Andy Bogard
They changed up his playstyle so much they had to make an entirely new character to be "old Andy". They just don't know what to do with the guy.
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Continues to Train in Order to Surpass his Brother...
Ending
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Andy: The students are waiting; let's get back to Japan. | Andy: Let's go back home. My disciples await me. |
| Mai: Wait a minute, Andy. Before that, we need to... | Mai: Wait ,Andy. before we go ,we have a date! |
| Andy: Er? We need to...w-what? | Andy: A date? What do you mean by that? |
| Mai: Heheheh. That's a SEC-ER-T <3 | Mai: You'll see. Hee ,hee. |
The Japanese doesn't specify whose students they are, exactly, and backstories for other games seem to indicate that Mai and Andy teach together. But since it's not specified, it's perfectly possible to read them as Andy's students, so it's not really a mistake, just not taking all the side material into account. "My disciples await" is also weirdly formal in a way the Japanese isn't.
Mai doesn't say what, exactly, they're going to do before leaving in Japanese. Because in Japanese, you can just leave the verb off and it's fine. You can't do that in English, so the official translation just has her ask Andy out. This unfortunately kind of ruins the joke. As you can see with Andy's line, where in Japanese he has to ask what Mai wants (because she didn't specify) and in English it sounds like he's so repressed he doesn't even know what a date it. The Japanese version also has more character than the bland translation.
Mai's final line is also much more bland in English, but it sort of gets the idea across.
Win Quotes
vs Terry
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Fight me for real, Terry! | Get serious . big brother! |
Basically the same. I expanded a bit, so that's on me. And SNK still isn't bothering to edit "big brother" into Terry's name, which still feels weird for them, but I guess it wasn't the style yet.
vs Andy
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| It's a real weird feeling to fight yourself. | It's weird beating myself senseless! |
The official translation is punched up a little, but not excessively so.
It's interesting that Andy isn't making fun of his opponent for being a mimic. That's unusual!
vs Joe
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Great work, champ! Your moves are as sharp and clean as ever! | A real champ. All the right moves. |
Obviously, I had more room to expand the line. The English is cut down to the extreme, so far it ends up being stilted. Still, it's basically there.
vs Mai
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| You'll give up now, right, Mai? | Bet you've had enough , eh ,Mai? |
Yep.
Come on, Andy, be more supportive of your stalker girlfriend.
vs Tung Fu Rue
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Were you able to see my Shiranui style moves? | You Shiranuis know your stuff! |
I struggled with this one a bit. Basically, Andy is bragging to his grandpa about his cool martial arts, but politely.
The English gets this completely wrong, to the point where it sounds like Andy thinks Tung uses Shiranui arts instead. I guess I can see how this happened if someone was going fast and didn't know where the quote was from, because it's just missing one character at the end, but it's still a pretty noticeable mistake. I bet people noticed this in the arcade.
As usual, they went really fast on the translation of this one.
vs Sokaku
| My translation | Official translation | Portuguese translation |
|---|---|---|
| Mochizuki style... It's incredible, but... | Mochizuki-style is the way to go! | Mochizuki style has a fearful air. |
Same problem with lack of context leading Andy to forget who uses what style. Or at least I assume it's lack of context, because the line is pretty simple and straightforward. Andy is impressed at the raw power of the Mochizuki style, but has misgivings. If that's because the Mochizuki style just lost or if he doesn't think hanging out with demons is cool is left unsaid.
