Jigglypuff · Southern Islands (SI) #8

2 comments

1. 

   Ambassador

   (2 years ago)

   Notwithstanding Marill, Slowking, and Togepi, all of the Pokédex entries for cards in the Japanese edition of the Southern Island set verbatim lift their Pokédex entries from Pocket Monsters Yellow Version. The English dex entries are, well, not that. Southern Islands Jigglypuff is a decent example that, contrary to what Bulbapedia suggests (and tbh what i also assumed for a very long time), these dex entries are not “reworded” from the video game entries, but are instead independently done (new) translations of the JP entries.

   JP Yellow: つぶらな 瞳で 相手を 見つめたあと 不思議で 心地よい 歌を 聴かせて 眠らせてしまう。
   JP Southern Islands: つぶらな瞳で相手を見つめた後、不思議で心地よい歌をきかせて、眠らせてしまう。
   EN Yellow: Uses its alluring eyes to enrapture its foe. It then sings a pleasing melody that lulls the foe to sleep.
   EN Southern Islands: After lulling its enemies with its large eyes, this Pokémon sings them to sleep with a relaxing melody.

   n.b. The point here isn’t so much whether the translation is good or bad so much as trying to determine its pedigree. Ivysaur is another card from this set whose various entries you might take a look at if you’re not convinced these are new translations.

   It’s worth reinforcing the point that WOTC translated and printed these cards out of sync with when they came out in Japan – these are “Original Series” / “Gen 1” cards which came out on a delayed timeframe and ended up being Neo / “Generation 2” cards for the English & other language editions of the game. In terms of WOTC taking shortcuts where it could with the dex entries, my impression is they might’ve checked the new GS dex entries for these Pokémon, didn’t find a match, and then checked the RB entries they’d previously used for most of the original series, didn’t find a match, and from there assumed these were brand new, TCG-exclusive entries (something they’d already encountered with the entirety of Team Rocket), and went about translating them as such.

   Speaking in general terms insofar as how WOTC handled dex entries for Generation I and what happened in the translation process;
   · JP cards with JP R/G entries got the EN R/B entries pasted in, even though the entries often do not match at all. This is generally the case for Base, Jungle, Fossil, and some promos.
   · JP cards with JP B entries got the EN R/B entry copy-pasted in, which works well enough since in that case the entries are going to match. This is generally the case for some promos.
   · JP cards with JP Y entries got new EN TCG-only translations. This is generally the case for Southern Islands, as well as some promo cards.
   · JP cards with JP TCG-only entries got new EN TCG-only translations. This is generally the case for Team Rocket (with Dark Raichu a notable exception).

   While I’m here, Generation II can more or less be summed up as follows;
   · Neo Genesis, Discovery, and Revelation all seem to use Gold or Silver entries, and WOTC diligently copy-pastes the entries from the corresponding video games rather than attempt new translations. There are some quirks here and there – sometimes extra words are added or left out (which makes me think rather than copypasting from a file NOA sent them, someone at WOTC actually played the games or something to get the entries, and then wrote them out?) but this generally holds.
   · Neo Destiny throws them for a loop because Crystal entries are added into the mix, and even though some cards do use their Gold or Silver entries, WOTC seems to have assumed they must *all* be new entries and so translated them all anew.

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2. 

   Ambassador

   (2 years ago)

   *Notwithstanding LEDYBA, Marill, Slowking, and Togepi…
   Forgetting Ledyba makes me feel almost as cruel as the comments on its N4 print.. :-(

   Reply