Rayman 2 JP version
Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2025 10:14 pm
I'm playing through Rayman 2 in Japanese. I think everyone is familiar with the different skin palettes for the main characters, but I wanted to share some details I thought were interesting about the translation. I'll be comparing it with English since unfortunately I can't understand the original French.
In English, this sign says "free dumping for anyone who can figure out how to open the door". But in Japanese, it says "Garbage dump: No raw waste, and don't break the door down!"
There are very few, if any, countries that take waste separation as seriously as Japan. (Raw waste refers to anything that decomposes, normally kitchen waste). You'll typically encounter two or more types of bins in a row. One of the shining aspects of Japanese society is the sense of community and cooperation; there is a sense of respect and care for the shared environment.
This sign is basically the same as the English one. At first I thought it was cute that Razorbeard referred to the troops as せいとたち which means students, but in English he calls them cadets which is somewhat similar.
As any fans of anime know, Japanese characters often have a habit of attaching a word at the end of each sentence. (One of the most famous of these is Naruto's "dattebayo" which I think was translated as "believe it!" or something like that). These sentence-enders are called "gobi" in Japanese (lit: word tail). When translating from Japanese to another language, it generally sounds more natural to give characters other quirks that fit their archetype rather than forcing them to say the same thing at the end of every sentence.
But in this case the game has been translated into Japanese, so they gave Globox the quirk of ending every sentence with "da na", adding a kind of flavor to his character that wasn't there before. It's hard to describe the exact nuance of "da na" but it gives off a kind of certainty like "that'll be it." Typically you'd think of a male person concluding something.
That doesn't really sound like Globox, but the nuance changes yet again by the comical effect of him using it in every sentence. "Ly gave it me, she did." "My precious Uglette'll be waiting for me, yep." It's one of those things that doesn't translate perfectly, but all the more reason I wanted to share it.
Hope you found that interesting!
In English, this sign says "free dumping for anyone who can figure out how to open the door". But in Japanese, it says "Garbage dump: No raw waste, and don't break the door down!"
There are very few, if any, countries that take waste separation as seriously as Japan. (Raw waste refers to anything that decomposes, normally kitchen waste). You'll typically encounter two or more types of bins in a row. One of the shining aspects of Japanese society is the sense of community and cooperation; there is a sense of respect and care for the shared environment.
This sign is basically the same as the English one. At first I thought it was cute that Razorbeard referred to the troops as せいとたち which means students, but in English he calls them cadets which is somewhat similar.
As any fans of anime know, Japanese characters often have a habit of attaching a word at the end of each sentence. (One of the most famous of these is Naruto's "dattebayo" which I think was translated as "believe it!" or something like that). These sentence-enders are called "gobi" in Japanese (lit: word tail). When translating from Japanese to another language, it generally sounds more natural to give characters other quirks that fit their archetype rather than forcing them to say the same thing at the end of every sentence.
But in this case the game has been translated into Japanese, so they gave Globox the quirk of ending every sentence with "da na", adding a kind of flavor to his character that wasn't there before. It's hard to describe the exact nuance of "da na" but it gives off a kind of certainty like "that'll be it." Typically you'd think of a male person concluding something.
That doesn't really sound like Globox, but the nuance changes yet again by the comical effect of him using it in every sentence. "Ly gave it me, she did." "My precious Uglette'll be waiting for me, yep." It's one of those things that doesn't translate perfectly, but all the more reason I wanted to share it.
Hope you found that interesting!
), because it implies that they want to turn the Sanctuary into a rubbish dump, and whoever opens it first gets first dibs. But then the Japanese version implies that it's already been turned into a dump, which is obviously not true – unless they're referring to the little cabins with the sparadrap doors instead, which just misses the point completely! 
