On Localization (Harmony of the Translation)
I was pretty much raised by this game. This probably explains a lot of things, the least of which being my taste in game localization.
To quote someone quoting someone else (thanks to Colony Drop’s twitter for the link):
“’Translations are like wives: the faithful ones are not beautiful, and the beautiful ones are not faithful.’”
Truth! As illustrated above (just pretend like I have a translated screen of the original Japanese for comparison), Lunar: Silver Star Story‘s English translation by Working Designs included converting a whole village from a quiet home of normal “Welcome, adventurer!” NPCs to a veritable breeding ground of hillbillies with exaggerated American South accents. And it was good. Though the primary goal of localization is indeed to covey the same feeling of the original to a different audience, in this case, the change had almost nothing to do with preserving that feeling; in fact, I assume that it was just added to enhance the entertainment value of the game for the new audience. Some might not appreciate this, but I think that where translators find it appropriate do this in a game, they should. There’s no harm in it as long as the change doesn’t affect the original producer’s vision. (In the Lunar: SSS‘s’ cases, though WD’s translation was often witty or even downright immature–jokes about IUDs come to mind–the humor never encroached on the main story or turned the plot into a comedy. That’s what the Boat Song was for, after all.)
Anyways, I could seriously just post Lunar screens from now on, and the quality of this blog’s posts would skyrocket (from 0 to 11). On that note (and again quoting someone quoting someone else):
‘… XSeed was still weighing its options regarding the translation in LUNAR’s upcoming PSP port. After a complex series of coin tosses and white board drawings, the company has decided to forge onward with its own script rather than use the one Working Designs did for the game’s PlayStation release. In related news, Lunar: Silver Star Harmony will be released in Japan this November, and some vague time in 2010 in North America. This writer hopes the line, “All dreams are real unless you dream they’re not,” is axed from Luna’s song. Fuck that line.’
– (great active NeoGaf thread on the matter quoting RPGLand)
Working Designs translation or no, I’m still excited for Lunar: Harmony of the Silver Star, if a little nervous–yes, because of the new translation (and who is handling it). The last/first non-WD Lunar game to be translated, Lunar Legend (a GBA remake), is not a great comparison and it’s probably unreasonable to compare it to its 32-bit cousins, but we all know how that turned out. (Thanks, Ubisoft.)
tl; dr Lunar is awesome and raised my personal bar for game localization so high that few have ever come close to matching it, and it wouldn’t have been so good had WD not strayed so far from its original run-of-the-mill JRPG script. Don’t f this up like you did half of the PSP’s library, XSEED. This is my childhood we’re talking about here.
On Monster (Half-Way Checkpoint)
After episode 29 … Monster gets so good. Admittedly, before this, I often had to force myself to watch Monster, telling myself that it has to get good at some point. And good it certainly got; now I’m pretty much devouring it. No filler-esque episodes or semi-slice of life crap at this point; just pure “FFFFFFFFFFFFFFF” and awesome.
The only negative right now: needs moar Lunge. Oh wait, ep 32, there he is. Badass as ever. Gillen is retarded for thinking Lunge has a heart at all, he’s just a badass crime-solvin’ machine. I still like Kenzou “Jesus” Tenma, great main character.
I thought Johan might be a schizophrenic until when he confronts Richard Braun … and Roberto! WTFFFFFFF this is getting so good.
“What kind of world are you planning to create?”
On Armored Trooper Votoms (First Impressions)
Gar Espionage Action
I like it.
After being pretty disappointed with Gundam 0079 + Zeta (I wanted so badly to get into it, but didn’t like the main characters enough), Votoms was a breath of fresh air. Here are a few unorganized thoughts about it.
Despite being only 18, Chirico is a stoic badass and doesn’t whine incessantly about how unfair his (certainly unfair) situation is–though not much of his character has been revealed, I’m glad that at least that much is established. He’s also resourceful and resilient. I can’t even complain about his blue anime hair; the gar cut makes even it look cool. In other words, I like Chirico a lot already.
