Interview: Andrew "Steiner" Hodgson on Translation and VTubers

At this year's VeXpo, Anime Atelier had the opportunity to interview Andrew Hodgson, also known as Steiner, a well-known translator-turned-VTuber manager. We chatted on Saturday, September 6, and got to know more about his work and future plans.

Andrew Hodgson is a Japanese-to-English translator and a manager of 2.5D idol and VTuber Phoebe (also known as Feebee). Over the course of his career as a translator, he has worked on a variety of popular games, manga, art books, and novels. His most well-known translation work includes fan-favorite titles such as Steins;Gate, Sword Art Online: Alicization Lycoris (video game), and KonoSuba! God's Blessing On This Wonderful World: Love For These Clothes of Desire! (video game). He has also worked on In Another World With My Smartphone (light novel volumes 1-27), My Dad's The Queen Of All Vtubers!?, and many more projects that you can find on his official website.

Q: Could you tell us a bit about yourself, how you got involved with the otaku community, and how you ended up becoming a translator?

A: We're coming in strong off the bat. My name is Andrew Hodgson; I go by Steiner. I started translating about 15 years ago… I was in my teens at the time.

I was not doing well in school, so I taught myself Japanese instead. Amazing! It's obviously not that simple, but, you know, I got introduced to anime, beyond the obvious stuff like Pokémon and stuff, in middle school, with one of my friends, and then I just developed the interest from there. Once I started teaching myself Japanese, I wanted to get into more of the media, so I [thought how] there was a lot of stuff that's untranslated. Back then, the industry wasn't nearly as big as it is now, and there was still a lot of untranslated stuff, so I just wanted to get access to that myself.

Q: What is your favorite media that you've translated?

A: That's definitely a tough one. I mean, Steins;Gate was my first major project. It's funny looking back, because I was still in school when that happened. I basically hopped into a... I don't know if you remember IRC, Internet Relay Chat. I went into a random IRC server that was doing a Steins;Gate fan translation. And I was like, sure, I can do this. I could not do it. I was really bad at Japanese at the time, actually. But I tried anyway. And that's kind of where I made my first foray into the industry. My work on the original Steins;Gate, looking back, I cringed. But it was definitely the first major step for me. So, I definitely hold a lot of fond memories in my heart, and I'm very appreciative [of] that opportunity. So that was definitely good.

In terms of recent stuff, I just like working on fun and silly stuff. Like the manga that Calliope read on stream, My Dad's the Queen of All VTubers?!. I had a blast translating that, because it was stupid. It was ridiculously silly. So that was definitely a major fun one.

And then recently, I worked on the AI: The Somnium File game with Spike Chunsoft and Anonymous;Code with them as well. Anonymous;Code was very nice to work on. It's in the same series as Steins;Gate. So, to me, in a way, that felt like coming full circle. Ten or so years since the start of my career, I came to the latest game in that series, which felt good.

Otherwise, I don't know. I've worked on so many different things across varying genres and challenge levels. Each thing that I've worked on... Well, even though I don't love each thing that I've worked on, I feel each thing has something different going for it. Everything I've worked on has stuck with me in some way. For example, In Another World With My Smartphone, which was 27 volumes of the main character winning with his smartphone and not doing anything else, still left a nice impression.

Q: How did your translating career lead to becoming a VTuber manager?

A: It's a bit of a funny one. I became quite an outspoken translator on social media and became fairly well-known by the community. Around 2017, I started going to conventions in America, and at 2019's Anime Expo, there was an event called "Steins;Gate Crash," a concert held by Funimation, where I met Phoebe for the first time.

I'd known of her previously through a couple of friends; however, the funny thing is that when we first met, she came to me looking for an autograph because she had friends who were fans of my work, and we ended up connecting that way. That's how I came to know Phoebe. I followed her stuff as a VTuber for a while, and then on my own side as a translator, I kept translating manga and similar media, and eventually, some of the manga I translated were picked up by Hololive [members] on the Hololive Streams.

