#yoro's local diffs

[yoroshiu]

Sora and How He Copes: "This is the usual" (Localization/Analysis) (KH 0.2/KH3)

I started a new KH3 run yesterday and decided to go with Japanese audio, and immediately noticed some things about Sora's lines early on.

In Yen Sid's tower, Sora's response to being reminded about his lost powers in English is:

Sora: Whatever! Happens all the time.

In Japanese though, the line is more like:

Sora: It's okay! This is the usual.*

(「大丈夫！いつものことだし。」)*

The interesting thing about the usage of this phrase is that in Olympus, after Sora and co. confront Maleficent and Pete, it's used again.

In English, Sora says: "I can take it."

But it's still the same "This is the usual" in Japanese.

Analysis: I don't know if it's just me, but this ends up feeling even more like Sora is coping with what happened to him. Even more so, his using it after being insulted/disregarded by Pete and Maleficent puts it in a different perspective to me. He's repeating the same things: "This is the usual," "It's always like this," how he tries to normalize what's happened to him so it won't keep him down for too long.

*Note 1: Honestly, I feel like I'd prefer to translate it as "It's always like this" but I don't want to stray from the sentence/grammar structure. It'd be more of a localizing thing.

[yoroshiu]

Sometimes the Sora thoughts go to the KH2 ending, the quiet, almost to himself,

"You know...maybe the darkness has gotten to me, too."

From Japanese, it can be translated to:

"Somehow, I wonder if I've also gotten stained by the Realm of Darkness."

It's the way it's said and then not fully touched upon since Riku falls over. What it might mean for Sora in the grander scale of things. Going from "You gotta think positive!" not too long ago to this moment of vulnerability. Sora doesn't get too many moments where he gets to contemplate so long for his own state of being, and it's got me thinking a lot as always.

[yoroshiu]

"I won’t let you walk away” vs “I won’t forgive you” (Localization) (Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory)

NOTE: This time, rather than a whole scene, I want to focus on a specific set of lines from one. 

Scene: Fated Meeting (KH MoM) (Only one line pretty much)

This is part of the encounter between Kairi and the memory/illusion of Xehanort in her mind. The line(s) I want to specifically focus on are the one Kairi says in the following:

ENG: “You’re the one who keeps messing with my fate. If it weren’t for everything that you’ve done, then Sora and everyone* would be safe. Even if you’re not really here and this is just a memory or illusion...I won’t let you walk away!”

JPN: “Because of you/It’s your fault that my fate is being toyed with—*. Because of my lack of power, everyone and Sora was hurt.  Even if the you in front of me (front of [my] eyes) is an illusion or memories, I won't forgive you!

1* I think that the phrasing of “Sora and everyone” stems from JPN’s “everyone and Sora” but something like that ends up sounding strange in English. Usually, from what I’ve learned, specifying a certain person from a group of people kind of implies the person has importance. This makes sense since Sora has disappeared and probably takes precedence (but also for the history between him and Xehanort and him and Kairi). 

2* The phrasing here can mean toyed with/at the mercy of. In this context, and looking at how ENG translated it, ‘toyed with’ makes the most sense. I used an em dash here since this also appears in the JPN subtitles. It’s possible that she cuts off here, going from blaming him to blaming herself (which I want to get into in my analysis/additional notes.

Analysis/Additional Notes:

I find it interesting that ENG doesn’t have that sense of self-blame JPN has. From what I’ve heard and seen, Kairi in JPN shows more insecurity about her abilities and all that. Additionally, I wonder why they changed the “I won’t forgive you” to “I won’t let you walk away.” Personally, I wish they kept it the way JPN did it because, it blatantly shows that Xehanort wasn’t forgiven, contrary to what some players think the cast did at the end of KH3. Overall JPN has a rather...more aggressive approach to it? Also, I’ll put the original text in JPN for the “Even the you...” part below.

「今目の前にいるあなたがたとえ記憶や幻であっても私はあなたを許さない」

Personally, I feel that Kairi comes across as more active to the things that happened to her, even if it’s through these small phrasings. Kairi blames her lack of strength for getting others hurt (even though it is right to blame Xehanort as ENG did) so it gives insight to her thoughts about those events. At least, that’s what I feel. 

Overall, I think it’s interesting to study these differences. Though it might not mean much of anything to some people, phrasing and word choice is such an important factor in writing, especially how a character can come across to an audience. I find it fun to analyze where these differences might impact the audience’s perspective and experience on a piece of media!

Overanalyzing KH pt 3, someone save me lol

[yoroshiu]

“Believe” and “Never Give Up” (Localization) (KH3)

NOTE: A specific part in Sora and the Nameless Star’s conversation always stuck out to me for a couple of reasons. 

ENG: 

Sora: Good. You got to believe 

Nameless Star: Believe? Oh, you mean know in my heart he will return? Without any proof? 

S: Exactly, believe. I thought it was all over for me, but a friend of mine looked me in the eye and said, "You don't believe that."

JPN:

S: I see. You shouldn't give up too 

NS: Don't give up— Aa, that's a choice too, I didn't even think about that. 

