#and if that line of his. you know the one. isn't a mistranslation it Does add to. sophia reaching out to people she knew in vain :)

[grandcovenant]

these are sooo interesting to me.... i'm not sure if i'm misremembering if she actually says it later or if it's just implied that sophia tried to reach out to other people before, but due to the nature of the petrification disease no one before p could really help her. also, considering this:

is the idea here that she tried to reach out to her friends first...?

[mocchii-writes]

Hi, could I please request jealous and possessive Chishiya? Thanks

Paring: Chishiya Shuntaro x fem!reader

Warnings: Aggressive guys, reader gets kinda uncomfy, mentions of showering together lols

A/n: Hope headcanons work, totally willing to expand this, tho just lmk ♡

The type to lowkey stalk you before dating

He wouldn't think of it as stalking tho. He would just want to know more about you

He would claim he doesn't get jealous, but he does

Arisu getting a little too friendly? Oh boy

He'll find a good moment to briefly pull him to the side

Arisu is innocent, he just gets a talk

It's possibly a scary one, but better than a random guy touching you up sometime

Don't they know you're his?

Well, they do now!

And he'll try to keep you out of the loop

Though you may question where he got split knuckles, he'll brush you off

He might get a little clingy after

At least, for Chishiya

"You know you're mine, right?" He'd say, not really asking

"Are you jealous?" You smiled

"That's not what I said."

You might decide to hang out at the pool for a little

but you know that never lasts long

After one too many people hugging you, or a few more guys talking to you than Chishiya would prefer, you'd feel two hands on your waist, and a swift exit would be made

He'd have a huge glaring issue

but he doesn't care, nor is it an issue to him

It scares off most problems people, though

He's the type to get silent revenge

He's not one for making a scene, usually, but if it's the easiest option, well...

You were sipping a nice tropical drink, sitting by the pool with your legs in the water, when a boy walks up to you, clearly checking you out as he sits beside you.

"Hey there." He smiles at you. He seems innocent enough, and he probably isn't aware that you're not up for grabs, but Chishiya isn't one for the benefit of the doubt. He knows how this will end, but he watches from the shade to grasp how much he could get away with.

"Hi!" You smile, waving back. The boy quickly breaks his soft exterior and rests his hand on your shoulder, smirking at you. It's almost funny if you weren't so uncomfortable.

"Wanna go catch some shade?" He stands up, pulling you with him a little aggressively. His serenade is cut short, though, as he feels a harsh sting shoot up his calf as he stumbles into the pool. A hand briefly covers your eyes from the splash, and you don't have to think twice when you're being pulled away by Chishiya, leaving a commotion behind you.

"A little aggressive, no?" You ask him. He simply shrugs in response.

He'd almost never get upset at you because you never flirt back with anybody but the man himself

Sometimes, though, he can mistranslate a situation and get upset

He usually gives you the silent treatment until he'll finally breaks, snapping something at you

"Do I not satisfy your expectations? Am I not enough for you?" He'd say angrily.

"Chi-Shi, you know that's not true. Stop it!" You'd plead.

"If you're so interested in other people, go on then." He doesn't mean it. He never does. He knows if you tried to leave, he would beg if he needed to. He truly can't live without you, but you'd never hear him say that.

Whenever he's jealous, you can tell.

He'll always deny it, but he's got a darker look in his eye, and he's probably a little clingier

Very touchy, in private more than public

He'll hold you in public if he wants to send a message, though.

When you're spending time with him (often) he probably will struggle to let you up

"I need to shower. Please let me get up." You'd smile, whining.

"Only if you let me join." You wanted to wipe that stupid smirk off his face as you struggled and eventually gave up with a sigh.

A/n: Hope this works, Anon! I was trying not to surpass the line between possessive and yandere, but I assumed it wasn't too big of a deal ˚ʚ♡ɞ˚ also had some NSFW ideas for this too, so lmkkk

~🍡🍡

Send requests!!

[noxiatoxia]

I don't know if this is common knowledge, but Komaeda's talent in Japanese is not "Ultimate Lucky Student". It is "Ultimate Good Fortune" (or good luck).

I know the word "lucky" has connotations with being good luck, but "luck" itself seems neutral to me at least.

I think the fact Komaeda is praised for, and has his talent be centered on, his good fortune is a very important nuance. People only see the good that happens to him. People keep telling him what happens to him is "good luck". His parents dying and getting kidnapped end up being called "good luck" in the end. I think this reinforces his pattern of thought more than people just saying he has extraordinary luck (good and bad). It's a minor difference, but it adds a lot. I have been thinking about this for a little bit now.

Because of the fact it is good luck specifically, I wanted to find parts where Komaeda specifically talks about bad luck. Lines such as "my awful luck/dreadful luck..." doesn't make much sense in the context of his Japanese talent. It made me wonder if those English lines even existed or if it was a "Luke, I am your father" situation. I don't have either the English or Japanese script memorized.

I checked the Freetime Events because of this, and found an interesting thing. There's a number of mistranslations, or simply translation choices I don't really agree with.

The freetime events heavily misrepresent how often Komaeda uses the word "luck". He uses both 不幸 and 不運 an equal amount I'd say. Maybe the former more. The former means "misery" "sorrow" or "misfortune". The latter means "bad luck" or "ill-fortune".

Likewise, 幸運 means good luck, but it also means good fortune. It's the word used in his talent as I described above.

Now, that's not to say I think Komaeda's "talent" should not be referred to as luck, nor am I saying he should never use the word luck. I think good and bad luck is a perfectly apt English word to describe his experiences. I just think the English translation overuses it. It wouldn't have killed them to make him say "isn't that just awful" or "what a tragedy, right?" instead of "isn't that such bad luck?" every conceivable moment. Maybe I'm just nit picky.

Now, onto the free time events. I want to talk about them.

I'll be talking about them in order as they appear. Also, I am only going to talk about the 3rd event onward, after Komaeda's chapter 1 reveal.

Freetime event 3

A minor nitpick, but "friends" is not the word I'd use here. It's true you can translate it that way, but considering everything else about Komaeda, at this point in the game, he wouldn't readily call Hinata his friend. Especially considering the connotations that holds for him.

That's precisely likely why he, in fact, doesn't say "friend" in the Japanese text. He uses 仲間 which like I said, while can and does translate as friend when used in that way, it just means people of a common thread. Like, a group, I guess.

My TL:

Because we both share the common goal of seeking out hope!

Freetime event 4

This is a really bad translation IMO. Hope is never said once in the original dialogue. I don't know why they put it there.

My TL:

Hinata: It's pretty ironic that you got wrapped up in this shitshow considering your "Ultimate Good Luck". Komaeda: It's not ironic at all! This is no doubt just the beginning of the good things to come my way! Komaeda: Um, let's just say the "good luck" I was born with is a little less straightforward [than the name would suggest]... Komaeda: once this is all over, I'll be rewarded with good fortune of the highest caliber.

And though this next one isn't much of a "mistranslation", I want to offer an alternative translation that highlights my criticism of "overusing the words good/bad luck".

My TL:

Komaeda: The greater the misfortune I experience before hand...the greater the good that comes my way afterwards! It completely cancels out everything before it!

Freetime event 5

I sadly cannot find in-game pictures of this since it's one of the wrong dialogue choices, so here's the script file text for it instead (sorry)

I remembered this line in English specifically because I always thought it sounded weird for Komaeda to say - "It's rare to hear you give such a half-assed answer".

While not a mistranslation totally, I think the tone is a bit off.

I would write it more as, "Ah ha ha! That's quite the answer, Hinata-kun!"

It literally translates as "for Hinata-kun, that is a very suitable answer!" but it's clearly supposed to be teasing/sarcastic. So he means to say "oh, wow, Hinata-kun, you're answering with that?" but in a lighthearted tone.

Freetime event 6

Almost didn't include this because it's the mistranslation we all know and hate, but it's worth mentioning in case people don't know.

My TL:

Please, just one last thing...don't ever forget...that from the bottom of my heart, I love y...I love your hope that sleep dormant inside you.

Though he does just say "please, don't forget", he uses どうか which is a pretty polite turn of phrase for Komaeda. It also is a way to emphasize a request, as in please do this to the benefit of me.

