Hauru no Ugoku Shiro (Howl's Moving Castle)

Translator's notes in yellow.

5/26/04 (Weds.)

As I wrote yesterday, this is the last spurt before the editing session begins, but of course it is also the last spurt for the production team's preparation of editing material as well. However, the remaining cuts are complex and the work is going slowly. Furthermore, since a bundle of material came from animation direction today, we are simultaneously running three in-between animation checking machines to prepare material. Considering the number of cuts and the number of days remaining, it's going to be tight.

5/27/04 (Thurs.)

When things are tight, it would be easy if we could just increase the number of people, but since we can't bring in more people just for the time we are busy, we increase the number of machines. Since there was, conveniently, one scanner which was not being used, we quickly set it up so that we could use it. With that, we should be able to make it through the week.

5/28/04 (Fri.)

As usual, the production team is frantically preparing material for editing. If we didn't reach the 20-cuts-remaining mark by the end of the day, things would become physically difficult. For that reason, the entire production team worked until dawn. We saw the sunrise from the studio for the first time in a long while.

5/31/04 (Mon.)

The day of the final editing session arrived. The production team somehow got all the material prepared in time and felt relieved. Since there was a bit more photography of key frames, the editing session was a little different from last time. Since the editing session is being carried out over two days, for retakes that came out today, we will fix as much material as possible in order to have it ready for the actual final day of editing the day after tomorrow.

6/1/04 (Tues.)

The middle day of editing. It rained from morning on, and was chilly compared to yesterday. The number of cuts of in-between animation completed was low, but the number of frames...

Since June began today, we wrote out the new production schedule. Since we put up two months at a time, we wrote out the schedule up to the end of July, and realized that, with the sound recording work, we will have a hard schedule once again.

6/2/04 (Weds.)

Somehow editing ended successfully for the time being. However, we still have a touch of unease. Now, we have to set up the cinescope recording [transfer to film] in preparation for dubbing. We have to work hard and prepare at least one good cut. At any rate, has the end come into sight?

6/3/04 (Thurs.)

Today we crossed another mountain. Miyazaki-san has finished his checking. Now, we just have to wait for the work coming from animation direction. They only have ten cuts left.

Now that we have come this far, the in-between animation is being done almost entirely in-studio. The production team only has to make occasional trips to pick up work. Now we are just waiting at our desks for material.

6/4/04 (Fri.)

The "harmony" treatments were completed successfully. Thanks for the hard work.

The regular rush check. There were no retakes, and the check was completed without incident. There are more than 100 cuts remaining. Since we can't be sure that there will be no more major retakes, we're still always nervous.

6/5/04 (Sat.)

Finally, the second half of recording began. For scheduling reasons, the recording session was moved forward a little. Since we were a little busy with the editing session, we were a little rushed, but we managed to make it in time.

The number of cuts remaining for animation direction reached the single digits. It's the final countdown.

6/7/04 (Mon.)

We received a flood of completed in-between animation. Recently, we've been communicating information about the pace of animation direction to the outside in-between animators, and some of them have completed their work. Thank you very much for all the hard work.