To the members of the Doki Legion and the worldwide ‘Key’ Kazoku,
It is my utmost pleasure to officially announce the undertaking of an unprecedented project. At the urging of fans and after careful consideration by the Baka-Tsuki Translation Team led by Polarem, it has been agreed upon that the completion of the CLANNAD Visual Novel English Translation Project, including all remaining translations, editing work, and associated checks, will henceforth be entrusted to Doki’s Visual Novel Division. It is both an honor and a privilege to serve as the anchor to arguably the most noteworthy VN translation project ever undertaken.
As many of you are no doubt aware, the CLANNAD VN English Translation Project has been underway for years, having been started in 2005 as a one man project and eventually evolving to encompass many noteworthy names in fansubbing. The effort put fourth by those comprising the “Drama Club / Dango Daikazoku” （演劇部 ／ だんご大家族） including TheWaffleHouse, Sprocket-Hole Subs, and Baka-Tsuki, has spawned a legion of Clannad fans around the world. Though these groups’ ultimate effect on Clannad fandom cannot be precisely quantified, one would be hard-pressed to find a larger, equally passionate collection of fans than those of the aforementioned series. Such fans deserve a final, properly edited, complete translation patch to satisfy their devotion. That is exactly what they are going to get.
As with Tomoyo After, as well as the prior trustees of the CLANNAD VN Translation Project, the game will not be provided along with the translation patch. The single task of the Doki VN Division is to develop translations of the utmost quality for the games it works on. Due to the zeal exuded by the worldwide community in regard to Japanese culture, precise & picturesque translations of associated works, and of Key works in general, anything less than perfection in regard to this undertaking will be deemed unacceptable. With a highly talented, enthusiastic team in place, and as the final translation project I shall personally oversee, we promise to make every effort to not only produce the preeminent (and first truly complete) Clannad translation patch, but to have it be the gold standard for all such translation projects to follow. Naysayers be warned, you will be eating your words.
Thus far, invitations to work on the project have already been accepted by some specific, talented individuals who have shown an interest in the project’s success. While the size and capabilities of the VN Team are plenty sufficient to complete the work expected of them, they could always use some additional help. Holo encourages anyone able and willing to translate or do editing (text, photoshop, video, quality check) to stop by #doki-recruits and send him a message at holo@doki.co. If you have significant time constraints or feel your work ethic is inadequate to maintain a set schedule, I would suggest that you instead support Doki through your words of thanks. The support received by the community is noted and is a significant driving force for why the VN Team (as well as the rest of Doki’s Staff) contributes their time toward causes they find worthwhile. As always, I personally appreciate your support and thank everyone who has offered encouragement to us.
Be prepared, Clannad fans. Swan songs are always the sweetest.
Thursday 7th June 2012 
10:00 PM 
Good. It’ll be nice that someone finally gets around to finishing this.
After this, get to work on the unreleased Angel Beats! VN. 😛
I’m glad you agree, Jigsy. I’m also thrilled that you’ve graced us all with the most SFW comment submitted from you on all of Doki.co!
I kid, I kid. In regard to Angel Beats!, who knows when that’s coming out… As I’m sure you know, the VN Team is going to move one step at a time. Personally, I would love to be able to buy the Angel Beats! VN and install an English patch immediately! ^_^ Wouldn’t that be nice?
Oh my God, could you guys be more full of yourselves? What the hell did I just read?
Hello there, person who posted here for the first time. It would seem as if you may object to people showing appreciation for others’ work, in which case your comment is both ambiguous and misguided. Or, perhaps you object to my posting the project announcement, which seems odd unless serving a personal motive.
Seeing as no one that posted has shown any notable signs of egregious self servitude, I can reasonably assume that your comments are directed towards myself and the VN Team. The project was public for several years, so if you didn’t want someone else working to complete the project you could have organized a team to finish it yourself. As it is, Polarem and other notable names from outside of Doki have already offered their assistance to assist in the patch’s completion.
If you truly feel that what was written was anything but a passionate expression of thanks and excitement regarding the project and the series as a whole, then I see little point in discussing the matter further with you; such an analysis should have been obvious. I refuse to be be baited into a confrontation with you when your motive is clearly to stir up trouble.
(PS – Sorry I’m not more like Soifon; it just turns out I prefer not to make hate into an art form.)
I have no motive. Perhaps you were just excited, but I’m not mad or anything, nor am I trying to start trouble. I actually enjoyed the post.
