We usually cover bad English translations, but yesterday Mato found a Switch game with a bad Japanese translation. It’s called NeuroVoider and here’s a taste:
See that text at the top? Instead of saying “Game Over”, it says Game Ōhā. Japanese gamers who saw this were making a lot of Shingo Mama “oha” jokes.
“Game Oha” was fixed already, but there are more problems throughout the game. I’ve been documenting them, so expect to see something on the main site about it soon!
I apologize profusely for the title up there ^
In researching the Four Heavenly Kings, I had to watch a few episodes of the Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo anime. It grated on me so bad because everyone was yelling and overreacting half the time. I understand it’s a silly anime that breaks a lot of rules, but my gooooodness, I couldn’t take it.
Then I got the first volume of the manga to search for additional examples of Bobobo’s four kings. I found a few references and jokes that had me laughing out loud:
Dangggg, what an obscure reference! I had to look at gameplay of the old Legend of Kage NES game to make sure I was right, and yup. Nice one. I might end up reading this whole manga once my research is done. So hey, if I can’t hear anyone yelling and screaming, Bobobo is a pretty good experience!
They captured Mr. Popo in a little magic jar.
Mato & I are watching old episodes of Dragon Ball Z was part of our workday today. I’m surprised at how much more talking there is in the English dub versus the original Japanese.
As we’ve been playing Yakuza 6 these past few weeks, Mato & I have been writing down localization examples that would make great topics/articles for the site. The one that has us most intrigued right now is the Live Chat mini game.
You can make Kiryu hunt-and-peck his way into convincing girls to strip on camera. Besides this being totally out of character for Kiryu, thus making it really funny, the best part is the chat on the side. The above image is a poor example, but the chats are full of hilarious usernames saying weird things, memes, creepy things, anything you might expect to see in a chat like this. It really does feel like it’s real. So of course we’re interested in seeing what it’s like in Japanese.
And in case you’re wondering: yes, we recommend this game. Its story isn’t as great as Yakuza 0, but it’s still a really fun adventure.
For a big ol’ upcoming article, I’ve been researching which games and anime feature 四天王, the Four Heavenly Kings. The Elite Four in Pokemon count, as do the original four bad guys in Sailor Moon (the English dub called them the Negacommanders). Oddly enough, the Four Kings from Dark Souls are not called 四天王 in Japanese.
The funniest 四天王 I’ve found today are from Cromartie High School. There’s five members and four of them look like KISS:
And the most perplexing one is a group from Dragon Ball Z that’s called the Four Heavenly Kings of the Demon Clan in Japanese. They got their name changed to… the Spice Boys in English.
In helping with today’s article on the Zora Queen in A Link Between Worlds, I watched a bit of the old dub of Sailor Moon where she became obsessed with losing weight. I remember the PSA they put at the end where it says how dangerous it is to stop eating, so I wanted to see what the rest of the episode was like. I also checked out some of the original Japanese version with subtitles from Viz, and wow, what a difference! Usagi’s family says she didn’t need to lose weight in the dub, but her family makes fun of her weight in the original. And the chubby girl says her mom told her that dieting is bad for girls their age in the dub, but in the original she talks about fasting and eating pineapples.
I know this is a huge cultural difference between Japan and NA, but it was still a bit shocking. See the differences for yourself if you’re interested:
After-school specials, TV movies, and all sorts of other media aimed at kids and teens about the dangers of anorexia and bulimia were a normal part of my life growing up. Eating disorders are a pretty big problem, so I’m glad they made the changes they did in the dub.
As part of a marketing project, I’ve been researching translation agencies located in the US. I can’t believe how bad their websites are! The majority use buzzwords unrelated to translation and many use stock photos in place of photos of their actual team(s). They also have long lists of clients they’ve worked with, but no examples of any of the work they’ve actually produced. I’ve complied some screenshots of the most amusing examples:
I don’t want to do business with any of these companies.
Nintendo’s Wii Shop is leaving us soon. Next Monday is the last day you can buy Wii Shop points, and the Shop closes entirely in January 2019. Time is running out to preserve all those Wii-exclusive digital games before they disappear (possibly forever), so here I go!
Except Nintendo doesn’t make it easy to buy games on the Wii Shop. I’ve run into lots of little problems along the way:
I’ve bought games through Nintendo’s eShop on the Switch and it’s a big improvement, though it could still be better. I don’t think anyone will really miss the Wii Shop once it’s gone. Well, except for video game historians.
We recently bought a bunch of Japanese guidebooks to assist us in some articles we’ve got simmering. I can’t believe one of the the Chrono Trigger ones is called the “Perfect Bible”.
Also got the Dragon Power NES manual for that Master Roshi sprite that they didn’t change, and a copy of Cooking Mama 2 because I hear the voice acting in it is…. very, very bad. Wanted to see for myself~
A new year is the perfect time to scrub through all your files and put things in order. Right now I’ve taken on the monstrous task of organizing Mato’s big, unruly “Localization Pics” folder. It’s full of images he’s been dumping in there for years, and most have file names like DNw8ZYSWkAEBD55.jpg
I’d like to share my favorite pic from today’s organization session:
Imagine working at Sega and being the one who has to fix this and then tell people about it, haha.