#(to confirm either mistranslation or correct translation)

[iliketodecompose]

kiki's pedantic gripe w t8s english subs

to preface: i don't mean this in bad faith at all. it is not not my intention to insult anyone who worked on subtitles for t8s, as it's very hard, often thankless work and i think the fact subtitles exist at all is brilliant. it makes the show a hell of a lot more accessible, even if they have their inaccuracies. if anything, i made this post more so as a vehicle to explain korean. everything else just stems from my love for this language, and my criticisms are secondary to that for me... so i hope at least this is slightly informative !!

the pattern i have noticed is the subs will.. mostly communicate the same sentiment? but not just. translate what's being said.??? ..

FOR EXAMPLE

jaewon asks if he can get a cigarette off of jihyun and jihyun replies (i believe, it's a little hard to make out) "저 연 언피워요" = "I don't smoke tobacco."

the '연' here i believe is short for '연초' which is a word for 'tobacco' and as the person in this thread explains (the person who asked the initial question was actually querying the line jihyun says that i am currently talking abt lmfao) people who don't smoke at all say, for example "담배를 안 피워요" = "i don't smoke cigarettes" (including e-cigarettes/vapes), the key word here being '담배' which means 'cigarette'. as the same person goes on to explain, people who vape would tend to specify that they don't smoke tobacco, as they do smoke cigarettes, just not tobacco ones. this would lead us to imply that jihyun vapes, even when translated into english as "I don't smoke tobacco" right?

the way the viki team chose to subtitle this is "I only vape". which i feel illustrates my point quite well. the point is gotten across!! yay!! but it's not what.. he says... like .. in terms of the vocabulary... and to me this choice, as representative of many like it, does a bit of a disservice to korean as a language and to the people that aren't familiar with it. conveying the same sentiment, in my opinion, is not the same as an honest translation, and it frustrates me a little that these subtitles are many peoples' only access to the show.

pls let me know if u have some knowledge I don't or if im incorrect in any capacity!!!!!!

@fierrochase-falafel u might find this interesting :-3

[tender-rosiey]

Japan anon here!

First of all I am recollecting all the links for you to reshape with your followers but today I saw something I must correct.

The last person who sent a Twitter link sent an incorrect translation… the Japanese in that link is not correct… I’m afraid whoever posted that is lying to their followers.

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again. Majority of fan translation are not correct and are google translated. Which clearly that tweet was. Which our language is hard to be google translated, there always are mistakes.

That’s why I say do not trust fanblogs who don’t speak the language for translation… example that Twitter account. I’m not sure the sender knew it was false but it is. Mistranslations like that cause people to confuse what’s really canon.

Western fans are known to dislike and get mad over this but this is what my country knows to be canon as Gege has confirmed this many times.

It is a well known fact here in Japan Gojo is a what westerns call a “fuck boy”

Gege has given multiple interviews saying Gojo loves girls but doesn’t have the time to be faithful/ committed so he jumps around.

This has been said at cons and in interviews. One I sent last time touched in this.

In canon Gojo is a Womanizer and has been applied to jump from girl to girl.

I’ll add more links on this when I send the old ones! My new job has been a bit hard.

Also for reference my parents are Japanese, I was born in America, lived there for 7 years then moved back to Japan with family and am now 27.

My knowledge on Japan to English translation are well. So I can assure you that Twitter link is false and not correct Japanese

JAPAN ANONNN <33

thank you so much for sharing! I think it’s okay either ways whether he is a womanizer or not, he is still ✨gojo ✨

again, thank you so much for your effort! please don’t feel pressured to share the links; your personal life is a lot more important than a small discourse

hope things get better at your new job <33

[silver-wield]

Kotaku is an outlet banned by square enix right? That's what I've seen back in april at least. Im asking because there's a clerith on twitter defending aerith from her questionable attitude with barret. Then they post a clearly biased translation by kotaku of the scenes on which the video is explaining the "right" translation. Perhaps their translation is right but is the interpretation correct? I never heard aerith to be equated to having a high EQ, if she did she wouldn't be willfully making the people around her feel uncomfortable like with cloud and tifa in OG and/or in remake. She's an insult to people with high EQ, high EQ people are sensitive, careful, and wise. A side note as well, they really do love to hold onto cait sith for confirmation huh? Even if this sham directly says that cloud is madly in love with aerith, should that really hold any value at all? He doesn't even know what's up with anyone really, And for someone to be called as "to loose someone so precious" cloud went idgaf afterwards her death. He was honestly really chill, he even went snowboarding chill (lol). It even took him 2 years and a sickness to remember, "oh yeah I have survivor's guilt". So precious that he couldn't even visit her grave and decided to pop his cherry with his true love under the highwind. Whatever, the mistranslation isn't even a big to begin with, I still don't think it's good what she did and Tifa has the right to call what she did as harsh, does this girl ever know how to read people properly? She just likes to assume that she made the right choice with barret, just like how wrong she is when she thought she can save the world on her own. Aerith, people forget that she lacked so much social skills and human interaction, if she didn't, why doesn't she have any friends then? Either way these cleriths are hilarious for accusing clotis of jerking off to mistranslations, projection much?

Ps. Im so stupid to look at the comment section on that yt vid. But seeing someone say jp translation is super pro clerith just because kotaku says so is hardcore peek cope. What is it with cleriths and missing critical thinking. Cait sith, mcdo, lego, kotaku, other unofficial platforms or sources are their only confirmations? My man, that's PATHETIC af.

That's the weird clerith dude who screams "I LOVE HER!!!" every time Aerith appears right? He didn't even bother to translate the entire game, despite saying he would. He only went up to Aerith's death and acted like the rest of the game is an afterthought where nothing happens. He's also very insulting to Tifa.

His translation may be useful for those small sections where he isn't a rabid garbage bag trashing Tifa and Zack and lying about Cloud's feelings, but in general it's total shit.

And yeah, the Cait Sith thing is just lame. Who takes Reeve's robot as a valid source over Cloud literally telling Tifa she's his reason for everything? And let's not forget they fucked, live together and have kids.

SE doesn't endorse anything that kotaku idiot says. They have their own sources and those all support everything clotis say because we don't fuck up the plot. We don't need to 🤷

[whatiwillsay]

To be fair name a gossip blog whose gonna be right even 80% of the time. That’s the nature of gossip. A bunch of half truths and never the full story just snippets of it. Even you have not been right plenty of times. Even after vetting your sources and providing disclaimers. You’ve gotten things right and you’ve gotten things wrong. Same as enty, same as deuxmoi.

yes but i don't provide info in the same misleading way that deux does. i TRY to share only accurate info. and tbh idk what vetted tea i've shared that has been proven incorrect? the only thing i can think of is when i said yes the ice spice remix exists (which was correct) BUT i was sort of led to believe taylor didn't want to release it so i shared that as well. that was obviously partially incorrect since she did release it. (tho i could still be convinced taylor had misgivings ab the situation and that's what my source heard. it just all got lost a little in translation and i mistranslated it even more to the blog.)

other than that- theories i've come up with have been wrong plenty, and hunches i've had have been wrong plenty, but vetted tea i've shared has either been confirmed as correct such as that olivia was releasing new music and when, sabrina opening for taylor on international eras tour (shared this before the international tour was even announced), explicit details about taylor's music videos before they were out, (here's another one) and when taylor was announcing speak now. those are some of my best hits anyway. other tea i've shared can't really be verified unless taylor does something like comes out and says "yes i fucked lily, yes i fucked julianne hough, yes i never dated john mayer" which really isn't going to happen but it hasn't been proven *wrong* it's just unconfirmed and will likely remain that way.

i could be wrong here but i can't think of a time when i shared vetted info and it was debunked. usually when i share something as vetted tea from one of my verified insiders it either comes true or it simply remains unknown if it's true or not but i can't think of something i've shared from an insider that was 100% debunked. idk y'all pls do correct me if i'm wrong.

listen if you wanna stan deux stan deux i just don't take her seriously. we discuss her blinds sometimes because you guys always want to. i'd be happy to never talk ab her cause i just don't find her information useful. but ofc y'all like discussing her stuff so i'm not gonna completely shut it down. it can at least provide a good jumping off point for us to have a discussion about.

but i'm of course going to protest if you say we share information the same way because we clearly don't.

[neopronouns-in-action]

Neopronouns in Action #055

055: Universal Translator Mistranslation

Neopronouns: joker/jokers/jokerself, which will follow the same rules as it/its/itself for this example.

Replace it with joker Replace its with jokers Replace itself with jokerself

EX:

"It is going to adopt a new puppy soon, as soon as it gets a fence set up around its yard so the puppy can go outside without it having to walk it. Its uncle is going to help set up the fence, since he has a set of power tools he's letting it use, since it lost its. It's going to buy toys and train the puppy itself."

Becomes:

“Joker is going to adopt a new puppy soon, as soon as joker gets a fence set up around jokers yard so the puppy can go outside without joker having to walk it. Jokers uncle is going to help set up the fence, since he has a set of power tools he’s letting joker use, since joker lost Jokers. Joker's going to buy toys and train the puppy jokerself.”

