Hi I found this series of interview in a chinese website.
I believe the interview was conducted in japanese.
Does anyone know if there’s an official English translation of this interview?
http://www.17utt.com/?viewnews-1433
http://www.17utt.com/?viewnews-1436
http://www.17utt.com/index.php?action-viewnews-itemid-1439-php-1
http://www.17utt.com/?viewnews-1443
http://www.17utt.com/index.php?action-viewnews-itemid-1446-php-1
http://www.17utt.com/?viewnews-1449-viewnews-1449-page-10
Thanks
going to give you a free bump as thanks for finding these
although i do like legendary game designer david sirlin more than legendary fighting game player daigo umehara i still appreciate this very much
Q???SF4???
U???
Q: What do you think about the level of SF4 play in the US?
A: They don’t have any that I can see (laughs).
My girlfriend translated this part for me, but she’s too busy with homework to do any more.
Daigo: Best troll
The beast just taunted us.
???..
I’m interested in this.
That’s taken out of context. He goes on to say that he was too busy at the tournament to even watch any matches. The first part of the second article is him describing J Wong’s merits as a player.
I’m kind of slowly going through this, I’ll try to post some of this up if I’m not beaten to the punch by someone more fluent.
the google translation for this is amazing.
Example: " So Japan win battle in Iraq?"
I think those are Chinese translations of a Arcadia interview from long time ago… something like April or May 2009 issue.
And like Starcade RIP said, I think that single part in particular is poorly translated or taken out of context, cus I don’t remember Umehara bashing on U.S. once during the entire interview. I need to find the Arcadia issue myself and re-read it, though.
My gf decided to emasculate me, so she translated the first article. =p Yes, it’s definitely old. It’s from after he came back from the Gamestop finals.
Return of a real 2D god, interview with Umehara Daigo
At this year?s exhibition matches at the Gamestop championships held in America, Umehara once again took first place, placing him at the top of the SF4 world. This time, we will spend a few days interviewing Umehara in order learn more about him, hear what he has to say about himself, and find how just what kind of genius he is.
This interview was conducted not long after he had returned from America. Today, this interview might be considered a little outdated… (portion difficult to translate… talks about him qualifying for something… sbo maybe?).
Q: Exactly how did you get to play in a huge American tournament?
U: An American living in Japan who I had met previously at EVO gave me a call out of the blue, and said, ?A guy I know from CAPCOM USA is interested in inviting you to take part in a tournament.? He also said, ?We?ll also take care of all your expenses. Would you be interested in competing?? Since I?d be going to America, I also asked, ?How will this be arranged?? After that, everything happened really quickly.
Q: What was the journey like?
U: First, I was on a plane (for about 10 hours). 3 hours after I arrived in America, I competed. The next morning, I was on a plane back to Japan?just like that (laughs). I was also invited to compete at EVO for free this year, so I didn?t have any prize money. I was competing in a round robin competition against the Japanese champion (Iyo), the Korean Champion (Poongko), as well as the American Champion (Justin Wong).
Q: There was also no preparation?
U: Yeah, and no warm ups or anything either. Furthermore, there were food and language problems. It?s always like this when I go to America, I will constantly think of eating Japanese food, and the longer I?m there, the more tired I am.
Q: When were you told about this event?
U: In March. At that time, it was really tight. The competition starts in April. At first, I didn?t feel like going, but after a while, I thought, ?perhaps in the future, I won?t have the chance to play this character as freely??, let?s first not think about participating in EVO, just think of it in this manner, and I felt that it wasn?t bad if I went.
Q: Just now you said, ?in the future??
U: Although it?s nothing right now, but in the future, a person?s reactions will slow down, and the less a person plays, their skill level also starts to drop. So perhaps in the future, I won?t be able to play this character as effectively as I do now. If I wait until that time, then it will be too late. In any case, I?m also playing SF4, right.
Q: So you want to get in some more experience while you can still effectively play this character?
U: Exactly. Although (if I was asked) last year, I would not have gone. I think that if it had happened last year, I would probably have thought it too troublesome and not gone. I think it has to depend on the changes in a person?s age, frame of mind, and opportunities.
