Hi! I’ll be writing my reaction rambles after reading a few Magi volumes in JP.
Thanks to Bas, the leader of the fan-scanlation group Project Vinland, and a mutual of mine who’s big in the scanlation community, I got access to Magi’s JP Raws.
Viz’s official English translation of Magi is fine for the most part, in terms of translation quality.
I’ll be putting Sense Scans’ EN fan-TL and Viz’s EN official TL here for reference.
Since I don’t see the need to re-translate lines that both the fan-TL and official TL already translated correctly.
I love the prose that Sense Scans uses in their Magi fan-scanlation.
For certain lines, though, I’ll also be putting the literal translation (from my head).
My beloved JuAli 🖤❤️💛🐈⬛☀️
Wanted to ramble about them!
Judar’s pronouns
俺 (Ore, “I”) - Casual, informal, rude. Mainly used by men.
お前/おまえ (Omae, “You”) - Casual, informal, rude. Mainly used by men.
Notes:
Judar’s first-person pronoun is 俺 (Ore, “I”). Judar’s second-person pronouns is おまえ (Omae, “You”)
Judar uses the very casual and informal, rude, masculine pronouns 俺 (Ore, “I”) and おまえ (Omae, “You”). He uses the kanji version of 俺 (Ore, “I") as his first-person pronoun, and interchangeably uses the kanji and hiragana versions of お前/おまえ (Omae, “You”) as his second-person pronoun.
In the Kou Empire arc, he mainly uses the hiragana version of おまえ (Omae, “You”)
He speaks pretty casually and informally. He uses colloquial particles (shortens verb conjugation endings) sometimes.
Extra Notes:
In “Role Language” (役割語, Yakuwarigo), fictional characters’ dialects — the usage of pronouns, particles, etc., conveys character traits such as gender, age, class, and levels of formality, etc.
俺/おれ/オレ (Ore) is an informal first-person pronoun, and very rough version of “I” almost exclusively used by males in casual (informal) situations.
俺 (Ore) tends to be used by characters who are very rough, casual, vulgar, sleazy, in a position of power, and/or, just very manly/masculine.
お前/おまえ/オマエ (Omae) is a very rough second-person pronoun for “You” usually used by males in casual (informal) situations. Usually only used between close friends IRL. It has an aggressive and rude edge when not used between friends. Also used to speak down to others from a higher position.
Arrogant characters (including arrogant royals), tend to lean into using more rough, casual masc pronouns such as 俺 (Ore) and お前 (Omae), such as Xanxus (KHR), Kuroha/Saeru (KagePro), Judar (Magi), Edward (ROTRK), Vegeta (DBZ), Enzan (MMBN/EXE), etc., since they’re in positions of authority and/or high status, and look down on others.
Many of my favourite characters, such as Judar (Magi), Xanxus (KHR), Kuroha (KagePro), Enzan (MMBN/EXE), Edward (ROTRK), and many more, have very rough and masculine speech patterns in JP. All of the characters I listed here also use 俺 (Ore) and お前 (Omae) as their main pronouns.
It’s very typical of rude and arrogant masc characters to lean into using them. Characters who are casual/informal and masculine in general, also tend to lean into using them.
Whether a character uses the kanji or hiragana or katakana versions (or combination) as their pronouns could be used to give off a certain nuance. But it depends on the character and context.
(I actually copied these notes from my XanLena dialogue scripts cuz I don’t feel like writing all of that again. I’ll post more of my KHR AU stuff reventually!)
How he refers to others:
Alibaba:
アリババくん (Aribaba-kun, “Alibaba-kun”)
アリババ (Aribaba, “Alibaba”)
ハニワ (Haniwa, “Clay doll”)
Sinbad:
シンドバッド (Shindobaddo, “Sinbad”)
バカ殿 (Baka tono, “Idiot king”)
Note: 殿 (tono, “feudal lord”)
Hakuryuu:
白龍 (Hakuryuu, “Hakuryuu”)
Aladdin:
アラジン (Arajin, “Aladdin”)
チビ (Chibi, "Runt; squirt; pipsqueak")
Judar's Usage of Particles:
の (no) - Sentence ending particle. Can be used to soften a sentence.
