TRC Translation Notes Volume 19 (Chapter 141 - 149)
We’re catching up now! Here are the translation notes for Volume 19 by @giniroangou.
Highlights Include: judgement from Kurogane, Lava Lamp’s vague goal, Kurogane’s love advice, Sakura is the full package!, future sight clarifications, setting Lava Lamp free, oops Eagle Vision is still a bit of a dick, interesting Fai choices, the changing future, and clarity on the power level thing!
Chapter 141
Cover page - The official translation is actually correct on this one. Perhaps “The Short-Lived Fugitive” would sound a little better?
p.9 - For some reason they translated it differently, but when Fai quotes Kurogane he is repeating the same line that we saw spoken previously. Funnily though, this was a sentence that Fai started himself, so while he ends up quoting Kurogane as having said, “Sakura-chan is wavering,” the first part of the line was actually his own contribution (hence “Sakura-chan” instead of “The Princess.”)
p.13 - I’d like to point out that the word translated as “wish” is not the same word we tend to see used during Yuuko’s deals. Yuuko grants wishes (“negai”/願い) but Sakura and Fai are talking about desires (“nozomi”/望み). The difference in nuance is subtle enough that “nozomi” can be translated as “wish,” but it doesn’t have as strong a connection to the many other wishes we’ve seen in this series.
p.14 - Mokona is back to saying “Syaoran” with quotation marks when she talks about Lava Lamp. She speculates that he’s fallen asleep right away because he has so many things to worry about. I would interpret her lines at the bottom of the page as a reference to Lava Lamp’s worries rather than Sakura’s, though of course they apply to the entire group.
p.15 - You can remove the “I guess” from Kurogane’s line here - there’s no uncertainty in anything he says on this page.
p.17 - As with all the previous instances regarding Lava Lamp and his goal of protection, there is no pronoun in his original line. He says he’ll protect, and from the context we can guess he’s talking about Sakura, but there’s no clue in the line itself as to who or what he’s talking about.
p.21 - In case you didn’t catch this, Kurogane’s line here is the same one he says back in Acid Tokyo when he’s commenting on Fai and Syaoran both lying. What he actually says in Japanese is “doitsumo koitsumo.” It’s a difficult sentiment to fully capture in English, but it basically indicates that you’re negatively judging a group of people.
Chapter 142
p.25 - The opponent on this page specifically uses the term “good luck” rather than “pure luck,” so Fai is repeating his direct words.
p.32 - Geo doesn’t describe Eagle as the chairman of the tournament, but rather the head of the family that sponsors the tournament. ...which ultimately may amount to the same thing of course.
p.33 - The sound effect beside Kurogane (“piku”/ピク) indicates a twitching movement, implying that he registers Sakura’s response as something surprising or suspicious. While we get twin reaction shots of his face and Fai’s, their reactions end up feeling notably different because of the inclusion of that sound effect.
P.35 - “Jerks” is a bit strong, I’d say. Kurogane says “yatsu,” a rough word usually (but not always) used by men to refer to men. Its tone varies depending on the context - it can be derogatory, neutral, or even affectionate. Here, Kurogane uses the singular form rather than the plural. You could translate his line to specifically relate to Syaoran and Sakura’s situation, as follows: “There’s no way she’s going to know the true feelings of a guy who never says anything no matter how much time passes.” Alternatively, you could translate it in a more general sense as, “There’s no way to know the true feelings of a guy who never says anything no matter how much time passes.”
p.36 - Kurogane continues to use rough language, but it’s not as openly hostile as it is in the translation. I feel like they just took all the subtext of these lines and pulled it out into the open. His original line is more like, “Don’t just assume that if you keep silent no one will know something’s going on.” This helps explain why Lava Lamp seems relatively unfazed, and also gives a different nuance to Fai’s reaction.
p.37 - Eagle tells Sakura, “Your manners are perfect too.” SHE IS THE FULL PACKAGE.
p.38 - That “piku” sound effect comes back on this page, this time for Sakura - again, it’s a way to show sudden increased attention or surprise without a major physical reaction. Here it’s in response to Eagle mentioning that Sakura comes from another dimension.
Chapter 143
p.43 - When Yuuko asks if Sakura is serious, it’s more of a confirmation than a question. Then what’s been translated as Sakura saying she wants to go alone was originally, “I’m going alone.”
p.45 - What Clow told Sakura was not about responsibility but about possibility - “You can choose your future,” or in a more general sense, “Futures can be chosen.”
p.46 - Again, Yuuko isn’t fully questioning here. It’s more like she’s saying, “So you had that power too.” You could go either way on whether this is new information to her or not, but if it is something she didn’t know, it doesn’t appear to be unexpected. She also doesn’t say anything about dreams in the original text - she just refers to Sakura’s ability as “the power to see the future.”
