A reader sent in a question about an interesting localization issue in the Phoenix Wright series:
During the final case of the [Phoenix Wright: Trials and Tribulations], Pearl Fey unwittingly follows a plot to murder Elise Deauxnim, aka Misty Fey. However, the instructions Pearl is given tell her to “Gravely roast the Master in the fires of Hades and bring our vengeance to fruition.” Given her young age, Pearl takes these instructions literally, and actually splatters gravy from a roast onto a hanging scroll that features Misty’s picture.
Obviously, there’s a creative play on words in this scene. I’m assuming the events are the same in the Japanese version (ie Pearl splatters the scroll with gravy in both versions), but I’m curious as to how such a play on words would actually work in Japanese.
First, here’s an in-game look at the specific lines in question:
 |  |
| Japanese text | Basic translation | Official translation |
| 家元に、華麗に引導をたたきつけてやりなさい | Put a splendid end to the head of the house. | Gravely roast the Master in the fires of Hades and bring our vengeance to fruition. |
The deal in the Japanese version is that since she’s a kid, she can’t read fancy Japanese kanji yet. So she confuses these complicated adult words with simpler words:
- She mixes up 華麗 (karei, "splendid, gorgeous") and カレー (karē, "curry")
- She also mixes up 引導 (indō, "requiem, last rites") and インド (indo, "India")
Basically, she misreads the phrase in Japanese and thinks it’s some weird sentence about throwing India or curry on the “master of the house”. And that’s why the scroll gets covered in it.
In the English version, this misreading isn’t quite the same, but using “gravely” and “gravy” accomplished a similar result. It was a pretty clever idea, and I wonder how it was handled in other languages too.
Actually, now that I think about it, I seem to recall using “grave” and “gravely” in a lot of similar puns in professional stuff I’ve worked on too. And apparently fan stuff too:
 |
”Gravely” is such a handy word for things like this – it isn’t used often in everyday situations, it can mean several different things, AND it can be applied to all sorts of different contexts. So if you’re an aspiring translator or writer or comedian, be sure to add “gravely” to your repertoire.
![Passport to MOTHER 2 [Learn Japanese!]](https://legendsoflocalization.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/pp-m2.jpg "Passport to MOTHER 2 [Learn Japanese!]")
First!
Sorry, i couldn’t help myself.
I’ve been wanting to try the Pheonix Wright games for so long, but i can just never get around to actually buying one. I think the early ones are available for download on Wii for like $5. Maybe someday when i’m bored and got some extra money, i might finally getting around to trying it.
I almost never play games anymore, but oh man did I love the Phoenix Wright games. It sounds like you have a similar taste in games as me, so if so I can’t recommend them enough.
You definitely want to play the DS versions, the Wii versions, or the original iOS versions. Avoid the HD remake for iOS if you can; it’s vastly inferior to all the other versions in almost every way.
Apollo Justice, or the fourth Ace Attorney game, and the spin-off Miles Edgeworth game are DS only though.
Also, the fifth main series Ace Attorney game, Dual Destinies, is being released on October 24 on the 3DS eShop, and a demo for it was released today. The creators of the game said they made it such that new people to the series could play it without playing the other games, so check it out!
Not to mention Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright, which is a charmingly insane idea.
But of course. Too bad we have to wait for 2014 (early 2014 for EU).
Thanks for the heads up. I’m downloading the demo now. I can’t really afford a brand new 3DS game at this time (especially since i’m already gonna be buying pokemon X and Y in a week), but i think i heard the downloadable Wii ports were fairly cheap.
There was this weird running gag in AA3 case 2 where Phoenix Wright keeps cleaning the toilet in his office for some reason. And it seems completely random that he keeps doing that, especially when he doesn’t do it in other cases. I’m wondering if the same randomness happened in the Japanese version, if he was cleaning the toilet there too, and if there was a pun or something lost in translation.
Or maybe there is something funny about that in English other than randomness that went completely over my head.
＊Giant Comment＊
Actually, I haven’t played the case my self, but from YouTube videos…
マヨイ
｢ね、ね、なるほどくん！
ちょっと聞いてよ！｣
Maya
”Hey, hey, Nick!
Listen for a sec!”
「ほらほら、トイレ掃除なんて
あと、あと！」
”Hey! You can clean the toilet
later!”
ナルホド
｢････うるさいな。
何をハシャいでるんだよ。｣
Phoenix
”…Be quiet already.
What are you so excited over?”
マヨイ
｢ふふん。｣
”Heehee.”
｢このあたしに向かって、エラそうな
口をきけるのも、今日かぎりだよ！」
”I’m only listening to that bossy
mouth for today!”
ナルホド
「････？｣
マヨイ
「あたしたち、
ついにビッグになれるかも！｣
”We could
finally get big!”
It doesn’t seem like anything’s happening… it seems to be pretty much the same as the English version. Anyways, the next instance was only one part away. 😮
マヨイ
｢な、な、なるほどくん！
タイヘンだよっ！｣
”N-N-Nick!
It’s terrible!”
｢････もう！ また
トイレ掃除なんかやってるし！｣
”…Really! You’re
still cleaning the toilets?!”
｢そんなトイレに好きだとは
思わなかったよっ！｣
”I didn’t think you
like that toilet so much!”
ナルホド
｢なんだよ朝っぱらから････｣
Phoenix
”What is it, so early in the morning…?”
ハルミ
｢あの。わたくし、
テレビつけますから！｣
Pearl
”Um, I’ll turn
on the TV!”
Just from these two, I don’t think there’s anything behind it.
The third mention of toilet cleaning is…
ハルミ
｢さあ。お茶がはいりましたよ、
真宵さま！｣
Pearl
”Well, the tea’s ready,
Mystic Maya!”