But here’s where I found it went a bit far–and it was neither excitement nor thanks: Due to the zeal exuded by the worldwide community in regard to Japanese culture, precise & picturesque translations of associated works, and of Key works in general, anything less than perfection in regard to this undertaking will be deemed unacceptable. With a highly talented, enthusiastic team in place, and as the final translation project I shall personally oversee, we promise to make every effort to not only produce the preeminent (and first truly complete) Clannad translation patch, but to have it be the gold standard for all such translation projects to follow.
They’re just words, but that’s the reason for my post. I’m glad your finishing it, and I’m sorry we seem to have got off on the wrong foot.
*you’re
I’m sure you can understand how one could misinterpret the demeanor from your original post and theorize that your intentions were meant as negative. If what you say is true, then we have no reason for further ill intent towards the other.
I am fully aware of what was written in the announcement post as I chose my words very carefully. I believe that for a visual novel of Clannad’s status, many will not be satisfied with a patch that doesn’t go the distance to provide an excellent overall experience. Translation errors, editing mishaps, and coding errors have left Clannad fans wanting more, yet little progress was being made due to inherent limitations of Baka-Tsuki’s public editing system. Now that the patch is being worked on in a structured environment, it has the chance to be turned into something really special for fans. I am neither going to apologize for nor stand down from the stance that the team’s goal is to build off of other groups’ fine work and create a standard for future projects to follow.
If you choose to utilize either the Tomoyo After and/or the Clannad patch Holo will release, I hope that you receive joy from the ability to play the games in properly constructed English.
Good work boys/girls
We try. Plenty of work left to go!
More of my Tomoyo more of my happiness runs!
I thought that the picture of Kyou challenging Tomoyo was a good representation of Clannad being the advancing project to replace Tomoyo After. Luckily for us all, Tomoyo isn’t getting kicked out of the spotlight, its just that she now has to share it with everyone else she knows from high school!
Your tomoyo? My my, I think we’ll have some problems there! xD
Kyou’s the best anyway! : p
sorry Roku, I changed my mind. Tomoyo was the best girl. I was meh with certain part of Kyou’s arc ending
•̪̀●
I like her personality the most out of all the girls. I like girls with her type of personality the most in real life as well, btw.
There are 6 VN pages/posts on Doki; today, all 6 are within the top 12 in unique page views. As there are currently 1,166 combined posts & pages on Doki, I’d venture to guess there’s some interest in these VN Translation projects! =D
Don’t think it’s a big suprise though, Clannad finally getting a completed translation is like duke nukem forever coming out kinda news 🙂
What Danyo said. ; ) Only this time it won’t get fucked up, UNlike Duke Nukem…
What? You didn’t like driving around in a go-kart to cross a nearly impossible to jump over bridge in a FPS? Or was it that you didn’t like the punch-out style multiplayer games where it was nearly impossible to hit anyone?
Noooo wayyyy! XD
I’m pretty lenient, so for all the suckiness of the game, I could at least live with it enough to still play through it, but the one thing that made me give up was that it was plagued by a bug that caused it to crash all the time (the PC version) on many computers, including brand-spanking new, powerful ones like mine. Worst part is I got the CE Edition….sigh…
Other than that, the graphics were abysmal, and the action lame. The humour and weird stuff you could do (such as all those ingame minigames. :p ) were good fun though, but those were the best part of the game, which is kind of sad…Music was ok, and as for the poor story and cheesy dialogue, all I say to that is: “Dude, it’s Duke Nukem. Of course the story and dialogue are corny. I wouldn’t have it any other way”. Overall though, it was pretty bad, even without the crashes.
Glad to see this post. Best of luck to everyone working on the project 😀
Thank you much, craggy.
… craggy? Why choose the name ‘craggy’? That’s one of the more unique ones I’ve seen!
If i knew i scratched the genie’s lamp with that wish, I would have asked for a gazillion bucks.
I actually once asked the doki team to consider looking into clannad’s patch, but “honestly” it was a mere wish. For it to become true, this is beyond my wildest imagination. you guys are a real treat.
again and again thank you a gazillion times before you start anything, and another gazillion times after you release it.
A mere wish? Hardly! It was a demand! I was threatened! “C-Man if I don’t get a Clannad patch outta’ you there’s going to be pain. MAX PAYNE!” I really had no choice.
Oh, I crack myself up~ ^^
*ahem*
Ultimately the transfer made sense for both sides, plus I was getting several ‘suggestions’ about it from various users. Some of the Baka-Tsuki guys have also transferred over to the Doki team, so its not as if Doki’s VN team won’t be properly briefed. From what I can tell, everyone is excited about completing it.
Also, I’d go about finding that genie’s lamp if I were you. Rumor has it you get three wishes, not just one…
So far the problem wasn’t a problem of length but rather the lack of a team that was able to work consistently on this project.
