While playing through Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon, I came across a rather silly part in Chapter 6 where the psychic Pokémon Espurr uses telepathy to distract the Vice Principal Watchog to allow the player character and their friend to sneak into the classroom to avoid getting in trouble. When I read the brief scene that plays out as a result, I couldn’t help but wonder what the original Japanese may have said.
Anyway, when you read the dialogue, I am sure you will see why I (and probably some others) may have wondered just what this scene looked like in Japanese. So I went and got the Japanese text to take a closer look! Please take a look below.
Surprisingly, not much had changed!
| Original Japanese | My Translation/Literal: | Official Translation |
| 教頭センセ♪
ミルホッグ はい・・・・・・！ ミルホッグ ワタシ・・・・・・ ミルホッグ ワ・・・ワ・・・ワタークシを・・・・・・ はい♪ ミルホッグ 次の 校長先生になるのは・・・・・・ ミルホッグ |
Oh Vice Principal~ ♪
Watchog: Yes…..! Watchog: I… Watchog: Yes ♪ Watchog: I can think of no one else… Watchog: |
Vice Principal Watchog. ♪
Watchog: Yes, sir! Watchog: I…I just wanted you to know how much I really admire you, Vice Principal. ♪ Watchog: Yes, I do! ♪ Watchog: There’s no doubt that the next principal… will be you and no one else, I think. ♪ Watchog: |
You can see one may have thought whether or not the original may have been a “student x teacher fantasy” that was toned down. Thankfully, it seemed it was just innocent fun in both versions!
For starters, the official translation is actually spot on, and did many things really well. For instance, in Japanese, the word デレデレ (deredere) is used at the end. This is commonly translated to mean “lovey dovey,” so making it “tee-hee” (along with the blushing portrait of the Watchog) was a very effective way to portray that same meaning without having to write “swoon” or “lovey-dovey” which would be a little awkward. It usually has “cute” rather than “sexual” implications too, so I think the scene is more innocent than not.
So not only did the translation portray the exact meaning from Japanese, they also wrote it very well in English.
Innuendo and sneaking things into games for children is nothing new, but it seems that may not be the case here.
An important note is that Espurr is referred to as “she” in English, though I am not sure if the pronouns are specific in Japanese or if it was left for the translators to assign genders based on contexts and mannerisms, though that can lead to all sorts of other issues… I should look into this another time!
Until next time!
kantopia 
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That’s actually really interesting! I was worried that particular scene was…”dirtier” in the Japanese version, too, so it’s a relief to hear that the joke wasn’t as vulgar or as watered down as I thought.
There are a couple other scenes in the game I’m curious about culturally, though.
-In a later chapter, most of the known characters are in the Voidlands, and Mawile manages to tell whether Bunnelby was real or an illusion through her powers of nitpicky grammar deduction. Apparently Bunnelby uses the word “saw” instead of “seen” in conversations with that word? Her whole explanation for how she figured it out felt really awkward and sudden, so I feel this must have been something that was partially lost in translation from the Japanese version and attempted to be equivocated in the English version…with little success.
My guess is the Japanese version had Mawile noticed the fake Bunnelby used the wrong honorifics at that point? I’m not sure.
-Another point I’m curious on is how the Japanese version wrote Dark Matter. Dark Matter is the amalgamation of EVERY Pokémon’s negative feelings (like how Spiritomb in the Explorers games is the amalgamation of 108 Pokémon’s souls).
In the Explorers games, Spiritomb spoke similarly to Loudred, capitalizing RANDOM words for EMPHASIS.
While in Super, Dark Matter sPoKE liKE tHIs, to signify an extremely irregular or conjoined speech pattern.
I remember reading a Reddit post from a Japanese player who seemed to dislike the way the English version handled Dark Matter, at first calling the way they wrote his speech to be lazy and not as effective in portraying its personality as a mixture of that of every Pokémon on the planet.
… But he/she later gave it some slack because the English translators had limited space to type out each line, having to fit every sentence in the same amount of text boxes as the Japanese version, causing them to be extremely limited in the amount of dialogue they could write, rearrange, or add to benefit the scene rather than directly and awkwardly translate the original. I could link that post here if you’d like–there’s more talk about the game’s differences there.
Right? It’s what I was worried about too. xD I saw mentions of the Voidlands, which is about where I am in the game right now, so I’ll try and finish that off first before reading your post, just to avoid potential give-aways. : )
In the meantime, feel free to link that Reddit post (I saw you mention when skimming) and I’ll take a look at that too when done!
Sorry for spoiling some of the plot! I didn’t realize you hadn’t beaten the game yet…
Here’s the Reddit post! Though it talks about the game as a whole as well, so it talks about points at the very end of the game and a small debate on how much of a balance translators should have between absolute faithfulness to a form of media’s original language and liberties they should make so a conversation can make more sense or sound just as powerful, faithfulness taking a back seat.
No worries, I wrote on the post I was up to Chapter 14 when I wrote this (and am now at 20, still not the end but beyond that part you mentioned) : )
I don’t think any link loaded for that reddit post. Try again?
Here it is again: https://www.reddit.com/r/MysteryDungeon/comments/40n0ck/anyone_else_have_a_problem_with_the_psmd_english/
Great, bookmarked. Will look into it after the Mawile dialogue : ) Thanks!
I looked into Mawile, a minor but interesting difference. You can see it here:
https://kantopia.wordpress.com/2016/01/23/how-does-mawile-spot-the-imposter-in-chapter-18-pokemon-super-mystery-dungeon-jp-vs-eng/
Next I’ll focus on beating the game and getting to that Reddit post!
Just read through the article! Thanks! Can’t wait till you beat the game.
Thanks! Looking forward to it.
Alright I reached that scene in question, and the funny thing is, even before reading this post, I thought it weird too and instantly wondered what was up with “seen” and “saw”, so will look into that : )
Thank you so much!