Heyyy am new to the Fandom and have just finished watching the anime.i would like to ask if there another movie coming or nit since 2020 there has been no updates about the 2nd movie ❤️🥺🫂

Hi there! The second movie was announced when the first one came out, but there hasn't been any official news since then. :(

That's not unusual though, so as long as no official source says it's cancelled, there's still hope. Blue Lynx is expected to announce a new movie or OAD soon, but we don't know if this is Saezuru related at all. I definitely hope so, but all we can do is wait unfortunatley.

My bets are on Doumeki because Yashiro usually refers to Doumeki as koitsu or aitsu, not kono hito, whereas Doumeki has referred to Yashiro as kono/sono/ano hito quite often in the past (like that time he first met Ryuuzaki and pissed him off instantly because that was no way to refer to his boss).

The second part (kono hito ga) probably belongs to what comes next. I kind of expect an explanation why Doumeki suppressed his feelings (like "so he wouldn't push me away again" or whatever his reason might have been). Grammatically the first line could also be a relative clause to the second line [kanjou o koroshite kita kono hito] ... In that case Yashiro would be the one who suppressed his feelings in Doumeki's eyes and it would be impossible to predict how the sentence continues. But I don't know if Doumeki would make such bold statements about the state of Yashiro's emotions.

I'm just speculating like everyone else because it's fun and I need to distract myself from going crazy over excitement. So don't take my words too seriously.

Ch 56 sneak peek!

We're so close to ch 56! What does Sensei have in store for our boys? What are you gonna do with that cigarette, Doumeki!? 👀

Ch 56 sneak peek from b's garden's twitter (with quick translation) under the cut ^^

Text: (I) want a reason to be by your side

Text: This person has been concealing (suppressing) his emotions

Waaah, is the text Yashiro's inner monologue or Doumeki's?? I'm inclined to think it's Yashiro since we haven't had any of D's inner monologue since the time skip.

Also, for those Japanese grammar buffs like me, this is a good example of 倒置法 (touchihou or anastrophe in English - inversion of the usual word order in a sentence). If I translate it more directly it sounds like, “(He) has been suppressing his emotions, this person”. Yashiro often speaks using this grammar so I think it probably is his inner monologue but I could definitely be wrong ^^

I can't wait to see what happens next!!! 😭

The original tweet can be found here ^^

So I haven’t read chapter 52 of “Saezuru” yet, but I did read the summary of it on twitter, and after having a conversation with one of my mutuals, I have a few thoughts about what it is Yashiro wants, and why he’s having so much trouble communicating it to Doumeki. 

First of all, Doumeki himself still seems very hesitant to treat Yashiro with the gentility that they both want him to give, and obviously this stems from what happened the last time he did, with Yashiro pushing him away.  You would think, okay, well, this has an easy solution.  Doumeki wants to treat Yashiro with kindness, and Yashiro genuinely wants to be treated kindly, so all he has to do is tell Doumeki that, and problem solved.

But of course it’s not that simple, and after talking about it with others, and reading about how, during their sex scene, Yashiro was thinking about the Madam at the club, and how Doumeki treats her so gently, it got me thinking more about Yashiro’s difficult relationship with the idea of being treated as a woman. 

Yashiro wants to be treated with the same care and tenderness that he perceives Doumeki to be treating the Madam with, and the belief that Doumeki is deliberately treating him differently than that, because he’s a man, and because he is who he is specifically, (someone who’s always been treated with cruelty and told, indeed, that he deserves to be treated cruelly), is clearly very painful for Yashiro. 