な/なあ (na/naa) - Sentence ending particle. Masculine, usually used by men.
ね/ねえ (ne/nee) - Sentence ending particle. Can be used to soften a sentence. [X]
よ (yo) - Sentence ending particle. Often used to soften a sentence.
ぜ (ze) - Sentence ending particle. Rude, rough, informal, masculine, used to add emphasis. Slightly softer than the sentence ending particle ぞ (zo). Usually used by men.
んだ (nda) - Sentence ending particle, used to add emphasis. Casual/informal version.
んだよ (nda yo) - See above, but it adds the nuance of trying to give a new perspective to the listener that they don’t have. [X]
だ (da) - Sentence ending particle. Masculine, forceful, used for emphasis.
だろ (daro) - Sentence ending particle. Masculine, forceful, used for emphasis.
じゃん (Jyan) - Casual colloquial of じゃない (Jyanai) → Has the nuance of “Isn’t it?” and “Actually.” Makes the sentence softer.
Ex. いるんだ (irunda)
んだ (nda) has a casual nuance. He uses colloquial particles.
Not a comprehensive list, but ones I’ve noticed so far. I’ll probably edit the section about his usage of particles later since I still need to check them
Judar often shortens verb conjugations in his casual/informal speech style.
Characters like Judar, Xanxus, (and Enzan occasionally) use shortened verb conjugations, colloquials (casual forms) of verbs. This is very typically masc. Rougher masc charas often do this
I checked Magi: Vol. 27 - 28 in JP, and it seems like Judar consistently calls him "Alibaba" without an honorific and uses the pronoun おまえ (Omae, “You”) for him, in their interactions on the Dark Continent in the Kou Empire arc.
In the Kou Empire arc, Judar mainly calls him “Alibaba” (アリババ)
I included “Alibaba-kun” (アリババくん) because I saw Judar use that for Alibaba in Ohtaka's doodles.
It does make me curious how Judar referred to Alibaba, pre-Kou Empire arc (if he even referred to him by name before the Kou Empire arc). I would have to check...
In my JuAli AU and own HCs, I would have Judar use "Alibaba-kun" pre-Kou Empire arc, and then have him drop the honorific and just use "Alibaba" in the Kou Empire arc once they're finally closer.
In manga canon, since the Kou Empire arc is when the two finally begin to understand each other, Judar has become more casual and comfortable with him now.
Other Rambles
Ok I got a lot more to say about this, but I'll put in another post.
My friend Cinna was right, Viz has a tendency to absolutely butcher characters' unique speech styles and make everyone sound the same in their TLs.
Like Alibaba noticeably has a more mature and humble tone, and it's especially noticeable in his interactions with Judar in the Kou Empire arc.
Viz's prose honestly annoys me sometimes. The Viz version has Alibaba be a lot less empathetic towards Judar, even though he's supposed to be an empathetic character.
The wording of "You're pathetic! But you used to be cocky!" just has very different implications and comes off differently.
I can understand shortening the dialogue so it fits in the speech bubbles, but sometimes half the sentence's context just goes missing too, which is kinda annoying.
I understand the context SO much better with the fan-TL.
Magi: Vol. 27 - Ch. 266
JP (Original)
Page 1
Judar: Huh?
ジュダル：ふう～ん？
(Judaru: Fuu~n?)
...
Judar: (I don't understand what this guy is saying at all!)
ジュダル：（こいつのいってること、サッパリわからないぜ！）
(Judaru: Koitsu no itteru koto, sappari wakaranai ze!)
...
Judar: (Geez, why did Aladdin choose this guy!?)
ジュダル：（まったく、アラジンはなぜこんな奴を選んだんだ！？）
(Judaru: Mattaku, Arajin wa naze konna yatsu wo eranda nda!?)
...
