I'm super glad people liked my previous post, and I had fun writing it, so hereās more notes on Corbeauās Japanese dialogue, and some of my rambling.
Again, keep in mind Iām not fluent and things can have multiple meanings, a lot is up to interpretation. The official translation is the best source, there's just a few things that get left out sometimes, or idioms that are changed.
(Spoilers for mission 25 to 37, no post-game)
Forgot to mention in the last one, when he asks you if you want to join the Rust Syndicate, he calls you by your name instead of Omae. It seems like most characters call you your name without honorifics, with a few exceptions being Ivor (player-san) and Lebanne (player-sama). Even knowing that, Corbeau calling you your name alone could be very impolite. Again, itās overly familiar. Honorifics exist to create a boundary, a degree of separation. To go from calling someone Omae and Yatsu, to just their name, would be crazy irl.
Side note that Canari uses Boku as her personal pronoun, which I think is neat. Itās sort of tomboyish, look up Bokukko for further explanation on that. Personal pronouns in Japanese are such an important character detail that have no English counterpart, which is such a shame. There's a scene in Your Name where the girl character, in the body of the boy character, accidentally says Watashi instead of Ore, and his friends call her out on it. And thereās a bit in My Hero Academia where Iida, a boy from a rich family, accidentally calls himself Boku in front of his new friends, when heās been saying Ore previously. They notice, and ask if heās a Bocchan. The English subs had to change the conversation entirely.
Corbeau says Ore, if anyone was wondering. Itās typically used by adult men, and itās somewhat impolite. And as previously mentioned, Philippe uses Watakushi, which is most formal option.
At the Super-Tournoi De Jacinthe, Philippe yells out, Bosu! Watakushi to no dokkun wo omoidashitekudasai āBoss! Make sure to remember your special training with me!ā
Corbeau responds, ćć®ć¢ć ćććććØćććć§ćććć Ano aho, iran koto iwan de ee nen āThat dumbass. He shouldnāt go saying stupid things.ā Remember that in Standard Japanese, Aho is very rough, like moron or fucking idiot. In Kansai-ben, itās not as mean, but it might still sound mean to a Standard speaker.
He doesnāt tell you about his āspecial training with Philippeā here, like he does in the English translation if I remember right. I might be remembering wrong. He says he and his team arenāt the same as the last time you fought. So heās just totally brushing past what Philippe said.
Philippe seems a lot sillier in Japanese, whereas when I played in English I got the impression he was grounded and cool and had a lot of respect for Corbeau. In Japanese, he has a lot of respect for Corbeau. Heās a bit dense/oblivious on occasion. A brawns over brains type of guy. Very, very polite, extremely formal speech, very humble.
ć§ććć£ć±ćŖććØćØć®åč² ćÆćććććŖ ć¾ćäŗåęć«éć³ć«ććć§ Demo yappa omae to no shouba wa omoroi na. Mada jimusho ni asobi ni oide āBut still, battles with you are great fun. Come hang out at the office again sometime.ā He says Asobi, which means hang out or visit or play, and Oide, come. āCome play at the office again.ā
When Lysandre shows up, Philippe says, Eh!? Eh!? Usotsu! āHuh?! Huh?! No way!ā āThat person is Mr. Lysandre, isnāt he?ā He calls him Fladari-sama.
Corbeau says, Damare Gypso. Fladari-san no mae de hazukashii yaro āShut the hell up, Philippe. Youāll embarrass us in front of Mr. Lysandreā or āYou should be embarrassedā or āDonāt you feel ashamed?ā Damare is very rude, more so than Shizukani, silence or Urusai, noisy.
Big skip, at the final strategy meeting, Corbeau shows up and says he figured you were in trouble.
Jacinthe pops up and says Sabigumiya minasama dakede wa, fuan de mune ga shimetsukeraremasu wa āWith only the Rust Syndicate and you all, my heart feels tight with anxiety.ā
Jacinthe ignores him, and shows the picture of an aerial view of Lumiose. Deciding that they have to do something about those flowers, Corbeau asks, ćøć£ć¹ćć£ć¹ć®ä¼ć®ć«ć¼ć”ćć ćć®ē«ę“¾ćŖēčć§ćŖććØććŖććøćļ¼Justice no kai no onii-chan, sono ritsuba na kinniku de nantoka narahen? āBig brother from the Fist of Justice, canāt you do something with those impressive muscles?ā
THIS IS SO FUNNY TO ME. He calls Ivor Onii-chan, like he called that SBC guy Onii-san, only this time itās a little more cutesy. Either heās saying this because the Fist of Justice is run by a pair of siblings, and Ivor is the big brother, or, Ivor is older than him, and heās being respectful. You really wouldnāt call someone younger Onii-chan, unless youāre saying something like āHow is your big brother doing?ā or āYouāre a good big brother (to someone else)ā talking about an actual brother in third person.
