Maison Ikkoku Translation Notes, by filler http://projects.mattsmessyroom.com/maisonikkoku/ This game was a lot of fun to translate. I can truthfully say I would not have finished it save for the great help of kum0ri, Eien ni Hen (as always) and everyone on MO's board. On the technical side, my sincere thanks to David Shadoff for his beautiful hacking/insertion and his dedication to seeing the project finished. There was no kanji in this game which made translation additionally challenging. Being a big MI fan made things a little easier. It was definitely a labor of love and I am very satisfied to have been able to translate this game. Here are some of my after impressions on translating the game and the various "Japanese-isms" I encountered. Warning: some spoilers may be present! 1. Honorifics Anyone who has encountered Japanese through anime or games before may be familiar with honorifics. Honorifics are simply suffixes attached to the ends of names to indicate the level of politeness and status between one person and another in Japanese. Similar to one addressing someone as "Sir" or "Madam", "Mr.", "Mrs." "Dr." etc. in English, though a little more complicated. I chose to retain honorifics in this translation to keep the spirit of the original work as I have enjoyed it. To explain a little further how this applies to the game, the manager for instance politely refers to Godai as "Godai-san". The normal polite honorific attached to names is -san, as in "Godai-san". If someone was speaking with Godai in a regular conversation they would likely call him -san unless they were his family, his superior, or his close friend. Godai's grandmother refers to him simply as "Yuusaku", which is his first name, since she is his family and elder. His male friend Sakamoto usually says simply "Yo Godai". While his girlfriend calls him "Godai" without the honorific, though she does not refer to him by his first name "Yuusaku". Notice how Godai says he would like to call the manager "Kyouko" someday which is her first name, therefore implying that he would like to wed her. Godai calls Ikuko "Ikuko-chan" and Kentaro "Kentaro-kun". "-chan" and "-kun" are a common way to address someone familiar to you who is of lower status or younger age. Yotsuya calls Godai "Godai-kun" (age). Ikkuko calls Godai "Onii-chan" (familiarity) which is a common way for a child to refer to someone older in an friendly way. "Onii-chan" can be translated "big brother". 2. Foods in Maison Ikkoku. Takoyaki - Takoyaki is a popular food for festivals/fairs like American fried-dough or cotton candy, but it can also be purchased in stores. It consists of baked balls of simple dough with, green onion, red ginger, crisp rice, and it's namesake octopus (tako). The balls are skewered on a toothpick. It may be served with a sauce or mayonnaise. The translation "Octopus balls" sounds unappetizing so I left it "takoyaki". Bentou - Bentou is a box-lunch served in a sectioned container usually made of lacquered wood or plastic. Bentou is frequently used as a school lunch brought from home, but can also be purchased in plastic containers in stores, or ordered as a meal in restaurants. It contains rice in one larger section, and smaller sections that hold various side dishes of meats, egg, and/or vegetables. Chrysanthemum Ohitashi - A Japanese meals usually consist of rice and several side dishes of pickles, meat, egg, or vegetables. Ohitashi is a "vegetable side dish", and apparently Soiuchiro was particularly fond of Chrysanthemum ohitashi. From what I can tell this is a regional food native to Yamagata prefecture. 3. Tokeizaka Maison Ikkoku is located in Tokeizaka a fictional section of Tokyo. It means "Clock Hill". It's based on Higashi-kurume city in Tokyo where Rumiko Takahashi lived when she started drawing Maison Ikkoku. Many of the settings in Maison Ikkoku are modeled after real areas in Higashi-kurume city. Check this site for additional info: http://pingshan.parfait.ne.jp/maison2/report.html. 4. Names and Room Numbers This isn't really a translation thing but for anyone who doesn't know, all the character names are puns on their room numbers. 1 = "ichi" = Ichinose, 4 = "yo" = Yotsuya, 5 = "go" = Godai, 6 = "ro" = Roppongi Akemi, etc. 5. The Store Clerk Again this is not really about the translation, but the store clerk in the game resembles the female character "Lum" of Urusei Yatsura, an alien who could hurl bolts of electricity. 6. Tekumakumayakon. This is said at one point in the game. After researching it at length I was able to find a good description of this phrase. Here is a translation of an interview that I found: Yamaguchi: "Well for starters, what is "Tekumakumayakon"? What sort of thing is it...?" Akazuka: "You know, it doesn't mean anything." Yamaguchi: "Eh?" Akazuka: "We have time so I will explain. It's an incantation or spell used in anime. Way back when I used to read comics, you would turn a mirror upside-down right? Then you would look at it right? Then something would happen, there was a spell to make the opposite happen. But when they did it on television it wasn't interesting, so they came up with an incantation to use. That's "Tekumakumayakon". I mean, what the hell is "Tekumakumayakon"? I don't really understand it myself. But it's catchy!. I translated it as "Abracadabra... hocus-pocus...".