#manga translation

[fukuranweek]

Bungo Stray Dogs Anthology - Akatsuki 3: A Little Break

[sleepywoodscans]

OPERATORS! Chapter 48: Swire the Elegant Wit. Also available on MangaDex.

[inukag]

Hello! Idk if u do translations analysis anymore. But there’s this one line on chapter 473, “the one you most loved” I wonder if that’s what the demon really said or if it’s just like when kikyo died? Not the most, but the first? Thank you!

I still do when people ask!

I’ve never seen this scene translated as anything other than “most”, but let’s look at the original Japanese text:

The second bubble says:

この世で一番愛していた女がー

kono yo de ichiban aishiteita hito ga

"The person you loved most in the world..."

The breakdown:

この世 (kono yo) - this world

で (de) - [particle] in

一番 (ichiban) - first place, #1; the best; the most

愛していた (aishiteita) - to love (notice 愛 (ai) in there), the -いた (ita) indicates past tense, so “loved”

女 (onna) - woman / ひと (hito) - person

が (ga) - [particle]

The part you were asking about is the 一番 (ichiban) which does somewhat mean “first”, but as in “first place”. Which is probably best describe as “best”.

We’ve discussed this scene a lot in the fandom, but to reiterate, Kao is a demon that feeds on sadness. This scene is happening right after Kikyo’s final and permanent death, and the nth time that Inuyasha failed to protect her from Naraku. Kao cannot feel Inuyasha’s love for Kagome at that moment because Kagome has only ever been a source of happiness for Inuyasha, not a source of pain like his love for Kikyo.

That is the whole point of this arc, Inuyasha did love Kikyo, but his love for Kagome always makes him choose to stay with her and live instead of succumbing to guilt and dying. Inuyasha already made the same choice before when Kikyo had him under a spell and was trying to drag him to hell, and again in the illusionary death arc. We know Kao is wrong in his assumption that Kikyo is the woman he loved most, because if she was, Inuyasha wouldn’t have hesitated to follow her in that peaceful vision Kao showed him. If he wanted to follow Kikyo, he could have ignored Kagome’s voice and make the choice to be in the afterlife with Kikyo anyway. But he didn’t, and the fact that he was able to wake up shocked Kao, who thought he had figured out what Inuyasha wanted.

In general, a lot of characters make assumptions about other characters in the series, based on their limited knowledge of that person. Sometimes, villains make statements intentionally trying to hurt the person they are targeting, like here. The only person who truly knows what Inuyasha is feeling is Inuyasha himself, and he explicitly said himself that he was born to be with Kagome.

[ukgk]

Sore ga Nanika. (2001)

(by かき氷屋なしゆめ本店/Shaved-ice flagship store without dreams)

[exilepurify]

Shigeo and Mob omitted scene dialogue translation

I felt like the way some of the dialogue in the MP100 manga during the Confession Arc “No one will save me” scene (not included in anime) was a little confusing, so I got my hands on the raws for that chapter and translated it from the Japanese to English to get a better feel for it.

Translation under the cut! (It’s long)

This scene happens in the manga directly before Reigen’s scenes start. It’s basically Shigeo’s internal dialogue that happens as Serizawa and Reigen are attempting to reach Shigeo using the umbrella as a shield. It’s also one of my top three scenes in the entire manga and I was crushed it wasn’t included in the anime.

But! The translated dialogue can be pretty confusing. The subject matter is already a bit abstract and nebulous, and it’s made even harder to fully grasp translated out of its original language. It’s the curse of translated media to always be slightly less clear than the source material. This is why I wanted to go and translate the Japanese myself.

The first page I translated is this one:

Below is the translated dialogue, separated by speech bubble, going right to left and top to bottom:

Mob: なぜこんなことを？— Why do something like this?

Shigeo: 僕のためだ。— For me.

Shigeo: やりたいことをやるためだ。— To do what I want to do.

Shigeo: 僕は僕のためにいる。— I am here for my own sake.

Shigeo: 僕には僕が必要なんだ。— I need myself.

Shigeo: 車にはねられたのを覚えているか？ — Do you remember being hit by a car?

