Ganbare Goemon in English

UKA, pg.22-36

2009-04-29T00:31:00.002-05:00

Now, finally, I present to you all the conclusion of volume 1 of the "Uchuu Kaizoku Akogingu" manga. Ta-da! First off, I would like to give my thanks to Sarahsuke and Seppukumaru for their invaluable help with translating what I couldn't (and there was quite a bit). Also, I want to apologize, as usual, for the lateness. I've been quite busy with school and everything else.

Speaking of school, I'm in the last week of classes currently. Just a few more days, and then exams, and then I'll be without a scanner until the end of August. So don't expect another batch of translations before then.

Another birthday!

2009-04-16T10:49:00.002-05:00

Holy crap, I've done it again!

I decided that, since I already wrote a story for her sister's birthday, it would be only fair if I wrote one for the awesome and talented Seppukumaru as well. Not to mention she's been a huge help with translations, and I look forward to continuing to work with her in the future. So, happy birthday, I know it's not even close to my best, but I hope you enjoy it anyway and I'd be more than happy to rewrite it at a later date if you'd like. Enjoy, everybody (especially Seppukumaru), and let me know what you think/where I can improve.

UKA, pg.4-21

2009-02-14T10:33:00.002-06:00

Click here.

Remember back in October, when I said that I would be translating a non-game Goemon thing? Well, I haven't made any progress since that very little bit back then. So I figured, since it seems like progress is unbearable slow, and I'm likely to forget some of the finer points I've learned since then, and I've got a lot more free time on my hands than I usually do (at least, I hope I do), I might as well show you guys what I've got so far, which is much less than I was hoping to show you guys with the first batch.

So, for those of you who weren't able to figure it out earlier, I've decided to translate the "Uchuu Kaizoku Akogingu" manga. Pages 4-20 have been scanned into the folder. Why did I rescan them? Er, I'm not really sure about that...After all, higher quality scans are available here.

But, the more important item in that folder is the txt file. It contains translations for character dialog (sorry, no sound effects). Every time you see a "---", that indicates the end of a panel. I hope I didn't make any mistakes with that...If you see more than one "---" in a row, that means that there's at least one panel with no translated dialog (again, I didn't do any sound effects).

Lastly, I wanted to give all of you good people an opportunity to help me out. If anybody wants to go ahead and edit the images (either the ones I provided or the one from the link above) so that the English text is in the word bubbles, it would be greatly appreciated. I think that would be an easier format to follow than a bunch of pictures and a txt file. Thanks guys!

Want to be informed about these things sooner? Then join the Goemon International forum. I'll always post new updates there first.

Another fanfic done

2009-01-21T16:06:00.003-06:00

This is actually a week late (as are many of my posts), but I finally "finished" my second major Goemon fanfic, "A Promise Worth Keeping". Why the quotes? Well, if reader and author interest are high enough(and at this point, they're apparently not), I may write an epilogue to describe what happens after the end.

But anyway, some stats for you:

Title: A Promise Worth Keeping
Total Words: 43951 (including Author's Notes)
Chapters: 17
Average number of words/chapter: 2585
Pages: Approximately 97.5 using the program AppleWorks 6, 12 pt. Times New Roman font, and single space.

As for this one...well, some of it I liked and some of it I didn't, to be honest. Romance is tough for me.

First set of manga scans

2008-12-13T22:21:00.002-06:00

So, some of you know about this already, but...

I managed to get a copy of a Goemon manga a while back: "Uchu Kaizoku Akogingu" ("The Space Pirate Akogingu"). You can find most of the pages here. However, you may notice that the last two sections are missing, and that's where I come in. I scanned in those last two sections, and put them in a zip file here.

I would've gotten them up sooner, but school and other things came up that I felt were much more important. Some of these scans are REALLY poor quality, and for that I apologize. However, you should be able to see the pictures clearly (and really, I think that's what most people are looking for). If, however, you want to know what's being said, ask me privately through a note, e-mail, or IM, making sure to reference the specific page number. The dialog towards the center are the main ones that are difficult to read. Please note that I will NOT be translating anything in these scans; such requests will be ignored. All I will do is provide you with what the characters are saying, in romaji. And keep in mind, once again, that I won't be able to rescan anything until the middle of January. You're stuck with these crappy scans until then.

All right, that's it, everybody. Happy holidays!

Mononoke Sugoroku

2008-11-02T12:18:00.004-06:00

I've got something for all of you that I think you'll like. I managed to snag a copy of Ganbare Goemon: Mononoke Sugoroku for the N64, a Japanese-exclusive game. I got it a few weeks ago, but something came up in my personal life that kept me from scanning the manual for quite a while. Anyway, now that things have finally been taken care of, I was able to scan the manual and upload a zip file to Megaupload. You can find the file here. Please pardon the lopsided pages and excessive blank space that came about as a result. If you'd like me to rescan, let me know by December.

I can't wait to try this game in a month and a half...

Ganbare Goemon in English Not Game

2008-10-27T22:41:00.001-05:00

Yes, the bad English is deliberate. It's following something the makers of Ace Attorney (or "Gyakuten Saiban", as it's known in Japan) did recently.

Anyway, I was planning to make this announcement tomorrow or the next day, but since I'm feeling better now then I thought I originally thought I would, I'll just go ahead and let the cat out of the bag a couple days early. I'm pretty sure I've decided what Japanese Goemon-related...thing I'm going to translate next, and as the title suggests, it's not a game. Those of you who know me well outside of DeviantART will probably be able to guess what it is, but I don't want to say exactly what I'm planning so as not to raise hopes unnecessarily. And don't worry, I promise you it's not a musical featuring our favorite mystical ninjas.

By the way, for those of you who are wondering what the heck I'm talking about when I make the references to "Gyakuten Saiban Not Game" or musicals, you can look at the first news item here and at this page (Japanese language support is recommended.)

They say it's your birthday!

2008-08-30T14:51:00.002-05:00

When I write fanfiction, I usually have a rule that I only work on one at a time. This way, I can stay focused and make sure it gets done before moving on to something else, plus I don't have to think about a bunch of different fics on top of what my hectic real life. Well, they say rules are meant to be broken.

But I've got a good reason for that. I noticed a while ago that the birthday of a good friend in the Goemon fandom was fast approaching, so I halted production on the one I was working on at the time to write up something to celebrate the special occasion and show my gratitude. This is the result.

So, happy birthday, RandomS! It took me forever to come up with the story, and it ended up being the longest chapter of any fic I've ever written thus far, but I hope you like it anyway.

GG4 - Omitsu

2008-08-15T12:42:00.005-05:00

Ganbare Goemon 4 (English) - Omitsu

And now, I present to you, the good people of the Interweb, the very strange Omitsu scene from Ganbare Goemon 4. Released on July 23, 2008, this video actually took several months to make. Finally, it's here for your viewing pleasure, as is the full script and a (hopefully) brief commentary. Here goes.

Goemon: Omitsu!
Omitsu: Goemon, it’s been a long time, hasn’t it?
Goemon: Omitsu, what are you doing here?
Omitsu: I missed you, Goemon. Say, do you like me?
Goemon: I like you!
Omitsu: It’s true! Say, do you like tanukis?
Goemon: I like tanuki udon.
Omitsu: My soft cheeks are much more delicious than any udon. Mm-hm!
Goemon: Omi-Omi-- Oh my...Dehehehe...
Goemon: Unn...huh? Where am I?
---
Goemon: Omitsu, what are you doing here?
Omitsu: I missed you, Goemon. Say, do you like me?
Goemon: I like you!
Omitsu: It’s true! Say, do you like tanukis?
Goemon: I like the goal tanuki.
Omitsu: Good! I’m glad! W-Wait, no, I’m not glad...So, why do you like it so much?
Goemon: I want the money from him.
Omitsu: Well, for the right price, my soft cheeks are very, very good.
Goemon: Dehe, dehe, dehehehe...
---
Goemon: Omitsu, what are you doing here?
Omitsu: I missed you, Goemon. Say, do you like me?
Goemon: I like you!
Omitsu: It’s true! Say, do you like tanukis?
Goemon: I like the goal tanuki.
Omitsu: Good! I’m glad! W-Wait, no, I’m not glad...So, why do you like it so much?
Goemon: Because I want to proceed.
Omitsu: Being away from you and all your encouragement would be bad. So, after this, we will be together forever.
Goemon: Ah, Omitsu, don’t go! Don’t go, don’t go...Ah!
---
Goemon: Omitsu, what are you doing here?
Omitsu: I missed you, Goemon. Say, do you like me?
Goemon: I hate you!
Omitsu: You’re so awful! You like Yae more than me!
Goemon: That kind of talk can’t possibly be true!
Omitsu: Yeah, you’re right...Say, do you like tanukis?
Goemon: I like tanuki udon.
Omitsu: My soft cheeks are much more delicious than any udon. Mm-hmm!
Goemon: Omi-Omi-- Oh my...Dehehehe...
---
Goemon: Omitsu, what are you doing here?
Omitsu: I missed you, Goemon. Say, do you like me?
Goemon: I hate you!
Omitsu: You’re so awful! You like Yae more than me!
Goemon: What the hell are you talking about?! Can’t you see that’s ridiculous?!
Omitsu: Well, do you suppose anybody is as charming as li’l old me?
Goemon: Ah! A smelly tanuki!
Omitsu: I’m shocked! (Gasp!) Oof...
Goemon: Eh? You’re kidding, right, Omitsu? You can’t die! Quit messing around and open your eyes! OMITSUUUU!
---
Omitsu: You’re so awful! You like Yae more than me!
Goemon: What the hell are you talking about?! Can’t you see that’s ridiculous?!
Omitsu: Say, do you suppose anybody is as charming as li’l old me?
Goemon: Eh? “Li’l old me?”
Omitsu: Ah, ha ha! No, no...I said “olé.” You know, like in soccer.
Goemon: You know, I’m pretty good at soccer.
Omitsu: It’s true! Say, do you like tanukis?
---
Omitsu: Ah, ha ha! No, no...I said “olé.” You know, like in soccer.
Goemon: That’s strange...
Omitsu: I’m telling you, I’m not a tanuki! Please believe me!
Goemon: Prove it!
Tanukichi: But my tail and my ass may be a bit too much proof for you! *Lick*
Goemon: N-Nose...bleed...oof! Pfft...
---
Omitsu: Ah, ha ha! No, no...I said “olé.” You know, like in soccer.
Goemon: That’s strange...
Omitsu: I’m telling you, I’m not a tanuki! Please believe me!
Goemon: You are a tanuki!
Tanukichi: Pon-poko-pon! You’re absolutely correct! One more thing before the end, though...The happiness of a dream world, or the cruelty of the real world...If you had the choice, which would you prefer?
Goemon: Dream world.
Tanukichi: Of course you would! Everything will be just like a good dream. Pon-poko pon-poko...
Goemon: Unn...
---
Omitsu: I’m telling you, I’m not a tanuki! Please believe me!
Goemon: You are a tanuki!
Tanukichi: Pon-poko-pon! You’re absolutely correct! One more thing before the end, though...The happiness of a dream world, or the cruelty of the real world...If you had the choice, which would you prefer?
Goemon: Real world.
Tanukichi: Excellent! Well said! You are a splendid fellow in this day and age, aren’t you? You were pleased with the way your life was. I will undo this town’s jutsu for you.
Goemon: Hoo hoo hoo! It’s obvious! You should always be scared when dealing with the Great Goemon!

Yes, it's long, but let me just say a few things about the format. The video itself is divided into "takes", with each take being a separate attempt by Goemon to get past Omitsu. Each of the "---"s in the script denotes the end of a take. Also, there were lots of repeats in the actual video footage. In order to save time and my computer's RAM, I decided to cut out some of these repeats. If I remember correctly, only one of them has the end of the dialog cut out, while most of them have the early dialog and the part where Goemon wakes up in the middle of the desert cut out. Hopefully, this isn't too confusing. Please note that the script as it is seen here is as it is in the actual video, all cuts included. Now, onto the "good stuff."

First of all, it's probably worth mentioning that this is the first scene that was translated without the help of a native speaker. This was translated almost entirely by Sarahsuke and me. With that being said, the likelihood of translation errors is pretty high. I don't know if I'll eventually have my grandmother check this for accuracy or not.

Now then, anybody who wants to read up on tanukis can go here. Now that that's out of the way, let's look at the actual scene.

The tanuki's tactics are simple. Seduce Goemon to cloud his mind and make sure he doesn't get past, so the town could remain under its spell. Omitsu seemed like the best person for the job. Why not Yae? Well, the most obvious reason is that she's currently on a different moon, and it's not really conceivable that she would halt her mission to see Goemon about this (please, let's not discuss how inconceivable it would be for Omitsu to fly to another planet). Another reason is that Yae has never once expressed any romantic interest in Goemon. But has Omitsu? Well, chances are, yes, even in the games. Keep in mind how many times Goemon has saved her. Also, she's clearly on his mind a lot. The whole reason for him going on the quest in Goemon Gaiden 2 is so that he could get enough money to take her on a lavish date. Also note that "Omitsu" accused him of liking Yae more than her, and he denies it either way.

One of the most challenging issues I've come across so far was in this scene, and was largely responsible for the delay in translation. The problem was first person personal pronouns. Though English has only one that I know of that could work in this situation ("me"), Japanese has a bunch ("watakushi", "watashi", "boku", "atai", and "ore", to list a few), with varying degrees of politeness and even ones that are used more by one gender than another. Whereas Omitsu usually uses the second one, she ends up using the fifth one (pronounced "o-ray") in this case. If you look back at the script, I'm looking specifically at where she says "Well, do you suppose anybody is as charming as li’l old me?". "Li'l old me" was a contribution from Sarahsuke, and I'm glad she suggested it because it works better than anything I've been able to come up with since. So, rather than making her speech rougher than usual, she speaks more politely (making her a Southern belle, of sorts). This also works out nicely when she starts to lose it and claims she actually said "olé" (which does sound quite a bit like the Japanese word "ore"). That part of the translation didn't have to change.

The "Pon-poko" stuff is a sound that's typically associated with tanukis. Specifically, it refers to a drumming sound (probably drumming on their large stomachs), and those two "words" are repeated as much as needed. With that being said, in retrospect, it might not have been such a good idea to have him say "Pon-poko-pon"...

Remember, if you will, that the screwy town where Goemon finds this tanuki includes a chapel where he's apparently getting married to Omitsu, and another house where they're holding a funeral for Ebisumaru (I'm not sure if I mentioned this...EBISUMARU, NOOOOOO!!!). If this is the "dream world" that the tanuki mentions, the one that promises "happiness," does that mean that Goemon's dream world is one where Ebisumaru is dead? Holy crap, I hope not!

Well, that's about it, I guess. Hope you guys enjoyed learning about Ganbare Goemon 4. It's a great game.

So, is there anything else coming? Well...I'm not quite sure. The tentative answer is yes, but it'll probably be a while before you see anything of that. I just started the fall semester, and I still have no idea how difficult it's gonna be. On top of that, I might have to look for a new emulator (since I'm moving to a game on a different system, and the one I have now can't record video). As I often say, we'll see.

Announcing...Goemon fanfic #2

2008-07-30T02:03:00.002-05:00

This news is a bit late, but almost a year after starting my last fic, I've finally overcome my writer's block (with a little help from Sarahsuke, of course) and started working on my next one. It's called "A Promise Worth Keeping" (another strange title, I know), and the first chapter was published on July 22, 2008. As of this writing, 3 chapters have been uploaded, and the 4th one is a little less than halfway done.

The main focus of this story is on the relationship of Goemon and Omitsu, childhood friends from the first day she moved to Oedo Town and they made a fateful promise to each other (yes, the one that's alluded to in the title). Although Omitsu is far from my favorite character, I still feel like she's unfairly criticized and horribly underrated; thus, I feel it's my duty as a just "artist" of sorts to shine some much-needed positive light on her.

Anyway, it also involves Bismaru the cross-dresser, and if you're patient, Jurokubei himself may make an appearance. I'm not planning on having any major OCs in this story, nor is it going to be as long or epic as AVD. However, I will be attempting to portray characters that are more "real" and easy to relate to, hopefully redeeming myself for any OOC-type behavior that was in AVD.

Enjoy the story! Feedback of any kind (as long as it's comprehensible and at least somewhat helpful...tell me specifically what you liked or didn't like!) is greatly appreciated, as always.

GG4 - Ending

2008-07-22T01:28:00.005-05:00

Ganbare Goemon 4 Ending in English

...Wow, where have I been? Well, suffice it to say that I had other important things to take care of over the past month and a half or so. I apologize for the long hiatus, but I'm back to say a few things about the ending to GG4. This video was released on May 13, 2008, and rushed in its completion due to a faulty computer and that vengeful fiend known as laziness. Anyway, here's the script.

Seppukumaru: Son of a bitch! I think it’s time for...the Seppuku Challenge! AAAAHHH! YOOOWCH! This is the ultimate sport! I have to perform seppuku!
Goemon: Oh no! He’s still got a bomb in his body!
Ebisumaru: Planet Impact will be destroyed!
Impact: I’ll take care of this! Everybody get ready to disembark! Shuwatchi!
Goemon: Impact...I think he’s going to die...
Ebisumaru: Couldn’t we have eaten something first? I don’t feel well...
Sasuke: I’m filled with regret, too...
Yae: No, don’t say that! I’m sure he’ll come back!
Impact: Seppukumaru! I won’t let you do this!
Seppukumaru: D-Damn it!
Impact: And now Seppukumaru and I are going to the sun! Thank you so much for everything, everybody. And...goodbye...
Seppukumaru: Ah! Seppuku, the ultimate sport...I never thought it would be this painful...
Impact: Seppukumaru! Let me give you some advice...Seppuku is not a sport!
Seppukumaru: What did you say?! You idiot!
Impact: WHAAAT THE--?!
Narrator: Seppukumaru hit Impact so hard, he miraculously made it back to Goemon’s location...
Ebisumaru: Ha ha ha! What’s up with your hair?!
Sasuke: My stomach’s all twisted from laughing so hard!
Yae: Oo hoo hoo...It really fits you! Right, Goemon?
Goemon: Ah...ha ha! He can be a great dancer and tour the whole universe!
Impact: D-Dancer?!

The first thing I should do is explain the "Shuwatchi" reference. It's a reference to Ultraman, namely the sound effect of him taking off. Looking up the phrase on Google was like rediscovering a lost part of my childhood. I remember seeing books about Ultraman at my grandmother's house, but I don't remember anything about him at all...

Ebisumaru complaining about not having anything to eat is another pun, though this one was a lot easier to handle than some of the ones I had to deal with in the past. "Shinuki" (dying) vs. "meshinuki" (can't eat). If you look carefully at the Japanese text, you'll notice that these two words are in quotes, so you can see the difference between the two words for yourself.

One thing I had no idea about until beating the game this time around...You unlock another minigame for beating the game with 100% completion. It's called "Time Pilot", and it's a pretty fun, though insanely difficult, shooter. I used the videos on this guy's Youtube channel during the translation process. Use those videos if you want to get 100% completion.

And that concludes Ganbare Goemon and the Sparkling Journey: The Reason I Became a Dancer...well, sort of. There's still that Omitsu scene. Well, fear not, because I have a rough draft of that scene complete, and I'm currently waiting for it to be proofread. Look for it soon.

GG4 - Part 5

2008-05-01T16:05:00.006-05:00

Ganbare Goemon 4 (English) - Impact/Seppukumaru

Released on April 27, 2008, this video doesn't have much. It was made in a relatively short amount of time as a result. I just feel like I've been too busy with other stuff to start writing this before now.

Anyway, this takes care of what happens on Planet Impact and the deja vu final area (thus the naming of this video after both Impact and Seppukumaru, for those of you who haven't played this far through the game), up to and including the "Fainoru Battoru" ("Final Battle") against Mr. Harakiri Seppukumaru himself. What a nut that guy is. Let's just get on with it, shall we?

Scene 22: To Planet Impact

Impact: Oh! Look at that, everyone!
Goemon: The fog is disappearing!
Ebisumaru: Now we’re ready to go to Planet Impact!
Sasuke: We’re all going together from this point on...
Yae: Do you suppose we can find out what that “Seppuku Challenge” is about?
Goemon: Bah! Seppukumaru, Shmeppukumaru! I’ll make him pay!
Impact: Let’s go! To my old home!

Shmeppukumaru...is actually "Heppokomaru" in the original Japanese text. But, this is how Americans show their lack of respect towards something or someone, so I decided to change it. This type of speech seems similar to something that comes up in MNSG, when Goemon rambles on about how he's going to defeat the villains, no matter what food they actually associate themselves with.

Scene 23: Seppuku

Sasuke: You...!
Rokudenashi: Long time no see. I knew you would come here, so we’ve been waiting.
Nyanko: EEE! Thanks to all of you, our efforts were fruitless!
Hatarino: Lord Seppukumaru is really serious about this. We can’t do anything to stop him!
Itakaro: Ke ke! If Lord Seppukumaru commits seppuku, this star will blow up! (Ke!)
Rokudenashi: But we can depend on you guys. You’re our last hope!
Sasuke: What are you saying?
Rokudenashi: Lord Seppukumaru is an extreme sportsman and loves every kind of sport!
Nyanko: But there are some sports he shouldn’t do!
Itakaro: Ke ke! That’s why he wants to try seppuku!
Hatarino: If he decides to commits seppuku, he would be ending his own life!
Nyanko: Well, Lord Seppukumaru has to try everything. Otherwise, he’s not satisfied...
Rokudenashi: But if Lord Seppukumaru decides to commit seppuku, the bomb in his body will destroy this star!
Sasuke: Bomb in his body?! Hmm...We have to stop Seppukumaru! Where is he?
Rokudenashi: He’s on his spaceship, the Sportsman Ship. But nobody knows where that is, exactly...ha ha...
Nyanko: We’re watching Lord Seppukumaru to make sure he never tries his Seppuku Challenge.
Itakaro: Lord Seppukumaru’s escaped, and now that we’ve been seen with you...(Ke ke!)
Hatarino: You must go and take care of this! Farewell!
Sasuke: We have to search for Seppukumaru! Impact, we have to find him for the sake of peace in space!

