Mai Shiranui
Am I the only one weirded out by the hair-color change in her kimono victory pose? Probably not, right?
Story
Story 1
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Ripper: Here's the current winner's picture, Mr. Geese. | Mr.Geese,we got this graphic of the guy. |
| Geese: ... | Geese: Hmph! |
Same as Franco, which leads to a bit of a gender slip-up in English. Oops.
Story 2
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| A woman... | A woman? I like it! |
HEY DID YOU KNOW MAI IS A GIRL? A HOT GIRL?
Yeah, get used to that bit. The English goes hard on the idea that Geese likes the idea of fighting Mai (presumably because she is a sexy woman) something that doesn't exist in the Japanese script. Thus here we see "I like it!" added to what is otherwise a very straight translation.
Story 3
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| The secret scrolls? You came to steal that garbage? What a fool... | Secret scrolls? You're willing to die for that garbage? Well ,okay,let me help you! |
Here's another common line. This is used for the Jins, Sokaku, and Yamazaki, all of whom would be interested in the secret scrolls. It doesn't really make a lot of sense for Mai - she's never expressed particular interest in the scrolls over, say, finding out what the FF1 boys are keeping from her. I guess it goes with ninja being somewhat more mystical than otherwise...? Maybe...?
There's a slight nuance change in the Japanese vs the English, where in Japanese the player is just coming to steal the scrolls, but in English they're "willing to die" for them. This is obviously added so the translator/editor could make the "let me help you" joke, which is not in Japanese.
Geese thinks the scrolls are worthless in both languages, though.
Story 4
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Mai: Okay, Geese! It's time for you to be defeated - so do it gracefully! | Mai: Well , Geese,I'll serve you up really nice. |
| Geese: The Shiranui woman, huh? I'll make you regret coming here. | Geese: You'll regret coming this far. But I'm kinda happy,Ms. Mai! |
I struggled with Mai's line here. "it's time to be quietly/obediently defeated by me" is a hyper-literal translation and it sucks, so I did my best.
The official translation goes for a name joke and is the better for it. (At least I'm assuming this is a joke about "cooking [your] goose/your goose is cooked" because that's what makes sense)
As for Geese, the official translation adds him wanting to fight her, just like after Story 2. He also uses her first name here, which definitely implies that English Geese has a more personal interest in Mai than Japanese Geese, who could not care less.
The only thing in common here is that he believes Mai will regret coming this far.
Win Quotes
vs Terry
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| How's that? My attacks are amazing, right? | Whadda ya think? Great,huh? |
This is mostly phrasing differences. There's some specificity lost in the English - Mai isn't specifically talking about her attacks/techniques, so it sounds like she's talking about her performance in general. That's about it, thought.
vs Andy
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| A-HEM! Go read the Shiranui scrolls - very carefully! | Ahem,try reading the Shiranui scrolls,OK? |
Also pretty close. It's obviously a play off Andy's quote against Mai, but this is lost in English thanks to how they handled Andy's win quote. So it comes off as less Mai snarking back at Andy and more as her giving him some general advice in English. I tried to get across the original feeling.
vs Joe
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Living on nothing but alligators is what made you weak, isn't it?! | All that alligator meat has made you weak! |
There's a minor nuance in Japanese that Mai is saying that Joe is eating nothing but alligator meat, whereas in the English he could be eating other things, it's just the alligators that made him weak.
Other than that...yeah, it's the same.
vs Franco
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Whoooa! You're strong, mister! I'm still dizzy! | Wow,you were tough,gramps. I'm drained. Phew! |
It feels really weird that Mai's quotes are all this untouched. Come on editor, I know you were probably crunched to hell, but this is Mai! Surely you can do something?
"Drained" is a pretty good localization of what I translated as "dizzy" here. The dictionary definition is long, but includes things such as "unsteady, shakily, staggering"...the kind of thing you'd expect of a fighter after a tough match, which you could say drained them. I think it works.
Other than that...very straight translation.
vs Mai
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Just one cute li'l me is enough! | Thank god I'm single! |
...so like I was saying...
So this is definitely a mistranslation, which I suppose it came out of going really fast, just like all the other mistakes in Real Bout. I can see how the translator got "Thank god I'm single!" out of the Japanese, if they were time-crunched and had no context, but figuring out how took a bit of head-tilting.
The extra joke is that Mai does not consider herself single, so for fans this line is especially wild.
So in Japanese it's about what you'd expect for a mirror match, in English it's a bizarre and out-of-character non sequitur. Time crunches! They're a problem.
vs Bob
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Hey Bob, don't forget you promised to let me eat as much food as I wanted for free if I won, okay? | Don't forget,Bob. If I win,you buy dinner later. Hee,hee. |
The English line is similar, but it's missing a few nuances. In Japanese, it's pretty obviously playing off Bob as the manager of a restaurant - he promised Mai that she could eat for free if she beat him in a fight. This is lost in English, and makes it sound more like Mai is trying to get Bob to take her out to dinner, not that she wants to freeload at the Pao Pao Cafe. In general, the English is more flirty, especially with the giggle at the end.
