My Translation of the Fanbook

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Updated: 2009-08-27

What Fanbook?
The fanbook is a booklet of 52 pages (including cover), about half of which are in full colour. It contains information about the Drama CD, with which it follows, and about the four main parts of the series.

Acknowledgements
I would not have started this translation had I not been inspired by Rebecka Capowski's translation of the Phantasy Star Compendium. Many thanks goes goes to her!
However, most credits is due to Maxx who runs the oldest and best Phantasy Star page around: The Phantasy Star Pages. Without his page and its Discussion Board I would never have heard of neither the Compendium nor the Fanbook. Thanks Maxx!
Special thanks goes to the members of PSDB, the afore-mentioned Discussion Board. Shame on you guys! I should be studying! ^_^
Finally my very special thanks goes to Shuei Minatoya who has guided me whenever I reached a dead end in my translation. Dômo arigatô gozaimasu!

Notes about the Translation
It would be short of a miracle if this translation is not partly erroneous. This due to two things mainly. The first is that my native language is not English. The second is that I have studied Japanese for no more than a year.
Thus if you find a phrase that looks peculiar to you, or if you find that I have made a spelling error then please contact me and I will have a look at it.
For you who have studied Japanese, I have transcribed the text in kana. You can find it here if you are interested. I would very much appreciate if you would drop me a note if ("when" really) you find any errors.
I have put my own notes within {curly brackets} throughout the text. What is said within [square brackets] are image descriptions. Those do not necessarily describe the picture which the translated text is refering to, but are meant for orientation purposes.
For the character descriptions what is written in bold fonts might be interesting to the general public. The rest is probably only of interest to those owning the book.
Please note that when the text mentions "Nei" it refers to the character from the Drama CD. The Nei we all know and cherish is mostly called "Nei-second".
Many thanks to Diana for helping me with the proper romanisation of the actors' names, and for undertaking the huge task of translating the Drama-CD!
Also, check out her (and my) new translation project: The Phantasy Star Futabasha Game Book.
Finally, inspired be the stunning generosity of Orakio Rob, I decided to scan the Fanbook and share it with you. You can find a PDF of it here, and a zip-file containing the book, and the covers of the CD case and of the box the bundle came in etc. here. Share and Enjoy!

Happy Reading!
/Skyman

The Translation

So far pages 1 through 11 have been translated.

Page 2

MEMORIAL DRAMA CD & FANBOOK 2

PHANTASY STAR

CONTENTS

MEMORIAL DRAMA CD
"Phantasy Star -The Sealed Memory-"

  • GUIDE ...3
  • Enter the Characters ...4
  • Story Highlights ...10
  • Special Interviews ...12
  • Dubbing Report ...14
  • Package Illustrations Commentary ...18
  • Guide to the Phantasy Star Series ...19
  • Phantasy Star ...20
  • Phantasy Star II -When There is no Turning Back ...25
  • Successors of Time Phantasy Star III ...32
  • Phantasy Star -At the End of the Millenium ...38
  • Phantasy Star Goods ....48
  • Special Present ....50

    Page 3
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    MAKING OF DRAMA CD

    "Phantasy Star"

    -Sealed Memory-

    Guide

    First of all the collaborative effort of the many people of SEGA:s Development Staff have the accomplished making this Drama CD. In the tale of the hardships of this Drama CD, among other things, they conducted the interviews with the voice actors and kept a log of the making of the Drama CD.

    Page 4
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    Presentation of the characters on the Drama CD.

    To introduce the characters we would like to present some rough sketches by SEGA:s mr. Yoshita. They are all drawn by him.

    NEI

    A young girl who is travelling and searching for a Silver Dome. On the streets of Tiria she unexpectedly gets to know Rudy, who joins her in looking for the Dome. A second character enters the play - her looks and name are identical to Nei's, but what is her motive!?
    (Voice: Mitsuishi Kotono)

    [Picture of Nei's face]
    Rough sketch by Character Design Chief mr. Yoshita.

    [Sketches of Nei wearing a robe]
    Below Nei is wearing the cut robe, which she wears until they reach the last dome. The hood conceals her ears. The hooded robe drawn above is Nei's standard style.

    [Clothing design sketches]
    This fine creation hardly appears in the Drama CD. The Nei of the Drama CD version of Nei from the first script. It was almost too late when the standard design was decided.

    [Coloured Nei]
    PSII:s Nei-Second, renewed version.

    [Nei from behind]
    Wearing the robe as seen from behind. The hood is usually up or down, whichever is more practical.

    Page 5

    RUDY ASHLEY {Chaz Ashley}

    Main character of "At the End of The Millenium". At the time of the Drama CD, three years earlier, he meets the young girl Nei and their companionship is described. What past events are sealed away in the depths of his memory?
    (Voice: Sakaguchi Daisuke)

    [Rudy and Nei]
    Below is a height comparison of Rudy and Nei. The 3 years younger Rudy is 13 years old and naturally he is shorter than Nei.