(Would Corbeau say that??? Wouldnāt he just call him Justice no kai no omae or Justice no kai no yatsu or even Justice no kaiāsan? In English he calls him āMr. Justiceā, which I feel suggests that heās calling him Onii-chan personally. Like sometimes in anime, when a kid calls a stranger Onii-san, itāll get translated as Mister. āAre you okay, Mister?ā Whereas if the official translation was something like āJusticeās big broā Iād take it differently. Itās hard to know for sure.
But, if we take it at face value, it means Ivor is older than Corbeau. We know Ivor is around the same age as Lebanne, and older than Gwynn and Canari. Lebanne is probably Jacintheās age. I have no idea what range anyone is in. The only canon ages are AZ and Emma, I think, so Iād go off of Emmaās appearance and level of maturity when guessing. Sheās 21, and in my opinion she seems just a little older than the player. Maybe the same age as Urbain/Taunie? Cause they act like buddies.
Lebanne and Ivor strike me as being in their late 20ās, same as Jacinthe. Sheās the kind of person that turns 30 and then says sheās 28 for the rest of her life.
Gwynn might be⦠a teenager. I have no idea. She kind of looks 30 to me. But maybe sheās short because sheās a child. And Ivor is so protective of her, itād make sense if they were far apart in age. Canari has to be 18-21 at most.
We definitely know that Philippe is a good chunk older than Corbeau. To the point where he was already running a gang when he met Corbeau, who he says was a kid at the time (going off memory there). I have no clue how old Philippe is. Please let me know what you think.
Corbeau is definitely an adult, he has his shit together, but heās not nearly as old as some people think. The glasses add 20 years. If I had to guess, Iād say he could be anywhere around 20-30. Yeah you know what I do think he could be younger than Emma. If sheās a full-on detective at this age, with only 5 years since we saw her, then it's not unreasonable that same-aged Corbeau could become the leader of the Yakuza in that time.
Personally, and you're free to disagree with me on this, Iād say the player character might be 18-22 at least. Youāre still young, and in Japan you're not an adult until youāre 20, but you are old enough to go on vacation on your own and work for Emma and all the other stuff you do. I have my own head-canons for why you came to Lumiose but this isn't the place for that.
I think Urbain/Taunie is older than you, only by a little, because theyāre the leader of Team MZ and act somewhat like a mentor to you. Maybe 20. Lida could be older than them? Since sheās a little rude sometimes, I doubt sheād call them an idiot if they were her senior, or judge their clothes. Naveen is prob 19 look at him that's a 19 year old. Either that or heās the youngest, maybe a minor, and that's why he has to visit his family sometimes (I don't remember what they say about it).
Alright, back to the translations.)
Jacinthe says, Chotto iikashira āCan I say something quickly?ā
Corbeau says, ćŖćććć ćć¾ē«ę„ć®ćØćć! Nanyanen, ima gakiyuu no toki ya! āWhat the hell? Weāre in the middle of an emergency!ā Nanyanen, though usually Nandeyanen, is Kansai-ben slang expressing surprise and bewilderment. Thereās a lot of Japanese Manzai comedians with Kansai-ben dialects, and this phrase is heard often in Boke and Tsukkomi routines. The Boke, silly/stupid person, says something totally bizarre, and then the Tsukkomi, straight man, says Nandeyanen in response. Like, āWhat the actual hell are you talking about.ā
He says another Kansai-ben term, Houna ikoka āShall we go?ā In Standard Japanese, itās written and pronounced Ikouka, with a long o sound.
The ladder thing goes much the same, Corbeau asks āIs it a ladder thatās invisible to idiots?ā
Philippe says to you, āOnce youāve decided which path to take, youāve got no choice but to keep going down it.ā Iād say in reference to the current situation, but also being in the Rust Syndicate. The grunts give it their all because thatās all they can do now, no turning back.
When theyāre missing one more person and you ask what to do, Corbeau says ććććååćććć°ć£ćØćććļ¼Kawaii kobun ga ganbattoru nen! āMy cute little henchmen are working so hard!ā I donāt know where the sweetness came from but itās not me. He says Kawaii, cute, adorable, lovely. åå Kobun is made up of the Kanji for small + part, with the Ko also meaning child, and can mean henchman, follower, protegee, member, offshoot or adopted child. Despite being a little mean to them earlier, I think he appreciates his grunts. Not to their faces, but he sees them as his family, maybe. Heās very loyal and protective of them.
