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[orz-lyrics]

ASUKA MATSUMOTO: 小さな頃の小さな記憶 / Chiisana Koro no Chiisana Kioku

This has been subbed/translated for like foreverrrrr, so this really wasn't necessary... 🤣 But ORZ's translator minion was randomly looking things over recently and thought it would be interesting to tweak some things a little, mainly to further unify/clarify the narrative of the song. No shade intended to the original translator(s) of the fansubs at all; this was just a minor thought exercise. (Are we all ready to be sad again about Shirobon and Mighty?!)

English translation and other information below the cut. The kanji and romaji are here on Google Sheets.

PERFORMED BY: Asuka Matsumoto | 松本あすか LYRICS: Asuka Matsumoto | 松本あすか MUSIC: Kazunori Maruyama | 丸山和範 ARRANGEMENT: Masahiro Iuchi | 井内正博 FOUND: Track #35 on the Bomberman Jetters OST

As far as we can tell, there's never been a full version of this song... Ssssssort of. There are lyrics for an untitled longer version found on what looks like Matsumoto's old blog (along with the final truncated version used on BMJ), but not much context or background about it, and we've not found any audio.

Track info and scans of the CD can be found here on the Bomberman Wiki.

A Little Memory From When I Was Little

A little memory from when I was little Of a tear that I shed I softly cupped it between both hands A single fragile bubble on the verge of breaking It floated up to the sky, laughing I chased it for who knows how long But now where am I? Just as I was about to forget myself in the vastness of the sky Embraced by countless bubbles I found you frolicking Now I once again have something to chase after

[orz-lyrics]

MAIKO KIKKAWA: どっきん。 / Dokkin.

Let me tell you a little bit about how we do things here at ORZ.

For the purposes of bringing Japanese material intended for entertainment to a general audience, BDR and I aren’t fans of literal translations. While they are more accurate in a technical sense, and thus obviously still important (I myself ask BDR to give me more literal translation scripts to work with, as opposed to the slightly more “localized” stuff he does elsewhere), sometimes the intonation, cadence, nuance, and all that other good stuff don’t come across the same in English, potentially to the point of not clearing anything up for anyone. Which kinda defeats the point of a translation, right? The idea is for something from one language (in this case, Japanese) to impart as much of the same information as possible in another language (English), and the alchemy required to make that happens comprises more than just mixing together conjugations and dictionary definitions. The problem lies in the hazy space between, where a line that is perfectly cogent and snappy in Japanese ends up a long-winded mess in English because that’s the way to convey the proper “feeling” of the sentence; where a word that is highly important in Japanese for whatever reason has no real English equivalent (see: the myriad of Japanese pronouns and their significance, not to mention particles) so you have to expand or even outright change the sentence in English to come close to matching the intent of the original; and don’t even get us started on wordplay and kanji-related puns. Since it’s not always a matter of “insert word A, get word B,” translators need to have wordsmithing skills in order to forge something new that still properly resembles the original Japanese but which holds together better in English. In some ways a translator’s job is like that of a seer’s: you’re handed a jumble of symbols and need to interpret them in a way that makes sense to others who don’t have your skill, and sometimes the meaning is crystal clear and sometimes all you have is a hope, a wish, and a handful of vaguely hazarded guesses.

This song? Is one hundred handfuls of vaguely hazarded guesses.

In other words, it doesn’t seem to make much more sense in Japanese either and so I ragequit my usual attempts to make magic out of moonspeak. Have fun, because we didn’t.

The singer and writer of this song is Maiko Kikkawa, who also performed and wrote Bakugaiden IV’s 1st ED, “Sora no Kakera.” The Japanese Wikipedia page matching the kanji given for her name is about someone else with the same name; this profile is probably more accurate, as the timeline matches up better and it actually mentions that “Sora no Kakera” was part of a dual-single CD debut by her. While she has a solid musical resume spanning a variety of roles, she appears to be less of a solo artist and more of a director and accompanist.

English translation and other information below the cut. The kanji and romaji are here on Google Sheets.

