#(Fun fact: I don't usually describe things as “edgy” -- including Minazuki -- )

[systematicallycapricious]

Ultimax English Volume 3, coming hot at'cha from me, who did the read-y thing!

Gonna repeat it for the folks who might be landing here for the first time: I've written up my initial impressions and observations below the cut, as well as sprinkled in some pictures comparing the three versions of the manga (OG-Jap, official-Eng translation, and fan-Eng translation). And if you don't see something there that you'd like to know more about, you can always hit me up with requests and I'll see what I can do for ya!

Oh– and of course, spoilers are no holds barred. So if you want to read the manga blind, then this is not the review post for you. Nor are my other ones.

So without further ado... The post!

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Main Opinions (5)

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[1]

Like the volumes before it, I continue to both agree and disagree with the various translation choices. Using the page above as an example: I think that translating 道化 as “cabbage cop” rather than the literal meaning of “jester/clown”, especially after using the latter translation before in Vol 1, wasn't the best choice. On the flipside, I think that choosing to retain the presence of the “俺が...!” by including “I still...!” in the translation was a good call, because the specific ways that characters speak are a quintessential window into who they are as people.

(Re: "cabbage cop"; the translation also just suddenly spikes in referring to Adachi as “cabbage” in the aforementioned chapter and the one immediately following it, lol. Sho says “I wanted to help even a loser like you have a good time... So I went outta my way... to keep your lame... cabbage ass alive...”, though nothing in the Jap text even makes mention of “cabbage”, much less Adachi's ring title.)

[2]

Though I don't think I mentioned it in my previous posts, I also retain my opinion that the onomatopoeia in this translation is on point. Much like the original Japanese version, the chosen sounds make sense for the actions they're supposed to be accompanying. And this has been consistent throughout all volumes, rather than having ups and downs of quality... at least from what I can recall.

[3]

However, in reading this volume, I have come across my first genuine critique of the translation: in all the volumes thus far, quotation marks that should be carried over from the Japanese text are often ignored, to the immense detriment of the English reading experience. Fortunately, this problem hasn't extended to text emphasis (e.g. bolded text and bōten) or the rest of the punctuation, as they have been relatively good at preserving and employing those. But, to exemplify what the lack of quotations does to the text...

...just read through the side-by-side page examples I edited above. The difference should be apparent, hopefully. (Btw, edits are in the middle and on the bottom, respectively. Jap text is also included for quotation placement reference.)

The thing that baffles me about the lack of quotations, though, is that the translation does use them on rare occasion. For example, when Minazuki says “Welcome to 'his' world.”, and “Oh yes. You call those shackles 'bonds', don't you.”, those quotations exist in the Japanese text as 「“彼”」 and 「”絆”」. But in the vast majority of cases, even sometimes when the usage in Japanese is back-to-back, they're just kinda... glossed over? I really don't get it. ^^;

[4]

Moving on to a semi-related topic... The 皆月・ミナヅキ naming differentiation... uh... yeah. That's a weird thing. The simple part is that both are continuously referred to as “Minazuki”. The weird part is that the translation seems to want to refer to them as a "single but plural" entity? For example;

“I sat back and let Minazuki do their thing and they just wasted time forever.”

“There's much to sympathize with in their past. And they're clearly a victim of the Kirijo Group's darker side.”

"But we're gonna get back at that jerk. Both of 'im!".

"We can't let Minazuki get what they want! Stop 'em, Narukami!"

Which, in all fairness, the Japanese version is partially responsible for. Since [plural nouns are implied more than said outright in Japanese], and there are some occasions of 「皆月達」 (Minazuki-tachi; look under "Plural Suffixes" in the linked article) interspersed within the writing, I can understand how the "single but plural entity" translation came about. I'm not knowledgeable enough to know if interpreting just "皆月" as plural is always correct or not, but I can see why it might be tricky to interpret, at the very least.