He backtracks pretty heavily. The verb comes at the end in Japanese sentences, so giving an exact one-to-one would be hard, but I'll try to explain it.

ボクはキミを... キミの中に眠る希望を心から愛していると。

Boku wa Kimi wo... Kimi no naka ni nemuru kibou wo koko kara aishiteiru to.

の/no = possessive. Such as, "Lucy's cat" "David's car".

を/wo = verb particle. There's no real English equivalent but you use it to signify some verb is being done onto something. Such as, "I kicked the ball" ("ball wo kick") or "I pet the cat" ("cat wo pet").

は/wa = topic particle. Commonly translates as "is/am" but that is NOT what it means. It just signifies everything that comes after it relates back to what comes before it. It's most accurate to think it as "as for the topic of..." Such as, "my damaged car wa had to go into the repair shop." After wa, "had to go into the repair shop", you ask, "what had to go into the repair shop?" you can find the answer in the topic, which is before wa: my damaged car. (or... me no damaged car.)

So, with this knowledge, let's break down the sentence.

Boku = I/me.

Kimi = you.

So this would make Boku wa Kimi wo in it's most literal form: as for the topic of me (aka, speaking for me), I, onto you...

Then he trails off. wo becomes no.

I, onto your hope sleeping inside of you...

and then we return to wo:

from the bottom of (one's) heart, love [the hope sleeping inside of you].

One could easily see it as Komaeda quickly changing the wo to no to add extra steps to not make the confession so head-on. Because if we remove everything after no and just continue where the wo leaves off, we get:

Boku wa Kimi wo koko kara aishiteiru to.

As for me, I, from the bottom of my heart, love you.

Now...one could also read it as him not backtracking, but adding. Saying I love you and the hope that lies dormant within you. Both are equally plausible. Listening to the audio it can go either way, but the way he quickly and softly drops off when he gets to the first wo makes me feel like it's a backtrack. Or maybe the background music is just too loud haha.

Well, that's all I got for now.

[yuurei20]

Dialogue Comparison, EN vs JP: Subject Pronouns

It is not uncommon for subject pronouns like I, you, etc., to be dropped from a sentence when you are speaking in Japanese, but English often requires them in order to make sense, which means JP->EN translators have to be extra careful: they're inventing words that don't exist in the source material, and if they get it wrong, they can completely change what is being said.

There was a great example of this in the Tsumsted 2 event where Ace and Deuce return from their tsum-based adventure and Ace says, "Just finished taking the tsum for a walk."

This is almost a literal translation of the original Japanese line, which also does not specify who, exactly, was out with the tsum, because it isn't necessary. From context we know it was Ace and Deuce without him needing to specify.

This is what a lot of sentences are like in Japanese!

Pronouns are also where a lot of changes to the game turn up on EN: In a conversation about when he was a child, for example, Jamil does not actually say that he and Kalim have both attended elementary school.

Jamil was talking about himself, so while there was no subject in his sentence, we know he meant himself. This is further confirmed in Kalim's birthday vignette, where we learn he has only ever been homeschooled.

A similar mistake was made during Spectral Soiree:

Rook introduces Sebek as the subject of a conversation, and EN accurately added "he" to Trey's response, even though he is technically not saying it.

In his following line, however, EN changed Trey's subject to "I," having him say that he was "making fun of Deuce for being a crybaby."

Not only did we see Sebek--and not Trey--mocking Deuce for crying earlier in the event, but Trey even tells Sebek to leave Deuce alone. If you thought it was strange for Trey to make fun of a possessed and crying Deuce, you are correct!

This was a mistranslation--is not something that he did.

In Book 1 "we" was added to Ruggie's line after he wakes up Leona for supplementary lessons, insinuating that both he and Leona need to be taking after-school classes.

But Leona is taking those lessons to compensate for poor attendance, and in the original game it is never insinuated that Ruggie is taking supplementary lessons at all, for poor attendance or otherwise.

A similar issue arises during a chat between Rook and Vil, where Vil tells Rook that he should be working harder as vice-housewarden.

Vil does not specify "you" or "Rook" in his dialogue but we know he means Rook and not himself, as Rook is who they are discussing. There is also the speech bubble, which is pointing at Vil!

But the subject "I" was added instead of "you," so EN-Vil is promising to work harder as vice-housewarden.

Vil is caught up in another subject miscommunication in Jade's dorm vignette, where Jade mentions seeing a note that Vil left in a magazine.

Jade does not specify Vil in his original line and the sentence was written (on EN) as if Vil was the one saying it ("I recall leaving a note,") but it is Jade who is speaking. As a result, it sounds like EN-Jade was the one who left the note.

In Book 6 there is a line where Ortho goes out of his way to specify "he," in quotation marks, as he references dead-Ortho while intentionally not invoking him by name.

This was changed on EN to, "original Ortho."

Cater has a voice line that was rewritten from asking if the prefect would like to try on his clothes to saying that he should wear them more often himself, but this might have been an intentional change by Aniplex USA rather than pronoun confusion.

Lastly, for voice lines, Crowley was removed from Ace's complaints on EN, while the prefect was removed from Trey and Cater's lines about going out to lunch!

It is not clear if these were mistakes or intentional changes.

[epickiya722]

At this point, he's trying to change the narrative to shift it to his favor which it just disrespectful to Horikoshi and his team.

Ain't it funny that out of all the lines, it's just that one line? The very last line? Yet, all the other lines seem to still keep their meanings. Hm...

Like, every time there's a line that shows just how far Bakugou and his relationship with Midoriya has developed, the "official" translation is a total different line with a totally different meaning.

He would not say "OFA couldn't keep you on the ground...", he would not start that line like that because he has grown. Saying that just makes him sound like he's kinda boasting about his own quirk and downplaying OFA aka Midoriya’s quirk.

Now him saying "we'll finish the job" sounds less... bad given that bit could be interpret ss him saying "him and Midoriya". But... it also makes no sense because the fan translation also alludes to the fact that he and Midoriya could win together. Him saying that he'll take up what Midoriya can't is him saying "I got his back, we got this together, they're a duo". The previous chapters and the second movie show as such.

So why change the line though? Hm? So couldn't there be a line that was similar to the fan translation instead of that whole line change?

See the problem! The fan translation worked out a way better translation with Bakugou saying he'll take up what Midoriya can't because it's a callback to his apology, one of his biggest moments within his character development. Also, Horikoshi often makes callbacks.

And that said callback refers to Bakugou's growth. He still will be there so they can win together.

I know some people will be like "here's the BkDks complaining again".

Forget it being about shipping! The "official" translation just didn't do Bakugou as a character justice here. Yes, his development does involve Midoriya. But even without shipping goggles, one could see how that last line isn't fair to Bakugou's development.

Actually, you know what?

The thing I find funny about this is antis will see everyone's reactions to this and say "BkDks are making it about shipping" even though they're just as bad, even worse.

This is an example.

Let's be honest. The reason why that translation changed is probably because a certain translator feels some kind of way towards Bakugou and Midoriya. Probably why we gets "mistakes" like this constantly.

If I was translating the manga and I didn't care about BkDk, I still wouldn't be mistranslating for the simple fact I wouldn't want to change the narrative that Horikoshi wants to give. It's his story, after all. I damn sure don't want anyone doing that to me.

Especially over some damn ship they want to be salty about.

Which a lot of people who hate on BkDk do. They like to shift the story into what they want just for a chance to shit on a ship and its shippers.

Now, how can anyone be that pressed, how can anyone be so in their feelings that they would change the narrative of a story that is not even theirs by even translating wrong, I do not know!

[batbeato]

Someone asked me on my retrospring if I preferred the Umineko manga or VN. (I prefer the VN, for a lot of extra details and lovely prose).

But that reminded me of the manga-specific Confession chapters, which I have an incredible amount of issues with, so I'd like to talk about that a bit.

The very first problem with it is this: it goes against the fundamental principles of Umineko, not just in opening the catbox, but in how it contradicts Sayo's character.

Sayo wrote her forgeries and created her entire murder mystery to confess her crimes and try to have someone understand her feelings. They feel so much shame and guilt over everything that they are incapable of openly confessing to someone about everything and must instead use this oblique method. Even Beatrice never openly confesses everything, no matter how hard she is trying to get Battler to understand her. Even when she must use the red truth to deny witches against EVA, she asks Battler to cover his ears so that he doesn't hear it.