The thing we have to remember about Yashiro is that, during the years he was being sexually abused by his step-father, he was being told by his abuser that he was really a woman, that his being born male was a mistake, etc…  And we see how this later affects Yashiro.  Afterward, whenever he was treated like a woman, or how he perceived a woman should and would be treated, anyway, he got spooked and made an effort to get away from that treatment.  Like Hirata’s underling whom Yashiro got thrown out of the Yakuza after he started treating Yashiro like his girlfriend, or Yashiro’s dissmisiveness when Ryuuzaki asked him about whether he ever wished he’d been born as a woman, etc…  I think Yashiro associated being treated kindly and tenderly with the memories of his abuse, and therefor, that kind of treatment was very traumatic to him.  It’s why we see Yashiro, during his and Doumeki’s sex scene from chapter 26 (I think, lol), crying and seeing an image of himself being raped by his step-father.  It’s why he freaked out so badly afterward and ran away.  Yashiro realized that he LIKED being treated gently, but it reminded him of what his step-father said to him about him really being a woman.  I think, in that moment, when Yashiro realized he wanted and liked being treated kindly, it was like a confirmation for him of everything his step-father claimed about him, that he was really a woman, that him being born male was a mistake, etc…  In that way, it was like a confirmation of every negative, cruel, vicious thing his step-father ever said and did to him.  An affirmation of Yashiro’s own, negative view of himself. 

I think Yashiro’s experience in middle school with the girl he has sex with sort of reinforced Yashiro’s views about women too, and how they’re supposed to be treated, versus how he thinks men are supposed to be treated.  When he tried getting rough with that girl, she started crying, and Yashiro immediately stopped and lost interest in her.  He realized she didn’t want to be roughhoused.  Subsequently, I always point to this incident as proof that Yashiro isn’t, and never was, a sadist.  A true sadist would be turned on by another person’s pain and fear, but Yashiro had the opposite response.  He was turned off by it. 

Yashiro realizes, after his first, sexual experience with Doumeki, that he, like that girl, doesn’t actually enjoy being hurt during sex, doesn’t enjoy being roughhoused and mistreated.  That of course was a coping mechanism he clung to to deal with his trauma, convincing himself that he wanted to be mistreated and hurt to defend against the reality that he’d been horribly vicitmized.  He realized, in that moment with Doumeki, then, that he was more like a woman than a man (just like his step-father claimed), and so for Yashiro, admitting that he wants to be treated with tenderness is tantamount to his admitting that his step-father was right about him.  This is why, I think, he’s still having such a hard time admitting to Doumeki what he really wants.  I know certain people in this fandom are impatient with Yashiro and demanding that he just confess his feelings already, but they forget just how traumatized Yashiro really is, and what it is he’s dealing with. 

It’s obviously going to take a bit more, or a lot more time before either Yashiro or Doumeki can fully open up to one another, and for Yashiro specifically, it’s going to be a lifelong process, being able to accept himself and what he wants without also feeling ashamed or guilty or wrong. 

Hi, I want to ask is there any reason as to why did you stop making saezuru chapter summary? Because I just want you to know that it always helps me to read your summary like you did in the past to get update with saezuru story before I buy the tankobon. (I always buy the jp tanko and english from June but you know how long the english official translation is published). But I will understand if you are busy or probably got sick and tired with the attitude of some fans in this fandom that makes you uncomfortable to share anything related saezuru.

Hi Anon, thank you for your message. I'm glad you found my summaries useful. I mainly stopped writing them because I'm way busier with work now than I used to be when I started this tumblr. And since I sit at my desk writing all day, I simply prefer to do something else in my free time. Plus, writing the summaries is pretty time-consuming and requires more brain capacity than I usually have left after a day of translating.

I still kept doing it for quite some time because it was fun to celebrate every new chapter with you, but I couldn't even translate a preview page without people reposting it on twitter and elsewhere, so that got pretty annoying after a while and contributed as well, I guess.

Sorry to everyone who genuinely enjoyed my blog. I had a lot of fun sharing my love for Saezuru with you all and made some awesome friends along the way. It's not like I've decided to never post a summary again or anything, but right now I prefer to pour all my energy into my work because I'm getting to translate some of my favorite manga and want to do them justice.