Judar: (And Hakuryuu too. Just what about this guy that charmed him so much…………)
ジュダル：（白龍だってそうだ。こんな奴の、一体どこにそんなにひかれて…………）
(Judaru: Hakuryuu datte sou da. Konna yatsu no, ittai doko ni sonna ni hikarete…………)
Note: Comes from the verb 惹かれる (hikareru, “to be charmed by; to be attracted to; to be taken with; to be drawn to”)
Page 2
Judar: That's right, just what about Alibaba charmed Aladdin and Hakuryuu enough to make them so fixated with him?
(Judaru: Souda, Arajin to Hakuryuu wa, Aribaba no ittai nani ni sonna ni hikarete, anna ni kodawatteita nda?)
Note: Te-ita form verb conjugation. Comes from the verb 拘る (kodawaru, “to be obsessive (about); to be overly concerned (with); to be hung up (on); to be fixated with”)
...
Judar: (I just don't understand.)
ジュダル：（俺にはわからないぜ。）
(Judaru: Ore ni wa wakaranai ze.)
Fan-TL (Sense Scans)
Official TL (Viz)
I get both JuAli and AliHaku crumbs from Judar’s monologue about Alibaba. Isn’t that amazing? ^v^
I already talked about this scene plenty before, so I won't copy paste the same rambles from before.
Fan-TL is spot on with this ^^
Viz removes the first mention of "Charmed/Attracted" in the 1st page, but at least keeps it in the 2nd page.
I think the gist is kept, but the original and fan-TL are more explicit and obvious about it.
"That's right, what about Alibaba charmed them so much to make them so fixated with him?"
...
I noticed that in the last sentence, Judar's 何 (nani, "what") has a dot in place of furigana (characters that denote the pronunciation of a word, or add a certain nuance to the text).
This is called 圏点 (kenten, "emphasis mark") or 傍点 (bouten, "emphasis mark").
This is used for emphasis, similar to how English uses underlines or italics or bold for emphasis.
It has an emphatic nuance. It's used to add emphasis on a word. Typical manga fonts used in official localizations have all words in capital letters, so Ig in this case, bold or italics could convey this kind of nuance.
...
The equivalent in English would be something like this:
(Capital letters)
Judar: That's right, just WHAT about Alibaba charmed Aladdin and Hakuryuu enough to make them so fixated with him?
Or this
(Bold)
Judar: That's right, just what about Alibaba charmed Aladdin and Hakuryuu enough to make them so fixated with him?
Or this
(Italics)
Judar: That's right, just what about Alibaba charmed Aladdin and Hakuryuu enough to make them so fixated with him?
Or this
(Underline)
Judar: That's right, just what about Alibaba charmed Aladdin and Hakuryuu enough to make them so fixated with him?
...
Oooooh you're stumped by it!!!
Alibaba's charm points of what drew others to him...
You wanna know so bad, huh?
I think I got more to say in general about this scene, but I wrote enough for now ^^
You already get the point 👍
Other Notes
Me: Some of Viz’s spellings are just weird to me, like them translating Magnostadt as a direct romanization → Magnoshutatt
Magnostadt (マグノシュタット, Magunoshutatto)
For some reason???
...
Friend: God bless you Sen 😭💓💓 This is all really fascinating to read
Me: You're welcome! English is so BORING to me as a language when it comes to things like this, because everyone sounds the same. You're either normal or you're cowboy. Yeehaw /lh
I love how languages like Vietnamese and Japanese can express things like character traits and personality, etc., in speech.
I love how it can convey the "vibes" that a character gives off right away, just from their speech style/patterns.
Vietnam has a lot of dialects and speech quirks! The main ones are the North, South, and Central Vietnamese dialects. And they have many variants depending on the area
Yakuwarigo ("Role Language"), fictional characters' dialects/speech styles in Japanese, is SOOO interesting, and English doesn't have a proper equivalent for it.
This is part of why I wanted to learn Japanese. THIS conveys things like character traits and different speech styles SO MUCH more.
