Sunday, February 3, 2008

GG3 - Part 2

Ganbare Goemon (English) - Part 2

I uploaded this, the second video in the series, on January 28, 2008.

I'm pleased to report that this one was pretty easy to translate, despite the fact that I found I had made an unusually high number of mistakes in the paper copy of the script. I guess I'm getting sloppy.

For some reason, I left out the scene where Yae gets her mermaid jutsu, as well as the other 3 characters getting their respective abilities. Honestly, I don't remember why I decided to do that. So, without further ado, let's just move on to scene scripts/analysis.

Scene 7: Dancing Shoes

Hanakichi: I got a little too excited while dancing during the festival and broke the strap on my sandal. Doggone it! Boo hoo hoo...Oh! That thing you have there...Is that the legendary crimson sandal strap? Please give it to me!
Goemon: Give / Don’t give
Hanakichi: Thank you! You saved me! I can be happy and dance again! To express my gratitude, I want to give you this enigmatic bean.
Narrator: Goemon and allies received an enigmatic bean. What on earth did he mean by “enigmatic bean”?

I guess there can be several explanations for where I got the title for this scene, but the one that comes to my mind right away is the song "I'd Rather Charleston" (At least, I think that's what it's called.). The line goes: "You're just a fellow who has got his brain in his dancing shoes." I think that describes this guy perfectly.

As far as I know, Hanakichi doesn't mean anything, so I just assumed it's the guy's name, and others agreed with me as well.

Scene 8: Yae

Yae: I finally found you guys!
Sasuke: It’s Yae! Perfect timing! We found a note in the shrine here and we were just about to go back to Hagure Town, because we need to get to a secret area in Ninnin Village.
Yae: Do you suppose the conch shell is in a cave? But nobody can get into that place without being able to travel underwater.
Sasuke: But if the Wise Man borrowed Yae’s body, maybe she would be able to enter...
Goemon: Y-Yae’s body? Come on, you can’t do that...gah, nosebleed!
Ebisumaru: G-Goemon! What are you thinking?! By the way, Yae, why were you looking for us?
Yae: Umm...Yeah...Actually, while I was on patrol, the ninja cat Kurobei told me about the Wise Man’s situation and I thought I could help.
Goemon: I didn’t know Kurobei knew about that. Hey, Yae, I’m sorry to drag you into this situation...
Yae: Well, we’re friends. Why would you apologize now, I’m already a part of this. Let’s go!

Hey, if I called Scene 3 "Sasuke", I can call this one "Yae", right? Wow, I'm so creative. I don't really know if I was considering any other good options for titles.

This one caught my attention pretty early on (even before I got a full translation) for one reason: Goemon's sudden nosebleed. For those of you who read a lot of manga (and that doesn't really describe me), you know what I'm getting at here. I took this as a sign that just talking about Yae's body was enough of a turn-on for him to get a nosebleed just out of the blue like that. Now, personally, I am very much against a GoexYae pairing, but this is the first real piece of evidence I've seen in any of the games that supports a possible relationship between those two.

Apparently, this is the first scene where I employed my usual practice of reading the Japanese script in slow motion to gauge time. There's a lot of time for each subtitle from here on out, and I didn't exactly display a lot of editing prowess in handling it.

Scene 9: Bird Gathering Ninjutsu!

Cook: Something terrible happened! The important chickens ran off! If we had the right food, we could catch the chickens right away. Ooh! Is that the enigmatic bean? Please, by all means, give it to me!
Yae: Give / What the hell are you talking about?!
Cook: Thank you so much! With this, I should be able to bring them back! With the power of this bean, bird gathering nijutsu! Oh, how they assemble! You were very helpful! To thank you, I will give you one of our fields!
Narrator: Goemon and allies obtained a field...So they’re proud land owners now?!

The title is a reference to Scene 2, where I used the name of the ninjutsu used as the title.

The ninja that Yae talks to is called "Itasan", which means cook. Itasan is a name that is attached to several NPCs in this game, but they all seem to be farmers rather than cooks. I almost called this guy "Mr. Ita", and I probably would've done the same for all the other Itasans that the group runs into. But, I suppose now I've gotta call them "Cook", even though they're clearly farmers or ranchers.