Why would Sayo create this direct confession of everything and then put it into the sea like all their other message bottles? Genuinely... why? They are already writing their forgeries as confessions and want someone to use those to understand them. This is what multiple characters state Beatrice's goal is and also state that someone understanding her will grant her peace/happiness.

The answer is that there is no reason besides a contrivance to:

a. have Ange (and us, the audience) learn about Sayo's backstory without having love to "see" it

b. explain why Ikuko (and thus Tohya) know everything about Sayo to be able to write their forgeries (a lesser reason, but one nevertheless, that also reduces the potential effort Tohya spent to learn more about Sayo by studying her forgeries)

Also, this manga differs from how EP7 frames Yasu as a bodiless being, one without a sense of self who takes on different "roles" - Yasu becomes Beatrice, but is also separate from Beatrice in the narration, speaking of "us" but not speaking of a self as "myself" or "me". They can become their personas, but they are not their personas directly.

In Confession, we see that everyone besides "Sayo" is just an illusion or fake, centering Sayo as "the real one".

"And when I was myself, I could actually smile and be happy" - implying that Beatrice and Kanon are not her true self, and only "Shannon" is, as Shannon isn't mentioned in the above section.

Another thing is that this chapter introduces more contradictions than just characterization ones. Nanjo mentions that Natsuhi pushed the servant and baby off the cliff.

However, how does Nanjo know this? I tried to figure this out, as someone asked me about it on here before. But no one was there at the time. They had to have guessed this, or assumed this, or else somehow overheard Natsuhi talking about it.

Was this line meant to confirm that Natsuhi did, without a doubt, push Lion off the cliff? But this was already pretty much confirmed, given Lion's existence and all the discussion about it in 5 and 7.

Also, it seems as though it's trying to confirm that Sayo is trans and AMAB, but Nanjo specifically says "though you could not bear children". Hopefully some weird translation thing... on the official translation... (@dainadjakyou checked her Japanese copy and thankfully this is a mistranslation; it's meant to be that Sayo is unable to have children in general).

But otherwise, well. It doesn't manage to even confirm that Sayo is AMAB, whether that line is a mistranslation or not, since if Sayo was born with ovaries and those ovaries were destroyed by the accident, Sayo's body wouldn't produce enough estrogen to have a feminizing puberty, which would be similar to if Sayo was born with testes that were destroyed (not enough T for a masculinizing puberty).

I should also mention that for whatever reason, even though it canonizes the fact that Sayo has a scar on their abdomen, this scar is never depicted despite the fact that we see Sayo's abdomen. Just didn't draw it. So it has internal contradictions, too.

Oh, it does confirm that apparently Jessica didn't know that Kinzo was dead. Somehow.

It also tries to confirm or at least more heavily imply that Kinzo was responsible for the Italian/Japanese fighting in EP7.

As much as Confession confirms some details, overall it contradicts Sayo's character and other depictions of them in the story while also adding some new contradictions, not managing to properly confirm several things it clearly wants to hammer in, and also contradicts itself at some points due to what I'm assuming is either artistic oversight or poorly thought out stylistic choice.

Opening the catbox didn't need to be this way. And yet, it is.

[richea]

A dive into Hearts R's localization

I've talked a lot about Hearts R and the way it rips apart the original story and characters, but I haven't really talked much about its localization, which is truly its own can of worms. While I have stronger feelings about the Japanese version being poorly made in just about every regard than I do about its loc being a bit of a mess, I've gotten a lot more into translation and editing the past few years and I figure it's time to at least write something regarding this.

A lot goes into a localization, and that also means there's a lot more to unpack with Hearts R's loc than just the "Kor" rename and the fact that only a small portion of the dialogue matched up with the voice acting (these being the obvious things anyone can pick up on, even without knowing Japanese).

As a translator who has played through the localization numerous times, while also having gone through the game in Japanese and done a deep study on all the terms and their naming conventions, I want to go over some things, discussing characterization as well as what terms were good and which ones make me scratch my head.

There's a lot I won't discuss here simply due to the scale of the game, so don't expect nitty-gritty analyses and all the various examples of blatant mistranslations to be found in the game or anything. This is just to give an overview of some things I find interesting.

Characterization

Let's start by discussing something that is crucial for characterizing the characters properly: character voice. Each character has their own "language" for how they're written. For instance, in Japanese Shing talks very casually, Kunzite talks very scientifically, Hisui talks like a punk, etc. Essentially the goal is that via reading written dialogue alone, more often than not you should be able to differentiate who is talking without even needing to see their name slapped next to it.

This is something that is not as easy to get across into English, however the skill still exists when localizing dialogue nonetheless. You'll still want to write Shing's dialogue in a laid back manner, and write Kunzite's to be scientific, and make Hisui's very rude.

Overall, I think the loc did a decent job establishing voices. There's definitely some hiccups, but at the end of the day, I'd say the vast majority of the text uses decent character voice for each character. It's far from perfect, but Chalcedony and Kunzite in particular I think were written very well.

However, where I think R fails is that the quips in the game come across very same-y. While the dialogue can be funny, the sass that Shing would say felt very similar to the sass Beryl might say. Beryl's sass is supposed to come more from finding things absurd while Shing's is supposed to be a bit more out of frustration, but the loc didn't differentiate this well. I'm not sure how to better articulate what I mean by this, but trust me that it was a thing.

Also, they would make the characters say quips in dialogue that they weren't really meant to, which sometimes completely changed the feel of a scene. Shing and Hisui got this the worst, and I also think they're the two characters who suffered the most in this loc.

Below I grabbed some examples of character dialogue for each main character so you can see their character voice and what went wrong or what went right. This isn't a full overview of each character but rather just a small selection of lines that stuck with me (Tumblr has an image limit unfortunately, and also there's just a lot of characters I would have to go over).

Shing

Shing definitely suffers from overusing quips when he wouldn't normally, as well as his overall character voice coming off a bit more bratty than he was originally intended to be. I think everyone's aware of "Kor Meteor doesn't try, Kor Meteor DOES," which has... quite a different feel from what gandoko was originally intended to mean (which was just a cute wordplay on saying "let's go all out"). I will admit this is partially due to his rewrites in R in general as this is also an issue with him in Japanese, but the loc did him no favors. That said I don't think all of his dialogue is horrible, as the third image is an example of a line I think they did just fine.

Kohaku

For the most part, I think Kohaku's character voice is fine. She definitely had some weirdness especially early on ("rapscallion" lives in my head rent free), but she definitely eased out and overall I think anyone who plays the loc gets a perfectly fine idea of the character that is Kohaku (at least her R portrayal).

Hisui

Hisui is, erm... well I'll just say the loc team had a lot of fun with him. Maybe too much fun. It feels like only a tiny amount of his lines were intended to be taken seriously, which is really disrespectful to his character when the whole point of his character is that it's hard for him to express himself in words. Why ruin his serious moments by throwing in random goofy quips and making him come off like a full time jerk? He's definitely not a polite character, but the loc just always tried to make everything that came out of his mouth sound back-handed, even when he was actually trying to be nice.

Another huge issue, which you can see in almost every pic here, is that he would say something from the Japanese (fine) and then the loc would add in another sentence below it that is completely original to the loc and also contributes nothing other than to make Hisui sound like a jerk. For instance in the first line, in Japanese he's (seriously and concernedly) saying "Innes is calling for us? Is she hurt and can't move?" so I'm not sure why they felt the need to make it Extra and Funny. There's an infinite amount of examples of this with his dialogue and every time it truly does paint him to be a much more meanspirited character than he really is.

They did some alright things with his character voice (see the last cap, which is fine), but overall, if you see Hisui say something unhinged and incredibly rude and out of pocket, it's probably the loc and not actually what he said.

Beryl

Beryl on the other hand is a character who DOES say sassy things a lot, so I think the overall writing for the loc played into her personality a lot better than it did with the above characters. It's all written very extra and over the top, which is exactly how Beryl needs to be written. I think my only gripe with her writing is that they did make her flub up words more than she originally did (especially simple ones...), but other than that I don't have a lot to complain about here.