Mori Calliope read one of my manga that I translated called My Dad's the Queen of All VTubers?!, which was a very fun series to work on, and her streams for that were great. Moona Hoshinova from the Indonesia branch read Volume 1 of Loner Life in Another World, which I translated. Unfortunately, the Japanese site did take that stream down. That was sort of the first intersection of my work with the VTubing scene, so that was really fun, audience response was great, and there was a lot of good engagement. I'd casually watched VTubers myself for a while, but then that's sort of when my world started to collide.

In terms of actually working with VTubers and how that came about, I was chatting with Phoebe as friends when I noticed she was struggling with overwork and seemed to be in need of management assistance, and I just said to her, "Do you need any help?" What I'd realized was that, through my time freelancing as a translator, there were skills I'd acquired that were applicable to talent management, such as contract negotiation and self-advocacy.

When you're freelancing, you are the only thing that stops you from getting screwed over. I had to advocate for myself hard to get decent rates, decent terms, because the client is never going to look out for you; you have to look out for yourself. I applied that self-advocation philosophy to advocating for the talent. I think I'm pretty good at it, and I've ended up getting some pretty good deals as a result.

I mentioned before that I started going to conventions in 2017, which evolved into me going to pretty much every major event in America on a yearly basis. So, I know all the event organizers, I know all the people who run the shows, and have a basic level of connection, which allowed me to pull on those strings for Phoebe, to get her into shows and stuff like that. So, we started doing it, and it started to work out. I started getting more into the VTubing side of things, and eventually, I ended up building a small reputation there as well, as I've had people reach out to me, asking for advice, general consultations, stuff like that. It kind of all intersected, so to speak.

Q: Who was the first VTuber that you interacted with or followed?

A: Oh, that's a good question. Put me on the spot. I'm trying to think.

I mean, in terms of the mainstream, I watched a couple of indies and stuff like that as time went on. I would watch them in the background while I was working because having noise on while I'm working is really helpful. It just lets me concentrate better. My work structure is weird. I have my computer in front of me, and then I just have my laptop to the right, and I usually just put videos on the laptop. I should just buy a second screen, to be honest, but it's fine.

I think really the one that I started really enjoying a lot was Hololive's Inugami Korone. She's very funny. I like her streams a lot. A lot of the JP stuff is good. Generally, just the Hololive stuff has been easy to follow. In terms of the EN side, I've watched a good handful of talents. When Calliope Mori did the VTuber stuff, I started watching her for a while. It was fun. And then in terms of the more recent gens, I like Koseki Bijou. She's funny.

There's kind of a point where it becomes a little harder to enjoy as a fan, because once you know how the sausage is made, so to speak, you have an insight into the industry, so you can sort of see mechanisms that the general audience doesn't see. I do enjoy VTubing, but for example, when I was at the Hololive concert last month in New York, I found myself thinking more about the production companies than the actual show. I was keeping my eyes out for the credits.

In terms of the technical feats and the actual... "How did they do that?" It's sort of like translating, right? Because as a translator, I now have less time for the media that I work on. In that regard, as a VTuber manager, I have less time for VTubers now. But I still enjoy knowing the way this works and using that knowledge to help the people I work with.

Q: I guess it's like a different enjoyment now, because although you can't turn off a researching mind as you watch it, you still get enjoyment from watching it?

A: Yeah, absolutely. It's like when I'm playing a translated game, I can't turn off my translator brain. I'm like, if I'm reading a line in English, I'll sometimes see a phrasing and I'm like, I know how that was written in Japanese. Or maybe I would have written it this way. It's that kind of thing. It's the same principle, but I still enjoy it.

Q: What is your favorite part of your job as both a translator and VTuber manager?

A: In terms of management, I think my favorite thing to do is actually negotiating.

I love advocating for the client. I love talking through terms. It's a bit of a weird thing to have a passion for, I guess, but I really enjoy it. It's kind of a rush, to be honest. If I can talk up terms, that feels good to me, because I'm doing a good job; it also means that Phoebe's or the clients' word has more weight.

