[Progressive manga] Scherzo of Deep Night - Volume 1

I've been hinting for a while now that we were planning a little surprise for this week last week and the time has come! We hereby present you with a surprise announcement-slash-fullblown-release! We decided to work on both the new Canon of the Golden Rule, and the abandoned Scherzo of Deep Night manga. And to celebrate the occasion, we're releasing the entire first volume of Scherzo all in one go! Oh no, you don't need a new pair of glasses, we actually did the ENTIRE FIRST VOLUME in one go! I'm not sure what possesed me to agree to this hairbrained idea, but it's too late to reflect on my actions now! And this release was so grandiose that we're even two days behind schedule!

The first volume of the Scherzo manga covers the story from the Asuna vs Kirito duel to the end of their adventures in the catacoms (basically, almost all of the stuff from Asuna's persepctive in then novel). It also added quite a few original scenes, though it did axe some novel scenes. Still a better adaptation than the anime by Director Axe, I'll give it that. And it is far more faithful to the original story than Himura's "adaptation" of Concerto, so there's that...

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the release. If you have any suggestions/requests for what to work on, feel free to leave a comment or contact us through Twitter/Discord/Email.

Finally, a standard thank you to all of those who contributed to the SAO Scans project for helping us get the raws.

-Gsimenas

Credits

Raws: SAO Scans
Translation: Gsimenas
Editing: Gsimenas
Redrawing: Mttblue2
Typesetting: Mttblue2

Scherzo of Deep Night - Volume 1

Links for the translation files:

• PDF
• Zip Download

Barcarolle manga volume 2

Index

Scherzo #006

Translation (choice/nuance) comments:
-Chapter 0

• Page 7: In Sword Art Online, most Sword Skill names are in English (written in katakana), but Martial Arts and Katana skills are an exception, as they are named in kanji (with katakana readings for the kanji). To maintain this nuance, I chose to name the Martial Arts skill in this instance as "Gengetsu", while providing a translation for what it means as a side note.
• Page 16, 29: ALS and DKB have furigana that explain that the two acronyms refero to the Aincrad Liberation Squad and Dragon Knights Brigade respectivelly.
• Page 17: "Orange" (オレンジ) refers to the colour of a player's cursor, that implies a criminal status. "Criminal" (犯罪者) was used as furigana fo the word "orange" to explain this nuance.
• Page 18: In the original text for the manga, Kirito said "森（フォレスト）エルフのクエストを妨害したかったからだ", which would literally mean "was because [he] wanted to obstruct [me] from completing the Forest Elf quest", which would imply that Kirito was on the Forest Elf side of the campaign. This ambiguity came about because the manga artist trimmed the original dialogue line from the novel (森エルフキャンプ地のクエストを妨害したかったからだ), which said "was because [he] wanted to obstruct [me] from completing the quest at the Forest Elf Camp grounds". To avoid ambiguity, I included the trimmed bits from the novel in the manga translation.

