#anime translations

[heavenlydragon]

“Escaflowne Bible” scans [page 11]

You may (or may not) remember the scans/translations of the tiny Escaflowne Bible artbook. This is the second to final part to be posted, called Character Profiles (or Character Biographies). Many thanks again to @legendofthesevenstars for the proofread!

This is the last Profiles page. Now, all that remains are the title colored pages and the book is done. Translation of the whole page below the cut!

DORNKIRK

Profile

By self-developed power of super-science, even at 200 years of age, he continues to rule Zaibach as its emperor. His origin is Mystic Moon (Earth), and his Earth name was Isaac. A scientist from Earth’s past, he arrived on this world on the verge of his passing. Moreover, he is the man who killed Allen’s father. Right now, with the aim to complete his fate altering machine and manipulate fate, he set his eyes on Hitomi, who could become the key to it.

Question of Interest

Why does Dornkirk wear his hair in ringlets?

Dornkirk's curly hair seems quite eye-catching. He lived as Isaac during the European Middle Ages. Back then, high-born people curled their hair as a sign of status. It looks like this remained in his mind, and Dornkirk continues to curl his hair. He seems to be an unexpectedly scrupulous person.

Pic Descriptions

Dornkirk as seen in the episode 16 flashback.

Top view of Dornkirk’s throne, with many machines attached.

Dornkirk achieved longevity thanks to the power of science. Looking at it this way, the huge throne comes as no surprise.

As death was drawing near to Isaac on Earth, he suddenly arrived in the Zaibach empire. Since then, he ascended to the very imperial throne.

OTHER CHARACTERS - “GAEAN FOLK”

From the inhabitants of Gaea, we collected those that were in the frontlines of action, those who died over the course of the series, those who gained sympathies, etc.

Allen and Marlene’s son, Chid

Leon, searching for the secrets of Atlantis.

Plaktu, who ended up murdered by Zongi

Worried about Millerna, the second sister, Eries.

The commander of the energist mine, who set his snake to wrap around Hitomi

Considerably absent as of recent, Mole Man.

Zongi, killed by Dilandau.

Reappearing in episode 17, one of the Three Swordsmen of Gaea, Balgus.

Intensified Luck Soldiers, the twin sisters Naria and Eriya

One of Zaibach’s four generals, the leader of Black Steel army, Zodia Quu

Duke Freid, insisting: “Chid is my son!”

Distrustful of Van and company, Freid’s governor, Voris

One of the Zaibach’s four generals, the leader of the Bronze army, Helio Eides

One of the Zaibach’s four generals, the leader of the Silver army, Getin Gus

One of the Zaibach’s four generals, the leader of the Copper army, Adelphos Gein

<<ESCAFLOWNE TIDBITS>> (on bottom of the page)  

Dornkirk and his lovely curls. It is surprising to know he was an Earth scientist. By the way, his hair isn’t curled as he meets Leon, it really looks like it became his hairstyle after he became the emperor. Up until his very death on Earth, Isaac studied things like destiny and future prediction. The strength of this inquisitive mind was what opened the door to Gaea for him. As he was lying on his deathbed, when he thought it was his end, he opened his eyes one last time and before he knew it, he found himself on Gaea.

[iamthemess]

While I'm on some heavier topics rn, I'd like to remind everyone that are involved in fandom spaces of media that have been translated from other languages.

That they are translated from other languages.

It is not the original source and through translation words can lose their original meanings or be mistranslated/ have multiple translations.

There are lots of words in many languages that do not have a proper English equivalent so the closest word/phrase has to be used and that might not always be entirely accurate.

Always think about the context of the scene and use your reading comprehension before deciding something about the media.

(Looking at you BSD and ESPECIALLY BNHA, y'all wild with those ones.)

This also leaks over into culture. Different cultures have different culture to what you are used to.

If you see something in an anime you think might be weird, remember that Japan has a different culture to you, and for them consuming that type of content in media, is perfectly okay, and not the hugely taboo thing that it might be in other countries.

An that the things they do are most likely based on real life experiences the average person or the author has in that country.

(This is excluding smut/porn/hentai/etc, that shit is never real.)

If you find yourself in a situation where you are being told by a person of that culture that something you have done is wrong. Accept it, apologise and do better. It is that simple.

It is basic respect.

