A Certain Scientific Railgun S: Another fripSide promotion

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > VEGETA > A Certain Scientific Railgun S: Another fripSide promotion

The Evil Thing: Jul 3, 2010

Parpy posted:

"Sissy"?

I know honorifics don't translate well and I've only seen fansubs, but I had no idea such atrocities existed.

It's what happens when translators forget that you don't actually have to translate word for word. Heck, "desu" doesn't translate well either, but that doesn't seem to stop anyone.

# ¿ Apr 11, 2013 09:56

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# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 19:43

The Evil Thing: Jul 3, 2010

Raenir Salazar posted:

I only saw desu translated whenever there was a pun going on.

How would you translate onee-sama? 'Elder Sister' doesn't work. 'Sis' and 'Big Sis' don't feel right, but maybe they're close enough?

That's the whole point; you don't. Madness lies the way of trying to puzzle out one-to-one translations for specific words, especially if the languages are as distinct as English and Japanese. Unless it's a bona fide proper noun you'll just end up with something weird and unnatural.

Instead, work out why she's using "onee-sama". In this instance, I'd hazard that she's elevating Misaka above her socially, not specifically "adopting" her as a surrogate sister. (c.f. nee-san used as a generic form of address for young females.) It's been a while since I've watched any episodes of either Index or Railgun, so I can't remember if Kuroko uses honorific speech when talking to Misaka, but I don't think she does. In any case, as a starting idea I'd suggest wording Kuroko's lines to Misaka to reflect a high degree of worship and deference.

# ¿ Apr 11, 2013 22:38

The Evil Thing: Jul 3, 2010

Soylentbits posted:

Mistress? It implies reverence and has sexual connotations.

I quite like this one, actually. It fits quite neatly into my impression of how she would talk in English.

Raenir Salazar posted:

For some reason I'm finding "dearie"/"dear"/"dearest" might be in character.

If Kuroko was seventy, then sure.

Actually, don't forget that this problem need not crop up much at all. You hear "onee-sama" a lot because of the funky way Japanese grammar works, but you rarely use people's names in English conversation.

# ¿ Apr 12, 2013 10:51

The Evil Thing: Jul 3, 2010

DerLeo posted:

I know they're not exactly going to change the source material much and it does come from Index of all series, but it's really leaving a bad taste in my mouth that the end of all Misaka's trouble is going to be Good Guy Touma showing up out of the blue and bailing her out.

Right with you there. Even worse, he doesn't even have to work for it. He basically uses the information Misaka gathered herself, then waltzes into her fight and starts spouting his usual one-dimensional pop humanism crap as if that's ever convinced anyone. In Index, I guess it's all in aid of defining his character, but seeing this arc from Misaka's perspective really made me annoyed at what he did here.

I know it's silly to judge a spinoff as a standalone work, but I can't help but wonder what the audience is supposed to take away from this arc. What is the story trying to say? I just can't think of anything good.

Falken posted:

I personally think in this instance there would be no other choice for her. Well, I did think about one option she could have. Remember Nunotaba said that if she were able to implant more emotions and ill feeling towards the experiments, maybe Accelerator would stop his onslaught? Mikoto knocks out 10032, steals her goggles and F2000 and then just drops it and begs to not fight. That'd be anticlimactic as hell though.

I quite like this idea. Unfortunately, would she think to try it? I can't remember if she ever got that information, but regardless, she seems rather... confrontational. I agree that she stands no chance in a straight-up fight, which is fair enough, but the arc's resolution still disappoints me.

# ¿ Jul 13, 2013 20:46

The Evil Thing: Jul 3, 2010

Wolf on Air posted:

Truly top-tier acting

Reminds me of Fred Tatasciore when he was doing all those amazing voices for Dawn of War 2.

# ¿ Jul 20, 2013 21:45

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