Henkka: This thread is a bit more meta than what I usually cover on here, but please bear with me. The thread is in regards to the closing of one of the bigger H!P matome sites, Hello Pro Canvas — my personal favorite since I first discovered it. It leads to a wider discussion about why the site may have closed: was it just lack of motivation or financial gain? Or does it instead have more to do with the supposed decline in the quality of the H!P board of 2ch, or 2ch in general?

The reason I’m translating this thread is to give you an idea as to why updates on this site have become scarce as of late. Longtime readers are probably aware of my personal feelings towards post-Tsunku♂ Hello! Project… that is to say, a near-complete lack of interest. But really, that has nothing to do with my recent inactivity on this site.

Yes, when I “shut down” the site last year, I said it was because of my dwindling interest in H!P without Tsunku♂. When I came back a couple of months later, it wasn’t because I’d suddenly returned to the fandom. I came back because I realized: translating 2ch is still a joy to me. It’s just such a great deal of fun, even if I’m not a fan any more. Case in point: I don’t care very much about Tsubaki Factory. I listened to their songs once or twice just to give them a chance. Nothing about them caught my interest, so that’s that. But when I did those three Tsubaki threads, I did it because it was fun. It’s just fun to find out what the Japanese fans think, and it’s fun to try and translate their thoughts. It’s, quite literally, “Wota in Translation.” If it was up to me, I’d be banging out threads about Feelings, Tyrants, Metalheads, Turtles, Beethoven and the Universe every day.

The reason I don’t is because the material for me to translate just isn’t there. In my opinion, fun or interesting threads simply don’t seem to be appearing with the regularity they used to. Why not? Well, that’s what this thread is about. Since its inception, people on the H!P board of 2ch have always talked about how it was going to die “any day now.” So far, it obviously hasn’t. But this time, some of its users feel that it’s definitely changing for the worse.

This post is not me saying I’m quitting Wota in Translation — the last time I tried that, I was back at it after a couple of months. I’m not going to repeat the mistake, but I also don’t see an increase in activity coming anytime soon. So this is just me saying: the next time you wonder why you haven’t heard from me on here in a while, try to remember this thread. Cheers.

1: 名無し募集中。。。 2016/10/03(月) 10:58:35.49 0.net
The declining population of this place made it so that Hello Pro Canvas couldn’t keep up the quality of his posts anymore.

@helloprocanvas
[Announcement] There will be no more updates after today. Additionally, I’m deleting the site on October 31st. Thank you up until now.

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