[exilley]

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

[neo--queen--serenity]

Marcille is actually one of the biggest reasons it took so long to pinpoint which Chilchuck was the imposter in today’s episode.

The Senshi and Marcille imposters had their own reasons for being hard to decipher, but that was a joint effort on the party’s part. Chilchuck was the only example where a single member’s bias actually swayed the others so strongly that it made them all doubt themselves.

Ryouko Kui did an excellent job of giving us a rich background on how different races interact, and how they may descriminate against each other. Each of the races in this series struggles with these prejudices. Our main characters are not exempt from this, and we see it clearly in the way the shapeshifter manifested as each party member, showing us how the others percieve them.

Marcille knows Chilchuck well, and cares deeply for him as a friend. But she’s not immune to assumptions and biases that come from her elven background. The Chilchuck imposter we are faced with, when it’s down to two of them left, is Marcille’s memory of Chilchuck, Marcille’s perception of how he behaves.

One of the first manifestations of this bias occurs when shapeshifter Chilchuck can’t get a jar open.

The real Chilchuck knows that this would never happen—at least not in this way. Chilchuck is proud, yes, but he asks for Laios’ help all the time. Laios is actually one of the party members he is the most likely to ask help from, given how long they’ve known each other, and how much mutual trust exists between them.

However, the whole scenario isn’t right. Chilchuck wouldn’t give up so easily on opening something; his whole job is opening and unlocking things. He would never quit an attempt like this within 5 seconds, then run to Laios so that “big strong adult tall-man” can open it for him.

Marcille is the one who asks, “Huh? Why do you say that?” because Marcille is partially right. Chilchuck does rely on Laios, and Marcille knows this to be true. But she fails to realize how he relies on Laios.

Chilchuck respects many of Laios’ talents, but the most important ones are his combat skills, his emotional fortitude, and his quick thinking when delegating tasks. He trusts Laios as someone he is comfortable following (he literally said to him and Shuro in the last episode: “Laios!! Tell us what do!! Give us orders!!” when chimera Falin was quickly overpowering them).

So while Marcille almost understands Chilchuck’s confidence in Laios, she tends to accidentally infantilize him in the process.

She immediately believes that Chilchuck B (the imposter, who is specifically using her own memory as its base for Chilchuck’s personality) is the real one, and says so, because she’s blinded by her perception of him as being childlike and adorable because of the very common racial prejudices that half-foots deal with all the time.

She dotes on the imposter, and is open with her affections, as usual (again, her care for him is clear), but doubles down on that bias, on her own assumptions of Chilchuck’s behavior shown through her own lens.

And ultimately, Laios was able to tell the difference, but only because he watched how the Chilchucks handled other minute tasks. Marcille’s stance on which Chilchuck was real truly did throw the others for a loop, at least until the threat passed. And honestly, that’s part of what makes the shapeshifter so terrifying. Its strategy almost worked.

[lylahammar]

Falin isn't comfortable in these kinds of clothes but I'm a big fat Falin kinnie so I had to draw her in some of my outfits anyways ✌️😗

[superbat-love]

When you bring a friend over and they meet your cat for the first time.

[aria-greenhoodie]

Ok so my friend said that Ice King is basically an anime girl (huge ass, keeps getting in situations where his muumuu gets blown to reveal said huge ass, has a gay little run, etc.) And I um. My hand slipped. 😇

Click for Quality!

[harumichiii]

SAILOR MOON S: Episode 18 - 「芸術は愛の爆発!ちびうさの初恋」

[qarameiio]

recuérdame, si mi guitarra oyes llorar...

[dunmeshistash]

Dungeon Meshi - Kobolds and Werewolfs

Translations given by a helpful anon .

Observations and TL note under the cut.

TL note by anon: * basal dog breeds: not sure how scientifically sound this is (only did a cursory search to confirm I was using the right term, because normal dictionaries only translate genshu as "purebred" and it didn't make any sense in this context ^^") but they're a number of specific breeds that are not exactly ancient but they did differentiate earlier than most other dog breeds - shiba are among these obviously.

---

A few more observations of my own:

On another version of the kobolds from daydream hour 2 (slightly different from "The complete Daydream Hour") Ryoko Kui Mentions "Jackals, African Wild Dogs or wolves" which I think its interesting.