For example, if you compare the start of when I was working with Phoebe, versus now, she's making over three times the base rate that she was making back then. It feels good to me, personally, that I've managed to bring it up to that level. I feel that an artist should be paid what they're worth. Unfortunately, the reality is, especially in the VTuber scene, a lot of artists, a lot of VTubers, don't know how to advocate for themselves. A lot of artists struggle, especially when money comes into the picture; it becomes difficult to talk for a lot of people. A lot of people struggle to discuss putting a value on their terms, and I think in a lot of ways, that's why a manager is necessary, because they can take away the difficult parts of those discussions. They can vouch for you.

I think doing the things that are too hard for the talents themselves to deal with is a major draw for me. I enjoy that. And in general, I just enjoy seeing people. I enjoy going to the events. I enjoy interacting with the community. In terms of Phoebe's community, I think I've taken a forward-facing approach; they know me. Which I think is good, in a lot of ways, because there are some managers who work behind the scenes, but I feel like by being as open and involved as possible, it just sort of... It leaves room for good integration. If you're a known aspect, then you foster a good relationship with the community. They know you, they'll behave, is what I would say.

With translation, my favorite part of the job is just finding something fun to work on and really just going at it, you know? If I'm vibing with the script, it doesn't feel like work, so I'll just go through it. It can be easy, it can be hard, the difficulty of a translation work doesn't matter to me because I'm enjoying it regardless, I just need to make sure that I hit my deadlines. My least favorite part is coming up on some wordplay and being like, "Oh no, now I have to spend 35 minutes on two lines."

I like working on comedy a lot, but comedy often comes with jokes that need to be translated: wordplay and puns, and stuff like that. So, it's simultaneously a nightmare and a challenge. It's a fun nightmare. You're mid-translating, and then there'll be an obscure reference that will drive you wild. When I was working on My Dad's the Queen of All VTubers?!, for example, there's a scene in which the main character is looking through a window with his hands by the side of his head, and the dialogue said: "I'm like that kid with the trumpet." And I was thinking, "What does that mean?" I then had to spend an hour Googling terms like "window trumpet" and eventually tracked it to a credit card [advertisement] from the 1970s, where a young boy is looking through a window longingly at this trumpet, and the idea is that if you go with this credit company, you can get the trumpet. I'm like, great! This does nothing. But at least I got the reference. Translating can be an adventure because it can take you down a road where you will have this knowledge in your head that will never be used anywhere else. But at least now you know.

Q: Can you tell us a bit more about your role as a VTuber manager? What is your daily life as a VTuber manager like?

A lot of it does come down to checking emails. That's the banal part, stuff comes in, you send emails out, but you also need to be proactive, you need to look out for events that might be potentially interesting and reach out to potential sponsors. Networking is a big part of it, which is another horizontally applicable skill, because as a translator, networking is your lifeblood. When I would go to events on the event circuit, I would look for industry mixers, I would look for other people in the business, and I would make these connections. So it's basically the same principle applied in terms of management. I meet people. I talk to people. I connect people. I have a talent that I'm working with, [they] give me a basic idea of what they're looking for, and I start to bridge connections in that direction.

Day-to-day, it's not super intense, and it will depend on the period of the year. But for the most part, it's generally okay. There is stuff like content strategy, looking at what's hot right now, looking at what's involved. Generally, it's better, in my opinion, when you're working with a content creator, to not fully chase what's popular right now, but go with what's more natural for the talent while working in elements of popularity at the same time. So generally, I'm always researching stuff like that.

In terms of actual contract negotiations, I read over the legal particulars. Things like: "Give us this amount of money, please. These terms are fair. Can we maybe work up this term?" Basically, just anything that I can do to advocate for the client and make sure the client's getting the best possible deal.

For day-to-day, when I'm at an event, like here [at VeXpo] for example, I've got Phoebe's merchandise right here. Phoebe's a little bit of a special case because she's 2.5D, so she's okay appearing in person and has a more traditional idol approach to things. We're doing a meet and greet today, so I will be looking after that.

