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echigo-empress · 3 years ago

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Chinese version of Ikemen Sengoku: Uesugi Kenshin (Pt. 5)

Chinese disclaimer: 我就是一个新加坡华人，可能我的翻译不好。如果你有更好的翻译，请信息我。我当然会改变。谢谢。aka if you’re more fluent in Chinese than me, you’re welcome to message me to update any errors below.

Rough translation of his intro:

I was born to fight wars; I have no interest in love.

It’s difficult to tell... how does he treat you...?

I love you... to the extent I can’t breathe without you.

I was pleasantly surprised!

Kenshin doesn’t seem to have a very big fanbase in the English-speaking community, compared to e.g. Date Masamune, Nobunaga, or even Mitsuhide. He seems more like a side character that many (probably U.S.) players write off as crazy, or simply have no attraction to. So I was happy to see the above screenshot in the Chinese app store preview - I think his was second or third! I’m so happy he’s popular - that means there’s gotta be more fans who like love him as much as I do!

Even their intro graphic looks different. The music soundtrack feels very authentic, like I’m definitely in Kyoto.

FYI, the Chinese name of Ikemen Sengoku is 美男战国 (simplified) | 美男戰國 (traditional) měinán zhànguó . Which translates to ‘Beautiful Men of the Warring States period’. Much more insightful than just ‘IkeSen.’

Their intros also feel richer. I’m excited! I remember (even initially when playing) that I was admiring Kenshin’s handsome looks, but he wasn’t available as a playable route then. Yeah, I played a LONG time ago, when it was only Nobunaga, Masamune, Yukimura, Ieyasu, and Hideyoshi. I don’t think Shingen was even available yet.

And then finally... he ... he appears!

Did you know?

The background music (BGM) soundtrack that plays for the characters, changes when it gets to Kenshin’s turn. He’s SPECIAL. Also, while we’re at it... I’ve been meaning to post about this... but his name:

上杉謙信 (Shàngshān qiānxìn)

In Chinese, this roughly translates into:

上 = Up, High, e.g. mountain top

杉 = Japanese cedar, Chinese fir tree, national tree of Japan

謙 = Humble, modest, amiable, a gentleman (Chinese phrase 谦谦君子)

信 = Confidence, trust, belief, faithful

it's incredibly fitting for him. Humble gentleman. Frankly, I'm just done with others who misunderstand him or portray him in a terrible light; it is runing the authentic Japanese experience.

Fangirl moment that you can totally mock me for and I don’t care:

Tall. Fir trees, like winter and snow-covered trees, humble, modest, faithful gentleman. He is truly perfect for me in every way, what with my Chinese name meaning ‘refined, beautiful, kind, virtuous lady’ with literature about [people like us] belonging together. I won’t share my Chinese name in characters because of privacy/safety reasons, but let’s say my last name is also associated with horses galloping. God of War? With powerful horses? That’s a totally natural fit.

Anyway.

They talk about Sasuke saving Kenshin ‘when he fell to the ground’:

The part that follows is interesting:

Translation:

With me saving Oda Nobunaga, Sasuke saved Uesugi Kenshin the same way.

I know, maybe I’m reading too much into it. But the way the sentence structure and symbolism here works, could mean that Uesugi Kenshin is very much equal to Oda Nobunaga. I bring that up, because I really don’t think Kenshin gets the respect he deserves in the English community. Even in the anime that I briefly looked up (haven’t watched yet):

I noticed that Kenshin was fighting Oda Nobunaga. Considering Oda’s basically the leader of that entire side, it’s interesting that he’s fighting someone who has been treated like a side character on the enemy lines. If they’re going neck-to-neck, doesn’t that make Kenshin an equal leader (even if it’s of the enemy side)? I really think this is another point that shows Kenshin is more powerful and popular than the English-speaking community wants to believe.

Finally, his ‘selection route’ card:

It’s probably the only screen that the Cybird English accurately translated, where the words are the same meaning. 🙄 Wow, good job, Cybird. You had one job, and you did one screen out of hundreds okay, so, congratulations.

Of course, I watched the route preview below (spoilers!!)

The Chinese main character (MC) says:

If other people catch sight of me, will this cause Lord Kenshin some kind of inconvenience? Maybe?

And Kenshin’s kind reply:

Translation:

I don’t know. Just the thought of it alone makes me extremely unpleasant/unhappy.

Kenshin’s confused and uncomfortable about his own feelings, but at least he’s aware that something’s going on inside. It sounds a lot less like what the shit American English MC had to say, which was ‘idk it brings me pain.’ There was no pain.

Translation:

It’s pointless (meaningless) to resist. It’s truly pathetic, [your name here].