= = =

Kraevun lifted jokers hand in the local signal for “I'm a customer who is confused and needs help”, finally giving in to the overwhelming bewilderment that had started to overtake joker almost as soon as joker'd entered the shop.

Joker only had to keep joker hand raised for a few moment before one of the workers swung over along the bars in the ceiling, looking down cheerfully at Kraevun. with an array of shiny dark blue eyes like marbles.

Their face was grey-brown, wrinkled skin, surrounded by patchy black fur, and six yellow pointed ears fanning out like the rays of a sun. They almost looked like a flower.

Kraevun knew they were most likely an odnowi, a tree-like-dwelling species native to the planet Telane. They were the first of this species that joker had met.

They had at least six long limbs that Kraevun could see, covered in long yellow and orange-striped fur, with long claws at the ends, that they used to move around with, and four thinner, furless grey-brown, many-jointed limbs with softer, hand-like appendages on the end sprouting between the larger ones.

They were wearing a simple, flowing uniform secured with black belts, the fabric matched the colors on the shop's door, purple and white with a repeating pattern of black triangles on the edges.

They lowered one of the smaller hand-like limbs to Kraevun's eye-line, and and moved the eight fingers in the sign that was asking Kraevun what language joker wanted the worker's words translated into.

“Kanenevik.” Joker said, inclining joker head in thanks.

The worker dipped their head back, as their translator let out a short melody, then said, “Valeshiki to Kanenevik translation selected.”

The worker looked at Kraevun again for confirmation, and joker nodded.

Then the worker spoke by rubbing two small limbs together on what was either their front or their back, Kraevun couldn't tell and didn't ant to guess, producing a startling musical sound like a violin song for a few seconds.

After the sound faded, the worker's translator beeped once, then spoke, saying, [“Hello, how can I help you?”] then beeped again to close the translation.

“I'm looking for sunblock that's safe for humans.” Kraevun said, gesturing to the shelf in front of joker, which was displaying hundreds of different dispensers of lotions and creams. Joker wished joker'd brought jokers flash cards to help illustrate, but they'd been left behind on the shuttle and it was already on its way back to the central core.

Joker would just have to trust the translators to work properly. Sometimes they didn't.

The worker spoke, and their translator said, [“The purpose of sunscreen is to block the light of the sun from touching your skin, correct?”]

“Yes, that's correct.” Joker said, relieved the translation seemed to be going smoothly this time.

The worker made a gesture, and the translator said, in a different voice, [“Body language: Positive, cheerful, smiling”] as they swung one bar closer to the shelf, then grabbed down a black bottle that was below Kraevun's normal line of sight, and held it out to joker. [“This was created by humans, for humans.”]

And sure enough, stamped in gold on the black glass was the symbol of one of the top producers of human-intended products in this sector. They'd also made the flash cards that Kraevun had been using since joker left Filomina.

The worker continued, [“It is sunscreen, it will stop the light from touching your skin. We provide required safety screenings, and free sample afterward, before purchase, to make sure it's not harmful. Many humans have bought this since I have worked here, and been very happy with the results. One comes in a lot and tells me to always recommend this one to humans looking for it, because it's the best she has ever used, good in wet and dry conditions, long lasting, better than the more expensive ones, even. Sincerely.”]

Well, joker probably wouldn't find a better recommendation than that!

“How much is it?” Joker asked.

[“79.47.0 neyz”]

That wasn't bad at all. Especially since the bottle looked like it was handmade glass that joker'd be able to reuse later.

“I'll take it!” Kraevun smiled.

[“Is there anything else you would like to purchase? We will have to perform safety screening before I can sell this to you.”]

Kraevun started to say no, then paused, and asked instead, “Do you sell flash cards? Uh, translation image cards, that show symbols for words.” Ironically, sometimes the translators had trouble parsing the phrase for the translation flash cards.

[“Translation cards are by the register, I can show you when we get there.”]

“That'll be great, thanks!”

The worker led Kraevun through the store back to the front, swinging along on the ceiling while Kraevun followed from behind on the floor. Kraevun got the feeling that they were moving purposefully slowly so as not to leave joker behind, and joker appreciated it. Constantly having to ask people to slow down got aggravating.

They got up to the register without any problems, and the worker showed Kraevun to the shelf of translation cards nearby, and, after making sure joker didn't need help browsing, went to set up the safety screen.

Kraevun picked out the same set of cards joker'd had before, then met the worker at the counter.

The safety screening was simple and easy, done using a little digital box kept under the counter, and the results said that Kraevun wasn't allergic to the sum, or any parts, of the sunscreen, and it should be safe to use.

Then it was time for the free sample, to make sure Kraevun wasn't going to react to it in a way the scanner couldn't predict (sense of smell, texture, light refraction, the list went on).

So, the worker dispensed a small dallop of the lotion onto Kraevun's outstretched hand. Jokers eyebrows rose as joker realized that the lotion itself was black, so black it was like it absorbed all the light. Joker'd thought it was just a black bottle. Well. That was pretty weird for sunscreen, but it would probably fade when it absorbed into jokers skin, right?

Feeling slightly apprehensive, joker turned jokers other hand over, and rubbed the lotion in on the back of jokers hand, since it would be easiest to wash it off jokers hands if necessary. The worker had already prepared a basin with a running stream of water and special soap, just in case.

The lotion stayed pitch black against Kraevun's dark skin for the first few seconds, so joker continued to massage it in, starting to become disappointed but trying to resist it.

And then, quite suddenly, the lotion began to absorb into jokers hand, and to jokers shock, jokers hand began to disappear. Joker could see the counter through jokers hand. Jokers hand was turning invisible.

Then joker laughed. Joker couldn't help it. Joker knew what had been mistranslated, and how. This was not sunscreen, designed to protect your skin from radiation from the sun and prevent sunburn and skin cancer. No, this was invisibleskin, which bent the light in such a way as to render you invisible once it absorbed.

And both of those things could easily be described as stopping the light from touching your skin.

Kraevun'd had no idea you could buy invisibleskin on this station, and for so cheap. But joker could think of a lot of things to use it for, mainly involving animal photography.

Joker smiled at the worker, who was waiting for jokers response. “I'll take it.” Joker said, and, considering the mistranslation, and unsure when joker'd next get the chance to buy protection from the sun, asked, “And can you show me to your clothes section?”

[entamesubs]

Yu-Gi-Oh! SEVENS Blu-Ray Release: Episodes 1 & 2

Google Drive ONLY (for now)

Support us on ko-fi

As stated in my previous announcement on the matter, episodes for the Blu-Ray will come out one at a time every Friday from now on, until I’m done with the full first season.

Because the Blu-Ray will have a lot more polish than weekly releases, these may look different from them.

--------------

Please use either MPV or MPC-HC to view the Blu-Ray episodes. I do NOT recommend using VLC.

Why?

VLC:

MPV/MPC-HC:

--------------

!! This is NOT a final release !!

The “final” release will be hosted on Nyaa after all episodes from 1-13 are finished on the GDrive. Changes may be made between this informal release and that one.

So! With that said!

If there are any corrections you wish to make, please put them through the ask box. This includes any typos, grammar weirdness, or if you have a better way to word a sentence. Once it goes up on Nyaa in two months, the subs will be LOCKED and can no longer be edited. I will consider it the final and best version I can put out.

If you see any mistake at all, please do not hesitate to send me an ask about it.

--------------

Extended Translation Notes

Before I get into these, I want to address a trend you may see in episodes going forward. The first season in particular, due to being subbed by different groups, has some weird translation errors, grammar mistakes, and/or dropped context/words. In layman’s terms, there’s a sizeable number of mistranslations.

This section here will be more for pointing out those mistakes than my usual weekly notes, because it’s very persistent and changes some of your understanding of crucial plot points in the show.

As an aside, this is not me “dunking” on the past groups. Translation is a very hard thing and I struggle with weekly releases myself sometimes. Japanese and English are extremely different languages on all levels; there will never be an easy 1:1 translation of anything. I understand completely.

That said, it’s still important to point out these errors, especially when the show’s plot revolves around them.

Without further ado.

Episode 1

ルーク “Rook” / Luke

I know the first group’s romanization of “Rook” is the reason why a lot of people today use this name and not Luke. Previously, I said that either Rook or Luke is fine due to Japanese’s ambiguity, but now that we’re about 50+ episodes into the series and a full year of SEVENS releases later, that ambiguity has completely and utterly vanished.

Luke is the correct romanization.

We know now that it is supposed to be Luke. You can see his name spelled in a variety of different official merchandise made by Konami, but most importantly, a SEVENS writer confirmed on their own Twitter account that his name is supposed to be Luke.

“The new character that appeared this past episode [Tiger] was originally named [Leia], but it was changed because of a notification from Goha HQ that it was too similar to another famous series.”

The “famous series” being referenced is Star Wars, with Luke & Leia Skywalker. Adding onto this, they made a “Luke, I am your father” joke in episode 37 (Luke vs Doverap).

Therefore, in light of this new information, I have decided to not include a “Rook” version of the subtitles as I had previously said I would.

デュエルの王 The King of Duels mythos

Here are the original subs from RoadRush:

“The duelist will illuminate an unknown path and will become the King of Duels.”

