All of a sudden, I came up with a joke based on a Capcom's arcade game, Alien vs Predator.
Predator Warrior says to Predator Hunter, "It's time to hunt!" Then Hunter suddenly begins to heat retort-pouch curries in a pot. Warrior asks, "What are you doing?" Hunter replies, "Didn't you just say, 'カリーの時間だ'?"
In the original Japanese version, the Predators say in the opening demo, "狩りの時間だ.", which is "It's time to hunt!" in the NA version.
狩り means hunt, and time 時間. 狩り is pronounced like "kari", which sounds like curry (カリー).
"カリーの時間だ" can be reverse-translated as "It's time to curry."
The Speckled Band is one of the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. When I first read its Japanese version as a junior high school student, it was pretty much disappointing because I guessed the murder weapon correctly in the early stage of the novel.
One day, when twenty years had passed since then, I realized that the childhood disappointment was caused by a gap between Japanese and English. That was when I was reading 翻訳の基本 [Basics of Translation], a Japanese essay on mistranslation, by Takao Miyawaki. The author was a renowned Japanese literary translator, whose works mostly consisted of mystery novels.
[A person who dies a violent death mumbles in her dying moments, "speckled band." Any reader would probably wonder what that means. The word "speckled" means covered with small spots, while "band" has various meanings including a bandage, a string, a belt, a streak, a musical group, and a group of people. And the ambiguity of the word fuels the mysterious atmosphere of the story.
Of course, that's only when you read the original. In the Japanese version, the victim blatantly says, まだらの紐, or spotted string. It's inevitable to translate that way, but I have to say that the translation ruined the atmosphere in the original.]
That's right. There is no exact Japanese equivalent of "band", so the translator had to use the word "紐", which, in most contexts, refers to a long thin material used for tying things together unlike its original word. That has made it easier for readers to deduct the truth behind the dying message. When I first saw the translated phrase, the first thing came up to my mind was that rope-like creature which could potentially be a deadly weapon.
In File 3: The Curse of the Piano, when Richard Moore introduces himself to villagers of Moon Shadow Island, they mix him up with a famous astronaut and a character in spy movies. The dialogue goes like this:
Richard Moore: Oh, me? I'm a great detective from Tokyo. Richard Moore, at your service!!!
Villager A: Moore? Oh, the Japanese Astronaut...?
Villager B: No, that's Mori! This is the guy in those spy movies!
Villager C: This isn't that guy!
First of all, there has never been a Japanese astronaut named Richard Moore.
Second, Moore doesn't sound like Mori (or Mohri) at all.
Third, who the hell is the guy in spy films!
In the original version, the detective is named Kogoro Mohri (毛利 小五郎), and the astronaut the villagers mention is most likely Mamoru Mohri (毛利 衛), who flew into space on a space shuttle called Endeavour in 1992, and that's only 3 years before the publication of the 7th volume. He was very well-known back then.
But then, who is the actor in the spy films? I have never heard a Japanese actor named Kogoro Mohri.
Actually, to solve the mystery, yes, just to find out the secret behind the fucking contradiction, I bought the Japanese version!
Well, in the original, the dialogue above goes like this:
Kogoro Mohri (毛利 小五郎): Me? I'm a great detective from Tokyo... Kogoro Mohri!!! (オレか？オレは東京から来た名探偵･･･毛利小五郎だ!!!)
Villager A: Mohri...? Oh, the Japanese astronaut... (毛利･･･？ああ、あの宇宙飛行士の･･･)
Villager B: No, you know the guy in those mystery novels... (ちがうよ、ホラよく推理小説に出て来る･･･)
Villager C: Fool, that's Akechi! (バカ、あれは明智だよ！)
Now I see how the original plot works. Kogoro Akechi is the main protagonist in mystery novels by Rampo Edogawa, who is also the origin of Jimmy Kudo's pseudonym Conan Edgawa. So the truth is the translator made up the second villager's line during the translation process.
But then again, who is the actor with the first name Richard or the surname Moore? Well, according to what I learned from my internet search, he is most likely Roger Moore, who played James Bond in some of 007 films.
In my earlier post this month, I wrote about westernized character names in Case Closed, the English version of 名探偵コナン (Mei-Tantei Konan), or Great Detective Conan. During its translation process, names of protagonists and some recurring characters were renamed into ones familiar to western readers. Below is a list of westernized names and their original counterparts which I've so far found as of the second volume.
