Re:Kinder Translation Notes
Translation notes for Re:Kinder, because there's quite a lot going on there. Full of spoilers.
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"Oh, this? I just bought it because I liked how the characters looked."
While the thing about Sayaka's shirt that says "widow" on it was just translated straight, it may be worth noting that the Japanese for widow is literally "not-yet-dead person." So, pretty appropriate for a character in this game!
And of course, through the mere fact of translation, the situation happened to gain an alternate meaning: making fun of people who think foreign writing is super stylish but don't have a clue what it means.
"Strangelove"
The name of Nightingale's attack comes from the Japanese title of Dr. Strangelove, which literally translates as "The Doctor's Abnormal Love." From what I can gather, somebody involved in the translation of the movie thought just putting "Strangelove" in katakana was too uncool.
And I'm not listing them individually, but a bunch of the other attacks are named after books and such.
"I don't comprehendrix."
"Wakarima-sen-yen," a portmanteau of "I don't understand" and "1000 yen." Just 'cause.
"If I told you... I'd have to kill you!"
Yuuichi simply says "I won't tell you. Jyan!", and Hiroto is bewildered at his reference to some old TV commercial. ("What's the secret to its taste?" "I won't tell you. JYAN.")
"AS IF I'D LET YOU!!"
I'm basically certain the "missile ending" is a reference to Kuniko Takahashi's "Sis RPGs," a series of insane RPG Maker games posted as videos to NicoNico (most of which I translated on YouTube).
The exact line "Saseru ka bokee!" appeared in a couple of those videos, towns exploding was a common occurence, and most significantly, a large number of them used the same bit from Hungarian Dance No. 5 to accompany either deaths or endings.
"Amore Medical. Amoredical. Amredical."
While orginally simply "Love Clinic," in Japanese that's "Ai-iin." Aiiin. Aiiiiiiiiiin. ...Yes.
"Aneha Apartments"
Hidetsugu Aneha is a Japanese architect famous for building shoddy buildings. That's about it, really.
"Hello, Rei. Do you want to play a game?"
Originally a reference to, of all things, the Kobe child murders. "This is the beginning of the game... You police guys stop me if you can... I desperately want to see people die, it is a thrill for me to commit murder."
Yuuichi quotes this, but then realizes he might have gotten the wording wrong and maybe should have checked that beforehand.
So... yeah, it's actually a fair bit darker than a mere Saw reference. I suppose I could have looked into similar events better known by English-speakers for an "equivalent." But it's not like the game has any shortage of dark stuff.
"Mind Illness"
"Kokoro no yamai," so "heart/soul/mind illness." Since it was clearly a term for mental illness in a world that doesn't properly recognize it, I figured it should be similar.
"DIE FREAK"
"Ki-chi-ga-i shi-ne," same thing. The English version pretty much "covers the same bases," but with a little extra because geez English why you gotta have so many letters.
"Rather than "favor tickets," I decided on a different kind of ticket. A parking ticket."
Googling absolutely would not find me the original reference for the punchline. It didn't help that it does that thing where one of the characters is replaced with a circle so as to avoid saying the name but still have it be obvious what it is. Like "Disn*y."
From context, I'm guessing a closer translation to the original would probably be "Tickets to see [Band No One Likes]." But this way, I don't have to think of a band to diss.
"I don't like sand."
Another apparent reference I just couldn't identify. Something about swinging knives around, and I had no idea what it had to do with anything, so whatever. Shunsuke immediately notes he was just making a dumb joke anyway.
"! -> B"
Oh boy, the original apartments puzzle. It's a bit hard to summarize, but here goes.
Each hint was of the format "Character -> (Character, Character)." The hints told you to make a table that read "i-ro-ha-ni-ho-he" (the start of the "Japanese alphabet") on each axis, and fill each row with "1 2 3 4 5 6" (or rather, "the sides of a die").
The idea was to use the "coordinates" on the right side to find the corresponding number on the table. Of course, since each row is the same, the "Y coordinate" is absolutely useless and only serves to confuse you.
The characters on the left gave the order. For this, the game merely gave the hint "ABC." On a Japanese keyboard, "A" shares the key with "chi," B with "ko," and C with "so." Nothing about "looking down," just... "ABC."
So essentially, I deemed the puzzle way overcomplicated. I removed the Y coordinate, shifted the keyboard keys idea so that it'd make sense with English keyboards, and revised the hints.
"Ni-chome Mama"
Yeah, um. If you Google Ni-chome, you'll soon find this: "[Shinjuku] Ni-chome further distinguishes itself as Tokyo's hub of gay subculture, housing the world's highest concentration of gay bars."
So yes, in the ending where everyone dies and Shunsuke nearly commits suicide, Takumi comes back as an Archangel and leads Shunsuke on a series of events that ends with him running a gay bar. Re:Kinder, everyone.
"Tera-Goko-Fuya-Tomi-Yanagi-Sakai..."
The women under the cherry blossoms recite a poem/song used to memorize the names of the roads in Tokyo. Not really sure why that, but then again, why most things in this game.
"Abrakadabaraouttahere!"
"Ajarakamokuren" is apparently part of a spell to ward off shinigami in an old rakugo story. It was also referenced in Doraemon I guess. But yeah, I wasn't really sure what to use instead.
"Mysterious Happiness"
The Hatsune Miku song that plays in the true end is "Mysterious Happiness" by Neji-P, posted back in 2007. The lyrics are a pretty typical yandere thing.
"Re:Kinder"
Given Shunsuke's final line, the title can be read in the "more kind" sense. However, it's definitely an intentional dual meaning with the German word "kinder" for "children," and I feel like that's supposed to be the "main" meaning.
For what it's worth, Nicopedia and Pixiv only mention the "children" meaning and give the pronunciation as "kihn-der."