This is a mistranslation. For some reason, this particular subtitle left out a lot of extra content that was provided in the legend.

The original Japanese is: そのデュエリスト未知なる道を切り開き、世界の道標たるデュエルの王となる｡

The correct translation should be: “A duelist will carve open an unknown path and become the King of Duels, a guiding beacon for the world."

Words highlighted in bold is the stuff that was left out in the previous translation.

> Why “carve open” instead of “illuminate”?

1) The word “illuminate” in any form does not appear in the original Japanese.

2) The verb is 切り開き (”carve open”) specifically. This is important because it’s meant to draw parallels to Yuuga’s summoning chant for Sevens Road Magician later, where he also says “carve open” (切り開き) in it.

> Guiding beacon?

道標 (douhyou) means a guidepost. たる is an archaic particle that makes a noun an adjective (in modern Japanese, you’d use な). Together, more literally, the translation would be “will become the King of Duels, a guidepost for the world”.

However, “guidepost” is somewhat of an outdated word, and sounds strange. To remedy this, something more natural sounding was chosen, with the same meaning and connotation as “guidepost”—that was “guiding beacon”, to give the image of a “beacon” of light in the darkness telling you where to go.

Luke is stating that the legend says the King of Duels will be someone who guides the world. This is an extremely important plot point that was completely left out in the first translation.

Romin’s introduction

RoadRush:

“The popular guitarist from our elementary school band.”

This is a very easy mistake and one that I completely understand due to Japanese’s tendency to drop subjects whenever it’s implied in context. It’s also one that wasn’t wrong when the episode aired as we didn’t know any better yet.

In the original Japanese, Luke says 小学校バンドの人気ギタリスト (”a popular guitarist from the elementary school band”).

The main thing of note here is that there is no implication, unsaid or otherwise, that RoaRomin is their elementary school band. The Japanese only specifies that they are an elementary school band, but not that it’s Goha 7th’s in particular.

We know in later episodes that neither Roa, Getta, or Ushiro go to Goha 7th.

Episode 2

King of Duels mythos (Part 2: Luke Boogaloo)

RoadRush:

“[The King of Duels is] one who dictates the rules of the game and spreads them to all the duelists over the world...”

A very minor mistranslation here. The original Japanese is 新しいデュエルのルールを作り世界中のデュエリストに広めた者｡

Bolded is the main difference. Luke does not use “dictate” or its implication in his sentence. He simply states that the King of Duels is someone who creates (作り) new (新しい) dueling rules, and then spreads them to duelists all over the world.

I thought this change was important to bring up because of the previous King of Duels mythos mistranslation. This falls more in line with the new translation—the King of Duels guides, so it would make sense that he does not “dictate”, but rather “create” instead.

--------------

Credits

Timing/translation: entame Proofreading/editing: angelthinktank (yona) Encoding: PelvisBass

--------------

Thanks for waiting so patiently for these BD episodes!

[itsclydebitches]

i don't really agree that it's icky for triss to have the hots for geralt just bc she has more of a sibling-like bond with ciri. (judging by your posts there's obviously OTHER reasons to find the relationship icky so im talking specifically abt the found-family element) seeing ciri as a quasi-little-sister doesn't mean she sees geralt as a father (or he sees her as any kind of daughter figure) just bc he's ciri's father-figure, especially if they just don't have that kind of established relationship in canon. found family and quasi-familial bonds don't transfer like that. it'd be like saying it's gross for dick and babs to date in DC just because they both view bruce as a father figure.

it's fine to personally find that element off-putting, but i don't understand it bc when it comes to found family, you aren't gonna be able to neatly transfer those kinds of relationships into a static nuclear family dynamic. catra and adora both saw shadow weaver as a mother figure but that doesn't mean they saw each other as sisters or that their relationship is incestuous, you know?

Yeah, there are no neat and tidy boxes here, so it comes down to a) how each individual interprets it and b) how comfortable they are with those implications. Catra and Adora is a great example because, from what I saw in the fandom after the relationship confirmation, a lot of people did consider it, if not literally incestuous, at least emotionally so. Putting aside anyone who may have used "But they're sisters" as a catch-all excuse for why you "can't" have the queer rep, there was a fair bit of confusion regarding how and why these two types of relationships were pit against one another. Catra and Adora grew up together in all the ways siblings would, from living in the same household ("household" really), to experiencing emotional milestones together, to considering the same woman to be their mother replacement... so how does that translate into romantic feelings? Personally, I'm of the opinion that both sides have a fair point because the situation can be read in two rather different ways. Yes, the above description would imply that they should have seen each other as sisters from a young age, taking romance off the table. But if you emphasize the war aspects - they weren't siblings, they were soldiers; they were surviving together; Shadow Weaver was their general (and abuser) - then suddenly it's a matter of childhood friends whose love changed over the years. I don't think either reading is more right or wrong than the other - with the exception that their romance is obviously canon, so in that way it's the correct interpretation - but that debate is definitely there.

For me personally regarding Triss, it's more seeing the reverse order of relationships. I didn't come about it as, "She considers Ciri as like a little sister, which would make Geralt like her dad" but more "She has the hots for Geralt... but thinks of Ciri, his daughter, as a sister?" I've mentioned that the games were my first introduction to the Witcher franchise, so it might have made all the difference to have seen/read about Triss interacting with Ciri prior to their reunion. That is, developing that sisterly relationship and getting used to it. As it stands, her relationship with Geralt takes center stage in the game. She, as far as we know from Witcher 3, knows Ciri through him. Triss' relationship to Geralt - that's her future man if she gets her way - is what defines her relationship with everyone else. So if I was attracted to a guy and found out that this guy had a kid, my first thought would not be, "That's my new little sister" but rather "That's my new, adopted daughter. Because I'm attracted to her father. I want a relationship with her father. That would make me her found family mom." As said, things are rarely that neat and tidy, it's just a very strange, uncomfortable line for me. Especially given the kiss happening in the background, a moment that is supposed to remind us that Triss wants to be with Geralt romantically... while she's greeting Ciri as her sister. Separate the "sis" line from the jealousy kiss by even a few minutes and it likely wouldn't even register as confusing and/or uncomfortable for me.

But, regardless of feelings, it's a very nit-picky detail. I don't think Triss calls her that anywhere else? Hell, given the Polish original you might even be able to chalk it up to a mistranslation. No idea if that's the case, I've never looked into it, but it's definitely a line whose implications likely aren't meant to mean much of anything at all, outside of being a nod to the books and Triss' comparatively young age.

[sepublic]

Recently someone leaked two episode titles for Season 1B of The Owl House, originally in Russian, and translated them as follows;

Senses and Insensitivity

Mini-Problems

As a disclaimer, I should warn that not all leaks can be trusted, and sometimes things can change between leaks and official releases! Likewise, translation from one language to another can be a finnicky thing, what with there being a wide variety of synonyms to choose from. It’s even trickier when one considers that the Episode titles are clearly spelling out a message- Which, this leaker may or may not know what said message is, which can contribute to the inaccuracy of these episode titles and the letters they contribute to the anagram! For all we know, Mini-Problems is actually supposed to translate to Tiny Problems, or something like that!

But for now... let’s just work with what we have and speculate!

We know there’s an A from Adventures in the Elements, and given how the titles spell out “A witch lose” so far, it wouldn’t make sense for AitE to be the eleventh episode. I’ve tried looking at it from various perspectives, but I can’t see any potential messages that start with “A witch lose a” that make grammatical sense. Coming from someone who’s gotten pretty good grades in English, I think it’s safe to say that AitE is NOT Episode 11!

Again, if we go by grammar rules, it seems almost certain that the true Episode 11 will start with an S! Lo and behold, Senses and Insensitivity fits like a glove!

I’ve speculated before that there will be nineteen episodes total in Season 1. Information from another source, I forgot where, confirmed this, and it seems to line up with the number of quests in the Witch’s Apprentice game on the DisneyNOW app!

That means that so far, we know the title spells out, “A witch loses,” that there’s an A somewhere in the mix (presumably early but we can’t be too sure), and possibly an M added in there as well! Not only that, but we have eight letters unaccounted for in this message, one of which is definitely an A, the other which might be an M.

So, let’s go over our possibilities, shall we?

If we go by the assumption that AitE follows SaI, and then comes Mini-Problems, then this means the message could spell out, “A witch loses a m------”, or even, “A witch loses Am------”!

For eight-letter words starting with Am that seem topical to the show’s mysteries, I’ve compiled a few possibilities, but these don’t account for all of them;

Ambition, Amnesiac, Amnesias, Amethyst, Amateurs, Amphibia

Obviously some of these are less credible than the rest, and I only included Amphibia just because I thought it’d be funny given that’s the name of another show involving a PoC girl transported to another world that was announced alongside TOH and was created by a Gravity Falls alumnus.

Regardless! Each of the words I’ve discussed could have potential meaning. Ambition could relate to Eda’s former dreams of being in the Emperor’s Coven- For all we know, the message might even refer to another Witch entirely! It could relate to Luz, who has ambitions to be a witch, to Amity, who has ambitions to be in the Emperor’s Coven, or Lilith, who has ambitions to keep doing well and also save her sister! This possibility alludes to a major change in character drive and motive!