I think it's interesting how each of the four main characters has a different way of saying "you." That just makes Japanese all the more complicated. I'm pretty sure the specific things that the hero says change depending on which character you use, but like GG3, I would imagine it's the same basic idea. I thought Sasuke would be the easiest to translate. Yae may also have been a good choice for simplicity's sake, but I have terrible luck with her in most of the games, so I tend to play as Sasuke most often.

Yes, I know I said before that Seppukumaru isn't the only person in this game that has a bomb in his body. Looks like I was wrong. Chances are, I made a mistake because the subject of the sentence isn't always clearly stated in Japanese.

By the way, Sportsman Ship may be one of the greatest puns in the entire series. I just wanted to throw that out there.

Also, like I did with the Omikuji Siblings, I referred to the Tsujigiri by their individual names in this scene (as given in the anime, I believe). I hope I got em right.

Scene 24: Final Battle

Seppukumaru: Ha ha ha! You are so foolish! You would dare to challenge the great, extreme sportsman Seppukumaru?! You’ve made me very angry, and that is inexcusable! Planet Impact will easily attract my satellite bomb! All of you, along with this star, will become brilliant fireworks in space!
---
Seppukumaru: Damn you! How can you embarrass me like that?! That won’t happen next time! Ha ha ha ha! I was just kidding around before, but now I invite you to travel the whole universe!
---
Seppukumaru: Damn it! You’re doing very well! But how much more patience can I have? I think I’ve been playing around too much...Let’s end this game!
---
Seppukumaru: Damn it! I’m supposed to be a super strong sportsman! Can this be so?!...I see...huh...I think I may have waited far too long to master seppuku. You dare to say no to me?!

The name of the "level" where you fight Seppukumaru is (I hope I'm remembering this correctly) "Fainoru Battoru", which, as I mentioned earlier, is literally "Final Battle." Clever, eh?

So, why does Seppukumaru want to destroy Planet Impact so badly? Umm...I'm not quite sure. An intergalactic fireworks show, perhaps? But then he wants to destroy Goemon and crew so badly that they end up drifting through empty space for the rest of their lives. What a nut. As if the whole seppuku thing wasn't bad enough.

The very last line would read better if it was something along the lines of "You dare to deny me?!" He's referring, of course, to the fact that everybody (the Tsujigiri and Team Goemon) seems to be trying to stop him from committing seppuku (for obvious reasons). This leads to an interesting hypothesis proposed by none other than the brilliant Sarahsuke: The Tsujigiri imprisoned Seppukumaru on Planet Impact and built the shield to keep him from escaping and wreaking havoc on the whole universe by killing himself. Bored with this restriction, Seppukumaru started causing "all kinds of trouble" on Planet Impact, which prompted Goemon Impact's return to his home. When they got there, they obviously couldn't get to the planet, so they worked to deactivate the shield. Of course, the Tsujigiri didn't want them to succeed, as it would mean the death of their beloved leader and the obliteration of Planet Impact and the surrounding stars. Unfortunately for them, the ninjas were successful, which lowered the shield and allowed Seppukumaru to escape. With nowhere else to turn, the Tsujigiri pleaded with their former opponents to find Seppukumaru and stop him from committing seppuku. Pretty strange, huh? It may not ever be explicitly stated, but it puts a bit of an interesting twist on the story.

Wow...it's been almost a full month since I started writing this thing (it's the morning of May 30 right now). I apologize profusely. By this time, I've uploaded the translated ending and all the Omitsu scenes without subtitles on YouTube. Why without subtitles? So people can help me out with it. Let me know if you're interested.

Ebisumaru - With A Little Help From My Friends

2008-04-28T23:42:00.002-05:00

So, I was looking at a friend's YouTube profile earlier today (or yesterday, depending on where you are), and I noticed she uploaded a new video. My favorite character from this series has been featured in an AMV with an excellent song by my favorite band...happiness on all sides (Ugh...I can't believe I wrote that, I feel evil now). And she mentioned me and the translation project in the video description...that was nice of her, I think.

Thank you very much for brightening my day, mysticalninjaduelist/RandomS! Even if it doesn't help this project get more attention, at least you've made yet another great video! Everybody who reads this should go and tell her how awesome she is!

GG4 - Part 4

2008-04-20T20:27:00.011-05:00

Ganbare Goemon 4 (English) - Yae pt. 1

Because of YouTube's time restrictions, I had to do something a little bit different this time around: I released two Yae videos. This first one was uploaded on April 20, 2008 and covered 5 scenes. Let's start.

Scene 14: Kaizo

Kaizo: Oh! Even someone with a tender face like yours has a great weapon like that! It doesn’t fit someone like you!
Yae: Eh? This bazooka?
Kaizo: Yeah! If I had that weapon, I could have the power of a million people! Well, give it to me! Give it to me!
Narrator: Give the bazooka?
Yae: Give./Don’t give.
Kaizo: Ga ha ha! Gotcha! I was just kidding...Now that I think about it, we don’t even have the necessary parts! There’s an old man in Fubi City who owns a shop where they sell stuff like that. I ordered something from them last month. Would you go get it for me?
Yae: What?! Me?
Kaizo: Of course! I’m gonna do you a favor, so you can do this simple thing for me! Well, I’m counting on you!

This...guy...is...nuts. And Yae's crazy if she's even considering giving the bazooka to him.

Kaizo is one of many NPC names in GG4 that's a pun. The word "kaizou" means "remodeling" or "reconstructing" in Japanese, which fits considering the fact that he (eventually) remodels the bazooka.

I had to do some math with this scene, and with one other one that I'll mention later. The Japanese number system is..."based" on ten thousands (the proper term is escaping me at the moment), whereas English is "based" on hundreds. So, this was 100 ten thousands, or 1,000,000.

Scene 15: That's What I Want

Gatekeeper: If you want to pass through here, you need to pay 100,000,000 ryo!
Yae: What?!
Yae: I understand./I’ll kill you!
Gatekeeper: Very well!

Anybody ever heard of the song "Money"? The Beatles covered it. Anyway, that's where I got the title.

The Gatekeeper guy ends most of his sentences with "zukin," which is a hood (remember that the "hooded halfwits" were "baka zukin"). Unfortunately, there's really no way to translate this weird idiosyncrasy into English, so it had to be cut out completely.

Scene 16: Dirty Jobs with Yae

Nikuemon: Oh my--! Young ladies shouldn’t come to a place like this.
Yae: Mister! I need 100,000,000 ryo!
Nikuemon: Heh...100,000,000 ryo, eh? You’re so young and you need this kind of money? That’s unusual. This job is not what you think. It’s not very clean. Why don’t you look someplace else?
Yae: I understand. I quit!/Please, I want to do it!
Nikuemon: You don’t understand. Once you start this job, you won’t be able to go back after a while. Is that okay?
Yae: I don’t care!/That worries me...
Nikuemon: Are you ready? Then from now on, you’re my slave! I don’t want to hear any complaining out of you! Come into the other room and I’ll give you your assignment. Quickly, now! This way!
Nikuemon: Forget about yourself! Just do as I say and satisfy me needs. I’ll teach you an important lesson! If you go out this door, don’t be ashamed, but buy everything I tell you to! Okay! Hurry! Remember everything I’m telling you! Green onion...Tofu...Shirataki...Beef...4 things altogether! I’ll give you one and a half million ryo, so get started! There are 3 produce shops. Use your head and spend your money wisely. If you don’t buy everything, there will be trouble...Well, my slave! Go to the store!
---
Nikuemon: Oh! Welcome home, my slave! How did it go? Hand over your sack! Show me. Hmm...beef...okay! Hmm...shirataki...okay! Hmm...tofu...okay! Hmm...green onion...okay! Oh! Splendid! I knew you could do it! Well done, well done! I must reward you for doing such a great job! Here’s the 100,000,000 ryo you asked for!

First of all, the title is a reference to the name of a TV show and the one line where the boss says that this job is "not very clean." I just thought I should get that out of the way.

Nikuemon is yet another punny name. The word literally means "flesh clothing" or "body clothing", probably a reference to something he clearly lacks.

Chances are you already know what three of the items he asks for are, but you may or may not be familiar with shirataki. Well, here's some info. And here is a picture of some different brands (I think). There also seems to be shirataki shaped like fettuccine and spaghetti, so I guess most types of low-calorie Japanese noodles would qualify.

I'm well aware of most (if not all) of the suggestiveness in this scene. Actually, I'm pretty sure I changed some of it to make it seem slightly more innocent, but there's still a bit there. For all I know, this could've been an unconscious decision. I've been corrupted somehow.

Scene 17: Money Makes the World Go Round

Gatekeeper: Oh! Oh! The 100,000,000 ryo! Thank you. Ah! It looks like it’s all there! You know, since you’re such a hot chick, I’ll tell you something great! This town’s Tub Man knows a lot of great magic! If you flatter him a bit, he’ll be glad to teach you something!
Yae: T-Tub Man? Understood! I’ll be sure to go look for him!
Gatekeeper: Well then, farewell!

The "hot chick" term was "pretty girl", then "hot girl" for a while, until I realized that the Japanese term is considered fairly low-class and I could go further with that. Thus, Yae is the hot chick. Big surprise there.

Scene 18: The Missing Piece

Yae: Kaizo from the Stream Town asked me to come and get something for him...
Parts Shop: Ah, I have the part right here. It’s very small, so don’t you dare lose it!
Yae: Th-This is the missing piece? I can barely even see it. Well, thank you very much.

Not much to say here. The fact that this guy tells Yae not to lose the part suggests that she will, but, surprisingly (or perhaps not), she never does.

So, that's it for Part 1 of the Yae series. Part 2, which was released the next day, April 21, 2008, covers the last 3 scenes.

Ganbare Goemon 4 (English) - Yae pt. 2

Scene 19: Rub-a-dub-dub

Tub Man: What’re you looking at?
Narrator: What are you gonna say to improve the Tub Man’s mood?
Yae: You’re so handsome!/You’re so beautiful!
Yae: Oh, you’re just so beautiful! I can’t take my eyes off of you!
Tub Man: Ooh, you understand! You may not be as beautiful as me, but you’re pretty cute yourself. I’ll give you something G-O-O-D!
Yae: Y-Yes, please do...
Tub Man: Voila! I’ll make you beautiful, and you’ll even be able to swim underwater!
Yae: Underwater? Really?
Tub Man: Yeah! You’ll be like a fish woman!
Yae: (Ooh...the power of the Mermaid Jutsu is within me now!)
Narrator: Yae gained the Mermaid Jutsu. Push the blue button while swimming at the surface of the water, and you can transform!
Tub Man: Now go forth! The life of a fish woman is the color of the rose!
Yae: (M-My life...) Umm...if you say so. Well, goodbye!

What a strange person. I know if somebody like Yae called me "beautiful" (or handsome, for that matter), I would probably just stare with a dumbfounded expression on my face and wonder what the hell they're thinking. Or if they're blind or something...err, I'd better shut up now.

Well, if Sasuke can be a spider, Yae can be a fish woman. It only makes sense. But I don't really know what he means exactly when he says that the life of a fish woman is the color of the rose. Does that mean it's a happy life? Like, pink? Or red? I'm kind of confused...

Scene 20: Kaizo Revisited

Yae: (Huff, huff) I brought that part back.
Kaizo: Oh, you’re so late! I was getting tired of waiting for you!
Yae: Please take care of this right away.
Kaizo: Okay! Just a moment, watch carefully how I do this!
Yae: Ah!
Kaizo: Ooh! Success!
Yae: Thank you so much! Well, I think it’s time for me to say goodbye and get going!
Kaizo: Hey, wait just a minute! You have to give me money! Money! Ga ha ha! Oh, never mind. You’re special, so I think this one’ll be free!
Narrator: Yae obtained the lock-on bazooka! Now you can defeat many enemies at the same time!
Kaizo: Do your best, Mr. Long-haired guy!
Yae: I’m a woman!
Kaizo: I’m just joking!

I for one find it hilarious that Kaizo calls Yae a "long-haired" guy, especially considering how everybody else she meets comments on how beautiful she is. And yes, I'm probably gonna get shot for saying that.

Actually, I originally had him being fully convinced (rather than just joking) that Yae is really a boy. But, it's somewhat ambiguous, and given his personality, I thought this made more sense. Oh well. If I got it wrong, I got it wrong. Not a big deal.

Scene 21: And You Must be...the Crybaby

Tsujigiri: EEE!
Yae: Wh-What the--?! It’s a monster!
Tsujigiri: EEEEE! Monster?! What is this? You shouldn’t be so stuck up just because you’re more beautiful than I am!
Yae: Heh heh...ha...
Tsujigiri: I’m just tired because we’ve been busy every day trying to stop Lord Seppukumaru from carrying out his “Seppuku Challenge”!
Yae: “Seppuku Challenge?” How strange...
Tsujigiri: EE EE EEEEEE! Even so, I have to stop all of you from taking over this castle and interfering with our plans! I’ve got an idea! I can fight you with my giant robot!
Yae: Giant robot, you say? I’d better call Impact!

OK...I only used this title because my dad worked on "Thumb Wars." The scene goes a little something like this (I may have gotten one or two things wrong, but...oh well. Most of this is copied from the imdb page.):

Loke Groundrunner: (sobbing)
Oobedoob Benubi: Crying is for little girls, babies, and men who just had their ears ripped off.
Loke Groundrunner: (sniffs) Wh-Who are you?
Oobedoob Benubi: I am Oobedoob Benubi. I have the silliest name in the galaxy.
Loke Groundrunner: What's your middle-name?
Oobedoob Benubi: Scooby-Dooby.
Loke Groundrunner: Oobedoob Scooby-Dooby Benubi?
Oobedoob Benubi: One and the same. And you must be...the Crybaby.

I barely made it here in one piece...the last room in this place is pretty tough to get through. Oh well, that's of little importance.

What is important is that I've figured out that all the mechas that the Tsujigiri use have names. They are:

Itakaro:Junkie (Something like that)
Rokudenashi: Montana Q
Hatarino: Samurainer (The last part is supposed to sound like "liner")
Nyanko: Miss Mizugei (Literally, "Miss Water Tricks")

So, that's it for this post. If you like my work (or even if you hate it), please let me know what you think. Perhaps this is a good time to remind people that you do NOT need an account to leave comments here on the blog. Anonymous comments are welcome.

I can't tell you how discouraging it is to do something like this and get the impression that very few people care. Well, that's how I feel right now. I hate to beg, I really do, but I need more reassurance from the fandom that this is worth it. I'm not saying you have to comment on every thing every single week, but I'm doing this for the good of the fans, and there's no point in continuing if nobody seems to be interested. You can take that as a threat.

Sorry, I just think that this is making me really bitter right now. So, on that rather...unhappy note, I bid you all farewell.

GG4 - Part 3

2008-04-13T22:03:00.009-05:00

Ganbare Goemon 4 (English) - Sasuke

Released on April 13, 2008, this is the video that makes English translations of "Sasuke's scenes" from Ganbare Goemon 4 available to you. This is likely my favorite of the three GG4 videos I've released so far. I think the strange characters that Sasuke meets along the way make this a very interesting batch. So, without any further ado, let's discuss them.

Scene 9: Sasuke the Paperboy

Delivery man: (Cough! Cough!) Unn...I caught a cold, but I have to deliver the morning newspaper. I don’t think I can make it. Do you know anybody else who can do this for me? (Cough!) It would help a lot! (Hack!)
Sasuke: How about me?/Goodbye!
Delivery man: Lucky! Thank you! There are 6 newspapers altogether! You have to deliver all the newspapers before the chicken cries three time. I will give you something great if you can do this! (Cough!) Well, good luck! (Cough! Cough! Cough!)
---
Sasuke: Here’s your newspaper!
Birobiro: Thank you very much! Just leave it there.
---
Sasuke: Phew! Just in time. Well, I’d better head back to that news shop.
Delivery man: Oh! You did a good job! I promised you that I would give you something special...(Cough!) With this pass, you won’t have any problems getting past the guard at the edge of town. Well, it’s freezing, so don’t get catch a cold...(Cough! Cough!)

"Birobiro" is apparently yet another punny Japanese name that is the sound of somebody sticking their tongue out. Sarahsuke has proposed a theory (she's a smart one, isn't she) that some of the NPCs in Sasuke's chapter of the game have names that have to do with being sick, since they live in a place that's always cold. Pretty interesting, eh?

The Delivery man actually says he'll give Sasuke important news or information, so I didn't get that one quite right. It'll all make sense later.

Scene 10: We're All Bombs, Hey!

Bomber: Yah! I’m a bomb! You’re a bomb, too! I saw you working very hard this morning. You’re a very nice guy. No, wait, the best guy! Am I right? Ga ha ha ha ha ha...phew...
Sasuke: What just happened?
Bomber: Lately, we’ve been making great big bombs and making lots of money from them! But I’d like to make something even bigger than that! Huge!
Sasuke: Well, you could power up my firecracker bomb!
Bomber: All right, baldy! If you want it, you have to give me 500 ryo first!
Sasuke: Y-You want money?!
Narrator: Will you pay 500 ryo?
Sasuke: Pay./I quit!
Sasuke: Please do it!
Bomber: Oh, this’ll be a piece of cake! Yaaah! Raaah! Oooh waah! A ha! I did it! See, baldy, I made a very powerful firecracker bomb! You can shoot huge fireworks with this baby!
Narrator: Sasuke obtained the Big Firecracker Bombs! These bombs cause a huge explosion!
Sasuke: I’m very happy with this! Well, I’ll see you again sometime. Goodbye!

I'm a dude, he's a dude, she's a dude, we're all dudes, HEY!...All right, I'd best shut up before people get irritated. I don't even know if those are the real lyrics...

Wow, this guy's a real nut. Apparently, Sasuke thinks so, too. He seems really confused a lot of the time in this video.

The Bomber (who is called "Bakudan", which means "bomb" in Japanese) refers to Sasuke as "bouzu", a term that was used to describe young boys at the time. Nowadays, it's a crew cut, but back then boys used to have shaved heads, and bouzu refers to this fact. So the Bomber gives this guy, "the best guy", a nickname that refers to the fact that he's lacking in the hair department. By the way, even though he says he's a bomb, I thought it would be weird to just call him "Bomb". Everybody in this game seems to have a strange preoccupation with them...

Scene 11: The Mysterious Mecha-maniac

Sasuke: I have a pass here. Please let me through.
Guard: I see...you have a pass. All right, you can go! However, there are lots of deep canyons up ahead, so you’ll have a hard time going through. If you can climb the walls, you might be able to make it. Otherwise, you might as well turn back now.
Messenger: (Huff, huff...) Are you Sasuke? I have a special message for you from the delivery man!
Sasuke: You can get a mechanical powerup if you come to Tundra Town. Come and see!...Mecha-maniac. Hmm...I’d better go see what this means!

This was the important news that the Delivery Man was talking about. I don't know whether it's a letter or an advertisement of some kind, but I'm guessing the latter because of the next scene. I hope I made it clear enough that Sasuke is reading from the ad or letter at the end...

"Come and see!" is ripped directly from a refrain in a Decemberists song.

Scene 12: Sasuke the Spider

Mecha-maniac: Oo, hee hee...I am not an octopus! I am the Mecha-maniac! Did you see my advertisement? All right, we’ll power you up right away! Oo, hee hee hee!
Sasuke: I’ve got a bad feeling about this...
Mecha-maniac: All right, we’re finished!
Sasuke: I don’t think anything’s changed...
Mecha-maniac: No! That’s not true! You can use your kunai to climb on walls now! You’ll be an expert at that, it’ll change your entire life! Well? How do you like that?
Sasuke: Th-Thank you very much.
Narrator: Sasuke gained the kunai climbing ability! Move towards the wall and press the blue button!
Mecha-maniac: (There’s still 1 part left over, but I’d better not say anything...)

Spiderbot, Spiderbot. Does whatever a Spiderbot does...wait, that's not quite right, is it?

Ah, Mekamania, which I translated as Mecha-maniac. He's got one of the many weird laughs that some characters in this series are known for (Bismaru comes to mind right away as another example).

It's a bit ambiguous what the maniac's really talking about with the advertisement, so I just assumed that he was welcoming Sasuke as an interested customer who had seen his ad and come in for an upgrade. He's apparently not very good, though. He left a part out, but as far as I know, it doesn't really affect Sasuke negatively. It was probably included just to worry the player.

Scene 13: Hairy (and Grumpy) Manju

Tsujigiri: Hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo...
Sasuke: (Hmm...What a suspicious fellow.) (He looks like a manju with hair...) (He’s not saying anything. He’s so quiet, I have no idea what he’s thinking about...) Hey you! Mr. Hairy Manju!
Tsujigiri: H-Hairy manju?! Now you’ve really made me mad! I’m gonna kill you! I’ll fight you with my giant robot!
Sasuke: Hmm...Is something bothering you? Where’d you go? Well, if you want a fight, I’m not going to run away! I’d better call Impact to help me!

Here is the Wikipedia page on manju. Unfortunately, there's no picture. But fear not! That's what Google Image search is for!

Heh, Hatarino's reaction is a bit...extreme. And this is all the proof I need that Sasuke is fairly naive in his interactions with other people.

