Pokemon: X/Y Battle Chateau – “Monsieur! Monsieur!” [JPN vs ENG]

Today’s post is a small one, and covers a reader request:

“There’s this guy in the Battle Chateau who keeps saying Monsieur monsieur over and over. I think his name is Lesotho. What does he say in Japanese? Thanks!”

I’ve been meaning to look at the Battle Chateau actually, especially for that one robo-maid and the other guy who seems to be out to assassinate you…either way, this is a good place to start!

So let’s take a look!

Official Localization:

Lesotho: M-Monsieur! Monsieur for sure!
Lesotho: M-Monsieur! Monsier du jour!
Lesotho: M-Monsieur… Monsieur…premature…
Lesotho: Monsieur! Monsieur, endure!

Japanese + Literal Translation:

テンショウ『ム……　ムッシュ！ ムッシュ　シュシューーッ！！
テンショウ『ムム　ムッシュ！ ムッシュ！　ムッシュ！！
テンショウ『ムッ…… ムッ……　シュ……
テンショウ『ムッシューー！！ ムーーーッシューー！！

Tensho: Mo…Monsieur! Monsieur, sieurrrrr!!
Tensho: M-m-monsieur! Monsieur! Monsieur!!
Tensho: Mo…Mo…sieur…
Tensho: Monsieur!! Moonnnnsieurrrrr!!

This is just silly, as you can see. The localization opted to repeat the word monsieur over and over like the Japanese, but put in some rhyming words likely to mix it up beyond pure repetition.

The Japanese version has the same word broken up into syllables, but no real rhymes or any other word, so turns out reading much like the literal translation above. I feel repetition in this style is often seen as more humorous in Japanese than the West, as it tends to appear more in the former and is often localized as a joke or something slightly different in English.

The Japanese text also seems to have the pronunciation closer to the actual French way of saying the word (which a typical English reader may not get from reading the spelling alone). But, I am not an expert in French, so cannot comment too much on that!

His name is also Tensho in Japanese, a word that can mean many things, from “weather” (or astronomical phenomena) to “reincarnation.”

Perhaps his constant saying of “monsieur” was inspired by the development team’s initial scouting trip to France? Such as how one may pick out a keyword from a language (i.e. Japanese saying desu a lot). Perhaps they found it funny as a summary of what they heard, or there was a personal silly memory someone had about running into someone like this and trying to deal with the language barrier.

We’ll probably never know, but in the end we get the feeling he is a really curious fellow both ways!

On a final note, if anyone played the game in French, what does he say? I’m curious!

Update: From twitter user SpiritChaos comes the French dialogue:

– Gentilhomme ! Hom ! Hom ! (introduction)
– Gentil…..homme…. (defeat)
– Gentil… (continues to say after defeat)

To which they remarked:

“So they didn’t really do anything special, only make him sound like a man fixed on one word about nobility.”

Interesting! Thank you so much for sharing!

In short:

The Japanese version uses repetition to convey humor, as seems to be a more popular trend in Japan than in the West. The localization opted for some silly rhyming instead. Curiously, the French version didn’t do anything special, and focused on one word that revolves around nobility.

 Summary infographic:

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I will continue to look at fun differences between the versions of sorts of games when I get time!

Any dialogue you’re interested in? Feel free to send in comments or via email!