Also keep in mind that I’m doing these quick literal TLs quickly based on my interpretation of the text, and that I’m still learning JP, so I can make mistakes 🙏
If you notice any, feel free to correct me!
Resources
If you’d like to learn more about Japanese pronouns in an IRL context, see these links:
Yakuwarigo
Links
Nouns & Pronouns 名詞と代名詞 ※From this point forward, r…
Japanese particles
Written by Let’s Learn Japanese
Original Post
Final particles in Japanese appear at the end of a sentence and are used to express shock, a
んだ and its variants such as んです add an explanatory feel to a sentence. It’s often used to provide information in order to fill the gap of un
Do note that Role Language in fiction can differ partially and/or a lot from usage in IRL contexts.
In fictional characters’ dialects, 貴方/あなた (Anata, “You”) is considered a neutral or polite/formal pronoun (depending on the context)
IRL, it’s rude to call someone with 貴方/あなた (Anata, “You”) because “it sounds accusatory to pound the listener with ‘You’ every sentence”
Emphasis Marks
Potential spoilers for readers of Jojo, but in the top-left-hand corner of this picture there are dots above the word こいつ.
Why do some mang
Sometimes in mangas there are points where you would expect normally furigana. What meaning is it supposed to have?
My recent Judar & JuAli themed merch haul 🖤❤️💛🐈⬛☀️🌙
I'M SOOOO HAPPY I HAVE MERCH OF MY MAGI OTP 🥰💞💖🌟✨ I LOVE THEM WITH MY WHOLE HEART!!! 💗💘💞
JuAli means the world to me so I'm insanely happy 😭💓 The beloveds...
Magi: Official Merch
Magi Kuji Merch: JuAli Mini bromide 🖤❤️💛
When I was looking around for Judar's merch, I just knew I had to get the Magi Kuji merch with the JuAli illust 💞 This illust in general is so cherished by me since it's my biggest food.
It's a mini bromide so it's small. I try to collect as much of my OTPs as possible (within reason, of course)
JuAli (Judar/Alibaba) chibi holographic stickers by Ohtaka 🖤❤️💛
Koubun chibi holographic sticker by Ohtaka
The holographic glowy effect on the stickers is sooo pretty. I never use stickers and always keep them for archival purposes.
Ohtaka's chibi arts are already up online, but I wanna scan these for fun too. I need HD arts of my OTP!!
It's all sparkly and has a pretty rainbow lighting effect 🏳️🌈🌈
2nd pic shows the holographic effect more!
Magi Manga: Judar and Aladdin illust by Ohtaka
Most Magi illusts have already been scanned online, but I also wanna scan stuff from my own personal collection, just for fun too. Eventually.
Magi Manga: Hakuryuu, Aladdin, Alibaba, and Judar Illust by Ohtaka
Magi: Judar chibi acrylic stand 🖤❤️🐈⬛
I LOVE YOU JUDAR SKRUNKLY!!! ❤️🖤🐈⬛✨
The snarky ass grin on this one is so cute... Widdle gremlin. My black cat son 🐈⬛
I also have the rubber strap charm version of this from a previous package, but they made miscoloured his eyes as pure white instead of red, wtf 😭
Still cute tho!
Magi: Judar, Hakuryuu, Sinbad, and Hakuei rubber strap charms
This one was sold in a batch. I was aiming for those Judar charms specifically but getting the others is also a steal. Hehehe ^^
Iirc Magi manga Judar has red eyeshadow/eyeliner while Magi anime Judar has purple eyeshadow/eyeliner. Cute that it's included here
Magi: Judar's Third Eye Rubber Strap Charm
Why is his hair purple in this??? 😭
Maybe a misprint? Idk.
Magi: Judar, Serendine, Kouen, and Drakon Rubber Strap Charms
Realized I haven't posted my merch hauls, so I figured I'd post 2 big merch hauls I got recently. I opened these back in November.