So, that about wraps it up for this one. I hope you guys enjoyed watching this set of scenes as much as I did. It's likely my favorite of the three so far.

Also, I'd just like to remind anybody who's interested that I'm looking for help with this. You don't even have to know Japanese, contact me and I'll see what I can have you do. I'm most interested in recruiting some translators right now, but even people who want to help with publicity or production of the videos are welcome. Just throwing that out there.

GG4 - Part 2

2008-04-09T15:34:00.009-05:00

Ganbare Goemon 4 (English) - Ebisumaru

I'm a bit later than I would've liked in getting this up, but here it is. (Who would have guessed that I'd have LESS free time during a week where I have no exams?) Released on April 8, 2008, this video covers the Forest Area (Ebisumaru). It was great, although very challenging, to make a video that featured my favorite character in the series. Yes, these scenes laid the weird Kansai-ben dialect on very heavily, making it somewhat difficult even for native speakers of (Tokyo) Japanese to understand. Let's just get to the analysis...

Scene 6: Rivals from the Start

Ebisumaru: H-He looks just like me!
Obisumaru: Oh my--! Wh-What’s going on? It’s like looking in a mirror!
Ebisumaru: Except he’s got an ugly nose. It looks like botamochi...
Obisumaru: B-Botamochi?! Well, you look like a filthy tanuki, with the big gut jiggling from side to side and everything! I think I look respectable!
Ebisumaru: Filthy tanuki?! You’re the one with the big, fat, round stomach and face!
Obisumaru: Can’t you see that I have a beautiful face?
Ebisumaru: If you’re ugly, you’re just ugly! There’s nothing you can do about that!
Obisumaru: I can’t associate with the likes of you anymore! Just listen to this pig whine! Boo hoo hoo!
Ebisumaru: P-P-Pig?! Argh! You’ll regret saying that! I challenge you! I challenge you to a contest! I bet I can bring more girls back here than you!
Obisumaru: I think not! Very well, I accept your challenge! However, beautiful people only. Ugly women don’t count!
Ebisumaru: Are you stupid or something? I only like beautiful people, and beautiful people like me!
Obisumaru: Hoo hoo! We’ll see about that! When you hear the cow cry three times, you have to come back here!
Ebisumaru: Cow crying three times, got it! I don’t have much time, but I will return with beautiful girls!
Ebisumaru/Obisumaru: Humph!
---
Ebisumaru: Well, hey there, young lady! How would you like to come with me for a little while? Eh? Eh? Eh?
Girl: That sounds wonderful! I don’t have anything better to do, so I’ll go if it’s just for a little while.
---
Obisumaru: You didn’t run away, even though you can’t possibly win a challenge against me!
Ebisumaru: I thought you would be jealous if I brought back some girls.
Obisumaru: Well, let’s begin! Come oooon, referee!
Ebisumaru: I may not look like it, but I’m a regular ladies’ man! You’re just a small fry! A small fry! Ho, ho, ho, ha ha! (Oink, squeal)
Obisumaru: Aaaaargh! I lost! But how?! My p-p-pride...
Referee: Well done! Ebisumaru has won a special prize. We’ll give him the lovely ballerina drill!
Ebisumaru: Ooh! Ballerina? D-Drill? This is like a dream come true!
Referee: With this, you have amazing power! You can dig into suspicious-looking rocks or ground! Well, please accept it!
Narrator: Ebisumaru obtained the ballerina drill! The blue button lets you spin round and round and drill as a ballerina!
Ebisumaru: Whoa! This is so amazing! It fits me perfectly! Hee hee hee hee...
Obisumaru: Quit it! Help me!

First off: this is botamochi. A pretty accurate description, I'd say. And the tanuki, everybody knows what that is, right? It's the raccoon dog thingy that gives you money at the end of every level (well, actually, that's just a statue...), a type of spirit that causes a lot of trouble for Goemon and the gang. It's known for having a huge stomach and...well, I'll just give you a link.

Obisumaru (or an Obisumaru lookalike) apparently appeared in the towns of Ganbare Goemon 2 as the thief that would take some of your money on contact. So, although this may not be the first appearance of Obisumaru, it is his elevation in character status. Also, if I'm not mistaken, Obisumaru speaks with a Kansai-ben dialect, just like Ebisumaru.

Isn't it strange that Ebisumaru can just barge into a random woman's house, and the woman decides to leave with this strange man because she has nothing better to do? Well, this might be true simply by virtue of living where they do. The city where this scene takes place is known as "Nanpa City", and what Ebisumaru is doing could probably be considered a form of nanpa. Ebisumaru uses extremely charming (and surprisingly masculine) language while asking the girls out.

By the way, there's a no-risk trick to getting at least a couple of the pretty girls during this minigame, if you've got a good memory. Go into all the houses and take note of their inhabitants. I'm pretty sure the person inside each house doesn't change after the contest officially starts. Happy hunting!

Of course, I was apparently too dumb to successfully follow my own advice. The first house I went into had one of the old hags instead of the young girl, but I had started recording before going into the house. I was so shocked by my mistake, I stopped recording before she said anything. Luckily, she was the first lady I picked up, so removing her from the entourage wasn't too frustrating. True story. I just wish I hadn't stopped recording so that I could include both responses in the video.

In my opinion, these girls are wearing too much makeup. They look like ghosts...and they follow you like zombies, with the arms outstretched and everything. Kind of creepy.

Heh, Ebisumaru's life ambition is to be a ballerina, apparently. Kind of odd, but this is Ebisumaru we're talking about here. I guess it's not too much of a surprise. Also, he apparently oinks (squeals like a pig) when he gets excited.

Overall, this is funny, but I think I could have made Obisumaru sound more arrogant and such. Oh well. What's done is done.

Scene 7: Return of the Reflection Shuriken

Ninzo: Ah! Are you a ninja, too? How did you find this secret hideout? Well, since you’re here, I will give you my favorite legendary shuriken from when I was still young and healthy.
Ebisumaru: Ah! That’s mine! I lost it when I came to this star, and that’s made things tougher for me! I think that reflection shuriken is mine!
Ninzo: Eh? Th-This is yours? Oh, ho ho...Well, if you hit the wall, it’ll rebound off the wall and come back to you. Let’s see if you can do it and this is really yours!
Ebisumaru: It’s obvious! Thanks for finding this for me!
Narrator: Ebisumaru regained the reflection shuriken! This shuriken can bounce off of walls!
Ebisumaru: Well then, goodbye!

Notice the similarity in name between Ninzo and Kinzo. Related, perhaps?

As it is, this scene doesn't really make a lot of sense to me, and that makes me think I screwed up somehow. Why does Ninzo say that he'll give Ebisumaru the shuriken, and then he insists on having the Ninja of Justice prove that it's really his? And then nothing happens, but Ebisumaru takes it and leaves anyway. Well, that last one might be a bit easier to explain. My guess is that Ebisumaru just quickly snatched it up and decided to get the hell out of there. After all, his goodbye is shortened somewhat ("sainara" as opposed to "sayonara").

Scene 8: Eggs + Bombs = ???

Tsujigiri: A, ha ha ha ha! Welcome! Isn’t it great to play sports non-stop and work up a real sweat?
Ebisumaru: Thanks to you, I’m practically dripping with sweat!
Tsujigiri: Oh, is that so? Well, we drip with sweat every day because we’re carrying powerful bombs in our bodies. Of all things, seppuku...
Ebisumaru: What?! Seppuku?! That harakiri thing?
Tsujigiri: Oof, how could I let that secret slip?! I guess I have to fight you with my giant robot now! Well, I’m off!
Ebisumaru: Why do you have to do this? Well, what can you do. I’d better call Impact!

Da da da da da da da with those tossed salads and scrambled eggs...OK, I'll shut up now.

Here is the seppuku Wikipedia page. There's lots of interesting stuff there, so I recommend you take a look it if you don't think you'd get sick reading about something like that. Basically, the way it was described to me by my grandmother, was taking a knife, cutting your stomach open, and letting all your innards fall out. It's very slow, and very painful, and somebody would usually be waiting behind you to cut off your head after you're done actually committing seppuku. Seppukumaru's full name is Harakiri Seppukumaru, one of the many punny names in Ganbare Goemon.

Interesting...Seppukumaru's not the only one with a bomb. Does that mean the Tsujigiri have to commit seppuku as well to carry out their plan? We shall see.

So, that's about it, but I do have one thing to say before I go. I don't know who actually takes the time to read this, but if you do, I'm begging you to leave some sort of feedback for me somewhere. A lot of the people I've told about this think I should be getting paid for it. Now, I'm definitely not gonna ask for money, but some comments would be really nice. I know the Goemon fandom is pretty small, but there's gotta be more than just two or three people who are interested in this. It's not exactly encouraging when I go through the trouble of doing this and almost nobody seems to care. Thank you for your time.

GG4 - Part 1

2008-04-01T09:16:00.009-05:00

Ganbare Goemon 4 (English) - Intro and Goemon

Here it is, the first video of my newest translation project. Ganbare Goemon 4, the Introduction and Desert Area (Goemon), released on April 1, 2008. I'm hoping I can divide the videos by character/area, meaning there'll be about 6 of them total, including the mysterious "Omitsu" scene (which, because of its length and complexity, was not included in this video and will instead get its own).

I had some difficulty making this video, not because of the actual translation, but because I was using iMovie HD instead of plain old iMovie. Apparently, the latter doesn't work with the new OS. (A word of advice to all Mac users out there: OS 10.5.1 is more trouble than it's worth.) It is a lot faster and gives me finer control over subtitle lengths, and that's nice, but I'm also more limited in that length and there's a delay as the subtitles fade into and out of view. That can make the video seem somewhat...disjointed, in my opinion. I don't know, maybe I'm not explaining myself well enough, let me know what you think.

Also...HALLELUJAH! It looks like, so far, GG4 doesn't have the framerate issues that GG3 had. I don't know whether that's because of the game itself, or because of the different program, but that is a huge relief for me. Even so, I'll continue putting the full scripts here, with whatever analysis I can offer of the scene itself. They're filled with all the awkward dialogue you've come to expect from me and the Ganbare Goemon series. Let's get started:

Scene 1: A Four-Part Planetary Investigation

Impact: That’s Planet Impact.
Goemon: Why does it look so foggy there, like the ruins of a fire?
Impact: According to my analysis, there is some sort of guard protecting the entire perimeter of the planet.
Ebisumaru: Just in midair like that...
Sasuke: We have to go investigate all those areas surrounding the planet.
Yae: Let’s divide the investigation work between all of us!
Impact: I need everybody’s support here.
Goemon: Okay! Sounds like a good plan! Hurry, let’s go, everybody!

Not much to this one, though it does explain why everybody's separated at the start of the game (in case it wasn't obvious already). Though it does make you wonder what Seppukumaru wants with Planet Impact, anyway...

Scene 2: The Chain Pipe

Hinarin: I just found this strange thing here in this room...
Goemon: Th-That’s a chain pipe!
Hinarin: Oh, this is yours? Well, I am very hungry now. If you give me a rice ball, I’ll return this to you.
Goemon: (D-Difficult girl!) No problem!
Narrator: Will you give the rice ball?
Goemon: Give./Don’t give.
Hinarin: Thank you! All right, I’ll return this to you!
Narrator: Goemon regained the chain pipe! Hook onto and swing from the Manji blocks!
Goemon: All right! With this, everything should be perfect!

"The Chain Pipe" was supposed to sound like "The Crane Wife" (which is based on a Japanese folk tale, by the way). Yeah. I don't think anybody would've gotten that.

How did Goemon's chain pipe end up here, anyway? That's very odd.

Everybody knows what a manji is, right? It was mentioned once or twice in GG3, and I may or may not have talked about it before. Yes, it looks like a swastika, but Goemon's not a Nazi. In the Buddhist religion, the manji represents Dharma (the underlying order in nature), universal harmony, and the balance of opposites. When the manji "faces left" (as it does on the title screen of GG3 and on the blocks in GG4), it represents love and mercy. When it "faces right", it represents strength and intelligence. The right-facing swastika is associated with Nazism, so almost all Buddhist manji nowadays faces left. So, once again, GOEMON IS NOT A NAZI! And I assure you, I'm not either, even if I did go to the "Swastika" Wikipedia page to find all this out...gulp...

Scene 3: Wait, What's That About a Wedding?

Yomezo: And now, Goemon and Omitsu’s wedding...ah! D-Did you defeat the Tanuki? Thank you, I’m in your debt. But how is your strength?
Goemon: Since coming to this star, I haven’t had my usual strength!
Yomezo: If you ask Kinzo in the Oasis Town, he can give you something so you’ll be strong again.
Goemon: Oh, that’s great news! I’ll go to the Oasis Town and talk to this Kinzo immediately! Thank you very much!

Before you "defeat the Tanuki," you can go into a church where the priest begins his speech with that first line. Imagine the shock of walking into a random church and finding out you're about to get married to the girl of your dreams. Heh, I'll probably have to rely on some dumb luck like that. It's pretty much hopeless for me, otherwise.

Umm...anyway, just for your information, they're holding a funeral (or a wake) for Ebisumaru in the house next door. As far as I can tell, the funeral is fairly accurate, though it seems the offering that the deceased's loved ones are supposed to make is somewhat lacking. I guess Ebisumaru doesn't have a lot of rich relatives. Japanese funerals are currently the most expensive in the world, by the way (about 4 million yen, on average). For more info, go here.

I wonder what Goemon means when he says he doesn't have his usual strength. Does it mean he's forgotten all his ninjutsu? Or that his "health" is somewhat low? I have no idea.

Scene 4: Kinzo

Kinzo: Oh! I heard about you from Yomezo! You’ll get your strength back right now. Yaaaaah!
Goemon: Whoa!
Kinzo: (Huff, puff...) Now you should be as good as new...phew...
Goemon: Wonderful! Now I can attack with Koban coins!
Narrator: Goemon received the charged koban! Now he feels like he has the strength of 100 people!
Goemon: Thank you! May you have a long life, sir!

It turns out that the "Flaming Ryo" might actually be a "Flaming Koban." Besides being the name of a ninja cat in the series, a koban is a coin, larger in size than a ryo. Also, Impact's Nasal Bullets aren't ryo. They're koban. The full length version of the song "Ore wa Impact" ("I am Impact") mentions "hana kara koban", or "koban from the nose." Makes sense considering the size difference between the two types of coins.

Bah. I always thought the Flaming Ryo, or Koban, or whatever it is, was somewhat overrated. Get up close and bash 'em, that's the real way to play!

Scene 5: Oedo, Town of the Bodybuilders

Tsujigiri: Ke ke ke! How did you manage to come all the way here? (Ke!) You must exercise constantly and be in great shape! (Ke!)
Goemon: What are you talking about?! Of course I’m in great shape, I’m from Oedo!
Tsujigiri: Ke ke! I don’t understand what you’re saying! (Ke!) But Lord Seppukumaru’s bomb...oops!
Goemon: Bomb?! What are you talking about?!
Tsujigiri: Ke ke ke...You’ll know soon enough (Ke!)...if you leave this place alive, that is! (Ke!)
Goemon: Damn it! I’m extremely worried about that bomb!
Tsujigiri: Ke ke! What? You don’t understand? (Ke!) Well, for the time being, my giant robot will slice you to pieces! (Ke!)
Goemon: Grr! I can’t worry and be defeated by this loser! I’ll call Impact!

Considering I come from a state that's run by "The Governator", I find this title kind of funny. You may or may not find my strange sense of humor agreeable.

Anyway, it seems that, having a boss that's obsessed with sports, the Tsujigiri are concerned with physical fitness, especially that of their opponents. I'm not 100% sure on this, but I THINK Rokudenashi (who Ebisumaru faces) also mentions something about exercise. Of course, look at Ebisumaru and you'll understand why.

In the Japanese version of the anime, all four Tsujigiri end most of their sentences with some word or phrase. The "ke" that Itakaro (I hope I got that right...) uses here is different from what he says in the anime (and I can't, for the life of me, remember what he says there...), but it seems to be more like a chuckle than anything else. If you watch the 2nd OVA, it's very distinctive, to the point of being annoying.

The bomb is a very important component of the story, so remember that. Not like you'll ever forget, right?

So, that about wraps it up for this one. Hope you enjoyed all the useless info I gave you here.

By the way, I'm having way too much fun with the popularity statistics that you can see for your videos now. I don't know how long they've been there, but I just noticed them, and now I can see where people are watching these videos from. States that show up the most? California, Wisconsin (those two aren't at all surprising), Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Texas (which, strangely enough, is completely absent from GG3 Part 9). I've also gotten quite a few views from people in France and Japan.

All right, now I'm seriously wrapping this post up. See ya next time!

The Darkness Comes...(Part 1)

2008-03-24T20:22:00.040-05:00

Looks like I've managed to convince myself to do what I had been planning, and secretly dreading, for quite some time now. I'll be writing a companion essay to my recently completed Goemon fanfiction, "A Vengeful Darkness". Why waste my time? After all, it's clear few people actually read the story, and an even smaller number told me what they thought about it. Well, there are several reasons I'm doing this rather than jumping right into my next translation project:

1. I want to put these thoughts into writing while they're still somewhat fresh in my mind.
2. I believe that this will be less stressful than a translation.
3. I was emotionally invested in this story to an unbelievable degree.
4. Perhaps writing about the process of making this story will help me come up with more ideas for fiction. It's a long shot, but it's worth a try. I'm obviously completely void of good ideas at the moment.
5. Goemon International has apparently reached its monthly download limit, so I can't get the Ganbare Goemon 4 ROM from there (Yes, that's right. I've decided to listen to the fans and work on that next instead of Ganbare Goemon 2. But I can't download that one right now, either...).

So, now that you know why I'm doing this, and what I'm doing next, let's get started. Part 1 will deal with the inspirations for the general story, as well as the characters. Of course, I'll also discuss my somewhat twisted, perhaps (at times) inaccurate characterizations. WARNING! THERE WILL BE SPOILERS FOR "A VENGEFUL DARKNESS", "GOEMON'S GREAT ADVENTURE", AND OTHER GAMES IN THE SERIES! DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU HAVEN'T READ MY STORY AND/OR DON'T WANT OTHER GOEMON GAMES TO BE SPOILED!

Before I begin, I'd like to make something very clear. I suffer from crippling feelings of inferiority with everything I do. This is no exception. I seriously can't remember the last time I was genuinely proud of myself or anything I did. Heh, sorry for sounding so overly dramatic; some people tell me I'm kinda emo, if they want to put it nicely. I just don't want people to think that I'm writing this out of pride or to promote my work.

By the way, just for fun, I'm going to make the title of every section, as well as the title of the essay itself, a reference to a movie, TV show, song, or video game. Kudos to anybody who can figure out where they come from. Now, let's see if this will really turn out to be as long as I had originally feared.

I'll Shake You From Your Sleep - The Beginning

If you read one of the first posts in this blog, you can see how I got back into the Goemon series. As you may have concluded, I became obsessed with the series before long. The characters were fun. The humor was unique. The story made almost no sense, but it still managed to suck me into this unbelievably modern and hilarious version of Feudal Japan.

Now, I don't remember the exact sequence of events for a while, but I'll try my best to explain anyway. All of these things happened, but the order may be incorrect.

One night, I had one of my usual bizarre dreams. As you may have guessed, this one involved Goemon. I don't quite remember the exact circumstances in the dream, but it involved a parasitic alien race that infected human hosts for some reason and had the power to manipulate them after doing so. Victims seemed normal in most respects, but there were some telltale signs that they had been infected. The biggest one that comes to mind right away is that the eyes of a host had the ability to emit an eerie yellow glow, at any seemingly random time and for only a split second, if necessary.

The one scene I remember from this dream involves Omitsu in a room, lying on a bed. She had, more likely than not, just been rescued by Goemon, who comes in to check in on her and talk to her for a while before exiting the room to attend to some other matter. You guessed it. As soon as Goemon leaves, Omitsu's eyes glow yellow.

Omitsu being the victim of some thing that had the ability to control her every move and change her physiology and/or anatomy was the only idea from this dream that survived to the end, and that's why I still remember it. I ended up toning down this original idea. Not only did I change the villain(s) from an alien race (which would have given the potential for multiple victims) to a single demon that had this power, I also imagine that my early concept of this story was quite violent and...intense. Basically, I went from "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (a film which I've never seen, by the way) to "The Exorcist". The only thing missing was Goemon and his friends yelling "The power of Christ compels you!" during one of the final battles. Of course, anybody who's read this fic will (hopefully) agree that the final result is relatively tame compared to something like that.

Anyway, I added fanfiction reading to my list of activities to increase my knowledge of the Goemon series. I had an account on fanfiction.net that still didn't have any stories under it, so I thought that now might be a good time to revive an old and long dormant interest of mine. I was frustrated to find that Goemon fanfics were few in number, and even among them, the quality wasn't very good overall. There were a few gems, however, and I tried to use them to figure out what would work and what wouldn't.

And so, Goemon awoke me from my long slumber as a writer...

It Took Me Years To Write, Won't You Take A Look? - The Story

Well, not years, literally. But a great deal of time and care went into trying to prevent the writer's block that I had suffered from during some of my previous attempts at writing fanfiction.

The first thing I did was write some notes on the main characters and major conflicts (both internal and external) in the story, as well as a very specific plot outline (beginning in early August, 2007). After all, I was forced to scrap my second fanfiction after I got writer's block in the middle of writing it, and my third idea never came to fruition because I could never write a good outline for the story. If this was going to fail, it would be better if it happened before I published anything.

Fortunately, it didn't fail, as I completed the outline and it was satisfactory. It's worth mentioning that several changes were made to it while I was writing this fic. Don't worry, I'll mention as many as I can remember at the appropriate times (oh, joy...).

