I need a group.

I’ve been in a few, worked on manga, anime, VNs, WNs and games. I’ve been translating on and off since I started college and even got into professional (technical) translation after I graduated. I’m JLPT N1 certified and am on my way to being a published author in English. I love translating, and count it as one of my favorite pastimes.

But various things have pushed me away from past translation groups. Sometimes it was life changes (moving to Japan, getting married, burning out at my pro translating job), sometimes it was a problem with the group (rigid deadlines, being forced to work on projects I didn’t care about, no group communication).

Recently I’ve been itching to translate again and, having done basically every type of translation there is, I still consider manga translating the best. But more than just being a scanlator again I want to be part of a translation community again. I miss it.

I might not fit well with your group though so please read the following conditions carefully. I’m going to be very particular about the group I join but I don’t think anything I’m asking is too out there.

Requests

1. Whatever I work on needs to be mine. I hate taking over someone else’s dropped project. It can be brand new stuff or old stuff no one has done yet. Heck I wouldn’t even mind if it’s something someone started but dropped ages ago if I can start over from Chapter 1.
2. I don’t do ero or ecchi. I’d prefer if my wife didn’t think I was a closet pervert. My definition of ecchi may be stricter than yours.
3. I don’t do deadlines. I tried it once and hated it. I already have a job and my married life to think about so there will be time I can work on translating and time I can’t. If you just leave me to it you’ll find that I’m quite productive without needing a hard release schedule.
4. Discord community is a must. I want to chat with you folks! Translation and Japanese culture are my passion so I enjoy talking with others who share that past. IRC works like crap on my phone so it’s got to be Discord.

So you just lost the translator for your mega-popular series and fans are expecting a weekly release? Give me a pass.
But if you’ve got these raws and are like ‘oh man if only we had someone interested in doing this great series no one has touched’ hit me up! I guess I could find my own project if you want me to but I’ve had bad luck with that before.

I’ve also had bad luck with ‘well we will let you do a project of your own if you agree to pick up this other project one of our translators dropped’ so please refrain.

PM me or post invites here. I can provide a full list of stuff I’ve worked on through PM if that’s something you need to see.

Thanks to everyone who shot me messages, I have now selected a group and am getting started there.