So personally, my gripe with it is just the lack of distinction between instances of ミナヅキ and 皆月, as when which one is used is extremely important for story context. The characters awkwardly referring to Sho and Minazuki as singular but plural (in a purely-Eng reading) seems logical enough, since none of them have experience with plurality up until this point, and it's not like they're getting the opportunity to ask the system in question what form of address they prefer.

[5]

Oh, and while we're within the topic of “things that could be better off if a guide of important pre-established terms was implemented”...

Y'all might think “holy heck, why did they turn Minazuki's edge factor up to 11 here?” with a slow cringe of disturbance or disgust. (Or maybe the laughter of vicious mockery. What do I know? Lol.) I concur! So I did what I do when I'm confounded by something: question everything about it. In doing so, I thought to myself; 'Hey, isn't that "hero" one one of Minazuki's VLs from Ultimax?' The answer was yes, it was, although it goes slightly differently. And what had the manga done back in previous volumes? Quote combat-VLs from the game during battle scenes.

So after transcribing the Japanese text of the lines in question into Jisho and Google Translate, as well as listening to the Jap versions of the EngVLs that I thought were similar enough, this is what I got:

“Writhe in pain!” = “Struggle. Suffer.” (「もがき　苦しめ」, [VL nb315a])

“Did you think you could become a hero?” = “Did you think you were some kind of hero? No. You're just the loser.” (「（君は敗者だ）英雄になれるとでも思ったか?」, VL nb342b)

(Note: The “No. You're just the loser.（君は敗者だ）” portion isn't a part of the VL in Ultimax, and aside from Adachi's Winner's Interview line for defeating Minazuki, I couldn't find anything similar in any of Mina's non-Story Mode Eng VLs. (I didn't check their Jap equivalents, as I still need to compile those lines into a searchable resource. >_>) So unless it's somewhere in Story Mode, it may have been ad-libbed in by the author.

“Let despair swallow you.” is less cut-and-dry. The Japanese text is 「絶望へ堕ちろ」; but when I listened to similar VLs (nb313a: “It's time to despair.”, nb317a: “Fall into darkness!”, nb320a: “Descend into the abyss!”), I only ever got partial matches. Nb313a has 「絶望」, while nb320a might have 「堕ちろ」, but my auditory comprehension of Japanese still needs a lot of work, so I may be mistaken. And nb317a matched nothing, from what I can hear. So unless this comes from a story VL, or a VL that isn't translated closely enough for me to sleuth back to the Jap VL... then I guess this might also be ad-libbed or frankensteined by the author?

Also, I'm not sure if it's coincidence or if there actually was some knowledge of the pre-existing translations, but the translator got “God and Demon Annihilation” correct, lol.

So yeah. "Edginess"? Not really more than normal when you have the context; but as a standalone experience, a great deal more than normal and would have realllllllly benefited from referencing the pre-established translations. The translator can take stylistic liberties with the whole rest of the translation, so I really don't think that employing such a small list would compromise their freedom?

(And if you want to see how the fan-Eng version handled it for comparison...)

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Additional Thoughts (6)

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Alright, let's see, what else do I have left to cover...

[1]

Labrys doesn't talk a ton in this manga, so her “Southern, not Brooklyn/Boston accent” issue, while still there, isn't too glaring or easy to spot in a lot of lines. However... Honestly, I think it's just the translator's style overall to use a more 'Southern USA dialect' in their wording. Please note that I'm not an expert on this matter what-so-ever! But that's just the vibe I've been getting from how all of the characters have been speaking across the official-English volumes (and which isn't present in the fan-Eng translations).

[2]

I referenced the line briefly before, but the translation of Minazuki saying “...Yu Narukami. How about you throw away those shackles you cling to? They're dead weight to you. You can hardly fight, or even run, while you carry them. […] Oh yes. You call those shackles 'bonds', don't you.” in reference to Chie and Yosuke being incapacitated is brutal and I love it.