As I mentioned before, Omitsu's possession was the very first element of the story that was conceived. But how does this happen? I thought for some time about enemies that Goemon and his friends had faced in the past, and which ones would potentially have the ability to do this. There was only one real solution I could think of: Dochuki.

I had finished Goemon's Great Adventure not too long before this, so this was a natural choice that was still fresh in my mind. But wasn't Dochuki soundly defeated at the end of the game? Well, in my mind, not quite. True, Ebisumaru's noxious bodily fumes mixed with his spirit, but remember that, soon afterwards, Ebisumaru turned his back to the demon and everybody else passed out. Dochuki would have had ample time to escape.

But would he be free, and does he have the power to possess people? This was where I didn't want to make any erroneous assumptions about Dochuki's powers. So, I created original characters, namely four jealous siblings of Dochuki and an evil father who has the power to possess humans and plans to rescue his favorite son, who has been imprisoned by the inhabitants of the Underworld after returning there in his weakened state.

Next, I had to come up with some sort of excuse as to why Omitsu had to be the victim, and not somebody else. I made up the whole "innocence and clean past" thing, adding the second part when I realized that Goemon would fit the righteous bill pretty easily. Of course, I still felt that Yae would fit that profile, as well, but I found a way for her to avoid being taken.

Speaking of Yae, her career dilemma was another really early idea that stayed throughout the whole thing. Honestly, I still find it a bit strange and...well, stupid when I think about it. I wanted there to be some conflict between her and Goemon, which would ultimately lead to their conversation in Zazen (this was later expanded, obviously, as it was something that came up more often than originally intended).

I suppose it would make SOME sense for Yae's strict, "by-the-book" boss to disapprove of Goemon's vigilante ways. But to threaten Yae with demotion, and for Yae to take this threat seriously and be frightened of it enough that she would choose not to accompany her friends...I think that's a bit hard to swallow.

So, once things finally got going...how would Goemon and co. defeat this new enemy? I don't know whether I came up with the idea of Dochuki having four siblings first, or whether the thought of fighting enemies who represent the four elements (Earth, Wind, Water, and Fire) preceded it. But, eventually, I decided that these four would protect the weapons necessary for them to fight. And thus, the Jewels of Light were conceived.

There was also the issue of when this story would take place. It didn't take long for me to realize that it would be to my benefit to set it a few years after the events of GGA, for several reasons. First, it was vital that Goemon and Omitsu be in a serious relationship during the story, and I just didn't see that during any of the games. Second, I thought I could have more flexibility in terms of characterization this way. After all, time changes everything, especially people. Third, Goemon had to be especially reckless, and I thought him having nothing to do for a while would be a good way for him to get that way. Thus, I threw canon out the window and claimed that the gang had no adventures after facing Dochuki. At that point, GGA was the latest game in the series that I had played, so I justified it for myself that way. Ignorance was my excuse.

There were, of course, other ideas that have been around since the beginning and made it into the story in some way, shape, or form. I'll discuss these when the time is right. Let's move on to the next section of the essay: characters, both familiar (or so you think) and not. Note that I will not be discussing every character I outlined; that would just take too long. In the order that they're presented in my outline:

Through Fire, Justice Is Served! - Goemon

Even though Yae had a great deal of character development and many scenes revolved around her, I still consider Goemon to be the main character of the story. He's the self-declared (and generally accepted) leader of the group, and he's just itching for the thrill of an adventure.

Everybody knows that Goemon is a courageous, headstrong fellow with a short temper who tends to act without thinking things through, but I wanted to explore more aspects of his personality (as was the case with other characters, as well). However, I'm afraid some other fundamental characteristics may have been altered in doing this (again, as was the case with other characters). One such example is his openness, and how he encourages Yae to express herself more often. True, time changes people. But I don't know if it could change him this much. I thought attributing this (gradual) change to spending too much time with Ebisumaru might be a possible way to explain this. Whether it's an acceptable solution is to be decided by the reader.

In general, I don't think I based the specifics of Goemon's character on anybody I know in real life or from a fictional source (well, besides the Goemon games, of course). I don't know whether that's a good thing or a bad thing.

Just for kicks, Sarahsuke and I proposed hypotheses as to what the characters' blood types and zodiac signs are, based on their personalities. We agreed pretty much right off the bat that Goemon is a Leo. Right now, I'm looking specifically at (from Wikipedia): Proud, Risk-taking, Passionate, Ambitious, Loves attention, Very strong, Noble, Leader, Powerful, Protective, Bossy, Egotistical, Boastful, Pompous, Over-aggressive, Argumentative, and Arrogant. He likes the spotlight and luxurious living, but not doing things safely, and probably not pointlessness. Of course, these are debatable, and I feel like I missed the mark on some of them in my story, but I guess nobody's perfect. Now if only I can remember which blood type he was...

The Jewel of Light that "chooses" Goemon is the last one obtained: The Ruby of Courage. This was probably the easiest one to come up with a name for. After all, fire is usually associated with courage (at least in my mind). And both of them are associated with Goemon. So, that one wasn't too tough.

As stated above, Goemon is the main character of this story. He goes through a lot of emotional turmoil (almost as much as Yae, though that statement is certainly up for debate), but usually lands on his feet again in the end. His brashness gets him in a lot of trouble this time, but what can you say? That's just who he is.

He Just Couldn't Appreciate The Beauty In...ME! - Ebisumaru

Yes, the above quote is attributed to the Ninja of Justice himself. And yes, his infamous Hypnotic Dance is back in full force. All right!

Ebisumaru is probably my favorite character in Ganbare Goemon, and this story has a lot to do with that. He was, by far, the most fun to write for. There were so many dumb gags involving Ebisumaru, and chances are I couldn't include all the ones I thought of, for one reason or another. Of course, almost all of said gags involve food in some way, so Ebisumaru is a bit of a one-trick pony in that regard. That was the basis of his conversation with Sasuke on the ship (discussed later, hopefully).

Like many aspects of this story, thinking of funny lines and situations for Ebisumaru in particular usually kept my mind racing at night. I would lie in bed thinking about what to write and how to write it, and I would inevitably think of something for Ebisumaru to do. If it wasn't a new idea, it was either a particular gag that I was looking forward to writing, or one that I had just written and that stood out in my mind.

Ebisumaru, as I have portrayed him here, is proud to call himself the Ninja of Justice, as he deals it out in his own unique way. Fortunately for his allies, this unique brand of fighting turns out to be very useful at various points in the story. In addition, he is, undeniably, a glutton, indulging himself in his love of food constantly. Not only is it all he can talk about, but when it's there, he makes every effort he can to eat it.

Ebisumaru has been friends with Goemon for several years by the time this story takes place, and they're fiercely loyal to each other, even if it seems like Goemon doesn't always treat Ebisumaru very well. Goemon may yell a lot, even going so far as to insult Ebisumaru, but their friendship is more than strong enough to survive that. Heh, of course, this has gone a bit beyond "friendship" in some of the games and the manga, but I didn't know much about any of that before writing this.

I would often refer to Ebisumaru as "the Ninja of Justice" instead of by his actual name. This was just an attempt to break up the monotony a bit, and a similar technique was also used with Sasuke ("The Clockwork Ninja" or something similar) and Yae ("The kunoichi").

I remember it was later speculated that Ebisumaru is a Libra. I'm looking at: Cooperative, Charming, Easy-going, Sociable, Peace loving, Gullible, Pleasure oriented, Cheerful, and Flirty (it says that Libras are loyal in marriage, but it was implied that Ebisumaru cheats on his wife). He likes harmony, beauty, and justice, and dislikes conflict and discord, cruelty, and injustice. I find it a bit funny that "Entertainer" is listed as an ideal career for a Libra. Many people from the region of Japan that Ebisumaru is presumably from are comedians, and the Ninja of Justice can even get a part-time job as an entertainer in one of the games (Ganbare Goemon Gaiden, I believe). Unfortunately, like Goemon, I can't remember which blood type Sarahsuke and I agreed on for Ebisumaru...

Ebisumaru gets the first Jewel of Light, the Topaz of Power. This one was tough to come up with a name for, mostly since I had difficulty finding a yellow jewel. It was a "citrine" for a while, but I changed it to "topaz" because (I thought) it sounded better. The "power" part has to do with the fact that Ebisumaru is usually considered the strongest character of the four, physically.

Ebisumaru is primarily the comic relief of the story. His overly zealous love of food is actually a fun subject to make jokes about. Although usually carefree, he can be serious when the need arises, and he is an indispensable ally in this fight.

By the way, Ebisumaru's wife, Rie, is named after my grandmother. Yes, this is the same grandmother who helps with the translations.

Welcome To The Machine - Sasuke

Ah, Sasuke. Often my favorite character to play as in the games, he's the naive robot created by, and fiercely loyal to, the Wise Man. His mental and emotional capacities go beyond that of what any normal machine can achieve, to the point of Yae insisting that the Clockwork Ninja has a heart and a conscience.

Let's talk about Sasuke's "humanness", his "soul", if you will. Do I believe that machines, even ones that are as complex as Sasuke, are capable of real thought, emotions, and such? The answer is no. There will likely never be a machine like Sasuke, who is able to think for himself and impress his teammates by how he acts less like a robot and more like a person every day. Much of what I wrote regarding Sasuke's abnormally advanced nature goes against what I truly believe. He is the exception, not the rule. Therefore, Yae would be incorrect if she made the same claims about another robot as she did for Sasuke regarding the existence of a heart, and most likely a conscience (I like that definition of conscience I used, by the way, and I'll explain where I got it from it when the time is right).

Again, Sasuke acts less like a machine and more like a human than is really possible. Besides being capable of independent thought, he can feel emotion, comfort, and discomfort, and he requires food to survive like any normal person. Quite advanced.

As we did with Goemon and Ebisumaru, Sarahsuke and I also speculated on the blood type of Sasuke, despite the obvious fact that Sasuke clearly doesn't have any blood. For those of you who aren't familiar with this concept, blood type in Japan is analogous to astrological signs in the West. They believe that a person's blood type dictates their personality and compatibility with others, at least partially. Anyway, we agreed that Sasuke's blood type is AB: Cool, Controlled, Rational, Critical, Indecisive, Unforgiving. It may not describe him perfectly, but neither did the astrological signs for the others (and no, I don't remember assigning a sign to Sasuke). You can also look at this page for more information.

Sasuke is the second ninja to receive a Jewel of Light: the Emerald of Spirit. Unlike Ebisumaru's, this one was easy enough to figure out what kind of a gem it should be, but fairly difficult to assign a quality to it. "Spirit" is a bit...dumb, or cliche, or whatever you'd like to call it. It was probably a sign of my lack of creativity.

I felt like Sasuke was just...there in the story. It seemed to me that he wasn't contributing much, even though he had the radar early on (which was probably a subconscious attempt to give him some purpose). After it was destroyed, his usefulness for the team and in the grand scheme of things declined, in my opinion. Ebisumaru was the comedy, and Goemon and Yae were involved in the huge conflicts, and they all had interesting personalities. Sasuke was just...Sasuke. His naivete leads to a few jokes, but these are few and far between, and some of them may not have been that effective. I don't know.

Foxey Lady - Yae

Of course, a fox in this case refers to a beautiful woman with some spunk, or "bite" (ha ha...OK, dumb joke). That describes Yae as she is presented here fairly well. For whatever reason, I decided to give Yae a very complex personality, at times feminine, but usually very sarcastic. I also wrote "Intelligent, calm, persistent, and famous for her beauty...with a short temper and little tolerance for laziness" in my notes. We'll see just how much of that is true to the games soon enough, but it's worth noting that she's more sensitive than she's willing to admit under much of this toughness, and she cares deeply for her friends (more than she realizes initially), taking the role of the "older sister" to the others (even though, ironically, Yae is the younger of two sisters). It has been mentioned (or at least implied) at some points that Yae is an excellent cook and an appreciator of the arts. Both of these facts were referenced in AVD.

I don't remember when exactly I decided to give Yae a major internal conflict, but it was probably very early on. I knew she should be obsessed with her job, and I thought it would be interesting and create some tension between her and one or more of the other members of the group (particularly Goemon) if they brought it up and how it's affecting her in an adverse manner. Many ideas about how this career situation and other conflicts could manifest themselves between those two were initially devised, but, like most other things, a good number of the ideas couldn't be used for one reason or another. Instead, I decided to include more scenes where they comfort each other and grow closer as friends. Oh, I guess this would be a good time to mention that I never intended to imply any sort of a romance between these two. I'm somewhat hostile towards fics that make Goemon and Yae a romantic couple (with one major exception, which is dramatically different from most of the others), and I even explored the possibility (and questioned its validity) from Goemon's perspective this time around.

That's not to say that I didn't drop hints (and sometimes more than hints) that Goemon and others consider Yae to be very attractive. But, to put it one way, this is definitely NOT manga Yae, who is a completely different entity from game Yae, as far as I'm concerned. I wanted to get the point across that she's a beautiful woman without going totally overboard with sex appeal (even with what little bit you can have in a written story).

I had to make a few assumptions about Yae's job in this story. Of course, there's the fact that I created a twisted, slimy boss, but the exact nature of her work had to be speculated on a bit, as well. I'm pretty sure this isn't totally accurate, but whatever. I never intended for any of this to become canon anyway.

Yae is the only character where I remember both the zodiac sign and the blood type. Yae is likely a Virgo: Analytical, Critical, Precise, Meticulous, Orderly, Methodical, Practical, Intelligent, Inquiring, Responsible, Perfectionistic, Shrewd, Witty, Polite, Hygienic (Notice that she's the only one of the main four that's seen combing her hair, for example.), Reserved, Cool, and Undemonstrative. As for blood type, she's clearly an A: Earnest, Creative, Sensible, Calm, and Fastidious. As she's portrayed here, she likes hygiene, order, cleanliness, details, and peace, but she dislikes sloppiness, uncleanliness, confusion, and especially narrow-minded people and uncertainty. These qualities are highly debatable, even more so than they are for the other three I've written about so far. I also think it's kind of interesting that the elements of the characters' signs don't correspond to the jewels they get here (for example, Virgo (Yae) is an earth sign and Libra (Ebisumaru) is an air sign), but Virgo is associated with the sapphire.

Yae receives her Jewel of Light, the Sapphire of Wisdom, third among the group. I figured she was the "wisest" of the four, and I thought I could come up with some comparison between her powerful, inquisitive mind and the ocean. Most likely, she was assigned to the specific location where she obtains it earlier than any of the others.

Let's see how the personality of this kunoichi compares to that of her video game incarnation. After all, she is, in my opinion, the most mysterious of the main four. But, from what I have gathered from analyzing the way she talks and what she says in the games(the GG3 and GG4 translations were particularly useful for this purpose), I feel like I missed the mark in terms of her personality. For example, in the games, Yae can be a little sarcastic, but she's usually very polite. In this story, she's really only polite to people who can provide some sort of benefit to the team, whereas she's very hostile towards anybody who's even remotely antagonistic. Although this might make some sense, her game self doesn't appear to be this quick to anger.

In addition, Yae swears quite a bit in this story, second only to Goemon in that department (I haven't done a count of how many times each character cusses, so that's just a guess more than anything else), whereas she rarely does in the games (I was actually surprised to hear her say "shimatta", which means "damn it", at one point in the anime). This was probably an attempt to give her more of an "edge."

It is true that the games portray her as a caring, intelligent, usually calm (though this last one wasn't so true at some points in AVD) person. However, it's difficult to say how short her temper is (definitely not as short as Goemon's), although I imagine, being in the type of job where strict discipline is of the utmost importance, she's usually not a very laid-back person. That was more speculation than anything else.

Honestly, I didn't care too much for Yae until I wrote AVD. That's not to say that I didn't like the character, I just didn't find her as interesting as the other three main ones. Yet, for some reason, I felt compelled to give her a large and important role in the story, even revolving an entire subplot around her. She turned out to be one of my favorite characters to write for (second to Ebisumaru), maybe because I grew fond of this interpretation, as inaccurate as it may be. Her internal conflict, despite its stupidity, kept me thinking throughout the whole thing.

Hey, Look At You. You're A Year Older...And A Year Closer To Death. - Wise Man

The Wise Man, throughout a majority of the story, is probably about 102 years old and still kicking. I used to have him as being in his 90s, but that was changed after I translated the intro to GG4 and found out he was celebrating his 98th birthday there. Unfortunately, I believe that this change wasn't made until the second version of this story was released.

He's a caring old man, but with a fairly short temper, especially when it comes to his robots and other inventions. He's proven to be a valuable asset to Goemon and his friends several times in the past few years, offering them assistance and advice during their times of need. He gladly gives it, though he seems less pleased about it whenever anybody makes any kind of a reference to his age.

The greatest thing about writing for the Wise Man is, of course, his obsession with young, pretty girls. Yae is, much to her displeasure, a victim of this obsession a couple times. In addition, I had to make as many references to his sizable collection of pornographic magazines as I could manage. No problems there. Pfft...car magazines, my ass...

However, the Wise Man's usefulness in the plot is evidenced most by his knowledge of mechanics and mythology. I wanted to imply that Goemon's required the former type of service more times than he cares to count. As for the latter, the Wise Man seems to have access to a great amount of literature on ghosts and the like, so I figured he would be the best person (well, he's the only person, really) to report on the current situation in Oedo Town while the others are gone, and also to give them info about the Jewels of Light.

To Know Her Is To Love Her. Just To See Her Smile Makes My Life Worthwhile. - Omitsu

Omitsu is Goemon's beloved girlfriend, though this wasn't always the case. Sure, she's considered by every man who sees her to be the most beautiful woman in Oedo Town. But most of them, including Goemon, don't have the guts to approach her. And I would imagine she admires Goemon the most out of all the men in the town, even before they officially start dating. My guess is that her love for him would become stronger with each subsequent rescuing, meaning there's been a lot of opportunities for it to grow.

Even though it's suggested in some of the Japanese games that Goemon and Omitsu are a couple (though they may be trying to keep it a secret), I thought it would be interesting to come up with one possible theory as to how exactly they got together in the first place, presumably later than any of the games I'm referring to (right after GGA, actually). When he finally gets to be alone with her after the teahouse closes, he (nervously) makes his move and ends up hooking up with the girl of his dreams. Score!

Waitress at Akindo Teahouse...I don't remember which game(s), if any, that name was mentioned in. I'm pretty sure I actually got it from other fanfics.

So, the main four weren't the only ones who were assigned zodiac signs. Omitsu is a Cancer: Tenacious, Resourceful, Home-loving, Loyal, Intuitive, Generous, Emotional, Loving, Sensitive, Protective, Romantic, Warm, Sympathetic, Sentimental, Caring, Maternal instincts, Moody, Hyper-sensitive, Touchy, Clingy, Insecure, Volatile, and Controlling. Some of these are speculative (as Omitsu's character isn't fleshed out as much in the games) and show up only in this story, and many of these are from the anime. Being prone to jealousy is implied in the faults mentioned here, but I wasn't able to incorporate that into the story as much as I wanted to. I also remember reading something that said that Leo men are highly compatible with Cancer women, which supports the idea of Goemon and Omitsu being a viable couple (if you put any weight on those things, that is).

The insecurity that's mentioned above is especially important. It's based almost directly on my own feelings of inferiority, but Omitsu gets it from the belief that she's not only useless, but a burden to Goemon and the others. After all, in her mind, they always have to rescue her because it seems like she's too helpless to take care of herself. This goes against the traditionally accepted notion of Omitsu being the eternal optimist after being kidnapped and rescued multiple times. I thought this would be a more realistic approach, and that's the direction I tried to go in with many of my characters.

Omitsu's been through some pretty difficult experiences, but I wanted this one to top them all. I emphasized over and over again the anguish of being possessed by a demon. In addition, she's bringing pain to Goemon and the others, and I thought it might be interesting to see what happens when they realize that their dear, timid friend is now one of their most powerful enemies. Of course, she really beats herself up over all of that. As Yae says towards the end, Omitsu really goes through hell this time around.

It's interesting to note that Omitsu is easily the most despised character of the series, but I can't figure out why that is exactly. Sure, she's a ditzy, possessive...well, word that starts with a "b" and rhymes with "witch," in the anime. But she doesn't deserve to have that much hatred directed towards her...And even though she's definitely not my favorite character in the series, I still had some unconscious desire to give her an important role. Must be the underdog effect or something.

Speaking of which, this might be a good time to mention that I'm currently in the pre-pre-planning stages for my next fic. Nothing too well-defined yet, but it does involve Omitsu again. Hopefully, this idea will actually go somewhere. (5/2/08)

Ghost Gulping - Suzaku

A cat-like ghost from the "Underworld". Her personality isn't very well-developed in Goemon's Great Adventure, and it gets a small chance to do so this time around. That being said, the story portrays her as being knowledgeable, impatient, and a bit sarcastic, but still possessing a kind heart.

When I first wrote the outline for AVD, I had her name as "Suzaku", which is what it is in GGA. Later, when it came time to include her in the story, I began to have doubts about the name and checked the Mystical Website. They had it as "Suzuka", and that's what I used until I returned home for Christmas break and saw for myself that I was right the first time. I changed it in all chapters that were published from that point forward, but everything before that remained the same until I published the revision. So, her name changed all of a sudden, which must've been a bit confusing, and added a new layer of complexity to the running gag of Ebisumaru calling her "Suzuki".

Suzaku needed to be able to fight in this story, but we never got a chance in GGA to see just what she could do. So, I decided that, since she's a supernatural being, it would make sense for her to have a few magic spells. We only see a few of these, and they're very generic. But they get the job done, I suppose.

