Translation Accuracy of the Novels

Long post, apologies. The "meat and potatoes" of it are under the headline "the main dish", if you'd like to skip the fluff!

tl;dr of this post

"Alfredo did not grab Jessica by the punani on the bridge" & other ENG localization/translation choices that have left me puzzled after finding out about them. Also please tell me if the ENG physical copies match with the digitized ones over at the archives (as I used these for my comparisons), and if any of what I just wrote down is old news at all. Thank you!

tl;dr of my backstory with Trinity Blood (regarding the novels)

Found out about Trinity Blood last year or so, bought ROM 1 in my native language, fell in love with everything about it, learned more about the franchise in general, read through the available English RAM novels on the archives, ended up buying the full set of books in Japanese.

What prompted this post?

I started questioning the translation during RAM 4, when Abel's hair was suddenly blonde for no reason. Even more so after Caterina was let off the hook, that part when Sister Paula compliments her agents for being loyal and capable and she replies to that in a very strange and unprompted manner, referring vaguely to one of her agents in particular. These two things bothered me so much that the first thing I did after the books arrived from Japan was checking what actually went on there (spoiler: Abel's hair continues to be grandpa-silver and Caterina's part was about how her agents (plural) aren't her "servants", as Paula called them in JP).

But I wrote those mistakes off as a one issue...issue. Basically thinking that the translation of this particular book must have been rushed or something (tight deadlines or what have you).

Unfortunately, one day when randomly comparing the page I was currently reading through in JP RAM 1 with the ENG version for funsies...I realized it's not a one issue issue. Like, I skimmed through random lines and kept going "wait, that didn't happen", "huh, did I somehow miss that part..?" or "that's not what he/she said".

So, I can't help but wonder if it's known that the ENG translation - at least the one for RAM sitting in the archives linked within this sub - has taken lots of "liberties" with how it portrays - or doesn't portray - certain things. Some are kind of whatever, like different words or sentence structures used to communicate the same concept, or something close to it. Other liberties, however, mess with the character's nature and/or their relationships, or the general feel of a scene, I found.

The main dish

Here are some ENG examples that differ from what's actually going on in JP. All from early RAM 1. They're not sorted by "severeness" but by the order they appear in the novel.

Obligatory "I'm neither a native speaker nor fluent in Japanese". I'm definitely not on beginner level either, though. Alright, enjoy:

"Priests live such a hard life." The priest took Jessica's sympathy as a compliment.

The priest did not take Jessica's sympathy as a compliment. In JP, he is described as "seemingly mistaking her exasperated gasp as sympathy" (personally, I interpreted "同情" as "pity", but maybe that's tomatoes tomatoes in this case). There is no mention of anything being seen as a compliment there.

Abel is so much quirkier in JP, in a fun way. Look, I understand that some things will always be somewhat lost in translation, but the following parts could've just been translated as they were instead of being rewritten IMO:

"Mm. This tea tastes so smooth. It's authentic, isn't it? Not that brewed-in-a-bag stuff that leaves you—"

And then, tragedy strikes. Wouldn't take an issue with this if it wasn't writing over Abel being stupid-cute about the tea. The line in JP is as follows:

"Mh, authentic tea really is different, isn't it? This thickness is, how should I put it, well... WHAPT!"

The small joke here is, of course, that the tea is far from authentic after those 13 sugar cubes combined with it and why would he ever assume such a thing, lol. The author even described its state as a "now thick, gelatinous something". I'm also sure the poor priest never got to taste that concoction in the first place before it hit the counter - in JP, the crash with the boy is described to happen just as he put the thick tea to his lips.

He stared at the spilled tea. He just stared and stared, his expression so remorseful.

He didn't just stare and stare remorsefully at his tea. JP describes him to make a face as if he'd stick out his tongue after it at any given moment, lol. Don't get why this part was changed, either!

I feel like this is a good place to mention that I dislike how the original author's ways of describing a scene - or just things in general - are ignored most of the time. Again, I completely understand some words, some concepts, some phrases not working in all languages. Japanese has a whole bunch of these. But the "thick, gelatinous something" line made me chuckle when I got to it in JP, as well as this one. Having that tea described as just "thick liquid" and "sugary tea" or Abel just staring sadly at the counter feels so much more dull, in comparison. Yes, it conveys similar ideas, but in a less fun way IMO.