The merch packages were a combination of my main interests (FGO, Magi, KHR, KagePro) and also my secondary interests (ROTRK)
But I can only post 30 images, so they'll be (mostly) separated by fandom. I sometimes take pics that show the whole package, but this post will be Magi centric.
Posting these cuz I just realized I haven't posted my merch hauls here
Prepare for the biggest merch spam ever.
Tumblr also doesn't let me post the full size images due to the limit, so I need to split this into parts.
Just writing down the date I took these pics so I can remember which ones I haven't posted yet
A lot of secondhand sellers sell merch in batches. So along with the Judar merch, I got a lot of other charas on the side too
I was aiming specifically for Judar + JuAili themed merch 🖤❤️💛💞💗
Gonna have to retake pictures sometime cuz I dislike the lighting on my pics at night, but I took pics of my merch!
It's not much different from morning lightning tho. Just has a slightly yellow tint due to the bright lights in my room
I'm super happy about my JuAli merch collection 🥰💗
I have around 15+ JuAli doujins. They're old doujins I bought from secondhand sellers. I'm planning to translate them eventually! Whenever I have the time.
Idk the exact number, I'm just guessing since I put some doujins in different storage boxes in my room.
I've only taken pics so far, I haven't scanned them yet.
Also, since I'm greedy- Judal and Alibaba with 28: This is why we can't have nice things
Title: Gaming the SystemSeries: MagiCharacters: Judal and AlibabaWarnings: modern AU, implications of magic, Judal’s potty mouthSummary: [T] Judal has dreams of using his magic to run a big time scam, but for now he's starting small with Alibaba and carnival games.[read on AO3] [fanfiction.net]
important question unrelated to the actual plot of this fanfic: when will more people write Judal & Alibaba friendship because lemme tell you, I love it and want to see more!!!!!
【Magi】 JuAli AU: Judar boasts about leaving hickies on Alibaba 🖤❤️💛
(CW: Suggestive mentions, shitpost)
Thought about a JuAli scenario where Morgiana asks Alibaba why there’s marks on his skin and Judar boasts about leaving hickies on Alibaba, acting on sheer spite and pettyness and jealousy.
Morgiana asks Alibaba why there’s marks (hickies) on his skin. Because of a certain someone... 🐈⬛🌙
Don’t take it too seriously. I just wrote it as a lighthearted comedy scenario cuz it’d be funny to imagine the others reacting to JuAli’s relationship.
Judar is such a high maintenance bf... Cat that needs lots of care and attention.
He sees Morgiana, a person that he recognizes as Alibaba’s loyal companion and friend, who is always around him… and acts out on his tsun tsun possessiveness.
This is honestly the funniest way that the “reveal” could happen LMFAO
I just got reminded that Morgiana can find people via their scent.
Morgiana just wonders why she can smell the scent of that weird ass guy from the Kou Empire (Judar) on her friend (Alibaba)
Another one for the bag of “Evil Sen-core meow meow mf character is a hoe/manwhore who gets easily jealous/possessive, wants to leave marks/hickies on their S/O, doesn’t care if any marks their S/O leaves on them are seen, as long as their intimacy isn't interrupted”
I imagine that when Judar first gets to know Alibaba in my HCs, he goes on trysts with him on the nights of full moons, and also plays childish games like “DODGE ICE SHARDS” where Judar just flings ice shards (made with his ice magic) at Alibaba while he flies and chases him 🧊❄️
Judar is genuinely seeking weird kind of entertainment from being an asshole lmao
"Play with me, Alibaba! Don't bore me just yet!"
Dialogue Scripts (WIP)
Magi: Ch. 134 & Ch. 199
Magi: Ch. 37 & Ch. 46
Magi: Ch. 199
Magi: Ch. 111 & Ch. 71
Magi: Ch. 122
Magi: Ch. 200 & Ch. 134
Magi: Ch. 203 & Ch. 266 - 267
Rambles
Y: HELPPPPP SEN
Me: He’s so obnoxious (/affectionate)
Someone get his ass!!!