Amnesiac/Amnesias could also refer to Eda, who doesn’t remember how she got cursed- This possibility could mean that we learn who cursed her at the end of Season 1! Bear in mind the words I’ve offered don’t feel the most grammatically correct and come across as a bit awkward, however.

Going into stretch-territory, we have Amethyst, which might refer to the gems that Eda and Lilith have on their chests, especially since the code riddle in the show alludes to ‘Hearts of Stone’ shared amongst ‘Two witches torn apart’ (Also it might be a neat reference to Amethyst from Steven Universe, who has a chest gem). And then there’s Amateurs, which I HIGHLY doubt but I also thought it’d be funny, and that could refer to Luz and King- no offense. Maybe the group gets separated from Eda, who knows? Just don’t take this suggestion seriously...

I’ve ALSO considered, mostly on a whim, that the message could spell out, “A witch loses Amity---”, with ‘Am’ being the precursor to a name, not a word. However, this doesn’t really make any sense, because there’s still three letters unaccounted for, and even if you went with “A witch loses Amity’s” that still leaves a two-letter word and I don’t think there’s anything that’s a sufficient possibility from there. So, it COULD be a name starting with Am, just not Amity, meaning the titles don’t refer to Luz or Lilith.

If we also go by the idea that Mini-Problems is mistranslated, then the titles might actually be spelling out, “A witch loses a-------”, meaning either it’s “A witch loses a -------”, or “A witch loses A-------”.

Regarding the former option, I have considered words such as Teacher or Student, which both fit and are topical to our cast. This could mean that Eda and Luz get separated (or even Lilith and Amity)! There are so many seven-letter words to choose from that I can’t adequately cover EVERY possibility, unfortunately.

As for the latter option, there are A LOT of A-words with eight letters in them, so I kind of gave up on considering my options when I found 20+ pages of them after searching online, and that’s not even taking into account names, conventional or made-up! Suggestions are both welcomed and encouraged!

Continuing onwards, there’s the possibility of, “A witch loses a M------”, and I’ve come up with two options that could fit; Monster and Mystery. “A witch loses a mystery” is obvious, it means we get major plot revelations, probably in regards to who cursed Eda. “A witch loses a monster” could also imply that Eda gets cured of her curse... THAT, or she loses King, who is a ‘monster’- This possibility could even apply to Lilith, who might lose Eda, who is a ‘monster’ in her own way!

Nearing the end, there’s the possibility that Mini-Problems comes before AitE! The message could be “A witch loses ma------”! There were way too many possibilities for me to review all of them, but I found words such as Mainland, Manacles, and Mandrake! Mainland could refer to the Boiling Isles, Manacles could be a symbolic gesture of becoming free, and Mandrakes are plants used in magical rituals! So maybe they’re a vital ingredient to Eda’s elixir that she loses, who knows? Some of these are stretches and don’t quite grammatically fit, however. And there ARE names, fictional or real!

And finally, there’s the possibility that SaI, AitE, AND Mini-Problems are all out-of-order, meaning we have nine letters unaccounted for, the next of which is definitely S, another of which is definitely an A, and then maybe an M! For all we know there are even two S’s, with SaI being the second one! It could be “A witch loses (eight-letter word with some combination of M, A, S)” or “A witch loses (eight-letter word with only an A confirmed)”! The possibilities are endless and at this point I don’t think I could adequately cover them all.

TL;DR We have a few options;

A witch loses A-------

A witch loses a -------

A witch loses Am------

A witch loses a m------

A witch loses ma------

A witch loses -------- (with A somewhere there, and maybe an M and another S)

So that’s my overview of the possibilities we could have for the Episode Title Anagram! It’s not a perfect analysis and flawed in many respects, so I welcome and encourage any feedback and contributions! Given how the Season 1B titles could be spoiler-y, I’m starting to wonder if unlike Season 1A, the episode titles won’t be immediately revealed all at once?

[completeoveranalysis]

TRC Translation Notes Volume 16 (Chapters 117 - 124)

Even more fantastic translation notes from the even more fantastic @giniroangou. 

Highlights include: Kamui vampire antics, Fai being a sweetheart, clone explanations, real understanding of what the seal was, insight on Xing Huo, and oh my lord Fai is a sweetheart.

Chapter 117

p.5 - The word Kamui says aloud is “nakami” (the contents/substance) but it’s written with the kanji for “soul” (tamashii/魂).

p.16 - It’s ambiguous (especially at this point in the chapter) but I’m fairly certain Kamui is speaking to Subaru here. His last line is, “Or were you pulled in by this thing’s sleep?” He expected Subaru to wake up once the feather’s power vanished and is concerned that Sakura’s soul is keeping him asleep now.

p.21 - Kamui’s tone is less questioning in the original text - it’s more like, “You’re game, aren’t you?”

p.22 - Kamui’s clarification here is just a change from katakana to kanji - エ to 餌 - so the word is still spoken as “e.” I have to assume communicating through telepathy allows him to convey the meaning of his words through something other than pronunciation. The kanji 餌 means “esa,” which is bait or animal feed. I think the use of the word “game” is a clever way to preserve the ambiguity of the term in earlier scenes, but I believe most people in the fandom prefer the word “prey.” Both lean more towards the word “emono” (獲物) in meaning, but that could easily be something CLAMP was hoping to evoke here as well and given the context either word feels appropriate as a translation.

Chapter 118

p.36 - Just a subtle correction, but Kamui says that Subaru fell asleep immediately after they arrived in Tokyo.

p.42 - There is a difference between Syaoran’s line here, “I will give them all back to her,” and his similar earlier lines. The verb he used in the earlier scenes was “torikaesu” (取り返す), which as I explained before means to take something back. In this scene, he uses “torimodosu” (取り戻す), which means roughly the same thing, but with a stronger implication of returning the feathers to where they came from. He also adds “subete” (全て) or “all of them,” where before he didn’t clarify, which I would interpret as a hardening of his resolve rather than a true difference in meaning.

Chapter 119

p.53 - To elaborate a little on Kamui’s explanation, he’s saying that beings who live off of blood keep “game” (in the sense of keeping an animal) to serve as their food supply.

p.54 - After Kamui learns that Syoaran doesn’t belong to Fai, I interpreted his line as questioning whether Syaoran belonged to Seishirou instead. The wording is ambiguous enough that I suppose he could be asking whether Fai works for Seishirou, but that wouldn’t have been my first instinct.

p.55 - I feel like the translation takes some of the punch out of Fai’s words here. They feel a lot sweeter in the original text - I actually started tearing up, lol. It’s not a huge difference, but what he should be saying is, “You’re wrong. He’s a really good kid.” ...this is never going to sound as nice in English as it does in Japanese but at least this should be slightly better?

p.59 - Lava Lamp is described here as Clow Reed’s blood relative (no mention of being his heir) using the same word that was used earlier to establish Fei Wang as part of that lineage as well.

Syaoran is described in the translation as an “image,” but the original Japanese word was “utsushimi” (写身). I discussed this word a bit back in chapter 66, since Ashura uses the same word with different kanji for feather-Yasha. To repeat what I said back then, the original word “utsushimi” is a form of “utsusemi,” meaning one’s transient body/existence, but it’s not written with these characters. The verb “utsusu” when written as 写す means “to duplicate/imitate,” so when it’s paired with “mi” (身/body), it implies a replication of a previously existing body, as is the case here. The popular fandom word for this is “clone,” which I feel encompasses the concept much better than the official translation.

This may already be implied in the translation, but Fei Wang says that Syaoran was created in order to gather the feathers.

p.62 - In the Japanese text, the implant isn’t Lava Lamp’s soul but his heart/spirit (“kokoro”/心). I think it amounts to the same thing, but this word allows for a little more focus on the potential to feel emotion, particularly love.

p.64 - The translation on this page is kind of unclear. Basically, the magic Lava Lamp used to implant his soul also caused clone Syaoran to fall apart if his eye was removed (as you’d expect from one of Clow’s bloodline, Fei Wang says.) The main reason Fei Wang decided to send Syaoran out as is was because it would have been too difficult to create another copy that held the same power as the original.

p.65 - Fei Wang describes Sakura specifically as the key to the power of the ruins.

Chapter 120

p.68 - Lava Lamp wasn’t just growing older. Yuuko uses the word “seichou” (成長), which refers to both growth and development. It’s often used to describe someone becoming more mature or improving their abilities.

p.70 - A correction to the first line on this page: Lava Lamp awakening is equivalent to the seal on Syaoran’s eye breaking. The first event inevitably causes the second.

p.71 - A tiny bit of key information got lost in the translation here. After confirming that Xing Huo sent Lava Lamp to Yuuko, Fei Wang says, “Considering your origin, I suppose it can’t be helped. And besides, you’re another one of my failed creations after all.”

p.72 - This line should be, “I guess you can’t hear me anymore,” which makes a lot more sense all things considered.