I feel like this could also be blamed on a rushed translator. The English is a fairly reasonable translation in a vacuum, it just doesn't take the relationship between the characters into account - a luxury I have that the actual staff probably didn't have the time for.
vs Billy
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| If it's hitting with sticks or fighting with fire, the Shiranui style's better! Got it? | In Ninja Arts,we Shiranui have no equal. Got it? |
This was a little tricky, not entirely sure I have all the nuances here. Mai's specifically not using the usual word for bojutsu here, and the only references to the word she is using come back to the Chinese ancestor. Then she talks about fire in a way I think means maybe hitting things with fire. She's clearly referencing everything Billy does so I went with that idea, but there might be something I'm missing.
Listen, you get what you pay for.
The point is, in Japanese Mai is saying the Shiranui are better at the things Billy does. In English she just says "Ninja Arts", even though Billy doesn't really do anything that could be called a "ninja art". There's also a slight nuance difference between saying that the Shiranui style's better than what Billy's doing vs having no equal, but that's more understandable.
What I think happened was that the translator, who would've been strapped for time, looked at a weird, obscure kanji and a reference to fire and just figured Mai was going on about ninja stuff. It's a reasonable assumption!
vs Hon Fu
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| All right~! Mai's the best in Japan! | Yes! Call me No. 1! |
Nippon ichi!
She sounds cutesy in Japanese here, in a way the official translation doesn't quite get across. I did my best. She also doesn't demand Hon Fu (or whoever she's speaking to) call her No. 1, just announces that she's the best in Japan...after fighting a Hong Kongese guy in America.
Mai? Honey? Do you know where you are?
vs Yamazaki
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Okay then, who's next? | Well ,who's next? |
...yep.
Not much to say about this one.
vs Sokaku
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Well? You get how strong the Shiranui style is now, right? | Now you know what it's like to face a Shiranui! |
Subtle nuance difference between Sokaku understanding how strong the Shiranui style is vs knowing what it is to face them, but really, this is pretty straight and mostly comes down to how you decide to handle the phrasing. I tend to err on the side of making Mai sound more young and upbeat, which the official team was inconsistent about.
vs Mary
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Hmph! There's no way I'd ever lose to you. My pride just wouldn't allow it! | Wow,losing to you would be an insult. So I guess I won't lose,cutey! |
Heh.
Mai's pride being on the line is made more subtle in the English version, but it's got some real cute phrasing and gets the meaning across. This does have the feel of being localized, and they did a good job with it!
vs Kim
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Wh-whoa, you really are a strong opponent! But my Shiranui style's invincible, you know. | You were tough,but no match for the mighty Shiranui. Whoa,ho,ho. |
Is that...an attempt at an ojousama laugh that was added for the English version?
Weird.
Again, "Shiranui style" is edited down into just "Shiranui". Mai also sounds considerably more confident in English, brushing off how tough Kim is much quicker and adding that laugh.
Honestly I'm mostly just gazing at that laugh and wondering. It's such a strange thing to add! But they did.
vs Chonrei
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| You're really strong, even though you're just a kid. I thought I was gonna lose... | Wow,you're pretty strong for a rug rat. For a moment, I thought I was going to lose. |
I want to believe the 1995 SNK style guide said that "kid" should always be rendered as "rug rat". (I am making up the concept of an SNK style guide, but it's also something I want to believe in)
Adding "[f]or a moment" makes Mai sound stronger in English.
vs Chonshu
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Isn't Big Sis strong? Well, isn't she?! | I'm pretty strong,junior. You understand that,right? |
Kishi helped!
Mai is specifically speaking to Chonshu like how an adult would scold a child, just to drive home that the Jins are kids compared to everyone else. She does call herself "Big Sis" here (お姉ちゃん/oneechan), which they localized out of the English version. Instead, they had her call Chonshu "junior" to emphasize the age difference. It's a clever way to go about it.
SNK cared! Sometimes!
vs Duck King
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Next time, I'll let you have a dance-off instead! | Next time,let's just have a dance contest. Ouch! |
The big difference here is that in Japanese Mai is letting Duck have a dance contest because she beat him so hard, while in English she's suggesting it because she got hurt in the match. It's not a complete shift in meaning, but it's one of the biggest on this page. How odd. In going fast, did the translator mix up all the Japanese giving verbs? That's the only thing I can think of.
vs Geese
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| In the face of my moves, even that Geese ended up like this! | With moves like mine, Geese will be history! |
The English is technically correct, but sounds kind of weird in a win quote. If the player is seeing this, Geese is already history, right? So I made the executive decision to put it in the past tense, even if it sounds a little odd. That said, the Japanese didn't have any tense at all, so it's not like the English is technically wrong, just contextually awkward. Again, lack of context, going fast, etc etc.
That said, "Geese will be history!" is a nice bit of phrasing that sounds very natural. I dig it.