It took me roughly 70 hours to read through clannd if memory serves me right which should result in ~100k lines
(Little Busters has around 80k, Rewrite somewhere between 70k and 90k)
A team of 2 translators + 1 editor should easily be able to finish a project of this magnitude in 1 year with an average of 10 hours work per week.
So the most important thing is to ensure the completion of a project is to set minimum pensum to be processed per week and then never, no matter what, do less than set pensum. Doing more is always fine but once you start making excuses/putting work off things will start to drag on.
Hello there Kurisu-Kun. Looks like Team Yandere has decided to stop by for a visit!
Your interest and concern is appreciated, though there is no need for uneasiness. The team in place has a wealth of experience with both anime fan-subbing and VN translation projects, so proper allocation of time is of minimal concern. The VN Team has been very open with me about potential time constraints so that progress on the project will advance with minimal interruption. Thankfully, due to the size & skillset of the group, one can be afforded some flexibility without it adversely affecting the project or the rest of the team.
I’m a fan of Key’s works. I actually planned on translating ‘Rewrite’ after Aiyoku but apperently there’s already another group doing it.
Flexibility always depends on the number of people working on a project. Usually there’s only one editor and me as the translator, so if I took a break the whole project would be on hiatus ;p (in contrast to that having more than one translator allows a certain degree of flexibility in regards of time management).
So I’m looking forward to a release.
i am totally at a standstill after reading this… this is just awesome. then the first words i uttered after that was “all hail the doki legion, all hail the key kazoku”, weird right? i will not be like those other guys who does nothing but to criticize other’s efforts or works. i just want to say keep it up guys, good luck and advanced thanks for this…
ps. one does not simply say “my Tomoyo”…
“all hail the doki legion, all hail the key kazoku”
Funny how that phrase seemingly comes out of nowhere, eh? ^_^
I hope that you will find the patch all you hope it will be and more.
MY. TOMOYO. Everyone can kiss my shiny metal ass. Heh.
I can say I thoroughly enjoyed your well thought out and educated post. This brings me such joy I think I might blow a gasket, which would be bad. But good, considering I don’t have one. Hah, I’m funny
So excited.. More for Tomoyo After than Clannad getting a fix-up. I actually figured out that you guys were going to do Clannad as your second VN simply because:
1) Clannad Man is head of said project for Tomoyo After, therefore chances of Clannad being done are 95.6%
2) The way people raved and ecstatically posted about Clannad (Mostly Tomoyo After)
3) I had a hunch in the first place from all the Clannad talk on general.
The question is what VN is going to be done AFTER that? I say Air, or better yet in a few years when the Angel Beats! VN comes out, do that.
I’m sure EVERYONE here would enjoy the AB! VN more than the anime since Key will make it longer and more well thought out. Plus I want to do a Yuri route aside from Kanade’s… Though I enjoyed the anime for what it was worth.
Oh Bender, how I love your pointed, crude humor. Long live Futurama!
One project at a time, Redeyes. You know how this works! I’m also glad that you’re looking forward to both of the projects. Hopefully the wait won’t be too painful for ya!
I think we’ll have some new scrap metal soon redeyes… 😛
Oh Ho Ho! It’s already been settled with Tomoyo herself that she’s mine. If you ask her she’ll gladly tell you. 😉
@Clannad Man – It shouldn’t be with Tomoyo After keeping me satiated. Plus I still got Monster Girl Quest 2 to finish.. And Little Busters… God damn I have so much that needs finishing.
cool, can’t wait for it to be finished. I am planning on doing a video playthrough with and without voice acting for Tomoya (I am using it as a means of getting used to speaking Nihongo (Japanese)). So I will wait for this to be finished in hopes of a complete patch. Good Luck and God speed.
Thank you very much Rykuu! The VN Team will try not to keep you waiting too terribly long!
You guys are my heroes.
And you, are um… hmm… ‘twdarkeh’… what is a twdarkeh?
…
Can’t think up a pun here, so instead I can only say ‘Thank You’ for your praise and give you this Fuuko pic, because if I recall correctly, you like Fuuko!
I like Fuuko. I’ll take that picture ;D
And NOOOOOOOO! You MUST come up with a pun. You are my Punny Clannad Man!
Two-timer. Tomoyo won’t be happy with you fawning over a loli. ; )
Fuuko <3
And twdarkeh is darkeh with a tw in front of it. Is true.
-_- ……. Fuu-chan is cute and all, but her path made me depressed up untill I first whent to Ibuki-sensei house. I really hated doing all that to Nagisa (probably should have done fuuko first, or at least Nagisa last)
UPDATE: Tomoyo After Beta-Tester Information Now Posted!