S: I think it's better [to think that (way)]. Giving up wasn't/isn't an option for a kid* I know. I was taught that too.

or

S:  I think it’s good to think that way. It’s the same for this kid I know, giving up isn’t an option. I was taught that too.

~~~

Additional Notes/Analysis: 

1* Sora uses  子 (ko) which means child/kid which kind of threw me off (if anyone actually has a proper answer to this, I’d like to know). My guess is that it has to do with the fact that Sora changes the way he speaks depending on who he’s talking to do (as most characters do). I just find it interesting that that’s how he refers to Riku in this case. I can see why ENG decided to stick with ‘friend’. That specific part is written like this in JPN subtitles:

「俺の知ってる子もそなんだ」

I think a lot of players do know of this, but yeah, the whole “believe” and “never give up” is based on the different way Riku encouraged Sora before sacrificing himself to protect him in the Keyblade Graveyard. I’ve seen people say that they don’t like how ENG went about Riku saying it, and I have to say, I agree with that. The phrasing can almost be looked at as dismissive to how Sora was feeling and maybe had been feeling for some time now. Well-intentioned but weirdly phrased, I think, it ended up being. 

The whole “believe” exchange also sounds a bit strange. I’ve always looked at Nameless Star’s response as a bit silly, for lack of a better word, since she more or less simply defines the term. I don’t know how to describe my thoughts on this better TvT

There’s so many of these really small moments of word choice and phrasing that makes a lot of difference to me (I’m way to obsessed with it at this point, oh gosh help me From what I’ve seen from people playing, it does a lot of work. It’s interesting how much of a character you can learn just based from how they speak (how they refer to themselves, how they refer to others, etc.), which is extremely prominent in Japanese. Like, Sora and Riku both use 俺 “ore” when referring to themselves but Sora tends to use 君 “kimi” with most people, お前 “omae” with enemies and Riku, and simply referring to people by name (also does this with Riku often). On the other hand, Riku uses “omae” usually but he does switch when talking to people of supposed higher rank like Mickey or Aqua and Terra. That’s enough of that tangent LOL

[yoroshiu]

“I don’t care” vs “But I’ll do it” + The Reason Behind Sora’s Journey (Localization/Character Analysis) (KH3 Re:Mind)

NOTE: I’m really grateful for the likes and reblogs! It really makes my day and gets me motivated to share more things I find/learn. I’ll start to tag my posts for easier organization! I’m thankful for the advice ^o^ This particular line I want to compare is extremely miniscule in the grander scale of things, and I can see my analysis being argued against, but I guess this is me placing my major to use alongside my love for languages/translating/localization. I’ll go back to older posts and organize better if possible. Also, I’ll go back to more translating/localization related things! I just remembered this very particular thing that I wanted to talk about.

(By the way, I honestly don’t feel strongly about ships in KH in general, so please don’t take any of my posts as me personally leaning towards one ship or against another, but feel free to interpret these translations and differences between dubs/languages as you see them.)

Scene: When Sora is about to go back in time to save Kairi

ENG: I don’t care.

JPN: But I’ll do it.

The original text for that line is:

「でもやるよ」

~~~ Analysis:

I’m making a post about this since it always stood out to me in my KH3 JPN watch-throughs. I’ve seen a back and forth about Sora in that moment and Sora’s character in general, and for all the line above is, I feel like this is where wording makes a difference. Sora’s my favorite character too, so I tend to feel even more of a need to understand him and how the games tend to portray him, and sometimes even more so, how language portrays him. 

On one hand, the lines pretty much say the same thing. Sora’s planning to forgo any worries about his safety and the general consequences to break nature taboos to save Kairi. But I think where I’m going to go with this is pretty clear. “I don’t care” gives off an air that he didn’t really think about those consequences while “But I’ll do it” shows that he’s considered it and is willing to go through with it despite all of that. This is an extra personal opinion/insight, but I feel that saying that Sora didn’t comprehend what he chose to do is kind of doing his character and his development disservice. High key, I don’t have too much to add onto that so this is a pretty short post that I mostly feel doesn’t have anything amazingly insightful, but it was a thought I wanted to let out in the open.

In terms of localizing/translating, this is another example of how important word choice can be (it’s been zero days since I mentioned word choice fr ToT). Something as small as “don’t care” or “but I’ll” can go a long way. As a writer, I find it to be fascinating to study, even if it’s something a general audience doesn’t actively think about. 

______________

About That One Line That Came After:

Same scene, in ENG, Sora says “That’s the whole reason behind my whole journey.” JPN Sora says “My journey started there.” These give off relatively different vibes wording-wise, which is also I find to be interesting. Because in a way, they also say the same thing but it feels different when I read it. 

[yoroshiu]

Masterlist

Hi! Welcome to my blog! I realized that at some point I should probably start organizing my posts, especially the stuff related to translations and localization. I hope this makes things easier to navigate for anyone looking!

Things to know:

I take requests for translating KH scenes! I'm not fluent, but I am currently studying and will do my best to give an accurate translation

I don't have a consistent post schedule. I post whenever I have an idea or something in mind since I'm awful at consistency

TAGS:

#yoroshiu translates - All my translations for different KH scenes

#yoro's local diffs - Posts on the specific differences between ENG and JPN, usually with a side of analysis

#yoroshiu rambles - All and any brainrot I may have

#yoro finds things - Fun trivia I find! Admittedly, it usually will be tied to yoro's local diffs in some way

#yoroshiu theorizes - All my theories of varying lengths and explanations

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#yoroshiu responds - Responses to asks/messages

#yoroshiu misc. - All miscellaneous posts that I feel don't exactly fit a specific category above

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