[3]

Before learning Kagutsuchi's name, Adachi calls Kagutsuchi "Mr. Crazy-Pants", lol. ("That's why you set up your whole little plan to use the power inside me to control that. And that means you've only been pretending to be best buds with Mr. Crazy-Pants.")

(Or in Japanese: つまり　君らは凶悪なクマ君に従っているフリをしていたってワケか || Though, I'm not sure if 'vicious Bear-kun' has a similar vibe to "Mr. Crazy Pants" in Japanese or not?) (Also fun note: Adachi's 「君ら」 (kimi-ra) is another pluralized address of Minazuki and Sho, so it's not always just their direct name getting that treatment.)

[4]

Labrys is secretly Elvis confirmed. Also, the author comics are to be found on the inside covers for the Eng translation, versus being on the outside covers (and obscured by the book jacket) in the original Jap print. This is something that only Vol 3 and Vol 4 do, as Vol 1 & 2 had enough space left to print the author comics on actual pages.

[5]

I think some of the gikun nuance might've been glossed over, but I honestly still don't know whether it's the subtitles or main words of gikun that are supposed to be "spoken" in-story. I only just found out the proper name for them while making this post, and the things I've read about them so far contradict each other, lol. Also, the official-Eng translation takes the third example below and translates it as both "Minazuki"(Sho) and "this child" at different points in Vol 3, which doesn't help my confusion, lmao.

(Checking out an instance of the first example as well, it gets translated from "ジュネスでミナヅキ[あの男]に襲われもしたが" to "That man. Minazuki? He attacked me at Junes...", occurring when Labrys and Naoto save Chie and Yosuke from Minazuki's attack in the faux-Tartarus lobby.)

E.g. "ミナヅキ　[あの男]" ("Minazuki" subtitled with "that guy") - "皆月達　[あのコら]" ("Sho & Minazuki" subtitled with... my guess is "those kids", but the 'ko' is katakana and not kanji, soo...) - "皆月　[あの子]" ("Sho" subtitled with "that boy")

[6]

Take this with a huge grain of salt, because I don't know enough Japanese to certify that the official-Eng translation shouldn't be pluralized the way that it is, but, uh... the possibility that there's more than one hidden server and more than just Sho as attempted Plume-implantation subjects??

If the translator had been reliably sticking to the pre-established translations, I would give more weight to the possibility of it being a retcon of how the game presents the information. But since it doesn't seem like the translator is familiar with the original material... I'll personally just add this one onto the “fan-characterization fodder” pile and continue hoping that P3RE might give us more clarity on what exactly the experiments of 1995-1999 entailed, lest my fluency in Japanese reach the point that I can ascertain the answer. TuT

For anyone who wants the Japanese lines in transcribed form:

先日　エルゴ研の隔離サーバから　幾月修司のパーソナルファイルが発見された

その中に”人形使い計画”と名づけられたデータが隠されていた

それは皆月翔という少年が”黄昏の羽根”を使った人体実験の最年少被験者であったことを記したものだ

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Misc. Pics

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(If you wanna see the fan-Eng in higher quality than the screengrabs I used, you can find it on Mangadex [here].)

#Sho Minazuki #Yu Narukami #Mitsuru Kirijo #Tohru Adachi #(tagging Mitsuru mostly because of the cover art) #(tagging Adachi because he appears in about half the pages pictured here) #(Sorry everyone; I have no clue how it got wordier than the last review post. I tried to segment it for easier reading at least. >_>;) #(Fun fact: I don't usually describe things as “edgy” -- including Minazuki -- ) #(-- but the 'dark' non sequitur dialog was exorbitant enough to defy other applicable descriptors lol.) #(Also if anyone has an enby Sho or Mina headcanon y'all might have fun with this translation lol.) #P4AU/P4U2 manga #Persona 4 Arena Ultimax #P4AU #P4U2 #Persona 4 The Ultimax Ultra Suplex Hold #ペルソナ4 ジ・アルティマックス ウルトラス―プレックスホールド