Hey! Could you explain to me why Vil is so insistent on correcting Epel's accent? I haven't gotten to chapter 5 yet but I'd like to understand this, like, why does epel's accent bother him so much?
Hello hello!! ^^ Thank you for this question!
The short, spoiler-free answer is: the way that Epel is used to speaking back home includes something that is particular to the Japanese language, and it might be impossible to translate into English!
Aniplex USA is doing their best with the localization, but a lot is getting lost in translation just because the Japanese language and the English language are so different.
If you don't mind seeing screenshots from Book 5, this also came up back in 2023, and a user from a Scandinavian country (and Epel's hometown can come across as fairly Scandinavia-coded, even borrowing words from the Finnish language) mentioned a similar experience in their own life, which is amazing! (And possibly an influence on the creation of Epel's character and his head-butting with Vil.)
1st: I see some people saying Vil is just correcting Epel because he's swearing a lot?
2nd: I also recall seeing someone say that apparently Epel speaks Tsugaru dialect in Japanese...
3rd: ...Vil trying to teach Epel that it's not about hiding your dialect/culture, it's about being considerate to those around you...
I also recently combined all of the information above into a video ^^
If you'd prefer a spoiler-free explanation, I think it might be summed up best as:
Epel's accent itself is much heavier in the original game than the English-language adaptation, to the point that even JP users are sometimes unable to understand him, because we're not actually supposed to! That is part of Vil's issue: a member of his dorm is essentially speaking in code.
Not maliciously, but this is Epel's first time outside the tight-knit community of a small village, and he is experiencing culture shock as a result.
Epel's accent aside, he is using forms of speech that are inappropriate to use with teachers and upperclassmen (and that don't exist in English). Since everyone back in his village treated him like family (there were no other children his age), he is used to speaking very casually with older people as though they are his equals.
Vil cannot have a member of Pomefiore obliviously insulting the students of not only his own dorm but those of other dorms and the school's faculty. But Epel isn't intentionally being rude--it's just all he knows! So he is rankling at Vil instituting what he sees as frivolous rules, but it is Vil's responsibility as Epel's housewarden to guide him in this new territory. It is not a personal vendetta: it is Vil doing his job!
(An anon in one of the posts listed above mentions how odd it is that Epel's grandmother/parents did not properly prepare him for life outside the village before NRC, which is true! And now the responsibility has fallen to Vil, instead, which neither character is very happy about.)
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