Jimmy Kudo (the main protagonist) ⇦ Shinichi Kudo
Rachel Moore ⇦ Ran Mohri
Richard Moore ⇦ Kogoro Mohri
Amy ⇦ Ayumi
George ⇦ Genta
Mitch ⇦ Mitsuhiko
Now the question is, why the hell didn't the translator touch the Shinichi's surname?
Well, you can find the reason behind that in the second volume. Jimmy's classmates at elementary school invite him to explore an abandoned creepy mansion which is rumoured to be filled with strange books. The kids claim that its owner "Eto" was eaten by a demon. A little later, this mansion turns out to be Jimmy's. There is a nameplate at the entrance of the premises, which reads 工藤 (Kudo). The truth is the classmates confused the first kanji for a katakana character "エ" (e). If the surname were an English name, this plot wouldn't work. Kudos to the translator for preserving that!
But now the second question arises. Why in the name of fuck did they change those names to begin with? Shouldn't they have left the names unchanged? That would have been a whole lot easier!
When I first purchased an imported music CD, a security sticker affixed to the CD case annoyed me a lot. It was firmly stuck to the case with such ridiculously strong adhesive that a part of it didn't come off. I had never seen the bullshit until then.
In Japan, record stores didn't adopt such a security measure. Instead, only some gigantic ones, such as Tower Records and HMV, put in each CD in a hard plastic case with a sort of microchip built in to it. No stickers.
But, even with the unremovable substance, imported discs were fascinating. Because they were about 1,000 yen cheaper than their domestic counterparts.
Whenever a music CD of a foreign artist was released in Japan, it would usually come with at least one bonus track, translated lyrics, and a biography written in Japanese. To me, however, they didn't make up the 1,000 yen. That was because what I would expect from western songs was not their lyrics, but mostly, their melodies and styles. Also, most bonus tracks were shitty. They were ones which their creators had decided not to record on albums. The biography was not worth 1,000 yen either.
Just a few days ago, I started reading a Japanese detective comic series named Case Closed, originally titled 名探偵コナン (Mei-Tantei Konan), or Great Detective Conan. It is an extremely long-running manga franchise which has staggering 98 volumes as of June, 2020. I remember its first episode was released on a Weekly Shonen Sunday magazine about 25 years ago when I was a junior high-school student. Its TV series started 2 years later and has been still going on too.
The main protagonist is a high-school student who is obsessed with mystery novels and deduction. He himself is a renowned private detective who cracks tough cases in cooperation with a local police department. One day, he gets caught witnessing a crime scene and is knocked cold by a member of a crime syndicate who proceeds to administer a strange medicine to him. As he wakes up, the bad guys are gone, but he finds himself shrunken to a little kid. After the incident, his neighbor, a self-proclaimed inventor, advises him to stay at his classmate's home, whose father is also a private detective, because he may stumble upon members of the syndicate as he helps the father's work.
When I was reading the first volume of the series, I noticed that some character names had been westernized through translation. For example, The main protagonist, Shinichi Kudo, is named Jimmy Kudo in the English version. His classmate Ran Mohri and her father, Kogoro Mohri, are Rachel Moore and Richard Moore respectively.
This alteration of names has generated some contradictions in the comic's story. There's a scene where Jimmy's neighbor Dr. Agasa tells him not to reveal his true identity to anyone because if he did, the crime organization would send agents to search for him and people around him could be in great danger. Shortly after that, Rachel shows up and ask Jimmy's name. He gets stuck for an answer for a moment but manages to come up with a made-up name "Conan Edogawa". Hearing that, Rachel says, "Conan? What a strange name..."
For sure, it sounds strange for a Japanese name... But So does yours (originally Ran Mohri, but Rachel Moore in the English version)!
And then Dr. Agasa takes him one side and whispers to Jimmy, "What kind of a name is Conan!? You're not some foreigner..."
OK... Now that you mention it, Jimmy sounds very Japanese...
Not sure if there is demand for this tidbit, but I think Sega's bran-new promotional character セガハタンシロー (Segahatanshiro) was named after a Japanese phrase "セガ破綻しろ", which means "Sega, go bankrupt."
破綻する (hatansuru) is a Japanese verb meaning "to go bankrupt", and its imperative is 破綻しろ (hatanshiro). Imperative is a form of verbs used when you express an order. So 破綻しろ means "Go bankrupt."
Also, Seghatanshiro's role in Sega's recent commercial is a sort of villain. So it's little wonder that his name sounds hostile against the video game company.
Here in this video, he shouts "セガハタンシロー！" over and over again.
