Utena Fansub Ep 39 Translation Notes

Revolutionary Girl Utena Episode 39 Someday, Let’s Shine Together.mkv

Akio, in a white prince’s uniform with long lavender hair, looks down at Anthy, who wears a red dress and clutches her chest as she looks up at him against a fiery red-orange background. The subtitle reads “You know everything about the world, and that is why you chose this path.”

Anthy reaches up and touches Akio’s face as he leans down towards her, against a fiery red-orange background. The subtitle reads “I know everything about you, and that is why I love you.”

Anthy: あなたは世界のすべてを知った上で、この道を選んだ方です。
Akio: お前のすべてを知った上で、愛している。

Anthy: You know everything about the world, and that is why you chose this path.
Akio: I know everything about you, and that is why I love you.

This was a very difficult translation, and probably the lines I spent the longest on in the entire episode. Anthy’s line is meant to convey that the choice Akio made was made after he considered all the knowledge in the world. In other words, the choice was built on his supposed omniscience. I originally translated it quite differently:

Anthy: Knowing everything about the world, you chose this path.

But I wasn’t happy with how it sounded a bit awkward and didn’t have a nice cadence. I played around with lots of variations!

You are the one who chose this path, with all the knowledge of the world.

(more literal, swaps the phrase order)

With all the knowledge of the world, you chose this path.

The other thing I needed to consider was that Akio’s line needs to mirror Anthy’s, so although I really liked this one, I didn’t like Akio’s equivalent:

Akio: With all the knowledge of you, I love you.

Sounds a bit weird, right?

Funnily enough, the translation that ended up in the episode came to me in the shower after playing around with these variations for ages! To me, the biggest perk of the final translation is how both lines sound equally natural and emotionally weighty.

The episode’s ending title card: white text on black. The English reads “SOMEDAY, LET’S SHINE TOGETHER” above the Japanese title “いつか一緒に輝いて”.

Episode ending card: SOMEDAY, LET’S SHINE TOGETHER

This episode’s title is often translated as “Someday, Together, We’ll Shine” or “Someday, We Will Shine Together”. It’s not a bad translation, but there’s a few reasons I prefer mine. First, the て conjugation means it’s a request, which makes “We’ll Shine” an unusual choice since it implies that their shining is inevitable, rather than something Himemiya has agency over and something Utena is asking of her (which is arguably the point of the whole finale!)

The phrasing also implies a casual request, between friends. Instead of something like “please shine together with me”, I chose “let’s” because it conveys the same level of casual familiarity.

Another reason I prefer my translation is that, importantly, this line is left unfinished in the climax of the episode:

A close-up of a tearful, sweating Utena with her eyes half closed, her face against her red-and-gold shoulder pad. The subtitle reads “Someday, let’s…”

Utena: Someday, let’s…

And I really wanted the unfinished line to sound natural and fit with Utena’s tone. “Someday, together…” sounds really weird in this context.

I considered “someday, won’t/will you shine with me?” but it didn’t feel as cliffhangery when left half finished, and I felt the tone didn’t fit with Utena’s character.

An empty, shadowy corridor of white arches with light falling across the floor, and a doorway at the far end. A Japanese credit reads “作画監督長谷川眞也” (animation director Shinya Hasegawa), and the italic subtitle reads “I told you before, that kid who wears the boys’ uniform.”

ほら、言ったじゃない？いつも男装してた子でさ。

I told you before, that kid who wears the boy’s uniform.

The same arched corridor, now with a small figure standing in the far doorway. A Japanese credit reads “演出髙橋亨” (episode director Tooru Takahashi), and the italic subtitle reads “Them!”

あー思い出した！あの人か！いたいた！

Oh, I remember! Them! I know them!

In the final scene, I didn’t even notice this on my first watch. But rewatching this for the translation I realised no one uses any explicitly gendered words at all to refer to Utena, except for Akio. The girls gossiping always use あの子 “that kid” or あの人 “that person”. Anthy also uses あの人, while Akio uses the explicitly gendered 彼女 “she/her”. It should be noted that あの子 is more often used to refer to girls, but it isn’t strictly gendered and can definitely be used to refer to boys too. Realising this made me feel so much more justified in my gradual use of neutral pronouns for Utena (you could argue this scene would hit harder if it was the first time they got themmed, but that would come at the expense of all the other scenes).

Anthy, in a pink jacket with her long purple hair down and Chu-Chu on her shoulder, stands in front of a domed academy building under a blue sky. The subtitle reads “Utena.”

Anthy: 待っててね、ウテナ。

Anthy: I’m coming, Utena.

This line!!! This is the line I’ve been waiting the entire show to translate!!!

Post by @haru-dipthong: “hejhej, thank you for the post about the use of pronouns in SKU. Insights about the Japanese context in the show are somet…”

Post by @haru-dipthong: “No ask but a big compliment and admiration for all the thouhtful and detailed work you put into the fansub! Really great to…”

As you can see from these posts, this is one of the things that inspired me to write a new translation for utena. Anthy not including the sama honorific says so much and hits so hard in Japanese that despite me generally having an aversion to including or translating honorifics in translated English text at all, I knew from the beginning that I would need to translate “sama” somehow. This led me to the “Master Utena” translation which I thought was pretty clever! I wanted the feeling of “Anthy is no longer indentured to Utena” to come across via the omission of a word, and I think I achieved that here! It was a long build up but a big payoff!

And that’s a wrap! 🥹🥹

I’ll be taking some time off from translating since I now don’t have the pressure of all my followers waiting for the next episode to release 😅 but I’ll be back with the movie after… an unspecified amount of time. I’m also unsure if I want to start on Dandadan first or the movie first.

The biggest thank you to my partner in crime @dontbe-lasanya, I absolutely could not have done this without you. You’re an incredible editor and I hope we can work together again (even after we do the movie)!

Thank you to my irl partner Chynna for supporting me while I’ve been working on this! I love you so much and I love how we support each other in our creative pursuits 🥹❤️❤️ You’re the best!

And thank you too all of you who have watched our translation!! It’s been a huge undertaking and especially thank you to the people who have been following from the very early days! I wouldn’t have had the drive to finish this without knowing so many people were waiting for the next episode!

For all episodes of my Utena fansub, you can go to this link :’)

Haru Dipthong’s Utena Fansub - Google Drive

Rose divider taken from this post.