Billy Kane
According to All About SNK Fighting Games 1991-2000, Billy's nationality in FF2 was American. He only changed to English in Special. Does this mean that his outfit is just being a really obnoxious tourist?
Manual
Fighter title
| My translation | Arcade translation | SNES translation |
|---|---|---|
| The Bojutsu Fighter Burning with Vengeance | The Vengeful Pole Pounder | Cudgel Master |
Arcade translation sourced from The Arcade Flyer Archive, SNES translation from the manual on the Internet Archive.
...
So I'm pretty sure a native speaker was involved with the FFS translation. I'm definitely sure a native speaker did the arcade flyer. TMNT had been on the air for six years by the time FFS came along, so the entire target demographic would've had a decent idea of what a bo was. And even if they didn't, there's a perfectly good English word for "long stick you hit people with" (staff).
The innuendo was intentional, is what I'm saying.
They stick with it, too, this shit goes on straight up to Real Bout and possibly beyond. Honestly, I'm kind of in awe of "pole pounder". That's downright inspired. And terrible. But inspired. Like, it's not a great way to make Billy seem like an actual threat...but in terms of "sounding like something from an actual American cartoon" and "getting crap past the radar" it's great.
And there was no way they were risking that against Nintendo, especially with how much Monolith was toning everything else down. Oh well.
Quote
| My translation (FFS) | SNES FFS | Sega CD FFS |
|---|---|---|
| Get ready, Bogard brothers - this time, I'll defeat you once and for all! | Watch your backs, Bogards -- I won't be showing mercy this time! | Remember what they say, the third time's a charm. Your time is up! |
SNES manual from the Internet Archive, Sega CD from Sega Retro.
The SNES translation is pretty close to the Japanese, really. The Japanese connotation is "prepare yourself to lose", while the English is a bit more generically threatening, but it's very close either way.
I have no idea what the Sega CD is doing. I guess the idea is that Special is the third time Billy has faced the Bogards? But it has nothing to do with the Japanese.
Fatal Fury Special
Normal intro
| My translation | Official translation (FF2) | Official translation (FFS) |
|---|---|---|
| It’s been a while. Taste my powered up bojutsu. | Nice to meet you again! Try my powered up art of stick. | Eat my power pole, pansy. A nice treat after a long separation. |
Translation provided by Upthorn! Thank you!
See? SEE?
Okay, let's start with the Japanese. The "it's been awhile" is a pretty standard phrase, and would probably be edited a bit to better match Billy's character if we were doing this for real. "Powered-up bojutsu" suggests to me that he's just learned how to keep a tight grip on his staff since FF1, but it could also refer to mixing in a sansetsukon. Probably meant to be both.
Meanwhile FF2's translation is astoundingly literal, even for FF2. "Nice to meet you again!" came straight out of a phrasebook, I guarantee it. "Art of stick" is also a straight up literal reading of the kanji for bojutsu. It's a pretty good example of a low-effort translation.
Which makes the jump to Special stand out all the more. It's clearly been edited and rephrased to sound better, and making the characters talk tough actually works out in Billy's favor. It helps that "pansy" is one of the SNKglish insults that doesn't sound completely out-of-place, and it adds some charming alliteration to the line. They even riffed on the "eat" to make the "it's been awhile" sound better.
The problem is that the rest of the game and the innuendo primes the player to think it's just weird Engrish instead of actually a fairly well-localized line. I know my first reaction was more "did...did they know how that sounds?" than anything else. It took comparing with FF2 and looking at the arcade flyer before I decided that yes, they knew exactly how it sounds and did it on purpose.
(I still kind of object to "power pole" on general principle, but you know, at least it was on purpose)
| SNES (FF2) | Genesis (FF2) | SNES (FFS) |
|---|---|---|
| Long time no see! Gonna try your luck against me, huh? | Didn't you get enough last time? Now I'll give you a lesson in "Stick" Fighting that you won't forget! | A nice treat after a long seperation. |
I had to split these out because as you can see, every single home port handles the line differently. They knew I was coming.
In fact, all the subbosses change their intro lines between the Genesis and the SNES. It's very strange, since otherwise the only real difference between the scripts is Andy's goddess of victory running into the NoA content guidelines. They're not any different from the Neo Geo lines in Japanese, so I have no idea what happened. The SNES ones are generally more different, but that could mean a lot of things.
The Genesis version is the most accurate, with an expansion of the original line that still sounds goofy, but you can tell what they were going for. "Didn't you get enough last time?" is strange, but I can see how someone trying to fix the Neo Geo translation would get there. The SNES version changes the "Nice to meet you again!" into another phrasebook line - not sure why, it doesn't seem to be character limitations. I don't know where the second sentence comes from and it's not accurate to the Japanese at all, but at least it sort of sounds like something a boss would say.
Meanwhile Monolith cuts out the innuendo and makes the line completely nonsensical. Good job.
Normal win
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| That's it? You're not good enough to be my opponent. | Oh, man! My grandmother with arthritis is more of a match than you! |
I wonder if anyone actually thought Billy had a grandmother because of this line.
This is another just straight up well-done line. It gets the message across, it sounds like something someone would actually say, it just works.
They really put the effort into lines they thought players would see the most often.
Intro vs Geese
| My translation | Official translation | SNES |
|---|---|---|
| Fighting you is like a dream come true. | Wow! I've always dreamed of kicking your butt. | I've always dreamed of defeating you. |
Something to note here is that Billy doesn't speak in particularly respectful way to Geese here, even in Japanese. That's something that only starts in Real Bout. Here he's just in his normal speaking pattern, which is a pretty standard rough-and-tumble punk type.