Innes

Innes is mostly a "no notes to be had, for the most part fine" character as far as her loc portrayal goes. I will say in Japanese she called the party "kids" a lot and the loc changed it to "mules" which, at least to me, gives off a slightly different nuance, but it does fit her character so I may just be nitpicking.

Kunzite

Kunzite's character voice is very hard to mess up... so much so in fact that I think the loc actually did him justice (you can only hope they didn't mistranslate anything with all that kanji though).

Chalcedony

Like Kunzite, I find myself surprisingly content with how Chalcedony's dialogue was written. They got across his pretentiousness and formality just right with not a ton of hiccups.

Galando

Galando completely falls in the "can never be taken seriously ever" category, except unlike Hisui I think this actually benefits his character. In Japanese, his dialogue and frankly personality are really unremarkable, but in the loc he says a lot of incredibly bizarre and goofy phrases. The loc team had a lot of fun with making him sound ridiculous and it did him a lot of favors when his overall implementation in this story was an absolute trainwreck.

Richea

Richea's dialogue can be a bit hit or miss. Sometimes it's too stiffly worded, sometimes it's too casual. Overall I think her voice is fine though and it never really did her character too many disfavors.

Terms

For this section, here's a very useful reference which writes out most terms in the game, comparing the Japanese names (romanized very straightforwardly) to the loc. I will be using my own romanizations for terms below.

Let's talk about the elephant in the room: Kor. Why did they change his name? It's actually quite simple: Shing is based on kanji. It means 心具 (shingu; heart-tool). Yamamoto stated that among the characters in the game, he's the only one who's not supposed to have a mineral reference in his name. To get around this, they did Kor, which is based on cor which is the Latin word for heart.

I suppose in a vacuum, I get what they were going for. However, the decision fails to make sense for two very simple reasons: recognizability, and the fact that they left the names Hisui and Kohaku in which literally were translated into English in Graces' loc. It comes across as very ironic to me that they were so held up by Shing's name being Japanese wordplay, to the point of changing it entirely, yet ignoring the two party members with Japanese names. Why only Shing? Nobody would know (even Japanese players) that Shing was supposed to be wordplay on anything had Yamamoto not discussed it in an old blog post. Yet they left in the names Hisui and Kohaku, which are very obviously Japanese, and no English player would know what they're supposed to mean, or if they were even mineral references! Maybe their intent was that they're from Norqueen, and Kohaku has cherry blossom aesthetics to her, but this also doesn't make any sense when nobody else from Norqueen had a Japanese name. It's only them.

This isn't me advocating for them doing Jadeite and Amber from Graces' loc (as I think that was a similarly bizarre situation), but if you're going to change Shing, you could at least be consistent and commit to the idea of making everything Easily Understood References, instead of just changing one name to something completely unrecognizable (and frankly a bit dumb sounding) and not the ones that probably warrant it more.

Shing isn't the only character they did this with. For instance, the members of Chen's Corporation weren't intended to have mineral names. Their names are references to marine life in various languages. Chen's last name is Corallo, which is Italian for coral. Sango means coral in Japanese. Ecaille means scale/shell in French (with her real name being Mica, which is actually a mineral and the loc did keep). In the localization, they were translated to... Ultra Marine, Aqua Marine, and Coral respectively. While I don't think Chen and Sango's name changes were horrible, I still think they could have just kept them as is with no issue at all. "Coral" just feels disrespectful though. Why would you name her what Chen and Sango's names were SUPPOSED to be? Her real last name was changed too, from Zimmer to Zinnwald, which is really just pointless more than anything.

A lot of what the loc did can kind of just be boiled down to pointless. Here's some other pointless name changes for NPCs:

Isaac->Azide (is this even a mineral term?)

Pearl->Perl (?????????????? this one I genuinely don't get because pearl WAS a mineral to start)

Dona, Zektz->Kardia, Sydan (both were mineral names changed to heart terms to match with Shing, but really this is a pointless change. Iola's name wasn't turned to Japanese to match Kohaku and Hisui? Make it consistent if you're going to do these things?)

Sinhala->Benston (sinhalite is a mineral. I don't even know anymore)

Spin, Nel->Ward, Hope (spinel is a mineral...)

This isn't even all of them, but these are the most egregious. For a game really insistent on making everything a specific reference, it's almost hilarious how much the localization made things inconsistent with its own decisions, and how it broke things that would have worked perfectly fine had they just translated it literally. No Tales game has changed so many names arbitrarily and made them so unrecognizable with name alone if you compare to the Japanese names.

It's unfortunately not just the character names, as the location names suffered a bit from this too.

While character names are (mostly) based on minerals, the locations were based on fairy tale references. Most location names in Japanese were portmanteau of terms, whether it be author names, location names from fairy tales, titles, you name it. You can read all about this here, and these observations were made by Japanese fans as well. This stuff is about as common knowledge as the Shing naming convention among Hearts communities, so I would be willing to bet the localizers knew about it too.

Anyway, some of the loc ones I think were fine. For instance, a number of those terms just come across as awkward in English (such as シーブル, which I don't really have huge issues with them just going for Seaville). Yuraio needed to be changed anyway, as it's Japanese worldplay (though I can think of many better alternatives than just "Lion Park" if they wanted to keep the fairy tale reference).

However, I do take issue with some that completely change the reading for the name. "Dronning" and "Norqueen" (however you choose to romanize it) sound nothing alike. "Wonderidell" is a fairly straightforward romanization, and "Cind'rella" makes very little sense when in Japanese, Cinderella was the name reference for the Winged Whale ("Cendrillon" in Japanese, "Mysticete" in the loc). I also think Celland and Quartzia were absolutely fine and conveyed their meaning perfectly fine to English speakers, while I will admit it took me a while to figure out that Organica and Minera were supposed to be based on the words organic and mineral.

As for regular terminology, I don't have a ton of nitpicks. My biggest is that I don't really like the term "Spiria Nexus" as a translation for Spirmaze. The game already uses "Spiria Core" (for Spirune), and the words nexus and core are... very similar in meaning! I would probably opt for something like Spiria Labyrinth (and honestly, Spiria Maze works fine as is). Spirune is a bit of a hard one, because in the context of the story, it refers to both the whole and broken pieces of it, so I feel like they could have opted for "Spiria Shard/Fragment" for the broken pieces and "Spiria Core" and "Spiria Shard/Fragment" could have worked hand in hand. This might just be me nitpicking though.

For positives, I really like the terms "calcification," "Will Artes" and "synthetic Spiria". I'm also surprised "despir" (bungle of katakana) stayed intact given every other naming convention they went for (furuere got changed to Will Wisps, when the terms are similar in structure).

Artes

Artes are infamously something Tales is very inconsistent about, and how did Hearts R's loc fair?

To start, each character has their own "theme" to their artes. Shing's are light based and reference astronomy terms, Kohaku's are fire and cherry blossom based, Hisui's are all bird terms, Beryl's are artist babble, Innes' are French marine terminology, Kunzite's are dark based and a bit grim, Chalcedony's are aerial/holy based, and Galando's are... well all over the place. Shing, Kohaku, Kunzite, Chalcedony and Galando are all based on typical artes (and if not, their naming conventions, or are typical artes just a little to the left), while Hisui, Beryl and Innes have entirely unique kits.

Shing: My only complaint is the loc overused the word "meteoric," sadly including Crazy Comet (which I really wish they had left as is, since it's so iconic). So many celestial terms exist!

Kohaku: I just think Scarlet Halo is a bit messy, since it was already localized as Crimson Disc in Graces. Did they forget Graces loc ever happened?

Hisui: It's actually hilarious how bad his got mangled when his are some of the most straightforwardly translated artes in Tales. All of his arte names are just "[bird] [thing]" and if you translate them 1:1, you get a perfectly fine Tales arte name with no work needed. Yet somehow, they messed this up? An arte named wild-hawk got translated to Mosquito Hawk. What? Another one is kite-rain, which got translated to Rainbird. scatter-heron is Cuckoo's Egg. god-shot-chicken is Bird of Paradise. His artes are just very bizarre, because some are translated literally, and the other half just have completely random naming conventions. It makes for a really inconsistent kit of artes, not to mention each arte had a very specific bird associated with it, and the loc just mangled this. His artes really make me scratch my head at what they were thinking.