Chapter 121

p.99 - I feel the need to mention that there are no exclamation points or question marks in Kurogane’s original dialogue on this page. It’s not like family members getting eaten is anything new for him, haha… ha.

p.100 - Syaoran’s line here is, “I’m taking his right eye too.”

p.110 - Kurogane isn’t talking about Fai being able to smile, but about the kids being able to smile. It’s a callback to the conversation Kurogane and Fai had in Piffle (conveniently featured in one of the flashback panels here). Fai changed in order to do whatever he could to preserve Syaoran and Sakura’s happiness.

Chapter 122

p.122 - Lava Lamp specifically says that Fai tried to return Syaoran’s soul ALONG WITH his left eye. I’m assuming Fai managed to implant the soul within his own eye before Syaoran took it, hoping that by eating the soul along with the eye Syaoran would be restored. If you ever wondered why Fai didn’t even try to fight back, here’s your answer.

p.124 - VERY IMPORTANT CHARACTER NOTE about Lava Lamp: I’m thrilled you noticed that he isn’t using Fai’s name. Lava Lamp’s speech style is totally different from Syaoran’s - it’s something that isn’t nearly as apparent in translation, but in the Japanese text it establishes them instantly and obviously as separate personalities. Lava Lamp, like Kurogane, rarely uses other characters’ names. There are exceptions, but after so many chapters of hearing Syaoran say “Kurogane-san” and “Fai-san” it’s quite striking to see that disappear altogether in Lava Lamp’s speech. He also uses more casual language overall, which again creates a strong contrast with Syaoran’s persistent politeness. Mostly it makes him feel more mature, and it puts him on a more equal standing with Kurogane and Fai. (I’ll mention here as well: autopilot Syaoran doesn’t use polite language either.)

p.127 - Lava Lamp doesn’t just say Sakura is precious to Syaoran, he says “That Sakura.” Also, the official translation finally starts using “heart” here instead of “soul” but it’s still the same word, as I discussed earlier.

p.132 - Kurogane doesn’t ask for his sword in this scene, but he’s not specifically asking for Syaoran’s either. He just wants a sword, lol.

Chapter 123

p.143 - The use of “I am betting” in the translation doesn’t have quite the right nuance, IMO. When Lava Lamp implanted his soul into Syaoran, he knew it would only be temporary. He was taking a gamble and placing his hopes on Syaoran being able to grow his own soul before he inevitably lost the one Lava Lamp gave him.

Chapter 124

Cover page - “The Value of Life” isn’t a mistranslation, but I would probably translate this title as, “The Price of Life.” The word in the title is “taika” (対価), the same word Yuuko uses when she makes deals with people.

p.169 - There are not supposed to be any exclamation points on this page. *sighs deeply*

p.170 - I believe this is less that Lava Lamp doesn’t know where Fei Wang went (I don’t think he went anywhere?) but that he doesn’t know where he was being kept in the first place.

p.171 - The translation isn’t as consistent, but the original text differentiates between Syaorans by putting quote marks around the original Syaoran’s name, so it always looks like 『小狼』. There’s technically no difference in what people are calling him, but as readers we can still differentiate, and I suppose it implies a different emotion/perception on the speaker’s part.

p.176 - Kurogane’s anger is a little quieter in the original text - his line starts with an ellipsis and doesn’t have any punctuation at the end, which I feel evokes the underlying grief a bit better. He also brings back the same phrase he used in his conversation with Fai in the previous volume - “hara wo kukuru.” If I reference back to my translation of the earlier line, this one would be, “...who told you to resign yourself like that.” In the Japanese version it’s obvious Kurogane is seeing his own hand in the decision Fai’s just made and now that it’s too late he’s basically saying THIS ISN’T WHAT I MEANT.

[beihonglin]

does anyone know whats happening with lu dinghao??

So about a month ago, Banana Culture released a statement on their official Weibo account: 

Because TANGRAM member Lu Dinghao’s personal actions have severely affected the progress of the group, the company has decided to indefinitely halt his group activities. TANGRAM will continue activities as 6 members with Lin Chaoze, Jiang Jingzuo, Qiu Zhixie, Bei Honglin, Li Ruotian, and Gao Maotong. The company will also continue to give TANGRAM our utmost support. We are grateful for the fans who have continually given us attention and love. The company and the members will give back in full and repay everyone with better mindsets and works. Thank you.

(translation: TANGRAMSubs)

There are people who have mistranslated “personal actions” (个人行为) as “behavioural issues” to get retweets and afterwards blocked people who have tried to correct them. Do note that this is a mistranslation - there has never been, nor will there ever be, explicit confirmation from anyone that Dinghao was suspended from TGM for behaviour problems.

What has been confirmed, though, is that Dinghao is no longer a member of TGM. He removed the TGM- prefix from his Weibo handle and changed his bio from “TANGRAM 男团成员” (member of boy group TANGRAM) to “香蕉娱乐旗下艺人” (artist under Banana Culture Entertainment). 

Anything from here on are fan-spread rumours on Weibo - just know that nothing is confirmed and use your own judgement when reading them. 

Dinghao’s fans (Milus) believe that because Banana has not been explicitly promoting TGM the same way other groups that came out of Idol Producer do (e.g. Nine Percent and ONER having advertisements for products everywhere), Dinghao has not been able to reach his full potential. They believe that as a result of Banana not promoting TGM, Dinghao was forced into signing contracts privately outside of his contract with Banana (rumours say that this was a contract with L’Oreal) in order to maintain his popularity. Because of this breach of contract (the “personal actions” referred to in the statement), Banana removed Dinghao from TGM and are ‘putting him in the freezer’. 

There are also speculations that Dinghao broke his contract because he was confident that another company would be able to buy him out, but because that deal fell through, he’s ‘stuck’ in Banana’s ‘freezer’. 

Do take note that these speculations are from solo fans have been clamouring for Dinghao to go solo since Idol Producer ended - they believe that he is too good/popular for any group. They attend TGM events to support Dinghao and only Dinghao, and look down on the other six members and their fans. Their main intention is to paint Dinghao in the most innocent light they can, so remember to take that bias factor into account. Use your judgement as to how much of their reasoning you want to take seriously. 

There are also speculations that this happened before Lunar New Year and that Dinghao and Banana have been in legal negotiations for a while; the only reason why this statement was made was because TGM was preparing their spring comeback and Banana needed a way to explain why TGM was coming back as six. 

So those are the rumours as to what happened with Dinghao. Below is what has been happening since then.

There mostly have been two main reactions to TGM coming back as six - the fans who are angry at Banana and the fans who intend to continue supporting the remaining six members. 

The fans who are angry at Banana are mostly angry at the fact that since there was a breach of contract, Banana will be unlikely to promote Dinghao with TGM until legal issues are cleared. Which, to me, is ironic because Dinghao was the one who broke the contract in the first place. (Although it can be argued that Banana’s promotion strategy (or lack thereof) forced him into breaking the contract, it’s also worth pointing out that none of the other members who have been offered private contracts broke their contracts.) Either way, because of this, these fans refuse to support TGM’s comeback because Dinghao isn’t in it. Understandably, a large portion of these fans are Dinghao’s solo stans. This segment does not just comprise Weibo fans - there are plenty of international fans on Twitter and Youtube who share the same sentiment. 

This surge in anger at Banana correlates with a surge in Weibo hate comments against TGM. In the weeks after Banana announced that TGM would come back as six without Dinghao, there were more and more Weibo posts and comments insulting a six-membered TGM as well as accounts that posted death wishes towards the six members themselves. These peaked after Dinghao changed his profile picture to unnecessarily dramatic fanart of him looking beaten up, which most of his impressionable and defensive fans read into as Dinghao being ‘bullied’. Of course, correlation does not imply causation, so think of this what you will. 

There are, of course, many other fans who continue to support a six-membered TGM, and a segment of these fans will also support both TGM and Dinghao in whatever path he ends up on. 

Anyway, stream Stay With You (eng subs here).  

[witthound]

hi ! about your post w mohammad alavi confirming bloodhound is nonbinary, would you have any idea why the french translation of apex legends uses she/her pronouns for bloodie ? there's no mention of them being nonbinary anywhere on the french translations and i'm super confused. if the narrative lead of the game confirms it why is the translation wrong ? :(

Hi! Just keep in mind I’m a white Australian with little to no knowledge on linguistics, so someone with more knowledge absolutely feel free to correct me

The issue with pronoun translations is that countries either have very little understanding of “non-binary” so they just ignore it completely, or in the case of french, the language is very reliant of objects and people being referred to as she or he.

French isn’t the only mistranslation as I believe German refers to Bloodhound as “he”. BH’s voice actress, Allegra Clark, has also discussed her frustrations with this because it is misleading about the character and she’s passed it to the team so hopefully it changes!

[ribbonstrawberrysurprise]

TMM Alien Weapons/Attacks

The names of weapons and attacks in Tokyo Mew Mew have a history of being horribly mistranslated. 

Putting aside the Ribbon/Reborn debate and Tokyopop’s inexplicable mangling of English words (Mintoon Alo, Lettuce Flash), the anime subtitles get weird whenever the subbers mishear a word or attempt to guess at which kanji is used without having access to the script. This results in stuff like the Mewberry Rod becoming the New Berry Lot and all the aliens’ attacks being wildly inconsistent. 

