#utena translations

[empty-movement]

It's May, 1997. Revolutionary Girl Utena is Upon Us.

You are an Utena addict. You watch every episode the day it airs. You've raided your local Japanese anime store. And guess what? THE NEW ISSUES SURE ARE EASY TO FIND WITH OUR GIRLIES ON THE COVERS:

(It's a little lame that Animedia didn't put them on the cover, but they did give us this spread, thanks to @hotwaterandmilk! https://hotwaterandmilk.tumblr.com/post/71621932377

Let's see what we've got!!!

Newtype's beautiful six page spread includes an interview with Saito and Ikuhara that has been translated by Tuxedo Unmasked! I also scan, as always, the cover, ToC, episode summaries, ratings, and any adverts or fanart I find. Did you know the OP/ED singles drop this month??? Lucky for you you can grab them here. ;)

But the wealth? That's in Animage's May 1997 Issue, which not only have we scanned....we've translated!!! Spring '97's Revolutionary Announcement!! That's right it's MASSIVE. But you already clicked read more. Here's your chance. :)

You're all caught up on the newest information, and you are ready for the next episode!!! (I know I keep saying May, but shut up) LET'S WATCH EPISODE 5, AIRING TODAY, APRIL 30, 1997

The Sunlit Garden ~ Finale

[exilley]

I do sort of wish western anime fans would analyze anime and manga from a framework of japanese historical and cultural context. Specifically a lot of works from the 90s being influenced by the general aimlessness and ennui that a lot of people were experiencing due to the burst in the bubble economy and the national trauma caused by the sarin terrorist attack. I think in interacting with media that’s not local to our sociocultural/sociopolitical sphere it’s easy to forget that it’s influenced and shaped by the same kinds of factors that influence media within our own cultural dome and there ends up being this baseline misalignment of perception between the causative elements of a narrative and viewer interpretation of those elements. It’s a form of death of the author that i think, in some measure, hinders our ability to fully understand/come to terms with creator intent and the full scope of a work’s merits

[haru-dipthong]

Gendered pronouns in Japanese vs English

In Revolutionary Girl Utena, the main character Utena is a girl (it says so in the title), but very conspicuously uses the masculine first person pronoun 僕 (boku) and dresses in (a variation of) the boys school uniform. Utena's gender, and gender in general, is a core theme of the work. And yet, I haven’t seen a single translation or analysis post where anyone considers using anything other than she/her for Utena when speaking of her in English. This made me wonder: how does one’s choice of pronouns in Japanese correspond to what one’s preferred pronouns would be in English?

There are 3 main differences between gendered pronouns in Japanese vs English

Japanese pronouns are used to refer to yourself (first-person), while English pronouns are used to refer to others (third-person)

The Japanese pronoun you use will differ based on context

Japanese pronouns signify more than just gender

Let’s look at each of these differences in turn and how these differences might lead to a seeming incongruity between one’s Japanese pronoun choice and one’s English pronoun choice (such as the 僕 (boku) vs she/her discrepancy with Utena).

Part 1: First-person vs third-person

While Japanese does technically have gendered third person pronouns （彼、彼女） they are used infrequently¹ and have much less cultural importance placed on them than English third person pronouns. Therefore, I would argue that the cultural equivalent of the gender-signifying third-person pronoun in English is the Japanese first-person pronoun. Much like English “pronouns in bio”, Japanese first-person pronoun choice is considered an expression of identity.

Japanese pronouns are used exclusively to refer to yourself, and therefore a speaker can change the pronoun they’re using for themself on a whim, sometimes mid-conversation, without it being much of an incident. Meanwhile in English, Marquis Bey argues that “Pronouns are like tiny vessels of verification that others are picking up what you are putting down” (2021). By having others use them and externally verify the internal truth of one’s gender, English pronouns, I believe, are seen as more truthful, less frivolous, than Japanese pronouns. They are seen as signifying an objective truth of the referent’s gender; if not objective then at least socially agreed-upon, while Japanese pronouns only signify how the subject feels at this particular moment — purely subjective.

Part 2: Context dependent pronoun use

Japanese speakers often don’t use just one pronoun. As you can see in the below chart, a young man using 俺 (ore) among friends might use 私 (watashi) or 自分 (jibun) when speaking to a teacher. This complicates the idea that these pronouns are gendered, because their gendering depends heavily on context. A man using 私 (watashi) to a teacher is gender-conforming, a man using 私 (watashi) while drinking with friends is gender-non-conforming. Again, this reinforces the relative instability of Japanese pronoun choice, and distances it from gender.