The Darkness Shall Prevail - Makurayami

Here he is, the big, evil villain himself. The master of the darkness, who haunts nightmares and instills fear in all who behold him. Yeah, really clever (not).

I gave Makurayami and his four children names that reflect their appearance and/or abilities. In actuality, "Makurayami" isn't a name at all, but rather a Japanese term used to describe complete and total darkness. It seems to be a fairly obscure term. I actually originally named him "Ankoku", which has a similar meaning, but I concluded that it sounded too stupid, so I changed it to something that sounded slightly less stupid.

Besides his main ability of being able to possess people, it was difficult coming up with exactly what else he could do. After all, he's apparently got a reputation for being quite powerful. I debated with myself about what exactly they should be up to the point where they actually fought him.

Oh, I don't believe I've mentioned how I went about writing battles...Well, there really wasn't a whole lot of pre-planning involved. Besides a few key events in each battle sequence, I pretty much made them up as I went along. Probably not the smartest thing, but I was having a really difficult time thinking of how to fill in the gaps beforehand. Something about writing the actual scenes helped me come up with ideas. I didn't want to do this with the last three battles (Possessed Omitsu, Makurayami, and Dochuki, respectively), but after giving myself at least a full day to plan it out before actually writing, I still didn't have clear and specific directions in my mind. So, I just winged it on those like I did with all the others.

To be continued...

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

2008-03-21T01:55:00.000-05:00

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.

GG3 - Part 9

2008-03-07T15:53:00.006-06:00

Ganbare Goemon 3 (English) - Part 9

Excitement! Crazy, crazy excitement! (By the way, before I get sued or something, I should probably say that that particular quote comes from Dominic Monaghan.) I've accomplished my goal of getting all the major cutscenes of Ganbare Goemon 3 translated by the time I go on Spring/Easter Break, (with almost a week to spare) and I was able to release the final video on March 6, 2008. This week was hell, but at least I was able to finish these last two videos so I would have time to suffer in my room, the library, and the classroom without also worrying about making videos. Let's move on to GG3 scene analysis and scripts, one last time.

Scene 44: The Downside of a Great Mind

Goemon: What a strange room...
Wise Man: Hya hya hya hya! I am a genius, a great genius!
Goemon: W-Wise Man! Damn it, it seems like you’re being manipulated somehow! What happened to you?
---
Sasuke: Wise Man, are you all right?
Yae: It seems like the brainwashing mechanism made him that way...
Goemon: He’s not gonna wake up for a while.
Yae: Sasuke and I will take the Wise Man to a safe place in the town. Let’s go, Sasuke!
Sasuke: Wise Man...
Goemon: We should go further inside! Huh? Ebisumaru, what’s wrong?
Ebisumaru: I’ve got a bad feeling about this...(Shudder)
Goemon: Stop complaining! We have to defeat Shishi Jurokubei, no matter what!

You hear that, kids? If you're too smart, you'll get captured by a strange man wearing a nun's habit and forced to build evil robots for him. Recall from the opening to this game and a previous scene (Scene 20) that Bismaru stated that the Wise Man would be working for them from now on, and Sasuke mentions that he overheard the enemy saying that the Wise Man was working on a new model of the walker.

You may notice that the scene started with me playing as Goemon and ended with me playing as Sasuke. Just a free tip from me: the surge from Sasuke's surge kunai makes him the best character to fight against the Wise Man, IMO (even though I did lose 9 hearts during the battle...hey, I never said it was an easy fight). How ironic, eh?

Scene 45: The Giant God's Revival

Goemon: Wow! We’re really high up!
Ebisumaru: Goemon, that guy’s clothes are really loud...
Goemon: Ha! Loud clothes! What are you, scared? Huh?! I-Isn’t that Omitsu over there? And there...Ah! You’re the head of the mechanical bandits, Shishi Jurokubei!
Jurokubei: Indeed! Now, hand over the conch shell!
Goemon: What?! You’ve gotta be kidding! You should give me back Omitsu!
Jurokubei: Hoo...I’m acting like a gentleman, and you’re taking advantage of me.
Ebisumaru: (Goemon, we should exchange the conch shell for Omitsu.)
Goemon: Good thinking, Ebisumaru! Oy! Jurokubei, we’ll give you the conch shell if you give us Omitsu!
Jurokubei: I understand. On my signal, we’ll exchange at the same time! Ready...Go!
Ebisumaru: Ah! Goemon! Jurokubei--!
Goemon: Over here, Omitsu! Wha-Wha-Wha-Wha-What?!
Bismaru: Thank you! I knew you would help me!
Goemon: What the hell are you talking about?! Pest!
Ebisumaru: Goemon, did you really give up the conch shell?!
Goemon: Sorry! It slipped out of my hands! What could he want with the conch shell, anyway?
Ebisumaru: I wonder if this has anything to do with the Giant’s Revival that the hooded halfwits were talking about.
Jurokubei: Bwa ha ha ha! Fools! The real Omitsu is right here! I’ve got good news for you, though! Omitsu will be added to my collection of beautiful women! And you, you can have Bismaru! Take good care of him! And now, at last, my great plan for the Giant God’s Revival will become a reality! Omitsu, get ready to board the Giant of Legend! I will smash the rest of you and become history’s champioooon!
Goemon: Damn it! What’s gonna happen now?!
Ebisumaru: It won’t be good to stay here! Let’s use Impact to go back!
Goemon: But Impact’s all the way on the opposite side!
Ebisumaru: This isn’t good...
Sasuke: Goemon! Ebisumaru! Get in, quickly!
Yae: Now we’re even for what you did for me at the prison!
Jurokubei: I’m surprised that the Legendary Giant God is the splitting image of your robot! The appearance may be tacky, but I’ll show you proof of true strength! Hold on tight, Omitsu! Let’s go! Yaaaaaah!
Goemon: W-What’s going on?! I don’t understand what’s happening!
Ebisumaru: It looks like another time warp!
Sasuke: A rejection in Impact’s time machine circuit must have caused some sort of an accident!
Yae: This is gonna hurt...

Wow...this scene is long. Too long, if you ask me. And there's a lot of talking. On top of that, the game is controlling the message speed, so pausing at each new subtitle is recommended when you're watching the video, especially if you're not a very fast reader.

It turns out that "kyoshin" is better translated as "Giant God" rather than just "giant." Makes it seem more threatening and imposing, making it a proper noun and adding "god" to the title. So, I guess you could say that I made a mistake when I translated "kyoshin fukkatsu" as "Giant's Revival" in the past, or you could look at it in light of the excuse that I'm about to give now, which is that Jurokubei, being the arrogant bastard he is, feels like he is the only person worthy of the privilege of calling Dark Impact the "Giant God" instead of just the "Giant." The Omikuji don't have that right, and thus Ebisumaru doesn't know any better when he, too, says "Giant." Wait...does that even make sense?

This is the first direct mention of Jurokubei's beautiful women collection, although it is indirectly referenced when Koronda says he was going to donate Yae to him.

Speaking of Jurokubei, he uses a lot of slang that requires more research than usual to translate. I should thank Sarahsuke for helping me find some of these words/phrases for this and other scenes.

To be honest, I haven't watched the video in its entirety yet, but I imagine the lag is a real problem here, especially with the subtitles and the lightning. Stupid lag.

The last line in this scene used to be something like "I-It's so painful..." That makes very little sense, frankly. Even though the only word Yae says there is "Kurushii" ("painful"), I thought there would be a better translation for it. So, since Japanese doesn't really have a "future tense", per se, I decided that this would still work. Not sure which one is more accurate, but this one makes more sense, I think.

Scene 46: Be Careful What You Wish For

Lord: Every day is so peaceful. I’m getting sick of it!
Princess Yuki: Oh, father, you’re so imprudent. Hey, Kurobei!
Kurobei: (Meow, meow.)
Lord: Why does something like this always happen?!

Poor Lord and Princess Yuki. Naturally, they're always there when Oedo Castle gets smashed...or goes up in flames...or starts flying away...or gets transformed after getting hit by a strange beam from a peach-shaped flying saucer. Basically, besides the whole "royalty thing", they've got some really rotten luck.

The reason I didn't write anything right before Impact lands on the castle (when everybody's expression suddenly changes) is basically the same reason I never wrote anything whenever Goemon blew into the conch shell. The characters that go across the screen are essentially a sound effect that represents a loud rumbling.

By the way, I don't remember if it's ever explicitly stated that the Lord and Princess Yuki know that Kurobei is a ninja cat. Does anybody know whether this is true?

Scene 47: One Last Battle

Jurokubei: What the--?! This place! My aspiration to see the Edo period has been fulfilled! If you want to destroy such a magnificent castle, you’re just not normal! Hoo...So be it! After I destroy you, I will claim the castle for myself and return home! You will know the real strength of the Great Jurokubei!

I never knew Jurokubei wanted to see the Edo period so badly. Or that he wanted to own a castle from that period. See, you learn something new everyday.

And that wraps up the last Ganbare Goemon 3 scene analysis! I hope you guys enjoyed watching these videos/reading this thing and learning the true story. What's coming next? Umm...who knows? I certainly don't. Does anybody have any ideas?

But if anybody wants to help with a future project (if there are any), let me know ASAP. I'm looking for people to help with the actual translations, in particular, but if you've got some other skill that you think can help this project, talk to me and I'll see if I can find something for you to do. Instant messaging is probably the fastest way to communicate, but emails and messages on other sites work well, too.

So, I couldn't have done this without a little help from my friends. First, I owe a lot to Sarahsuke for helping me translate some of the more obscure words and phrases, and for pointing out my mistakes. Oh, and for reading the first versions of all my scripts and giving me her feedback that way. Also, thanks to everyone who commented, especially a friend of mine known as mysticalninjaduelist on YouTube. I know you were probably busy this past week, but I really looked forward to reading your comments every time I posted a new video. You rock! And, finally, thanks to all the members of Goemon International for being an overall great group of people and supporting me throughout this whole project.

Keep checking back here periodically. I'll be posting Goemon-related stuff here whenever I think of something. That stuff may or may not be related to the Goemon in English project, but barring any unforeseen circumstances, there will be more stuff to come soon.

GG3 - Part 8

2008-03-03T23:08:00.007-06:00

Ganbare Goemon 3 (English) - Part 8

And now, I bring you Part 8 of Ganbare Goemon 3, released on March 3, 2008. This is another one that actually has less dialogue than you might think, and (for the most part), I left myself too much time for subtitles again. Oh well. The good news is that it didn't take long to get translated, and this has one of my favorite scenes in the entire game in it. Let's just move on to scene analysis, shall we?

Scene 39: The Continuing Story of the Omikuji Siblings

Kyo: Argh! Your strength is the real deal!
Kichi: Until now, we’ve always been the allies of justice!
Shokichi: But we have to trust Lord Jurokubei to take care of that now!
Chukichi: We are retiring, naturally.
Daikichi: We will return to being the Poor Storytelling Siblings! If you’d like to see us, you’re all invited. Well, that’s it from us!

"The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill" was changed to "The Continuing Story of the Omikuji Siblings" for the purposes of Ganbare Goemon. Yep, another Beatles song.

Who would've guessed that the Omikuji Siblings used to be "Poor Storytellers"? Wonder what kind of stories they used to tell. Well, they probably weren't any good anyway. Of course, we all know what kinds of stories they're going to tell after this fight. All about how Mean Mr. Goemon (Hey, there's another Beatles reference!) beat them up and constantly made fun of them while doing it.

And if you want to know which color corresponds to each of the Omikuji Siblings, refer to the end of my post for Part 7.

Scene 40: The Door

Goemon: Phew...I’m surprised that they were so hard to handle!
Yae: The base’s door must be towards the north!
Ebisumaru: We have all 8 of the code plates here...
Sasuke: Now we just have to set them in the door correctly!
Goemon: Okay, let’s go give it our best effort!

Blah. I'm in a bit of a creative slump. Give me a break.

I can't think of anything to say about this one. Let's move on.

Scene 41: A Bee Stinging a Crying Face

Yae: Do you suppose this is the door to the base that the hooded halfwits were talking about?
Goemon: Well, this is just a glass ornament!
Sasuke: No, I’m guessing this is a very complicated device.
Ebisumaru: Eh? You think so?
Goemon: Well, if you say so, I guess I have to agree with you.
Sasuke: I’m guessing we have to set the code plates in those dents correctly.
Goemon: Oh, that’s too much trouble! Let’s just destroy it!
Yae: Wait! Attacking recklessly could be dangerous!
Sasuke: Insert the code plates!
Narrator: The green (yellow) button places the code plate. If you think you made a mistake, press the red button to remove it. And press the blue button if you want to stop. Well, try it and do your best!
---
Ebisumaru: I don’t think anything’s happening...
Goemon: Son of a bitch! We’re in a real crisis here!

When you put the code plates in, they read "Nakittsura ni hachi", which is a Japanese proverb that translates to "A bee stinging your crying face." Basically, it means that misfortune strikes when you're least prepared for it. When one thing goes wrong, everything goes wrong. Sounds like the story of my life...err, anyway, my thanks go to Sarahsuke for figuring that out.

This is one of those times where the game controls the message speed, so pausing at each new line is highly recommended. Especially the first one. I was forced to put the English onto two lines, because it's there for less than two seconds.

Does anybody else find it strange that the characters fall in the order of Ebisumaru, Yae, Goemon, and Sasuke right after putting the plates in, but when they're actually plummeting it's Yae, Sasuke, Ebisumaru, then Goemon? I don't know, it seems strange to me.

Oh, and I should probably explain what the colors of the Super Famicom buttons correspond to on the Super Nintendo. In the order that they are mentioned:

Green = Y
Yellow = B
Red = A
Blue = X

Scene 42: March of the Impact

Ebisumaru: Whew! Just in the nick of time.
Goemon: This conch shell...no, Impact, saved us!
Yae: It seems like the code plates were a trap set up by the Omikuji Siblings.
Sasuke: I never would’ve expected those idiots to put that much thought into something like this!
Goemon: All right, enough talk! We have to hurry and march into the base of the enemy to rescue Omitsu and the Wise Man from their clutches!
Sasuke: Let’s go, let’s go!

Not much to say here. Umm... Sasuke doesn't really say "let's go" twice, he just says something at the beginning of his sentence that indicates intensity. Yeah, that's about it. Moving on.

Scene 43: Pride, in the Name of Love

Jurokubei: You’ve come at last! But we’ve only been fooling around until now! Now, we start getting serious! Do you honestly expect to be victorious against the Great Jurokubei? Mechanical Formation 16! Go!
---
Jurokubei: Ack! That was too easy for you! I should give you a prize! Time for a different formation: Shishi Jurokubei’s Dangerous Special! There! I’m so sharp and handsome, it’s terrifying, don’t you think? Shishi Jurokubei should win now! Here I go! Agh! Bismaru, you’re getting in the way of my coolness and interfering with my big scene!
Bismaru: L-Lord Jurokubei! How can you say such things? This is a union of love! See! We will proceed by the power of two people’s faithful love!
Jurokubei: Agh! My big scene!
---
Owowowow! Ah! Ah! Yowch! Aaaah!
Jurokubei: Damn it! Bismaru! If you hadn’t come, I would have won!
Bismaru: Lord Jurokubei! Talking about the past like that isn’t going to change anything! First of all, the old man is still a hostage in the building...
Jurokubei: Oh! That’s a good idea!
Goemon: What?! The Wise Man?! Get ready for one more punch! Upper cut! This must be the building they were talking about.
Ebisumaru: Wow, that’s a huge building!
Sasuke: I can’t even guess where the Wise Man would be in there...
Yae: Leave it to me! I’ve got a plan! Get Impact’s arm in there!
Goemon: If we used Impact’s arm, we could all go in there...
Yae: Wait! Trust a woman’s intuition! Aaaaah!

Pride, in the Name of Love...derived from "Pride (In the Name Of Love)" by U2. Simply put, that song kicks ass. Anyway, Jurokubei brings the pride, Bismaru brings the love, and they've both got a ton of it.

Anyway, this is one of my favorite scenes in the entire game. I think Bismaru's sudden appearance makes this scene hilarious. Heh, "union of love" makes it sound like he and Jurokubei are getting married. Sorry, buddy, I know that would probably be a dream come true for you, but it ain't happening.

A lot of Jurokubei's dialogue is really awkward, but that's because it can be difficult to translate all the slang he's using. I think it's all there, though, maybe with a little more, unfortunately.

Notice how Jurokubei refers to himself in the third person a lot. I guess he's so arrogant, he loves hearing the sound of his own name. I don't know if I've mentioned this before or not, but he also constantly adds the honorific suffix "sama" to the end of his name (Goemon does, too, so maybe it runs in the family or something). Sama is a suffix of great respect, so it's just another sign of how full of himself he really is. I like to put "The Great Jurokubei" as much as possible. Something like "ore-sama" (which just means I or me) is a bit tougher to do something like that. If somebody wants to do me a favor, could they see if "ore-sama" was what was translated as Dochuki's "my illustrious self" in the English version of Goemon's Great Adventure?

I'm pretty sure when Bismaru talks about the Wise Man being their hostage, he's talking about using the time machine to go back to the beginning of the fight and try again. Then you'd get something like what happened in a few episodes of Red vs. Blue, where Jurokubei would go back in time over and over again and keep trying until he finally wins.

So, that's it, I suppose. Just one more video. I'm currently swamped in schoolwork (damn you, midterm exams and reports!), so it'll probably be a while before it's released, unfortunately. The script is ready, but it's gonna be tough to get it up by the weekend. Sorry!

Still no idea what to do next. The likelihood of me writing the companion essay to "AVD" is becoming greater everyday. I'll talk to you guys again later.

(By the way, I think I've got the blog set up so that anybody can leave comments here, even anonymous users. In case anybody's interested.)

GG3 - Part 7

2008-02-28T19:33:00.004-06:00

Ganbare Goemon 3 (English) - Part 7

By some uncharacteristically good luck, I was able to get this translated on a Wednesday evening and upload the video on Thursday, February 28, 2008, a lot sooner than I had originally anticipated. How long did it take to translate this? Half an hour. That short amount of time is a testament to how much dialogue there really is in this in this video, which runs over 9 minutes. That being said, this video is proof that I was becoming a slower reader rather than a faster one. Anyway, enough about that. Let's talk about some scenes.

Scene 35: Every Gardener's Greatest Dream

Cook: Oh! I’ve been waiting for you! You own this field! In the olden days, this area was called Ninnin Village. I’ve been protecting this field for you. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be able to meet you! Oh! The Kappa’s favorite food is the bio cucumber! Should I plant the seed?
Sasuke: Do it!/No.
Cook: Well, I accept this seed, and I’ll put in the field. *Sprinkle, sprinkle.* Ah! I’m so sorry, but I’d like to see this happen quickly here. I have a house in the north. I’d like you to go there and try flipping the new growth switch. Please do this for me.
---
Administrator: Oh! An errand from the cook? Okay, I’ll put the growth switch on for you. You should hurry back to the field!
---
Cook: Oh! I’ve been waiting! I harvested it for you! A splendid bio cucumber! As expected, it was ready almost instantly, thanks to the growth machine. Ooh, look at the brilliant yellow! It looks so delicious. So, please take it!
Narrator: Goemon and allies obtained a bio cucumber. The cucumbers of the future are yellow!

Every farmer in the world is gonna want one of those growth machines! Too bad it won't come around until there are only yellow cucumbers. And what the heck does a "bio cucumber" taste like, anyway?

What is written in the English script as "*Sprinkle, sprinkle* is written as "paraparatto" in Japanese, which is an adverb describing something falling in large drops or sprinkling. I have no idea what a really good English translation for that could be.

This scene also solves the mystery of what you need the field for. Remember way back when, when Goemon and co. got a field for giving a bean to the guy at Ninnin Village (who, ironically, has the same name as the "Cook" in this scene)? Well, this is that same field, which brings up another question: What happens if you don't get the field before coming here? I'm pretty sure you can't go back to the Edo Period after you arrive in the future. And you don't need the field to proceed through the game...or do you? Maybe Bismaru never comes to Hagure Town or something. But if you can continue without obtaining the field, then are you stuck when you get to this point? I don't really feel like testing that out...

Scene 36: The Mighty Water Imp, Kihachi

Kappa: I am Kihachi the Kappa! Please remember that from now on. Oh! You have my absolute favorite food, the bio cucumber! I want to eat that! Hey, what do you say?
Sasuke: Well, okay./I’m not willing!
Kihachi: Seriously? You’ll let me have it? Thank you! I can’t wait to eat it! Mmm...delicious! Oy! I’ll give you my doorsteps as a present! Here!
Narrator: Goemon and allies obtained Kihachi’s doorsteps. ??? They’re actually code plates! The group really obtained 3 code plates!

The title is directly from Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon...I think. It's how Kihachi describes himself when you meet him in that game. I hope I got it right. I don't have the game with me right now, so I can't check. Oh well, that's the name of his theme music on the MNSG album.

Kihachi may instruct the ninjas to remember his name, but there's no indication that they remember him at all when they meet him in MNSG. Of course, since this is "the future", the Kihachi of MNSG probably doesn't know them, but the Kihachi of GG3 does, assuming they're the same person...err, Kappa. So, it makes sense that the ninjas wouldn't know who he is in GG3, but they should remember it in MNSG...unless they completely forgot about the events of this game, which seems unlikely. Ack! My head is starting to spin! Let's just move on to the next scene.