Beryl: Flying Colors (originally Slashing Colors) is the only arte of hers that's even remotely close what the Japanese had. This isn't really a complaint as I think changing the names is fine, more just an observation since the game didn't get dubbed and her arte names are actual spoken words and not strings of kanji.

Innes: The loc took hers which were two word structured and made them grammatically correct French. Don't really have any other notes here.

Kunzite: His artes are the most consistent to its own conventions, though I would probably change some to more clearly reference what the arte takes inspiration from.

Chalcedony and Galando I don't have any commentary on other than what I said for Kunzite. They're fine.

Closing thoughts

There's of course a lot I didn't cover in this post. For instance, I feel like skits were overall translated better than the story was, and there's a lot of nitty gritty things like titles and flavor text that I didn't touch upon. (Here's a very funny example of the loc team not picking up on a fairly obvious Abyss reference. Nobody knew this was supposed to be about Mieu)

But, I would say my main thoughts on the loc are that in some regards it was fine, and in some ways was highly disrespectful.

For the story dialogue, it feels like someone translated it roughly (and I will note that there are some lines that are just blatantly inaccurate to what was said, even removing the editing fluff, so I assume this was a rushed job), and then an editor came in and edited the lines without hearing any of the voice work attached to it. It's very rough around the edges, to say the least. I do think the game would have worked better if it was dubbed (like the script feels like it was intended for), even if the mischaracterization would still sadly persist.

To add a very personal comment here, Hisui is my favorite Tales character and it hurts that the only way the English fandom has to experience him is at the hands of his incredibly disrespectful localization writing. While I think his dialogue in it can be funny at times, it's not the kind of writing I want to see in very serious scenes. It's not good when a character can never be taken seriously, when that's not at all how they are intended to be viewed.

I will also add, as someone who plays games in Japanese and is heavily involved in fan translation, whenever I play Hearts R's localization, I just translate the dialogue in my head as I listen to the acting, then I read the translation on my screen and kind of laugh at how far it is from how I would have translated it. Not only is it a disservice to English speaking fans, but it is hilariously obvious to anyone who knows both languages how inaccurate it is, which is not how a localization is supposed to read.

(As a final disclaimer, the rants in this post are only intended to discuss Hearts R's localization. I support the localization practice in general, but I am allowed to nitpick when one was so obviously rushed out the door with poor communication. Please read this article to understand the ways in which I approached writing this post. I do not support the witchhunt on localizations that fandom is so currently obsessed with. All of my speaking points have come from someone who has studied Tales localization practices as well as Hearts specifically in depth, and who has aimed for putting out high-quality translation work myself.)

[reveriesofawriter]

book rambling don't mind me

the book kept saying anharion was his title... so was that also his name? did his name become a title when the Betrayal happened? does "anharion" translate to Betrayer or is that just what he's known as? was it a mistranslation from the old language? edit: I just reread the part where sarcean said he used to be called something else and now I feel like that's going to give away the whole ~is he the sun prince~ thing

I've seen some theories about the Collar and to what extent it actually controls james and like. as much as it would be less big and exciting to see it this way... what if the Collar is mostly symbolic? bc sarcean can talk people into doing what he wants anyway and james was obviously not immune to the charm (it's magnified for him even) well before will knew anything about himself or his powers so what if the collar was just a way to show other people that anharion belonged to him? but GOD if this moral stronghold of not wanting to manipulate james into kissing him and wanting him to do it of his own free will stops these boys from having a lil smooch for the majority of the third book I will Die

I've also seen people try to draw lines between will/sarcean and james/anharion as far as their past/present personalities and the consensus seems to be that will has a more clear line between himself and sarcean but I saw someone say it was more like intrusive thoughts and I think that's fascinating, also that will is seeing james and not anharion the betrayer when he looks at james but james in every sense is this cocky little asshole (affectionate) who flirts and uses his powers to take advantage of people while anharion in the past wasn't like that sooooo I think will isn't Seeing james as who he is I think he's seeing anharion for who he used to be before he turned against sarcean. which is so interesting when you think about will saying people shouldn't be judged by what they've done but what they can do

the tangled web of who hates who is so messy but I trust violet to, if not outright take will's side, then to convince the others to let him go like banish him or whatever instead of killing him right away (even if james's powers would physically protect him from that I just need violet to believe in him)

I'm still thinking about little 6 year old will setting a rich fucker's clothes on fire bc he laid his hands on a woman who was nice to him, how violet saved his life and he's spent every day after that trying to return the favor including using a newfound power he doesn't know how to control yet to set her free from a cage in another country

can't wait to see how the narratives shift when we get other perspectives on what the past was really like bc from what I can tell sarcean and the lady weren't really In Love they just had a fling one time

on that note I thought will was switched out for the girls somehow when they were kids but elizabeth was told her mother had a son before her and she believes that son is will, which would mean will is both blood of the lady and the dark king, which brings to question who his dad is bc they said it wasn't simon but I don't think his birth was a virgin mary situation, also I know sarcean got around but are will and simon's family related any closer than one ancestor thousands of years ago? is sinclair will's father?

I don't think tom and violet will fight to the death, tom may die in another way tho

what's the fourth kingdom and how does that pay into this? bc the first gate was in england the second was underwater somewhere and the third is in italy so the fourth...? on that note there must be more stewards alive who weren't in the hall when it was torn through, people who either left that life behind, or like cyprian at the beginning who didn't drink from the cup but still follow the lifestyle, or maybe like small covens of stewards who never went to the hall bc they found their own communities elsewhere idk it's just very eurocentric to think everyone from everywhere would meet up in this one place when the whole rest of the world exists

will needs some alone time after all this someone give him a safe place to rest and a hot drink

phillip and visander... and the unicorn....... love triangle of the ages... (I wonder if visander will find his way back into a man's body somehow or if he's stuck looking like katherine forever lol) (realistically. I don't think this man fucked his horse. but. metaphorically? metaphysically? whatever they had was probably as erotically charged as that magic scene right?)

[kyros-tha-soldier]

CHAPTER 1011 spoilers

I'm back after two weeks of having stupid painful eyesore! Still not fully healed but lasik generally takes a while to heal, oh well... into the SPOILERS!

🌟The chapter's title is "Dear bonney", it's a reference to the letters Kuma has been sending to lil Bonney, but what about those letters? Are they important? Welp, let's see the rest of the spoilers and we'll understand more

🌟colorspread contains all the vegapunks!

🌟so, the chapter starts with A flashback INSIDE the flashback, with Kuma remembering how once he and Dragon were on goa and Kuma curiously asks Dragon abot why he knows a lot about Goa, and why does he always keep his eyes on one boy (the boy of course being our precious luffy)

🌟Dragon sternly answers "keep talking if you wanna die" (this might be a mistranslation since i heard somewhere else he said "if you want to kill me then keep talking" maybe as a way to show that the topic Kuma was talking about is too sensitive and dangerous Dragon) and honestly this felt so out of character for dragon to say to his comrade like...

Isn't he already on your team?

🌟Dragon drops s hot line to clear his "fraud dad" allegations and says "a child is a parent's weakness", strong enough that poor Kuma apologized and stopped talking

🌟mini flashback ends with Kuma entering mount Kolumbo and observes a 16 years old luffy practicing. He gets a call on his den den mushi and luffy ends up hearing it ring, and before he tries to check, we find that Kuma has already left. Luffy just shrugs it off as some very strong animal and continues on his shenanigans

🌟 the call was frim the world government about a merchant ship getting attacked by pirates. So basically they told him to give those pirates hell because that's basically his job as a warlord

🌟throughout the chapter kuma is writing bonney letters, he is narrating them and talks about how much he loves her, how much he cares for her and all the great and amazing things he saw while traveling and how bad he wants to travel with her.

h-he's so pure, my god he's such a gentle daddy! GOD ODA STOP GIVING YOUR TOUGHEST BATTLES TO YOUR MOST LOVING DADS/MOMS

🌟 however unfortunately for our favorite bearguy priest, his letters never reached Bonney since the nurse lady alpha, would get rid of them so Bonney won't read them because well... duh they might contain some sensitive info, and since they're trying to make this whole ordeal a secret away from bonney, she makes sure no letters arrive.

