VN Others Completed Majikoi! Love Me Seriously! A - Special Edition [A1 - A5] [Minato Soft]

[dowolf]

I sort of want to address the "bisexual" line because it's clearly bothered a lot of people.

I very much much view Momoyo as being bisexual. I genuinely don't think there's a good way to view her character otherwise. When a character actively hits on women, and tells people she would go out with them if they were female, that's the conclusion I'm drawn to.

Additionally, the literal translation of the line here is "I wouldn't call myself a homosexual or anything..." This literal translation feels almost homophobic to me, in English, so I didn't want to do the literal translation. With how increasingly flustered Ryuuzouji gets over the course of the conversation, I liked the feel of having her flatly say "Nah, I'm bi." So that's what I went with.

As for the line in the original Majikoi, I genuinely forgot about it. I'm not sure if we should take her statement at face value -- I generally prefer to interpret characters according to their actions, rather than things they say -- but had I remembered it, I would not have translated this line the way I did.

 

[Sarica]

I sort of want to address the "bisexual" line because it's clearly bothered a lot of people.

I very much much view Momoyo as being bisexual. I genuinely don't think there's a good way to view her character otherwise. When a character actively hits on women, and tells people she would go out with them if they were female, that's the conclusion I'm drawn to.

Additionally, the literal translation of the line here is "I wouldn't call myself a homosexual or anything..." This literal translation feels almost homophobic to me, in English, so I didn't want to do the literal translation. With how increasingly flustered Ryuuzouji gets over the course of the conversation, I liked the feel of having her flatly say "Nah, I'm bi." So that's what I went with.

As for the line in the original Majikoi, I genuinely forgot about it. I'm not sure if we should take her statement at face value -- I generally prefer to interpret characters according to their actions, rather than things they say -- but had I remembered it, I would not have translated this line the way I did.

My apologies, but how you view Momoyo is irrelevant. How you think she should "be taken" is irrelevant. At least when it comes to translation. Keep your personal opinions out of your work as a translator. I don't understand why that is so hard for so many translators these days.

How the original writers created Momoyo is the only thing that counts. And the original writers clearly stated, in the original Majikoi game, that she is straight, when they had her reject a girl and say that she's not a lesbian. You said you forgot about this. Well, if you just stayed true to the original script and translated that line properly, then it wouldn't matter that you forgot about it, would it? So what does that make your line of Momoyo being bi? Well, nothing but fan fiction, if we're really being honest.

What feels "homophobic" to you is irrelevant. Honestly, I don't understand how you can be woke and ready to censor content, and STILL decide to translate a game like this. You did the same thing so many bad, woke western "translators" do these days. You got offended over something, so you decided to change/censor that thing in order to make it suit your sensibilities, instead of respecting the original script.

That is what bad localizers do. I'm sorry if that sounds harsh, but it's the truth. When a translator decides to localize a piece of media - any piece of media - then they should do their best to stay true to the original script, as much as possible, because people who want to read these novels are fans of the original writers, and not fans of the person who translated them. If you changed that line, then you probably changed other lines, too.

Any meme, joke, political agenda you shove in, any line you change or censor to appease your sensibilities, is nothing more than the butchering of the original script. It simply is. If Momoyo was written to say "I wouldn't call myself a homosexual or anything...", then have her say that. Who cares if some loser out there gets offended by it.

My stance has always been that localization should try to stay true to the original work as much as possible. Only change things when you have to. Such as puns or jokes that are impossible to translate properly. "Offensive" dialogue should be left alone.
----------------------------------
Now, as a fan translator, you obviously have the right to write whatever you want, and I respect that. This is your localization, so do whatever you want. However, in that case, this is not a translation, but an editorialization of the script. And that kind of sucks. Especially for people like me, who despise all forms of censorship.

 

[dowolf]

I... what?

The same literal words can have very different connotations in a different language. That's how language works.

 

[Sarica]

I... what?

You changed a line of dialogue because you thought it was offensive, no? That's censorship.

The same literal words can have very different connotations in a different language. That's how language works.

I understand that. I speak four languages. I've also translated a visual novel myself.

That said, the line "I am not homosexual or anything..." can never mean "Nah, I'm bi."

