Translator Log: Go-Busters
Posted: Sun Feb 10, 2013 5:14 am
So I've been trying to consistently write translator threads to comment on series that are completed. Just to look back and talk about some of the choices that were made.
I feel like the spy thing was a red herring. We saw the toys of cameras and stuff and made the assumption, but the show really has nothing to do with spies. The Busters are more like special force units, trained to handle specific situations and run in a military hierarchy.
The other big motif of the series (which should have been more obvious) is the anti-virus motif. The Japanese word for anti-virus are Virus Busters, which is where the Go-Busters get their name. A few weeks ago I realized that "enemy eliminated" should have been "enemy deleted" or "enemy erased" to go with the computer theming, since the term sakujo is used when deleting stuff on a computer. Then I thought about it a bit more, and figured that "virus eliminated" also works, so it's still alright.
So butting heads with official spellings:
Yoko and Ryuji - Thankfully, these spellings didn't show up enough to matter. Youko and Ryuuji worked out fine in my opinion.
The Vaglass - Ultimately, I feel like this spelling makes no sense, despite using it. I think it's ultimately a portmanteau of "bug" and "virus" so it should have been Bugrus.
Metaloids, Buddyloids, Meta Viruses - Yeah, no. It's Meta + android, Buddy + android. This is just an example of Japanese people using English without knowing it. (Let's Morphin, Let's Driving)
Maybe Chida Nick would have been better as Cheeda Nick. Since the normal katakana spelling for Cheetah uses a dash and Chida doesn't, I assumed the sound was shorter, so I spelled it that way.
Buster Hercules - Despite being pronounced Herakles, since it's based on the Hercules Beetle, it has to be Hercules. There is no Herakles Beetle.
Hyper Space, Subdimension - As a scifi nerd, hyper space already means something. And this isn't it.
Problems with the Subdimension
In the end, I kind of feel like the subdimension was one futuristic thing to take too many. The theme of the series if viruses and computers. I really feel like the subdimension should have just been the Internet, and teleportation should have worked via wireless communication. The subdimension in implementation was basically the Matrix. The walls broke apart and you saw data code. Messiah thrived in it. It doesn't make any sense for it to be that way if it's another dimension.
Problems with the EMC
The EMC provided the mcguffin of the series, Energon. I'm not really sure why the EMC was so powerful and had its own military unit and were researching teleportation and making partner robots and giant megazords. Really, the EMC should have just been "the government", and the energy managers were some outside department that had nothing to do with the Busters. Since that's what it was in implementation, we never saw beyond the Special Missions Department.
Writing for Enter
I think our Enter ended up being very subdued. He was always the polite gentleman. I tried to throw in some French swears during moments where it would seem like he would be breaking out in French, but ultimately rejected by QC since they felt it would come off as distracting since people would notice it's not actually in French. It just made me wish those lines were actually in French in the original script.
Speaking of which, that was one of the biggest problems, figuring out the French. I think we did okay, but I'm sure we fudged a few of those
Writing for Escape
It's pretty hard to write for a person who's only character trait is inserting the word "good" in everything they say. If Escape is the Id, then I guess it makes sense for her to see the world in black and white. Either things are "good" or they're useless to her. On or off. It's very... binary.
Writing for old men
I tried to make Ryuuji and Jin sound out of date. There were a couple of "dittos" that got rejected. I basically tried to make Ryuuji sound a bit outdated and corny. He would also use more technical sounding terms and large vocabulary. Jin speaks in slang and slurrs a lot of his words, so a lot of his dialogue get apostrophes and was shortened.
The other Busters
Hiromu and the others were fairly straight forward. Just make Youko sound a bit uneducated or using simpler words. I kind of stole J's italic "I's" from Mag. It's just so fitting of J's "ore" personality.
Power Rangers Terms
As suspected, these ultimately served no purpose in the great Go-Buster story. But at least they stopped seeming so annoying/silly after a few episodes. I don't know if I ever really found them "cool" the way I did "Busters. Ready? Go!" I also learned that Morphin in PR has no apostrophe, so that's why we didn't use one in our subs.