I can promise you, though, that you won't need a summary for chapter 51 because there's almost no text. ;)

Do u know When do we get chapter 51 ?thank you

Chapter 51 is announced for March 31st and will have color pages because it's going to be the first chapter of a new volume.

Volume 8 will come out on March 1st, though, so there's something to look forward to in the meantime.

Happy Saezuru Month!

The ihr Hertz cover was revealed and confirms that Saezuru chapter 48 will come out in two weeks, on March 31st!

Hi, fairly new to this fandom, and I was thinking of something, when I came across some of your posts. I think what Doumeki meant, when he said "it's my body, my life." to Yashiro and Nanahara, was that he doesn't blame Yashiro nor pointing fingers at anyone he dive in further to become a certified Yakuza. Of course, we the audience know he's reason was Yashiro, but even so he wants him to know, by saying so, that Yashiro is NOT to be blame. It was his decision to stay. I know you said it must felt like betrayal on Yashiro's part, since he really wanted Doumeki out, and therefore, disrespectfully, tossed away his help. Like a rebelious son going against his parents' wishes. And probably the way he said it or his tone, Doumeki's words felt like a fucking stab to the heart. But this is only Yashiro's thinking. In a way, Yashiro doesn't see pass his own reasoning, and just blame himself altogether. I get this was because of his 30 yr of living in trauma and being tangled by, everytime, with violence in the Yakuza world, but he also seem to discard other people feelings, even though he can be perceptive. Also I don't think Doumeki is being cruel or cold, he has been quite courteous to Yashiro, in Yashiro's own language, like how Ryuuzaki used to treat him, since I remember something like how Doumeki looked at Ryuuzaki was like a raging jealousy. Anyway, I think the miss here is that Doumeki is really in the dark of Yashiro. Inami being in the mix was what set him off... because prior to the call, he was quite the old Doumeki, guarding him, cathing his fall...And this time, Doumeki is the one asking him not to get involve and get hurt in the process. But Yashiro wants the money more I guess? The hand shaking at the end of 46, must be because how the table turned around... everything happened too fast, too soon, like a blaring light when he was living in the dark, being impotent, seeing Doumeki, and even came from Doumeki's short touches... it shook him up some much, like LIFE suddenly came back to him.

What do you think?

Hi, and thanks for the ask!

That's an interesting theory, that Doumeki was attempting to reassure Yashiro that he hadn't joined the Yakuza as a result of anything Yashiro did. It definitely makes sense. Given his apparent tone, it came across as a statement of defiance though, so I suppose that's where the assumption comes in, that he meant it as 'you don't get to tell me what to do anymore', etc... I don't think Yashiro feels so much like Doumeki's continued involvement with the yakuza is a betrayal of him and his efforts to keep him out, but more that he probably just feels like his suffering these past four years has been pointless, like he gave Doumeki up for no reason, has had to live with the misery of his own loneliness and wrecked self-identity and all it amounted to was Doumeki still being involved in such a dangerous and violent world. I don't think Yashiro is angry at Doumeki at all for throwing his chance to get out away, but probably just more upset at himself and his own failure.

I think it's hard for Yashiro to understand WHY Doumeki would want to remain in the yakuza, because of his own experience with that world, and the way he, and most people, were forced into it, rather than choosing to be a part of it. Yashiro's life was essentially stolen from him by Misumi, and he was forced, through lies and manipulation, to become essentially a criminal. Yashiro sees Doumeki has a family that cares about him, a mother and sister who want him in their lives, and given that's something Yashiro himself never had, he just can't relate to why Doumeki would willingly toss that aside to stay in such a corrupt, power hungry world, or to stay with Yashiro himself, when Yashiro sees himself as a worthless person. Rather than discarding Doumeki's feelings or not considering them, I would say Yashiro is just so convinced of his own worthlessness, that he assumed Doumeki's love for him had to be an infatuation, and that eventually he would be able to move on from it. He compares Doumeki to a baby bird that's imprinted onto the first thing it saw, which was him, and so he thinks Doumeki will be alright without him. So, more than dismissing Doumeki's feelings, I think it's rather just Yashiro's own, warped self-perception that made it so difficult for him to believe Doumeki genuinely loved the real him, or needed him. Doumeki's remained in the yakuza it seems solely in an attempt to stay close to Yashiro, not because he had any burning desire to actually BE a yakuza. So, really, I think it was just Yashiro not understanding how much Doumeki really loved him, again, because he doesn't see himself as a person worthy of love.