"Dark city, tall buildings and lights as far as one can see ... nothing natural."
I can’t much comment on the plot so far, but although I’m not saying it’s breathtakingly novel, as a story devoid of pretty 15-year-old boys saving the world from a decidedly evil empire, I think it’s pretty original. So far Chirico’s is not a glamorous or whimsical adventure; as a soldier branded a traitor on the run, his journey is as gritty and unpleasant for him as you would expect it to be.
As he is not outwardly talkative about his thoughts, his narration, an almost detached introspective that gives us a clearer look inside his character as well as some interesting exposition about his world and surroundings, is a very neat aspect of the show. (It might be just me, but from this plus the Sodom-like city of Uoodo and its sax-laden soundtrack, I got a very noir/Blade Runner feeling.)
I must admit, though, that I’m a little weary of the romance aspect of the plot, which seems like it’s going to be fairly prominent. But judging from what I’ve seen so far, I can trust that Votoms won’t succumb to the typical “love conquers all” animu tripe.
"The effects of the war had created a red rain ..."
Animation is a little hard on the eyes for a 90’s kid like me, but I really like the style, so it’s still enjoyable to watch. (Had the same opinion about LOGH at first, now that I think of it.) And as many fans do, I like the functional, gritty designs of the mechs. They’re not pretty, they just get the job done.
The sound effects are kinda primitive, unrealistic, and often poorly-timed, but appealing in a nostalgic sort of way. The music is good, though often very 80’s. OP/ED are very likeable. Voice acting is also solid.
(As an aside, I found a nice zip of 9 great Votoms songs on Rapidcrap. Untagged, sorry–though I found that the music of Votoms was apparently composed by Hiroki Inui.)
tl;dr Armored Trooper Votoms is great so far. I don’t feel this very often, but … I’m looking forward to more. :]
On Questionable Coincidences (Guts, meet Götz)
"TELL HIM HE CAN KISS MY ASS"
“Götz von Berlichingen (1480–1562), a German knight, was the leader of a band of mercenary soldiers and had a reputation as a Robin Hood figure. In 1504, his right arm was struck by an enemy cannon fire and a prosthetic iron arm was developed to replace it.”
“He had a new, artificial hand made out of iron, a sort of glove which he attached to the stump on his lower arm. It was fitted with cogs that enabled him to move the fingers.
Legend has it that Götz – even with his iron hand – still had so much power wielding a sword that his opponents soon realised they had nothing to laugh about.”
“A metal prosthetic hand? Amazing! What’s this in the center of the palm? Wait, don’t tell me … it’s a magnet. But what for?”
“For your sword. To hold it better.”
“Guts’ iron arm, in his original character concept, is very similar to Götz’s iron arm kept in the Nüremberg Museum. Miura stated in an interview that he created Guts independently and that he did not find out about von Berlichingen until after several volumes of the manga had been published.”
“Tell him he can kiss my ass.” (“Er aber sags ihm, er kann mich am Arsch lecken”)
– the eponymous character of Goethe’s 1773 drama “Götz von Berlichingen,” in reply to the Bishop of Bamberg’s demand for his surrender
(Not making any accusations, of course. :] )
Götz’s iron hand now resides, appropriately, in the Götzenburg Museum.
From Wikipedia, the Goethe Institut, and Berserk ch 94; additional info on Götz and his iron hand auf Deutsch.
On Dreams
“Maybe now is just a dream. Am I wandering in a long gallery of dreams? Sometimes I think so. One day the dream will fade, and I’ll return to another day of when you and I were children, and Lady Annerose was still with us. And then I’ll say to Lady Annerose, ‘I had a dream. Reinhard and I became soldiers, and important men, commanding warships and going to the ends of the universe…’”
“I had a dream. We’d already graduated and fought on the front lines. We fought many times and won… We almost died several times, but together, we escaped the danger.”
“That wasn’t a dream, Lord Reinhard.”
“You haven’t had your fill of dreams, Reinhard?”
“No, I have plenty that no one has ever seen before.”
VERY MELON 