#also for the scenes that are mostly in German they'd have to JP-sub it...that wouldn't work

[chibimyumi]

hello! i just came across to your post about your thoughts of emerald witch arc if it's got adapted into musical (and why it's more solid arc to be so). i re-read the arc again, and i kinda wonder, based on your opinion, what's the best possible interpretation for the musical towards the dutch dialogue, as we know that in the manga they use square dialogue bubble, while in the anime (as in book of murder ova) they speak the respective language (i.e french), i'm interested with your view to this

【Reaction to post: Emerald Witch Arc as Musical?】

Dear Anon,

Oh that is a wonderfully good question (Ó艸Ò) For the post you referred to I just kinda went ahead and dreamt about it without thinking about the practicalities (≽▽≼) Dear @midnight-in-town​ and @kuroshitsuji-effervescence​ wrote about the challenges regarding the French in “Book of Murder” here in this amazing post. So in the same way, German might indeed prove to be a bit of a challenge too!

Ermmm, after giving the technicalities some thought thanks to you, I have different proposals for different situations... I just don’t know whether it’d work in practice. HOWEVER, IN THEORY..........................!!!!!

1. Establishment of Situation

In theory, I think the most important thing in the first stage is to establish that our protagonists will be in a German setting where people communicate solely German. A little note like in chapter 87 can easily be dropped with just a TINY tweak (which I added in pink) without it feeling like a tiresome exposition.

In this way the audience will in a short time have the most important pieces of information for the entire musical, namely:

The setting is very far away from a familiar place, probably in Franconia.

Ciel is language-wise like a fish out of water: he tried to learn German, but not enough to actually communicate at all.

Sebas not only knows German fluently, but can even understand and translate local dialects.

A hypothetical WitchMyu wouldn’t be the first to have changed lines for the sake of information. In Tango on the Campania too for example, they gave Sebas the following extra line:

It was not in the original manga, but it worked wonderfully well to establish master and servant’s dynamic, on top of informing the audience of the boy’s awful stamina.

2. Setting of Language Barrier

I can’t think of one perfect way to do it, but perhaps coloured stage light might do its magic?

After it has been established that the locals speak German, I propose to just let the Japanese actors speak Japanese. (I mean, the standard setting is England but they also just speak Japanese). In specific cases when the portrayal of a language barrier is necessary, perhaps they could colour code the lights, that people who do understand each other have one colour, and the person (Ciel) who doesn’t also gets his own colour. This would also give Ciel’s actor a great chance to show how good his acting is if he can show the audience he can’t follow the conversation with silent acting.

3. Communication with Language Barrier

There is this one scene in the Werewolf Arc wherein Sieglinde and Ciel try to communicate, but neither speak each other’s language fluently. As it has already been established that the Germans only speak German, and they are the “locals”, I think it would be weird to make them stop speaking Japanese and suddenly switch to (badly spoken) actual German.

Especially in such a scene on stage, I think it would be great to use colour-coded limelights, and make the audience’s understanding of the language barrier dependent on the actors’ acting. If an actor is good and the script is well written, it should be clear that both parties are speaking their own respective languages without a mutual understanding.

Later in the arc Ciel tried to communicate with Sieglinde with whatever little German he could muster. Even though Ciel’s German would be worse than beginner’s level, it’s still German. So I think it’d be good to give him also a green spotlight and just make the actor speak in very cryptic Japanese.

They could make Sieglinde first speak naturally in Japanese, and as she realises how bad Ciel’s understanding is, make her speak slower and simpler.

4. Communication without Language barrier

Most scenes in the Arc was actually just Sebas communicating normally in German with the Germans, or the English speaking English among each other.

In cases where there is no language barrier at all, the lime lights don’t need to be colour coded, because then everyone is “neutral”, and the conversations are centered around the content, not the language. The audience should just know by then that the mains all speak English, and that the Germans... well, speak German.

I hope this idea wasn’t too ridiculous and might theoretically work out in practice too.

5. P.S.

Just a crack proposal that did actually jump into my mind...unbidden. Namely that all actors would carry a small flag of the languages they can speak, and raise the flag of the language they are speaking.

Don’t worry, I yeeted it out of the window immediately. Just wanted to share, because just IMAGINEEEE the ridiculousness!!!  (≽ 艸 ≼;;)

Related posts:

Furukawa Yuta in multi language

Furukawa Yuta in ...En...glish?

French in Book of Murder