マヨイ
｢あ････どうもありがと････」
Maya
”Ah…thanks…”
ハルミ
｢ささ。なるほどくん。｣
おだんごをめしあがれ！｣
”Come on, Mr. Nick!
Enjoy your dumplings!”
ナルホド
｢うん････ありがとう。
あの、晴美ちゃん････?｣
”Yeah…thanks.
Um, Pearls…?”
ハルミ
｢あ！ わたくし、おトイレ掃除の
途中ですので････！｣
”Ah! I’m was going to
go clean your toilet…!”
ナルホド
｢ちょ、ちょっと待って。
トイレなら、ぼくが今朝････｣
”W-wait a sec.
I cleaned it this morning…”
マヨイ
｢行っちゃった････｣
”She’s gone…”
I really think it’s just toilet cleaning even though I’m not going to look for another mention of it…
So, unless there’s a pun in there, it’s just complete randomness. Whut.
The french version has a clever play on words too, I don’t remember eactly how it was since it’s been a long time since the last time I played it, but I think it’s somewhat similar to the english version.
“Fais disparaître la Maîtresse,
qu’elle rôtisse à jamais dans
les flammes de l’Enfer.”
(Make the Master disappear, let her roast forever in the flames of Hell.)
In the French version, they made it so that she did know how to read “disparaître” (disappear) and “rôtir” (roast) after Elise Deauxnim taught her how to read them, but she didn’t know they could have the religious / spiritual meaning. So she interpreted them as “erase a drawing” and “roast” as in cooking respectively.
As a result, she covered the scroll with “la sauce du rôti”, (roast sauce, they changed the gravy to this in the French version).
Aside from this, the French localizations for Ace Attorney 3 and 4 were superb. Too bad they were the last ones 🙁
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuT01Af4nDM (Around 59:00)
Haha, I remember that scene. I seem to remember thinking something in the back of my mind for a second or two about how they came up with that. But the Ace Attorney games are just done so well, I often forget they were originally in Japanese. Not to say I start thinking it’s an American game. Just that I get so engrossed in the game that I don’t even think about it. xD
Still kinda working through Apollo Justice. After seeing the opening of Dual Destinies (The anime scene), I kinda wanna know what happens. xD I should probably play Investigations too, but I could never really get into that one… Just didn’t feel the same, I guess.
I’m so glad someone thought to ask this! I remember wondering this very thing when I played that case, and then I kind of forgot I wanted to know it, but now that I’ve been reminded it’s such a relief to have an answer!
The translations in these games are generally so good that I don’t usually think about how certain things were translated, but I just remembered another bad-pun-in-a-final-case that I wondered about the time. The “muffler” thing in Rise from the Ashes (from the first game). It took me all of five seconds to discover that the same exact joke would work in Japanese though, so it was surely a stupid thing to wonder. :p
Huh, I forgot that one. How did the muffler pun go again?
It was (spoilers?) referring to a muffler (scarf, clothing) or a muffler (tailpipe of a car). Not a pun, just similar words.
The Spanish translation was a really bad pun, but I don’t know if it could have been done in a different way.
The scarf was called “un fular Scapa” (meaning “a Scapa foulard”, with Scapa being the brand, or something like that. A foulard is a French handkerchief.). The Spanish expression for a tailpipe of a car is “tubo de escape” or just “escape”, and so the confusion is between “Scapa” and “escape”.
So you see, it was pretty cheap to just make up a brand name in order to create the pun.
Veeeery belated, but I wanted to add that German did pretty much the same thing. It became a scarf from a supposedly fancy French brand, the “Schal d’Amfère” (scarf d’Amfère), which sounds like “Schalldämpfer” (muffler). At least the “Schal”/“Schall” part kinda worked… visually at least.
Oh hey, cool to see my E-mail included in the Q&A! I thought it might be a question of interest for other Phoenix Wright fans as well. And props to you Mato… I remember you replied to my letter within a half hour or so!
There was another play on words from the first case of Apollo Justice that caught my attention, in which Phoenix’s locket is discussed during the testimony. The Judge makes a comment that if he had a locket he would “take it with him to the skies” (or something to that effect), and Apollo replies with “You know we’re talking about a locket and not a rocket, right?” I’m paraphrasing here, but that’s the gist of what the characters say.
Anyway, I found it interesting because according to Google Translate, the Japanese term “roketto” can mean either “rocket” or “locket.” I’m guessing the same confusion occurred in the Japanese version of the game, but it’s unique how the joke is nearly identical in the English version and still makes sense.
Oh, and thanks for the additional translational notes above, SomeUser!!
Oh, thanks for thanking me, I guess. I only just noticed this comment. ;;;;
I was going to go find the clip but I don’t remember where the Judge talks about the rocket.
For those of you who are interested, there is a really amazing translation of Ace Attorney investigations 2 on Youtube that you guys should look at. The guy who did it is called dowolf. You should check him out Mato. I think he deserves some mad props. Here’s a link to his first video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzQuGq21Dlc&list=PLjRAU3j6cNaixtcLDixVlaz7Vcthm0rmh
The American localizations of the Ace Attorney series get a lot of attention to detail and they really are fantastic as you demonstrated here. : )
Funny to see how this was treated. Having only played the Spanish version, I was also wondering how the original text was.
Just for your information, the letter with the instructions for Pearl Fey in Spanish said: “Ensarta a la maestra en los fuegos del Hades para poder vengarnos.”
This roughly translates to “Stab the master in the fire of Hades so we can take revenge”. Elise Deauxnim taught Pearl how to pronounce the word “ensarta” (stab), but she didn’t teach her its meaning. Pearl thought the word sounded like “en salsa” (with sauce), and that’s why she covered the scroll with the sauce they had for their previous meal.