Sakura says that Yukito can see important events that will affect the future, not that he sees everything.
p.47 - Sakura’s last lines here were mistranslated. She says, “If it’s going to turn out like that future I caught a glimpse of, I’ll part from them.” (The last word on the page is “wakaremasu”/“to part from” not “wakarimasu”/“I know”)
p.48 - I interpreted Sakura’s line a bit differently, to be, “I’ll find him… and I’ll choose a different future than the one I saw back then.” It’s a question of whether “at that moment” refers to the future that she saw or to finding Syaoran, and its placement in the sentence could connect it to either, but she says “ano toki” rather than “sono toki” which distances it from the first part of the sentence so… I’m thinking this is what it’s supposed to be. Of course, this still implies that finding him is a key to choosing a different future, it’s just not necessarily the deciding key.
p.50 - This is a bit more clear in the Japanese wording, but Eagle is basically saying that he doesn’t need Sakura to tell him anything because it’s in the nature of secrets to leak out, so he assumes he’ll get the answer eventually anyway.
p.59 - This line is a lot more open to interpretation in its original form. You could read it as a full sentence, “From now on, be free…” or as the start of a sentence, “From now on, freely…” This could be a request for Lava Lamp to stop feeling bound to her or it could be a request that he allow Sakura her freedom. The context points heavily towards the former though.
Chapter 144
p.64 - Instead of just “From now on,” Sakura says, “This very moment, and from now on.” She wants to make sure Fai knows her request starts RIGHT NOW.
p.70 - This lines come off a bit weird in the translation, like Sakura is talking about Syaoran as someone Lava Lamp doesn’t know anything about, and then a second later treating him and Lava Lamp as the same person. This was not originally the case. I would change “one” in Sakura’s first line to “the one” or “the person,” and then when she says that she’s caused pain and hardship, she starts by saying, “For you too.”
This scene also marks the first time we see Sakura use casual language when speaking to Lava Lamp.
p.75 - Eagle’s lines are a little different here. They were originally, “Those weapons aren’t what you’ve always used, are they? Why don’t you fight with the weapon you’re most skilled at? I’ll permit you to use magic or whatever too.”
p.81 - “Automata” is written with the kanji for “mechanical human” (機械人間) but the reading is given in katakana as “automata.” I would actually interpret Eagle’s line as, “Didn’t you have any of these in your world?” I feel like it’s still meant to come off as kind of condescending though.
Chapter 145
p.99 - Yuuko tells Sakura the price would be too high for her to visit any world she’s been to before: “For example, Clow Kingdom or any of the worlds you’ve passed through.” Clow is the only one she names because it was Sakura’s starting point rather than a world she passed through, but it’s certainly not the only world with a steep return price.
p.101 - A little adjustment in nuance: Yuuko says that for Sakura who hasn’t yet retrieved all of her memories, her luck is practically the only weapon she has to defend herself, so if she offers that up as a price she will have nothing left to protect her in the next world.
p.102 - The difference between “alone” and “isolation” is expressed in the Japanese text through the kanji. Both times Yuuko uses the word “hitori” but the first time the kanji is 一人, representing “one person,” and the second time it’s 独り, meaning “alone.”
Chapter 146
p.106 - Yuuko’s use of “we” here was a weird translation thing. There are no pronouns in her sentence, but it can be assumed she’s just speaking for herself.
p.110 - I am mystified by the little movement(?) arrow in the bottom right panel - it’s definitely not in the version I have.
p.119 - A small correction to Fai’s lines - he’d thought it would be all right earlier, but now there’s no time left anymore.
p.120 - Fai’s original line wasn’t about staying in Celes, but about staying in the same world for too long in general: “If I keep staying in the same world and end up meeting the awoken Ashura-ou, I’ll…” He’s thinking about his impending potential fate rather than one he’s already avoided. With these adjustments to the last couple pages, I would guess that Fai was ready to start running again under his own power and Kurogane sensed it so he grabbed Fai’s arm to keep him there.
Chapter 148
p.144-145 - You can’t tell from the translated version, but Sakura and Lava Lamp are operating at totally different emotional levels here (at least outwardly.) Sakura’s lines don’t have any punctuation at all (no exclamation points!) and her first line starts with an ellipsis (“.... Let go”).
p.152 - Big correction to this page: “But one day, if someone appears before you who surpasses the reason why the two of you were restrained in separate places all this time, that enormous magical power, you will…”
p.153 - Ashura’s line could be interpreted as a reference to multiple worlds, but on a more human level it means, “I’ve come for you, because there’s more to the world than this place.”
Chapter 149
p.168 - I believe Yuuko is describing Chii and Freya as resonating with each other rather than the feathers. Yuuko then explains that the the two feathers together contain enough magical power to surpass Fai’s halved power.
p.169 - I would put Yuuko’s line here in present tense: “The chances are one in two.” It’s not over yet!
p.174-175 - Again, there are no exclamation points on any of Sakura’s lines on these pages (or on the last page of this chapter for that matter.) There’s emphasis using bold or larger text, but I feel like the nuance is quite different. Also, her final line is, “Don’t forget, from now on the future can be changed.” That “from now on” is “kore kara mo,” indicating that she’s already succeeded in changing the future, and it’s something they can continue to do.