Part 3: Signifying more than gender

English pronouns signify little besides the gender of the antecedent. Because of this, pronouns in English have come to be a shorthand for expressing one’s own gender experience - they reflect an internal gendered truth. However, Japanese pronoun choice doesn’t reflect an “internal truth” of gender. It can signify multiple aspects of your self - gender, sexuality, personality.

For example, 僕 (boku) is used by gay men to communicate that they are bottoms, contrasted with the use of 俺 (ore) by tops. 僕 (boku) may also be used by softer, academic men and boys (in casual contexts - note that many men use 僕 (boku) in more formal contexts) as a personality signifier - maybe to communicate something as simplistic as “I’m not the kind of guy who’s into sports.” 俺 (ore) could be used by a butch lesbian who still strongly identifies as a woman, in order to signify sexuality and an assertive personality. 私 (watashi) may be used by people of all genders to convey professionalism. The list goes on.

I believe this is what’s happening with Utena - she is signifying her rebellion against traditional feminine gender roles with her use of 僕 (boku), but as part of this rebellion, she necessarily must still be a girl. Rather than saying “girls don’t use boku, so I’m not a girl”, her pronoun choice is saying “your conception of femininity is bullshit, girls can use boku too”.

Through translation, gendered assumptions need to be made, sometimes about real people. Remember that he/they, she/her, they/them are purely English linguistic constructs, and don’t correspond directly to one’s gender, just as they don’t correspond directly to the Japanese pronouns one might use. Imagine a scenario where you are translating a news story about a Japanese genderqueer person. The most ethical way to determine what pronouns they would prefer would be to get in contact with them and ask them, right? But what if they don’t speak English? Are you going to have to teach them English, and the nuances of English pronoun choice, before you can translate the piece? That would be ridiculous! It’s simply not a viable option². So you must make a gendered assumption based on all the factors - their Japanese pronoun use (context dependent!), their clothing, the way they present their body, their speech patterns, etc.

If translation is about rewriting the text as if it were originally in the target language, you must also rewrite the gender of those people and characters in the translation. The question you must ask yourself is: How does their gender presentation, which has been tailored to a Japanese-language understanding of gender, correspond to an equivalent English-language understanding of gender? This is an incredibly fraught decision, but nonetheless a necessary one. It’s an unsatisfying dilemma, and one that poignantly exposes the fickle, unstable, culture-dependent nature of gender.

Notes and References

¹ Usually in Japanese, speakers use the person’s name directly to address someone in second or third person

² And has colonialist undertones as a solution if you ask me - “You need to pick English pronouns! You ought to understand your gender through our language!”

Bey, Marquis— 2021 Re: [No Subject]—On Nonbinary Gender

Rose divider taken from this post

[kristybluebird]

"She opened her eyes, lifted the lid from her coffin, sat up, and was alive again" (Grimm, 1857/2005)

[terriblycrafty]

Ikuhara would later tell Nagahama he had issues with how Utena's title was translated in English. “[Ikuhara] told me it's not about a girl who causes a revolution. She's not Joan of Arc,” Nagahama said. “It's about a girl's revolution. All girls' revolutions. It's about a freeing of a set destiny and whatever that path is. If you look at the title in Japanese, it's not 'Kakumei Shojo,' it's 'Shojo Kakumei.' The translation should be Girls' Revolution Utena.”

from this interview:

[transmascutena]

there are several different translations of rgu and sometimes they make sentences have completely different meanings between them and it drives me a little bit crazy

like this moment in the first episode.. these things are both accurate insights into utena's character and motivations but they're also completely different from each other. idk which is more accurate to the original japanese, maybe it's a sentence that can mean both depending on context or something?

[gearbit]

Revolutionary Girl Utena 26 - Miki's Nest Box (The Sunlit Garden Arranged)

[yuramoonbow]

someday, someday, embrace my wounds that won’t heal and touch me softly

someday, someday, I’m gonna tell you the words I couldn’t say and touch you with a smile on my face

[ladyloveandjustice]

This came up on youtube so I was able to relisten and confirm without having to replay the game- Nanami, who famously did not know the english word cow and so did not know that a cowbell is a bell for cows, knows the English word "lesbian". This implies so much.

