Hi! I’m that person who wrote that post with the lost-in-translation innuendo from episode 6. After that, some people said they want to know about the rest of the ‘lost in translation stuff’ from the rest of the episodes……so, hey, I’m crazy, so I went and did it.
This post aims to collect and explain as many translation errors, emphasis changes and things that just can’t make it through the language barrier as possible from the Yuri on Ice official subs, through episodes 1-6.
I want to preface this by saying that I have the utmost respect for Crunchyroll translators. Theirs is a tough job : parsing everything by ear, running on tight deadlines, having no context for future episodes and needing to make sure everything sounds like a real conversation. It’s hard, and I don’t envy them their jobs.
But even the best translators could make mistakes.
Let’s get started, shall we? Episode 1’s going to be a little dry, but rest assured that there are some juicy, tasty stuff down the line in further episodes! This is also going to be very long, so please bear with me. A short count of issues :
Episode 1 - 17 issues Episode 2 - 15 issues Episode 3 - 9 issues Episode 4 - 23 issues Episode 5 - 26 issues (!!!!!)<– this one is important Episode 6 - 20 issues
(This is going for maximum accuracy, so there will be some splitting hair and some throwing conversational flow to the winds when it becomes necessary.)
Episode 1
The subs translated this line into present perfect tense, but it’s actually in the past perfect tense. Correct version : Ever since I first saw his skating, it had been an unending chain of surprises.
You know, in case we don’t have enough ‘describe Victor in the past tense’ things to freak out about!
The subs missed a word here, simplified the sentence and removed the tiny personal touch of the announcer to make it more like English language sports commentary. The announcer also described Victor’s skating, not just the state of his competition. The original line is 「いや、フリーも驚異な強さで圧倒しました！」(いや means ‘no’, but in cases like this it’s often used to show awe at something you half-expect anyway.) When you add the missing bits back in, the line would be like : I’ll be damned, he also crushed the FS with a miraculously strong performance!
‘Seems to lay such rumors to rest’ is a rather mild way to put what the announcer is saying. He sounds quite excited in the Japanese commentary, but that’s not how English sports commentary works, so….anyway, the original line is 「そんな噂を吹き飛ばすかのような圧巻の滑りでした」, which would make the whole sentence ’Some speculated that he might retire this season, but that was a masterful performance to blow any such rumors out of the water!’
The actual meaning doesn’t change much, but the emphasis has been shifted quite a ways.
hello!! i found your AA “pronoun” and honorifc post in the tag and it was really interesting!! i was wondering if you could expand on blackquill, edgeworth, and klavier in particular when it comes to how they refer to themselves/what others call them? i am INSANELY curious.
This is an interesting Question I got a while back. Now that I’ve replayed some of the games AND am playing Spirit of Justice I feel more up to try and answer it. That said, I am going to go through all Ace Attorney main characters, meaning Defense Lawyers, Detectives, Assistants and Prosecutors, and will give you a profile of how they were written in Japanese, comparing it a little to the original.
This post might be edited when I realize I misremembered something or learn something new.
That said, let’s go!
Currently on this list:
Phoenix Wright
Mia Fey
Maya Fey
Miles Edgeworth
Dick Gumshoe
Pearl Fey
Franziska Von Karma
Ema Skye
Kay Faraday
Apollo Justice
Trucy Wright
Athena Cykes
Klavier Gavin
Simon Blackquill
Phoenix Wright
Japanese Name: 成歩堂龍一(Naruhodô Ryûichi)
Japanese Name Meaning: “Naruhodô” is a pun on “Naruhodo”, a Japanese phrase akin to the English phrase “I see(what you mean).” “Ryûichi” means “Dragon”, and the ending of the name indicates that he was the firstborn son of his family. This “Dragon” is presumably what served as the inspiration for naming him “Phoenix” in the English localization.
Refers to himself as: “Boku”, a rather soft-sounding way for men to say “I”, albeit it’s still less formal than “Watashi” would be. This makes me sound younger than a professional who would be using “Watashi”, since older men tend to prefer “Watashi” in their work life. While we’re at “Boku”, contrary to what you may have heard, women *do* use it veeeeeery rarely, albeit women using this in real life are usually seen as eccentric and odd. It’s more common for women to use it in poetic writing, though. In any case, Phoenix’ “Boku” is written in Hiragana, indicating that it sounds especially soft, hinting at his generally mild-mannered personality.
Referred to by the Textboxes as: “Naruhodo”, with a short “o”, openly acknowledging the pun.