This is going to be great. I was using the unofficial translation patch a couple of years ago and didn’t get past a couple of days, it just bothered me to think that I may miss a few lines or entire flag due to bugs in the script code, so I’ve been putting it off on the chance that someone decided enough is enough and it’s time to finish the translation.
I just hope there is a way to switch from British English into American English. I don’t mind centre or colour, but some of us viewed mum as slang term for mom, and Nagisa’s story involves her parents so much. Either way, I’m looking forward to it.
The only thing that was bad about it was
1) No Valid Strings Attached…. instead of Tomoya’s name when Nagisa says it in Fukko’s path
2) Multiple translations of a line in some cases
3) I think 2 Akio lines were blank in After story
Hi Phlare. Thanks for stopping by!
Unfortunately there will be no way to switch from British English into American English. However, I think your ‘mum’ concerns are not a problem in the VN Translation. I need to double check, but I wouldn’t worry too much.
Also, Stan, there were a few errors which were caught which need to be corrected. The size of the VN can cause things like what you mentioned to happen. They will be fixed.
I was hoping for the exact opposite (i.e. keepIng the British English and not using US. Mom just sounds cringe-worthy to me, and what the hell are bangs except small explosions?).
On a more serious note, a complete English translation being available, can’t wait. I wish you guys all the best!
It’s amazing how this translation patch can never finish, but who am I to complain at least baka-tsuki has done 99.99%. I have played the game with the 99.99% patch and it was satisfying despite some noticable mishaps and untranslatable graphics.
I have a concern about the game. You see Baka-tsuki only made patche files for the game not an instilation file. They did this with Kanon and while its not a big deal per se, the installation for Kanon is in Japanese. For english speakers this may be difficult for them and depends how fussy they are, like me haha. Now Clannad obviously with have the installation process in japanese but also has some sort of region lock attached to it, forcing me to change my english PC console to a japanese console.
My question for you is: Can you produce an instalation patch? If yes, will it able to override the game’s instalation for english consoles? If not, well that’s too bad, I’ll do whatever to apply the patch. It still irks me to change the console on my pc though; it does somewhat cause some issues for me doing that. Still I wish Doki the best of luck!
This. Not only is this a concern for CLANNAD, but the Tomoyo After project would share the same issues. Additionally, is there any chance you’ll be providing a modified REALLIVE.exe file for both games?
I meant more along the lines of issuing the NoDVD patch, since I can’t seem to install CLANNAD. I have the ISO and the normal install went well, but when I didn’t mount the ISO, I got RealLive error 2100, and after I did mount it, I think I got error 1301.
Let me put it this way… A translation patch installation menu? That shouldn’t be a problem. An overall installation patch? That is a problem since Doki will not distribute the game itself. For the initial installation of the game, you’ll be on your own. Sorry.
@JbstormburstADV: Did you change your PC to a Japanese Console? It should be in Region and Language in the Control Panel (Windows 7), when you change the “Language for non-Unicode programs” under the Administrative tab. Your PC has to be Japanese to even play CLANNAD. That’s the only thing I can think of why you have those errors.
@ Clannad Man: I don’t know what you mean by an overall installation patch, and obviously you won’t be distributing the game. But I guess my question revolves around how MirrorMoon did with Fate/Stay Night. With their translation patch, they created an executable installing the game and the patch at the same time. All it requires is to have the game cd inside the disc drive; you don’t even need to do the installation from the CD itself. This is what I meant by overriding the installation.
That… is actually a damn good idea, considering how lost some people feel when they see Japanese for the instructions.
Say… By any chance, would this also theoretically eliminate the need to set the non-unicode language to Japanese if you were to install CLANNAD Full Voice, especially considering that from what I know, that step is usually required for installation. If that is true, Clannad Man, I am backing Xangel on this proposition, especially since it would not be dependent on including the code for the game in the instructions for the executable.
Such action is trickier than it sounds due to the game’s configuration. Let’s just keep it under the ‘possibilities’ category for now.
Well I don’t care how Doki does it, I was able to install Clannad before and I’m sure I can do it again. But as I said I’m only more concerned with the changing region of my PC to Japanese and I rather stay in English. For me that’s more important.
Just wanted to mention that Kanon wasn’t translated by Baka-Tsuki, but by NDT (Non-Directional-Translations).
Still cannot wait for this to be completed, but would it also be possible to get a Romaji script?
Doki’s VN Department has no plans to provide a Romaji script. The effort to do so would far outweigh its likely usefulness. I’m sorry, but the team no doubt feels their time would be better utilized elsewhere.