It’s not clear whether he’s referring to himself, the Chinese MC, or the situation. From the context, I’m guessing Kenshin’s referring to himself. Like he can’t resist falling in love with the MC, and he jokes about being pathetic. Either way, it’s a very soft and warm moment.

And then... he says the thing that makes my heart melt even though it’s only a preview so I can’t imagine how I’d feel if it were the full chapter:

Translation:

I won’t let you run away from me. Forever [eternally], I won’t let you go.

永远不会？！哇！！！Google translate was like ‘never’ and I was like ‘yeah no, I know better.’ There’s like 10 different ways to say never in Chinese, and this is a very intentional “forever,” “till the end of time, till death do us part” statement.

Translation:

I’ve already fallen in love, to the point that I have lost all reason [logical, rational thought]. [My love is at] that level.

I know there was another line I translated (no screenshot), where Kenshin’s love was described in a way that, yes, it’s intense, but more than that, strong, overpowering, almost suffocating. If I could sum it up in one English word, it would be: intoxicating.

I think that’s the most accurate description, and hopefully it sparks some naughty ideas for fellow fans...

Lastly, I checked their events (which I’m sure will change weekly):

Maybe I’m missing something, because I haven’t played the Ikemen Sengoku English version very much. But Kenshin appeared in like 4 out of 5 events (I just happened to take 2 screenshots of ones I liked). Correct me if I’m wrong... but doesn’t that mean he’s super popular? Ieyasu, too. I’m curious about what happens if I purchase from the store, since it seems to be the Taiwan version, so I’m holding off buying anything just yet. But if it works, that could be a wonderful thing.

I’ll likely keep playing this Chinese version, and slowly translate chapters. After all the chaos, I’m finally feeling at peace (big thanks again to @mischievouslymasamune @oh-my-otome). Even if my series of posts only helps one person out there feel less bad about themselves, I will feel very satisfied. Thanks for reading! Time to disappear to my real world...

Chapter list of Probably quit Ikemen Sengoku because I hate the English MC/Uesugi Kenshin’s route series:

Part 1: Why I chose Uesugi Kenshin’s route

Part 2: Why I hate the English MC/Uesugi Kenshin’s route

Part 3: Depression, Trauma, History, and encouragement for other fans who might feel the same way

Part 4: Probably Quitting Ikemen Sengoku / Should I finish it?

Part 5: The Chinese version of Ikemen Sengoku / 美男战国 | 美男戰國 (we here now)

#ikemen sengoku #sengoku chinese version #uesugi kenshin #kenshin uesugi #cultural differences #english vs japanese or chinese #i hate the mc #美男战国 #美男戰國 #上杉謙信

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yoolee · 6 years ago

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Yukimura Act 2 Thoughts

SPOILERS, spoilers EVERYWHERE and yes this is under a read more but ugh, mobile tumblr, so, be careful. Not edited from when I wrote it June 22 XD

OH MY GOD FEELS EVERYWHERE AAAAAAH

Okay

What I loved about Yukimura’s Act 2, more than anything, is that it wasn’t just a story of two people in love – it was a story about an era, and how it ended, and the heroes and villains and ultimately humans who brought it about, and how even when it arrives it isn’t some magical, cure-all divine moment it’s just work and more of it to be done, and real, and horrible, and sad, and uncertain, and hopeful. It was a story about family, found and carried over generations, by choice and blood, and just, ungh. It was a story about love. Romantic love, familial love, the love of a country, the love between brothers and comrades and mentors and just, people. Contrast that with Nobunaga’s route – which I also enjoyed, but was ultimately more the story of a single man’s tragedy. A great man, with echoing impact on an entire country’s history, but it was his story. A GOOD STORY but a different kind. An epic tragedy, very Shakespearean, but like, different

Yukimura’s story isn’t just his. It’s the end of Nobunaga and Mitsuhide and Shingen and Hideyoshiu and Mitsunari’s stories. It’s also MC’s, and Ieyasu’s (oh gosh IEYASU. In this route. WOW feels) and the Sanada’s, etc and so forth. So many supporting characters have to make choices for Yukimura’s story to be told. Nobuyuki, Masamune, Saizo, Masayuki, Ieyasu, Sakai, Kanetsugu, Shingen, Toramatsu, and the MC they all had these beautiful, critical moments where they made a choice that sent Yukimura barreling down the path he ended on. This story wrenched every, EVERY single POSSIBLE scrap of emotion and meaning from every appearance of supporting characters that it possibly could. It all mattered, it all landed. (KUDOS WRITERS)

Nobunaga’s story felt like a cresting wave of his own making that finally broke. Yukimura’s has a similar sense of overwhelming push towards something, but there are countless hands causing it, placing just a moment of faith in this one man who has earned that faith through his own merit, and carries it through the only conclusion that can give them all hope for what they sacrificed for. He wasn’t born or destined to play that role – to fight, yes, but not to be the last lynchpin, the final puzzle piece that had to fall – he was never fighting to have what everyone else was fighting for, for himself. He became the person that had to play that role, by virtue of his strength, by virtue of his pride, by virtue of his, well, virtue, by being someone people built up and put stock into because he could, and he accepted it, and it wasn’t for himself, not in a falsely righteous way, just this deeply grand, quiet, very Yukimura way of feeling compelled to do what he could to help the people who needed it of him. Of doing what, in the end, he believed was right - not Shingen, not his brother or his father, or Saizo, or his wife, but what he felt, with all he was, was right.

