Utena Fansub Ep 5 Translation Notes
Revolutionary Girl Utena Episode 05 The Sunlit Garden Finale.mkv
かしらかしら、でもかしら！
My oh my, Captain, my Captain!
There’s a cute bit of wordplay that happens in the original Japanese - 頭（かしら） means captain, which is the same (besides tone) as the old-fashioned feminine sentence ending particle かしら , which the shadow girls always start their sequence by saying. I tried to keep some semblence of wordplay here by including a reference to Dead Poets’ Society (??) that plays off the “my oh my” at the start of every scene with them. This was honestly the best I could think of hahaha
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Miki: どれほど技術を磨いても、僕はその音色を出すためだけにピアノを続けてるのに。だけど彼女の、姫宮さんのピアノにはそれがあるんです。
Utena: それって痘痕も笑窪ってやつ？
Miki: No matter how much my technique improved, I could never capture that quality of her playing. And that’s all I continue to play for. But HER playing… Himemiya-san’s has it.
Utena: So you’re the “Love is blind” type, then. (from ohtori.nu)
Miki: No matter how much I practiced, I could never play the song the way my sister did. That’s the only reason I still play. To hear that sound again. But… I can hear it when Anthy plays.
Utena: Are you sure you don’t just like her? (my translation)
The japanese idiom 痘痕も笑窪 literally means “pockmarks are dimples”. It’s used to say how when you’re in love with someone, you see everything they do as positive. What Utena’s implying here is that Anthy isn’t actually that amazing at the piano, Miki is just hearing what he wants to hear because he’s got a crush on her. I think this is a different kind of vibe to the english phrase “love is blind”. I decided to translate this sentiment rather than the words themselves.
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君の妹は、君に似てかわいいね。それに君に似て素直だ。
Your sister is as pretty as you are. And just as agreeable… (from ohtori.nu)
Your sister is cute, like you. And she listens to me. Like you. (my translation)
I think this is a really important line to get right, because it’s the first time we see Touga actively being a conniving, manipulative piece of shit, and the dialogue needs to reflect that. Translating 素直 as “agreeable” is just… ugh. A more accurate word would be “obedient”, because the point of the line is the double entendre between Kozue being sexually obedient and Miki being obedient and not going against Touga’s political wishes. But “obedient” in the latter context is a bit too strong of a word. He’s meant to be appealing to Miki, like “you’re such a good friend/kouhai, you always listen to me”, trying to guilt Miki into not pushing the “disband the council” idea. Using “obedient” makes the manipulation feel a bit heavy-handed when really it’s quite deft. So I decided to go with “listens to me” instead.
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Thanks as always to @dontbe-lasanya for their editing!
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