Jump to content

Majikoi S Translation Project Discussion


Recommended Posts

This precisely.

 

Specifically, "Kri" was one of the things I absolutely hated about Yandere's translation--sacrificing the joke to preserve the pronunciation is just dumb*--so... >_>

*i would totally translate Wanko as "Lassie" if I thought I could do so without having a literal riot on my hands <_<

Well, i guess the joke on wanko's name is harder to explain and yet everyone still uses wanko. So maybe it is fine? Personally i'm fine with either as the i have a certain standard of japanese knowledge. Although it's not enough to be able to understand difficult kanjis to read the game raw. That and reading moonrunes make me sleepy.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There's a really interesting balance there. This game is chock-full of puns and references that, if translated literally, basically demand fluency in Japanese to understand: "Wanko" being an punny reading of 一子 (Kazuko), where "wan" also means "woof"; puns based on Momo meaning "peach" (ももよもももももものうち, "momoyo mo momo mo momo no uchi" is a fun line that just sort of keels over and dies if I translate it literally as "Momoyo and peaches are both members of the peach family"); Takuya becomes Takuyo when he's crossdressing because "ya" is a masculine name-ending while "yo" is a feminine one, which is especially confusing to Western ears because we're used to hearing -a endings as feminine; "Until you cry I wait / Oh cuckoo" in English sounds more like the words of a crazy person than the literary allusion it is; the phrase "a punch with the intensity of a rising dragon" is going to lack a certain oomph if you don't know that's the literal translation of "shouryuuken." Determining which ones to change and which ones you're stuck with is... fun.

 

 

I generally side with changing more things because I feel that makes the final project more enjoyable. But I digress.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm usually in favor of rewording things or even inventing new jokes if the original just does not work at all in english. That was the secret to why the Grisaia translation was so good, the translator is a good writer and a funny guy so he was able to make the humor work in english to a surprising degree. But I dunno, Kri -> Krit works because it still sounds similar, but Wanko's different. I don't like the idea of changing a name, even a nickname, to something completely different, especially when fans will have exposure to other products like the anime where the name will be kept. 

 

Just curious, but what did you translate that Momoyo line to?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not really, i can understand Japanese when i listen to them but i can't speak nor read and write. Or i may the unique case.

same.  I'm able to have a layman's understanding of japanese since most of the N5/N4 words/phrases in japanese appear in a lot of shows and anime, but i can't read or write or speak.

Haaa, i wish my parents would have been assholes and forced me to learn 3 to 4 languages when i was 4-12.

 Now i have english ingrained into my brain, so i translate words into english in my mind.  I imagine the reason they say children learn languages easier is because they learn through pictures, emotions, and body language, and they don't correlate it with something else. A bibliotheque is a bibliotheque, and a library is a library, they're just extremely similar because humans will always be humans no matter the region or cultural differences.  Not having to correlate it with something would be incredibly helpful, but since i'm past that stage i have to frantically understand what it would be in english, which is ridiculous for japanese, since their sentence structures are so god damned strange, and how similar symbols can be completely different to what they supposedly look like.  And yes, the video below is chinese, but it's fairly applicable thanks to kanji being adapted from hanzi

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

same.  I'm able to have a layman's understanding of japanese since most of the N5/N4 words/phrases in japanese appear in a lot of shows and anime, but i can't read or write or speak.

Haaa, i wish my parents would have been assholes and forced me to learn 3 to 4 languages when i was 4-12.

 Now i have english ingrained into my brain, so i translate words into english in my mind.  I imagine the reason they say children learn languages easier is because they learn through pictures, emotions, and body language, and they don't correlate it with something else. A bibliotheque is a bibliotheque, and a library is a library, they're just extremely similar because humans will always be humans no matter the region or cultural differences.  Not having to correlate it with something would be incredibly helpful, but since i'm past that stage i have to frantically understand what it would be in english, which is ridiculous for japanese, since their sentence structures are so god damned strange, and how similar symbols can be completely different to what they supposedly look like.  And yes, the video below is chinese, but it's fairly applicable thanks to kanji being adapted from hanzi

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...