Division Battle (s) Chapter 1 Translation Notes

slugtranslation-hypmic:

I was going to write this up later, but I’ve been having too much fun reading everyone’s reaction tweets on Twitter, so I’m going to type this up now. Most of the notes are just explanation of stylistic choices I made. As before, general notes are above, and name information is below.

Translation Notes

1. I generally don’t like leaving in jokes/situations that have to do with misreading kanji (it tends to make characters look way more stupid than they actually are- reading name kanji in particular is very challenging and more of an art than a science), but I thought that you would appreciate something more literal here. Additionally, I couldn’t really figure out why Jirou would have trouble reading information off a phone screen. I considered making it that Ramuda sends his information out in Wingdings, but that’s honestly way too ridiculous. I also jokingly called Hifumi “Wantoothree” right here, which, honestly, should be his name at this point. 
2. Jirou meets Urumi in Nichoume, which is a part of Shinjuku that is very famous for its LGBT community and vast number of “gay shops” (gay bars, shops selling books focusing on LGBT people and LGBT culture, gay pride botiques, etc.). Based on both this and Urumi’s character design, I’m pretty sure she’s either a trans woman or a drag queen, considering that she looks and acts much like the (fairly rude) Japanese stereotype for these two groups. 
3. For the line “I’m a crook, and this is a crook’s promise, after all”, Amayado actually says “This is my promise after all”, but suggests that he himself should be read as the word “crook” (as a pronunciation for the kanji on “my”). I just opted to rewrite this line entirely to give the same sort of meaning.
4. Hifumi’s speaking style in Japanese is one of the weirdest I’ve encountered so far. He makes up words (the “oopsie” bit- I refused to let him say “sowwy”, point blank), drops phrases in other languages (”Momentai” (Cantonese for “no problem/no worries”) and “Merci” (this was originally just in English, but I made it French to stand out)), and calls himself and everyone else some really cutesy things. I decided to translate this by making him kind of smarmy (to my mind), but apparently this just turned out to be sort of gay. Hmm. “My darling Doppo” comes from “Doppo-chin”- I was trying to match that level of “cutsieness” and playfulness. (This was also an attempt to stop me from jokingly calling him “Doppo-chinpoko”, because I have the maturity of a five year-old.) The hearts over his name were also something I thought would be in character (and also pretty funny), which Cosmo graciously wrote in by hand. 
5. That being said, I was legitimately surprised to find out that they weren’t married or something. I didn’t know much about Hypmic going into this, so I keep on making some pretty funny assumptions (I was legitimately startled when someone said that Jakurai and Ramuda hate one another). As a side note, the word that the delivery girl uses for “residence” (note: she never says the subject in this sentence, so I made it sound like the apartment is being asked about, but Doppo could also be the subject) can also mean “family” or “husband”, so I once again had to double take and make sure they weren’t actually married. I think they’re just… very… platonic… but who knows any more?

Name Trivia

1. Hifumi is quite literally written as “one, two, three”, which I imagine makes his name a connection to the Buster Bros. Hifumi is also, for the record, normally a girl’s name, which makes him even more of a cutesy kind of character. His surname, Izanami, is the name of one of the earliest goddesses in Shinto. Overall, his name has a very feminine feel.
2. Urumi is a girl’s name that is here written with the kanji for “moist”. It’s a part of the word “lubricant”, which I assume is a joke in pretty poor taste. Asougi is, as far as I can tell, a sort of nonsense name. I might be reading too far into it, but the “Asou” literally means “cheap monk”, which could be another crack at homosexuality (Japanese Buddhist monks were well known for practicing homosexuality which lasted until about the Meiji era). The “gi” is the same as used in “Gion”, a district of Kyoto well known for geisha. 
3. Gentarou’s surname, Yumeno, is likely a reference to the famous gothic author Kyuusaku Yumeno. Gentarou is just a boy’s name, but it’s spelled a bit differently- the “Gen” means “dream” or “vision”. Coupled with the “dream” from “yume” and the somewhat fantastic works of Yumeno, Gentarou’s name creates an image of an almost otherworldly and weird author.
4. I don’t recognize anything interesting from Amayado’s name. Literally, it’s “sky valley guy”.
5. Doppo’s first name is a fairly common name that means “unmatched”, funnily enough. It more literally means “a person who walks alone, without help from others” which then implies that they walk alone because they’ve out paced everyone else. I’ve always found it to be kind of a lonely name, but I don’t think it’s intended to be. His surname, Kannonzaka, is a name of a street in Shibuya. There’s a Buddhist temple on it, but not too much else to note.

That’s it! Thanks for your support as always. Can’t wait to see you all next month!