Billy Kane
Aggressively points his power pole at you.
Copy
For Whom Does He Fight...?
Ending
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Billy: Hell yeah! I'm the heavy metal king! | Billy: I'm the king of heavy metal!! |
| Duck! Waving your pole around is the new style of heavy metal, huh? | Duck: Whoa! That pole walk is cool! Yeh! |
| Billy: Yeah yeah yeah! Fire fire fire! | Billy: Rage ,rage! Fire! Fire! Fire! |
| Duck: This is more Hawaiian dancing than heavy metal, dude! | Duck: You should work luaus! |
First line is basically the same.
The second line is a little off. I suspect whoever was doing this slipped up on 棒ふり回して/waving a pole around and figured it was about walking around with a pole. (the only things I can find that are called a "pole walk" is an exercise or part of a pole dance, so...man, I don't even know) Then they just kind of wrote something that seemed to make sense around that.
Third line is again, basically the same.
The fourth line gets across that Duck is talking about Hawaiian dancing in a way that doesn't overrun the character limits, but it really gives a different feel to the scene. Japanese Duck sounds more like he's making fun of Billy, while English Duck sounds like he thinks Billy's great. Dropping the explicit comparison to heavy metal just kind of turns it into a non-sequitur. I remember being really confused by this line when I first saw Billy's RBS ending.
Basically, Billy's lines are the same, but Duck's all run up against the terrible curse of character limits.
Win Quotes
vs Terry
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| No growth, huh, Terry? Hehehehe! | Terry. You egg. You rot with age! |
The word Billy uses is 成長, which can mean growth or becoming an adult. It doesn't make a lot of sense for Billy to make fun of Terry for not being a good adult (though Billy probably has a home, which does put him above Terry) so I went for growth in general.
The official translation decided to have Billy make fun of Terry for getting old, which isn't quite right. Billy is saying Terry hasn't grown, which isn't the same as getting worse with age. I do appreciate the whole egg joke, though. That's clever.
Billy has a weird, cackling laugh in RBS that he doesn't usually have. Though it does feel in-character.
vs Andy
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Not so stuck-up now, huh?! Heheheheh! | And don't waste my time again! |
The idea is that Andy is usually stuck up or putting on airs, but now he can't, because he got beat.
I'm not sure where the official translation came from. It feels like they didn't even try, just made something up. And it's not even a particularly crazy thing to make up. That's weird.
vs Joe
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Your...your undies are on fire! | Hey , your undies are on fire! |
Yes, that is exactly what he is saying.
vs Mai/Mary
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Why don't you go home and start the laundry?! | Stay home and do laundry , toots! |
Kishi came up with much better phrasing than I had.
Yeah, this is about the same too. The English adds in "toots", an SNK word we have seen before, mostly in Art of Fighting 2.
I still don't understand why Billy would want someone else to do laundry, though.
vs Duck
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| You turned into a real peacenik, Duck! | Been bouncing on your head too much? |
Because Duck was more of an enemy back in Fatal Fury, see. That's how Billy knows him. Now he's more of a laid-back guy who's Terry's pal.
The word in Japanese is 平和ボケ/heiwaboke, which means someone who has a naive belief in peace, kind of a "why can't we all get along?" type. "Peacenik" was the closest I could think of in English. This whole idea is dropped in the official translation. I suppose the idea is that Duck lost his edge because he bounced on his head too much, but it really needs to Japanese line to provide context. As-is it just sounds like a general put-down.
It's too bad, because it's a neat line in Japanese. It implies that Billy knew Duck back in FF1, and that he disapproves of Duck joining the heroes. It's cute.
vs Tung Fu Rue
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Tch! What a stubborn old man! | You're a tough old geezer , you! |
Stubborn, tough...they're just different translations of the same word. These are basically the same once you account for phrasing differences.
vs Billy
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| How 'bout you and me make some double fire? Hehehehehe! | There's only one Billy. Burn ,fool! |
Well, this is different.
I'm not entirely sure what "double fire" is supposed to be, but I assume it's some sort of team-up. I'd guess a combo attack, but I play a lot of Super Robot Wars.
Either way, Japanese Billy is proposing a team-up, while English Billy gets a standard "you can't imitate me" sort of line. I'm not sure why. "Let's double our fire, double our fun!" is right there.
vs Geese
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| That I should be able to fight Mr. Geese again... | Must I fight you too ,Geese? |
Nuance/tone change: Japanese Billy is amazed that he gets the chance to see Geese again, while English Billy is sad that he has to fight the boss. There are some things in common, but the lines are different in an important way.
vs Krauser
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| I think I understand why even Mr. Geese respects you now. | Now I know why I work for Geese! |
Just a complete change. Japanese Billy is, for once, showing some respect for Krauser. It's a big difference from the last time they met.
Meanwhile, English Billy is sassing Krauser with a put-down. It does sound like something Billy would say, it's just not accurate in this case. Very odd.
vs Laurence
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| The master is shit, so the flunky is shit too! | You and your thugs are scum! |
And now we're right back to normal Billy.
The big problem here is that the translator didn't know who Billy was talking to, so they assumed he was talking to someone with underlings. But Laurence is the underling, Billy is insulting him and Krauser at once. "You and your boss" would be a better translation.
That mistake aside, it's pretty good.
vs the Jin brothers
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Brats today are a cryin' shame. | Kids today... They're nuts! |
Kishi got this one for me
There's some phrasing differences, but this is similar, at least. The operative Japanese word here is an abbreviation of 質が悪い, meaning low quality. "Nuts" isn't quite right, but does fit in with the Jins. I'll allow it.
vs Yamazaki
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| I could like a guy like you. | I could like a person like you! |
Yep.
Getting ready for that team-up in KoF, huh?
vs Kim
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Stop acting like such a goody two-shoes! It makes me sick! | Playing innocent! You sicken me! |
I feel like there's a subtle nuance difference where "acting like a goody two-shoes" assumes the person has a dark side but doesn't necessarily have conformation, while "playing innocent" is more about someone hiding their known dark side. But it's very subtle.
That said, it's got the idea in strict character limits without any big changes, so I'm gonna call it a win.
vs Cheng
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| I'll roast you like a pig, old man! | I'm roasting you whole , gramps! |
So the word in Japanese means "whole roast (like a pig or goose)", so arguably the official translation is more accurate. The tense gets a little weird, though. Is Billy roasting Cheng while delivering his win quote?
vs EX Billy
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| You're a real weird bastard. | You're weird. |
Screenshot thanks to Rage Quitter 87. Thank you!
This is pretty much straight, but I tried to add a bit of flavor.
vs others
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Heheheh...burn! Burn! | Yeah! Burn ,baby , burn like Hades! |
...Hades?
It's happened before, but that was the first time I'd seen it here. Previously "hell" has been fine for SNK, so I'm not sure what happened around 1995. Maybe someone got some nastygrams? I could see it happening.
Other than that, this is pretty solid. The official translation has some good flavor to it, I like it.