By the way, does anybody know if there's any significance to the parcel of land the group gets for helping bring the chickens back? It's not like you trade the deed later, but I can't remember if it's worth anything at all.

Scene 10: Bismaru's Mechanical Bodyguard

Bismaru: Oh, ho ho ho ho! I’ve been waiting for you. Look at this town, it’s so lovely and cleared away! Now it’s your turn! I give you the mechanical bodyguard!
Robot: G-Goemon...Gaaaah!
---
Bismaru: So shameless! Useless piece of junk! I will take the girl and smash you with my own enormous robot! Farewell!
Omitsu: Kyaa! Help me, Goemon!
Goemon: Damn it! Omitsu’s in trouble again!
Ebisumaru: Waah! We’re in big trouble! What are we going to do?
Yae: Ah! Look! That ugly robot is running away!
Sasuke: Goemon! Use the conch shell to call Impact!
Goemon: Okay! Huh? Is this thing broken or something?
Sasuke: You have to take a bigger breath!
Goemon: Argh! Fine, I’ll change the way I do this! I will overcome this! Let’s go!

"The Mechanical Bodyguard" makes more sense than "The Tricky Bodyguard", right? The word "karakuri" means tricky, but, according to Sarahsuke, it can also be used to describe "a mechanical device to tease, trick, or take a person by surprise." Also, this is the title Kabuki Forever gives himself in the GG3 Ending.

Scene 11: Impact is too Slow!

Goemon: Goemon Impact is a time machine? Well, at any rate, that pest is running away really fast!
Sasuke: Yae, pull that new switch there.
Yae: Okay! This yellow switch, right?
Ebisumaru: We’re not going nearly fast enough! Is something broken in here?
Sasuke: What do you mean by that?!
Goemon: Hey! Stop fighting over that! We have to chase this guy!
Ebisumaru: At this rate, it’ll be nighttime by the time we get there...

Ah. So that's why Impact's "rampage" is so sluggish.

Originally, I thought Ebisumaru was yelling at Yae for something. After all, the implication from Scene 2 is that he doesn't really like her (I probably should've mentioned that...). But, I guess he was yelling at Sasuke for something instead.

Scene 12: Bismaru Elegant

Bismaru: Bonjour! You’ve got some nerve coming here. It is dangerous for you here! It must have been love at first sight that brought you to this place! Unfortunately for all of you, however, this will be goodbye. Bismaru Elegant, transformation!

I liked writing this scene. In fact, I think Bismaru is a really fun villain to write for. You can go completely over the top with him, and it won't seem out of place.

Yes, you read that right. Bismaru is in fact a male, homosexual transvestite. Recall that Goemon, Ebisumaru, and Sasuke all refer to Bismaru as "he" or "him" in Goemon's Great Adventure. According to Sarahsuke, the term used to describe Bismaru is "okama."

And I don't know why Bismaru's head disappears for a long time like that. It reminds me of Bismaru's pod disappearing all at once in the ending, and something else that I'll mention in the next post.

And that wraps up the Part 2 analysis. I'll get Part 3 up as soon as I can.

1 comment:

Seppukumaru said...

I find it interesting that you use paper for part of the translation process, since I only use the computer. Is this still the way you do it?

On 7:
Legendary sandal strap, enigmatic bean... guess that Hanakichi's got the best of everything. He's probably got a famous shower curtain, magical toilet seat, and an awesome can opener, too...

On 8:
Goemon... is a funny guy. Yae's around him so frequently and he does okay, but as soon as it's suggested that Wise Man borrow her body... Really, who else would get a nosebleed from a situation like that? Goemon must have a vivid imagination.

On 9:
"Goemon and allies obtained a field"- I can see it now, Ganbare Goemon Harvest Moon- and you know, I think I can see why there isn't a game like that. I'm pretty sure Goemon and Ebisumaru at least would die of boredom if forced to tend crops and animals all day...
It's strange that all the farmers are named Cook. Maybe it implies that all the food producers are also in charge of preparing food for consumption? Even if that's the actual explanation, it still seems strange.

On 11:
You know, I'm still not entirely sure why Impact is moving slow in this scene. Did you mean that Impact was slow because the group was arguing, and not paying attention to controlling it?

On 12:
Bismaru's dialogue always turned out fun. Too bad he didn't show up in more games.