Well, and I'm sorry I only heard about this now, but Itoh passed away on March 20th at age 34 after a long battle with cancer.
After we made the progress announcement in February 2007, Itoh sent us an email saying, among other things, that he "just [couldn't] wait" to play the translation. Check out his Twitter page to see what a big fan of the game he was. I'm terribly sorry he didn't that chance. I will be thinking about him in the work that remains.
I did, however, get a chance to send him the translation I did of his essay on Policenauts that we are planning on posting, along with other translations, on the website down the road. And what an insightful work it is. As he usually did, he discusses aspects to the setting, story, and characters that never even occurred to me.
We stay in touched through email every now and then, and he was a one of a kind. He insisted on writing me in English for the practice each time. He said for him to be lazy and write me in Japanese was the Devil whispering in his ear.
Here are the two podcasts that were posted in remembrance.