    [Young Rudy looking over his shoulder]
    A different pose than that in the final version. It wasn't cleaned up.

    [Young Rudy looking determined]
    The final version. This line art is from just before the clean up. Eventually this was used.

    [Rudy holding a sword]
    To the left is the step right before the finished version. After the clean up this was finished, using a confusing Mac.

    [Older Rudy posing]
    A rough sketch by mr. Yoshita. It is different from the final version.

    [Knife hilt]
    The hilt of Rudy's knife. It belongs, of course, to the 3 years younger Rudy.

    [Rudy tapping his forehead]
    A rough sketch draw in the initial stages. He looks older in comparison with the final verison.

    Page 6

    NM-2011 TYPE

    By obtaining data from the original Nei, "Gene" creted the NM-2000 series' newest model. Its incredible abilities all greatly surpass those of Nei.
    (Voice: Tange Sakura)

    [NM-2011 line art version]
    Final version. It took a lot of hard work to reach the final version of this tall character.

    [In between three sketches]
    Initial rough sketches. There seems to have been many different ideas regarding the costume type also.

    [Bust shot]
    This is also a rough sketch. The boot design for the character to the left was used.

    [Mirrored final pose]
    First version. There were initially many plans for this one, but they were greatly changed.

    [Three very much alike poses.]
    All was eventually condensed to this basis.

    [Above head shot.]
    Mr. Yoshita made the NM-2011 Type very much by trial and error. He made many different versions.

    [Next to Rudy]
    An uncolored version for the CD casing. The NM-2011 Type below was cancelled from the final version. It is a very precious paper.

    Page 7

    ROY RAOGREE

    An weapons merchant living in Latis. Beleiving in serving all customers, he accepts that what Rudy supplies him with are stolen goods and takes care of it. Besides this he also sells information.
    (Voice: Nagai Ichirou)

    [Roy's head]
    A rough sketch of his face. Compared to the final verison his features look fearless somehow.

    [Body sketch]
    A rough sketch of Roy. No larges changes were made for the final version.

    [Line art version]
    Roy before colouring. He looks wonderful and virtuous old man.

    FREYNA {Demi}

    The android managing the energy plant "Nurvus". It is also her duty to check that all the systems of Motabia are functioning normaly.
    (Voice: Iwao Junko)

    [Rough sketch]
    Comparing with the game version more detail has been added.

    [Taking shape] Not much was changed from the one to the right for the final version, only facial expression and minor details.

    [Line art version] She has been refined a lot for the Drama CD from her first appearance in "End of the Millenium".

    Page 8

    FOOREN {Wren}

    An android constructed by technology from before "The Great Collapse". As master of the labour satellite Zeran it is his duty to coordinate the control of the systems keeping the Algol star system alive. By correspondance with Freyna he knows the state of the reconstruction of Motabia.
    (Voice: Hayami Shou)

    [Bust shot]
    A rough sketch. The final verision was mirrored.

    [Body sketch]
    You can understand that the finger joints and such have been had more detail added.

    THRAY {Rune}

    Having inherited Lutz' memory and will he is a highly skilled magician. Unable to bear wacthing Rudy being worried by the setting sun he tries to recall the memory.
    (Voice: Inoue Kazuhiko)

    [In-between the three versions]
    Below is an almost finsihed version. To the left is the cleaned up version.

    [Below rough sketch]
    The sketch above was drawn in the beginning. The more detailed drawing was later decided upon.

    Page 9

    FAL {Rika}

    A prototype Numan-girl created by the bioplant "Seed". Nei had complexes from knowing that she was "not a human being", but Fal on the opposite feels proud of being a non-human.
    (Voice: Nogami Yukana)

    [Sketches of Fal]
    To the right is a drawing from the initial stages. This pose was not decided upon. Below is the final version.

    [Fal and Rudy]
    The characters have been separated from from the uncoloured version of the CD casing.

    [Non-human Group Shot ]
    Uncoloured version on the booklet's front cover.

    YUUSIS {Rolf}

    The hero of PSII. He waged war on the Earthlings who meant to destroy the Algol star system. Often appears in Nei's dreams, but what is his connection with her...?
    (Voice: Morikawa Toshiyuki)

    [Bust shot of Yuusis]
    Mr. Yoshita has refined Yuusis personality.

    [Neifirst and Yuusis]
    This is also a character piece from the CD casing. It depicts Yuusis and Nei-first.

    NEI-FIRST / NEI-SECOND

    Girls made by crossbreeding human and biomonster cells. Originally they were one person, but because of differences in the personality they were divided.
    (Voice: Mitsuishi Kotono)

    [Above the Neis]
    An identical Yuusis was later adjusted by mr. Yoshita. Below is Nei-first.

