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sara_tanaquilThis one took a LOT longer to play through. Trying to do this in Japanese and English is going to be a killer. Still, I will gambare!
PW 1.2 Notes
As before, links on the Japanese names go to the bios in Court-Records, which do such a good job explaining the origins of the names in English and Japanese that there's usually no point in me repeating what they have to say.
Previously introduced characters
Eng: Phoenix Wright
Jap: 成歩堂 龍一 (Naruhodou Ryuuichi)
Eng: Mia Fey
Jap: 綾里千尋 (Ayasato Chihiro)
New characters
Eng: Maya Fey
Jap: 綾里真宵(Ayasato Mayoi)
Maya calls her sister oneechan (big sis); she calls Phoenix "Naruhodo-kun" (well, after she gets past the initial phase of calling him bengoshi-san, "Mr. Lawyer"). I'm really baffled about where the English translators got the idea of having her and Larry call Phoenix "Nick," since there isn't that much difference in Japanese between how Mia addresses him and how Maya and Larry do (and Maya and Larry don't even use the same form of address), but it's cute. Phoenix calls her "Mayoi-chan." (In case you can't tell, I'm endlessly fascinated by the difference between American assumptions about what characters with a certain level of closeness ought to call each other, and Japanese assumptions about the same thing.)
Maya's favorite food is ramen (esp. miso ramen), not burgers. (Sorry, American fanfic authors!)
Eng: Miles Edgeworth
Jap: 御剣怜侍(Mitsurugi Reiji)
Since probably 75% of these entries overall will wind up being me fangirling over Edgeworth, I'll refrain from further comment for the moment. Mitsurugiiiii!
Ha! OK, I lied. He's known in English as the Demon Prosecutor, a cruel and merciless opponent... in Japanese, he's Mitsurugi-kenji, 血も涙もない、オニのような検事 (chi mo namida mo nai, oni no you na kenji: "A prosecutor like a demon, [having] neither blood nor tears"). Only other Koori fans will know why I find that funny. "Having neither blood nor tears" is a Japanese expression for being cold-hearted, but it has literal significance in Koori no mamono no monogatari, The Ice-Cold Demon's Tale, a manga which EVERYONE SHOULD READ.
It's interesting in retrospect to see how careful the writers are to give the impression that Phoenix knows Edgeworth only by reputation, but rereading this in light of PW 1.4, it can just as easily be understood in the light of Phoenix looking forward to his long-awaited chance to meet Edgeworth again. まさか、こんなに早く合うことになるとは... (Masaka, konna ni hayaku au koto ni naru to wa...; "I didn't think I'd be meeting him so soon...")
Eng: Dick Gumshoe
Jap: 糸鋸圭介(Itonokogiri Keisuke)
Gumshoe's title is 刑事 (keiji), Detective. The shortened version of his name is Itonoko; he objects to Phoenix shortening his name at first, but everyone else does it, so his protests fall on deaf ears.
His speech patterns in Japanese don't have any catchphrase equivalent to "pal," but as noted at Court-Records, he does slur the end of all his sentences. Instead of んです, he adds ッス to everything. I think of that as being a typically youthful-male Tokyo slang pattern, is that more or less right? It shows up in a lot of high school BL. Larry does it too (the English version gives him the speech patterns of a slacker dude). Gumshoe is a little too old to be talking like a teenager (he's 30), but then again, he's kind of behind the curve for his age. And my impression of it being primarily youth slang might be incorrect.
In general, the English localization gives the side characters more distinctive/eccentric speech patterns than the Japanese version does. Some of the Japanese characters have really distinctive speech patterns (Redd White, below, is one; so is Lotta), but more often it's a subtle dialect/slang difference that I would hardly have noticed reading in Japanese. Usually, though, the choice that the English translators made is really clever, amusing, and true to the way the character is portrayed in the game overall. And since relatively subtle differences of speech pattern can convey so much in Japanese, it was probably a good editorial decision. It makes the game a lot more fun to play in English. (It's a LOT less excruciating than some dialect renditions I've seen in published manga. Challengers, ugh!)
