My own try at translating "The Truth of 50 Years Ago"

Good day everybody. I am sure most of you already know about the little text snippet from the Sonic Adventure 2 Perfect Guide called "The Truth of 50 Years Ago." It explained some behind-the-scenes stuff on the Biolizard and Project Shadow as a whole. I don't think it needs much introduction.

Well, a few months ago I actually came across the original Japanese text for that blurb that a certain individual was kind enough to share. I assumed that the currently available translation of the blurb on the Wiki more or less matches the original text, but as I started comparing the two I found that some sections were either incorrectly translated or flat-out missing.

Frustrated, I decided to give it a go and translate the entire thing myself. I rechecked my text several times to make sure that it's translated accurately with as little broken English going on as possible but of course my Japanese understanding and English vocabulary is not perfect, so if anybody has a better idea on how to handle certain parts of the text, I'm all ears.

I'm going to post my translation here under the spoiler tag but it's also available on my Pastebin page with the original Japanese text included. If my attempt succeeds at clearing things up or helping someone, that will make me very happy. Thanks guys.

Spoiler

During my latest undercover investigation, I have obtained highly classified data notes of the then federal government president from GUN's security hole that seem to be related to Project Shadow. It is a top secret research request application letter addressed and sent to Gerald from the President of its time, 13 Presidents ago. The content of the letter is concisely stated as follows:

"Begin research on immortality, humanity's ultimate eternal dream."

Gerald seemed to have stubbornly rejected this request at first, for it exceeded Man's limits. However, the one who gave him an excuse to realize this plan that was supposed to end as it was an influential person's nonsense was (although ironically) Gerald's beloved granddaughter Maria Robotnik. Maria had contracted a difficult-to-cure "NIDS: Neuro immunodeficiency syndrome" illness, and while medical treatment continued at the ARK's medical research facility, she was not expected to recover. The irritated Gerald seemed to think that he would overcome this incurable disease by studying immortal life. The research has been documented as being named "Project Shadow" from the irony of creating a shadow (which cannot exist in this world), and was advancing internally at the ARK behind the scenes in absolute secrecy.

At first, everyone thought that this far-fetched and reckless plan was undoubtedly a fabrication that couldn't have been thought up by Pr. Gerald's ingenious intellect. The Chaos Drives were based on research results of the Chaos Emeralds, and the experimental attempt to apply that infinite energy to life activity was successful. Shortly thereafter the project lead to completion of a single prototype. Focusing on its self-restoration ability, the "Ultimate Life Form Prototype" that was modeled after a lizard, showed signs of phenomenal growth, self-restoration and self-propagation, and the researchers were overjoyed.

However, that joy was brief, as the prototype's abilities eventually far exceeded the researchers' expectations, far enough to be difficult to control. Voices of doubt begin to rise internally from the researchers, questioning the duration, significance and safety of the research. It is likely that internal staff who witnessed the prototype going out of control leaked information of the project to GUN first, but the truth is not certain. However, the upper part of GUN that was internally looking on the research institution's uniqueness as hostile, arrived at the decision to set a plan to close the ARK itself, taking advantage of this opportunity. An informal operation, "ARK Seal Destruction Operation."

A biological hazard suddenly occurred at the ARK laboratory facility, and all colony residents were to be rescued and the colony sealed from the disaster. This was the ostensible purpose of this operation. Of course, the real purpose is none other than to shut down the ARK research facility, erase Project Shadow, and detain Pr. Gerald as the person responsible for the disaster. The operation was carried out on a scale that was never seen before since the founding of GUN, and in only 7 days after the start of the operation, all residents of the ARK were transferred to the surface. All of the ARK's facilities were frozen by GUN and all of Project Shadow's staff, with the exception of Pr. Gerald, were announced as victims of this disaster. The operation was completed by sealing the Ultimate Life Form Prototype that was discovered at the deepest part of the colony.

But there was only one miscalculation in this operation. At the time this operation was carried out, Pr. Gerald seemed to have already almost completed the ultimate life form, Shadow, using a different model. When GUN special forces entered the laboratory, the escaping Gerald entrusted Shadow to his granddaughter Maria, and made sure that one escape capsule was ejected towards the surface at that time. (The whereabouts of the capsule from that time are still not known.)

In the end, Gerald was apparently caught by the special forces afterwards and imprisoned to Prison Island. Now, without Shadow the Hedgehog, there is no longer a way to confirm anywhere if the Shadow that was sealed at Prison Island was a replica by Gerald or the original Shadow that was ejected towards the surface and recovered...

~From Rouge's final research report on Project Shadow - Partial Excerpt~

 

Thanks a lot, guys. Retranslating the Japanese manuals is something I have in plans as well. I've always felt they needed another translation pass, especially now that we have better resources for kanji recognition and dictionaries in this day and age. Those will probably be up on my Pastebin as well.

I should also add that if the manual scans are large enough, they should be sufficient for an OCR transcription (to save the trouble of typing all the text down manually and all that). I was wondering if someone could get higher quality scans of the Sonic CD manual. It's so far at the lowest quality of them all on the Wiki, which really sucks. If anyone still has it and can make large pretty scans, your efforts will be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks for all the comments, guys. I just wanted to add that I've also translated all three stories from SA2 a while back, including the recaps because I enjoy them. If you ever want to know how certain aspect of the story were handled in the original Japanese text (without the English localisation's weirdness), those are a good place to start.

I actually rewatched the SA2 arc in Sonic X recently, and I found it interesting how a lot of the dialogue is basically taken from the original game word for word. I assume that's different for the dub, but I also haven't watched it in over 8 years now so I wouldn't know.

 

Wow, that's sooo cool!! Really pretty stuff. Your efforts are definitely greatly appreciated.
Here are the JP game manuals that could definitely use a nice pretty rescan: Sonic & Tails 2 (Triple Trouble), Drift (it's not awful, but the scans are still small and kinda blurry and that bugs me), Spinball, Sonic R, Flickies' Island (Saturn), Sonic Jam, Drift 2's cover (I don't like that large crease), and I suppose pretty much every disc based Sonic game starting with Adventure? I don't think most of the post 1998 games got manual scans, but I could be wrong.

I don't think there's any I'm missing, but I haven't checked the Wiki in a while. These Sonic CD scans do help a lot to start off, though. I could easily dump them all into OCR.