Scene 37: Fight or Flee

Omikuji: The 5 Omikuji Siblings’ robot expert, Kyo, is here!
Goemon: One after another...how many of you are there?!
Omikuji: There’s a reason we say 5 Omikuji Siblings!
Ebisumaru: Are you sure you’re not all just one person?
Sasuke: Come to think of it, they never appear more than one at a time!
Yae: It’s a shame we can’t see 5 hooded halfwits at the same time!
Omikuji: Grr! G-Give back the code plates you’ve collected! Return them immediately!
Goemon: What the hell are you talking about?! We can’t get into your base without them!
Omikuji: Well, so be it! I’ll show you how strong we really are! You can test our real strength! Unite, brothers, in the giant lottery robot! Come! Ka ka ka ka ka! Be afraid! Be very afraid! I’ll be boarding immediately to destroy all of you! Farewell!
Ebisumaru: G-Goemon, what are we gonna do?
Goemon: Humph! It’s settled! You know what to do! As for the giant, approaching robot...Run away, everybody!
Sasuke: What good is running away going to do?!
Yae: Goemon...this is no time for jokes!
Goemon: S-Sorry about that! Well, I changed my mind. Let’s go!

Goemon wants to run away from a fight?! That seems oddly out of character for him. Hmm...

I was a little confused about what the word "bibitta" meant for a while. And then I found out that it's probably related to "bibiru", which has to do with being scared out of your wits. I translated it as "Be afraid! Be very afraid!", but I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be a lot stronger than that. I was wondering how far I could go with that translation, but I decided to stick with that instead of going overboard and putting in more stuff than what's actually there.

Also, am I the only one who thinks it's funny that Kyo laughs like Popeye ("Ka ka ka ka ka!")? Does anybody else even remember who Popeye is?

Scene 38: A Lottery Nobody Wants to Play

Kyo: Wa ha ha! Aren’t you surprised?!
Kichi: Until now, you idiots have been cruelly teasing us...
Shokichi: But not anymore! That won’t happen again!
Chukichi: We will give you plenty of thank you gifts for the way you’ve treated us!
Daikichi: The 5 Omikuji Siblings of Love and Justice!
Kyo: Time to play the deluxe lottery!

iMovie still doesn't like the character heads that show up when the opponent says something. So, I put the specific character names in the script instead of calling them all "Omikuji." The names, with their corresponding colors, are as follows:

Kyo = Black
Kichi = Green
Shokichi = Orange
Chukichi = Blue
Daikichi = Gray

I think I might have gotten Shokichi's line wrong, but other than that I might be okay.

One last thing before I go: I thought for sure I finally had a handle on what was causing the frame rate issues with the past videos, but it looks like I was wrong. So...I don't know what to say, except sorry that they're so hard to watch. Why the GG3 ending was able to avoid it is still beyond me.

Well, I hope you guys enjoyed this anyway. Only two more to go.

GG3 - Part 6

2008-02-25T20:00:00.006-06:00

Ganbare Goemon 3 (English) - Part 6

So, another week, another video. This one was released on February 25, 2008. I've got a lot to say about this one, so let's just get started, shall we?

Scene 30: Baby Needs a New and Shiny Prize

Demimua: I think my baby is going to be born soon. But I lost the charm my husband gave me, so I’m very nervous. Ah! You’re holding the charm my husband gave to me. Please, let me have it at once!
Yae: Well, of course!/I refuse!
Demimua: Oh! Thank you so much! With this, my heart is at ease! I’m sorry I can’t give you much, but please accept this.
Narrator: Goemon and allies obtained a lemon. It’s extremely sour.

The title doesn't REALLY have much to do with what's going on here. It was just my feeble attempt to make a reference to the Decemberists. You can find the line at the beginning of Part II of The Tain.

But, who knows. The charm could be shiny for all we know (it's almost certainly not new). It struck me as odd at first that this woman would place so much importance on an old charm, but then I realized that an "omamori" is supposed to have some kind of protective or at least reassuring power (like a crucifix).

Thanks to a good friend, it has also come to my attention that the name Demimua may be related to the way the Japanese pronounce Demi Moore ("Demi Muua"). They may be making a reference to the "Vanity Fair Controversy" (go here). The timing seems about right, since this game came out at the end of 1994.

Oh, and it was around this time that I realized that Goemon is probably saying all the things when you have choices like that. All four main characters have a distinctive way of speaking and emphatic masculine particles and words like "Teyandei" ("What the hell are you talking about?!") gave it away. Still, I'll keep doing these types of things the same way so as to reduce confusion.

Scene 31: The Cat Strikes Again

Merchant: Thief! Somebody please catch him!
Cat Thief: That’s still impossible! What happened last time won’t happen today! (Meow) Today, I won’t be eating the fish and leaving it as evidence! (Meow) Catch me if you can! (Meow)
---
Cat Thief: Ow! D-Damn it! (Meow) I lost everything I’ve worked so hard to gather, and then you caught me anyway! My life is just one mistake after another! (Meow)
Shop Master: Oh! Thank you very much! You took care of that sneaky little cat thief for us! I’m so happy, see how the tears of joy fall from my face! I’d like to give this item to you as thanks.
Narrator: Sasuke received the surge kunai. Lucky! This different color...

Yes, I called him "Cat Thief" again even though "Nekokichi" may actually be his name. It's for consistency's sake. It's really not very important in the grand scheme of things anyway.

There was a part where the "Shop Master" said something about his face and everything else getting wet from his "tears of joy", but I couldn't think of any way to put that in there without making it sound weird.

Oh, little side story from me. The very first time I played GG3, I ran into a nasty glitch at this part. Instead of getting the surge kunai, Sasuke was stuck with the firecracker bombs. There was no way to switch to the kunai from the bombs. So, since the surge kunai is required to continue the game, I had to start again from the beginning. It sucked, to put it nicely.

Scene 32: I'm not a Ghost!

Tamiko: Who’s there? I’m sorry, but I can’t help you right now. I’m busy with something...
Ebisumaru: Eek! Noppera-bo!
Tamiko: Eh? Ah, the face. I just packed this white wrinkle cream on my face. But I’m not really satisfied with this. I need something more...Oh! You, you have a great thing there! If you let me have that lemon, I will give you something rare and wonderful!
Ebisumaru: Hand over the lemon./I’m not interested!
Tamiko: Thank you! With this and a beautiful face, everything will be perfect! O, ho ho ho ho! Ah, that’s right, the rare gift! Yes, this! A cucumber seed. Nowadays they are very rare, indeed. But if you want to eat it, you still have to find a field to plant it in.
Narrator: Goemon and allies obtained a cucumber seed. Do they not have fields in this age?

The title is mostly a message to myself. I was convinced pretty much until I got this translated that this wasn't a normal human.

The Nopperabou is a ghost that has no facial features, but otherwise likes look a human being. I guess Ebisumaru was a little too freaked out to realize that this girl actually has a visible mouth. Anyway, Nopperabo are usually harmless, doing nothing more than frightening humans. You can learn more on the Nopperabo Wikipedia page.

This is actually one of the scenes where I went through it with every characters before eventually settling on Ebisumaru for some reason.

Why she wants a lemon so badly is still beyond me.

Scene 33: He's Stronger Than He Looks

Muscleman: Huh! I am the famous muscleman and hidden, unsung hero! Everyone calls me John! What do you want from John?
Ebisumaru: Move the rock!/Can I have your autograph?
John: All right, if you give me 100 ryo, I’ll think about it.
Narrator: Will you pay 100 ryo?
Ebisumaru: Pay./Goodbye, John!
John: Okay! Let’s get going!
---
John: Oh! This rock is very light! This will an easy problem to deal with! Well, there you go! Goodbye!

Yeah, in case you couldn't tell, I wasn't feeling too creative this week. I'm getting over a cold, and I've been getting even less sleep than usual. My apologies.

Scene 34: The Bath Lover

Omikuji: The 5 Omikuji Siblings’ bath lover, Daikichi, is here! Grr! The code plate again?! Furthermore, you have no manners, coming here just as I get out of the bath! As soon as I get out of the bath, I like to drink fruit milk. That’s really the only thing you can do.
Goemon: What?! I think lemon-lime soda is better! And then I turn on the electric fan, put my hand on my hip, and drink the soda while relaxing in the cool air. It’s really heavenly!
Omikuji: H-Hand on your hip?! I never imagined you would be so stubborn! Anyway, I don’t have time to take this slowly. I have to hurry back to the Mechanical Pack, before I get the chills!
Yae: I don’t really understand what that conversation was about...
Sasuke: Was that really an adult conversation?!
Ebisumaru: Goemon, I like coffee and milk the best...

Wow. I have to agree with Yae and Sasuke here. This has to be one of the dumbest conversations in the entire game.

Omikuji scenes have been pretty tough to translate in general. The conversations are so weird.

"Ramune" (the type of soda Goemon mentions) has its own Wikipedia page. Yuck! They've got wasabi flavored, and curry flavored, too. I think I'll just stick with lemon-lime. Goemon's got the right idea there.

Also, I've got a correction to the script, courtesy of Sarahsuke. I made an error in translating "Karakuri Paaku". It should be "Mechanical Park", not "Mechanical Pack" (I put that in because I was totally clueless about what that meant...I don't know what I was thinking. Lack of sleep again.), so the line should be "I have to hurry back to the Mechanical Park" instead of "I have to hurry back to the Mechanical Pack."

Well, that's all I can think of for now. There'll be three videos after this one, and I'm hoping to finish them either before or right after I go on Spring Break (March 13). I'll be taking a break from translations until after I get back.

I was hoping to have a second video ready this week (all of you with a calendar will notice that I have two weeks to do three videos). But, it didn't work out, so I'll try to get two sometime later. See you then!

GG3 - Part 5

2008-02-18T15:57:00.009-06:00

Ganbare Goemon 3 (English) - Part 5

First released on February 18, 2008, this is Part 5 of my mission to translate the major scenes in Ganbare Goemon 3.

There were more road blocks while translating this one than usual. Of course, I'll discuss them in good time...meaning now.

Scene 25: Hey Bulldog

Taruyama: *Grr!* (I’m so hungry...) *Whine, whine, whine!* (You have something good!) *Whine, whine!* (Give it to me!)
Sasuke: (The dog wants the dog food.) Give./Don’t give.
Taruyama: *Whine!* (Thank you very much!) *Whine, whine!* (I want to thank you...) *Howl!* (...by giving you some treasure.) *Whine, whine, whine!* (Look! You can use this!)
Narrator: Goemon and allies obtained a charm. But this dog is a real smart aleck!

I know this dog probably isn't a bulldog, but coming up with this title was too easy for me. Why wouldn't I name the scene after a Beatles song?

As for the dog, Taruyama is almost certainly a male, and a vulgar one at that (which is probably the main reason he's referred to as a "smart aleck"). I figured this out not from the name, but by the words he uses. There's some masculine sentence endings ("ze", for example, which Goemon also uses frequently), and he speaks in a way that would be considered somewhat rude and low-brow by the Japanese.

Figuring out what to put outside of the parentheses was a bit of a problem here. When I was first transcribing it, I had written "Whine" every time "wan" and "waon" had shown up, hoping that I could come up with something to better represent the sounds of a dog whining. Even though there's two dogs at home, I couldn't come up with anything, so I eventually decided to just put a * at the beginning and end of each "whine." I was going to put them in parentheses, but the human translation is in parentheses. Even later, after I sent the first draft of the script to Sarahsuke, I changed the translation for "waon" from "*Whine!*" to "*Howl*", since it's basically just a slightly different, prolonged version of a wan/whine.

Scene 26: Devil's Savior

Devil: It’s so terrible. The nuns in this town locked me in there because of my swaying hips. I didn’t do anything bad. To express my gratitude, I want you to have my treasured performing hula hoop.
Narrator: Goemon and allies obtained a performing hula hoop. Push the green button while holding up on the control pad to stick to the pegs!
Devil: Good luck with your bending hips. Well then, bye bye.
Goemon: Humph! Goemon, the greatest thief in the world, will be bogged down with a ring like that! Hey, Ebisumaru!
Ebisumaru: Is that so? Well, this is my specialty! I can move my hips better than anybody else. Back and forth and back and forth...

I thought it might be interesting to contrast the devil, who's supposed to be the ultimate evil and the one who traps peoples' souls, with a savior, who by definition saves people. Just a thought.

I actually wanted to make some sort of Elvis reference in the title, since his hip-shaking was also frowned upon. But, sadly, I couldn't think of anything.

So, I actually thought this scene was pretty funny the first time I saw it, even before I dissected it. First, there's the idea that you walk into a church, destroy a mirror, and Satan pops out. Only in a Goemon game, right? Then, it wasn't too hard to figure out why Ebisumaru seems to trail off at the end, and Goemon is left speechless. My hypothesis was that Ebisumaru had become hypnotized by watching the devil dance.

Well, as you may be able to tell, both hypotheses were only half true. The devil that comes out of the mirror is probably not Satan as Westerners know him (that's my opinion, anyway; I suppose that could be up for debate). I should probably do some research into whether the Oniroku is a specific reference to something in Japanese mythology one of these days. Also, I don't think Ebisumaru says anything specific about being mesmerized by the motion of the devil's hips, but I guess it's sort of implied.

Even though the devil uses a typical exclamatory particle ("yo") several times, there isn't even one exclamation point in his sentences. The Goemon games are chock full of exclamation points, so this guy must be speaking really blandly.

Oh, one more thing. "The green button" on the Super Famicom is equivalent to the "Y" button on the Super Nintendo. In case anybody was confused by that.

Hmm...he said the nuns were responsible for locking him away. I wonder if Bismaru had anything to do with that.

Scene 27: Bomb's Away

Omikuji: The 5 Omikuji Siblings’ burning man, Shokichi, is here!
Sasuke: Hey! Isn’t this the hooded halfwit who threw us in prison?
Yae: Heh, hooded halfwit...well said, that’s a clever title!
Omikuji: Ooh! How rude! When you snuck out of the prison, I never thought we would chase you all the way to this place. You disrespected The Great Shokichi! But I have a secret weapon that will give me the upper hand here! Prepare yourselves for the Omikuji Bomb! Gu ha ha ha! Prepare to experience the destructive power of the Omikuji Bomb! What the--?!
Goemon: That was lucky! Thanks for giving us back the conch shell!
Omikuji: D-Damn it! That conch shell was a vital part of Lord J-Jurokubei’s plan for the Giant’s Revival! His plans will fail without it! Damn it, why didn’t I remember I had that?!
Ebisumaru: Plan for the Giant’s Revival? What do you mean by that?
Yae: Ebisumaru, he’s not here anymore...
Sasuke: Goemon! Call Impact right away so we can go destroy the dam!
Goemon: Damn it! I forgot all about that! We have to destroy the dam so we can save two towns. Okay...it’s been a long time since I used the conch shell...There!
Sasuke: Why are you wasting your time polishing it?!
Goemon: Hey, come on! I know I don’t usually act like this, but this calls for a change in attitude.

Heh heh..."Bomb's Away"...as in, "The bomb is away"...get it? Okay, I'll shut up now.

"Hooded halfwit" was first suggested several months ago by Sarahsuke as a potential translation for "baka zukin" for those who want to "get alliterative." I didn't have any better ideas, so I decided to go with that in the end. Thanks, Sarahsuke!

Well, there were two problems for me in this scene. The first is the part where Goemon is presumably cleaning the conch shell. I'm not entirely sure what the "kyu" is supposed to be, but if I had to guess, I'd say it's Goemon spitting. Again, I had no idea what to put there, so I left it blank, and tried to match the "...There!" with the end of the sound (though it's probably pretty tough to tell because of the skipping). Looking back, I probably could have put *Spit* or something like that. Oh well. The second problem is the very last sentence in the scene. I still have no idea what that means exactly, but it was my attempt to at least say something.

So...if Shokichi had the conch shell...where's the Omikuji Bomb? Hmm...

Scene 28: The Wicked Dam

Sasuke: I’m glad the conch shell has come back safely...
Goemon: Well, we have to head north towards the wicked dam!
Ebisumaru: Wicked dam is such a terrible name...
Goemon: Hey! I came up with that name!
Everyone: Argh!
Yae: Well, let’s hurry over there!

This one was probably the easiest to write this time around. Not much to say, so let's move on to the last one.

Scene 29: Meet Mr. Refreshing

Omikuji: The 5 Omikuji Siblings’ own Mr. Refreshing, Chukichi, is here! Grr! You destroyed the fort in the dam like you destroyed this place’s boss. From now on, we will call you the Quartet of Hooligans!
Goemon: Quartet? That’s for sure!
Ebisumaru: It’s definitely interesting...
Omikuji: Lord Jurokubei tries so hard to save society but you always ruin everything and make things difficult for us, the 5 Omikuji Siblings, the allies of justice! We always have to go to the hot spring in the snowy mountains to relax because of you! If you go there, we will beat you until you’re black and blue! Remember that!
Ebisumaru: Oh! Where is this hot spring?
Sasuke: I love taking hot baths! I can’t wait another minute, I want to go!
Yae: Yes, we should definitely go there!
Goemon: (Gulp)

Meh. This was probably a title that I had put in as a placeholder and hoped to change later, but I either couldn't think of anything better or didn't want to spend the time to think of a replacement, so I just left it the way it was and exported the movie.

I'm actually not sure if I got this one right. I have reason to believe that the Omikuji actually go to the hot spring to avoid being beaten until they were "black and blue". Maybe Jurokubei is an abusive leader? Anyway, my ultimate goal is to make videos that make sense, while sticking to the original Japanese dialogue as much as possible. Sometimes, it can be tough to do both. I think if you do it too much, you end up getting games like "Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon" that are filled to the brim with "WTF?!" dialogue.

And it looks like Goemon's thinking of Yae's body again. Get your mind out of the gutter, Goemon.

Thus ends another GG3 video. Let's see, what else is in the news...oh, yeah! I finally beat the DS game yesterday. Umm...all right. Go, Goemon!

Also, comment, comment, COMMENT! I really appreciate it when people leave meaningful feedback (i.e., more than just a rating). And I'm still looking for help with this project from anybody who can read Japanese. Let me know if you're interested.

GG3 - Part 4

2008-02-11T19:02:00.001-06:00

Ganbare Goemon 3 (English) Part 4

Hmm...I was going to include the video in this post, but it seems like I accidentally threw away the Quicktime file already, and I don't really feel like waiting for it to export again. It took about 20 minutes the first time. Oh well. The link up there should be good enough.

Anyway, yes, I know this is a long one (released after a longer-than-usual waiting period, on February 11, 2008). I was actually concerned that I might not be able to fit as many scenes as I had hoped I could, but thanks to some brutal cutting, I managed to fit as much as I originally planned. The long duration of this video is due almost completely to one scene. Speaking of scenes, it's time for some commentary.

Scene 18: All Squawk, No Bite

Koronda: Ga ha ha ha! I am this prison’s boss! (Squawk!) We’re going to donate your friend here to Lord Jurokubei. (Squawk!) But before we do that, I’ll be beating all of you! (Squawk!)
---
Yae: Thanks, Goemon! I owe you one!
---
Goemon: Humph! That was easy!
Ebisumaru: He talks big, but he wasn’t so tough.
Goemon: Come on, Sasuke and Yae are waiting.
Ebisumaru: Well then, let’s go!

The "gyaa" that Koronda has at the end of most of his sentences is a scream or, as I've used here, a squawk. This is similar to the way Kurobei and other cats end sentences with "nyaa" (Meow).

"Koronda" is the past tense of "Korobu", which means "to fall down/over." Kind of interesting when you look at the shape of his body. It seems that, like many enemies in the Goemon series, his appearance is based off of a Daruma doll, even though (again like many enemies in the Goemon series that are based off of a Daruma) he has arms.

Scene 19: Try to Run, Try to Hide

Goemon: This time period has the exact same walkers as the Edo period...
Ebisumaru: And Sasuke was able to find 4 of them. He did a good job.
Sasuke: When I was in the prison, I had a chance to listen in on the enemies’ conversation...
Yae: Kyaa! There’s a huge, weird robot coming from behind!
Goemon: Run!

Well, I was listening to "Break On Through" by the Doors when I was trying to come up with a title for this scene. Several minutes after the song had ended, I still had no idea what to call this scene, so I just went with my initial gut feeling.

Scene 20: Time for an Upgrade

Ebisumaru: Well, we did great, didn’t we!
Goemon: But the Wise Man’s inventions, the mechanical walkers, are terrible! They’re so fragile! Sasuke!
Sasuke: Be that as it may, Goemon, I won’t tolerate you insulting the Wise Man like that! Anyway, I heard from the enemy that the Wise Man was developing a new model of the mechanical walkers somewhere around here.
Yae: I wonder why the Wise Man is working with the enemy...
Ebisumaru: If that’s true, then we’re in big trouble!
Goemon: A new model of the mechanical walker...it won’t be a problem for this sly thief to get!
Sasuke: If I’m not mistaken, the prison’s factory building is to the south. We should gather information about how to enter the factory!

I never realized Sasuke was this impatient, even if it is about somebody presumably insulting the Wise Man. Then again, we've seen that his sense of humor is a bit screwed up. He really should lighten up. That's gotta be bad for his circuits.

Scene 21: The Cat Thief

Merchant: Thief! Somebody catch him!
Cat Thief: That’s impossible! I am the greatest thief in the whole world! Catch me if you can, though I’m certain you can’t! (Meow)
---
Cat Thief: What?! How did you find this place? (Meow) I ate too much of the fish I stole...I regret eating so much; I can’t move! (Meow)
Shop Master: Oh! You! Thank you very much for catching that sneaky cat, he’s really not as big as he claims. I want to give you this to express my gratitude!
Narrator: Ebisumaru obtained the reflection shuriken. Store energy and throw the shuriken, and it will bounce off things like walls!

I have no idea what the suffix "kichi" means in this case (I translated "nekokichi" as "Cat Thief"). I know it can refer to an enthusiast or a maniac, but I don't know if that works here. "Thief" makes much more sense, I think.