Q: There?s also changes in one?s state of mind.
U: I?m also really interested in the Korean champion. Anyway, if it?s the American champion, there?s no way I can run from Justin or any of his friends. The impression I get from Korea is that they?re really strong in KOF and Tekken, but I?ve never played against a Korean. Half my decision to go to America was because of this reason, yeah, it was the smallest half. (laughs)
Q: What character does the Korean champion play?
U: Ryu. Although he?s really strong, I always feel that he?s too concerned with the technical details of the game and he?s a little inexperienced, probably because he plays less.
Q: What?s the level of America?s SF4 like?
U: I didn?t see any of it. (laughs)
Q: You didn?t see any of it? That doesn?t sound encouraging. (laughs)
Q: This was different from EVO. I was only there for a day, so a lot of people wanted me to take pictures with them and to sign autographs. Let?s not even talk about competing. I didn?t even have time to watch the screens at the competition. Even when the match had started, nobody was even interested in the screen of the match. The minute the match had ended, and I stepped off the stage, there were screams of ?Oh, Daigo!? and all around me, people were fighting to take pictures with me or to get my autograph.
Q: So you signed autographs for them, right?
U: Yeah. In the past, I probably would have found it too troublesome and not signed anything. However, this time, just think, so many people who you?ve never met and who don?t even speak the same language as you are asking for your autograph. I felt that at times, this kind of experience is really valuable. At that time, I felt that if I didn?t grit my teeth and continue to persevere (to sign autographs), it just wouldn?t be right. (laughs)
Everything else is already old and has probably already been translated to English. It seems like it was translated from Japanese to Chinese as things are kind of wonky now and then. Orka is probably right… I’m guessing they are Japanese magazine interviews translated to Chinese, IE, everyone has probably already read them anyway.
I found an interesting tidbit at the end of the interview; I think it?s pretty inspirational:
How daigo practice crouching round house swipe:
In super street fighter II X (ST), guile?s crouching MK is a big threat to Daigo?s Ryu.
I was told that if guile?s c. mk whiffed, ryu can punish it with c. hk, but I can?t do that on reaction at the beginning.
So what I did is that I use FC?s SSFT2X as a training tool and set the speed to turbo x10.
Once I got comfortable at that speed, my eye and hand can react to it after a long period of training.
Now when I face guile in a real match, the c. mk is like a slow motion to me and I have 100% confidence that I can punish it if it whiffs.
Although all we see is the glory of his victories, he did put a lot of efforts in training. A lot of the sweat went into it and it?s pretty creative.
I?m hoping that someone will track down the original interview material?
I think translating from the chinese version to english is not good enough because a lot of context has been lost and the chinese translation is not really top-notch.
burn.
papasi: that’s really cool
“So what I did is that I use FC?s SSFT2X as a training tool and set the speed to turbo x10.”
I’m guessing he was referring to SNES HF?
FC for (Super) Famicom, and then the tiny mistranslation/misquote/misnomer for SF2T.
That stuff about training to punish Guiles cr.mk is awesome.
My mind is blown. Punishing Guile’s whiffed cr.MK is actually pretty hard in ST. It’s not the same as punishing whiffed cr.HK from a shoto, as the range on Guile’s cr.MK is pretty insane, and recovers faster than a whiffed shoto cr.HK.
Daigo once said (in an interview for the Starting Over tourney in 2005) that Guile vs Ryu is his favorite matchup in ST. I can see why – his footsies vs Guile are way more confident than any other Ryu player that I’ve watched.
This is why I shake my head when top American players say that they’re better at footsies than Japanese players. They’ve repeated it often enough that I think they might believe it.
I think you might be confusing hand eye coordination/reactions with footsies…
stupid autograph-signing, picture-taking americans. how shameful.
Oh really daigo, Say that to sanchez biotch he got that moneymatch son.
Btw if daigo really said that we’re going to buttrape him next evo leave his ass burned and salted.
But that doesn’t sound like daigo he’s normally humble
I still hope jwong beats that ass of course.