Referred to by others as: Maya, Pearl and Mia call him “Naruhodo-kun”, with the short “o”. Trials and Tribulations indicates that Phoenix tried to stop Mia from constantly cutting off the “O” in the end of his name, but she never did, so the punny nickname stuck. Larry and Edgeworth both call him by his last name, “Naruhodô”, without a honorific, which is common among male friends. Apollo and Athena correctly refer to him as “Naruhodô-san” (with the long “O”). Trucy calls him “Papa”, which explains the writing on his beanie. The Judge calls him “Naruhodô-kun”. Blackquil calls him “Naru-no-ji”.
His Speech-style: Somewhat casual, he does sound like a pretty typical, mild-mannered young man, using less polite forms when talking to Maya and more polite forms when talking to certain witnesses or the Judge. He uses the very common, polite “Desu-Masu” forms (which most people in Japan use when they’re talking to anyone other than their closest friends and family) a lot more frequently than a lot of other characters in the series.
Notes: Probably the character who carried over best in the translation. His averageness definitely helped.
Ren, aka the blue pomeranian, is the OTP of the game ( Someone took the entire “man’s best friend” talk really seriously huh?) You unlock him after you’ve played through Koujaku, Clear, Noiz and Mink’s routes. You guys ready to do this?
I just tag-rambled about this but I wanted to make a whole separate post about it. I loved, so much, the scene when Ronan dives into the acid pool to save Opal and then Adam saves them both. They’re both heroic, but in such different ways? Ronan diving in headfirst without hesitation because someone he loves is being threatened, acting from instinct rather than logic. Ronan’s first thought when he realizes he might die being that if he dies, Matthew dies too. And then Adam, Adam saving Ronan and Opal (Matthew by extension) because he’s the Magician, because he took the time to sit next to the pool and create a pattern that made sense to him. It’s not like Adam was just able to wave his arms and have Cabeswater do his bidding; his magic doesn’t work that way. Adam and Cabeswater can rarely communicate easily. Instead Adam sat on the forest floor and made patterns with rocks while his friends were possibly drowning and figured out how to make the connections that could save them. And Ronan instantly realizes it was Adam, not the plants, that had saved them.
Anyway what i’m trying to say is that I’m dying forever about what a good team Adam and Ronan make, dying forever about how this situation required both of them doing what each is good at in order to not end tragically, dying about how their personalities are so different yet so complementary. They’re just so good together and I’m falling off a cliff about it, bye.
Whilst talking to a friend I was suddenly struck by a realization that I think explains the precise nature of how Lord English was defeated. I’ve already spoken a little about how the destruction of the Green Sun should not have depleted his Clockwork Majyyks, and therefore shouldn’t have made him any more invulnerable. Here is my take on what I think happened, and how it explains not only the ending, but the entire plot of Homestuck (seriously).
I’ve already spoken a fair bit in the past about Homestuck’s underlying themes in relation to the comic’s name. At first, when taken literally, “Homestuck” appears to be named for only a very small portion of Act 1, when John is literally “stuck in his home”. He is able to leave later on, so he’s no longer home-stuck, right? Now, my take has always been that this depends on your definition of “home”. Homestuck is a story about people leaving behind “homes” of various scope. John leaves his house, yes, but then he leaves his universe, his session, and ultimately his fundamental reality behind. He becomes unstuck from canon itself. From what more is there left to become “unstuck”?
Let’s remind ourselves what the “treasure” juju does. I mean, obviously we know that Caliborn initially used it to seal the souls of the beta kids, and then later Vriska deployed it against Lord English. But what else does it do? John put his hand through it and it became distributed throughout the canon of Homestuck. This is an ability with a very specific scope; he is distributed not throughout reality, but throughout Homestuck itself. There’s a reason why it is shaped like the Homestuck logo; the ultimate weapon is a gateway to Homestuck.
Lord English cannot be destroyed by conventional means, he can only be defeated by the exploitation of glitches in Paradox Space. So far, the glitches in Paradox Space we have seen have taken a very specific form also; metacanonical altering. Caliborn jams sparkle dust in the game cartridge, and .jpeg artifacts appear across the comic. John sticks his hand in the the juju, he gains the ability to use a retcon glitch. This is how one “glitches” Paradox Space, they interact with the narrative itself; with Homestuck itself. The juju allows one to do this, and this is why it’s so powerful.
Here’s my hypothesis. The weapon/treasure juju does not have three different abilities, it has one. We’ve been seeing it as 1. being able to trap four souls, 2. being able to impart retcon abilities, and 3. having an offensive ability to be used against Lord English. In reality, these are all one ability! The ability to act as a gateway to the Homestuck canon!
Caliborn did not seal the four kids within the juju! He sealed them within Homestuck. This is why the comic is called “Homestuck”! The kids are literally trapped within the narrative by the power of the juju. But, this power is also how Lord English is eventually defeated! Here is what happens in the [S] Act 7 flash.
