Utena Fansub Ep 3 Translation Notes
Revolutionary Girl Utena Episode 03 On The Night Of The Ball.mkv
This episode’s translation discussion:
でも私、人が大勢いるような場所は苦手なんです。なんだか、みんな同じような顔の人に見えて、怖いんです。
But I feel it’s hard for me to deal with a place where there are so many people. Somehow, they all start to look the same, and that frightens me. (from ohtori.nu)
But I’m not comfortable in large crowds. Everyone’s faces start to blur together. It’s quite frightening. (my translation)
If you’ve seen all of Utena, you know the real reason why crowds trigger Anthy’s trauma response. I think the phrase 同じような顔の人に見えて is less about the fact that they all literally start to “have the same face” and more about the fact that they’re seen as one mass, losing their individuality and becoming a mob. Based on this read, and on the visual that happens later (pictured above) I decided to go with “blur together”. I’m sure no one will ever really notice this tiny detail, but I’m hoping if I can make as many translations that are similarly informed by the themes of the work as possible, it’ll be a stronger translation for it!
あのねー、こう見えても僕は健全な女子なの。
Look dude. Despite how I seem, I’m just a normal girl.
I really wanted to preserve the hilarious contradiction present in the Japanese where Utena is saying they’re a normal girl while still using boku. They’ve got one foot on the accelerator and one foot on the brake of their gender with this line — ending it in a feminine なの particle.
Courier: 桐生会長からです。
Utena: え？僕に？
Courier: From the student president.
Utena: What? From him?
Although Utena’s Japanese literally means “For me?” I think that English phrase sounds quite feminine in the context of receiving a gift. However, Utena is using their masculine 僕 pronoun, so the Japanese doesn’t sound nearly as feminising as the English literal translation. I decided to change their reaction to be “From him?” because it’s less feminine, and because the gendered implications in this scene and following scenes are more important than the literal meaning of the words.
甘えん坊だな、わが妹君は。
Ah little sister, always fawning over me.
A difficult translation. 甘えん坊 is often translated as “spoiled” but in this case it’s meant more as someone who sucks up or craves attention of their parents (or in this case, brother). Also, Touga is using some extremely pretentious vocab here, the possessive わが which is very old fashioned, so I wanted to get some of that pompousness into the translation as well. I think “fawning over me” was a great find that fit really well!
Touga: 想像以上だ！
Touga: Even more beautiful than I imagined.
I almost made this “You’re even more beautiful than I imagined”. The reason I didn’t was because I think Touga here is almost not even talking to Utena as a person. He’s so deep in the objectification vortex that he’s talking about them to himself, like they’re a piece of art.
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Thanks as always to @dontbe-lasanya for their amazing editing!
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