It's not English? - Why more books need to be translated!

I wanted to address today's blog by bringing up a subject that's near and dear to my heart as a lover of the written word. As my close friends and family know, I've been a lover of Japanese animation since I was a young lad. My first experience of "anime" as its known was in 1994, when the Studio Ghibli film, Laputa: Castle in the Sky, was broadcast on channel 4 on a sunday afternoon. I explicitely remember sitting around at my friend Jenny's house as we watched the opening sequence and immediately falling in love with the grandeur of the fantasy world that played itself out onscreen with majestic beauty that I felt hooked to find more.

Fast forward twenty years and ask my wife about the large anime collection I have amassed and she'd probably roll her eyes and tell you that she doesn't get it.

I first encountered Vampire Hunter D back in early 2000. Films were still being produced on video back then and as an avid Anime collector I was paying for my geeky habit by washing dishes at a local restaurant in my neighbourhood. When I found the world that Hideyuki Kikuchi had created, it was to little or no fanfare, the books had not been translated and wouldn't be for another five years. From the moment the opening titles rolled and the world of D's, supernatural wild west was shown, I was hooked.

The darkness, the lawlessness and the mystique of it all was wholly enthralling to me. If Sergio Leone had decided to do horror/gothic films, he would have created D and his world. I was hooked, I wanted to know more about D, about his parentage, about the parasite that lived in his left hand and more importantly, about his mission. What was it that drove him, that kept him going forward, why did kill vampires and what was it that motivated him.

Alas, back then, there were no books, no manga and even less information on the series outside of Japan. To say I was disappointed was an understatement.

On May 11th 2005, the very first Vampire Hunter D novel was translated into English and I was among the first to buy one. Finally, I was going to get all the answers I wanted.

From the first page I was hooked, like the film, the bleakness of the world played itself out perfectly on the page. Hideyuki Kikuchi's vision of a dark and gothic apocalyptic future was beautifully envisioned in his own unique style that gave me chills and exhilirated my blood. Magnus Lee, Doris Lang, Rei-Ginsei and his Fiend Corps all came to life in a unique way that set my imagination on fire and gave me a clear vision of a future I wanted to see play out in my own work.

In the past ten years we have seen more work translated from non english speaking authors into english than ever before. Stieg Larsson, Kaoru Kurimoto, Adrzej Sapkowski and Dmitri Glukhovsky to name a few. Each of these authors have held a certain level of sway/fandom in their native countries, each of them has garnered a certain level of success outside of those same countries.

Films for some, anime series for others and computer games for more beyond. There is a wealth of stories out their for a fresh new audience to find and discover, a new and incredible level of fnadom awaits a fresh audience eager to see the fruits of these (so far in the west) unknown geniuses.

A lot goes into translating a book and I've never said it was an easy job in the slightest. For publishing houses, the risks are high and the rewards are low and I've never said that I understand the monetary motivations of some publishing houses. It is as a fan that I speak, as a lover of the story, a lover of the unknown. I want to see more worlds being brought to our shores, more tales of dark heroes and cruels villains, of strange worlds and dazzling sights that I have yet to be shown by western authors.

I want to be inspired by things that we have yet to see, there are worlds within worlds of potential that are waiting to inspire a whole new generation of authors but they need to be found and translated.

Kaoru Kurimoto's Guin Saga series has a running set of 129 volumes, five on which have been translated into English. How much more could we see and be inspired to create if the whole series was translated into English for us. Again, I say this as a fan, not as someone who knows the workings of the literary business but one thing must be made clear: We authors spend our lives struggling for recognition, for acceptance and for approval - how much higher would the chances be if untapped potential (such as the names I mentioned above) found a new home in foreign lands and forign audiences.

I was one such member of the audeince, I hope that many more will follow.

Thanks again for reading.