Then, he says Anshinshi again, āDonāt worry.ā Yakusoku wa hatasu! Ore ni makasetoki āI keep my promises! Leave it to me.ā
If you fall of the roof, heāll say, Omae⦠Nande ochiru nen! āYou⦠Why the hell did you fall!ā then Moppen nobore! āClimb it again!ā
The second time, he says Omae⦠Dakara nande ochiru nen!! āYou⦠Seriously, why the hell did you fall!!ā and Moppen nobore ya! āClimb it AGAIN!ā and ćŖć¬ć«čä½å“åććććŖć Ore ni nikutai roudou saseru na ya āQuit making me doing manual labor, asshole.ā Essentially. Not that he calls you an asshole, but heās very rude.
Third time, sorry Corbeau, he says āā¦Maybe youāre making fun of the Rust Syndicate, huh?ā then, Saigo no kokiya de, giri giri nobore yaa!!! āThis is your last warning, climb the hell up here!!!ā
One of the grunts who previously just said ah⦠now says Iikagen onegaishimasu āPlease cut it out.ā
Someone that reblogged my last post brought up when he calls you kid during this part of the game, and there isn't anything like that in Japanese. His last line is something like āNext time you fall down, Iām going to be pissedā or āIf you fall down again, Iām not helping youā or āDon't you dare fall again, you hear me?ā
So, in summary, Corbeau calling the player character kid does not mean you're a child, or that he sees you as one. It is not a mistranslation, to be clear, it's just something that can be easily misinterpreted by an audience that doesn't have the same knowledge. And in my opinion, it's a fun word! (I wonder what calls you in other languages?)
For all you fanfic writers, I hope you let him keep saying kid without one of those āStop calling me kid! I'm an adult!ā moments. If he said baby you wouldn't be complaining. Itās the same thing, in essence.
That's all the Japanese Corbeau footage I had. Everything else he says is pretty much the same. Please let me know if Iāve made any mistakes or you disagree with me anywhere, or if you just want to add your two cents. I was really hoping for someone to write a post like this, but I got impatient and figured Iād have to do it myself, despite not being an expert on any of this.
Iād like to watch some JP youtubers playing the game to see what they think about Corbeau, from a native point of view. If I find anything fun through that Iāll have to make a third post I guess. Thank you for all the nice reblogs and comments on the last one :]
Sources: DeepL, a dictionary, JapanDict, and this video vv
you can criticize nintendo and game freak all you want for overcrunching their developers and releasing an unfinished, broken mess for the switch but nothing is going to change unless you stop buying the fucking video game
Folks, friends, yāallā¦. esk*mo is a slur. I understand a lot of people donāt know that, I donāt want to be a dick about it, but Iāve been seeing it in fics. Wanna write āesk*mo kissesā? Just say ānuzzled nosesā or something.
Iām not here to call anybody out, itās been in multiple fics, Iām not vague posting. This is just a psa. šš»
[Text Description: āHey! Reminder: Eskimo is a slur. It means āsnow eatersā in Cree and is a slur against Inuit . Also donāt use āEskimo kissesā. Itās called Kunik. It is a greeting mostly used for family⦠Kunik was how Iād greet my mom and grandmother as a small child.ā /TD]
Folks, friends, yāallā¦. esk*mo is a slur. I understand a lot of people donāt know that, I donāt want to be a dick about it, but Iāve been seeing it in fics. Wanna write āesk*mo kissesā? Just say ānuzzled nosesā or something.
Iām not here to call anybody out, itās been in multiple fics, Iām not vague posting. This is just a psa. šš»
[Text Description: āHey! Reminder: Eskimo is a slur. It means āsnow eatersā in Cree and is a slur against Inuit . Also donāt use āEskimo kissesā. Itās called Kunik. It is a greeting mostly used for family⦠Kunik was how Iād greet my mom and grandmother as a small child.ā /TD]
I...tried to make a meme and got carried away and made A Thing that is like partially unfinished because i spent like 3 hours on it and then got tired.
I think this is mostly scientifically accurate but truth be told, there seems to be relatively little research on succession in regards to lawns specifically (as opposed to like, pastures). I am not exaggerating how bad they are for biodiversity thoughārecent research has referred to them as "ecological deserts."
some of you may've heard about that fancy "bionic reading" typefont thats supposed to be easier for neurodivergent people to read (if you're unfamiliar, it bolds the first few letters of each word to make it easier to follow)
well guess what, its locked behind a $500 a month API to write in because fuck you!
introducing, Not Bionic Reading! it is literally just the bionic reading typefont but for free. god bless neocities
Tech bros are on another world just make a framework like the rest of us.