Matsuyama Benny reflects on The Maiden Who Travels the Planet

[waw]

Hey all, not sure if everyone saw this. I just strated following this FF7 fan-translator today and they have some really interesting things. One such thing was a link (and discussion) from Matsuyama Benny on the The Maiden story.

Their tweet:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1287290171738583045

(Seems like they have translations for those who need it, at least of highlights)

Matsuyama:
http://www.bent.co.jp/lineup_day/作品紹介詳細　um19/

So what are some highlights from this?
Well, Square was really, really hands off, so it really is a sort of company-sponsored fan project... at least, in a way.
EDIT: That's the twitter-translators assertion and doesn't seem supported in the text.

Enjoy!

 

[Odysseus]

If... uh... a certain someone or other wants to translate the whole thing.... I sure could use this for a thing I shelved a while ago....

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

Here you go. The link above takes you to a webpage which contained a number of short blurbs by each of the contributors to the Ultimania Omega. I ran Matsuyama's through deepl. This is the whole thing:

Benny Matsuyama
　Sometimes Yamashita makes jokes that I don't understand how they're funny.
I'm going to make an Omega for FFVII," he says. I'm going to make an Omega for FFVII, and I want Benny to write a short story. With Aerith."

"A 'VII' omega? What's ......?
　After this, I looked away and said, "Oh, my God, that's heartbreaking, so what do you really want?
　If you're suggesting that I write an expanded version of the battle between Cloud and Sephiroth in the spiritual world, that's fine, but Aerith. Eight years have passed since the release of the game, and I was asked to write an original interpretation of the story about a superheroine who died so beautifully. ...... But I couldn't just turn tail and run away, could I? After the project began, I spent more than half a year working on the idea, with several other books in between, while having nightmares at night. When I felt like my heart was about to break, I suddenly picked up a book by Kenji Miyazawa and it gave me strength. Or Gusuko Budori. I'm looking forward to your feedback on this work, which I wrote under unprecedented pressure.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

DeepL seems to offer a pretty solid translation. Though I'm not sure where the person at Twitter sees anything about Square having virtually no involvement. The book's credits disagree with that, and none of the staff on that page are credited as saying anything of the sort.

Anyway, here's Benny Matsuyama's comments as translated by DeepL:

Sometimes Yamashita would make jokes that I couldn't figure out what was so funny about them.

"I'm thinking of making an Omega for FFVII," he said. "I'm thinking of making an Omega for FFVII, and a short story for Benny. With Aerith."

"I'm going to make an Omega of FFVII. That's great. What's ......?"

After this, I looked away and said, "Oh, my God, this is heartbreaking, so what is your real business?"

If you're suggesting that I should expand and write about the battle between Cloud and Sephiroth in the spiritual world, that's fine, but Aerith. Eight years have passed since the release of the game, and I was asked to write an original interpretation of the story about the superheroine who was so beautifully dispersed. ...... But I couldn't just turn tail and run away, could I? After the book project started, I spent more than half a year working on the concept, with a few other books in between, while having nightmares. When I felt like my heart was about to break, I suddenly found Kenji Miyazawa in my hands, and he gave me strength. Or Gusuko Budori. I finished this work under unprecedented pressure, and I look forward to your feedback.

EDIT: Ninja'd by the Licorice Ninja.

 

[Odysseus]

I've clearly underestimated the power of machine translation.

If you're suggesting that I write an expanded version of the battle between Cloud and Sephiroth in the spiritual world, that's fine, but Aerith.

This line is strange though.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

This line is strange though.

He's saying that he would be fine tackling that scene with Cloud and Seph in prose, but he was intimidated to do something with Aerith, particularly something set after her iconic death.

 

[waw]

Though I'm not sure where the person at Twitter sees anything about Square having virtually no involvement. The book's credits disagree with that, and none of the staff on that page are credited as saying anything of the sort.

Thanks, yeah, having spent more time with it, I'm not really seeing it in there either. The translator seems to be pulling context into the Japanese, so maybe there's something there we're missing that an electronic translator isn't catching.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

Reading more of their tweets further down, I suspect the context is "shipping shenanigans":

People who call "Maiden who travels the planet" cannon can go right ahead
But if they are holding it as a bible and call FF7CC a fan made game (written by Nojima), you got your logic backwards [eyeroll emoji]
(Also, I think Nojima has the right to disregard certain things in that short story)

While it is true even in that story, C was never mention to have romantic feelings towards her, but I can't say the same for how A's feeling was portrayed.

It directly contradicts with ZA shown in FF7CC, and that's why some CA shippers can't stand it [eyeroll emoji]

It's cool to have this stuff from Benny and co. as a historical matter, but for the person on Twitter, it looks like bringing it up was all just part of a shipping agenda.

 

[MelodicEnigma]

The "no involvement" is more than likely referring to the actual conception of the story itself, as opposed to the book in its entirety. Which Matsuyama's comment itself doesn't indicate this in detail, though we should be able to assume the standard content checks his writings (just like other parts of the book) will usually get still happened regardless.

 

[Odysseus]

Reading more of their tweets further down, I suspect the context is "shipping shenanigans":





It's cool to have this stuff from Benny and co. as a historical matter, but for the person on Twitter, it looks like bringing it up was all just part of a shipping agenda.

War never changes.

 

[MelodicEnigma]

Lol At this point, I think we're pretty safe making the assumption that any time Maiden (or even Matsuyama) is brought up in the FF7 fandom, it's just a hidden weapon for The Great War.

I've spent a great deal of time researching BentStuff, their materials, and their comments (website, or in the books like for their All About series), and their comments are a great eye opener in understanding how they make their books, along with the history of the company itself. They work very hard. I was going to create an archive and written perspective on it (especially on a paratext study point of view for JPN materials), but...things like that made me feel it wasn't worth it anymore. lol Though, if anyone is interested in adding/correcting what I've done, I've translated that comment before, so if we want a more cleaned up version, this could help beyond the DeepL translation which is a little weird in some places lol Please consider correcting—they talk so casually in their comments it's sometimes hard to nail down if you're trying to be as direct as possible to the text:

Yamashita sometimes tells amusing jokes that I don’t understand. “I think we’ll make a FFVII Omega. And then, Benny can have a short novel. With Aerith.”

“Hahaha, ‘VII’ Omega huh? That isn’t good……what?”
　After that I, once again, kept looking away, wondering what we were truly doing because good grief, this was bad for my heart and such. But, this wasn’t a joke.
　I could expand and write the mental world battle of Cloud and Sephiroth, and if so, there was the suggestion that it’s better viewed from Aerith. It had been 8 years since the game’s release, and to add and write with an original interpretation themed on the much too beautifully fallen superheroine……but, well, I couldn’t run away with my tail between my legs. For more than half a year since the planning for the book started, I had been working on the concept, with several other books in between, while being haunted by nightmares at night. Just when my heart was about to break, I randomly got a hold of some Kenji Miyazawa novels like Gusukō Budori that inspired me. I look forward to your thoughts on this work, which was written down while being tormented by unprecedented pressure.

EDIT:

I think even now, which if in consideration of DeepL's approach (even as a machine lol), I can see how just saying "the superheroine that died too beautifully" is bit more smooth in ENG (the "died" really being to fall 散る [or alt. to die a noble death], so context makes it work). And "to turn tail and run away" vs "run away with my tail between my legs"—same thing really from 尻尾巻いて, but admittedly I do like the former more than what I wrote. I had issues though because, the "turn tail and run away" is already implicit of the run away bit, so the 逃げ (run away) afterwards would almost be unnecessary? Both work, either way.