Lastweek, I reached out to Sentai Filmworks to find out more information from them regarding the release of the Trails in the Sky OVA series to English audiences. I finally received a response from Mike Bailiff of Section23 Films regarding my questions, providing answers from Sentai Filmworks.
I had asked about whether or not they have consulted with XSEED Games, concerning the translation, in an attempt to keep the OVA series consistant with the translation that was released in North America. The answer I received was:
Javier Lopez was the translator and he did the research, so yes we did take the game releases into account.
I also asked about the change of the title from ‘The Legend of Heroes’ to ‘Legend of the Heroes,’ and they have been told that the title was the way they received it from Showgate.
When I finally asked if they had any comments on the fans that were worried about the potential spoilers that come from the OVA series, due to its adaptation of the second game of the series, I was told that they had no comment.
They were very brief answers, but I hope it can shed some light on more information on the upcoming OVA release in English.
Legend of the Heroes sounds awful. A little research would have done the trick. Well, I don’t want to see this until I’ve played TitS SC anyway.
Or a little bit of actually caring. Given how extensive their research on this OVA and franchise generally has been so far I half expect that we’ll see characters named Leve, Ren and Kanpanera.
Incidentally, I sent what I thought was a very polite email the day after the announcement asking some of the same questions and haven’t heard a thing.
A somewhat related note:
Otakon put up the preliminary con schedule, and it looks like Sentai will finally have an industry panel at Baltimore this year. However, since it is near the tail end of the convention – just before noon on Sunday – I doubt I will be attending the panel and raise the issue regarding the OVA.
C.T.