In general, the aliens’ weapons/attacks follow these rules:

1) Name of the weapon is the name of the main attack. (There can be more attacks with varying names or without names at all, though).

2) Main name/attack is in Japanese rather than English and consists of three kanji.

3) Color scheme is either red/yellow/purple or silver/black/blue/red.

4) Has a symbol involving a circle and some lines/shapes surrounding it. This symbol seems to be unique to the alien and shows up on most chimeras they create.

5) Design is inexplicably based on a human weapon despite no contact with Earth for millions of years.

The fact that the attacks are anime-original and written in kanji was a big problem for subbers with no script to refer to. Sometimes they misheard the attack itself (Kuu Rai Sen was heard as Fuu Rai Sen) and sometimes they heard the correct pronunciation but didn’t know the exact kanji used and guessed at the meaning based on context. 

The success of this varied.

Let’s start by looking at Pie, who has the greatest number of attacks and is most consistently mistranslated and mistranscribed.

Pie’s fan is looks like it’s based on an uchiwa, a type of non-folding Japanese paper fan.

His symbol is in the center, and it appears on the Chimera Anima he makes (most of the time...).

Pie’s main attacks are listed on the Japanese Wikipedia page for TMM.

They are:  空雷扇 (kuu rai sen) and  空雷旋風神 (kuu rai senpuu jin).

The first is the one the subs refer to as “Windy Thunder Fan” because the subbers heard fuu instead of kuu and assumed it used 風 (wind) instead of 空 (sky). The kanji are literally “sky/empty space,” “thunder/lightning,” and “fan,” so I think “Sky Lightning Fan” would probably be more accurate.

The second attack is the misleading one. 

It sounds like it adds on puujin to the end of the original attack, but it really replaces the sen meaning fan with a different kanji to make up senpuu (旋風), meaning whirlwind. The last kanji means god, so a literal translation would be something like “Sky Lightning Whirlwind God.” The subs translate this as “Stormy Thunder Tornado Formation” because the subbers assume the kanji is  風雷扇風陣 (lit., wind thunder fan wind battle-formation) instead.

Pie also has a few other attacks, like 風氷扇 (kuu hyou sen) or “Sky Ice Fan” and   風刺扇 (fuu shi sen) or “Sky Cutting/Piercing Fan.”

Tart’s weapon is mainly based on the vintage American toy Clackers, but the way he throws it to capture people is inspired by bolas, an Argentinian weapon.

His symbol is found on each ball and also on most of the Chimera Anima he makes.

Like Pie, Tart has a lightning attack, so you’d assume that the rai in his attack/weapon name would be 雷 for lightning, but it’s actually not. 

According to Wikipedia, Tart’s attack is 宝来球 (hou rai kyuu).

The kanji literally mean “treasure,” “come/next/become,” and “sphere.” The second kanji is also used as a verb with the sense of coming to something and, more relevantly, coming back to something, so I think it’s used in the sense of the sphere returning to the same position again and again as it spins. So a very literal (and horribly uncomfortable) translation might be “Treasure Coming Sphere,” but something like “Treasure Returning Sphere” would be better.

Quiche’s swords are clearly based on sai, which are a traditional Okinawan weapon. Sai aren’t usually pointed, but Quiche uses his like swords and they’re sometimes drawn as having a flat blade rather than a rounded metal spike.

His symbol is a little less obvious than Pie’s or Tart’s. It’s made up of the blue gem, the two black lines on the prongs and the red teardrop shape on the handle.

Quiche doesn’t usually name his attacks, but he says his weapon name while summoning it.

His weapon is called 釵龍刀 (sai ryuu tou), which is literally “sai,” “dragon,” and “single-edged sword.” The subbers translate this as “Dragon Swords,” which is probably fine. You could use something like “Sai Dragon Swords” if you really want to include all the parts or else “Bladed Dragon Sai” if you’re willing to stretch it a little.

This last one is sort of a weird one since it belongs to the Blue Knight and Deep Blue and doesn’t seem to follow the naming rules for the others. 

As far as I could tell, the sword is more of a fantasy mishmash of European-style double-edged swords than it is a reference to any one type. The blade looks vaguely like a Zweihander (really long two-handed German sword), but it’s clearly too short. To be honest, the look of the handle and the way the blade comes out reminds me of a lightsaber more than anything else.

Deep Blue never summons any Chimera Anima, so there’s no way to confirm his symbol (or if he has one). His sword looks vaguely like Quiche’s, so here’s a few possibilities based on that.

The sword itself is never named, and neither the Blue Knight nor Deep Blue have any named attacks.

At least in the anime.

The Blue Knight does have one named attack in the manga: 彗星藍玉斬 (suisei aidama zan). Suisei is “comet” and aidama literally means “indigo gem” but actually refers to aquamarine. Zan means something along the lines of cutting/wounding with a sword. So, “Comet Aquamarine Slash” or “Aquamarine Comet Slash” for more natural English order.

Tokyopop translates it as “Indigo Comet Blade” and Kodansha translates it as “Blue Comet Slash.”

Speaking of the manga, Pie actually uses Kuu Rai Sen once to break a pipe despite 1) not having a fan and 2) all of the aliens including him having used energy blasts like that before without saying anything. I guess it’s more of Ikumi incorporating parts from the anime. Tokyopop calls it “Blade of Thunder,” and Kodansha calls it “Air Thunder Fan.” 

There’s also one single panel where it looks like Tart and Pie might have their anime weapons, but it’s hard to tell since they’re so small.

Otherwise, at least Quiche and Tart have very skinny knives, and Quiche fights with tonfa (another traditional Okinawan weapon) instead of sai. BK/DB still has a European-style double-edged sword, but it’s so generic that it’s literally the glowing silhouette of a sword.

People have been using stuff like “Windy Thunder Fan” for a while and I’d be glad to see them switch to “Sky Lightning Fan” or “Air Thunder Fan” like in the Kodansha manga. But I honestly think that most people tend to use things like “Kuu Rai Sen” (I mean, in that case they might use Fuu, but awareness is growing). This is pretty common for attack/technique names from manga and anime (e.g., jutsu from Naruto) because they sound cool in Japanese and weird when translated literally. 

If you’re writing fanfic you could try taking a page from some official translators and prettying up the translation, i.e., keeping the spirit of the original name but making it sound cooler/flow better in English. So, “Sky Lightning Fan” could be “Celestial Lightning Fan” or you could fudge “Coming” or “Returning” into “Revolution.”

Or else you could go the scanlation/subtitle root and rely on on-page translation notes. 

One other thing to consider is the fact that it makes no sense for them to actually be speaking Japanese (they’re aliens) so there’s got to be some kind of translation going on in-universe. This means you can justify being really liberal with your translation choices because who’s to say that wasn’t what they actually said before the alien to Japanese translator messed it up? Does the word for sky have the same connotations after millennia underground? What was the word that is translated as “sai”? 

Anyway, this is more the subject for another post, so I’ll leave it there...

[yupuffin]

Hi there. :) I saw your post about the latest "Drifters" volume. That really sucks that the pages were cut off. You should contact DHC and have them ship you a new copy since the copy you have is defective. Anyway, I wanted to ask you if you've noticed any mistranslations/other errors in the volume? A friend and I are working on a major project together that compiles all of DHC's mistakes with their "Drifters" translations. We don't have Vol. 4 yet, so we're kinda asking around to get info on it

Hiya, anon!

Thanks for bringing this up! I was originally going to wait until my new copy arrived to read it (I already contacted the bookstore where I bought it and they’re going to let me know when the new ones come in), but at your request I did read through the defective copy, and there actually were quite a few errors in addition to the misprinting issue! (Apologies it took so long to get back to you - it takes me quite a while to read Drifters specifically because it’s so dialogue-heavy compared to other series I read.)

Here’s a list of all of the mistakes I found in my initial copy of Drifters, volume 4:-As you already know, the first 8 pages of the book are printed and trimmed incorrectly due to being shifted downward by approximately 3.5 inches, which cuts off the bottom portions of the pages.-On Act 36 page 7, Olminu says “Whose been touching my butt?!” (This is a grammar/proofreading mistake; in this sentence, “Whose” should be “Who’s” for it to be grammatically correct.)-On Act 37, page 17, Joan of Arc’s name is misspelled as “Jean” (it’s spelled “Joan” everywhere else in the series).-On Act 38, page 8, Nobunaga says “embarressing” instead of “embarrassing.”-On Act 38, page 21, the catchphrase “Genji Banzai” (previously printed as "Long Live the Genji") is misprinted as “Banzai Genji.” (At least, I’m pretty sure it was “Genji Banzai” everywhere else in the series; this might need a double-check, as I don’t have access to the first 3 volumes right now, but I can confirm in a few days.)-On Act 39, page 9, Nobunaga says “formidible” instead of “formidable.”-On Act 39, page 14, Nobunaga’s phrase “You know that will happen with second volley” is awkwardly worded. I think they’re probably missing a “the” (if I had to guess, it really should be “You know that will happen with the second volley”).-On Act 40, page 11, the translator’s notes in the margins incorrectly attribute the second character in Toyohisa’s family name (Shimazu), printed in the adjacent panel, to Hijikata (who has the first character of his name displayed in the panel on the previous page).-On Act 40, page 13, Toyohisa says “descendents” instead of “descendants.”-On its first (opening) page, Act 41 is mislabeled as Act 37.-Ditto for Act 42, which is mislabeled as Act 38.-On Act 42, page 11, the translations of the sound effects in the second panel are reversed. “グッ” (gu) is labeled as “kachin,” while “ガシーン” (gashiin) is labeled as “clench” (the reverse should be true). I didn’t pay very close attention to the sound effects, so this is the only sfx error I noticed because of how obvious it is, and it might be worth another read-through to make sure there’s nothing major I missed.-In two instances (Act 42, page 13 and Act 43, page 1), Hijikata screams three consecutive speech bubbles: “Shriek!” “Mmmwa!” “Zzzuuu!” This is while he is fighting Toyohisa, so I have reason to believe that this is an erroneous translation of the separated and elongated syllables of Toyohisa’s name; it should actually be translated as something more like “Shiiii!” “Maaaa!” “Zuuuu!” as the translation written on the page is very disconnected and strange.-The last sentence on Act 46, page 16 is missing punctuation. All of the other speech bubbles on the page have punctuation, whereas this one simply says “The same for the guy with the beard” and is missing either a period or an exclamation point.