Vriska activates the juju, it grows big and the kid’s symbols flash on its surface.
The symbol on the victory platform flips around, and turns white, the same colour and size as the juju. A door appears on its surface.
A door also appears on the side of the juju facing Lord English! This is not a coincidence. There are two doors here, one leading one way, and one leading the other way.
Homestuck is ending. By that expanding convention of the Kids, John in particular, escaping their bonds, then there is one more bond for them to break, one more door for them to pass. They need to leave the comic itself.
This is what the white juju with the door represents! The door on the Kid’s side leads out of Homestuck, whereas the door on English’s side leads in.
The kids will get to live on in a happy life beyond the narrative, possibly in the extracanon epilogue, the Paradox Space comic, not to mention fanworks. English will not. Caliborn gaining his power is shown at the moment of his defeat because his timeline is cyclical, marked by two circumstancially simultaneous events; his birth and his defeat. Similarly, the kids leaving Homestuck and Lord English “entering” it are two circumstantially simultaneous events orchestrated by the juju. Lord English has become trapped within Homestuck. While the comic may end for the kids, and they can move on, English is forever trapped within a loop of destruction, held by the bounds of canon.
The reason the juju flashes with the kids colours is because it is preparing to release them, but not to fight English, it is preparing to release them from Homestuck itself, by the comic’s ending.
This is why the comic had to end right after this moment, because otherwise the kids would not have escaped and English would have more canon scope throughout which to dominate.
This is why the juju is white, this is why the Act 7 curtains are white. White is the colour of Homestuck itself, as shown in the text for the logo displayed in the flash in act 1. The white curtains close on the comic, the white juju acts as the gateway into canon.
Perhaps the Green Sun had influence that reached beyond the canon (Paradox Space comic)? If this was the case, the English can no longer use it to access anything outside the canon, because Calliope destroyed it.
This is what Homestuck means. The clue was hidden in the name all along. This was a story about four kids who had literally been trapped inside their own story, and escaped it, trapping their unkillable villain inside it as it ended, meaning that he could spread his destruction no further. Of course Lord English can no longer cause harm within Homestuck, if Homestuck itself has ended! What an appropriate way to defeat an undefeatable villain in a comic where fourth wall breaking and metacanonical interactions with the main narrative are such an integral plot device.
Here is Hussie, deciding to kill off Lord English the only way he can; by ending his own comic. If the ending seemed abrupt to you, this is why.
That magnificent bastard.
OOH
okay, this is a really excellent bridge between the two camps of ‘how deep and clever to subvert everyone’s expectations like that, we can’t complain,’ and ‘what an incredibly shitty and unsatisfying bullshit ending to just drop every important bit of plot on the ground and walk off, we’re going to complain about everything’.
the curtain falls and the lights go out not because we actually reached the end of the play, but because the actors found the exit door backstage. and also, probably, the theater’s on fire.
i guess we can all go sit in the camp of ‘this was clever as fuck and i’m mad as fuck’ now.
….. wow, YEAH. Vriska trapping herself in the confines of the story is actually…. pretty dang perfect??? I am gonna have to sit on this and think about it for a while.
Also, this whole interpretation of the ending and of Homestuck gives me a lot of feelings that I probably wouldn’t have if this were any other story. The theme of “the characters getting trapped in their own narrative and finally breaking free” just wouldn’t have the same impact if this weren’t a story that has been told over the span of seven years, if Homestuck hadn’t become, in some ways, this albatross hanging from the necks of the fans and (I can only imagine) the creator. Homestuck is ridiculously lengthy and convoluted and epic in a way that few other stories manage to be, so for the kids to finally, finally escape the narrative (and especially for this to come after the THREE YEARS that the beta kids spent traveling between sessions) is actually a huge deal. Because I mean, damn. What a narrative to be stuck within.
Ehh, this is something I did when I was bored/frustrated one day.
I was writing a Haikyuu!! fanfic but it corresponds with the canon, so I decided to make a timeline of the events thus far in the manga.
This is just a rough timeline with my fangirl/fujoshi comments in there. It’s not incredibly detailed, just what event is happening. I also put in the chapter the event is happening at. There were just some quotes I like put in there too. I’ll probably clean it up later.
Divided by assumed date (most the dates so far correspond with the year 2013), chapter, what Karasuno is doing, and what the other schools are doing at the same time.
So yeah. If anyone is interested. I update it weekly when the new chapter is translated.
got into a conversation on twitter this morning and I said I’d get into it more when I had time and i don’t know if this is actually anything we were talking about anymore but this is the result