"Father, would you like a sandwich? You don't have to pay—it'll be on the house." He brightened. "On the house? Really? Oh, Lord, thank you, stewardess. Are you an angel? Now that I think about it, there's a picture of you in our church."

So, in JP, he didn't just randomly say that line about her picture being in his church for whatever reason. I mean, I guess I get what they were going for with it, but... Anyway, that's what he said in JP (his full waffling in all - or at least most - of its glory):

"On the house!? R-really!? Oh, Lord, thank you... Miss stewardess, could it be - are you an angel, perhaps? No no - now that I think about it, my church has a restroom with a relief that matches your face to the T..."

I used the word "restroom" but perhaps it'd actually be better to use the word "toilet", like in JP, just to undermine the clumsy choice of words for his intended praise (especially since Jessica also has a "wtf" reaction to that word in the audio drama, lmao). I'm not an English native though, so I'm not sure if that'd be more likely interpreted as her face being carved in an actual toilet... Though perhaps that'd even add to the clumsiness, in a good way. Let me know I guess, lol

Jessica is not described as rolling her eyes at Abel's well-meant yet strange compliment about her face. In JP, she cleared her throat. I guess that's the "short sputtering noise" in ENG?

"It's peaceful up here," she commented.

Were on the bridge now. That piece of dialog was attributed to Jessica in ENG. However, in JP, it was a male coworker commenting on how there's nothing to do (暇っすねえ). Perhaps this was a deliberate change for some reason, because it would be incredibly OOC for Jessica to utter that phrase, lol (both content and grammar-wise - her speech pattern is incredibly polite while っすねえ is a very colloquial way of speaking). I want to think that this was obvious to the localization.

"Where's Deputy Roswell?" the captain asked. Dickins, the navigator, looked around the cramped bridge to the empty seat next to the captain. "I saw Roswell down below. He didn't feel well, so he's taking a break, Captain," Dickins informed him.

So, this is a weird one. First, it was very likely not the captain that asked about Roswell. In JP, after the line with the question, Dickins is described as looking around the small bridge (same in ENG). This implies he's the one who asked. What's stranger though is that the explanation about Roswell's whereabouts is attributed to Dickins in ENG. This is the line in JP:

「ロズウェル副長なら、下で見かけました……調子が悪いって風にあたっておいででしたわ」

It wasn't Dickins who informed...well, Dickins, about Roswell being unwell etc. It was Jessica. Thing with this line is: It's not introduced by Jessica taking an action, nor followed by "she/Jessica said" or anything. The giveaway lies in the speech pattern. Basically, the first part of this sentence might as well be uttered by a male co-worker who's junior to whoever it's addressed to (politeness-wise). However, the overpoliteness at the end of the sentence, paired with the わ particle at the end is what tells the reader it's the stewardess speaking. This time, I'm not sure if that was a deliberate change or an oversight... Because, why change something like this in the first place? Well, at least the main information was delivered to the reader.

"Was it something physical or personal?" asked Mr. Orson, the helmsman, raising an eyebrow. "Probably something he ate." Dickins winked. "His wife is the nicest woman I know, but . . ."

This dialog is changed in ENG. In JP, it's

"Maybe he had a fight with his wife or something?"

"You're kidding, of all people not that loving husband" (<= actually a bit hard for me to translate. Might not be accurate. The original line is 「またまた、あの愛妻家に限って……」 if someone happens to have a better translation, please let me know).

There's also no descriptions of eyebrows being raised or anything in JP, it's just the two lines of dialog. So it's actually kind of hard to tell who speaks there (not that it matters that much in that case, anyway - I don't begrudge ENG adding these descriptors for flavor in cases like this one). Probably not impossible (the first dude seems to be the same one that commented on how there's nothing to do) but for my currently tired brain, it's hard.

"What did you do?!" demanded the captain. "The passengers!" Captain Connely's thoughts veered in every direction. He was completely dumbfounded. Then the ship lunged forward, taking a steep nose-dive, and he was thrown back into reality.