PERFORMED BY: Maiko Kikkawa LYRICS: Maiko Kikkawa MUSIC: Maiko Kikkawa ARRANGEMENT: Unknown FOUND: Track #1 on Bダマン爆外伝 & ボンバーマン 絵かきうた (”B-Daman Bakugaiden & Bomberman Drawing Songs”)

Ta-da. (B-Daman Bakugaiden Drawing Song)

I’m totally a half-faceless specter Even if a ball falls on my head I just stick my tongue out at it Then a pair of flower petals oozes and dribbles down Make some urchin spikes and a crab! A sweatdrop, a teardrop, and a yaaaawn, serves you right, sigh Sneeze out some mountain ranges Sickness, darkness, anxiety Corner, ink, and paint, goodnight

When they wake up they’ll aim That B-Da energy At someone looking this way Ta-da! Badump-badump Hey! It’s Shirobon and his friends! As B-Damans they’ll shoo-shoo-shoooot! Boing! Gluttonous chaos! Laughter in our hearts, ding dong dang We might not be able to see it, but it’s definitely there The one thing that anyone can do Even you, in that little pocket Have something someone gave you Sweet lemon, my dude Half-candy halfmoon Take me back to that time we saw The night sky, darlin’

A revealed sparkle A fluffiness we can feel Even when you’ve got it, it’s such a mystery, right? How lovely you are without answers So let us both always Ta-da together Gradually we’ll let it be, be...

[orz-lyrics]

UNKNOWN: 君のそばに / Kimi no Soba ni

Yes, this is literally a song about drawing Bomberman. Also you can dance the Electric Slide to it.

English translation and other information below the cut. The kanji and romaji are here on Google Sheets.

PERFORMED BY: Unknown LYRICS: Unknown MUSIC: Unknown ARRANGEMENT: Unknown FOUND: Track #2 on Bダマン爆外伝 & ボンバーマン 絵かきうた (”B-Daman Bakugaiden & Bomberman Drawing Songs”)

By Your Side (Bomberman Drawing Song)

It’s party time, Bomberman! It’s not that hard It’s party time, Bomberman! It’s simple so let’s get started It’s party time, Bomberman! Anyone can do it It’s party time, Bomberman! He’s always here by your side

One, two, three, let’s get started! Yeah! Four, five, six, turn on the stage If you’re ready, then come on Let’s go, Bomberman! Come on!

First, let’s draw a TV Do it in a single big loop And then another smaller loop Around in the center of that And then a little antenna I wonder if it’ll look like a TV later But before that, it’s study time In the middle of the TV So get two pencils together And put them side by side And have two triangles happily facing each other On top of the two pencils But writing in a dark room Is a tough task and bad for your eyes So attach a round bulb for some light And let’s start studying!

It’s party time, Bomberman! It’s not that hard It’s party time, Bomberman! It’s simple so let’s get started It’s party time, Bomberman! Anyone can do it It’s party time, Bomberman! He’s always here by your side

One, two, three, let’s get started! Yeah! Four, five, six, turn on the stage If you’re ready, then come on Let’s go, Bomberman! Come on!

With a puff, blow into a balloon Make it big so we can get the party started Don’t forget a watch for the get-together Because it’s important to check what time it’s at To keep the balloon from flying off Let’s wrap our watch around it All right! We’re ready for a karaoke battle First off, a Bomberman song Let’s start this off with two mics So you can have a duet with your pal Yeah! Everyone’s having a blast So let’s slap down a coconut here And surprise, another coconut falls Stick a straw in when the time is right Then pull out a straw for yourself And before you know it, Bomberman’s here! Come on!

It’s party time, Bomberman! It’s not that hard It’s party time, Bomberman! It’s simple so let’s get started It’s party time, Bomberman! Anyone can do it It’s party time, Bomberman! He’s always here by your side

It’s party time, Bomberman! It’s not that hard It’s party time, Bomberman! It’s simple so let’s get started It’s party time, Bomberman! Anyone can do it It’s party time, Bomberman! He’s always here by your side