Shigeo: そして身体だけじゃ動けなくな��た。— After that, I couldn’t move with just my body.

Shigeo: だから意思で動くしかない。— So I had no choice but to move with my will.

Mob: 何を言っているんだ。お前は僕の意思じゃないよ。— What are you talking about? You’re not my will!

Shigeo: わかってないな。それが偽物だっていうんだ。— You don’t understand, do you? I’m saying that it’s not true.

Shigeo: ツボミちゃんに会いに行くための強い気持ちがあるだろう。— You have strong feelings about going to meet Tsubomi-chan, don’t you?

Shigeo: 僕にとってそれはとても大事なものだ。— To me, that is a very important thing.

Mob: そんなもの… こんなに人に迷惑かけてまですることじゃない。お前の考えは普通じゃないよ。— Something like that… isn’t worth making trouble for people like this. Your mindset isn’t normal!

Shigeo: 普通ってなんだ？またそうやって僕そのものを否定するのか？What’s “normal”? Are you going to keep denying me like that?

Shigeo: アンタはいつもそうやって納得したつもりになってた。— You were always pretending you understood like that.

Shigeo: そして割りを食うのはいつも僕だ。— And it was always me who scraped by as a percentage.

Shigeo: このままアンタが壊れて消えれば… — At this point, if you break apart and disappear…

Shigeo: もう僕は我慢しなくていい。— I won’t have to endure it anymore.

Shigeo: 僕の好きにやらせてもらう。— I will be able to do as I please. 

Mob: 自分勝手に力を速って… — Using my powers for selfish reasons…

Mob: 誰かに迷惑をかけることが「自由」なのか？— and making problems for everybody… Is that “freedom”?

Mob: 僕はそんなことを求めて生きてない！— That’s not what I want, or what I’m living for!

Shigeo: 誰かって誰た？誰に迷惑がかかるんだ? — Who is “everybody”? Who are you making trouble for?

Mob: え… — Uh…

Shigeo: 誰なんだよ。— Who??

Shigeo: その誰かが僕を幸せにしてくれるのか？— Will those people bring me happiness?

Shigeo: いつか助けてくれるのか？— Will they save me someday?

Shigeo: 思い出すんだ。Remember.

Shigeo: …いつも僕を助けてたのは…僕だろう。— …The one who always saved me… was me.

Shigeo: そんなこと… 利用されてたんだよ。— You always used me… for that sort of thing.

Shigeo: しかもそれをわかってて喜んでた。なぜ？— And yet, knowing that, you were pleased. Why?

Shigeo: 臆病だからだよ。自分の行動に…力に…責任を持ちたくないから… — Because you’re a coward. Because you don’t want to be responsible for your actions… your power…

Shigeo: だから他人のためにしか自分の力を使わない… — So you only use your power for the sake of others…

Shigeo: でも力を認めて受け入れてもらえるのは嬉しかった。なせ？— But you were happy that your powers were acknowledged and accepted. Why?

Shigeo: 力を使う僕こそ本当の僕だから。— Because the me that uses my powers is the real me.

Mob: 違う。力は関係ない。力がなくたって僕は僕だ。— That’s wrong. Power is irrelevant. Even without power, I am me.

Shigeo: 関係ある。力があってこその僕だ。— It is relevant. It’s precisely because of power that I am me.

Shigeo: 自分の本性を、裏を、半分を、隠して安心？— Does it give you peace of mind, hiding your true nature, your hidden side, half of yourself?

Shigeo: 嘘だな。— It’s a lie.

Shigeo: 自分に嘘をついたまま長いこと忘れちゃってたんだよ。— Telling yourself lies for such a long time like that, you ended up forgetting.

Shigeo: 部活に入って自分を変ようとしたけどそんなのは無理だ。— You tried to change yourself by joining your club, but that’s not possible.

Shigeo: 簡単に新しい自分を作ろうとしてるだけ。— You’re simply trying to fabricate a new self.

Shigeo: 一番難しい問題を先送りにして努力した元気になってるんだよ「モブ」は。— You tried to put off the most difficult problem by working out and getting fit, “Mob”.

Shigeo: ずーっと… 僕を見てなかった。— You didn’t look at me… for a very long time.

