Alexander O. Smith

Alexander O. Smith (born February 8, 1973) is a professional English/Japanese translator and author. While his output covers many areas, such as the adaptation of Japanese novels, manga, song lyrics, anime scripts, and various academic works, he is best known for his software localizations of Japanese video games. He currently resides in Kamakura, Japan, where he operates his own contract localization business, Kajiya Productions, and is co-founder of Bento Books, a translation and publishing company.

In Ace Attorney

Smith's involvement in the Ace Attorney series began when Capcom outsourced the localization of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney to Bowne Global Solutions, which employed some of Smith's Dungeons & Dragons buddies. During the stalled development of Final Fantasy XII, Bowne Global offered Smith the job, leading to him working on the translation with his friend, Steve Anderson. Smith had little familiarity with the series, whose latest entry at the time was Gyakuten Saiban 3, which would end up localized as Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials and Tribulations. Director Shu Takumi's writing immediately impressed him. Due to the heavy emphasis on misunderstandings and wordplay, Smith viewed translating the game to English the way a film director would analyze a script and translate it to the visual medium of film. He has estimated that about half of the jokes in the localization were rewrites rather than translations of the original text.

Smith was also involved in the translation of Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney with Nanica K. K.. He has not worked on the series since, and, as of 2015, he has not caught up on it.

External links

• Giant Bomb
• IMDb
• MobyGames
• Wikipedia

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