Utena Fansub Ep 25 Translation Notes

Revolutionary Girl Utena Episode 25 Eternal Apocalypse For Two.mkv

Am I getting trigger happy with these title changes? Or are the themes of the show just getting hinted at more clearly in the Japanese titles as the show progresses, and the standard English translations are failing to convey those themes? Either way, this is another episode where I felt the need to retranslate the title. It’s usually translated as Our Eternal Apocalypse or Their Eternal Apocalypse. But this misses a very important piece of meaning — our/their (ふたりの) refers exclusively to two people. Therefore a better translation would be:

ふたりの永遠黙示録

ETERNAL APOCALYPSE FOR TWO

On top of this, Anya and I discussed alternatives that might sound more natural, at the expense of one of the two theme words (eternal or apocalypse). They suggested “endless apocalypse for two” or “eternal damnation for two”, which I really liked as titles. However, I think the Japanese is already slightly nonsensical and I think ensuring it comes across as such in English makes for a more accurate translation. One reason it comes across as nonsensical (or maybe not nonsensical but… using vocab exclusive to the show?) is that 永遠 is not a descriptor of 黙示録, since there’s no の particle present between them — the two words are combined into a compound word. Another reason is that 黙示録 doesn’t mean “Apocalypse” or “Revelation”, but specifically “The Book of Revelation”. It’s not an apocalypse that lasts forever but an eternal whatever-the-Book-of-Revelation-represents, I guess?

We also discussed who the “two” are that are being referred to in the title and agreed it’s likely referring to Saionji and Touga. Saionji is implied to be searching for an eternal or unchanging friendship, and this theme is reinforced by the shadow girl play. Interestingly I think the shadow girls are referring to Saionji (not Utena) when they say 勇者様 (lit. master hero; my translation: “brave sir knight”).

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One big challenge of translation is preserving tone in cases of non-standard speech. For example, Wakaba speaks to Utena in an extremely casual schoolgirl-esque way. And because of this, many of the words she uses don’t carry specific meaning, but instead convey tone or emotion. For example:

Wakaba: もう超ラッキーって感じね！

Wakaba: It’s like, wow, you’re so lucky!

In this line, もう does not appear literally as in “already”, it appears as a tone indicator slash filler word, similar to the way “like” is used in English in casual feminine speech.

And in this line:

Wakaba: ウキウキラブラブーの展開なんて

Wakaba: I’d be all, “Ahhhh! He’s gorgeous!

The two consecutive 擬態語 (gitaigo — onomatopoeic words that describe actions or feelings that don’t make physical noise) are also a characteristic of casual speech, and very hard to translate directly. If you had to adhere closer to the source, you might translate it like so:

It’s a happy-happy-lovey-lovey development!

But let’s look at the true meaning here: ウキウキ is a happy or exciting vibe, and ラブラブ indicates an idyllic-romantic vibe. And to my ear, gitaigo feel closer to emotion than other words. It’s like, the emotions are too strong for her to be able to think of an actual word so all she can do is make the “sound” of her feelings. So to replicate that in English, I had her express her inner monologue directly!

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I really felt this scene in my soul when I watched it again this time around. After doing my initial translation, I decided to check the ohtori scripts out of a morbid curiosity, and I found what I expected — bad translations!

Utena: ね、もし君に何か困ったことがあったら、まず僕に話してよ。なんでも助け合おうよ。君とはそういう友達になりたいんだ。

Utena: Hey, if you ever need to talk about something, I’m always here. Let’s be there for each other. I want to be that kind of friend for you. (my translation)

I wrote this translation the way I would convey the same sentiment to a close friend. I think it reads pretty genuinely and naturally. Now compare and contrast with the stilted alternative:

Utena: Hey, if something ever troubles you, come talk to me about it first. No matter what, we’ll help each other. That’s the kind of friends I want us to be. (from ohtori.nu)

A big thanks as always to my incredible editor @dontbe-lasanya! Your insights into the title translation were invaluable.

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Rose divider taken from this post.