He sounds a lot more aggressive to Geese in English, though. Maybe I'm missing something, maybe it got punched up. It's a pretty dangerous thing to say to your boss either way...
Kicking butt: too saucy for Nintendo.
Win vs Geese
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Looks you've gotten pretty rusty. | Your time is over. Your fighting is like a rusted crane. |
You can very literally read this as "your arm (skill) has rusted through". The fansite powering most of these efforts theorizes it might be a reference to the same Gamest manga Media came from, which in addition to giving Terry a girlfriend, made Geese a robot and also Krauser Souther from Fist of the North Star. It's super fucking nuts and I kind of love it. I have no way to prove anything, but SNK tossed Media in FF2, they might've slipped another joke in there for Special.
Anyway, Billy is, again, more aggressive in English. I'm not sure what the hell "your fighting is like a rusted crane" is supposed to mean, though. Like...a crane like construction equipment, or like the waterfowl? Is this a bird pun or an incoherent heavy machinery insult? I don't think it's a 90s pop culture reference, which is usually my first guess for stuff I don't understand here.
See my earlier point about concentrating on lines the players would see most often...
Intro vs Billy
| My translation | Official translation | SNES |
|---|---|---|
| The real Billy will be your opponent. | OK. No more Mister Niceguy. Eat my pole! | OK. No more Mister Niceguy. |
Yeah, they're really consistent about going for the innuendo. The Japanese line is a pretty standard doppelganger line, and I'm sure they could've thought of a way to punch it up as it was. Instead they go for one of the few cases of just making shit up in FFS.
So "OK, no more Mr. Nice Guy" seems to date from around the the 1970s. The attribution I saw was to Nixon. It's been hanging around in American culture since then, so again, SNK was really trying to add some local flavor to their translations. The only problem is that...it doesn't really fit here. You usually say it after you've been pushed too far or something, but here it's just coming out of nowhere. I guess Billy's mad about being imitated?
Obviously telling someone to eat your pole is too saucy for Nintendo.
Intro vs Krauser
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| I'll take your life now. | Yes, my friend. I will cure you of the disease called life. |
The "cure you of the disease called life" phrasing is borrowed from Art of Fighting, where it was one of Mr. Karate's win quotes. (this was actually what made me decide to take another look at AoF, which I had written off as too straightforward to bother) SNK reused phrases a lot, which helped give their translations a consistent feel. Given the consistency across different translator voices, I'm starting to wonder if there was some sort of SNKglish style guide...or just one really dedicated editor. (I have since decided it was an editor)
I can't track "disease called life" down to anything more than wry jokes. It's not a hard one to come up with, but I also wouldn't be surprised if the translator had heard it somewhere before.
...honestly, Billy calling Krauser a friend is weirdest to me, even if it's sarcastic. All the phrasing sounds strangely formal.
This line was not changed in the SNES version for some reason. After cutting Billy talking about kicking Geese's butt I'd expect this to get dropped like a hot potato, but no, it's right there. Very strange.
Ending
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| I've become the strongest in the world! Now what the hell do I do? | I'm the strongest in the world! Now what? |
This is why you always aim for second place, you fool!
Anyway, this is pretty straight. They probably could've fit more characters into the space available, but they're not really needed. It was probably just edited down more than I bothered to.
Fatal Fury 2
Win
| My translation | Official translation | Genesis |
|---|---|---|
| Of course I won. It's not you that I'm afraid of. | It's reasonable for me to win. You're not the one I'm afraid of. | Naturally I won. You're no match for me! |
...yep.
Sorry, the interesting FF2 boss win quote is for the next guy.
The Genesis version is slightly altered and strangely loses the bit about Billy being afraid of someone not the player. Instead it's replaced with some generic confidence. Whaaaa?
The SNES version...we'll get to that.
SNES Win
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Do I gotta show you some more hell with my bojutsu? | Am I gonna have to show ya who's boss again? |
Yep, they changed out his win quote in the SFC version, and the SNES version follows suit. Obviously, showing people hell is not allowed in English, so it gets changed to just showing the player who's boss. Other than that, this adds some extra character voice that's not really evident in his other quotes. It's interesting bit of detail for the one line that wasn't using the Neo Geo version as a base.
Genesis Win vs Billy
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Do you even know how to use a bo? | So you think you know how to handle the cudgel, do you? |
Yep, since Billy is playable in the MD/SFC version, he's got a special win quote for winning against himself. For various reasons I don't have the Japanese screenshot, please bear with me.
The official translation adds a bit to the line, and specifies "cudgel". It's a bit strange (I ususally think of cudgels as fairly short) and breaks from the intro quote where they call it stick fighitng.
Genesis Intro vs Krauser
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Sorry, but you're not the one I call "boss"! | Sorry - they may call you "Boss" but I'm not taking any orders from you! |
And along with being playable, all the bosses get a special line against Krauser during his little spiel before the fight. In the Japanese, Billy is saying that Krauser isn't the one he recognizes as his boss, but the English translation turns that into some unnamed "they" calling Krauser boss. Of course, the English gets back on track quickly so I'm not sure if this could properly be called a mistake or just a rephrasing.
Genesis Ending
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Finally I can return to Southtown... | At last I can return to South Town... |
Yup.
What's up with the icon on the back of his shirt? Dig the motorcycle goggles, though.