If someone wants to get a Polaroid with her, I'll take the photos. I manage the line. I time the interactions. I make sure that nobody's stepping over any lines or boundaries. Talent safety is priority number one. I keep the wheels greased; that's basically my job. I have to keep everything moving. I have to run the show on the ground.

If there's stuff going on backstage [...] I need to take care of [that]. Yesterday, for example, there was an issue with the concert itself because the tech team had forgotten to account for the fact that Phoebe was going to be appearing in person. They didn't actually have a camera to record her for the stream. So, I had to raise that with them, and then we had to procure the camera, which thankfully they did manage to get. But it was a bit of a last-minute arrangement.

And again, as part of my duties as manager, I will then have to raise that after this event in part of my feedback to say this could be better if we do it again next time, because you did not account for the particular needs of my client.

Q: Phoebe has a super interesting concept as both a VTuber and a real-life idol. How did the concept come to be?

A: That would be more of a question for Phoebe, but I do know the baseline concept of it. Pre-COVID, she was an IRL idol for a while and used to be part of a group. However, when the pandemic happened, that shattered her chances to perform in person, so she created a VTuber. She started using it as a vehicle to bridge the gap between idols and the VTubing space.

It's just come up [to] her fifth VTubing anniversary, but she's been an idol for longer than that. She has her roots in the YouTube utaite community. She would sing a lot of anime songs and covers, and stuff like that. And then that sort of branched into idol-ing. And then, when the pandemic hit, that branched into VTubing. Once lockdown ended, she just kept the hybrid approach, and it's been really good for her.

It's a very unique draw. It's gone to the point where now you're seeing in America, in the kaigai idol scene, we're seeing more 2.5D idols emerge, and I think that's really nice. In a way, I think she really set the trend for that. I think she paved the way for others. There are a lot of them, and I've spoken to a lot of them as well, and they really look up to her. So, I think it's really nice. It's a good sense of community.

Q: Have there been any issues that have arisen from the implementation of the 2.5D concept?

A: There haven't really been any major issues. I think that her fanbase really likes her, and the events we work with are good at accommodating her. It's unique, but it works really well.

Q: As a VTuber manager, how involved are you with the creation of Phoebe's merch?

A: Oh, the merchandising. I'll generally – in terms of actually how much we're bringing to an event, I'll generally advise Phoebe on how much I feel we should bring. So, take the Idol Harmony concert in DC last month, we were bringing some merch to sell there, and Phoebe was not sure about bringing many CDs, for example. And I said, it's better to bring a surplus just in case, because I feel like this is a good opportunity for you to meet a lot of new fans who might want to see your debut CD. And that ended up being the right call because we brought more than we expected to sell, and we sold out of all of them. She was very happily surprised by that. In a lot of ways, I have to balance gut instinct while looking at the actual event and saying, "This kind of audience is going to be here, we need to bring this kind of merchandise."

There’s a life cycle to merchandise. If your audience has a core base, you can't keep selling the same thing for too long because then everyone’s going to already have the merch. So, for example, for VeXpo, as this is Phoebe's UK debut, we brought a lot of her more classic merch that's widely available in America but not available in the UK. I think that [...] she probably made a lot of new fans last night and will probably meet a lot of new people today. So, in terms of, like, bringing stuff, I make the calls on that. I think I just do what makes the most sense.

In terms of actually producing and coming up with concepts, I work collaboratively with Phoebe on that. She works with artists that she likes, and I maintain the relationships with these artists as well. And then I help her source production for that. So, a company that I actually work with, they've got a booth over here as well, and we actually manufacture merchandise now. I've been getting Phoebe good rates on standee manufacturing and stuff like that. We've got some new merchandise at this con as well. We've got new oval-shaped buttons, button badges, and some standees. So, we manufactured that, and I had them ship that directly to Angelo (VeXpo's organizer), and they brought it to me. So, in terms of the logistics, I know it's really boring to talk about, but it's pretty easy to handle.

