Makoto Naegi, Who's Known For Being A Cutie-Patootie.

[rionaleonhart]

Here is an entire entry of rambling about differences between the official Dangan Ronpa translation and the Let's Play fan translation that first brought the game to a Western audience, because you can't stop me.

I'm still not happy about everyone addressing each other by first name in the official release. I am especially not happy about Kiyotaka Ishimaru going by 'Taka', for a couple of reasons. Firstly: I cannot imagine formal, traditional, takes-himself-incredibly-seriously, rule-obsessed Ishimaru ever going in for name-shortening. Secondly: you don't tend to get a nickname like that unless you have friends. Canonically, Ishimaru has never had friends. (Sorry, Ishimaru.)

(There are a couple of other characters who go by nicknames in the official translation - Hagakure is 'Hiro' (from his first name, Yasuhiro) and Asahina is 'Hina' - but I don't mind those nearly so much, because they make perfect sense for the characters.)

The other thing I'm not happy about is this: in the original Let's Play, Naegi says that the only noteworthy thing about himself is that he's a little more optimistic than most people. In the official translation, he says he's a little more gung-ho than other people.

Naegi is not particularly gung-ho, but that's not the issue here. The issue is that Naegi's defining trait is optimism. I can't express how important Naegi's optimism is. It is absolutely essential to the plot of this game. I've always loved how that one minor thing he offers up as his sole notable quality ends up playing a huge, huge role.

Say he's more determined, if you like. That's Naegi's other essential quality: he never gives up. But 'gung-ho' makes no sense at all.

This is a ridiculously excessive amount of agonised flailing over the translation of one line that everyone's probably forgotten about by the end of the game. BUT IT'S A REALLY IMPORTANT LINE IN MY HEART.

(Also slightly heartbroken that Naegi's 'If my conclusions are wrong, please tell me. I won't mind... if they're wrong...' in the Let's Play translation of the second trial is now 'If I'm wrong about this, you're welcome to say so. I'm happy to admit I made a mistake, but...' - obviously the official translation was always going to be slightly different, but the unofficial translation really conveyed how much pain he's in at having to accuse a friend of murder.)

None of this is to say that the official translation is bad! In particular, everything Monobear says is delightful (I'm particularly fond of 'Holy moly! You're super mad! Like, just unreasonably upset!'). And Ishida constantly not-quite-swearing ('I ain't got POOP to say to you!') is a stroke of absolute genius. It does feel more polished than the fan translation overall; I suppose I'm just ridiculously emotionally attached to certain aspects of the first translation I experienced.

Comments

[wolfy_writing]

I completely agree with you about the optimism thing! Being optimism and gung-ho are two completely different things, and in a story about hope and despair, it really matters!

[rionaleonhart]

I'm glad I'm not alone in being bothered by this! It's such an unfortunate translation choice; not only does it give you the wrong impression of Naegi at the beginning of the game, but it takes away some of the impact of the ending.

[gool_duck]

This was fun to read, even though I have zero familiarity with the thing you wrote about.

And I, too, get attached to some interpretations of things, and I *mind* when they're different.

[rionaleonhart]

It's actually been really interesting to see what's different in the official release, and to think about why it's different. Translation is fascinating!