Christian References
Not sure if this served a greater purpose besides being a convenient tie-in for the Christmas origin storyline.
I feel like the spy thing was a red herring. We saw the toys of cameras and stuff and made the assumption, but the show really has nothing to do with spies. The Busters are more like special force units, trained to handle specific situations and run in a military hierarchy.
The other big motif of the series (which should have been more obvious) is the anti-virus motif. The Japanese word for anti-virus are Virus Busters, which is where the Go-Busters get their name. A few weeks ago I realized that "enemy eliminated" should have been "enemy deleted" or "enemy erased" to go with the computer theming, since the term sakujo is used when deleting stuff on a computer. Then I thought about it a bit more, and figured that "virus eliminated" also works, so it's still alright.
So butting heads with official spellings:
Yoko and Ryuji - Thankfully, these spellings didn't show up enough to matter. Youko and Ryuuji worked out fine in my opinion.
The Vaglass - Ultimately, I feel like this spelling makes no sense, despite using it. I think it's ultimately a portmanteau of "bug" and "virus" so it should have been Bugrus.
Metaloids, Buddyloids, Meta Viruses - Yeah, no. It's Meta + android, Buddy + android. This is just an example of Japanese people using English without knowing it. (Let's Morphin, Let's Driving)
Maybe Chida Nick would have been better as Cheeda Nick. Since the normal katakana spelling for Cheetah uses a dash and Chida doesn't, I assumed the sound was shorter, so I spelled it that way.
Buster Hercules - Despite being pronounced Herakles, since it's based on the Hercules Beetle, it has to be Hercules. There is no Herakles Beetle.
Hyper Space, Subdimension - As a scifi nerd, hyper space already means something. And this isn't it.
Problems with the Subdimension
In the end, I kind of feel like the subdimension was one futuristic thing to take too many. The theme of the series if viruses and computers. I really feel like the subdimension should have just been the Internet, and teleportation should have worked via wireless communication. The subdimension in implementation was basically the Matrix. The walls broke apart and you saw data code. Messiah thrived in it. It doesn't make any sense for it to be that way if it's another dimension.
Problems with the EMC
The EMC provided the mcguffin of the series, Energon. I'm not really sure why the EMC was so powerful and had its own military unit and were researching teleportation and making partner robots and giant megazords. Really, the EMC should have just been "the government", and the energy managers were some outside department that had nothing to do with the Busters. Since that's what it was in implementation, we never saw beyond the Special Missions Department.
Writing for Enter
I think our Enter ended up being very subdued. He was always the polite gentleman. I tried to throw in some French swears during moments where it would seem like he would be breaking out in French, but ultimately rejected by QC since they felt it would come off as distracting since people would notice it's not actually in French. It just made me wish those lines were actually in French in the original script.
Speaking of which, that was one of the biggest problems, figuring out the French. I think we did okay, but I'm sure we fudged a few of those
Writing for Escape
It's pretty hard to write for a person who's only character trait is inserting the word "good" in everything they say. If Escape is the Id, then I guess it makes sense for her to see the world in black and white. Either things are "good" or they're useless to her. On or off. It's very... binary.
Writing for old men
I tried to make Ryuuji and Jin sound out of date. There were a couple of "dittos" that got rejected. I basically tried to make Ryuuji sound a bit outdated and corny. He would also use more technical sounding terms and large vocabulary. Jin speaks in slang and slurrs a lot of his words, so a lot of his dialogue get apostrophes and was shortened.
The other Busters
Hiromu and the others were fairly straight forward. Just make Youko sound a bit uneducated or using simpler words. I kind of stole J's italic "I's" from Mag. It's just so fitting of J's "ore" personality.
Power Rangers Terms
As suspected, these ultimately served no purpose in the great Go-Buster story. But at least they stopped seeming so annoying/silly after a few episodes. I don't know if I ever really found them "cool" the way I did "Busters. Ready? Go!" I also learned that Morphin in PR has no apostrophe, so that's why we didn't use one in our subs.
Christian References
Not sure if this served a greater purpose besides being a convenient tie-in for the Christmas origin storyline.