    [Below the Neis]
    Nei-second. The feet are the same as Nei-first's.

    GENE

    The controlling computer of Bio Dome No. 3. Conducted Nei-type research on Seed's instruction.
    (Voice: Kinomiya Ryouko)

    Page 10
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    Comments on the highlights of the Drama CD.

    These pages are for people who want to enjoy the world of the Drama CD even more. There are aslo illustrated columns by the die-hard PS-phan Kaname Byakko-sensei.

    I: Concerning the Story

    When undetaking the production of this CD a meeting was held with the CD Production staff and SEGA Development. The Development Divison sent out a proposal that they wished for the characters of the series latest installment "At the End of the Millenium" to appear. At first the scenario planned by the CD Production Staff featured Nei as heroine in the period around 1809AW, and therefore there were no plans for the characters of "At the End of the Millenium" to appear. At this time SEGA Development issued a few suggestions and scenario arrangements. A scenario was written from this basis by Motosaku. Many meetings, a few cancellations and additional revisons took place, but the stream of the story was not changed greatly from this stage.
    A prologue and an epilogue were added, so that well-known characters could also appear in the "Phantasy Star" series first Drama CD. Those details were greatly desired.

    {Purple trivia column}
    There were cut scenes too!
    At first there was a scene before the prologue featuring a warrior's battle against Dark Force in front of a temple, but it was reluctantly cancelled because there was no room for it on this one CD. A scene from the streets of Tiria prior to the epilogue was canceled for similar reasons.

    [Picture of Freyna in the trivia column]
    To our regret, Freyna's apperance was somewhat short in the whole. We wanted to see also a Mecha fetish character in the CD...

    [Prologue story board: Rudy watching sunset]
    A prologue image by mr. Yoshita's hand.

    [Epilogue story boards: Rudy waking up and running away with Fal]
    A similar epilogue image by mr. Yoshita's hand. This is roughly the way it happens on the CD.

    II: Fooren and Freyna

    The opening and prologue take place when the game is well under way, but the main story taking place three years earlier is the main creation for the CD. Three years earlier Fooren was onboard Zeran and Freyna was still in "Nurvus", the energy plant of the planet Motabia. Already at this time awakening systems were madly running wild here and there, and you can understand that the two had to make an effort because of this (Zio occupying Nurvus had not yet happened). Disappointingly they hardly appear on the Drama CD, despite their important duties.

    {Blue trivia column}
    What about the Land Buster?
    A vehicle stored in Nurvus. Much smaller than the Land Master. By the way, its serial number is CXR-31.

    [Above Fooren]
    It is Fooren's duty to manage many machines. Of course Freyna can also handle machinery.

    [Below Freyna]
    The Land Buster is not in the Machine Central but in Nurvus.

    Page 11

    III: The relation between Gene and Seed

    Here are points regarding the differences between Seed and Gene.
  • Seed... Bioplant. A huge facility, the greatest bio enigneering system and unifier of all the plants. A design from after The Great Collapse. Its power is supplied by Nurvus.
  • Gene... Biodome. A middle sized facility. It was planned and constructions started under the control of Mother Brain. It was halted due to the great collapse and it was damaged, but it was completed safely. Because it was created before the network control plan it has an independent nuclear powerplant.
    In short, Freyna's discovery of Gene's disorder was delayed because of its characteristic nuclear reactor.

    [Machinery]
    From the "At the End of the Millenium" creation data. Its an image of a Bioplant.

    [Biomonster]
    Eventually three years later, Seed also ran out of control and started to give birth to dangerous monsters.

    [Large illustration]
    {Header}
    The Mega Drive {Genesis} is still in my heart (Laugh)
    Kaname Byakko's

    Illustrated Column

    {Main text}
    I love this game, I have special feelings for Phantasy Star (especially for 2!). Nei and Neifirst are my favourite game characters, that's why. I'm really exited about this new Drama having a showdown between two Neis! For the "PS" fans... or rather for the Nei fans, the fact that Nei succedes should make your spirits happy. Good don't you think..? Nei.

    {Chibi Nei}
    A character called Nene drawn by Kaname for the old magazine DENGEKI MEGA DRIVE {dengeki = electric shock}. I like Nei that much.

    {NM-2011}
    "Madame Disturbance..." this line of speach thrills you! I like it because it is reminds me of EXER 2!

    {Thray and Rudy}
    Sakaguchi's Rudy is very cute! Inei's Thray is also cute and fitting!
    {Thray to Rudy:} Aye, squirt

    {Fal}
    It's unfortunate that she only appeared shortly! Nogami's voice is exactly right for Fal!

    Page 12
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    WORK IN PROGRESS!

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