駄駄会

• Born 1977

Dadakai (駄駄会) is a short-lived translation group composed of Sakamoto Shinji, Ueda Midori, Jared Cook and Frederik L Schodt. In 1977 they received approval from Tezuka Productions for translating the first five volumes of Osamu Tezuka's Phoenix (火の鳥 / Hi no Tori) into English. The submitted draft was shelved because there was no market for it. It didn't see the light of day until the 21st Century. An excerpt was used though in Schodt's Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics (1983). The group, ahead of its time, marks the beginning of translating manga into English.