P.S. Triple Classic
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This little fansite is dedicated to the archival and preservation of the English-language translation of P.S. Triple. To read this comic from the beginning, start here.

What’s P.S. Triple?

P.S. Triple, aka P.S. Three-san, is a Japanese four-panel comic series (“4koma”) by IKa that ran online, and was collected in book form by the publisher Micro Magazine, throughout the mid to late 2000s. It takes the moe anthropomorphism concept, in which animals, static objects, or even software are represented as cute girls or boys, and applies it to video games. In this world, game consoles become idol singers, third-party publishers are producers, and the games themselves are songs. The seventh console generation was underway at the time this comic was created, and thus, P.S. Triple stars adorable takes on the Xbox 360, Wii, and of course, the PlayStation 3.

At this time, the PS3 wasn’t doing too well in the “console wars”. The Wii was a monster hit all over the world, and while the 360 never sold all that well in Japan, it did carve out something of a niche for itself. Being a follow-up to the massively successful PlayStation 2, the PS3 had a lot of expectations riding on it, but it didn’t hit its stride until a ways into its life.

Now, imagine the paragraph above applied to idols, and you have P.S. Triple. It’s a fun (and frequently pathos-filled) take on this particular console generation, and a longtime favorite of mine. I first discovered it on the gaming site 1UP, which, via app developer Mission One, posted samples from two iOS apps which contained even more strips. Both 1UP and these apps are long-gone, which was my primary motivation for creating this blog.

I hope you enjoy P.S. Triple as much as I have!

—RKasa, Brainscraps.net


How This Site Works

All the comics at P.S. Triple Classic were extracted from the iOS apps, which were the extent of P.S. Triple‘s official English localization. Mission One’s own commentary is included after each strip, and following that are some notes written by me featuring additional historical context and my own thoughts.

The updating schedule is two strips every weekday (Mon-Fri) until the entire run is finished. Note that P.S. Triple continued on in Japanese for awhile afterward, but as I don’t know very much of the language, I’m not confident enough to translate those later strips myself.

Every once in awhile, an “omake” (extra) article will be posted that covers something related to P.S. Triple. I will try and keep these on a regular schedule as well, but can’t make any promises at this time.


Introduction to the First iOS App by Mission One

About P.S. Triple

Welcome to the world of P.S. Triple, where your favorite game consoles come to life as cute pop idols! The hit comic series from Japan has gone global, right here on your iPhone/iPod Touch. This series features 100 comics in all — 80 original monochrome and 20 special color comics — all lovingly translated and chock full of obscure gaming references. Try to catch ’em all!

Maximizing Your Reading Pleasure

• Read the speech bubbles from right to left. (That’s how they roll in Japan.)
• You can page through the strips by tapping the left or right edge of the screen.
• Press the “i” button on each strip to get some inside information and random comments.

Story

In the year of 200X, a super idol named Triple made her debut. It was her destiny to take the world by storm and continue her family’s legacy. But it wasn’t meant to be, and now she’s struggling to make a name for herself while her agency tries to stay afloat…

Translation Notes

As mentioned before, this comic takes game consoles and transforms them into pop stars — they sing and act in productions that are based on real-life video games. All of the names are changed to protect the innocent (or not-so-innocent), but you’re sure to recognize your favorite (and not-so-favorite) consoles.

This comic is from Japan, and as such, each console’s personality comes from a Japanese perspective. However, most of the humor translates pretty well, as game consoles all have a unique personality that transcends borders.

All attempts were made to keep the humor as close to the Japanese original as possible. However, certain strips contained things that just wouldn’t translate well (like kanji puns), and in those cases, liberties were taken. Sound effects were generally left in the original Japanese, as they look cool, and there was no need to replace them with things like THRAK! and VROOOM!

Credits

Published by:
Micro Magazine

Created by:
IKa

President
Shizuo Takeuchi

Editor:
Katsuya Nagato
(GAMESIDE Editorial Dept.)

Developed and Localized by:
Mission One

Producer:
Marc Cellucci

Engineer:
Chris Toliver

Proofreader / QA:
Katherine James


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P.S. Triple © 2006 - 2024 IKa, Micro Magazine
Translation and original notes © 2009 - 2024 Mission One
Everything else © 2019 - 2024 Brainscraps/RKasa unless otherwise noted

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