Eng: April May
Jap: 松竹梅世(Shouchiku Umeyo)
The first three kanji of her name are a pun; if read as a three-character compound, they would be read 松竹梅= shouchikubai, literally "pine-bamboo-plum." In a commercial context, "pine" is the lowest grade and "plum" is the highest, so it also means low-medium-high. (That's what my dictionary says, but I have no idea how that classification system originated... anyone know?)
In keeping with her flirty persona, her speech patterns in Japanese are ultra-feminine. She refers to herself in the third person ("Umeyo thinks..."), as very young girls do, and drawls out her vowels. The general impression is of someone speaking in a high-pitched, giggly, baby-talk fashion. The English translation did a pretty good job of conveying the same impression (and, as so often, she's much funnier in English).
Eng: Redd White
Jap: 小中大(Konaka Masaru)
His name is another three-character kanji pun. The three characters in his name mean "small, medium, large."
His company in Japanese is called "Konaculture" (konakaruchaa), so the syallables of his last name Konaka are mingled with the first syllable of culture to make the company name. The English version changed that into Mr. Redd White of Bluecorp. Mia's dying words were Ko...na...ka.
I was really curious about his speech patterns in Japanese after playing the game in English, since he uses a lot of overly long, made-up words ("Ridiculosity!"). I wondered if he was misusing rare kanji words, or something. Turns out he's saying almost everything in outrageously mispronounced Engrish, spelled out in katakana. Fortunately he repeats his English phrases in Japanese, because nine times out of ten, I had no idea what the katakana were trying to say until I read the Japanese. He's way more fun to play in English.
(Ex., from the first time he does this: ドンチュノウ？ [Me: "Donchunou?" Wha?] 知らないのかい？ [Me: Ohhh, "Doncha know." Why didn't you just say so.] This line was translated into English as "Are you not cogniferous of my abilities?")
He "apologizes" a couple of times for using so much English (it's more a smug assertion of superiority), saying that he lived in the US for a long time and his Japanese is rusty. The writers of this game evidently think Americans are REALLY strange. (The von Karma family supposedly lived in America, too.)
Eng: Marvin Grossberg
Jap: 星影宇宙ノ介(Hoshikage Soranosuke)
He uses old-man Japanese (calls himself washi, ends verbs with -oru instead of –iru, -ja instead of –da, etc). Again, the stuffy way he talks in English does a pretty good job of conveying the same impression. (I can't figure out why he ends half of his sentences with チミ, though. I figured it was a gruff form of "kimi," but he seems to use it in a lot of places where "kimi" ("you") isn't very appropriate. Is this another old-man thing?)
Favorite lines in English (none of these jokes were in the Japanese...)
April May: I love a man with a big... vocabulary.
Phoenix (thinking): Tomorrow in court, I'll get to this woman's bottom!... uh, I mean... you know what I mean.
Phoenix (confronting April with the evidence that the clock wasn't sold in stores): I think it's high time you went shopping for a better excuse, Miss May.
April: ....
Phoenix: Oh? Excuses not on sale today?
(and, of course...)
Edgeworth: Objection! That was... objectionable!
Funniest Lines that Weren't Meant to be Funny
Judge: "Please! No wonton winking in the court."
(But egg drop winking is OK?)
Funniest Moments in Lazy Animation
When they didn't want to bother to create another "sprite" for the bellboy, so they stuck him in the stand to testify still holding up that ridiculous tea set, and the judge says in all seriousness, "That tea set looks rather heavy, so without further ado, the witness may begin his testimony."
Miscellaneous
There is one thing that really bugs me about the resolution of this particular case. I hate when Mia suddenly appears at the end and "reveals" that the receipt has vital information on the back. Maya channelling her is cool, but there's an old gentleman's (sic) agreement from the golden age of mysteries in England (think Dorothy Sayers and Agatha Christie) that the detective should never have information that isn't accessible to the reader. Suddenly pulling a rabbit out of the hat during the final summation ("Well, it just happens that I found this bloody handkerchief while I was searching the study...") is against the rules. The receipt thing annoyed the heck out of me the first time I played the case, and it still annoys me on the replay. Fortunately they don't do this often.
