Bob Wilson
SNK kind of ran out of ideas here too.
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The Cheerful Capoeira Master
Ending
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Bob: Yes! From now on, I'm the hero! | Bob: Yeah! I'm the star now! |
| Terry: You're not quite there yet, Bob! | Terry: Sorry, Bob. You're not ready for the majors. |
| Mai: Hey~ Hey~ How about me~ <3? | Mai: Heh! What about me ,guys? |
| Joe: I- I'm the heroooooooooooooooo!! | Joe: No! I'm the star! |
| Bob: No way! | Bob: Not in this life! |
This is all basically the same. Mai speaks much more cutely in Japanese, much like how she does in her ending, but she's more cool in English. Joe also loses a bit of flavor. None of it is all that exciting, though.
The ending in general harkens back to Joe trying to take over the series, but I have no idea why Bob would. Guess they couldn't think up a cafe joke for him this time.
One thing to point out here is that like Franco, Bob got a considerable goofing-up in speaking style in the jump from Real Bout to Real Bout Special. He goes from speaking perfectly fluent polite Japanese to using a lot of katakana and dropping particles - basically, speaking somewhat broken Japanese. It's kind of weird. I guess that like Franco, the devs weren't sure what to do with him and RBS was considered to be more a more cartoony side game, so they played up the "funny foreigner" aspects.
The lines being so short in RBS make it hard to have Bob speaking in broken English, so this mostly got dropped in translation. I decided I didn't really want to deal with it either, so just know that yeah, Bob sounds like a goof in Japanese RBS.
Win Quotes
vs Terry
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| No way, I won? But you're Terry! | No way! You're Terry? |
So Bob doesn't actually say he's surprised he won here, but I think that's what's going here. The official translation handles this pretty well, I think, but it's a little obscure in-game.
vs Andy
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Whoa, you got serious! Pretty scary! | Andy , lighten up! You're scaring me! |
These are similar, though Bob isn't asking Andy to lighten up in Japanese, just saying that Andy being serious is scary. You can definitely tell that the translator/editor wasn't making any particular effort to make Bob sound like he does in Japanese in English, but neither did I.
vs Joe
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Oh! You have a Latin soul! | You bullfighters sure are touchy! |
Okay, now this is different. Strictly speaking, Bob says Joe's personality is Latin/Latin-American, which is why I had him say Joe has "a Latin soul". But then in the official translation, none of this is mentioned! Instead, it looks like the editor figured there was only one Latin guy in the game: Laurence, and that Latins are associated with fiery tempers. And so...
But alas, it is completely wrong. Bob's line against Laurence is completely different. This is the kind of thing that happens when all you have is some lines in a spreadsheet.
It's still a big stretch even if it was against Laurence, but Laurence is actually pretty touchy so it wouldn't be wrong, really...
vs Mai/Mary
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Sorry! I'm a nice guy, really! | Solly. Usuary , I'm a sweetie! |
...uh?
This is the one line where it feels like someone tried to make Bob sound more like he does in Japanese, via an awkward accent. Except Bob is Brazilian, which isn't a language that has issues with L/R distinction. So did the translator/editor think they were working on Cheng? Except this isn't Cheng's goofy accent...
Mysteries upon mysteries.
It's possible this is also a legit bad translation, but I doubt it. It doesn't fit in with the rest of the game, or even the rest of Bob's lines. I'd maybe buy it for like, Samurai Shodown II, but not any of SNK's other games.
Accent aside, the official translation is fine, even a little cute. Just...why the accent?
vs Duck
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| I won't lose in dancing! | I warn you, I can dance ,too! |
There's a slight nuance difference here: Japanese Bob can dance better than Duck, but English Bob can just dance too. No word on if he's actually better than Duck. (in terms of pure dancing I'd bet on the professional dancer, but for the fight I'd bet on capoeira)
It's also a bit weird to warn someone that you can dance after you just kicked their ass, but I can kind of see it.
vs Tung Fu Rue
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| You should take care of yourself in your old age! | Battle is not for the aged , gramps! |
It's an idiom that's used to tell old people not to do dangerous things. I went with something that sounds a bit more idiomatic, the official translation is a bit more specific and kind of harsher. Bob is still polite, he's not going to call Tung "gramps".
"The aged" is oddly formal, but I think it's a character limit thing.
vs Bob
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Something's off about your capoeira. | Your Capoella is not the real thing! |
At least they're consistent about "capoella" in RBS. That...that's something.
Technically in Japanese Bob just says something is off/different about 2P's capoeira, which could mean that 2P just isn't very good. The official translation makes it sound more like 2P didn't learn from a proper teacher, or he's faking it. It ends up sounding a bit harsher than the Japanese.
vs Billy/Yamazaki
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Whoa! You're a bad guy, aren't you? Super scary! | Oh ,I'm shaking. You're so scary! |
The official translation drops Bob pointing out that Billy/Yamazaki are baddies, but adds in that Bob's shaking in fear of them.
The "OH!" shows up in a few of Bob's lines in Japanese. (see Joe's up there too) It's kind of hard to handle in English. I went with "Whoa" so it doesn't sound like Bob is surprised to figure out that Billy/Yamazaki aren't on the up and up, because that's not really what he's saying.
vs Geese
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Even Geese is nothing compared to me! | Beat me and Geese is no trouble at all! |
Whoops
I think I can see how this happened? The word Bob uses in Japanese can mean a lot of things, including "to deal with". The translator read it oddly and possibly didn't know it was a win quote...but there's hardly anything else in the game! I can't think of a place in a fighting game where the official version would make sense to say.
It's very odd.
vs Krauser
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Nooooooooo! I thought I was going to die! | Whew! I thought I was a goner! |
These are pretty close. The "Nooooooooo" is goofy, but it's goofy in Japanese too. It's made more serious in English.
vs Laurence
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Give me that cape! Pleeeeeease? | Hey , can I have that neat cape? |
The extended "please" is there in Japanese, but is dropped in English. Like I said, they didn't want to bother making Bob sound as goofy as he does in Japanese. Instead it's a fairly plain, straightforward line.
vs the Jin brothers
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Children! It's time for a spanking! | A chaild. You're a cute little guy! |
Reference to spanking localized out. I think by the 90s it was going out of style in American parenting, which would explain this. Instead of making reference to beating up the Jins, Bob just calls them cute.
He is literally saying "children" in katakana there, but the official version also localizes that to the singular. It's a nice touch, but unfortunately comes with a very obvious typo that kind of ruins it. Unless it's like Bob's lines against Mai/Mary, and it's an attempt to give Bob an accent? It's very hard to tell.
vs Kim
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| I won, thanks to my long legs! | Victory to my long legs. |
You can see what the English is doing, but it's pretty obscure and weird without the Japanese next to it.
But basically, Bob was able to out-kick Kim because he has longer legs. That's it, that's the joke.
vs Cheng
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| What on Earth is in your belly? | Hey , jelly belly. Watch yourself! |
The verb Bob uses here can mean a lot of things, but only one really made sense here. Or at least, that's what I think...
The official translation dropped the entire thing and just made something up. It's harsher than Bob usually is, but it does have that SNK feel. I can't entirely tell if the editor got to Bob or not, but this feels like a line he touched.
vs others
| My translation | Official translation |
|---|---|
| Oh! Over already? Please, play with me some more! | Over so soon? Let's go again! |
Basically the same. I kept the "oh", which none of the English lines did. "Let's go again" is a good way of handling that line, and I'd steal it if I was doing this for real. It's not quite polite enough for Bob, though. He's a good boy, says "please".