Mob: だって… もしこれが本当の僕の姿だっていうなら… — That’s because… if this is my true form…

Mob: 本当の僕になんて誰も近寄られない。誰も… — If this is the real me, no one will want to be near me. No one…

Mob: 誰も助けてくれない。そんなの嫌だ… — No one will save me. I hate it…

Shigeo: 本当は僕は誰も信用していない。まあ…律はわかってくれたみたいだけど。— The truth is, I don’t trust anyone. Well… Ritsu seemed to get it, though.

Shigeo: こうやって暴れる僕だって本当の僕だ。— The one violently raging like this is the true me.

Shigeo: まだ認めたくないの？— Don’t you want to admit it already?

Shigeo: まだ逃げるのか… — You’re still running away…

Shigeo: 本当に弱い… — You really are weak…

Shigeo: だから認めるんだ。これが僕だ。— Admit it. This is me.

Shigeo: 誰も助けてくれない。No one will save me.

Shigeo: それならそれでいい。それが僕だから。— If so, that’s fine. It’s me, after all.

Shigeo: 次に目覚めたときは僕は僕になってる。— When next I open my eyes, I will become me. 

Shigeo: さようなら、モブ。— Goodbye, Mob.

———-

Notes:

1) In the most widely-used scanlation, this line:

Shigeo: そして割りを食うのはいつも僕だ。— And it was always me who scraped by as a percentage.

is translated as:

Shigeo: “And it always put me at a disadvantage.”

It’s generally correct, but I think it loses some of the impact that the original, seemingly very intentional wording has. 割り means “percentage” or “proportion” in this sense, and 食う, though most widely used as a masculine slang word for “to eat”, has a secondary usage meaning “to survive/to make a living (through hardship)” My version of this line is not the most strictly dictionary-accurate one but I feel like it captures the feeling well, which is the point of translation when done well.

2) The line:

Mob: 誰も助けてくれない。そんなの嫌だ… — No one will save me. I hate it…

is translated in the scanlation as:

“No one will save me. I don’t want that…”

This is still technically correct, but I’ve always thought 「嫌」 to be a bit stronger than that. It’s most often used to express dislike of something, so it’s correct to say “I don’t like it…” but it’s also the kanji used in 嫌い (I hate…), and it makes more sense to me to think of it as “I hate it” because it also parallels Ritsu’s “嫌いだ/ I hate it” statement in his vs ??? sequence.

Anyway, sorry this was so long! I hope it makes sense. I feel like it cleared up a few of the murkier statements for me.

A list of interesting vocab used here, for Japanese language learners:

偽物　「にせもの」：(n) counterfeit, imitation, sham

迷惑をかける　「めいわく」：to cause trouble (for someone), to bother, to inconvenience

否定　「ひてい」：denial, disavowal, repudiation

我慢する　「がまん(する)」：to endure, to bear with (something)

臆病　「おくびょう」：cowardly, timid (kanji literally means “timidity sickness”)

近寄る　「ちかよる」：to approach, to draw near

暴れる　「あばれる」：to act violently, to rage, to be riotous

[themisterhip]

This is random, but I made a quickly translation of the new opm chapter, enjoy! (also this goes for @gofancyninjaworld owo)

[mywaywardcupcake]

So question, why is Jounouchi's character name "Joey"? All of the characters are using the player's first names except for his. Is this a VIZ thing? Is it supposed to stay as Jounouchi or is there another name? Or is that his name in the original too?

[menheramar]

Bungou Stray Dogs Anthology: Rei Chapter 11 Translation

Raws: mangareader.to Translation & Typeseting: me! Original Artist: Masashiro Yuuto

So... it was announced that Rei is getting an official english translation soon. This is good news, but unfortunately this means I may put a pause on the anthology translations for now, or work backwards starting from the latest anthology. I decided I'll just put out what I have for now and move to a different project that is less likely to get an official translation.

I'm still going to be doing translations, so expect something other than Bungou Stray Dogs soon (anyone heard of Otogi no Uta?)! Besides artwork that is, since I have a lot of stuff I'm working on :)

Thank you!