I didn’t think Christmas was coming for another 6 months?
Ever hear the term, ‘Christmas in July‘?
^_^
It’s great to hear that Doki is finishing the CLANNAD translation. I completed the the first part with a 2010 patch and After Story with the June 2011 patch, and I think remember only a handful of major issues with the translations. I’m looking forward to the completed project.
A legion of fans stands with you on that account, fellow Clannad player. But first, Tomoyo After!
[…] yeah I saw this a while back. They’re going to finish Clannad after Tomoyo After. http://doki.co/2012/06/07/clannad_vn_announcement/ Share this:TwitterStumbleUponRedditFacebookTumblrEmailLike this:LikeBe the first to like this. By […]
Woah, nifty~!
Many many many thanks for this. I remember playing a bootlegged patch a year ago and some parts were just terribly translated. While I still enjoyed the VN, the low quality work made some parts daunting t comprehend.
Now this will be totally worth revisiting 😀
Bon aprés midi, Pepe! I very much hope you will revisit us again quite soon. Clannad Fans the world over are waiting with bated breath for the kazoku of translated Clannad patches to arrive. May you enjoy the reworked Clannad (as well as the new Tomoyo After translation) very, very much!
Thank you thank you thank you.
And good luck. I don’t like the direction Rewrite took so I’m more interested now than ever in the completion of Clannad and Air’s translations.
There are currently only two VN Staff members working on Clannad right now. However, once Tomoyo After’s Beta-Patch is released next month, Clannad will become the team’s primary project. As before, no timescale will be set, but I will be around to answer questions posted in this forum if anyone has them.
Ahh… Geez… Why do we have so few japanese translators here… It’s really some hurdle to overcome when you need to clarify certain spots without knowing the language… Hey, Clannad Man, mind sharing some of your J translators with us? You have so many of them, even one is enough;) Besides we working on the same project:D
But seriously, maybe you’ve already happened to cleanse Sanae’s path (or some other ones in AfterStory)? Our work’d already be finished weeks ago if not for this impasse(
Our guys are pretty booked up. Plus, I don’t have the authority to force them to do anything, including reassignment.
Wait what?
I played entire Clannad in English from beginning to an end! Every route, good end, true golden ending and even gay end (lol Sunohara), and project isn’t even finished?
I can’t really remember what I did, except that it involved a massive .txt file and a cracked .exe though…
Nope, not quite. There are still a handful of translations and many edits left to be done.
Heyho,
I watched Clannad + After Story and the short Tomoyo Chapter. What’s your opinion guys? Should I wait for the full Clannad translation and then play Tomoyo After (due to some important content, that wasn’t implemented in the anime?) or is it completely fine when I directly play Tomoyo After?
IMO, it’s better to start first with reading Clannad before Tomoyo after since there’s already an English patch for Clannad. If memory serves me right, Tomoyo route had no problems with the first English patch.
Also, there was very little change regarding Tomoyos route in the anime, but I found it more appealing in the VN rather than the anime(preference I suppose lol 😀 ).
okay cool, thanks 🙂
Either way is fine; you’ll get a jist of what’s going on if you watch the Clannad anime w/ Another World: Tomoyo or if you go through Tomoyo’s route in the Clannad VN. You may find the VN version to be more complete, however.
Good to see Doki’s continuing on their path of translating VNs. I finished Clannad on the old, clunky translation. The bugs didn’t bother me too much, but I’m glad it’s getting the translation it deserves.
Out of curiosity though: Since there’s a good number of quality VNs out there that have yet to be translated, why have you decided to translate something which was already (mostly) done? Was it more of something you personally wanted, Clannad Man, or was it a general consensus by the staff?
I do believe it’s because he is Clannad Man and him being him can’t really head any other VN project with so much knowledge. Either way, I believe it is because fans were so ecstatic about Tomoyo After that doing Clannad would most likely keep the fans while providing the constant hype of a perfect-o translation. Although I don’t think hype is nor will it ever be as high as it was with TA.
Now… Is it me or are these blog posts dying down?
Clannad_man is on holiday somewhere, he will be back soon.
He Lives!
*gasp!*
There was interest all around. Personally, I can’t think of a better VN to work on. The line of people who have worked on Clannad is storied and extensive, so to ‘run the last leg’ is an honor. I’m confident Doki’s VN team will do everything in its ability to make the Clannad patch a release Key fans will be proud of.
Might I be able to link off some screenshots for you guys to use? I see that you are lacking in them.
Screenshots will be added from Doki’s patched version of the game when they are ready. Thanks though!
cool, be sure to difinately add some of evil Kyou