That’s everything I found! I also took pictures of all of the mistakes, so if you’d like photographic evidence, check this post later tonight and I’ll post a link to where you can see images of the errors.

(This was a surprisingly enjoyable project for me because I’ve always been a stickler for grammar and spelling xD )

Again, thanks for contacting me, and I hope your project goes well! ^^

[completeoveranalysis]

TRC Translation Notes Volume 14 (Chapters 100 - 108)

The continuation of @giniroangou making all of our lives better and saving us from mistranslations, now for Volume 14.

Highlights include: distant crying in New Zealand over Kurogane, Mokona being a better liar than me, Fai being Fai the best he can, and what about the books??

Chapter 100

p.1 - “That one” referred to in the line here is definitively Fei Wang - the kanji for his name are written below the reading of “that person.” This connects directly to his dialogue on the next page.

p.9 - The line that’s been translated as, “There will be no second time!” is a bit literal IMO. It’s more like, “Never again…”/“You can never again…” There’s no ellipsis in the original text (no exclamation point either though) and it’s written in such a way that it looks final, but Yuuko doesn’t really complete her sentence here. It’s also intended as a direct mirror to Fei Wang’s “Once more” at the end of his monologue, which also wasn’t a complete thought. (In Japanese, Fei Wang ends with “Mou ichido,” and Yuuko ends with “Mou nido to.”)

p.10 - Kurogane’s question about Clow Kingdom here is less of a question and more of a confirmation - in the Japanese version I wouldn’t say it gives the impression that he needs to ask, just that he’s reaffirming information he already knows.

p.12 - There are some subtle differences in nuance during this conversation. In the Japanese version, Kurogane tells Syaoran that now there’s even less reason to feel bad about seeing his memories (making it clear he had no reason to feel bad in the first place.) Then he says it’s precisely because Syaoran saw his past that he was able to notice the markings on the sword. Not that this isn’t obvious, but it has a slightly different tone than the translated version.

The word Syaoran uses when he calls Kurogane a nice guy is the same one Kurogane’s mother used in the flashback - “yasashii.”

Syaoran’s final line on this page is actually in direct response to Kurogane’s WTF reaction to being called nice - “My father said that truly nice people will try to dodge the subject if you say that to them.” So basically he’s saying Kurogane just proved how nice he is by reacting that way, lol.

Chapter 101

Cover page - The fan translated title is more accurate than the official title. “The Book in Which Magic Dwells” is the gist of it. Also, re: the splash text - keep in mind that Japanese doesn’t have a capital/lowercase distinction and often doesn’t distinguish between singular and plural, so if you see “God” or something similar that’s purely the translator’s choice. Sadly I can’t see the original text for these pages, but generally in cases like this I prefer more general translations like “divine light” rather than “God’s light.”

p.26 - Fai’s comment on the flying train is less wondering than it appears in the translation - he’s just like, “So these are flying by magic too, huh.”

p.28 - I suppose the wording is ambiguous, but I’m pretty sure the actual meaning of Mokona’s line here is that Kurogane did something unspeakable to her, lol.

p.32 - I’m assuming this city’s name should be rendered as “Biblio” rather than “Viburio,” for obvious reasons.

p.38 - Because Mokona is THE WORST LIAR IN THE WORLD (or just a gigantic troll) the thing she’s singing as they walk in is, “We’re just borrowing, we’re just borrowing~” Subtle.

p.42 - While “funt” is a possible transliteration for the name for the guard creatures (exact katakana being “funto”), the Japanese “f” is very close to an “h,” and “hund”/“hunde” (ie “dog”/“dogs” in German) makes much more sense. In the original explanation, these are included among the “soldarts” protecting the library, hence why they’re referred to that way later.

Chapter 102

p.46 - Fai’s totally fake line about the books is more along the lines of, “I wonder if we can find any interesting-looking books here?” as if they’re just regular folks casually browsing the library who don’t already know exactly what book they’ve come there for. Sakura’s agreement is a weak attempt to keep up the pretense.

p.47 - Fai’s “That looks fake” uses the exact same wording as Kurogane’s on the previous page. THIS IS REVENGE.

p.54 - Fai’s original line about his magical experience is, “Anyone who’s studied even a little bit of magic would know that.” Of course, this is untrue and it does make implications about his knowledge being less than it really is, but it feels a lot smoother than the English version, like a natural answer to brush off Sakura’s compliment. (All of which just makes me love Kurogane’s suspicion even more.)

Chapter 103

Cover page - The “ruins” referred to in the chapter title are physical ruins based on the kanji (referring to the Clow ruins that show up a little later), and I don’t think this word would have other meanings unless you got very poetic about it, but I love all the layers in the English translation.

p.65 - After Fai says that running will be faster than fighting, he adds that there seems to be no end to the things coming after them (implying there’s no point in fighting anyway.)

p.71 - Fai’s deflection about studying a little magic is in the same vein as the one from the previous chapter.

p.72 - Kurogane isn’t talking about Fai protecting himself here - he’s reasoning that it wouldn’t make sense for the library to use basic magic for its protective spells.

p.76-77 - The time-measuring gadget on these pages might not actually be a sundial. In the Japanese version they just call it a “tokei” (時計) meaning “clock” or more generally “timepiece.” It’s still keeping time when Sakura turns it away, the kids just literally can’t see it anymore so they don’t know what time it is.

Chapter 104

p.89 - Syaoran’s “Princess, please…” in the translation was much less infuriating than his original line, which was, “Please take care of the Princess” (presumably spoken to Fai.)

Chapter 106

Cover page - The official translation for this chapter title of “The Escape with no Tomorrow” is correct. I feel like “Out of the Frying Pan into the Fire” could be an alternative, tbh. It’s certainly not a literal translation, but it feels like that’s the idea.

p.123 - In the Japanese version, after Syaoran says he’s fine his line is, “More importantly, the books…!” Bless this child and his priorities.

p.132 - Kurogane is not suggesting jumping over the water here, but jumping into it.

Chapter 107

p.145 - It seems like the meaning got across just fine, but when I first saw the English translation Kurogane’s, “Isn’t all magic the same?” felt a bit obtuse, as if he’s just questioning that different types of magic exist. His original line is, “Magic is magic, right?” which I think makes it clearer that he’s seeing through Fai’s nonchalant facade - whatever Fai might say, he still used magic when he swore he wouldn’t, and that’s a big deal.

p.154 - Fai is actually saying that if Kurogane carries Sakura over his shoulder all the time the blood will rush to her head. Cute aside: in Japan they refer to carrying a person in your arms as a “princess carry” so that would be the literal translation of Mokona’s line.

p.155 - In the translation it seems like Fai has already given up on finding anything else in this world, but in his original line he’s just hoping they can find a place where they can treat Syaoran’s wounds.

Chapter 108

p.168 - Syaoran’s last line on this page is, “But I wonder what could have happened to destroy them like this.” I think the translator was trying to show the connection between that and his previous thought about the age of the buildings by adding in “What other than time” but it comes off sounding a little too naive.

p.169 - Syaoran notes that there was a little bit of the hard road left, not the entire thing.

[completeoveranalysis]

TRC Translation Notes Volume 19 (Chapter 141 - 149)

We’re catching up now! Here are the translation notes for Volume 19 by @giniroangou.

Highlights Include: judgement from Kurogane, Lava Lamp’s vague goal, Kurogane’s love advice, Sakura is the full package!, future sight clarifications, setting Lava Lamp free, oops Eagle Vision is still a bit of a dick, interesting Fai choices, the changing future, and clarity on the power level thing! 