Often, she will travel to the event and just put the merch in her carry-on or in her checked luggage. But sometimes, if it makes more sense, I will try to coordinate with the convention itself to ship this box directly to the convention. I think any merch left over from this she'll either take home, or I will take it with me to stand by.

Q: You've done a lot of different jobs and different roles. Have you ever had any issues balancing all of the different careers that you have?

A: Definitely, work-life balance has been an issue. It's very difficult to survive as a freelancer, especially as a freelance translator. I would say I'm one of the very few people who managed to make a full-time living out of just translation for a while, and now I’ve got the VTubing stuff on the side as well. In terms of balancing both, I luckily got to a point where, by the time I was managing Phoebe, I'd learned the necessary skills to help with my time management. Time management skills are something you really have to learn as a freelancer. For a large part of my career, especially in the earlier years, I really struggled to have free time, especially before I got to the point where I had enough leverage and weight to negotiate really good terms.

I always make time for her weekly in terms of a meeting where we go through all the things she accomplished that week and new things we need to tackle in the upcoming week. As long as all those points are checked off, generally, we're hitting a good baseline. I'll answer the emails as they come in and run things by her as they come up.

In terms of balancing my translation work and the management work, right now, that's going okay. Sometimes there are busy seasons, such as when I'm travelling. I just got back from a six-week trip to America, and that was a lot. I don't work as efficiently on a laptop versus at home on my desktop, so sometimes my manga might fall behind a little bit, and I'll be like, "Okay, I'll do 80 pages when I get home." Otherwise, I'm generally keeping a fair baseline.

Q: You’ve been to conventions all over the world. What has been your favorite one to attend, and how does it compare to VeXpo?

A: My favorite convention to go to is actually MAGFest in America. It's a Music and Gaming Festival in Maryland, near DC, held every January. I like that con so much, as it's the only con I don't work at. I just go there at the start of the year, and I enjoy myself with friends. The age of that con skews a little older, with the average attending age generally 25+, so I think that leads to a more chill atmosphere.

In terms of cons that I go to on the circuit for business, probably Anime NYC. The other big one is Anime Expo in LA. But I don't like LA. It's not fun to walk around, and it's just kind of oppressively hot all the time. But Anime NYC is a great con for networking. There's always a lot of business events going on, the venue itself is very good, and you tend to find you get a very good mix of fans there, so I meet people from all walks. The last NYC that I went to in August, I met VTuber fans who knew me for the management, and I met translation fans who knew me for my work on translation. And I met a healthy mix. It was really nice. One big thing I love at cons is just the community outreach.

I love meeting people. I love talking to people. I had a guy walk up to me last month, and he explained how, back in the day, he read my fan translation stuff and ended up moving to Japan to learn Japanese because of me. It's really nice to hear those stories from fans. It's weird to know, in a way, just by doing weird manga translation, I've inadvertently touched lives. It's kind of weird to think about in that regard, but it's nice.

Q: What do you think of the organization of VeXpo?

A: I sympathize with Angelo, the director, in a lot of ways. There are definitely a lot of issues that could have been avoided, but I think that, as it's only the second year of the con and it has expanded much beyond the scope of [the first year], he is doing his best given the circumstances. There are definitely a lot of technical issues, but I've spoken to him, and I think he has learned that he needs to delegate a little bit more because I think a lot of these issues come from the bottleneck. So, you know, I think if we do get [another] VeXpo, I think it should be a little bit more streamlined.

A: Did you attend last year’s VeXpo? What did you think of it?

Q: I think organization-wise, it's better than last year because they didn't really know because it was their first time. They were new to everything. Especially with their team meetings and things. Angelo, because it was his first time as well, was kind of getting a leg to stand on. I think it's more spaced out this year than last year, so it's nice to walk around, especially when you mentioned the last convention as well, that it was a little bit on the harder side.

It's nice to walk around. It's nice to see a lot more people than last year, because it was quite condensed.

Last year, after the event, there were a lot of people who didn't even know certain things were happening. I think the fact that it had more time to be publicized and advertised really brought a better turnout.