PW 1.2 Notes
As before, links on the Japanese names go to the bios in Court-Records, which do such a good job explaining the origins of the names in English and Japanese that there's usually no point in me repeating what they have to say.
Previously introduced characters
Eng: Phoenix Wright
Jap: 成歩堂 龍一 (Naruhodou Ryuuichi)
Eng: Mia Fey
Jap: 綾里千尋 (Ayasato Chihiro)
New characters
Eng: Maya Fey
Jap: 綾里真宵(Ayasato Mayoi)
Maya calls her sister oneechan (big sis); she calls Phoenix "Naruhodo-kun" (well, after she gets past the initial phase of calling him bengoshi-san, "Mr. Lawyer"). I'm really baffled about where the English translators got the idea of having her and Larry call Phoenix "Nick," since there isn't that much difference in Japanese between how Mia addresses him and how Maya and Larry do (and Maya and Larry don't even use the same form of address), but it's cute. Phoenix calls her "Mayoi-chan." (In case you can't tell, I'm endlessly fascinated by the difference between American assumptions about what characters with a certain level of closeness ought to call each other, and Japanese assumptions about the same thing.)
Maya's favorite food is ramen (esp. miso ramen), not burgers. (Sorry, American fanfic authors!)
Eng: Miles Edgeworth
Jap: 御剣怜侍(Mitsurugi Reiji)
Since probably 75% of these entries overall will wind up being me fangirling over Edgeworth, I'll refrain from further comment for the moment. Mitsurugiiiii!
Ha! OK, I lied. He's known in English as the Demon Prosecutor, a cruel and merciless opponent... in Japanese, he's Mitsurugi-kenji, 血も涙もない、オニのような検事 (chi mo namida mo nai, oni no you na kenji: "A prosecutor like a demon, [having] neither blood nor tears"). Only other Koori fans will know why I find that funny. "Having neither blood nor tears" is a Japanese expression for being cold-hearted, but it has literal significance in Koori no mamono no monogatari, The Ice-Cold Demon's Tale, a manga which EVERYONE SHOULD READ.
It's interesting in retrospect to see how careful the writers are to give the impression that Phoenix knows Edgeworth only by reputation, but rereading this in light of PW 1.4, it can just as easily be understood in the light of Phoenix looking forward to his long-awaited chance to meet Edgeworth again. まさか、こんなに早く合うことになるとは... (Masaka, konna ni hayaku au koto ni naru to wa...; "I didn't think I'd be meeting him so soon...")
Eng: Dick Gumshoe
Jap: 糸鋸圭介(Itonokogiri Keisuke)
Gumshoe's title is 刑事 (keiji), Detective. The shortened version of his name is Itonoko; he objects to Phoenix shortening his name at first, but everyone else does it, so his protests fall on deaf ears.
His speech patterns in Japanese don't have any catchphrase equivalent to "pal," but as noted at Court-Records, he does slur the end of all his sentences. Instead of んです, he adds ッス to everything. I think of that as being a typically youthful-male Tokyo slang pattern, is that more or less right? It shows up in a lot of high school BL. Larry does it too (the English version gives him the speech patterns of a slacker dude). Gumshoe is a little too old to be talking like a teenager (he's 30), but then again, he's kind of behind the curve for his age. And my impression of it being primarily youth slang might be incorrect.
In general, the English localization gives the side characters more distinctive/eccentric speech patterns than the Japanese version does. Some of the Japanese characters have really distinctive speech patterns (Redd White, below, is one; so is Lotta), but more often it's a subtle dialect/slang difference that I would hardly have noticed reading in Japanese. Usually, though, the choice that the English translators made is really clever, amusing, and true to the way the character is portrayed in the game overall. And since relatively subtle differences of speech pattern can convey so much in Japanese, it was probably a good editorial decision. It makes the game a lot more fun to play in English. (It's a LOT less excruciating than some dialect renditions I've seen in published manga. Challengers, ugh!)