Chapter 141

Cover page - The official translation is actually correct on this one. Perhaps “The Short-Lived Fugitive” would sound a little better?

p.9 - For some reason they translated it differently, but when Fai quotes Kurogane he is repeating the same line that we saw spoken previously. Funnily though, this was a sentence that Fai started himself, so while he ends up quoting Kurogane as having said, “Sakura-chan is wavering,” the first part of the line was actually his own contribution (hence “Sakura-chan” instead of “The Princess.”)

p.13 - I’d like to point out that the word translated as “wish” is not the same word we tend to see used during Yuuko’s deals. Yuuko grants wishes (“negai”/願い) but Sakura and Fai are talking about desires (“nozomi”/望み). The difference in nuance is subtle enough that “nozomi” can be translated as “wish,” but it doesn’t have as strong a connection to the many other wishes we’ve seen in this series.

p.14 - Mokona is back to saying “Syaoran” with quotation marks when she talks about Lava Lamp. She speculates that he’s fallen asleep right away because he has so many things to worry about. I would interpret her lines at the bottom of the page as a reference to Lava Lamp’s worries rather than Sakura’s, though of course they apply to the entire group.

p.15 - You can remove the “I guess” from Kurogane’s line here - there’s no uncertainty in anything he says on this page.

p.17 - As with all the previous instances regarding Lava Lamp and his goal of protection, there is no pronoun in his original line. He says he’ll protect, and from the context we can guess he’s talking about Sakura, but there’s no clue in the line itself as to who or what he’s talking about.

p.21 - In case you didn’t catch this, Kurogane’s line here is the same one he says back in Acid Tokyo when he’s commenting on Fai and Syaoran both lying. What he actually says in Japanese is “doitsumo koitsumo.” It’s a difficult sentiment to fully capture in English, but it basically indicates that you’re negatively judging a group of people.

Chapter 142

p.25 - The opponent on this page specifically uses the term “good luck” rather than “pure luck,” so Fai is repeating his direct words.

p.32 - Geo doesn’t describe Eagle as the chairman of the tournament, but rather the head of the family that sponsors the tournament. ...which ultimately may amount to the same thing of course.

p.33 - The sound effect beside Kurogane (“piku”/ピク) indicates a twitching movement, implying that he registers Sakura’s response as something surprising or suspicious. While we get twin reaction shots of his face and Fai’s, their reactions end up feeling notably different because of the inclusion of that sound effect.

P.35 - “Jerks” is a bit strong, I’d say. Kurogane says “yatsu,” a rough word usually (but not always) used by men to refer to men. Its tone varies depending on the context - it can be derogatory, neutral, or even affectionate. Here, Kurogane uses the singular form rather than the plural. You could translate his line to specifically relate to Syaoran and Sakura’s situation, as follows: “There’s no way she’s going to know the true feelings of a guy who never says anything no matter how much time passes.” Alternatively, you could translate it in a more general sense as, “There’s no way to know the true feelings of a guy who never says anything no matter how much time passes.”

p.36 - Kurogane continues to use rough language, but it’s not as openly hostile as it is in the translation. I feel like they just took all the subtext of these lines and pulled it out into the open. His original line is more like, “Don’t just assume that if you keep silent no one will know something’s going on.” This helps explain why Lava Lamp seems relatively unfazed, and also gives a different nuance to Fai’s reaction.

p.37 - Eagle tells Sakura, “Your manners are perfect too.” SHE IS THE FULL PACKAGE.

p.38 - That “piku” sound effect comes back on this page, this time for Sakura - again, it’s a way to show sudden increased attention or surprise without a major physical reaction. Here it’s in response to Eagle mentioning that Sakura comes from another dimension.

Chapter 143

p.43 - When Yuuko asks if Sakura is serious, it’s more of a confirmation than a question. Then what’s been translated as Sakura saying she wants to go alone was originally, “I’m going alone.”

p.45 - What Clow told Sakura was not about responsibility but about possibility - “You can choose your future,” or in a more general sense, “Futures can be chosen.”

p.46 - Again, Yuuko isn’t fully questioning here. It’s more like she’s saying, “So you had that power too.” You could go either way on whether this is new information to her or not, but if it is something she didn’t know, it doesn’t appear to be unexpected. She also doesn’t say anything about dreams in the original text - she just refers to Sakura’s ability as “the power to see the future.”

Sakura says that Yukito can see important events that will affect the future, not that he sees everything.

p.47 - Sakura’s last lines here were mistranslated. She says, “If it’s going to turn out like that future I caught a glimpse of, I’ll part from them.” (The last word on the page is “wakaremasu”/“to part from” not “wakarimasu”/“I know”)

p.48 - I interpreted Sakura’s line a bit differently, to be, “I’ll find him… and I’ll choose a different future than the one I saw back then.” It’s a question of whether “at that moment” refers to the future that she saw or to finding Syaoran, and its placement in the sentence could connect it to either, but she says “ano toki” rather than “sono toki” which distances it from the first part of the sentence so… I’m thinking this is what it’s supposed to be. Of course, this still implies that finding him is a key to choosing a different future, it’s just not necessarily the deciding key.

p.50 - This is a bit more clear in the Japanese wording, but Eagle is basically saying that he doesn’t need Sakura to tell him anything because it’s in the nature of secrets to leak out, so he assumes he’ll get the answer eventually anyway.

p.59 - This line is a lot more open to interpretation in its original form. You could read it as a full sentence, “From now on, be free…” or as the start of a sentence, “From now on, freely…” This could be a request for Lava Lamp to stop feeling bound to her or it could be a request that he allow Sakura her freedom. The context points heavily towards the former though.

Chapter 144

p.64 - Instead of just “From now on,” Sakura says, “This very moment, and from now on.” She wants to make sure Fai knows her request starts RIGHT NOW.

p.70 - This lines come off a bit weird in the translation, like Sakura is talking about Syaoran as someone Lava Lamp doesn’t know anything about, and then a second later treating him and Lava Lamp as the same person. This was not originally the case. I would change “one” in Sakura’s first line to “the one” or “the person,” and then when she says that she’s caused pain and hardship, she starts by saying, “For you too.”

This scene also marks the first time we see Sakura use casual language when speaking to Lava Lamp.

p.75 - Eagle’s lines are a little different here. They were originally, “Those weapons aren’t what you’ve always used, are they? Why don’t you fight with the weapon you’re most skilled at? I’ll permit you to use magic or whatever too.”

p.81 - “Automata” is written with the kanji for “mechanical human” (機械人間) but the reading is given in katakana as “automata.” I would actually interpret Eagle’s line as, “Didn’t you have any of these in your world?” I feel like it’s still meant to come off as kind of condescending though.

Chapter 145

p.99 - Yuuko tells Sakura the price would be too high for her to visit any world she’s been to before: “For example, Clow Kingdom or any of the worlds you’ve passed through.” Clow is the only one she names because it was Sakura’s starting point rather than a world she passed through, but it’s certainly not the only world with a steep return price.

p.101 - A little adjustment in nuance: Yuuko says that for Sakura who hasn’t yet retrieved all of her memories, her luck is practically the only weapon she has to defend herself, so if she offers that up as a price she will have nothing left to protect her in the next world.

p.102 - The difference between “alone” and “isolation” is expressed in the Japanese text through the kanji. Both times Yuuko uses the word “hitori” but the first time the kanji is 一人, representing “one person,” and the second time it’s 独り, meaning “alone.”

Chapter 146

p.106 - Yuuko’s use of “we” here was a weird translation thing. There are no pronouns in her sentence, but it can be assumed she’s just speaking for herself.

p.110 - I am mystified by the little movement(?) arrow in the bottom right panel - it’s definitely not in the version I have.

p.119 - A small correction to Fai’s lines - he’d thought it would be all right earlier, but now there’s no time left anymore.

p.120 - Fai’s original line wasn’t about staying in Celes, but about staying in the same world for too long in general: “If I keep staying in the same world and end up meeting the awoken Ashura-ou, I’ll…” He’s thinking about his impending potential fate rather than one he’s already avoided. With these adjustments to the last couple pages, I would guess that Fai was ready to start running again under his own power and Kurogane sensed it so he grabbed Fai’s arm to keep him there.

Chapter 148

p.144-145 - You can’t tell from the translated version, but Sakura and Lava Lamp are operating at totally different emotional levels here (at least outwardly.) Sakura’s lines don’t have any punctuation at all (no exclamation points!) and her first line starts with an ellipsis (“.... Let go”).

p.152 - Big correction to this page: “But one day, if someone appears before you who surpasses the reason why the two of you were restrained in separate places all this time, that enormous magical power, you will…”

p.153 - Ashura’s line could be interpreted as a reference to multiple worlds, but on a more human level it means, “I’ve come for you, because there’s more to the world than this place.”

Chapter 149

p.168 - I believe Yuuko is describing Chii and Freya as resonating with each other rather than the feathers. Yuuko then explains that the the two feathers together contain enough magical power to surpass Fai’s halved power.

p.169 - I would put Yuuko’s line here in present tense: “The chances are one in two.” It’s not over yet!

p.174-175 - Again, there are no exclamation points on any of Sakura’s lines on these pages (or on the last page of this chapter for that matter.) There’s emphasis using bold or larger text, but I feel like the nuance is quite different. Also, her final line is, “Don’t forget, from now on the future can be changed.” That “from now on” is “kore kara mo,” indicating that she’s already succeeded in changing the future, and it’s something they can continue to do.