Super Mario RPG - Localisation Review (2)

This is an entry in a series of posts looking at the localisation of the beginning segment of the game, Super Mario RPG. You can find the first post here. Thanks for reading!

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	Original Japanese	Game's Translation	Literal Translation	LocaliReview Translation
Bowser	フンギャ！	Fungah! Foiled again!	Fungya!	Fungah! Foiled again!

At first I was suspicious of the game's original translation because it replicates the sound Bowser makes in Japanese, albeit finessed from fungya to fungah to include the word gah, a common noise of dismay in English. Many Japanese noises, if exactly replicated, do not translate well. For example, the animal sound, gero gero. I doubt any native English speakers would imagine that this is the sound of a frog. This is because in English, we write the sound frogs make as ribbit ribbit. 

In this case, fungah has no meaning in English and is not a common term. However, to my surprise, I found that the same can be said about the term in Japanese! Googling the term revealed only a very sparse usage. In this way, I've come to appreciate the game's translation! I also like the addition of foiled again. I initially thought this might have been added because the translator was concerned about whether the meaning of fungah would carry across in English. However, upon reviewing the game footage, Bowser utters this line right after Mario stomps on his head and is sent plummeting to his doom. A single fungah would seem rather lacking, so I think adding foiled again is a much more natural way for Bowser to bow out.

Super Mario RPG - Localisation Review (1)

This is an entry in a series of posts looking at the localisation of the beginning segment of the game, Super Mario RPG. Thanks for reading!

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	Original Japanese	Game's Translation	Literal Translation	LocaliReview Translation
Peach	クッパにきをつけてマリオ！！	Don't let Bowser bruise you, Mario!	Pay attention to Bowser, Mario!	Be careful, Mario!

The phrase Peach uses, ki wo tsukeru, is a common everyday Japanese expression. The JMDict definitions of, "to be careful; to pay attention; to take care," perfectly summarise its usage. It's a simple sentence to translate, yet the game's translation is fairly quirky. The Japanese is closer to specific advice than the official English translation, but both comments have the same function; Peach is warning Mario so that he will be less likely to be hurt by Bowser. There's no denying that the word bruise can function as a verb, but I don't think this usage is particularly widespread. It's hard to imagine a fight occurring and either participants or bystanders using the word bruise as a verb. Given that this is a Mario game, set in the fantasy world of the Mushroom Kingdom, it will always be possible to argue that quirky sounding dialogue is always passable. While I acknowledge this point, there is no such quirkiness in the Japanese. Unless the translator was given the directive to make the dialogue more quirky, I don't think it was necessary here to deviate from a more straight forward translation. In this case, the difference isn't particularly pronounced, but it is a matter that become more noticeable further down the line. (Just look at the next paragraph I discuss).

As an aside, it's worth noting that in Japanese, the villain Western players know as Bowser is called kuppa (Koopa). According to MarioWiki, "Bowser was created by Shigeru Miyamoto as the villain of Super Mario Bros. Miyamoto stated that they considered naming him either Kuppa (국밥), Yukke (육회), or Bibinba (비빔밥), which are all Korean dishes as they are known in Japanese. In the end, 'Kuppa' was chosen. For the later North American release of the game, which also introduced the anglicized spelling Koopa, the character was named 'Bowser.'" As for how this translation came about, an article on 11points,com states, 'During the import process, there was a concern that the American crowd wouldn't understand how the little turtles and big bad guy could both be called Koopa. So a marketing team put together dozens of choices for a name, they liked Bowser the best, and slapped it on him.' I'd be surprised it really was a marketing team that had the final say over this decision, but I couldn't find any other sources related to this matter.

Super Mario RPG - Peach's XXX (UPDATED)

The screenshot from Super Mario RPG tells the whole story here! If you check the right corner of the fireplace in the room of Princess Peach (who at the time was still known as Princess Toadstool) you will find an item. In the Japanese version of the game it is called "XXX" but in the translated English copy it is termed "???" The MarioWiki has more details on this scene:

Toadstool's ??? is in between a blue chair and the fireplace in the back of Toadstool's room in the Mushroom Castle. If Mario finds it at the beginning of the game, Grandma rushes over to Mario and offers him a Mushroom if he'll mind his own business; however, this can only occur once, and before Toadstool joins the party. If they look at it after returning Toadstool to the kingdom, either Toadstool or Grandma (it is unspecified) tells Mario to return it. If Mario looks at the object after Toadstool joins Mario's party, the princess will scold the plumber, saying that he does not respect her personal, private belongings. Players cannot see the object on either occasion as Mario faces away from the player rather than towards them when he finds it.

From a localization standpoint, this scene caught my attention because linguistically-speaking XXX is valid English. However, I wondered if this XXX was an example of waseieigo, a word that has English origins but differs in meaning when used in Japanese. As I am sure many people are aware, in English, XXX is typically used to refer to pornographic or explicit material. For example, the domain .xxx is used as a marker for pornographic Internet sites. But does the word hold the same meaning in Japanese? I scoured the Japanese internet for answers.