[yuliasolsystem]

I'm practicing my Japanese on my favorite moments from the manga.

A lot of people think Legato followed Knives because Knives saved him. But actually Legato's reaction is not "Oh, he saved me, I'm so grateful", Legato doesn't want to live, he sees no meaning in his life. Instead his reaction is "Oh, this guy destroyed a city I hated and in a way that my tormentors would suffer before they died! I think I'm feeling something..."

"It happened in an instant.

The head was cut off with such pleasing thoroughness and brilliance.

What a skill!

[That bastard] was still conscious.

Tears of joy rolled from my eyes as I prolonged his life to torture him."

(Ah, finally someone appreciates Knives' skills at killing assholes...)

"The emotional excitement I felt at that moment, I didn't know the words to express it.

Truly, without any exaggeration, this was a being capable of bringing this entire suffocating world back to nothingness.

...no, it was more than that.

I wanted to get close to him."

(Poor Legato doesn't understand, the feelings he's experiencing.....)

[russenoire]

here, i'm gonna spill some more ink over studio bones' decisions adapting ???% in mob psycho 100's confession arc... in a lighter color, perhaps.

some manga readers are upset at the lack of separation between '???%' and 'mob' in the anime vs the clear separation in the manga. that separation doesn't exist in the original japanese.

mob's 声優 (seiyuu) setsuo itō's voice acting in this scene from MP100's first season is by turns startling and visceral (tbh, most of the VA work in this scene is amazing, but i'm only referring to mob here).

given the above, i expected a voice come up from the depths of hell for ???% in the confession arc, but bones and itō-san did not indulge my whims here. what they gave us instead...

...actually reflects the source material.

while there is an audible distinction between ???%'s nonchalant contempt and mob's considerably-more-animated (thanks to all that emotional growth we've seen over the course of the story!) upset, they sound like the same person in the anime... because they are. i thought this a tidy way to convey that fact, and this subtle distinction is not that different in feel from what we see on the page in the original language.

inside the teenager's mind, shigeo (???%) and mob quarrel in the same font. tails on their speech bubbles eventually disappear as they continue to argue with each other. i found this pointed lack of separation a little confusing on first read, but eventually became used to it.

(for a breakdown of this full conversation in the manga, check out @exilepurify's awesome translation post.)

shigeo chafes at the thought of considering others' needs. he scorns mob for bending himself into a shape he thinks will suit tsubomi, mocks mob's desire to blend into the background and somehow escape notice. his own wish for tsubomi to accept him in all his explosive vainglory doesn't take her wishes into account, either.

and yet. his desires are subordinate to mob's.

he wants what mob wants -- only without that whole pesky 'consideration for other people' thing -- and he wants to keep mob alive. their full conversation reveals just how much shigeo actually loves mob.

for all practical purposes, any distinctions between shigeo and mob -- private vs public, subconscious vs conscious -- only exist in the boy's head. even then, they have been unfairly imposed... by mob himself.

the teenager laying waste to seasoning city? the teenager his friends and family love? one and the same.

his loved ones and allies address him with the names by which they know him; they assume he's the same person, just experiencing an involuntary loss of control and in need of some help. it's important to emphasize that. drastically different voices for shigeo and mob would have drawn a hard line between them where there is none.

studio bones removed and/or internalized ???%'s lines, apparently robbing him of speech. but ???% is talking to himself, and no one else can hear him.

in the manga, shigeo seizes control of the boy's speech centers and speaks out loud as ???%, in a scratchy, rough font meant to evoke a harsh voice. (it's the same font used for ???%'s last brief, conscious takeover when mob discovers the crispy fried corpses of his family in their merrily crackling home! you can hear itō-san's delightful interpretation of it in episode 9 from the second season.)

he says:

｢僕の好きにやらせてもらう。」 boku no s'ki ni yarasete morau. 'i'll be free to do whatever i want.' or more literally: 'i will take [from you] the allowance to do as i please.' his use of 貰う here emphasizes that he is forcing mob's hand.

this line and the shift in viewpoint serve to highlight the exact moment where shigeo gains the advantage in his argument with mob.