Poor Mor getting subjected to these two's shenanigans
Also I know Judar can easily make a barrier (especially when he does it even early on) but ngl it's so much funnier this way 😭
You can interpret this scenario as either taking place post-Kou Empire arc (where it’d be much easier for them to settle into a relationship), or pre-Kou Empire arc where they’re still technically enemies (so they still have hostile tension, but Judar comes to see him every now and then, on trysts)
I think it makes more sense as the 1st scenario, considering the lines of Alibaba wanting to wait for the right moment to announce them being a couple, and also since they’d be much more willing to get closer and understand each other better post-Kou Empire arc. And
Judar is a lot more comfortable with him here and so snarky confident in my little scenario here.
In the 2nd scenario, where this takes place pre-Kou Empire arc, it’s just so funny to imagine them still getting intimate when Judar is still his “enemy” at that point LMFAO.
I imagine that they’d get intimate with each other and have a “situationship” type of relationship, but wouldn’t be in an “official” established relationship yet.
So I added some potential lines and marked them with a (~) if you assume it takes place with the 2nd scenario.
I prefer to see Alibaba and Morgiana’s dynamic as platonic. They’re besties to me.
There's a bit of implied KouMor here ^^
If this takes place pre-Kou Empire arc, Morgiana’s just gonna be wondering, wtf, was he (Judar) in the vicinity??? Or worse, did he try to attack Alibaba???
Judar spots Alibaba and Kougyoku making flower crowns, so Alibaba makes a flower crown for Judar. After being given a gift of bouquets (sunflowers) by Alibaba, Judar asks Kougyoku later what flowers to get as a return gift 🌻💐
I quickly wrote it this morning. I forgot to post this writing idea I had whoops 😭
Judar and Alibaba's friendships with Kougyoku is everything to me
I've always wanted to write about the 3 of them together~ JuAli with their bestie Kougyoku hehe
Judar, Kougyoku, and Alibaba sketch by Ohtaka
Flower Symbolisms
If you haven't seen it, feel free to check out my Flower Symbolisms post:
Tumblr. Pure effervescent enrichment. Old internet energy. Home of the Reblogs. All the art you never knew you needed. All the fandoms you c
PW: meowmeowcollection
I'll put it here nonetheless, but it contains the context for my scenario idea
JuAli Scenario Idea
This is gonna be new from me, usually I post just the dialogue script itself and my rambles under, but since I wrote this quickly, this is gonna be a combination of my rambles + dialogue ideas
It's a huge WIP so I still have to add to it
As said before, JudaAli (ジュダアリ) is the Magi JP fandom's main ship name for them. It also has a cute sounding ring to it~ I've seen JuAli (ジュアリ) used a bit in the JP fandom.
I like typing the shorter one, it makes my life easier HAHA
Due to the common "First few characters of each characters' name is used and combined as a ship portmanteau" ship naming convention in EA fandom
Though sometimes, other characters may be chosen for better aesthetics.
Kougyoku my wife <333
I also want to write more of her in general too when I get the time
The idea came to mind yesterday. I'd love to draw this sometime in the future (not now cuz I'm slow)
Since I wrote it quickly, it's not as refined as my other ideas. So it's a mix of my rambles and bits of dialogue I came up with
Hopefully I'll get to refine & add to it soon 👍
Huge rough draft WIPs
Just wanted to get the ideas down so I don't forget
I thought about it recently when I was coming up with flower picks for my faves based on Hanakotoba meanings
In terms of meaning, I chose red hydrangeas and sunflowers for JuAli 💐🌻
They also fit colours wise and thematically too!
Also for the Flower Symbolisms post. I'm still planning to add more flower picks for JuAli eventually 🙏
I had a list of potential ideas in my rough drafts, I just need to check them over and see which ones are good
Since I spend time looking at Hanakotoba meanings and seeing if my interpretations align, specifically how I interpret the Hanakotoba meanings in JP). I also check JP florists' blogs to see other popular/common interpretations that may not be included on the Hanakotoba official site
