ext_132924: (Know-it-all)
ext_132924 ([identity profile] luna-manar.livejournal.com) wrote in [personal profile] rionaleonhart 2009-09-06 11:00 am (UTC)

Actually, you might not want to translate Rinoa's speech directly from Japanese, in that case. Rinoa's style of speaking in the Japanese script is in fact the "child" form of speaking, so the translators were just staying true to the form of the script. I'd compare her to Usagi of Sailor Moon or Miaka of Fushigi Yuugi in terms of temperament (minus the appetite).

The connotations for that kind of speech pattern in Japan are a little different from how we'd interpret them here. It's more acceptable, even expected of heroine figures to behave in this way, as girlish naïvete is seen as a sign of feminine virtue, where in the west, it's looked on as silly and stupid. It appears to me that the translators tried to strike a balance between translating the text correctly and tweaking it a bit into something more palatable to an English-speaking audience. Unfortunately, in some cases ("MEANY!" might truthfully have made more sense if they'd just had her say "HYPOCRITE!") it falls a little short on both sides of the equation.

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