mob and shigeo squabble for external control for a while; ONE shows this by letting them both speak aloud in this same rough voice. both sides of the fight between the two (at least after 'i'll be free to do whatever i want') can actually be heard from the outside. we only get a few small panels of this as it's happening, but it's unnerving.

shigeo, who is winning this battle, not only gets far more lines as seen from without, but his harsh rasp even colors mob's external speech. this is mob's only line the mangaka lets us see in that font, and it's heartbreaking:

｢だって… もしこれが本当の僕の姿だっていうなら…」 datte... mosh' kore ga hontou no boku no sugata datte iu nara... 'because... if this [???%] is what i really am, as you say...

the line continues within:

｢本当の僕になんて誰も近寄らない。誰も…　誰も助けてくれない。そんなの嫌いだ。」 hontou no boku ni nante daremo ch'kayoranai. daremo... daremo tas'kete kurenai. sonna no kirai da. 'no one will come anywhere near the real me. no one... no one will be there for me. i won't have that.'

the full takeover, which happens a bit later, is marked by:

shigeo's dissolution of and absorption of mob's consciousness into himself;

reigen's ｢すまない｣ (sumanai, 'i'm sorry') for not knowing the nature of what his deshi was struggling to contain;

???%'s last glance back at the man before pressing on towards his goal... as reigen begs him to wait, running after him.

thereafter, we see ???% from without. we get two short glimpses of shigeo's internal perspective before dimple's reappearance, then rejoin him inside for his last explosion with mob.

the anime depicts the moment of full takeover thusly:

shigeo's dissolution of and absorption of mob's consciousness into himself;

a ｢すまない｣ from reigen, who senses something has gone even more wrong with the boy and renews his pursuit... begging him to wait;

shigeo's turning his back on reigen and walking on. we see him spurning his mentor from the inside, his face hardening against a stark black backdrop.

the outward shift happens on-screen too. while it eventually returns to an internal view just as the manga does, it largely stays there, owing to a serious expansion of the scene where shigeo indulges his thirst for revenge on reigen.

except for an audible sigh when teru remarks on how normal his friend's losing control of himself actually makes him, anime shigeo speaks to no one.

???% is alone when he speaks in the manga; reigen is nowhere within earshot and shigeo is only addressing mob. in other words, he's talking to himself. shigeo never utters a word to anyone else in either manga or anime, as if he owes no one an explanation for the choice to sack his hometown or injure his friends.

as bone-chilling and unsettling as ???% speaking out loud is on the page, as much as it enhances the reading experience... in my opinion, it adds nothing new to our understanding of this situation on the screen. viewers can see for themselves that:

an internal takeover has occurred in this boy's mind,

???% is sentient and human and ever so divinely enraged at having been chained up for so long;

???% is finally free.

so why should studio bones belabor this point by having him shout, in the middle of a tornado, to no one in particular? if a boy speaks in a tornado, and there is no one around to hear it, does he make a sound... ?

i also don't know that this would translate well to film. in real life, talking to oneself like that usually carries connotations of psychosis, and resolving it as is done here would honestly be an insult to real-life sufferers. i love it to pieces in the manga but understand why this was cut.

the only things removing ???%'s outward speech loses for me are:

one last opportunity for itō-san to flex that audible jump-scare STOMACH-TWISTING SNARL (oh, i will miss it so);

a slightly-less-vague sense of how shigeo might make his wishes known to tsubomi, were he to present himself to her like this... he wants her approval so badly, and is terrified of not getting it. would he be able to speak to her at all? in the manga the question becomes what would he even say to her?

[villain-manga-unofficial]

Villain Chapter 1 COMPLETE [Fan Translation]

Complete chapter 1 translation is here! I have also included a backup in case any of the pictures get flagged 

backup on Google photos here

Support the original manga here

[hikari-kaitou]

Translation commissions

Got something in Japanese that you want to be able to read/understand? Then have I got an offer for you!

25 comic pages - $35

35 comic pages - $45

50 comic pages- $70

I can do audio material as well, like drama CDs and videos.

25 minutes - $40

50 minutes - $70

60 minutes - $85

Translations will be text only; I lack the skill to do professional-looking typesetting or subtitles. Feel free to message me for a no-obligation estimate if your project is larger or smaller than these parameters!