By virtue of how much and how deeply and how strongly he was loved, and loved in return, by so, so many.

Now, obviously there’s the whole, born to be a sacrifice thing, but I think his understanding and belief in that changed in a really powerful way. He always believed he would die to bring glory to the Sanada name, and he set that aside out of love for his family. In the end, he didn’t die for the glory of a name. He died so that with his death, with his defeat, no one else would seek him out because of the past glory, hoping to go to war. There is a really, really interesting line I wish I had screenshot where, towards the end, there’s mention specifically of death counting because it is going towards a victory, which is so very odd considering it’s an obviously losing battle, but (and UGH aside – Yukimura is smart. He is. Yes he’s a dumbass in some of the early chapters but in the end we finally get to see that beautiful brain that comes out when he is calm and certain and I was SO HAPPY TO SEE IT) the victory his death is going towards is outside of a single battle. The glory of his name is going to a cause that he has to see through, that he has to do his best for, one way or another. Ultimately, he really, truly dies for love. And glory comes with it, because that is the one cause his death is worth giving for.

And after all that you wonder, you wonder, maybe it really was his fate all along maybe he really was born for that, maybe that’s how it was always, always going to be, just like he said, just like his family built him for, maybe it had to be that way, despite his choices. Or, in fact, BECAUSE of his choices, because he had to be defeated, because he had to choose life, and going home, and family, and hope, and love, to be able to make the sacrifice of his life on the battlefield this one. The last one. For that reason.

There is a sense they ALL had to fall. Nobunaga and Shingen, before the story starts. Hideyoshi, we can assume too, once Mitsunari is on his own his own (assuming, per history, the Toyotomi Yukkins rallies to is the son), the Uesugi are mentioned but not Kenshin. The Maeda too. Yukimura really is the last of his era, he has to go for the new one to have a chance, and he pins all that hope on it being a good one.

The supporting character feels just killed me. Watching Ieyasu barely hold it together as he went on his own arc from mustache twirling villain to broken child to uncertain victor to uneasy ally to source of hope for the future and holder of a dream worth sacrificing for , watching him react to Momo and the MC and Yukimura – that one line ‘Bring him alive’ was so perfect, because Nobunaga wouldn’t have hesitated (we saw that in Shingen’s route, right? In his own Act 2, Nobunaga would get what he would have to do) but Ieyasu couldn’t get there yet and that was beautiful to me – AS was the fact it was all moot anyway, and ultimately, Yukimura’s headband was in his hands at the end of it, as it had to be for the crashed wave to recede, and Ieyasu is left standing there, and there’s no triumph. He’s done this thing that everyone, EVERYONE has died for. He has it. It’s over. REALLY OVER. And there’s no joy in him at all, and that’s just a footnote, that’s a whole nother story just going on alongside and intertwined with Yukimura’s. But he’s human at the end of it. He feels. He wants. He maybe even hopes. He’s trying.

And there is an UNDENIABLE impact there - of MC and Momo and Yukkin on him, on the guy who finally does it. On the monster who is has been cracking into human chapter after chapter and has it all, has the entire country, and has to live with it now, after glimpsing something that made something in him respond with a peach ribbon and a desire to see a man live. Seeing this family stand up, steadfast, time and again and again and again, and love, and trust, and hope, and believe and fight and never, ever feel foolish for it because they know what they have and how precious it is and he just maybe, maybe is starting to believe them that it’s precious, just because nothing seems to convince them otherwise.

Masamune’s respect, Kojuro’s little ‘oh you again’, Kanetsugu as ESTEEMED SENSEI IN PARENTING, Saizo’s soft head tilt smiles all over the dang place and then immediately taking Momo all those times, Big Brother Sasuke, Nobuyuki, Masayuki oh my gosh Masayuki. So much love in all of his scenes. That generational sense of family was so powerful too.

And Saizo SAIZO I was about ready to SCREAM when he missed the wedding and then all of a sudden, there he is, with Yukimura’s spear and I was like darn you writers the emotional whiplash is just, unbearable. And he was with Yukimura in the end (and do you think he couldn’t have stopped that poor kid? But he understood it all too. He had to save Yukimura from Ieyasu because Ieyasu was going to let him live, but this kid, this scared, shaking kid with a sword doesn’t know that) and he carries out his last mission, and his flippant farewell – there are so, so dang many Saizo-loves-them-so-much moments, I’d have to screenshot the entire route to capture them all

AND HE SHOWS UP IN THE PRESENT DAY, BLESS.