🌟Luckily, Bonney has queen connie on her side, and her being the amazing granny she is she tells bonney not to show her abilities to any of the cipher pol agents, saying that "a smart hawk must always hide it's claws!"

🌟 Kuma visits Vegapunk's lab for more pacifista stuff and meets stussy (the clone that was made three years ago) and she sarcastically tells him "i wonder who's more unfortunate, a human with no consciousness or a clone with consciousness" Vegapunk (now with the apple head) reprimands her and tells her that she's indeed a human...

But like

CUT MY MAN KUMA SOME FUCKING SLACK!!! Y'ALL BETTER START TREATING HIM RIGHT!!!!

🌟 Vegapunk explains to Kuma that his transformation will be complete soon in one year, and until then he won't have a single emotion or thought left.

🌟 we see Kuma helping the revolutionary army, however he's a lot more silent now since he has reached a point where the modifications have become a lot more radical. Dragon and the others sense that something isn't right with Kuma

🌟we go back to sorbet island where Bonney is celebrating her ninth birthday, she still didn't receive a single letter from the ones Kuma had sent her. Bonney is now 100% healed but Alpha won't let her out until she reaches her 10th birthday since that's what the deal with Kuma was about

🌟 however our precious and beautiful Qweenie, granny connie, tells Bonney that she heard from a local town bar that alpha and her "staff" aren't actually medical staff and are in fact world government agents. They realize how bad is the situation and the people of Sorbet as well as Connie prepare for Bonney's escape. They bring a pizza themed ship, Gyogyo, poteto and Totsu (the three guys we always see in Bonney's crew) embark with her to go find Kuma, and Connie switch clothes with Bonney.

🌟 however, alpha and her team find out about this and follow bonney. Alpha is using geppou and threatens bonney that if she doesn't come back she will beat her up and lock her up (way to be such a scum to beat a child)!

🌟 just then, Bonney imagines one of the instances where Kuma talks to her about Nika and she asks him what he looks like and he tells her he doesn't really know but his body is rubbery.

🌟 bonney uses her toshi toshi ability and warps herself into Nika, delivering a FAT punch right to the jaw of Alpha (that looked like a really painful punch in the panel)

AAAAAAAND that's all folks!

[vashtijoy]

random q (only if u have time). i vaguely rmbr hearing 3 years ago that the famous ENG Akechi line "I'm alone right now." was not as / not suggestive at all in the JP. do u know if that's true?

[This post has now been GLORIOUSLY UPDATED because it DOES EXIST, it DOES. Leaving the post up but just ... read that one first.]

Hahahaha, oh, anon. I wish you hadn't asked me this.

These intro lines on the texts don't appear in my script. So if you know what they all are in English, and how many there are, please leave a message, as I've been going through let's plays to find them and that's like using a sieve as an umbrella.

That said, let's go ahead and RUIN EVERYTHING.

Akechi appears to have two lines in the Japanese game that he texts with. As follows:

やあ、こんばんは yaa, konban wa. "Hey, good evening."

(Interestingly, here's a message on the same day from an English playthrough—it looks like he always texts on 7/19, but doesn't use the same chat every time.)

今なにしてる？ ima nani shiteru? "Are you doing anything right now?"

(And yeah, here he is again on 7/9!)

"ima nani shiteru?" looks to be what got translated as "I'm alone right now", and I'm afraid it really isn't all that suggestive. Curiously, it's almost identical to Yoshizawa's text greeting ima nani shitemasu ka?—Yoshizawa says the exact same thing, but she has that polite -masu ka ending; Akechi's speech is plainer. (Their texts were added to the game at the same time for Royal, right?)

Bear in mind that for everything flirty added, something seems to have been taken away, such as "the fish are beautiful" and "does that sound like fun to you". The script is meant to have these flirty moments, it's just that they sometimes make it in at different points.

An interesting detail (and something I wondered about on my playthrough) is that these lines open the chat. Here's a konban wa chat:

His intro line is yaa, konban wa on the list of messages, but it's also the first line of his message. I wondered where those lines came from! This is indeed rendered "Hey, good evening" in English, and while ima nani shiteru becomes "What are you doing right now" in the message window, it's "I'm alone right now" in the message list!

Btw, something else here, I think, is that people sometimes notice that Akechi uses plain speech to Joker (because they're two schoolboys) and think he's mistranslated as formal. I think that misses a more general complexity in his mode of speech. Akechi likes the sound of his own voice—in English, we'd say he uses a lot of long words—and he tends to sound formal and precise, regardless of the verb endings he's using.

So here, for instance, in the last text box, he's using this phrase 都合が合うなら tsugou ga au nara—"if it's convenient; if it works for you; if our schedules agree". This isn't really a schoolboy talking, it seems to be something you'd say at work.

But this is the sort of thing that's glossed into a general formality in the way Akechi speaks in English, the sort of thing that leads to jaa ne getting translated as farewell. Akechi is meant to sound formal. And Shuake are meant to have flirty moments. It's just that conveying that to an international audience is always going to be more complicated than a one-to-one literal translation could be. The game script is a unified whole, not a series of atomised lines.

[princess-of-the-corner]

What are the trio's backstories for No Fate?

Ohohoho!

Honestly they're mostly what you'd expect BUT also because they have some weird powers and Know More Than They Should, they're little fuckin cryptids.

Zelda:

Born as Princess of Hyrule, of course.

Her parents don't exactly notice how odd she is, but the castle staff do. Because, thanks to remembering her past life, she knows too much.

She'll overhear two maids discussing one's sick kid that hasn't been able to get better, and immediately say 'oh that sounds like this one rare illness I...... read about. You should take him to a Zora doctor they know what to do!' and the maid is so stressed and desperate she tries anything and yep that worked kid is running around again.

She'll sneak into Guard's rooms and see the Captain looking over a map, and point out the flaw in his strategy and a way around it.

Impa is her bodyguard once again. She isn't shocked when Zelda begs her to teach her different fighting techniques. She is shocked, however, when Zelda masters the techniques far too quickly.

Zelda's parent's aren't.... I wouldn't say 'neglectful', exactly, They spend time with her. But they very much want her to be their carefree little girl for as long as possible. The Kingdom is at peace, she doesn't need to spend her childhood in boring political meetings. Why doesn't she play with that nice boy from the market?

Zelda is patient, at first. Despite knowledge beyond her years, she needs to know the current state of affairs. She needs to be an age where she is taken seriously. But eventually she started taking manners into her own hands. And when a 12 year old princess orders people around with such authority in her voice, you don't question it. Her ideas are good and her strategies are solid.

Her parents relented, if only because there's little danger at the moment. Hyrule is in an era of peace! Sure there's a few monsters out and about in the wild, but nothing their guard can't handle! If she's really so intent on going out and helping people as their Princess, they'd much rather keep track of her.

(They may be compliant, but Zelda knows. She knows she is Here and she knows coming back Means Something. Her parents might not believe her, after all it's tradition to name the princess 'Zelda' surely their daughter is not a true reincarnation. But she knows better. And she has to be ready for anything that may come.)

Link:

His home is in a farm town just a little away from the castle. He would often go with his parents to sell things at the castletown market.

So many kids are named after the Hero. Most of them go through a phase where they believe they truly are the Hero. So no one really takes him seriously when he insists he is. But sure! Teach the kid how to swordfight! He's big enough for the practice blades!

Except he picks up the skill a bit too quickly. Though his body does not have the muscle memory(or the muscle), the mind remembers. Any monsters that attack react strangely to him (they may not know him, but they see it in his eyes. Some run. Some see it as a challenge.).

Due to this, it also surprises people when they find him asleep everywhere. Fallen out of bed, tucked up in the branches of a tree, spooking the poor librarian trying to put books away by being on the top shelf.

He also seems to see and hear more than others. Local Spirits talk to him. Give warnings and advice and of course gossip. They don't question when he seems to nod along to what a tree is saying.

He meets Zelda in the market when they're kids. And they Know who the other is on sight. After that they're near inseparable.

Ganondorf:

Quite a normal childhood.