I mean, especially when we know that Momoyo isn't bi. Anyway, whatever. I have no interest in getting into some long-winded argument with you. Since I hate unnecessary changes like that, I gave my opinion on the situation, just like you did.

As I've said, since this is your work, you can do whatever you want. All the best.

 

[Alkaid_]

Yeah, that's a pretty drastic change, almost the literal opposite. I think it goes a bit beyond localisation (make things make sense for English people) or edited/non-direct translation (make things read well for English people).

I haven't played the route yet so I don't know the actual context but the line in isolation isn't homophobic at all. Telling someone you're not homosexual is, at the most, probably part of a mild stereotype-based joke (Asians are good at math, gays are flamboyant, Americans are self-centered and lazy, men think with their dicks etc.) which is probably milquetoast offensive at most.

Even if it was Momoyo being extremely mildly homophobic though, you probably shouldn't have changed it for that reason. I mean, it's her, not you. You don't have to watch her words for her. Don't need to do a China and remove skellingtons from stuff, or Russia and delete gay people.

 

[Sarica]

Yeah, that's a pretty drastic change, almost the literal opposite. I think it goes a bit beyond localisation (make things make sense for English people) or edited/non-direct translation (make things read well for English people).

I haven't played the route yet so I don't know the actual context but the line in isolation isn't homophobic at all. Telling someone you're not homosexual is, at the most, probably part of a mild stereotype-based joke (Asians are good at math, gays are flamboyant, Americans are self-centered and lazy, men think with their dicks etc.) which is probably milquetoast offensive at most.

Even if it was Momoyo being extremely mildly homophobic though, you probably shouldn't have changed it for that reason. I mean, it's her, not you. You don't have to watch her words for her. Don't need to do a China and remove skellingtons from stuff, or Russia and delete gay people.

Yeah. I really get irritated when translators take such drastic liberties with the script, due to their own moral code, sensibilities or whatever.

I took a look at the Japanese script and pretty much a male character asked Momoyo out for some tea or something, and she refused him, telling him that she might've said yes if he were a cute girl. He then asked her if she disliked men, to which she replied by saying something along the lines of "I wouldn't call myself homosexual or anything like that.".

There were a number of ways that line could've been translated, if the translator wanted to "soften it up". (Not that it needs any softening.)

For example "Well, I'm not gay, if that's what you're asking." or "I'm not gay, if that's what you mean."

Something like that. "Nah, I'm bi." is a complete fabrication. Like, we know she isn't, since the very first game. Her personality is a stereotypical Japanese "Hot, strong girl stealing all the girls until the right guy shows up" archetype. Whatever.

 

[ZunMadun]

So if I understand correctly in dowolf mind every person who does not exclusively hang out with specific gender is bisexual.

 

[Sarica]

I have added a dialogue uncensor patch to the download section for anyone who is interested.

 

[Alkaid_]

Sarica Out of curiosity, do you know what the original wording of the line in the Lin story where Yamato says if I recall correctly "That's pretty sus" was? I think I remember that being there, standing out as a random meme. I don't think it's all that bad though, just something that stood out a bit.

But yeah, I don't want it to sound like I'm just shitting on you translator, I do appreciate the work, some things are just sort of questionable decisions and the original game is owed some degree of respect as well. For instance, when reading that line, I didn't think "Yamato finds this suspicious", I thought "oh hey the translator put an Among Us meme into the game."

The final thing worth keeping in mind for script alterations, by the way, is that it can sort of fuck the experience for people with some amount of Japanese knowledge but not enough to read it in the original language (or don't want to.) It's always a huge immersion shatter when I hear a character say something that isn't represented by the exact text. Sometimes it's as simple as "Onii-sama!" being translated as "[Character Name]!" or "Hey!", sometimes it's more significant of a change, but it always draws me right out of the story/scene.

 

[Sarica]

Sarica Out of curiosity, do you know what the original wording of the line in the Lin story where Yamato says if I recall correctly "That's pretty sus" was? I think I remember that being there, standing out as a random meme. I don't think it's all that bad though, just something that stood out a bit.

Okay, I found the line. It literally says:

"That's pretty suspicious, after all."
or
"As I thought, that's pretty suspicious".