-Chapter 1

• Page 27: The "Inner Area" (圏内) refers to town areas that are under the protection of the Anti-Criminal Code Effect Area (アンチクリミナルコード有効圏内), which prevents players from suffering any damage while inside its area of effect (i.e. any area under its effect is a guaranteed safe zone), unless the players choose to (or are forced to) duel each other. The characters usually abbreviate the Anti-Criminal Code Effect Area to just 圏内 ("within the area (of effect)"). I chose to translate the abbreviation as "Inner Area", since that's what the pop-up says in English when anyone enters a town that's protected by this game mechanic. For reference, Yen Press decided to ignore the fact that this term actually has an English translation by the author himself and instead chose to go with the term "safe haven" for no real reason, but I decided to ignore their random headcanon.
• Page 28: Honestly, I do think that a more on-point translation for the main town's name (カルルイン) would be Kalruin, seeing as it looks like a reference to the fact that the whole floor is all about ruins, but in the end I decided to go with Yen Press's translation of the name for less confusion.
• Page 30: Argo has a speech quirk wherein she changes the last kana (usually a sentence ending particle) in her sentence to katakana, when it would normally be written in hiragana. This is accounted for by emphasising the final letter in her sentence in the translation (making it capitalised or look bigger)
• Page 34: The English words "blink" and "brink" are both pronounced "burinku" in Japanese, because both "l" and "r" are considered the same sound in kana orthography.
• Pages 36-37: The words "blink" and "brink" were written in capitalised English letters in the original text (ＢＬＩＮＫ and ＢＲＩＮＫ respectively), while the explanations for what those words mean were in actual Japanese, so I chose to translate the Japanese explanations into definitions rather than repeat the English words that were being explained.
• Page 39: Both the word "menu" and the word "dish" were "menu" (メニュー) in the original text, which made things confusing (i.e., it basically said "menu on the menu").
• Page 41: The word/name "Fickle" (フィックル) is in English, while "whimsical" (気まぐれ, kimagure) was a Japanese translation of the word.
• Page 41: As I understand, both the colour and taste of the wine are randomised separately, so the colours of the wine aren't tied to a specific taste.
• Page 47: Kirito uses the English word "Yes" written in katakana. To account for this, I used "yesu" instead of just "yes".
• Page 52: Kirito sounds like an old teacher scolding a student in a rich-girls school for running in the halls. Since Yen Press decided to interpret this scene as such in their LN translation, I decided to run with it too despite the fact that the literal translation would just be "don't run please" with no explicit mention of any halls. Though, Yen Press's translation lost that implication about the rich-girls school by going with "ma'am" instead of "young lady".

-Chapter 2

• Page 58: The original phrase for "sackers" was ヒロワー (hirowā), which is a neologysm made from the Japanese word 拾う (hirou, pick up, gather) and the Japanese pronunciation of the English suffix -er, so it would literally mean "picker(-up)". Since the literal translation sounded awkward, I went for ransack -> sack (in the sense of putting everything in sacks) -> sacker. Yen Press went with a boring ol' "hoarder", for reference.
• Page 60: In Japanese, the word "yes/yeah" can either be an affirmative statement, or an expression of confusion ("hmm?") depending on the intonation of the word. For the first several instances, Asuna uses the word in the sense of "yeah", but then she realises that she didn't quite understand what Kirito was getting at mid-way through, so the "yeah" turned into a "hmm?". I decided to translate the "yeah" as "uh-huh" so that I could then use the "huh" for the instance of her expressing confusion.
• Page 68: The word for "catacomb" in the original text was "underground cemetary" (地下墓地). Since Yen Press used "catacombs" in several instances to refer to it and it already includes the sense of "underground cemetary" in its definition, I decided to translate all instances of "underground cemetary" as "catacomb(s)". This specific instance of the word also included furigana with the word "dungeon" (ダンジョン).
• Page 63: The bubble with "Stay awhile and listen!" was in English proper in the original text.
• Page 66: The manga has made an error here. The actual name of the candelight ring is "Ring of Luminescence" (リング・オブ・ルミネセンス), as revealed in Progressive LN V7, which was released after this manga chapter originally came out. Candlelight (燭光) is just the name of the effect the ring grants.
• Page 69: Kirito uses an abbreviation for the word "quest" in this instance. The full version of the word would be クエスト (kuesuto), but Kirito shortens it to just クエ (kue). Since it's considered gamer slang, I decided to shorten the word "quest" to "q'st", since I couldn't come up with anything better for it.

-Chapter 3

• Page 79: There are multiple words for ghosts in Japanese. The best equivalent for the English word "ghost" would be 幽霊 (yuurei). However, in most instances of this story, Asuna instead uses the phrase obake (オバケ, originates from お化け), which is a more general expression that literally implies anything that involves a transformation and can be used to refer to anything from ghosts to monsters and goblins (anything that can give you a fright, basically). Since it's basically used as a colloquial word for "ghost", I decided to translate it as "spook", a colloquial word for "ghost" in English. To the Americans out there (looks at a certain member of my staff), no, I did not intend to use the word in a derogatory way... I didn't even know what y'all already laid claim on this word for one of your slurs -_-
• Page 80: The NPC boy has unnatural breaks every few words and avoids using proper grammar too. I accounted for this by spamming commas in his dialogue lines and sprinkling it with some broken English here and there.
• Page 86: Normal Japanese would have hiragana in-between all the kanji for grammatical purposes, while the NPC ghost uses katakana instead, which makes her sound unnatural. We accounted for this with a different font for her dialogue lines.