I will note that I'm adjusting the whole 'every 100 years a male Gerudo is born and he's the King' thing. Handwaving it as mistranslation. Gerudo men are rare, so 'every 100 years' is a metaphor like 'once in a blue moon'. They are not named King by default. The default line of succession is through parent to oldest child, but someone can challenge the heir and become the leader.

In this Time he's born to the current Chief, though he is not her heir as I'm yeeting Urbosa in as an older sister. And Riju as a little sister. Because I can lmao.

Gan is aware of what he is. So was his mother. But his mother was a good mother. Even knowing what he may become, she wasn't going to give up on him. She's going to do the best she fucking can. That's her son and she will not leave him.

It doesn't keep her from worrying. When he, like the other two, seems to know too much and learn skills too quickly. She grows more concerned when old 'habits' pop up, his instincts to take people down as the Demon King. A mother scolding her child and explaining why we don't get brutal in friendly spars goes a long way.

[tokiro07]

So now we've gotten a peek at the Master Rules and it's kind of confirmed this theory I've been brewing.

I is obviously Death, I think II is religion and III is sex (I know people are thinking "Life" due to her DNA hair, but I think she's sex/gender because what's the point of sex/gender other than to spread different types of DNA. If we all did asexual reproduction, then all our DNA would be the same). And then there's various others. But Move isn't there. Move isn't a master rule.

Which kind of confused me for a bit because... In order for anything to be anything, it has to move. Forget humans; we see in the rules table that the rules are "moving" around--one is reading (needs to move to turn pages), it looks like Sex is talking to Death (moving her mouth and in her chair), Sick has obviously been moved around a lot by virtue of getting his ass beat. So even the master rules need the rule of "move", yet Move is not a master rule.

So I was thinking that, other than Master Rules, there's another type of rules. I've just been referring to them as "Base Rules", because without them as the Base, there's literally nothing. Move is one--move is a rule that comes from things existing. Communication/Tell is another--if more than one thing exists, they'll find a way to communicate with each other. Personally, I think Rule Change is IV (the kid next to religion), but if Change isn't a Master rule, then it would be another Base rule.

I don't think "Base Rules" will be canonized as like a new big bad or anything. This is just me thinking about the rules of the Rules. It does make me wonder though--Master Rules are created by God, but God follows the Base Rules (Luna communicates, Sun moves/is unmoved, etc). So were the Base Rules made at the same time as God? Would that make Move just as much God as Sun or Luna? Or is God--Sun and Luna--themselves another "Base Rule"?

I think there might be a bit of a miscommunication on Tozuka's part about the term "Master Rules"

In ch.177, Apocalypse's exact words are as follows:

"The Master Rules...a set of Rules chosen after all of you lose to Ragnarok...that will never disappear. This time, Galaxy was chosen. That is why stars and celestial bodies have been here from the start. UMA chosen as Master Rules possess absolute power. The ten added in the initial stage are the strongest."

The wording of this implies that "the ten added in the initial stage" are among the Master Rules, not the only Master Rules. I've mentioned it before, but we saw firsthand that not all Rules vanish when their UMA die - Magma, Slice and Gravity, the trio that Andy slew that prompted Sun to create Seal, didn't seem to have any impact on the world upon their deaths, and in fact we continued to see characters affected by gravity, continued to see cutting attacks in use, and most notably saw magma erupt from the ground when Andy was hit with Unluck

This suggests that these UMA specifically were among the "Master Rules," the Rules that "will never disappear," but were not among "the ten added in the initial stage," as they were clearly much weaker than Sick. I imagine that Move and Spoil are among these, as their removal would be wildly detrimental to the world

I think the major point of confusion is that Tozuka showed us the tablet of Rules while explaining the Master Rules concept. Juiz told us in ch.20 that this tablet has 101 empty slots that are filled when a penalty is received, but if the ten Master Rules are present from the start, then they wouldn't be added after the Quests are failed

Maybe the UMA are summoned to our world afterward and it's irrelevant whether the Rule was present or not, but that doesn't really line up with what we know so far either

It's possible this is a retcon, it's possible that there was a mistranslation along the way because there was a double meaning that no one could have caught, and it's possible that Juiz was simply lying about the function of the tablet to justify knowing the term Ragnarok

Personally, I think the last one makes the most sense and that the tablet isn't counting down the number of failed Quests, but rather counting up the number of loops. Juiz knew that there was only one use of Ark left, and seeing that the tablet had two slots left just happened to line up perfectly, didn't it?

We'll most likely know the exact details next week, but one thing that's clear to me is that Tozuka has deliberately left a few key bits out so we would need to keep guessing for as long as possible

[kiisaes]

Hi new follower here :) I just saw your „live reaction to bkg’s resurrection“ post!

Did you know that in the Japanese original there was an additional line that said „Their feelings become one“ which was completely left out in the official English translation? I am so mad about that >:(

(hi there!!! thank u for following and welcome to my blog, i hope u enjoy ur stay :'D)

yesss i did know!!! yeah i really don't know why the english translation always either leaves out important phrases or flat out mistranslates 😭 that's a pretty impactful line there that essentially solidifies bkdk's positive relationship development as well as both of their connections to OFA

and idk if these decisions are intentional but it does suck. it's not like the author of a story purposefully puts specific dialogue or captions or wording in general to further a point that is oftentimes incredibly intentional. and it's not like japanese is a pretty clever language with a lot of double meanings and puns and other cool stuff that obviously won't perfectly translate into english but could still be worked around if there was just an ounce of care put into translating. that's TOTALLY not a typical manga, or even narrative, thing that matters and should be treated with respect (heavy sarcasm)

this is also my understanding as to why so many bakugou haters who read the official translation think he "hasn't changed". it's bc quite a bit of his dialogue is fucked up to hell just to make him sound either disrespectful or dismissive, even when he doesn't sound like that in the original. it even happened in the most recent chapter! it's like furthering the imaginary point that bkg will always be rude even in serious situations when clearly that isn't the case through horikoshi's own words. fuckin describing his own impalings as "getting swiss cheesed" during his contextually VERY vulnerable and honest apology to deku ... like what the hell kind of dialogue is that. who talks like that. the hell are you doing

[catgirl-catboy]

My problematic headcanons? Well in that fandom I really don't know what hc count as problematic or not

But I hc Chihiro as both trans and bigender spectrum so I enjoy the discourse surrounding around it because idk it sounds fun.

And yeah, they forget that game is from Japan and their gender norms and identity revolving around gender is different than we have.

Quite nsfwish but I hc Taka as a top leaning switch yeah this is not even a problematic hc but when I see people tear eachother down for simple hc, I like to include that too

And I believe Gonta would identify as X gender if they have the knowleadge about it (x gender is ig an umbrella for genderqueer identities in Japan)

And I like the hc Gundam have skin picking disorder and his bandages comes from it, well i believe he would do that because of the way he can't healthily manage his emotions when he was a bit isolated one. Or maybe a harmful stimming behaviour, idk really know

(idk what pronouns you prefer for Chi, so I just used my own HC of she/her for this.)

Honestly, Chihiro has such a complex about others looking down on her for being weak, you could argue that any gender makes sense with canon because she simply hasn't thought about it enough.

Also, in the context of a killing game, physical strength means nothing if you have the sense to carry around a weapon. Even if you weigh a hundred pounds soaking wet, nobody will fuck with you if they know you've got a knife. Also, they won't attack anyone they percive as crazy, like Syo or Nagito.

My take about the chapter is that none of the tropes involved were transphobic (the existence of GNC characters isn't transphobic), but comments made by the characters were really squicky and not to my tastes. Since I can't play the game in original Japanese, I'm hoping Sakura's "this girl is actually a boy!" is a mistranslation. I also feel like the fact Kyoko does the same thing to Hifumi that she does with Chihiro makes it less bad.

In a perfect world, I'd also like "maybe we should still treat Chihiro how they were currently presenting, since we don't know if they wanted to live life as male after the secrets were released and might be training as self-defense" but since lives were on the line it makes sense they weren't thinking.