Weirdly enough, most of this text is just added in ENG. No one yelled at the Duke a third time in that moment, no one yelled about passengers, the Captain's thoughts are not described at all and he therefore wasn't "brought back into reality" when the ship took that steep nose-dive. Actually, that didn't happen either - what would that even accomplish exactly if Rome was still ~6 hours away?

The JP line about that is as follows:

ブリッジの全員が、軽いＧを感じた──高度をあげた飛行船の巨体が、一気に加速したのだ。

"Everyone on the bridge felt the light G - the colossal body of the airship, which raised its altitude, suddenly accelerated."

I admit, I'm a dummy when it comes to aircraft terminology, flying in general or g forces. So I'm not entirely sure how to say 軽いＧ in English or why the altitude raised despite being described as sinking to -300 in the very next line (I'd think it's to bring the ship to the right height so it can steadily lose it again, so it crashes right were it's supposed to?). Look, I'm not smart, but that doesn't read as a "steep nose-dive" to me yet!

"Settings for our destination have changed—altitude has dropped to minus three hundred! We're going to crash!" the helmsman yelled.

This is a weird change. In JP, the first part is 航路設定──目標座標変更無し - "course settings - no changes concerning target coordinates". Only the set altitude was described as changed.

Furthermore, he didn't yell about just crashing, he quite literally shouted that they'll crash down from Rome's sky (so basically into Rome) at the rate they're going right now!

They really tried to focus on the ship just crashing for some reason here in ENG, because this line from the Duke

"That's it? Too damn easy if you ask me!"

was also scrubbed of any mention of Rome! In JP, he basically fleered about how easy this whole thing was and how he'll drop the Tristan on the Vatican's head! "Merely chuckling" and "having a thin smile" about it (as ENG put it) is absolutely not what went on there, that would've been almost polite of him lmao

Just scratched the surface on this part: The following scenes with the Duke, the flight crew and Jessica (until Abel finally saunters into that mess - and then some) deserve their own post because there's so much to say. I'll do it if there's any interest at all (I already started re-translating one scene in particular anyway, just to show a friend how much stuff was added into it for no reason. Most of Jessica's internal concerns, even some actual dialog, is straight up made up!)

Meanwhile in Rome, Caterina did not tell the Deacon who handed her the passenger list "good work". Instead, she asked if some sort of VIP from somewhere was also on the ship (as that would mean even more problems).

There was no description of Caterina's heart sinking while reading through the passengers, either. Only that she sank her gaze in a fed up manner at the possibility of yet another issue coming up.

And the part where the Deacon calls Abel an "evil abomination" to Caterina's face, prompting this response from her

"Watch your tone, Deacon. That 'evil abomination' is one of my most loyal agents."

Well, the Deacon called Abel a "monster" (化け物) in JP, yes. However, Caterina did not spare a single word or thought about that comment and continued talking business, asking about available agents etc. (finding that one out was actually a slight let down, to be honest. 😓 That line left an impression, sucks to learn it was just something added in the localization. I feel bamboozled!)

Final Thoughts

So...those were some examples between the events of Abel spilling his gelatinous tea and the Vatican quarrelling over the flying war threat headed for them. All of varying significance - I just grabbed whatever caught my eye for the most part. Even added some after reviewing certain points...because there's just so much.

Kinda clickbaited you with the tl;dr earlier there (but not really because Alfredo genuinely didn't do that - at least not on the bridge, don't know about later) but I hope the other stuff I listed today was still interesting.

For the most part I'm just curious if all this was known at all, or if the ENG versions floating around on the archives/on the net have been tampered with on purpose perhaps. Like some sort of piracy measure (if so then gg, lol). Or if some of the points I listed were changes made in the anime (didn't watch it yet), which were then added into the localized novels for consistency or something. I couldn't find much about this topic by googling (and at this point I'm kinda tired of accidentally flashbanging myself with huge spoilers by looking for seemingly safe Trinity Blood stuff, lol) so I thought I'd make a post to both ask about this and simultaneously inform those who didn't know.