-Chapter 4

• Page 112: The panel with Asuna talking about her rapiers has two instances of furigana: Chivalric Rapier has furigana over that refers to the weapon as Asuna's lifeline, while Wind Fleuret has furigana that explains that it is Asuna's first beloved/favourite sword.
• Page 124+: Morte speaks in an informally polite tone with a speech quirk, wherein he elongates the final vowel (usually the sentence ending particle) in his sentences. The elongation consists of an extra small kana for the vowel + a vowel elongation mark (chouonpu, ー). So, sentences that end in desu ka (ですか) become desu kaah (ですかぁー), sentences that end in desu ne (ですね) become desu neeh (ですねぇー) and so on. To account for this quirk, I tried to include some kind of filler phrase at the end of his sentences that I then elongated with an em dash + extra vowels. I also made him sound a tad more formal, but sprinkled his speech with some slang and informal expressions, since he's basically feigning being polite.
• Page 124+: On the other hand, Joe speaks in a very coarse manner, so I tried making his speech more informal and slangy. Strangely enough, Yen Press made Morte sound like the informal guy and made Joe sound like he was speaking regular old Japanese, rather than coarsely informal Japanese.
• Page 129: The phrase "sowing the seeds" was emphasied in the original text with boutens (傍点), which are basically dot-like characters that are added next to specific kanji/kana to emhasise something in the sentence.
• Page 134: The phrase "totally suck" is a Japanese/English hybrid phrase in the original text (激サック, geki sakku = extremely + the English word "suck"). It almost seems like Morte's catchphrase, since he uses it in more than one instance.
• Page 138: The phrase "mega-rare" was バリレア (bari rea = Ingurisshu for "very rare").

-Chapter 5

• Page 139: STR is written in the Western alphabet in the raw. So, it has a Japanese word for "strength" as furigana to explain what it means.
• Page 155: The annotation for MPK was present in the original text. ※ is the Japanese equivalent of an asterisk used to imply a note about the topic at hand.

P.S. The page numbers I use in these note refer to the page count in the original tankoubon.

Adaptation notes:
-Chapter 0

• In the novel, Asuna couldn't even bare to get started on their duel. The manga decided to add some flair by adding an original scene of Asuna actually trying to land a hit on Kirito, before going weak in the knees. Also, Kirito wasn't panicky in the novel, since Asuna's change of mind didn't come in the middle of actual fighting and the leadup to Asuna and Kirito's duel.
• The manga omitted Kirito's mention that Floor 5 was ripe with PKing in the beta.
• Asuna didn't actually punch Kirito in the novel. Though she did consider doing so.
• Kirito's branch talk and potato trivia got skipped.
• The second half of Asuna's discussion with Kirito after their duel was moved to chapter 4, where it becomes more relevant.
• Various dialogue trimming.

-Chapter 1

• The scene with Asuna asking Kirito to take her to a restaurant was changed a bit in the manga.
• Manga omitted explaining why the tavern signboard came with a warning about running into the place.
• The manga omitted Kirito's mention of being pissed at seeing all the couples in the tavern in the beta, which was supposed to be the leadup to Asuna mentioning that he wasn't alone this time.
• No reference to Asuna's dumpling hunt in the real world.
• Kirito mentioned the best places to find relics in the novel, while in the manga Asuna just randomly comes up with them.
• Various dialogue trimming.

-Chapter 2

• The whole relic hunting scene, Asuna's competition with Kirito, and the appraisal scene are all original manga scenes. The novel just started off after they had already finished their hunt.
• In the novel, Kirito noticed Asuna's concerns about going overboard with relic hunting without her actually bringing it up.
• The manga Kirito didn't explicitly mentioned that the ALS and DKB members were busy scooping up relics and they would be the main concern for other players not having enough relics left to find.
• Part of the catacombs being within the safe area was only brought up later on in the novel.
• Asuna wasn't actually able to smack Kirito in the novel, since the Anti-Criminal code kicks in within the town. Asuna had also intended to hit him in the flank, not the head in the novel.
• Manga omitted Asuna and Kirito's talk about how the Blueblueberry Tart works.
• The Return to Castle Yofel(stein) was glossed over in the manga (and Agil deban got Ono'ed). Hence, the manga also had to adjust the leadup to their return to the 4th Floor, as well as making them stay over in an inn before their adventures in the ruins, rather than sleeping over at Yofel Castle and then finding themselves in the rain when they teleported back to the Floor.
• Talk about rain in SAO got skipped.
• In the novel, Asuna did try to resolve the Thirty Year Lament quest without trying to find excuses to switch to doing another quest. She also didn't act so scared until the ghost actually came out.
• Some various dialogue order changes and trimmings.

