Hi, Audric. Would you be willing to summarize your thoughts on Sasuke Retsuden now that it's fully translated? What did you like the most? What would you change?
I suppose I’ll start with the things that I liked the most in the novel, and I’ll be using bethannie_rose’s translations for the sake of consistency. I really liked how in sync Sasuke and Sakura worked together as a cohesive unit. You could really just tell how well they knew each other based on their interactions and how well they worked off one another. This was something that was very subtle, but a lot of important details regarding their relationship are based on subtly, so it falls in line with what I’ve grown used to. If an outside spectator who didn’t know they were married was tasked with secretly observing them during the mission, they would probably be able to connect the dots just from watching them in action, and how well they complimented each other’s strengths and weaknesses.
That was an overarching theme that I liked, but one small little detail that I also really liked was the parallel regarding how Sasuke thought of Sakura while waiting for the almond tree to bloom, and how Sakura similarly kept a camellia on her desk - her favourite flower, because it reminded her of Sasuke:
That was a nice touch. In times when they’re alone, they both have a particular flower they observe or keep close to themselves to remind them of the other.
Obviously, the fluffy moments were nice, and it was really cool to see Sasuke’s perspective on his absences, and how contrary to inexplicably popular belief, he does in fact get lonely. Everyone always went on and on about how lonely Sakura must have been during Sasuke’s Kaguya mission and how Sasuke left her all alone, and yet for some reason no one ever stopped to think that actually, Sasuke was the one who was all alone in that situation. So for everyone who actually needed a reminder that Sasuke is human, I’m glad they got it. Going on from that, it was nice to hear Sasuke reiterate how proud he is of how hard Sakura works; it really emphasised things that we knew already, but was nice to hear again, like how he is fond of the look in her eyes when she gets serious about her work. This compliments things he has stated about her before, like for example, when Sasuke said during Sasuke Shinden that “[Sakura had] become a ninja people count on” with regards to her medical expertise, and how he said that with some noticeable pride. It was subtle, but this was just one of several examples where it was indicated that Sasuke always knew and liked that Sakura was a very capable Kunoichi, and is proud of how much she helps in the village, much like how proud she is of him for his hard work as the Shadow Hokage.
One nitpick that I had an issue with though, was how in SakuraChart’s translation, it was stated that Sasuke apparently always apologised first:
And I don’t like the implications of that at all. If Sakura is at fault for a disagreement between the two of them, then she should apologise for it first; Sasuke should never feel as though he needs to apologise first by default for every disagreement they have, that’s not right. However, this was not insinuated in bethannie_rose’s translation of the same scene:
And this version is much better. I’m fine with Sasuke conceding defeat in this scenario because Sakura did have a point and it was indeed better that she remained. However, the idea of Sasuke always apologising first and always admitting his faults first isn’t healthy; Sakura needs to know when she’s in the wrong and apologise first accordingly. I’m more inclined to believe that bethannie_rose’s translation is the more accurate one since she had more time to spend on it, and has corrected herself before with regards to the issue of who was crying, so for now I’ll go with her translation and believe that the whole “Sasuke always apologises first” nonsense was a mistranslation.
Another nitpick that I had was just a personal subjective gripe, not really an objective criticism, but I just don’t like it when writers create romantic drama by incorporating a love rival/unwanted suitor/love triangle. Honestly, I think it’s a cheap way to create drama when they’re too unimaginative to use a more creative method. I was more tolerant of the Hinata-Naruto-Sakura-Sasuke love issues because that was a square, and so featured different dynamics. However, I didn’t like the Ino-Sasuke-Sakura triangle in the manga, nor did I like the Naruto-Hinata-Toneri triangle in The Last, and my opinion of the Sasuke-Sakura-Gigi triangle in this novel (regardless of how utterly minor it may have been) was the same. A triangle like the Sakura-Sasuke-Karin one however, was fine with me because not once was there ever any drama between Sakura and Karin over Sasuke, but that can’t be said for the ones that I had issues with. That’s why I had extra appreciation for a couple like Shikamaru and Temari, who were completely free from such tedious drama.
The final nitpick I had was basically just an issue with the wording/translations. Two of them in particular often mislead people into believing that both Sakura and Sasuke were worried about other people potentially hitting on their spouse. Now, I understand that the earliest translation for the scene by the lake in chapter 5 was worded weirdly, but subsequent translations including Organic Dinosaur’s and bethannie_rose’s (seen below) made it very clear to see that Sasuke was not worried about such things at all:
But despite the later translations making it crystal clear, I still often see people misinterpreting this scene and believing that Sasuke was insecure. Similarly, I’ve recently started seeing people believing that Sakura was also being a little insecure during her conversation with Gannou because she said that she was worried about how ignorant Sasuke was with regards to his attractiveness:
Now I know that neither Sakura nor Sasuke are “worried” about any potential unwanted suitors actually getting anywhere with their spouse because they are perfectly aware of how devoted they are to one another. What these scenes were connoting was simply the fact that both of them can get bothered when someone tries to hit on their partner, but they’re never actually worried that those unwanted suitors will succeed in getting anywhere. In my opinion, that was already clear enough, but due to the amount of people I’ve seen misinterpreting both of these scenes, I now wish the wording could have been a little different.
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