Q: Especially with the media side as well, where they took you on a journey leading up to the expo as well. It was really nice to see that, especially as we were writing about the events alongside them.

A: It's good, I know Angelo himself. I saw him a few times this year because he was in America, going to different conventions to get some inspiration and understanding for how to better run this event. So, I think that really does show that he’s definitely got very good intentions with this event, and I think it has great development potential. We're sort of just hitting the interest list right now.

Last year was very small-scale. Last year, they didn't even have a dedicated security team, for example, which they do this year. They've rectified that. And the guy running security [is a] great guy. It's all very much on lock. So, I think compared to last year, which was much more low-key, this is the right direction to be taking it. They just have to iron out some of the kinks. They've made good progress from last year.

Q: Before you arrived at VeXpo, you made a post about being ready for a disaster. What has gone wrong at the events that you have attended?

A: Anything can happen. For example, last night with the concert, that could have been a disaster. If they had just streamed the live feed of Phoebe's model, for example, because of the way her show works, where she interacts with herself, if that was only appearing one-sided to the viewers at home, it would have been half a show. There would be segments where it's just blacked out. So that could have been a disaster if I hadn't acted. You've got to be proactive in preventing stuff like that.

We've experienced technical issues before. You've got to coordinate with the AV team. Phoebe uses in-ear monitors for her ears so she can hear herself while she sings, and sometimes you've got to make sure that the tech team actually knows how they're set up. You've got to make sure that the tech team can actually plug those in because I've been to events before where they don't even know what that is. So that's not good. There are also issues with shipping. I was worried yesterday that the box that I sent to Angelo didn't actually arrive. So, I had to chase that up. Pretty much anything can go wrong. A lot of the work is just active mitigation to make sure that you're taking care of any problems that could come up. We've lost merch before. We haven't been stolen from, which is good, but I've known people who have been robbed before, which is not good.

In terms of community interaction, that can always be unpredictable. But Phoebe's whole fan base is actually very nice. They're very decent people. In all my time running meet and greets, I haven't had any issues with conduct, and I haven't had to remove anyone. Everyone's generally behaved. But you always have to be alert, because there's always potential for a first time. If she gets gifts, for example, I have to search them, but she's never received a bad gift, which is nice, as Phoebe is very open with her fans. She very much likes to interact with her fans, and that is good, but there are also risk factors there. Yesterday, for example, she was hoping she could go into the audience for one of her songs. And I'm like, that is good. I do like that, that has worked at venues before, but we have to run it by security, and the security guy ultimately said no. And I'm like, that's fine, that makes sense, because you can never be sure, and you want to mitigate risk. So, in terms of stuff like that, there's potential for a disaster, but as long as you're on the ball, you can reduce the chances.

Q: You’re a very hard worker. What is your favorite way to relax after a busy day?

A: Do I relax? Does that happen anymore? Honestly, I travel about half the year, so June onwards is generally my main busy period. June through December is when I'm traveling across the US, and when I do go to cons, I'm pretty much always working, so I'm not necessarily sure I would call that relaxing. But I do see friends, and that is nice for me. I see people who are important to me, and that's good to me. And then in January, like I said, I go to MAGFest, and that sort of starts my year off. And then I go home, and I don't interact with another human being for five months, and that's how I relax. I hunker down for five months, and I do a couple of larger projects that I take casually, and that gives me enough money to fund the second half of the year. And I just sort of do that in a cycle, basically.

In terms of winding down and relaxing, I might pick up a game, or I might play a visual novel. But even then, my brain sort of goes into translation mode sometimes. When it comes to relaxing, I just wind down, I might read a book, I might sit in bed. Since I started travelling this much, I've never developed such an appreciation for my own bed. When I get home from this trip, I have until the end of October, so I'll be sleeping really well until then. At home, being at home in my own space with a good book, maybe a cup of tea. And that's generally... If I can empty my head, that's relaxing to me.

Q: Do you have anything that you want to accomplish before VeXpo next year?