"Shujin" (which I translated as "Shop Master") actually just means master, or the head (of a household, for example). I put the "Shop" part in there to match it to his assumed profession.

Scene 22: Stupid is as Stupid Does

Omikuji: The 5 Omikuji Siblings’ Factory Manager, Kichi, is here! If you think you can get away from us so easily, you’re gravely mistaken!
Goemon: Pfft! You think I can’t escape? Haw, haw, haw, oh, that’s funny!
Ebisumaru: I heard you guys were stupid, but I never imagined you would actually be this stupid!
Omikuji: Oooh! I’d better keep quiet about my deep fried food before you idiots steal that, too.
Yae: A ha ha! You’re talking about fried food now? How stupid can you be? There’s no tofu here!
Sasuke: Don’t waste your time with this moron. It’s pointless to even try to talk to him. Quickly, let’s just get out of here!
Omikuji: Damn it! You tell me I’m stupid, but I think you’re the stupid ones! You can’t escape from this place and from us! There are many traps and mechanical bandits, and a door that requires 8 flat objects known as code plates to open. You have to set the plates correctly, or else you can’t enter the hidden base. You idiots don’t know anything about this door, so...
Sasuke: Aha, I see! If we collect the 8 flat code plates and set them in the door correctly, something good will happen.
Goemon: Well, we just picked up one of the plates!
Omikuji: What?! The code plate?! Argh! I can’t do this alone! I have to go for now. Farewell!
Goemon: Okay! Our objective is clear now, so let’s go!
Sasuke: The Wise Man and Omitsu must be in that base!
Ebisumaru: The problem is figuring out the locations of the remaining code plates.
Yae: We’ll just have to search the thieves' hideouts one by one.
Goemon: Mechanical bandits...I’ll destroy every one of them!

I don't need to tell you where I got the title for this, do I? I had a lot of ideas floating around my head, and this is one that I hoped I wouldn't have to use. One of my first instincts was to go with "When You're Stupid, You're Just Stupid", which is (I think) a line from "The Emperor's Club." This would've been my little homage to my mentor and favorite teacher in high school, as this movie was one of his favorites and he "quoted" this sentence several times in class. Unfortunately, he wasn't one for specifics, and I couldn't confirm on IMDB that the line even existed, so I just took the easy way out instead. Either way, it fits in with the general theme of the conversation, which is a "You're stupid!"/"No, you're stupid!" type of thing. Really mature, guys.

Oh, boy, was this one tough to write, and it certainly shows. The hardest part is the fried tofu bit, and I was really close to changing it to better fit what was going on, so that I don't confuse anybody with the randomness of the conversation. To get an idea for what I was going to put in, just replace the dialogue between Kichi (Omikuji) and Yae with the following (this is right after his hood ignites, I believe):

Omikuji: Oooh! You call me stupid, but I am rubber, you are glue...
Yae: A ha ha! Are you really gonna come back with something like that? How stupid can you be?

Yeah. Both options suck, really. But, in an effort to keep the translations somewhat accurate, I decided to go with the more confusing one. This is my best attempt, hopefully I don't have to do stuff like that too many more times.

I also left myself WAY too much time while recording the original video, apparently. There are subtitles on here that last over 9 seconds. I get kind of nervous when that happens, because it makes me feel like I might have missed something important.

I was going to show Sasuke grabbing the code plate, but cut it out for time. I later realized that it would be difficult to translate what's said when he grabs the plate anyway, since the symbols on the plate spell out one or more Japanese words when put together. I'll see if I can let you guys know what the full message is when you put the code plates together later on in the game. It would be really confusing if I did that later and said what sound was on the plates now ("ra" for example...and how would I translate a small "tsu"?). As a result, such lines will also be cut out of future videos.

Scene 23: Kites and Colds

Takosuke: Oh! That machine might be able to bring my kite back down! Please help me!
Sasuke: What do you need me to do?/I don’t want to!
Takosuke: I’m going to body slam the wall as hard as I can, and immediately after that I want you to punch with the machine. Get ready! Yay! My kite is back! And my cold is better, too. I know, I’ll give you and your friends this cold medicine, so you can feel better, too!
Narrator: Goemon and allies obtained cold medicine. With this, they won’t have to worry about colds anymore!

The word "tako" means "kite" in Japanese, so this is another name that is a pun. I don't remember if the other fat guys in this game were also called Takosuke.

Scene 24: You Should Really See a Doctor About That

Yorozuko: My father has a really bad cold, so we can’t open the store. (Sniff) I wish we had bought some cold medicine before. Ah! That medicine! Do you suppose this cold medicine can save my father’s life? Can I have it, please?
Sasuke: With pleasure!/I don’t want to give it to you!
Yorozuko: Thank you! Yorozuko is so thankful! I want to give you something to thank you, so wait right here. If my father drinks this medicine, his head cold will be cured in the blink of an eye! This delicious dog food will be my way of expressing my gratitude. It’s very tasty! Bye!
Narrator: Goemon and allies obtained dog food. Ebisumaru is drooling.

I'm not 100% sure about this, but I have a feeling that Yorozuko might be a combination of the word "yorozuya" (merchant) and "ko" (child, or young woman). Basically, that would mean she's either the merchant's daughter or a young female merchant, and both of them seem to make sense given the context of the scene. But that would make the line that I translated as "Yorozuko is so thankful!" even more awkward, so I just assumed it was her name.

By the way, I briefly entertained the thought of calling this scene "Take your Fun-Fun" as a reference to "Arrested Development", but quickly discarded the idea when I realized that nobody would get the reference.

Another week, another Goemon video. Even though I'm not really fond of this one in particular, I'm still very much enjoying making them.

Comments are very much appreciated, of course; feedback of any kind is very important to me. Remember that I'm also looking for help in translating these scenes. Tell your friends. (Hey, there's an Arrested Development reference!)

Tenguto no Gyakushu

2008-02-10T10:31:00.000-06:00

I finally beat Ganbare Goemon: Tenguto no Gyakushu yesterday. It's about time. I started the game sometime during Fall 2007, and I've been playing it on and off ever since. I ran into a major hurdle a while back, but overcame it on Friday and realized that the guide I was using had missed a step in the process of getting to the last part. Grr...stupid Goemon guides, all the ones I've used so far have been extremely vague, or downright false in some cases. It's actually pretty irritating.

Anyway, the game definitely ranks on the lower end of the Goemon scale for me. The N64 and SNES games are still far superior. The final battles in Tenguto were also disappointingly easy (which contrasted with the difficult random encounters), but I guess I shouldn't complain. They were long, but the bosses didn't put up a very good fight.

So, I'm working on the DS Goemon game right now, as well as some other games that I've been neglecting due to schoolwork and a roommate who hogs the TV. Man, every time I think about all the games I've had forever but still need to beat, my head starts to spin. There's a lot, let's just say that.

GG3 - Part 3, and Progress Report

2008-02-03T22:39:00.000-06:00

Ganbare Goemon (English) - Part 3

This one was released only 16 and a half hours after the last one, on the morning of January 29, 2008. I'm just going to say right off the bat that this video has some of my favorite jokes so far, and that's probably why it was released so soon after the last one. I was really excited to share it. Of course, I'll go into more detail about my favorite jokes later.

Again, this one was pretty easy to translate, so I'm just gonna jump in to the scene analysis.

Scene 13: The Time Warp

Bismaru: Strong...they’re too strong...The great and clever Bismaru was charmed by someone else for once. But I guess you can’t blame him. I still have to take Omitsu away, though, because Lord Jurokubei ordered it. Bismaru pod, time warp! Until we meet again, farewell!
Sasuke: Ooh! He made a time warp!
Yae: Hoo hoo...He’s got a lot of nerve, running away!
Sasuke: Impact, time warp!
Yae: Phew...somehow, we’re okay. Eh? Something’s behind us!
Sasuke: Oh no! I can’t get away!

I think this scene is the main reason that this video is the longest so far in terms of time (by 25 seconds), even though it has the least amount of dialogue. I had a bit of a dilemma with this one. I thought it was very much out of character that Bismaru would say he was charmed by Goemon; I considered the possibility that it may have been the other way around (that Goemon and the others were so smitten with Bismaru, they didn't notice that he actually managed to escape, or something like that). But, what seems to be part of the Japanese dialogue is there, and it really does make sense when you remember that Goemon is an ancestor of Jurokubei (uh-oh...I hope everybody who reads this is familiar with the ending to this game). In other words, if Bismaru is in love with Jurokubei, it seems logical that he would also be in love with Jurokubei's ancestor.

Scene 14: Separated in the Future

Sasuke: What is this place? Is this the futuristic Edo? Ah! Yae! Are you all right?
Yae: Unn...I’m okay. Sasuke, where are we?
Sasuke: I think we arrived in the future, one way or another.
Yae: Where are Goemon and Ebisumaru?
Sasuke: Perhaps the impact of coming out of the warp sent them to a different place. That’s what I think, anyway.
Yae: Seems that way...
Sasuke: There’s no sense in us staying here. We should head towards the town!

Yeah, I don't think the writers were trying to put any jokes in here. After all, Sasuke and Yae are often considered to be the most serious characters. It's really kind of plain, I think, but it is necessary to move the story forward. Let's move on.

Scene 15: The Plum and the Curtain

Yae: It looks like we can’t continue from here.
Sasuke: Should we go back?
Omikuji: Ha ha ha ha! You! You’re the ones chasing the great Bismaru! But doing that is like trying to throw a dried plum at a shop curtain!
Yae: What is that supposed to mean?!
Omikuji: In Japan, there’s an old proverb that says if you throw a dried plum at a curtain, nothing happens. It just drops to the floor. In other words, it’s pointless to even try! Don’t you think you’re getting wiser here?
Yae: I can’t believe I have to talk to this idiot. What a ridiculous way to get arrested...(headache)
Sasuke: Well, what are you gonna do?
Omikuji: Hey! It’s incredibly rude to call me an idiot! Quickly, throw them into the prison!

First of all, I'm pretty sure the metaphor that Omikuji mentions (throwing a dried plum against a shop curtain) isn't a real saying in Japan. A "noren" is a short curtain that hangs from the top of the doorframe in most Japanese stores. Basically, this saying isn't referring to the drapes you put over your windows.

If you want to know more about what the name Omikuji refers to, I recommend Wikipedia. Now, I'm not going to give you the link to the actual page, but I will give you a link to a post in the Ganbare Goemon in English topic that has the link to the page. It's here. The more plugs for that site, the better, I say.

Again with the visual problems. Besides the usual frame rate issues, the barrier that's supposed to separate Sasuke and Yae from moving forward flickers on and off randomly. Otherwise, it doesn't really make sense that Yae says "we can't continue from here" when it seems like nothing's stopping them. But hey, they're able to jump over the barrier anyway, so I guess they could've continued forward if they had tried hard enough.

Scene 16: Ebisumaru's Eating Habits

Goemon: Uggh...Did we end up in the future?
Ebisumaru: Goemon...I’m so useless...I can’t move another step...
Goemon: What the hell are you talking about?! There’s nothing wrong with you, you’re probably just hungry!
Ebisumaru: That’s not true! I’ve been eating a lot of this grass, and I think it made me sick! I’ve been throwing up.
Goemon: Ebisumaru...even in the future, you’re eating grass?
Ebisumaru: B-But Goemon...I’m starving...
Goemon: Oh, shut up! Come on, we have to go look for Sasuke and Yae!

Probably my favorite scene so far. I figured out that Ebisumaru was eating grass pretty early on, and for some reason, it just made me laugh whenever I thought about it. I mean, what is he, a cow? And Goemon's reactions are just as great. Apparently, this isn't something unexpected for him. This scene just strengthens my belief that Ebisumaru is one of the best video game characters I've ever seen (he's definitely the funniest). I find almost everything about him to be incredibly amusing; I cracked up the first time I saw his walk in this game and Ganbare Goemon 4, for example. I thought it fit him so well.

Honestly, I don't know if this scene is REALLY as funny as I think it is. But it'll always stand out in my mind.

Scene 17: Plan of Escape

Goemon: Sasuke! You’re safe!
Ebisumaru: I was really worried! Huh? Where’s Yae?
Sasuke: I’m so ashamed! I underestimated our enemy, who was called Shokichi or something, and he threw Yae into a different prison. Not only that, but the conch shell seems to be in enemy hands.
Goemon: Damn it! Let’s go, you two!
Ebisumaru: Yes!
Sasuke: I’m going to go first and blow up the prison doors for you. I’ll also prepare our escape vehicles in the back. Yae’s freedom will be entrusted to you two!

I think it's funny how Ebisumaru says he was "really worried" about Sasuke when he wouldn't even move in the previous scene. Other than that, I really have nothing to say about this scene.

Overall, I find that I'm better able to utilize my resources to translate more of this stuff on my own. At the rate I'm going, it could take years before I'm even moderately proficient in written Japanese, so it's great to have so many great tools at one's fingertips.

OK, I'm going to end by apologizing for not having Part 4 ready this week. This is a result of being overly ambitious, extremely busy, and a little bit stupid. But, on top of all that, it simply wasn't possible to get a translation this past weekend even if I was ready. I started this blog two days ago to make up for this fact. But, progress is being made towards getting Part 4 done, so hopefully it'll be up next week sometime (cross your fingers).

GG3 - Part 2

2008-02-03T16:11:00.000-06:00

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.

GG3 - Part 1

2008-02-03T10:40:00.000-06:00

Ganbare Goemon 3 (English) - Part 1

I was really excited about this project, and had kept it a secret until I knew for certain that it could work. The video was made public on January 22, 2008, only one day after I uploaded the GG3 Ending.

When I decided that I would play through all of Ganbare Goemon 3 to get the ending, I also had the idea of recording every major scene (and a few minor ones) along the way so that I could make a series of videos that would contain said scenes, completely translated. Ganbare Goemon 3 is my favorite of the SNES Goemon games, so I really didn't mind doing this. As for how many are going to be in this series, I originally said 7 or 8, but it looks like there's probably gonna be more.

I ended up breaking a few of my own rules with this one. I tried as much as I could to have only one-line subtitles, because they're easier to read that way, but it just didn't work out. I had left myself a lot less time in the scenes than I had hoped. Apparently, this was before I started my usual practice of gauging the amount of time I should keep a particular piece of Japanese dialogue on the screen based on how long it takes me to read it. (The emulator slows down and mutes when it records something.) So, as a result, I have two-line subtitles (which actually aren't as bad as I remember them being), English subtitles where there's no Japanese dialogue, and parts where one person is speaking in Japanese and somebody else is speaking in English. I totally screwed up there.

And don't even get me started on the archaic language. Apparently, even native speakers can barely understand some words, and that made translating this a real chore. I almost abandoned this particular project, it was so bad.

For the first time since starting Ganbare Goemon in English, I ran into a joke based on a pun where I had no idea how to handle it. I always worried about what I would do when such a joke would come up, and looking back on it now, I might have mishandled it. More details on the joke when I talk about the specific scene it's in.

The skipping problem was really bad this time around, and I was starting to grow really irritated. At this point, I thought something was wrong with my I-Movie program, which doesn't make a lot of sense since the GG3 Ending escaped that fate and the QuickTime video I got from my I-Movie file worked just fine. But, regardless of the cause, I decided the best way to remedy this situation would be to put the dialogue in the comments. This is a Goemon video, after all, so I didn't expect a lot of comments anyway. (This is where YouTube's 500 character limit in comments really started to annoy me.) But, that may have been interpreted as being somewhat rude, and now that I've got this, I'll take the dialogue out of the comments and put them here instead!

The script of the scene will usually be followed by commentary. For the dialogue, a "---" indicates a significant passage of time that isn't included in the video. Usually, this means a fight, and I normally use a "Cross Dissolve" transition during these parts.

Scene 1: You're Lost Little Girl

Lost Girl: A bandit chased me up here. (Sniff) I don’t suppose you can take me back to town?
Ebisumaru: Agree / Refuse
Lost Girl: I’m so happy! Just drop me off at the town entrance.
---
Lost Girl: Thank you very much, strong gentlemen, I’m okay now! Ah! But my words are not enough to show my appreciation, so I want to give you this crimson sandal strap as a present! Take it!
Narrator: Goemon and allies received a crimson sandal strap. That’s not very helpful without an actual sandal!

The title of the scene came from a song by The Doors of the same name. I planned to use similar outside references for the titles of as many scenes as I possibly could, but ended up actually doing it for a disappointingly low amount.

As you can probably tell, the person talking during "decision scenes" like this one will be decided based on who I'm playing as at the time. I can say that Ebisumaru is playing right now because his attack is better than Goemon's for fighting overworld enemies.

I had also originally intended to show Ebisumaru leading the girl back the entire way, but that idea was discarded almost immediately. It's a waste of space.

Scene 2: Mimicry Transformation Ninjutsu!

Ghost: Oh, ho ho ho ho! From here, none shall pass! (Meow)
Kurobei: Goemon! Ebisumaru! Long time no see! (Meow)
Goemon: Oh! It’s the ninja cat, Kurobei! What are you doing here?
Ebisumaru: Did something happen to Princess Yuki again?
Kurobei: Not so! (Meow) I’m keeping the townspeople from going down this road. (Meow)
Goemon: I asked you to do that? Ha ha ha ha ha!
Ebisumaru: Ha ha ha, good one, Goemon! Well, let’s go, it’s almost lunch time!
Kurobei: H-Hey, wait a minute! (Meow) I need to give Goemon a special present today! (Meow)
Ebisumaru: Food!
Kurobei: Wrong! (Meow) I want to give you an amazing transformation ninjutsu! (Meow)
Goemon: Oh! That’s great!
Ebisumaru: (So does that mean Yae might have to become our colleague?! Gu hoo hoo hoo...)
Kurobei: Ninja arts, mimicry transformation ninjutsu!
Narrator: Goemon and allies learned the mimicry transformation ninjutsu. If two people play together, they can be the same character!
Goemon: Kurobei, you’re a shining individual!
Ebisumaru: Wow! You’ve filled me with of overwhelming hope!
Kurobei: Well, I’ll leave you some money, but I have to say goodbye now. Farewell! (Meow)

There's a joke in this scene that I think didn't really work. After Kurobei explains why he's here, Goemon starts laughing. I personally think it's because Goemon is making fun of him for getting stuck with a crappy job like that, but I'm probably way off.

This is the first time I really noticed Ebisumaru using distinctly feminine language. I believe he ends his "overwhelming hope" line with "wa", which is a particle used by women to indicate emotion or admiration. Maybe he's said similar things in past scenes that I've done, but this is the first time I caught it.

Kurobei's "Meow" at the end of almost every sentence wasn't made up. He really does end his sentences with "Nya" or "Nyaa", which is the Japanese word for "Meow." In fact, Japanese baby talk for cat is "Nyaa nyaa."

Scene 3: Sasuke

Sasuke: Huh! G-Goemon? What are you doing here in the mansion?
Ebisumaru: The Wise Man screwed up while using the time machine to look at girls...
Goemon: Ah! Ebisumaru, keep quiet about that! Actually, the Wise Man...
Sasuke: What?! Is that really true? In that case, we have no choice but to go into the future after him!
Ebisumaru: Well, do you have a time machine? Is it somewhere in this mansion?
Sasuke: No, it’s not here!
Goemon: Augh! Then how are we going to go into the future?
Sasuke: I think the Wise Man wrote it down and hid the note somewhere. If we use the conch shell, we should be able to call...
Ebisumaru: I can use the c-conch shell?
Goemon: Ebisumaru! Be a nice guy and wait a little before using the old guy’s great...
Sasuke: Uh! Looks like someone set off my self-destruct switch a little while ago...
Goemon/Ebisumaru: Sasuke!

There's actually a funny story about the title to this one. I was pretty close to calling this one"Good/Evil Switch?! We Don't Need No Stinkin' Good/Evil Switch!", but that was way too long and didn't really have anything to do with the actual content of the scene. For those of you who don't know, there's a widespread (and unsubstantiated) belief that Sasuke attacks Goemon and Ebisumaru because somebody flipped some switch on his back that allows him to change spontaneously from "good" to "evil" and vice versa. After you defeat him, the theory goes, Goemon and Ebisumaru change him back to normal by flipping the good/evil switch. I can assure you that this theory is bogus; the only switch mentioned in the entire scene is the "jibaku suitchi" ("self-destruct switch) that Goemon (presumably) hits. The real reason that Sasuke attacks them is revealed in another scene.

This is where the pun I mentioned above can be found. The word for conch shell is "horagai", and the word for bragging/boasting is "hora." I'm pretty sure I used the wrong word. I think I should've had Ebisumaru say something like, "Was he boasting about me?" (referring to the note the Wise Man wrote), and Goemon would say "Ebisumaru! Wait a little while before assuming the old guy is calling you a nice guy!" Something like that. I don't know, I think I mishandled it.

Oh, and before I forget, one more thing I should mention. I read somewhere that the Japanese don't really have any nicknames. That being said, I found it a bit odd that Goemon sometimes refers to Ebisumaru as "Ebi" and Ebisumaru sometimes refers to Goemon as "Goe". I guess it's OK because they're good friends, but I was under the impression that even good friends don't have nicknames for each other. Oh well. I still call them by their full names in all translations.

Scene 4: Sasuke?!

Goemon: Ah! We’ve got a problem here!
Ebisumaru: Looks like Mr. Tanuki exploded, too...
Sasuke: We’ll travel using this walker, an invention of the Wise Man’s.
Ebisumaru: Huh?! This is surprising!
Goemon: S-Sasuke?! Didn’t you just blow up?
Sasuke: That was just a joke. Anyway, we have to hurry to Festival Village.
Ebisumaru: Why do we have to go to Festival Village?
Sasuke: The time machine was purchased there, so that’s where we can learn more about it.
Goemon: I can’t believe Sasuke made a joke...