 

[Alkaid_]

Sarica The exact line should have "pretty sus" there, but I'll try check to make sure I'm not misremembering.

God I forgot how christ obnoxious it was to deal with VN files. I remember I was going to do a 'make the protagonist's hair less stupid' project for Yumina the Ethereal, but even though I managed to extract all the assets with some effort it was impossible to repack them into a usable format.

He looks like this by the way, it's so fucking awful

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and it literally bugged me so much that I wasn't able to continue playing the game. I was going to mod every sprite and CG to change that dumb orange bit to the same red as the rest of his hair (it was pretty easy, proof-of-concept-edited a chibi sprite, CG, and regular sprite just to check if I could). To this day I have, never touched the game again. If he was a regular 'usually invisible' protagonist it would have been okay, but his sprite is visible for every single bit of dialogue he has.

Ah, you just replied lol, thank you for checking. So it's not a particularly bad thing since it at least matches the original meaning of the line, perhaps just a minor distracting irritation then.

 

[Darkblueshade]

I sort of want to address the "bisexual" line because it's clearly bothered a lot of people.

I very much much view Momoyo as being bisexual. I genuinely don't think there's a good way to view her character otherwise. When a character actively hits on women, and tells people she would go out with them if they were female, that's the conclusion I'm drawn to.

Additionally, the literal translation of the line here is "I wouldn't call myself a homosexual or anything..." This literal translation feels almost homophobic to me, in English, so I didn't want to do the literal translation. With how increasingly flustered Ryuuzouji gets over the course of the conversation, I liked the feel of having her flatly say "Nah, I'm bi." So that's what I went with.

As for the line in the original Majikoi, I genuinely forgot about it. I'm not sure if we should take her statement at face value -- I generally prefer to interpret characters according to their actions, rather than things they say -- but had I remembered it, I would not have translated this line the way I did.

Pretty sure Momoyo hits on girls because she just wants free food lol. She doesn't flirt with guys other than Yamato even if they qualify as a "worthy man" in her eyes. I also recall a line in Majikoi about her saying she's not romantically serious about any of the girls and expects them to also know that she is just playing around. Japan sure likes that two-girl romantic friendship thing.

Personally I'm not really bothered how you translated that line since I just took it as Momoyo joking around but I guess I can understand why that would annoy other people. Just try to take more caution if you are translating A-5 or some other visual novel next time.

 

[castor212]

Haha, trust me, man. I know first-hand how irritating it can be working with visual novel files and tools.

Here, I changed that "sus" line to say what it's supposed to say in the JP version. Enjoy. It also includes all of the changes I made in the 'Dialogue Uncensor Patch' in the OP.

is there effectively a list or so for the changes?

 

[Alkaid_]

Actually on the note of translations Sarica, I can't remember if you'd mentioned that you were going to work on something else after the Prison Academis thing.

 

[Alkaid_]

I'm actually kind of spread thin when it comes to that. I'm working on three projects, only one of them being an adult game.

I'm working with a couple of groups on improving the translations of two JRPGs and I'm also working on re-translating a hentai, ONEONE1 game called "The Heiress", which has a horrible machine translation.

Ah yeah, I think the I remember seeing that about The Heiress although FemC porn games generally don't interest me. Except FutaRing. Which also has a bad translation I actually wanted to improve myself at least in regards to giving it proper editing, but I couldn't find the crap in the code I needed to change. Even poked around in the EXE file but no luck. =(
(Although FutaRing is on the poor side it's at least partially playable.)

First I've heard about the other two JRPGs though, are you at liberty to share? I'm quite fond of ones that have the option to not be an evil dickbag or a 'good' route, Pronant Symphony is one I'm a big fan of for instance.

 

[Jetstream300]

Why does the translator need to change the literal translation to fit his/her narrative for fucks sake, like who gives a fuck what you think just translate the literal sentence. Plus the line isn't even homophobic bro.

 

[Janberk]

do i have to play prequels?

 

[Sarica]

do i have to play prequels?

I guess not, but you would have no clue who these characters were, so I highly recommend it.

 

[sazuree]

It's good to see majikoi a4 to be fully translated, I become a fan of this series because of Sakata Gintoki and Urahara Kisuke.

 

[Swagylord1337]

Anyone got full save?