As for Doumeki's demeanor, it's almost certainly affected, meaning he's only pretending to be cold and distant. You're right that his discovery that Inami is still in Yashiro's life didn't help matters. I would say Doumeki was acting pretty distant even before than though, just in terms of his aloofness and curt responses to Yashiro. But, again, since it's almost certainly an act, when he feels like Yashiro is in trouble, he has a kind of knee jerk response, like catching him in the shower, because of course that's how he REALLY feels. He cares about Yashiro. The same as during their sexual encounter in Yashiro's apartment, when he nearly reached out to comfort him, but then stopped himself. Those are the sorts of clues that let us know Doumeki doesn't really feel as cold toward Yashiro as he's pretending to be.

And yes, I think Doumeki's sudden reentry into Yashiro's life and all it entails has left Yashiro feeling shaken and uncertain. He'd walked away from the hope that Doumeki offered him, for better or for worse. He'd accepted that loss as part of his life now, and the pain that went with it. So to suddenly have all of that turned on its head and to be freshly faced with all the feelings of that past relationship, to be faced with the same emotions which before drove him so close to the edge, and with everything he sacrificed to keep Doumeki safe, to find out he's been suffering these past, four years for basically nothing, that no doubt has left Yashiro feeling like he's standing on unsteady ground.

I don’t come onto tumblr anymore but I have for the past couple of days, and I will say: I feel badly for the active people here who are distraught by some saezuru “fan” backlash, whether it’s to the last chapters or to the series in general. it sucks, and it’s exactly why I moved away from the fandom like I did. I suspect the fervent reaction is because there are a lot of young fans that flock to the series at first (since the prospect of sex and violence and slowburn drama in a BL is tantalizing) and then realize the content is handled in a much more sensitive, thorough, and realistic way than most BL/yaoi manga are. so all hell breaks loose. they get frustrated and vent in a way that can be borderline, if not outright, despicable. the series does not follow the standard formula (which often includes rape without issue because it’s *true love*) and is therefore a waste of time.

no one is obligated to help such people grow and learn, especially strangers on the internet; we are only responsible for ourselves. I hope those of us who love saezuru for what it is can continue to enjoy the shared, harmonious company of those that adore this wonderful series.

a spoiler discussion for doumeki and a reveal in chapter 47

Please be aware I’m discussing something “revealed” in chapter 47. 

Full disclaimer: I don’t care if Doumeki is dating a woman. It’s been four years, he’s a full-grown man that’s no longer impotent, he was rejected (not just rejected but “forgotten”) by Yashiro, etc etc. He has every right to pursue a physical relationship with someone else (I don’t say romantic, because let’s not be absurd; he’s not in love with anyone else except Yashiro). However, I was a bit surprised by the shockwave reaction from the fanbase (both western and Japanese), because it seemed to me like this was…kind of a ruse by sensei, although it took me some time to parse out why. So. I will elucidate. Spoilers under the cut. 

さらに読む

I don’t know what’s happening but the Saezuru twitter channel blessed us with another preview for chapter 47.

”I’m not your guard dog anymore.”/ “You’re not my guard dog anymore.”

It looks like Yashiro is the one talking. But it sounds more like Doumeki tbh, so maybe Yashiro just stares back at him with his mouth open.