A: In terms of the VTuber side, I want to get more eyes on Phoebe for sure. I want to work with more clients. Right now, Phoebe is my primary work, and I'm very much focused on helping her as much as possible. She has so much talent, and I'm immensely proud of her, honestly. She's worked so hard these last five years. She needs more eyes on her. I think if she gets enough people seeing her, she will skyrocket. She's had some really solid growth over the last two years. If I can magnify that by this time next year, if she's in a much better place by this time next year, I will feel good about what I've done with her.

In terms of working with more clients, I would like to do so. I'd like to represent more people. On the production side, the company I'm working with, Setsuna Production, we want to work with more clients producing merchandise. We're working with the artist Ayami. She's... I don't know if you know the VTuber, Mint? Ayami is Mint's artist model mama, so we work with her pretty closely. We actually brought her to this event. She's at the booth, I think, right now. So, we work closely with her. We want to do more with her art-wise, bring her to more events, stuff like that.

If I can just keep growing the talent and bringing more people to more events, and just making people happy, is a big part of it. I really want to see a happy audience, happy talents. And obviously, making money, right? I want to make them money as well. I want everyone to have a profitable venture that they're feeling happy about. So, they get paid for their work. There are events that don't pay well, and some definitely don't think VTubers need an appearance fee or anything like that, because they're phoning in virtually. But at the end of the day, that's still work. That's still time out of their day. That's still the presence that they're bringing to your event. Like Mint, for example. She appears at a convention, and people are going to book flights to go to that.

Even Phoebe, US Idol Fest, which we're doing at the end of October, the moment she was announced for that, I knew people were going to book tickets to that. There are talents that really move people, move seats. And I think more events need to come to that understanding. There are definitely some events in the US that think the VTubing thing is still just a fad, that it's going to die off soon, but I think it's here to stay. It survived post-pandemic. Look around us right now, it's just tangible proof of the growth of the industry. And I think that it still has ways to go. I mean, obviously, we've had the fall of major companies in the last year, VShojo, for example, that was a particularly bad situation for us because Phoebe was supposed to debut with them, but navigating that was a nightmare, to be honest, even from the business angle.

But I think there's a lot of room for growth. I think there are good people in this business, and there are obviously people who are opportunists as well, but I think that if there are more people working the way I am helping talent navigate the scene, then I think we've got good things ahead.

With translation, what I want to achieve by next year is I just still want to keep doing what I'm doing. I think in terms of translation, where I'm at as a translator, I'm in a good spot. I'm self-sufficient. I make enough to live on at this point. I have good clients. I have a solid client base. I'm at the point now where I'm mentoring new translators. I'm bringing them into the scene. I'm helping them with new opportunities. I feel like if I can keep doing that, I'm good.

In terms of translation goals, if there's a cool game I want to work on, for example, the Steins;Gate remake. If I work on that, that would be awesome because that would definitely be a full circle moment. First project, then work on the remake. That would be cool. I don't know if I'll get to, but that would be a nice... The thing is, in terms of that as a goal, I have no control over that. If the client deems it fit, hey, you never know. I feel like Spike Chunsoft would be the one to publish that. I've worked really well with them so far on a few games. If they think that's right, then they'll be right.

I think I'm happy where I am, I feel fulfilled. The last 10-plus years working in translation were an upward climb. It felt like a lot of struggle, but I'm at a point now in my career where I get emails, "Can you work on this?" That feels good to me. I'm okay with that. I'm not going to get complacent; I'm not going to get lazy with it, but in terms of stability, I hit the level that I'm comfortable with. I think in terms of things that I want to take more risks on, that's going to be more on the VTubing side. In terms of management, in terms of working with different people, that's sort of where the less stable aspect comes into my career. I'm interested to see where that goes.

We would like to thank Andrew for his time and for sharing information about his passion for his work and what the future holds. If you're interested in the upcoming events he may be attending, keep an eye on his X/Twitter account for updates!

You can follow Phoebe on YouTube and, Twitch, or check out her X/Twitter and Instagram accounts.