[sleepywoodscans]

OPERATORS! Chapter 52: Kjera. Also available on MangaDex.

[inukag]

Another translation difference I wanted to talk about is this line from chapter 558 / episode 26 of TFA. 

Both translations of the manga imply that Inuyasha is going into the well every 3 days (with the intent of going to Kagome’s world) while the anime is more vague, only saying he’s going to the well. 

So what is the truth? 

The verb used was 入る/はいる (hairu) which means to enter; to go into.

So not only was Inuyasha pining for Kagome and visiting the well every 3 days for 3 years, he also was ready to risk it all & abandon the feudal era for her! 😭

[claypoolfan]

HELLO! i've finished my chapter 4 translation of villain by fujita, based on the song by teniwoha! please remember to support the original release here! you can give it a like so that they know that we want more :) and remember to support the original song as well!

and a little reminder: this is an unofficial fan translation, and i do these for the sole sake of practice! :) feel free to let me know if you spot any mistakes, as i'm still learning!

and also, a quick content warning: this chapter contains transphobia + misgendering

google drive link, if you prefer reading on there! ch.1 / ch.2 / ch.3 / ch.4

ch.1 / ch.2 / ch.3 / ch.4

and there's the end of chapter 4... what a cliffhanger..... chapter 5 is currently scheduled to release on july 11th! and remember to scroll to the end of the original release and give it a like to support it directly ^_^ (you don't need to make an account!)

[exilepurify]

Reigen’s confession scene: original Japanese manga text analysis and translation

I had a ton of fun translating the Japanese text from the “no one will save me” Mob headspace scene and it’s fantastic practice, so I decided to personally translate the raws from Reigen’s confession scene and analyze that a bit.

More under the cut! (Very long :0)

Reigen: なんの力も無いんだ！— I dont have any powers!

持ってないんだよ！— None at all!

Reigen: 嘘… — A lie…

最初から嘘だったんだ… — From the start, it was a lie.

Reigen: ちょっと失礼。— Excuse me for a moment.

花粉症かな? — Hay fever, right?

俺はよく嘘をつく。— I lie all the time.

客にも… — To my clients…

Reigen: お前にもな… — and to you…

初めてお前が事務所に来た日… — That day, when you came to my office for the first time…

俺は嘘をついた。— I lied to you.

お前の悩みを知った気で相談に乗った。— I advised you as if I understood your struggles.

お前は俺を簡単に信じた。だから… — And you believed me easily. So…

お前を騙して仕事をやらせた。— I tricked you into working for me.

あの日から今日まで… — From that day, up until now…

Reigen: ずっと… — The entire time…

ずっと利用し続けてたんだ... — I continued to use you the entire time…

俺… — I…

本当は何も知らねぇんだ。— I honestly don’t know shit

Reigen: 超能力のこと… — about psychic powers…

Reigen: これが俺の正体だ… — This is my true self.

今まで師匠面してすまなかったな… — I’m sorry for acting like your master up until now.

だけど最後なんだ。もう少し言わせてくれ。— But this is the last time. So hear me out just a little longer.

Reigen: お前だけが特別な訳じゃない。— You’re not the only one who’s special.

ニ面性なんて誰にでもある。— Everyone has a second side to them.

これは今でも本当に思うことだ。— This is what I truly believe, even now.

皆お前と同じだ。俺も… — You are the same are everyone else. The same as me, too…

だからそんなに悩むな。— So you don’t have to worry so much.

いや… 悩むんでもいいか… — No… worrying is fine, too.

それもまた当たり前のことだ。— That is also a natural thing to do.

ここだけの話… 俺は隠してる自分の本当の姿が大嫌いなんだが… — Just between you and me… I absolutely despise the true nature of my secret self.

それとは別として相談所での日々は嫌いじゃなかった。— Despite this, I didn’t hate those days we spent at the consultation office.

俺には「嘘」があったからお前と知り合えた訳だし… — Because I had “lies”, I got to get to know you…

モブにもその「力」があったから… 今のお前があるんじゃないか。— Because you have your “powers”… you are the person you are today, right?