AND MY SMOLSUKE FEELS. T.T finally got to hear MC say she loved him, and Nobuyuki call him a Big Bro, and Yukkin ALMOST say he loved Saizo RIP my heart, and Yahiko and Smolsuke in the same scene (SMOL SQUAD) hg;g;sdg;gesdghjtre

OVERALL I thought the pacing of the story was really, reaaaaally good (esp compared to Mitsuhide) with regularly placed emotional beats and surprises that made sense, and enough humor and love to make all the hurt bearable.

I have. Exactly two gripes. Two.

1. Their wedding night, Yukimura is CLEARLY sloshed and yet they have all kinds of passionate love going on, like. Alcohol, folks. It interferes with ability to perform JUST SAYING.

2. I wanted more of MC remembering than one single line about a promise T.T don’t give me sobbing Yukkins DON’T and then not make it all better HORRIBLE PEOPLE

Ugh I just

There is just so, so so much love in this route. LOVE. Not just romantic love, though it’s there and beautiful, but LOVE. Pure, freely given love. Between Masayuki and his sons, Masayuki and MC and Masayuki and Momo, Nobuyuki and MC/Momo/Yukkins, Saizo and Yukimura, Sasuke and Momo, Sasuke and MC/Yukimura/Saizo, Saizo and MC and Momo, Ieyasu and Momo and Sakai and Ieyasu and Yukimura and Shingen it is everywhere. It is absolutely hard coded into every sentence, every choice, every moment in this story just filling it up and bursting at the seams, and it’s unstoppable. It transcends an era. It transcends not just one man’s death but several - Masayuki, Shingen, Yukimura.

I have a lot of feels

This is probably exactly 11.6% of them.

#slbp spoiler #slbp spoilers #spoiler #spoilers #slbp yukimura #lee thoughts #long post

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ladybyakko · 3 years ago

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@sandayuswife

I’m genuinely so happy that you included me on your list! Thank you so much - it means the world to me!

My list (in no particular order!) is:

@sandayuswife - Very insightful psychoanalyses on the SLBP characters and such lovely art!

@bmp-slbp-matchup - Quality screenshots and detailed matchups. Maybe one day I’ll have the balls to request lmao

@dangodaifuku - I am heartachingly obsessed with Dango’s artstyle and wish my world to be drawn in this exact way all the time thank you

@little-lady-mimi - Beautiful art and gorgeous concepts - you’ve probably seen them reblogged before!

@demongamerkitty - The original Kenshin cosplay balance to my Shingen.

@beribani - I’ve been crying over Beribani’s art for a couple years now - so perfect.

@voltage-vixen - I once binged all of their masterlist in one night. Worth it.

@botan-shirabuki - Best patter, I love every post and cri everytym. Glad you’re back!

@sakurairin - I am ALWAYS here waiting patiently for Kakashi content dumps.

@samurailoveballadhistory - Incredibly informative, I always learn so much! Thank you for posting such great content.

@platypustiger - I miss seeing your art on my dash. :(

@riftings - I feel like we RB off each other often lolol. Any time I see Kansuke I think of you.

@silvermoonartworks - Hifumi details her OCs and they are truly fascinating to learn about! A great artist too!

@nefernankh-nezu - JIN-PA-CHIIIIIIII. I love him. Great blog for Jinpachi content!

@ikesensrandomninjagirl24 - Always so happy to see you on my dash!

Obviously there are many more blogs I follow that deserve love too~!

[Edit: It didn't tag people, and idk why... I hope it works this time tho??]

Tag a quality blog, You’re it! Quality doesn’t mean that you have a lot of followers, or a lot of messages. It means that you’re nice to other people, and you deserve to be happy. If you get this message, someone is telling you that they love you as you are, and they don’t care how many followers you have. Send this to 15 blogs who deserve it. If you break the chain, nothing will happen. But it’s just good to let someone know that you love them. ♥️❤️💛

ok lemme just

@weird-questions-from-an-infp-t @situationallyintelligent @lust-the-patches-ito-simp @always-bi-myself-anxiety @make-things-make-sense @going2hell4everythingbutbeingbi @littlemoondarling @marvelandnothingelse @fluxite @virgil-sanders-the-gay-emo @chaoticwitch22 @rxd0nmyledger @i-am-an-abyss-of-gender @10x02 @pond-porridge

i really hope that's 15 but i have no math skills. but anyway. these are some of the nicest people i've ever met. love y'all (/p)

#not slbp

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