(context: I'm ace and will read smut, but won't read PWP works. It needs to be attached to dead dove or a longfic for me to get invested. Also porn with feelings best tag)

I headcanon all of my faves as tops simply to avoid the weird characterization that comes with them being bottoms. Its like if people took what kind of bunk bed you preferred and based your entire perceived personality based off it and as someone who has a normal bed, I just don't get it.

Yeah, Gonta in canon is so performative about masculinity, in a way that I don't think came solely from them being in the woods. I feel like in their mind, Gonta conflates fitting gender roles with approval from their family, which can't be healthy long term. Also, in Gonta's mind gentleman is "someone that can help others perfectly, even if they don't want to be helped" and if that isn't met they're failing. Even if his version of Masculinity isn't obviously toxic, its still Toxic for Gonta specifically.

Yeah, Gundam probably has a host of unhealthy coping mechanisms. It makes sense for his character, since its revealed he'll hide in the nurse's office to avoid having to be in loud physical situations. I like to belive that Sonia and/or Mikan help him move past them.

[colorfuldream]

Okay so this is also going around on Twitter so I'm gonna talk about it on here too:

First off, since it's the smaller issue at hand, the Yuno part is nothing. The English and Japanese subs also call her a "slut". "Pute" is just one of the french words for "slut". Common, mean but not as bad as it's implied. This is perfectly translated as those are Kotoko's feelings and views on the character. Yuno is also very much a prostitute and she doesn't give a damn about the way people view her profession. Kotoko is verbally attacking every innocent character. She's name calling everyone.

Now for the real problems:

The Mikoto section is a part of the "Guilty" verse. In it, Kotoko is making references to the titles of their first songs. Guess what isn't in Mikoto's. In fact, the entire segment is mistranslated and forgoes the references. This means that this section is entirely new. Using the r-slur was a deliberate choice. I repeat, this was their choice, it wasn't in any version of the lyrics.

Not only is an entire verse badly translated, they ADDED A SLUR FOR NO FUCKING REASON.

Why??

Thus this raises concerns for the Kazui part. While yes, Kotoko is being deliberately insulting and violent with her words, and it's likely that he actually is denying his sexuality (though my personal interpretation of this verse is that Kotoko is echoing our feelings and theories to convince us to "allow" her to punish them all), it's... A Choice. The fact that the lyrics were changed earlier to add another slur makes me suspicious. Mikoto's segment could have been a little closer to the original "PoorMeMe"/"PoorMe poorMe" with something as simple as "poor him"/"poor you"/"poor them". Again, the r-slur is the direct translation for the word used in French. Same origins even. This should raise eyebrows at another slur being used. Even if you don't think it is one, which could be an opinion and this isn't the place to argue about it (and even I didn't personally stop to think about it at first), it's questionable language.

Especially when neither the Japanese or English lyrics have gay undertones.

Kazui is said to be a liar. A deceiver. Only the French translation uses a word that is inevitably referring to being gay and repressing it.

That should raise everyone's alarms. This is a clear change, if not a mistranslation, to add a new meaning to a sentence. This fundamentally changes Kotoko as it clearly makes it seem like she believes that Kazui is gay. No-fucking-body uses that word otherwise. It doesn't even quite make sense with the reason why she's talking about him! Kotoko is insulting everyone, making them out to be terrible people that deserve to be hurt. And, sorry, but troubles with one's sexuality doesn't really make me want them to be punished. However, being told that they are shady liars, deceiving (implying this is deliberately hurting someone) does.

For example, Yuno is called "obscene" and a "slut". Yet she's not close to obscene. Sure, she's a sex worker but that ain't my business. Kotoko uses it as an incentive, as an insult, to make us like her less. She's making Yuno sound "trashy", dirty, worthless. She's using the stigma against sex workers. Clever as this same thing is a part of the story surrounding her, it's something that could alter our judgement of her crime. It's part of the discussion around Yuno. She chose the worst part because, let's be honest, we can't use "girl prob aborted" as an argument against her.

The line about Kazui works the same: Kotoko is taking the worst parts about his story to turn us against him. He lied to his wife, possibly married her under false pretenses, hurt her deeply. Maybe badly enough it caused her death. But she doesn't bring up his sexuality. Because she's smart. She knows it will bring sympathy. So she skips over that!

Because you know what happens if you use it in that context?

You imply that being gay is a moral failing.

Kotoko is using what she, and society at large, believe are failings, mistakes, sins, on the characters' part against them. The French translation is indirectly saying that Kazui being gay, in a very conservative country mind you, is a failing on his part and is a damn good reason to want him to get beaten up or killed.

Do they think French speakers are so homophobic that this trumps deceiving your wife and causing her death???

Kazui's main theme is deception and what his web of lies has caused. This is his main conflict and the main reason why the audience is tempted to vote him guilty. Him possibly being gay, because it isn't confirmed, is what makes us sympathize and sways our judgement into voting him innocent. It's the justification, the reason why he did what he did. It's the nuance.

Not only does this mistranslation change two characters and confirms something that ISN'T confirmed, the second you think about it, it becomes deeply homophobic and offensive.

The line about Mikoto is pretty clear-cut. It's unacceptable. It's shameful. The translator actually deserves to be fired for that as, on top of being ableist, it's just a dogshit "translation". It also brings a negative light on Milgram, which they especially shouldn't get when they're actively trying to portray mental health and DID well decently as well as the other issues they tackle. Kazui's is just as offensive, just more subtle. It's genuinely bad. Translators must be careful with their words. The damn auto-translation tool on YouTube did better than them. It's not the first time either that they messed up the translation. They just weren't offensive this time.

Just as reference: here's a compilation of the bad bad words said in the french subs of Deep Cover

(cw for homophobia, ableism, sexism)

Refoulé => repressed

Very derogatory when used to talk about a person. The homophobic insult "gay refoulé" or "homo refoulé" is common enough that WordReference pulled it up when I was looking up translations of "refoulé" in English.

So potential homophobic undertones here if you want to read it that way.

Attardé => retarded

...no comment

Pute => Whore

Very derogatory, very violent (no for real tho. even if it didn't mean what it means, this words' pronunciation sounds so violent for no reason, like have you tried saying it?? It sounds so aggressive)

So anyway, I made this just in case this could be of interest to someone 🤷‍♂️

[furinana]

Is there anything in the SMTIVA English translation that you think was mistranslated or changed? Thank you for your posts, they're giving so much insight to the games!

I only watched videos and I’m not fluent so I’m not a good person to answer this. What I can say is that the general opinion on SMTIVA's translation is that it isn't a Sonic the Hedgehog or Fire Emblem Fates situation where they changed or omitted very important aspects resulting in heavy misinterpretations of the original.

That being said, they did put "flavor" in the text for some characters. Let’s compare some examples from the top of my head:

[I can’t find a Japanese gameplay video with the Godslayer quests, but from what I’ve heard, Dagda acting silly in the Demonee-ho fight only happens in English]

>Fiddle with the smartphone >Wait for Asahi to return

[Nanashi does act like a goofball in some dialogue options so while a lot of people shit on this example, I think it’s in-character for him to say that. Totes!]

“I have no idea. Things became strange all of sudden...”

[Nozomi is uh... the worst offender for this. They added SO MUCH unnecessary slang on her dialogue. And she doesn’t even sound funny, just... unsexy which kinda defeats the point of her archetype]

“Hey [player]... what are you doing? Take us to Kasumigaseki as soon as possible.”

[Gaston is one of the instances I like the English localization better. Originally his wording on his magnificence is on the lines of saying “I’m the NUMBER ONE!”. Every. Time. He sounds more childish than snobbish. I like that in English he’s also more rude towards the other members leading to funnier remarks]

> When Asahi sulks in Japanese, she goes ‘muh...’ like she’s puffing her cheeks. Typical of cute girls in anime. She does that a lot while in English she’s just saying something random or going ‘grrr’. > It’s assumed that Skins’s real name is Tsugi. His nickname in Japanese is Tsugihagi (継接ぎ lit. patchwork) and it came from Akira calling him like that. > You know how the Megami race (lit. Goddess) isn’t usually translated? And you know how in the Massacre route your partner’s race changed to Goddess? Basically it’s the only instance in the whole series where they used its actual English equivalent. > The floors in Twisted Tokyo use wordplay from the respective Fiends that are located in it. The Fandom page goes in detail about it.