EarthBound / MOTHER 2 Translation Comparison: Summers 2

Asian Reference

Once Poo has joined Ness and friends in Summers, the main adventure continues. One of the first people you’re most likely to talk to is this girl on the beach.

In EarthBound, she says, “Asian boy, you’re so cool… Don’t look at me like that…”

Which always struck me as a strange thing to say. It turns out the translators accidentally left out a line of text at the end. In MOTHER 2, she says something like, “Oh, oriental boy. You’re so cool and handsome. Oh, don’t look at me that way… You’re too charming ♪”

Out of the Stoic Club

In EarthBound, this guy in the Stoic Club remarks how the Magic Cake lady “seems to have been removed from the members list.”

It’s a tough call to make, but from a translation perspective it looks like the original translator might have misread the word “hazureta” as “hazusareta” here. The main difference here would be in nuance: the EarthBound version suggests that she was stricken from the list/kicked out by someone, but the MOTHER 2 version hints more toward her leaving the club of her own accord. This would fit in with the line by her husband, the boat captain, who mentions that she’s “woken up” and “quit talking about all that crazy crap”.

Mr. Fork’s Name

Just as Mr. Spoon of Fourside was originally called Mr. Ricebowl, Mr. Fork of Summers was originally called Mr. Chopstick in MOTHER 2.

Ancient Prophecy

A prophecy is written on the hieroglyph artifact in the Summers museum:

  *
4   3
 2 5

  *
4   3
 2 5

A couple things to note here. First, “Evil Lands” is called “Deep Darkness” in EarthBound. “Abyss” (or more literally, “the bottom of the earth”) is what is called the “Lost Underworld” in EarthBound. “Scarabi” is called “Scaraba” in EarthBound.

Next, we see that references to “heavens” are removed. Even just calling it the “sky” would have worked fine for the censors, I’m sure.

The fact that the invader is said to come from space also gives a connection with how Gyiyg/Giygas attacks the planet in MOTHER 1 in his mothership.

The evil “hive” part is strange. The word usually translates to “nest”, “bird nest”, “hive”, or “bee hive”. I’ve never seen it translated as “stronghold” before. It’s not necessarily wrong, but the Japanese word doesn’t have the same nuance. Giygas’ lair is hardly a stronghold when you actually visit it, it’s more just a place/machine/thingy that seems to keep him alive.

I’ve seen a few Japanese fans wonder if the “hive” refers to Giygas’ lair (which I believe) and that the invader might actually Pokey, because he had access to time travel and likely appeared in different eras causing trouble. I don’t know if I buy that, but it’s an interesting idea.

In all, the prophecy wasn’t changed very much, aside from some little details. Hopefully this will clear up a lot of questions fans have!

Mr. Fork Speaks

In EarthBound, Mr. Fork talks about how Mr. Spoon from the other museum has been calling lately. In the English translation, he sounds extremely competitive, almost like a real jerk. In MOTHER 2, his personality comes off a little differently.

Of course, the EarthBound version sounds more natural, so his personality change was more of an unintended side effect of polishing the text up.

Poo’s Hairstyle

Once Poo joins the party, a few people around town comment on his hair. In Japanese, his hairstyle is known as a “benpatsu”. It’s the kind of pony tail that you often see in Chinese martial arts movies.

Anyway, since the equivalent word for that hairstyle isn’t as well-known in English (it’s apparently called a “queue”), the translators had to write around it a bit. In one instance, they call Poo a kid with a “kung fu-like hairstyle”, while in another they call Poo a “samurai kid”.

Nothing wrong with that, I would’ve done the same thing. Just, if you’re studying Japanese and playing the game, don’t expect to see the words “kung fu” or “samurai” here.