Friday, March 21, 2008

And I will hang my head, hang my head low...

Yes! Since it wasn't likely that Ganbare Goemon 3 would contain any references to July, Los Angeles, or "chimbley sweeps", I never got to make a good reference to any songs by the Decemberists in the scene titles. (Let's face it, "Baby Needs a New and Shiny Prize" is kind of dumb.) Now, I was able to name one of my blog posts after the refrain from one of my favorite non-Beatles songs, "The Crane Wife 3."

Anyway, my plan is to basically put any errors (or possible errors) I made while translating GG3 here. Some of these have been mentioned before, and many of them come from Sarahsuke. You may want to refer to those old posts while reading this. Let's start from the beginning:

- Scene 2: The error comes in Ebisumaru's thought regarding Yae. Actually, I'm not even sure if this is really an error, but it's worth mentioning. I can't tell if "Gu hoo hoo hoo..." is supposed to be him chuckling or crying. Apparently, Ebisumaru has made comments about Yae's attractiveness in the past (Gaiden, for example), so he could be excited at the possibility of "borrowing Yae's body", to reference a later scene. Or, my previous interpretation could be correct, and he might feel that Yae's seriousness will keep him from being as laid-back as he likes to be. I'm really not sure about this one.
- Scene 3: The "bragging"/"conch shell" mixup. I think I went into enough detail in the post where I first mentioned it, but this is basically the one pun in the whole game that was horribly mishandled. A possible correction to the dialogue is also given.
- Scene 21: The name "Nekokichi." Is it just his name, or does it actually translate to some sort of title (like I had it)? Actually, I guess I could've called him "Fanatical Cat" or something like that, seeing as how the suffix "-kichi" means "maniac" or "fanatic."
- Scene 23: This is another pun. The word for "cold" and "wind" is the same ("kaze"). He could've been talking about how the wind carried his kite up to the roof, and then been reminded that he had some extra cold medicine to give to Goemon and co. After all, it seems kind of random that he would just start talking about his health all of a sudden. This pun would've been easier to deal with than the one in Scene 3. I would've had him say something about how the wind is picking up, it's getting cold, and he would be giving them the medicine so they wouldn't get sick. Easy, right? I may or may not have been right in the video. Once again, I'm not entirely sure.
- Scene 29: Who exactly is Chukichi talking about when he mentions the hot spring? Do the Omikuji Siblings go there to avoid being beaten, and the memories of their abusive leader are flooding back to Chukichi at that moment? (The part I translated as "Remember that!" really just means "remembering.") Or was I right? We'll never know...
- Scene 34: Sarahsuke suggested that "Karakuri Paaku" should be translated as "Mechanical Park," which makes more sense than "Mechanical Pack" (I guess I tried to tell myself that that was the name of the group including the Omikuji Siblings, Bismaru, and Jurokubei). The Mechanical Park is the area where the last dungeon and the door are located.
- Ending: The phrase I translated as "Manji Fortification" at the beginning should actually be "Manji Hold." Apparently, a Manji Hold is some sort of wrestling move. Ha, the fact that Jurokubei thought he could get Impact in a wrestling hold seems quite ludicrous to me. Also, I think I've come up with a halfway decent explanation for the very last part. The Wise Man managed to regain control of his time machine in the future, and he wanted to come back to the Edo period before he originally went to the future, so it would be as if none of this ever happened. However, he made a mistake and arrived a day too late. So, Omitsu, Goemon, and Ebisumaru, understandably, freak out when the Wise Man suddenly appears out of thin air. This is my best attempt to come up with a good explanation for this confusing issue.

And that officially wraps up Ganbare Goemon 3 in English. I've been lazy, it's been five days since I started writing this stupid thing.

Anyway, I've finally got an idea for what to work on next for the translation project (but I still can't come up with any good ideas for fiction...ugh). Look out for that soon.

1 comment:

Seppukumaru said...

Referring to "Karakuri Paaku" - Japanese adaptations of English words (such as 'Park' here) can often be a pain in the arse, I've noticed. But when it sounds right, it certainly makes translation easier when some English words are thrown in with all the Japanese ones. Also, I've noticed that 'Karakuri' seems to be a favorite word within the Goemon series, as in it gets an unusual amount of usage.