The preview for chapter 47 dropped early and it’s two full pages this time! We finally get to see Sugimoto looking all grown up (page behind the link above)!

He’s also beating Nanahara at mah-jjong. Yashiro went somewhere but didn’t want to take anyone with him. Maybe he and Doumeki are meeting up frequently now?

The title page says “What is it that I want?”

The magazine comes out next Monday, January 31st!

It's been a long four months, but Saezuru chapter 47 is coming! 🙌

The physical magazine will be out on January 31st, the digital edition will be available from February 18th.

Update: Yoneda-sensei's name is listed for the next ihr HertZ issue to be released on January, 31st 2022. So we'll get a new Saezuru chapter in two months.

Hi i hope you’re doing well 🌸🌸 just wanted to know are we getting a new chapter this month? *^* ❣️thank you!

Hi and thanks, I'm fine. ^^ Unfortunately there won't be a new chapter this month, but hopefully Sensei will be back in the next issue that will come out at the end of January.

Hi i hope you’re doing well 🌸🌸 just wanted to know are we getting a new chapter this month? *^* ❣️thank you!

Hi and thanks, I'm fine. ^^ Unfortunately there won't be a new chapter this month, but hopefully Sensei will be back in the next issue that will come out at the end of January.

Not to stir the pot or anything but I’ve been seeing so many posts on tumblr of some group that is posting “another translation” of Saezuru. These people keep talking about demanding that the publishers re-release a “perfect” translation. As a former JA>EN translator I have my own thoughts on this one but I was curious to know what you thought. (Also, I’d love to know more about what kind of translation work you do!)

Sigh. I don't even have to look up that blog to know who you're talking about. And I think "another translation" is a very fitting term for what they do. ;) From what I saw, they're a prime example of the Dunning-Kruger-Effect. If translation were as simple as exchanging words from the source language into their dictionary translation of the target language like a robot, there wouldn't be tons of books on translation theory out there. I feel a rant coming up, so please bear with me, because what I’m about to say will be nothing new to you.

First of all, there is no "perfect translation". Give the same source text to ten translators and you'll get ten different results. All of which can be perfectly valid. Ideally they all convey the same meaning, so it's not like you wouldn't notice that they were translated from the same source text. But the wording will differ. One person will find a better translation here, another person will find a better way to phrase things there. It's not like one translator gets everything right and better than everyone else, unless you have people with vastly different skill levels. Often it will be simply a matter of personal preference which translation you like best. 

The person who runs the blog you mention has a very literal approach to translation. They think sticking as closely as possible to the phrasing the author chose will achieve the "perfect result". But that's a typical beginner’s mistake. They're getting the facts right, I'll give them that. Being a native speaker does have advantages. But getting the facts right is the bare minimum we try to do as translators. (I say "try", because we're human and everyone makes mistakes here and there.) What's more important for a good translation is strong writing skills in your target language, which is why most professional translators translate into their native language, not from their mother tongue into their second or third language. Because it's incredibly hard to develop the same feel for what sounds good and natural in a language you didn't grow up with. It's not impossible, but very few people achieve this level of skill.

I'm also an ESL speaker, so I won't judge other people's English, but let me explain why I think that translating too literally is a beginner's mistake. First of all "literal translation" is a total myth, because where you draw the line between what is “literal” and what is not is always a deliberate decision made by the translator. Strictly speaking, if someone claims to be using only Sensei's own words, they would also have to drop subjects and pronouns where they're missing in the Japanese original, as they do all the time. I doubt anyone would go this far, but let's roll with this example to emphasize my point:

"iku?" (Go?) is a perfectly natural thing to say in Japanese. The info who is going and where they want to go is usually clear from the context and doesn’t need to be explicitly stated. So the Japanese reader gets a normal sentence, whereas the English reader gets an ungrammatical one. The sentence needs a subject at least: "We go?" Understandable English, but still not a grammtical sentence. "Should we go?" Now we get the same information the Japanese speaker got from just "iku?" in the context I pretend it was said in. I added two words that aren't there in the original, yet my sentence is a) easier to understand b) correct English and c) conveys the same meaning as the original, while the "literal translation" is lacking in all three aspects. Now please imagine a whole text written like: “Go?” “Yes, go!” Would you honestly think that the translator did a good job by giving you a text in broken English that's barely understandable when things get more complex than this? The Japanese audience gets a perfectly well-written story, while you’re barely even able to understand what’s going on. So your reading experience doesn't match at all, despite sticking religiously to the source text.

I’m exaggerating of course. No translator would go this far. But this example shows that even the most “literal translation” doesn’t get away with wording things exactly as in the source text.

And then we get into more complex territory: If I translate a joke, is it more important that I give you the exact words the author used, although you're missing the cultural context to find the joke funny, or is it more important that I make you laugh like the author intended? If there's a dialect, how do I go about it? Is it important enough to risk alienating my audience (because we're not really used to seeing written dialect)? If yes, which English dialect could work? There is never a perfect equivalent, because dialects are so tied to the region where they're spoken. So do I substitue a Japanese southern dialect with an English southern dialect? Or do I go by the image the dialect evokes in the Japanese reader’s head? Urban or rural? Or maybe I should create a fictional dialect? But then it doesn't evoke any image at all and might simply sound stupid. Or how do I "literally" translate all the different ways to say "I" and "you" in Japanese? There is simply no one and perfect way to translate something. Some ways are objectively better than others, but most of the time it's a case by case decision. What works well in one situation, might be the wrong approach in another one.

So if you try to approach everything with "literal is best", your result won't even be good. You’ll end up with awkward English: flat dialogues that don’t flow, clumsy idioms, unnatural word choices, characters who don't sound like native speakers, jokes that don't land, shifted nuances, weird sentence structure and so on. All this makes the text harder to read, harder to understand and almost impossible to enjoy. If you can’t create a text that reads as effortlessly and beautifully in English as it does in Japanese, all you’re doing is make the author look unskilled (and yourself too ofc).

Proper translation aims to recreate the unique features of each source text and the individual style of the author with the natural means of the target language. You’re allowed to be creative and find original ways to do so, but you're not supposed to cripple the target language by pressing it into the structure of the source language. Because the readers don’t see “the beauty of the Japanese language” in your supposedly faithful translation. They see clumsy or even wrong English. 

Coming back to the "another translation" blog. If we're talking about the same person, they like to label everything as "serious mistranslation". Yes, there are many actual mistakes in the scanlation, and probably in the official translation too (I haven’t read it tbh), but 90 % of the things I saw them point out aren't even minor mistakes. They're just "correcting" perfectly natural English into English that says exactly the same, just worse or longer. Speech balloons have limited space and sometimes a sentence simply doesn’t fit in if you don’t shorten it a little. That’s not a mistake! And if I have a Japanese sentence like "I'm doing this for the first time", it's not a mistranslation to turn it into "I've never done this before", because the meaning is exactly the same. I just chose a phrasing that might sound more natural in English in the given context. This is a made-up example, but this is the level of nitpickery we're talking about. Not to mention that it's incredibly rude to drag someone else's translation publicly like that, especially when your criticism is solely based on your own lack of knowlege.

(Regarding your last question: I translate manga professionally but that’s all I can really say on this blog.)

Hello! 💕 Do you happen to know when the latest issue of ihr hertz's will be available to purchase? I mean the digital version

The digital edition of the issue that came out in September will be available from October 15th.

Movie ＃2 coming?

The official Saezuru account on Twitter just announced a pop up store (= a temporary merch corner) at the Loft chain starting Nov 20th.

This is a pretty big hint that the promotion campaign for the second Saezuru movie is about to kick off soon.

It's all just rumors at this point, but we'll find out in the next few weeks.