The Portuguese translation makes a decision and says that there's a "fearful air" around the Mochizuki style. This sounds pretty reasonable for me, since the games push the idea of the dark power of the Mochizukis pretty hard. I like it.
vs Billy/EX Billy
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| You're too hot-headed! That's why you can't win! | Must stay calm, or won't win. |
The big problem here is that the English makes Andy sound like he's talking to himself, not giving advice to Billy. It's not technically a bad translation (well, besides definitely sounding like a non-native did it), but it needed some way of indicating it's about Billy here.
vs Geese
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Get up, Geese! I'm not finished yet! | Get up .Geese. I'm not done yet! |
Look, there are only so many ways to translate that line.
vs Krauser
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Uggh...I feel like I'm gonna fall apart... | Gyaah...my body feels smas hed! |
The actual English line here is probably better than mine, but that awkward spacing hurts. The text bubbles are a really cute bit of presentation and I love it, but you can tell SNK struggled with them.
vs Laurence
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| I respect your fighting spirit. That's all. | Ya got spirit , and that's it! |
The Japanese line is pretty cold, which doesn't come across in English at all. The "Ya got spirit" sounds editor-like to me, but this is a pretty weird line for the editor to touch.
There's also a slight nuance difference between Andy saying that Laurence's spirit is the only thing he respects/will compliment, and saying that spirit is all Laurence has. The Japanese implies that Laurence has more qualities, they're just not ones Andy respects.
vs the Jin brothers
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| He might be a kid, but he'll beat me if I go easy on him. | This is no normal littie tyke , I feel! |
I'm not sure exactly how to phrase this line in English, so I did my best. I also made it specific like Andy was only talking about one Jin at a time, because logically he just beat up one Jin, but you could phrase it like he was talking about both and it would work just as well. Maybe better.
Anyway, the English is...not all that similar to the Japanese. It's true that the Jins aren't normal kids, but the Japanese is pretty specific that Andy's thinking about how he can't afford to show mercy, not about them being supernaturally freaky. (not that the two aren't related) Again, this feels like the editor got to it, especially with the use of "tyke". That feels pretty native.
vs Yamazaki
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| You can't beat me with a style you made up! | Your sad ability is no match for me! |
Another nuance lost: in Japanese, Andy is specifically talking about how Yamazaki made up his style and that makes it inferior, not that Yamazaki is bad at fighting and Andy is good. It's established style vs self-made, not a straight test of skill between them. It fits into Andy being all about training and following in the footsteps of his masters, whereas Yamazaki is just a brawler.
vs Mary/EX Mary
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Sorry...I just can't go all out against women. | I can't do it! I can't hit babes! |
Ahahahahah.
The Japanese it very straight-faced with Andy apologizing to Mary for not giving her a real fight, whereas the English sounds like something out of a cheap cartoon. And yet, I like it? Not that it's good in the strictest sense, but it makes me laugh every time.
vs Kim
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Great kicks, Kim! | Ya got great footwork , Kim! |
Very similar again. We see the return of "ya", which feels really informal for Andy, and kind of suggests the editor got to this one as well.
It's odd that the lines it feels like the editor touched are all in the back half of the character select screen here.
vs EX Andy
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| A shadow double? Nothing to do with me. | Ninjas? Hey ,it's not my ploblem? |
Screenshot thanks to Rage Quitter 87. Thank you!
The Japanese phrase I translated as "shadow double" is hyper-literally "shadow person", but is very close to the word for "body double" so I split the difference. Body doubles are often associated with ninja, but the English line ends up giving a bit of the wrong impression. It sounds like Andy is denying having anything to do with ninja in general, which is not accurate.
"[I]t's not my problem?" sounds a bit off, but I guess it's not technically wrong...except for the typo that exists in the real version. How did that get in there? The fact it's an L/R problem makes me wonder if it's supposed to be there and it's the editor having a really weird sense of humour, but it doesn't quite feel like his style.
It's interesting that Andy doesn't think this has anything to do with him when the double is using his face and might be him on some level. Go earn your persona, Andy.
vs others
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| All right! I'm really feeling it! | Wow! I throb with serious power! |
...throb?
He is hyper-literally saying that his body is filled with power, which I shifted a little to "really feeling it" because that's a weird thing to say in English. So the official translation is correct, just...odd sounding. It's too smooth to not have the editor involved, but is still weird. That's SNK!