GG3 - Part 5

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.