The title is a callback to the title of the previous scene. No surprises there, right?

I love the fact that Sasuke's idea of a joke is pretending to blow up. I wonder if the Wise Man told him it would be funny.

Scene 5: Run, Goemon, Run!

Goemon: Sasuke, I was surprised when you attacked us back there!
Sasuke: I’m sorry! There was a strange uprising, and everything in the mansion became that way. Everybody started acting blindly.
Ebisumaru: Well, we can’t have that! I am certainly...
Goemon: Huh?! What’s with this tremor?

The title is a reference to "Forest Gump" (or "Star Wars", if you prefer, though Forest Gump was what I was originally thinking there).

There was a bit of confusion here during the translation because I made a mistake copying the Japanese symbols. It made absolutely no sense when I got the first version of the translation, so I took a closer look and realized I had "misspelled" one word. This was corrected right before I sent the script to Sarahsuke.

Scene 6: The Wise Man's Vacation Home

Sasuke: Well, well...It looks like we were able to reach safety.
Goemon: What the hell are you talking about?! What place is safe while that weird machine is chasing us?!
Ebisumaru: Yeah! And I’m so hungry, I feel like I’m about to die!
Sasuke: I don’t care! Festival Village is right over there, and the Wise Man’s vacation home is just beyond it. Actually, that place...
Ebisumaru: That place must have a ton of food in it! I wonder whether there’s even enough for me to eat...(mumble, mumble)
Sasuke: (Unn...) It’s necessary for us to go there because the conch shell should be hidden somewhere in the house for safekeeping. It would be advantageous if we can get it.
Goemon: All right then, enough talk! Let’s go! Sasuke! Ebisumaru!
Ebisumaru: Yes, Goemon! I can’t wait for the feast!
Sasuke: (Those two are certainly enthusiastic about going to the Wise Man’s vacation home. I guess they don’t realize how difficult it’s going to be to get through there. The Wise Man is a tricky individual, after all.)

Of all the scenes in this video, this is a personal favorite because I was able to translate a sizable portion of it on my own ("sizable portion" being the first 4 or 5 lines). Also, I think it's hilarious that Ebisumaru is so obsessed with food, he's totally convinced that a huge feast will be waiting for him at the Wise Man's vacation house. In case you couldn't tell, Ebisumaru is probably my favorite character, mostly because he's the most fun to write for (both here and in fanfiction).

I hope you guys enjoyed my (long and boring) scene analysis. I'll be doing more soon, so check back periodically.

Ganbare Goemon 3 Ending

2008-02-02T23:19:00.000-06:00

Ganbare Goemon 3 Ending in English

This was done at the request of Sarahsuke and uploaded to YouTube on January 21, 2008. Spoilers to Ganbare Goemon 3 can be found in this video, of course, so click at your own risk.

There's a lot of awkward dialogue here, and the last sentence is really hard to understand (well, it is for me anyway...I don't know, maybe I'm just an idiot...wait, what do I mean, "maybe"?). I don't know, I thought I had it figured out at one point, and now I've completely forgotten it. But I still really like how everybody freaks out when he shows up out of nowhere.

The archaic language (which was present in most, if not all, the videos before and since) was a slight hurdle here. Jurokubei has a lot of it. Just imagine them all talking as if they were in a Shakespeare play, though this would've taken place in a much earlier time period. (Speaking of Shakespeare...well, I'll mention it in a later post...a MUCH later post). And the fact that both Jurokubei and Ebisumaru had really long speeches didn't exactly make this one easy to understand.

For some reason, there were very few problems with the visuals here. The only major one I can think of right now is that, when Jurokubei is leaving in Bismaru's pod, the pod vanishes in a split second instead of doing one of those wavy things and fading out slowly. Also, Kabuki Forever doesn't flash when he gets hit. For some reason, this particular video didn't have the skipping problem.

There were some small audio problems, but this wasn't a big deal at all. The volume would fluctuate every so often, but I don't think it was very noticeable (was it?).

To be honest, I'm not sure if I like how this one turned out. The dialogue is relatively awkward, and this was the first time I had to really experiment with how to do sound effects (I'd rather not just copy what the Japanese dialogue says...). But, those who told me what they thought said they liked it, so I decided to get to work on the next thing.

GG2 Intro v. 2 and GG3 Intro v. 2

2008-02-02T22:49:00.000-06:00

Ganbare Goemon 2 in English (version 2)

Ganbare Goemon 3 in English (version 2)

The updated GG2 intro was uploaded on January 13, 2008, and the revised GG3 intro was uploaded on January 15, 2008, which would mean these videos were made right before and right after the current semester started, respectively.

I had intended to update the GG2 Intro pretty much since the beginning. Like I said below, it became apparent fairly quickly that I had made some mistakes in the translation and the identity of the speakers. These were some major changes; the biggest one was that Magginesu was no longer "the strange foreigner from the hotel", but "the strange foreigner who set up the lottery." The word I mentioned in the post regarding the first version of the GG2 intro mentioned the word "fukubiki". Thanks to a site provided by the wonderful Sarahsuke (which you can find here), I was finally able to find the meaning to this elusive word (stupid paper dictionary...). Since then, that site has been an invaluable resource to me, as my knowledge of Japanese is still somewhat...lacking. This video also got a theoretical boost in video quality.

The GG3 intro had some less dramatic changes. I made some minor adjustments to the script in order to make things a little more interesting or understandable, and this one also got the stripe subtitles that I've been using in my videos since then.

However, something I got wrong soon came to my attention. The Wise Man talks about why he's going in the future, and I had him accidentally revealing that he wants to "look at the girls", and then he verbally stumbles and claims he is instead going "to do important stuff." The "important stuff" part is actually not a part of the Japanese dialogue. Unfortunately, I had already gotten rid of all the raw video files (the huge amount of memory it was taking up on my laptop was causing some serious fragmentation), so uploading yet another video was not a desirable option. Instead, I mentioned this in the video description on YouTube. This would probably be a good time to mention that these translations are not "word for word", but I try to make them as accurate as I possibly can. I believe that a translation with a few minor mistakes is better than no translation at all.

This was also when I started to notice an ugly problem rearing its head. Both of these videos had a problem where they would skip. The GG2 one wasn't too noticeable (still annoying, though), but the GG3 intro was especially bad; it would only show the first frame of each second. In other words, viewers would miss 29 frames a second, and the fact that a given subtitle wouldn't be up for too long made it very difficult to read. In order to remedy the situation, I put the full scripts in the video descriptions (they weren't that long, fortunately). And then I got to work on two big projects...

Ganbare Goemon 3 Intro v. 1

2008-02-02T20:33:00.001-06:00

Ganbare Goemon 3 in English

The translated intro to my personal favorite of the SNES Goemon games, uploaded on November 17, 2007. The story behind this one is a bit noteworthy.

I had transcribed the Japanese symbols, as usual, and taken them to my grandparents' house. My grandma was going to Japan the next Saturday, so I knew if I didn't get the translation then, I would have to wait until January before I could get it. That was simply unacceptable in my mind, so I did everything I could to get that translation. Due to time constraints, I got a rough, general overview, but I didn't think this was sufficient. Fortunately, I ended up seeing her a couple more times that week, and on Wednesday, I finally got a decent translation, though I still felt that there were several holes that needed filling. I figured this was good enough, though, since I had hoped to update at least the GG2 in English video at the start of the new year anyway.

After an eventful Thursday, I sent the script to Sarahsuke on Friday or Saturday. She pointed out several things that I had missed. I have to say that, out of all the times I've sent her a script, this was when she was the most helpful. This was when I learned what the suffix "sama" means, for example.

Notice that this is the last video where I used normal subtitles.

Ganbare Goemon 4 Intro

2008-02-02T10:44:00.000-06:00

Ganbare Goemon 4 in English

This was a big one. The infamous intro to Ganbare Goemon 4, with English subtitles, posted on November 8, 2007. My curiosity regarding Sasuke being dressed as a woman at the beginning got the best of me.

I had a rough draft of the script in October of the same year, but it wasn't until Sarahsuke offered to proofread the scripts for me a few weeks later that I decided to give this one a try. I fixed it up one last time and sent it to her, and was pleased to find out that it was relatively problem-free, in her opinion. So I got to work putting in the subtitles, using a different style from Ganbare Goemon 2 in English, and uploaded it.

This translation goes against a popular theory (and I use the word loosely) regarding what's happening in this scene. I've read before that it was believed that the giant robot Impact had stumbled upon Planet Impact, where the people worship him as some sort of god. Obviously, my version of the story says nothing of the sort, as Impact describes Planet Impact with a word that is used to talk about one's original home. Therefore, Impact is originally from Planet Impact, which brings up another problem. Didn't the Wise Man build Impact? This one doesn't seem to get an explicit answer, but my hypothesis is that the Wise Man made that story up. The rest of the circumstances regarding Impact's true origins (how and why he came to Earth, the conch shell, etc.) are still shrouded in mystery.

Ganbare Goemon 2 Intro v. 1

2008-02-02T10:24:00.000-06:00

Ganbare Goemon 2 in English

For organizational purposes, I've decided to include each video in a separate post, with one exception (which you'll see later).

This is the one that started it all. "Ganbare Goemon 2 in English" was uploaded to YouTube on November 4, 2007 as an experiment to see whether something like this could really work and whether it would be well-received. I already had a script for the Ganbare Goemon 4 intro, but I thought it was so bad, I didn't really do anything with it...yet.

To my delight, several loyal members at GI (to whom I owe a debt of gratitude for their support) accepted this video and encouraged me to keep going with the other games in the series. One member in particular, Sarahsuke, offered to help by proofreading my future scripts (as this particular video is chock full of mistakes), and thus, the project was able to move forward.

As I said before, this particular video has some errors with it. Not only did I make some translation mistakes ("fukubiki" is the biggest one; we didn't know what that meant, so I assumed it was the name of a hotel or something), but I often mixed up the speakers of certain lines. You may notice that the speaker of each line isn't explicitly stated, so I usually made an arbitrary choice based on what was being said if it wasn't completely obvious. This was long before I caught on to the distinctly unique speech patterns of each character.

I don't know why a small part of me expected this to be rejected by Goemon fans (inferiority complex, perhaps?). But I'm glad it wasn't, because it gave me the green light to keep going.

First Goemon Fanfic Finally Complete!

2008-02-01T23:10:00.000-06:00

I said I would be talking about my Goemon fanfics here as well, and I'm already going to deliver on that promise. My first Goemon fanfic, "A Vengeful Darkness", (really stupid title, I know) is finally complete. Actually, I published the last chapter on December 30 of last year, but I just now, as in about 10 minutes ago, uploaded the final version of the final chapter. Starting in the first or second week of the new semester, I began uploading revised versions of the chapters to replace my old, (probably) crappier versions of the same chapters. You can find the first chapter here.

Some stats for you (since the topic at GI is basically dead, I'll only post these here):

Title: A Vengeful Darkness
Total Words: 80241 (including Author's Notes)
Chapters: 33
Average number of words/chapter: 2432
Pages: Approximately 164 using the program AppleWorks 6, 12 pt. Times New Roman font, and single space.

I always thought I could write a pretty good-sized (not good, just "good-sized") essay about this story...where I got my inspirations, how I went about planning this out, my writing style...you know, that sort of thing. Maybe I'll actually do it if I can't fix the outline for my next (non-Goemon related) fic anytime soon.

So how does this work?

2008-02-01T20:13:00.001-06:00

This post will give you, the reader, a better idea of how exactly I make my videos. This is copied directly from one of my posts in the official "Ganbare Goemon in English" topic at GI. I'm going to take this opportunity to put in a plug for that site. If you love Goemon and you're not already a member, you should join. And post! I'm tired of going there and seeing a ghost town.

Anyway, I digress. Here it is, the entire process, from start to finish:

1. Writing out the script by hand. I copy every symbol in the subtitles, no matter how insignificant it is in the grand scheme of things, or how obvious the meaning is. You can see a page of the "Ganbare Goemon 4" handwritten script here.

In case it's confusing, most lines get written at least two (sometimes three) times: First in Japanese, then in Romaji (Japanese words spelled with English letters), then in English, if I can figure out what it's saying on my own. I know my handwriting looks like it came from a shivering kindergardener, but bear with it. That's not what I want to emphasize. GG4 is the only script I have with me, and this is actually a copy of the original (my grandma took all my originals to Japan). I tried to choose a page that has what I mentioned above, as well as some Kanji. Kanji characters are always the hardest to write and interpret (naturally). They tend to take a lot longer to write, more because I try to get every little detail and make it as close to how it appears on the screen as possible (so there's no confusion about which symbol it actually is) than anything else. "Wakusei" was one of the few that I was ever able to translate on my own because I had a pretty strong feeling it meant "Planet" based on where it appeared in the dialog. Sorry, but I didn't realize there was some Kanji that didn't have Romaji to go with them until after I scanned this in.

2. The script gets translated. My favorite step. I take the script to my grandparents' house, with a video on my computer of the scene I'm translating (usually from YouTube, though the GG3 one came straight from the game). According to my grandmother, this is keeping her from forgetting the Japanese language, so we both benefit from it. Anyway, she goes through it line-by-line, telling me what each sentence means, while I provide information on the context whenever necessary. I take detailed notes to at least get a rough idea of what's being said. The GG3 translation was rushed, so that took about half an hour, while the GG2 and GG4 ones took much longer (GG4 just because it's the longest scene, GG2 because some parts of it didn't make sense to me until I sat down and really thought about it).

3. Revising the script. I take the notes I made during the translation phase and adjust my script to better fit the characters and the story, and to hopefully make it entertaining (though I feel like I'm failing at that). After I've gone through it, Sarahsuke looks it over and gives me her two cents about how to improve the translation. I use her advice to revise the script one last time.

4. Making the video. The video footage comes from a ROM of the game (no surprises there, right?). I use I-Movie to edit my videos. The only difficulty here is figuring out how long I want the subtitles to stay on screen and cutting the clips as finely as possible to match that time and hopefully reduce the amount of time when there are no (English) subtitles on the screen. Really, though, it's not a difficult process. It may be slow and a little repetitive, but I think it's also kind of fun.

5. Uploading the video to YouTube. I don't think I need to go into a detailed explanation here. But this is where the video finally goes public, and you guys show me some love. To be honest, I'm really surprised that I'm the first person (as far as I know) to put this on YouTube. There's gotta be at least one person in the world who's fluent in both English and Japanese and who knows how to make a simple video and post it on the Internet.

History

2008-02-01T16:33:00.000-06:00

So have you ever wondered how this "Ganbare Goemon in English" thing got started anyway, or how Goemon has been a part of my life in general? Well, I'll tell you. It's long, so I suggest you make yourself really comfortable for awhile.

The story begins almost 10 years ago. A friend had just introduced me to a game called "Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon", and I loved watching him play it so much, I decided I had to rent it and try it for myself. I thought that, faulty camera and other bugs aside, it was great.

Fast forward to summer 2007. I just finished my first year of college, which, for reasons I still don't quite understand, made me feel really nostalgic (it must have been all the Super Smash Bros. we played...). Anyway, I had just ordered a Wii on the Internet and done some research on the Virtual Console. I looked at a list of currently available titles, and lo and behold, the prequel to MNSG, "Legend of the Mystical Ninja", was available for download. My mind returned to the game that remained in the back of my head for so long because of its quirky humor, and I decided that I would order it and the sequel, "Goemon's Great Adventure", off of half.com (my best friend at the time) when I got back home.

Both games arrived at my house the day after Memorial Day, 2007. Excitedly, I got to work playing through a game that forced me to keep the same stupid grin on my face the entire time, as well as its equally admirable sequel. I did a lot of research into Goemon and found that the series was much more expansive than I originally thought, with a sizable following in Japan even though it never really caught on in the US. I joined a forum dedicated to the discussion of all things Goemon, Goemon International, under the username Diehard_Fan (based on one of my favorite lines in MNSG; I've never actually seen the film "Die Hard").

Goemon actually changed my life in several ways. One way, perhaps the most major, was that I decided I would try to teach myself Japanese. I'm 1/4 Japanese (my paternal grandmother is Japanese; more about her later), but I don't really have an ear for languages, so I never bothered to learn much Japanese, or any other language for that matter. But this time was different. I wanted to learn to at least read the language so I could understand what was going on when I played the Japanese Goemon games on an emulator. (There's another way Goemon has changed my life. Having a father who works in the entertainment industry, I found the use of emulators to be morally reprehensible before now, as I considered it a form of piracy. I'm still against them in most cases; perhaps I'm a hypocrite, but I can't think of any other reasonable way to get my hands on the Japanese games.)

Anyway, moving on to Labor Day, 2007. I'm still teaching myself Japanese, albeit quite slowly and only to the knowledge of my parents and my sister. I'll remember this as a disastrous day. My dad dropped a section of our pier on his foot, but even worse, my grandma (the one I mentioned above) stepped on a stone in the middle of a parking lot and fell. She was rushed to the hospital, where the doctors determined that she was lucky enough to get out of it with only a few fractured bones, and that she would more than likely be healed before long.

Before I go on, I should probably clarify something. I'm originally from Los Angeles. I attend a university that's thousands of miles away from there, but it's really close to my grandparents' house. I spend most Saturdays there, and since there's no Internet, there's not really much to do there except read and do homework after whatever jobs I need to do around the house to help them out.

So, around the beginning or middle of October, I'm looking through YouTube for videos related to Goemon, and I come across something interesting. Somebody uploaded two songs that were included only in the Japanese version of what we know as Goemon's Great Adventure. The songs are "Smile Again" and "Double Impact", and the person who uploaded them was requesting romaji (Japanese words spelled using Roman letters) lyrics of the songs. I thought to myself, "Hey! I can read Japanese. I can do that!" Oh, but wait just a minute! There's a Kanji character (A Chinese symbol) at the end of Double Impact. I don't know how to read Kanji. But then an idea hit me. "Wait a minute. Grandma's Japanese. Maybe she can help me."

I scribbled the symbols and the lyrics for the entire song down onto blank sheets of printer paper and took them to my grandparents' house that Saturday. Not only did my grandmother help me with the Kanji, she gave me a line by line translation of what the song was saying (somewhat different from translating scenes, as the grammar in these songs is off). Being confined mostly to sitting on the couch and growing quite bored of it, she asked me to bring more the next week.

Following her instructions, I brought the lyrics for Smile Again next. The same thing happened: we sat down and discussed the song completely. I found that I was enjoying myself, spending time with my grandmother while learning about her culture and native language at the same time.

The middle of the following week was the semester break, and that's when I decided to try something a little different. I found the opening to the intro of "Ganbare Goemon 4" on YouTube and took it with me. Once again, I copied the script in its entirety, and we went over the whole scene. Unlike the songs, however, I was taking careful notes about what was going on.

Sometime between then and the next weekend, I got the bright idea to try this with some of the other scenes in the various games, but this time, I would post videos with subtitles of the English translations on YouTube. I decided to start with "Ganbare Goemon 2".

It was difficult, but my grandmother was able to translate it. On November 4, 2007, I uploaded "Ganbare Goemon 2 in English" to YouTube, and announced the start of this project to the members of Goemon International (sometimes referred to as GI from here on out).

My grandma, now healed almost completely, continues to help me in this endeavor to this very day. What started as trying to give her something to do while sitting in bed or on the couch turned into a nearly weekly ritual to increase my knowledge and subsequently that of others. I hope you continue to enjoy watching these videos and learning what's really being said in these scenes.

Wow, that was really long. And it seems like I lied in the previous post. This one really did contain more information about me, probably more than you wanted to know. Well, don't worry. More Goemon is coming soon.

Obligatory Introduction

2008-02-01T14:50:00.000-06:00

Greetings, denizens of the Interweb! My name is Chris, and I'm the one who's responsible for the series of videos tentatively titled "Ganbare Goemon in English" (I say "tentatively", even though I've been releasing these videos since last November...). Some of you may know me as beatlesfan931 on YouTube or Diehard_Fan on Goemon International. This blog will serve as a place where I can keep you, the loyal fans of all things Goemon, updated on what project(s) related to the Mystical Ninja I'm currently working on. Although it will contain mostly information on the translation videos, you'll most likely also hear about some of my other attempts at contributing something to the Goemon fandom (this means fanfictions mostly, but I've been hoping to get some other stuff, too...we'll see). In fact, this post will probably contain more about me personally than any other post I make here in the future. If you want to talk to me about something (And honestly, who wants to waste their time doing that?), I suggest you IM/email me:

AIM: psychoninja34

YIM/MSN/email: beatlesfan931@sbcglobal.net

I've also got a personal blog, which I'll be reviving shortly in celebration of the formation of this one. You can find it here. Yes, I know it seems weird to link to a competing site, but I've had that one lying around for a couple years, and I really wanted to put only Goemon-related stuff here. I tend to find more blogs of this kind at blogspot than xanga anyway, so I'll just have to use both sites. I've already given you the link to my YouTube account (where the Ganbare Goemon translations are posted), but I also want to mention my fanfiction.net account. I've also got accounts on Myspace and Facebook, ask me privately if you want the URLs.

So, that was a bit long, I know. But don't worry, it's almost over. I'll close by posting my results for this quiz I just took to determine which character from Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon I'm most like, which you can find here. I took this quiz sometime last summer, but I already forgot what my results were, so I decided to take it again:

#1: Yae

#2: Sasuke (This was my predicted #1 result)

#3: Ebisumaru

#4: Spring Breeze Dancin'

#5: Wise Man

#6: Omitsu

#7: Goemon