[witchofanguish]

you gotta watch utena it has found family and queer rep

[lunarharp]

i wanted to put these four together chatting, cooking, dancing, and trust

[empty-movement]

GOGAI, GOGAI!!! COME GET UTENA KIBBLES

It's September 3rd. It's 1997. Princess Diana just died, and that's very important to lots of people. You, however, are chewing your nails to nubs waiting for the climax of Revolutionary Girl Utena's Black Rose Saga. It's going to air today.

But like any good fan, you're already one step ahead, because you've spent the last couple days thumbing through Animedia's September issue supplemental, the 100 page Duelist Bible. Strangely, it appears to be in English??? Wow! Thanks Nagumo for translating, Ayu Ohseki for Japanese editing, teasot for proofreading, and ME, FUCKIN' VANNA, for scanning and scanlating this massive booklet!

We've got duel summaries! We've got character design sheets! We've got a school directory! We've got THE DUEL RULES. We've got cast interviews! WE'VE GOT THAT CHU-CHU DOLL CRAFT GUIDE. Check it ALL out here, in the Something Eternal Bibliothèque! You can flip through it page by page here, or you'll also find on the page a link to a PDF version for your at home viewing/archiving needs!!

This gargantuan tome really gets it across that in 1997, you didn't have a fandom wiki or on demand viewing. If you didn't catch and record the episodes, a booklet like this becomes a critical tool for keeping track of everything that's happened up to now, and is also a way for the series creators to tap fans on the shoulder and draw attention to details they want seen but not explained in the show directly. For example, this drops at the close of the BRS, but points out Touga's sword isn't the same in Keiko's duel and in the opening sequence. A thing we don't see cashed in until MUCH later!

This has been a true and absurd labor of love on my part. I even rescanned the booklet from my originals because their quality (decades old lmao) was not worth scanlating. This took a ludicrous amount of time, and has been a main project of mine for over a year now!! I'm so happy to have gotten it done in time for the Something Eternal Watch-Along thread, and I really really hope everyone finds something cool and interesting about it! The really cool thing is this now completes the set of magazine supplementals by the big three magazines made for Utena during its run. We now have fully scanlated this, as well as Animage's June Utena Dossier, and Newtype's November Utena? (Oh My!) UTENA! Take a stroll through memory lane, be they yours or someone else's!

As always, if you like this kind of content, consider supporting us on Patreon! Especially right now, a holy grail acquisition is in the works that I will bleed to share with y'all. More on that later, lmao.

Revolutionize the World! Love, Vanna

[leowopard]

The Frog Prince and her Bride (inspiration: x)

[haru-dipthong]

I’m starting a big new project! I’m going to be doing a fansub of Revolutionary Girl Utena! And here's the first episode!!!

This is my first time translating something as big as this, and as semiotically dense as this. I think I’m biting off a lot more than I can chew, but I’m very excited to learn more about the art of translation as I go. There are a few reasons why I decided to do this:

The existing translations are unnatural. I’m not a fan of most anime translations. There are exceptions (Kotaro lives alone, Aggretsuko), but in general I think they sound very unnatural, and Utena is one of these unnatural translations. I’ve found two translations — one from Ohtori.nu (as scripts) and one as subtitles on the free-to-access Archive.org files. Both translations make use of several awkward translation practices I commonly see in anime (some of which I have discussed in this post). I intend to highlight some of these in posts as I progress through the translation process.

I don’t believe the existing translations have been written with a queer reading of Utena in mind. I feel I’m specially poised to provide a translation that emphasises the queer themes of the story, as a bilingual nonbinary person with a love of media analysis. Look forward to they/she Utena :P

As I finish each episode, I plan to host them on a google drive and post the links to them on this blog! If you’ve never watched Utena, now is the time! Make sure to follow the blog if you're interested in catching updates.

[princefado]

"Forget me not" from Epee by Rose Revue. Scans courtesy of the Empty Movement.

I'm an amateur translator still learning Japanese, so please take my translations with a grain of salt!

[ninashiki]

i feel like almost everything in utena has sort of already been extensively discussed in the last two (almost three) decades of utena's existence (not that there aren't new interpretations to be made, there always are) besides black rose arc (mikage+mamiya+tokiko). which is why they're so much fun to think about. i think the need to read between the lines makes it unfortunately easy to misunderstand or look past obvious stuff if you don't pay attention, but to me it's always been really obvious that mikage's arc is a literal representation of the erasure of queerness in ohtori (society?) by akio/everything he represents. and that's so fucking tragic! nemuro was never able to find a name for his desires. he lived and died as a puppet in the shadows.