I don't know much about DnD so I thought it was strange most Kobolds showed up as lizard people when I searched them on google and I learned that Kobolds are popularized as dogs in japan due to D&D first edition describing them as having dog faces. This was the post that first made me aware of that.

[beaulesbian]

One Piece || Eustass Kid & Killer in ep. 942

How cruel. He was forced to eat the Smile fruit and was given a mask of laughter that he can never take off.

[corvidcall]

None Of You Know What Haiku Are

I'm going to preface this by saying that i am not an expert in ANY form of poetry, just an enthusiast. Also, this post is... really long. Too long? Definitely too long. Whoops! I love poetry.

If you ask most English-speaking people (or haiku-bot) what a haiku is, they would probably say that it's a form of poetry that has 3 lines, with 5, and then 7, and then 5 syllables in them. That's certainly what I was taught in school when we did our scant poetry unit, but since... idk elementary school when I learned that, I've learned that that's actually a pretty inaccurate definition of haiku. And I think that inaccurate definition is a big part of why most people (myself included until relatively recently!) think that haiku are kind of... dumb? unimpressive? simple and boring? I mean, if you can just put any words with the right number of syllables into 3 lines, what makes it special?

Well, let me get into why the 5-7-5 understanding of haiku is wrong, and also what makes haiku so special (with examples)!

First of all, Japanese doesn't have syllables! There's a few different names for what phonetic units actually make up the language- In Japanese, they're called "On" (音), which translates to "sound", although English-language linguists often call it a "mora" (μ), which (quoting from Wikipedia here) "is a basic timing unit in the phonology of some spoken languages, equal to or shorter than a syllable." (x) "Oh" is one syllable, and also one mora, whereas "Oi" has one syllable, but two moras. "Ba" has one mora, "Baa" has two moras, etc. In English, we would say that a haiku is made up of three lines, with 5-7-5 syllables in them, 17 syllables total. In Japanese, that would be 17 sounds.

For an example of the difference, the word "haiku", in English, has 2 syllables (hai-ku), but in Japanese, はいく has 3 sounds (ha-i-ku). "Christmas" has 2 syllables, but in Japanese, "クリスマス" (ku-ri-su-ma-su) is 5 sounds! that's a while line on its own! Sometimes the syllables are the same as the sounds ("sushi" is two syllables, and すし is two sounds), but sometimes they're very different.

In addition, words in Japanese are frequently longer than their English equivalents. For example, the word "cuckoo" in Japanese is "ほととぎす" (hototogisu).

Now, I'm sure you're all very impressed at how I can use an English to Japanese dictionary (thank you, my mother is proud), but what does any of this matter? So two languages are different. How does that impact our understanding of haiku?

Well, if you think about the fact that Japanese words are frequently longer than English words, AND that Japanese counts sounds and not syllables, you can see how, "based purely on a 17-syllable counting method, a poet writing in English could easily slip in enough words for two haiku in Japanese” (quote from Grit, Grace, and Gold: Haiku Celebrating the Sports of Summer by Kit Pancoast Nagamura). If you're writing a poem using 17 English syllables, you are writing significantly more content than is in an authentic Japanese haiku.

(Also not all Japanese haiku are 17 sounds at all. It's really more of a guideline.)

Focusing on the 5-7-5 form leads to ignoring other strategies/common conventions of haiku, which personally, I think are more interesting! Two of the big ones are kigo, a season word, and kireji, a cutting word.

Kigo are words/phrases/images associated with a particular season, like snow for winter, or cherry blossoms for spring. In Japan, they actually publish reference books of kigo called saijiki, which is basically like a dictionary or almanac of kigo, describing the meaning, providing a list of related words, and some haiku that use that kigo. Using a a particular kigo both grounds the haiku in a particular time, but also alludes to other haiku that have used the same one.

Kireji is a thing that doesn't easily translate to English, but it's almost like a spoken piece of punctuation, separating the haiku into two parts/images that resonate with and add depth to each other. Some examples of kireji would be "ya", "keri", and "kana." Here's kireji in action in one of the most famous haiku:

古池や　蛙飛び込む　水の音 (Furu ike ya　kawazu tobikomu　mizu no oto) (The old pond — A frog jumps in The sound of the water.)