Reigen: えーと… Um…

要するにだ… — In short…

お前は… — You…

そのままでいい。— are fine the way you are.

もう俺がいなくても大丈夫だ。— You will be okay even if I’m not here anymore.

大丈夫。— You will be okay.

そろそろ受け入れてやれ。自分を！— Accept it a little at a time. Accept yourself!

お前なら… モブならそれができるって事を…俺は知ってる！！— Because it’s you…. Because you’re you, Mob, you can do it. I know you can!!

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Notes:

- なんの力も無いんだ! — I dont have any powers!

Reigen uses a widely-unused kanji here, 「無い」 or “nai”. A.K.A, Japanese negation. It’s almost always written with kana (興味がない、続けない、etc). I imagine the kanji was included here for greater emphasis. Reigen does actually use another unused kanji later in this conversation though (事 instead of こと) so I also think there’s a case to be made for it being an intentional decision made to make Reigen’s speech patterns seem eccentric, but I would need to look at much more of his manga dialogue to confirm that.

- 本当は何も知らねぇんだ。— I honestly don’t know shit

Okay. He doesn’t actually use the shit word here, but cursing is a bit strange in Japanese because of how tone can be subtly indicated by verb form, something we can’t really do in English. Reigen uses a very casual, rude form of 「知らない」 that I think is most faithfully represented by a curse word. He’s obviously trying to put negative emphasis. The Crunchyroll sub put it as “I don’t know a damn thing”. I chose “I honestly don’t know shit” because it’s a bit less of a deviation from the raw dialogue.

- 今まで師匠面してすまなかったな… — I’m sorry for acting like your master up until now.

I thought the use of 「師匠面して」 was interesting. 「師匠」 is “Shishou/Master”, which is straightforward, but 「面」 is a kanji that means “mask, face, surface” and it’s basic readings are “メン/men”, “おもて/omote” and “つら/tsura”. Reigen uses a lesser-known reading and meaning of this kanji, so much so that ONE included furigana over the kanji to clarify the reading. 「面」 here is read as 「づら」and is used as a suffix to mean “looking like a…, acting as if a….”.

お前だけが特別な訳じゃない。— You’re not the only one who’s special.

「訳」 (wake) is my mortal enemy, because it’s a word in Japanese that’s so close to being a particle but isn’t a particle. It’s a word indicating a conclusion reached from personal reasoning or evidence, or circumstance, or meaning related to a situation. It’s abstract, so it can be a bit tricky deciding how best to translate a sentence it’s used in. Sometimes it is not directly translated at all, which is what I did here, taking it more as a subtextual indicator of context than as a word in the text itself. However, this is out of personal preference, and I would totally accept it being translated more overtly as “You’re not the only one with special circumstances.”

- ここだけの話… 俺は隠してる自分の本当の姿が大嫌いなんだが… — Just between you and me… I absolutely despise the true nature of my secret self.

Two notes about this one:

「ここだけの話」 is a phrase that directly translates to “this is a discussion for only right here”, but that would sound kind of weird to say in English, and it means the exact same thing as “just between you and me”.

「隠してる自分の本当の姿」 is a DOOZY. It’s a little clunky, but I think it fits for Reigen to be a bit dramatic with it. I sort of played around with it a little bit, but strictly translated, it means “my hidden self’s true form”.

- 大丈夫だよ。行こう。— I will be okay. Let’s go.

This happens in the scene where Mob and Shigeo accept each other (not a part of Reigen’s confession), but I included it for a good reason. This isn’t so much a translation note as it is a commentary on the manga, but I think I like the manga version of the scene just a little better than the anime, just for the “大丈夫” thing between Reigen and Mob. Mob’s referencing Reigen’s previous words, 「もう俺がいなくても大丈夫だ。大丈夫。」 — “You will be okay even if I’m not here anymore. You will be okay”, which are beautifully enhanced by the sudden panel of Reigen watching Mob in that moment with a small smile, silently reassuring him that it’s true. It’s such a small detail but it means so much to me, and I’m a little sad it wasn’t fully preserved in the anime. But, yknow how it is. Not everything can make it in.