Eng: April May
Jap: 松竹梅世(Shouchiku Umeyo)
The first three kanji of her name are a pun; if read as a three-character compound, they would be read 松竹梅= shouchikubai, literally "pine-bamboo-plum." In a commercial context, "pine" is the lowest grade and "plum" is the highest, so it also means low-medium-high. (That's what my dictionary says, but I have no idea how that classification system originated... anyone know?)
In keeping with her flirty persona, her speech patterns in Japanese are ultra-feminine. She refers to herself in the third person ("Umeyo thinks..."), as very young girls do, and drawls out her vowels. The general impression is of someone speaking in a high-pitched, giggly, baby-talk fashion. The English translation did a pretty good job of conveying the same impression (and, as so often, she's much funnier in English).
Eng: Redd White
Jap: 小中大(Konaka Masaru)
His name is another three-character kanji pun. The three characters in his name mean "small, medium, large."
His company in Japanese is called "Konaculture" (konakaruchaa), so the syallables of his last name Konaka are mingled with the first syllable of culture to make the company name. The English version changed that into Mr. Redd White of Bluecorp. Mia's dying words were Ko...na...ka.
I was really curious about his speech patterns in Japanese after playing the game in English, since he uses a lot of overly long, made-up words ("Ridiculosity!"). I wondered if he was misusing rare kanji words, or something. Turns out he's saying almost everything in outrageously mispronounced Engrish, spelled out in katakana. Fortunately he repeats his English phrases in Japanese, because nine times out of ten, I had no idea what the katakana were trying to say until I read the Japanese. He's way more fun to play in English.
(Ex., from the first time he does this: ドンチュノウ？ [Me: "Donchunou?" Wha?] 知らないのかい？ [Me: Ohhh, "Doncha know." Why didn't you just say so.] This line was translated into English as "Are you not cogniferous of my abilities?")
He "apologizes" a couple of times for using so much English (it's more a smug assertion of superiority), saying that he lived in the US for a long time and his Japanese is rusty. The writers of this game evidently think Americans are REALLY strange. (The von Karma family supposedly lived in America, too.)
Eng: Marvin Grossberg
Jap: 星影宇宙ノ介(Hoshikage Soranosuke)
He uses old-man Japanese (calls himself washi, ends verbs with -oru instead of –iru, -ja instead of –da, etc). Again, the stuffy way he talks in English does a pretty good job of conveying the same impression. (I can't figure out why he ends half of his sentences with チミ, though. I figured it was a gruff form of "kimi," but he seems to use it in a lot of places where "kimi" ("you") isn't very appropriate. Is this another old-man thing?)
Favorite lines in English (none of these jokes were in the Japanese...)
April May: I love a man with a big... vocabulary.
Phoenix (thinking): Tomorrow in court, I'll get to this woman's bottom!... uh, I mean... you know what I mean.
Phoenix (confronting April with the evidence that the clock wasn't sold in stores): I think it's high time you went shopping for a better excuse, Miss May.
April: ....
Phoenix: Oh? Excuses not on sale today?
(and, of course...)
Edgeworth: Objection! That was... objectionable!
Funniest Lines that Weren't Meant to be Funny
Judge: "Please! No wonton winking in the court."
(But egg drop winking is OK?)
Funniest Moments in Lazy Animation
When they didn't want to bother to create another "sprite" for the bellboy, so they stuck him in the stand to testify still holding up that ridiculous tea set, and the judge says in all seriousness, "That tea set looks rather heavy, so without further ado, the witness may begin his testimony."
Miscellaneous
There is one thing that really bugs me about the resolution of this particular case. I hate when Mia suddenly appears at the end and "reveals" that the receipt has vital information on the back. Maya channelling her is cool, but there's an old gentleman's (sic) agreement from the golden age of mysteries in England (think Dorothy Sayers and Agatha Christie) that the detective should never have information that isn't accessible to the reader. Suddenly pulling a rabbit out of the hat during the final summation ("Well, it just happens that I found this bloody handkerchief while I was searching the study...") is against the rules. The receipt thing annoyed the heck out of me the first time I played the case, and it still annoys me on the replay. Fortunately they don't do this often.