You can see the kireji at the end of the first line- 古池や literally translates to "old pond ya". The "ya" doesn't have linguistic meaning, but it denotes the separation between the two focuses of the haiku. First, we are picturing a pond. It's old, mature. The water is still. And then there's a frog! It's spring and he's fresh and new to the world! He jumps into the pond and goes "splash"! Wowie! When I say "cutting word", instead of say, a knife cutting, I like to imagine a film cut. The camera shows the pond, and then it cuts to the frog who jumps in.

English doesn't really have a version of this, at least not one that's spoken, but in English language haiku, people will frequently use a dash or an ellipses to fill the same role.

Format aside, there are also some conventions of the actual content, too. They frequently focus on nature, and are generally use direct language without metaphor. They use concrete images without judgement or analysis, inviting the reader to step into their shoes and imagine how they'd feel in the situation. It's not about describing how you feel, so much as it's about describing what made you feel.

Now, let's put it all together, looking at a haiku written Yosa Buson around 1760 (translated by Harold G. Henderson)

The piercing chill I feel: my dead wife's comb, in our bedroom, under my heel

We've got our kigo with "the piercing chill." We read that, and we imagine it's probably winter. It's cold, and the kind of cold wind that cuts through you. There's our kireji- this translation uses a colon to differentiate our two images: the piercing chill, and the poet stepping on his dead wife's comb. There's no descriptions of what the poet is feeling, but you can imagine stepping into his shoes. You can imagine the pain he's experiencing in that moment on your own.

"But tumblr user corvidcall!" I hear you say, "All the examples you've used so far are Japanese haiku that have been translated! Are you implying that it's impossible for a good haiku to be written in English?" NO!!!!! I love English haiku! Here's a good example, which won first place in the 2000 Henderson haiku contest, sponsored by the Haiku Society of America:

meteor shower . . . a gentle wave wets our sandals

When you read this one, can you imagine being in the poet's place? Do you feel the surprise as the tide comes in? Do you feel the summer-ness of the moment? Haiku are about describing things with the senses, and how you take in the world around you. In a way, it's like the poet is only setting a scene, which you inhabit and fill with meaning based on your own experiences. You and I are imagining different beaches, different waves, different people that make up the "our" it mentioned.

"Do I HAVE to include all these things when I write haiku? If I include all these things, does that mean my haiku will be good?" I mean, I don't know. What colors make up a good painting? What scenes make up a good play? It's a creative medium, and nobody can really tell you you can't experiment with form. Certainly not me! But I think it's important to know what the conventions of the form are, so you can appreciate good examples of it, and so you can know what you're actually experimenting with. And I mean... I'm not the poetry cops. But if you're not interested in engaging with the actual conventions and limitations of the form, then why are you even using that form?

I'll leave you with one more English language haiku, which is probably my favorite haiku ever. It was written by Tom Bierovic, and won first place at the 2021 Haiku Society of America Haiku Awards

a year at most . . . we pretend to watch the hummingbirds

Sources: (x) (x) (x) (x) (x) (x)

Further reading:

Forms in English Haiku by Keiko Imaoka Haiku: A Whole Lot More Than 5-7-5 by Jack How to Write a Bad Haiku by KrisL Haiku Are Not a Joke: A Plea from a Poet Who Has Had It Up to Here by Sandra Simpson Haiku Checklist by Katherine Raine

[lotus-pear]

rewatched bsd w my friend seeing it for the first time and the nostalgia of seeing these two together again hit me like a bus

[unproduciblesmackdown]

Lackadaisy Enrichment

[e-turn]

there was his angel, wrapped tightly around him.

from chapter 2 of death wish by @remedyturtles

Ben Harper - Waiting On An Angel

я завершила перевод «Я может, и не видим...»! вау. вау. я очень хочу радоваться сильнее, но слишком устала.

плюс вот вам еще парочка фиков из серии «желания умереть».

[yardsards]

the english dub translation does toshiro A LOT of favours with this line, as opposed to the manga translation that i read

the dub translation makes him sound (to me) like he was willing to let "asebi" escape and have her freedom if she wanted to, whereas the manga translation made him sound (to me) like he was willing to leave her alone to die as punishment for running away

(but also me having more knowledge of the series by the time the anime came out vs when i read the manga for the first time probably influenced how i interpreted those word choices)

the dub translation characterization kind of fits well with this bit from the adventurer's bible

like portraying toshiro not as a cold heartless person who is totally okay with the fact that his father basically owned child slaves, but as someone who knew something was wrong there but was too meek to actually do anything about the situation