I try my best on these translations, but I do struggle from time to time. Religious jargon and landscape descriptions are two things that pop up in this series a lot that I have difficulty with. Usually I can pull myself through it, but whenever I’m particularly unsure about part of my translation, I’ll mention it in a translation note at the beginning of the week’s piece.

The RDG books each have four or five very long chapters that are then broken up into a few numbered parts. These parts are all around 20 pages long. Like with The First Familiar, I’m hoping to post weekly pieces of The First Makeup on Sunday evenings US time. Each piece will be around 10 book pages, so most chapter parts will be cut into two sections. With my test behind me, I should be able to keep to this schedule a little better than I did before. Fingers crossed!

Now, onto the first translation note of the book.

The first chapters of books tend to be filled with description and back story. These are some of my weaknesses when it comes to translating and as a result, this piece was a bit of a rough for me. But I made it through! Near the end, Daisei talks about training in the mountains. His story gets a little weird and I think it’s supposed to, but a lot of it still seemed unconnected, even under those circumstances. Some of this is probably my fault and I apologize.

And without further ado, Red Data Girl: The First Makeup.

Enjoy!

Red Data Girl: The First Makeup
By Noriko Ogiwara
Chapter 1: Mayura 
Part 1 (1 of 2)

The first person to get out of the taxi was Daisei Suzuhara.

It was the end of March, but the air outside of the car was cool. Even though there were reddish-brown buds beginning to grow on the branches of the cherry trees, there were still days where the weather was as cold as it had been before spring. Daisei pulled his scarf tighter and let go of the car as he stepped forward.

Dressed in a navy blue haori and kimono with fake, round glasses and a school uniform scarf wrapped around his neck, his appearance was rather hard to ignore. Izumiko slid out of the car and paused behind her father. She waited for Sawa Suemori to finish paying the taxi fare.

Daisei took another step and smiled back at the shy girl.

“Izumiko, we’re finally here. This is Houjou Academy.”