-Chapter 3:

• In the novel, Asuna was about to pull out her own candle, rather than asking Kirito to get one, before the ghost NPC came out.
• The ghost's appearance triggered a rattling that made Asuna lose her balance in the novel, rather than Asuna clinging to Kirito upon seeing the ghost. Asuna then had her eyes shut for about fifteen seconds, until the rattling stopped, before she tried to get off Kirito out of embarrassment, but then she saw the ghost right in front of her, so she clung to Kirito.
• The ghost NPC didn't have its speech quirks in the novel.
• In the novel, Kirito was considering pulling a prank when Asuna ordered him to forget about her reaction to the ghost thing.
• Asuna and Kirito finished the Thirty Year Lament quest before they started working on their other quests in the novel.
• The manga skips the part where the rich merchant guy was spirited away at the end of the quest.
• In the novel, the pet for the Little Lost Jenny quest was a puppy, not a kitten.
• The whole conversation about levels took place before Asuna and Kirito arrived to the tavern.
• The manga skipped talk about the wine and usefulness of real world knowledge.
• In the novel, Kirito was the one to notice that Argo's guidebook hadn't come out.
• Asuna slammed her door after Kirito had already gone into his room in the novel.
• Asuna went around several rooms before finding a relic in the catacombs. She saw some coffins in the previous rooms but decided to ignore them, until she found the one with a relic.
• Various dialogue trimming.

-Chapter 4:

• In the novel, Asuna didn't have any hooks to try and save herself from the fall.
• The manga skips Asuna restraining herself for calling out to Kirito for help out of concern that it would draw monsters to her.
• The manga doesn't mention that looter mobs like the Sly Shrewman have the Robbing skill, which allows them to instantly overwrite item ownership rights, which makes it impossible to retrieve the item with the Materialise All Items feature.
• In the novel, Asuna had hunt down four Sly Shrewmen in a span of fifteen minutes, before she got the Wad of Paper from them.
• Joe's conversation with Morte got rearranged in the manga. Some dialogue lines were moved further into their dialogue, while others were brought up earlier. Asuna's monologues were also moved further down their conversation.
• Morte going for Joe's throat at the insult is an original manga scene. P.S. It took me quite a while to realise what he was trying to imply in that panel REEEEEEE.
• The flashback in Asuna's monologue was the part of Asuna and Kirito's conversation that got skipped back in chapter 0.
• In the novel, Asuna came up with and carried out the idea to summon a Sly Shrewman before Morte actually got up to check out the noise.
• Various dialogue trimming.

-Chapter 5:

• Kirito didn't arrive in the middle of Joe's dialogue line in the novel. Instead he arrived just as Asuna was about to reveal herself to get her rapier back.
• The manga didn't show that a Sly Shrewman had just happened to spawn in the area while Kirito and Morte were having their staredown, which served as inspiration for Asuna's plan. The manga also didn't show Asuna using the wad of paper to draw the shrewman in before carrying out her plan.
• In the novel, Asuna didn't throw her Iron Rapier at the PKers to buy time.
• Asuna's monologue about the basis for her plan was skipped.
• Asuna hadn't actually intended to summon the swarm of monsters in the novel. All she was going for was to have the Sly Shrewman overwrite the Chilvaric Rapier's ownership rights again so that Morte wouldn't be able to use Materialise All Items to steal it back from her. The swarm of monsters was just as a surprise to her as the PKers that Kirito was able to react to before anyone else noticed what was going on.
• Asuna and Kirito laughing at the PKers as they ran away, as well as their talk about Asuna's plan is an original scene for the manga.
• Various dialogue trimming and rephrasings.

Barcarolle manga volume 2

Index

Scherzo #006