Mu’s caustic tone isn’t so in japanese.
So I translated Mu and Roshi’s scene from KOTZ in the Japanese audio and the feeling is very different from the English/Spanish script.
Here’s the thing, Mu is a very peculiar character, since he chooses words carefully. It seems the ones in charge of the script in the English version put whatever they wanted without taking this into account BUT the japanese version DID. And although the meaning is more or less the same - Mu is restless and worried- how it comes off is WAY different.
In English he sounds very caustic and insolent, while Dohko sounds condescending and distrusting of him. There seems to be some veiled animosity between them.
Here’s what they say in japanese:
Dohko:友遠方より来たるか
My friend, you’ve come from afar.
Mu: ご無沙汰しおります老師
折り入ってお語が
It’s been a while, Roshi
I earnestly would like to talk with you
Dohko: ブロンズ聖闘士たちのことが
心配なのであろう？
You worry about the bronze saints, isn’t it?
このまま彼らに任せておくべきか
You wonder if we should leave it all to them
Mu:僭越ながら老師 この戦い彼だけに 託すには荷が重いかと
I’m being too forward but Roshi, this war is too heavy a burden for them alone.
Dohko: そう急くなムウよ
Don’t be hasty, Mu
時がすべてを 教えてくれるであろう
Time will tell us everything.
Mu: 時？ 老師 そんな猶予などありません
Time? Roshi, we have no such grace.
Dohko: おぬしがそのように焦る気持ちはわしにも判るだがムウよ
我々にできるおとはただひとつだ
I understand and also feel your impatience, but Mu, there is only one thing we can do.
Mu: 何でしょうか？
What is it?
Dohko:希望を持て
Hold onto hope.
Mu: 希望だけでこの戦い勝てるでしょうか。。。？
Can this war be won only by hope…?
Dohko: 女神と人類の運命は若きブロンズ聖闘士の成長にかかっているのだ
The fate of Athena and humanity depends on the growth of the young Bronze Saints.
–
They sound like actual friends that have actual respect for each other, only with some disagreements on the actions to take. There is no: “you’re too young and impatient, you will mess this up if you interfere” from Dohko. There’s no “you know what I’m here?” that sounds like a threat from Mu.
Also there’s something very telling for me:
In english Mu says:
“What they’re fighting for is too important to let them do it alone.”
Which comes off as distrustful of the boys because the stakes are too high and they might mess it up. Like they’re never going to be good at this and need mom to guide them by hand.
In japanese:
“This war is too heavy a burden for them alone.“ It sounds more like him because first he’s worried about them BESIDES the mission. Obviously they’re kids thrown into all of this and that’s too much to ask of them. That’s more Mu there just by paying attention to the way you write him. He is empathetic first.
Also, Dohko uses the pronoun onushi to refer to Mu. This is an archaic you that implies a comrade in arms or an equal, and one that Dohko has always used for Mu since the manga.
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