God Slayers - Page 234 - High Res

Taisuko's one-liner there was quite a process. Roughly translated, it means:

"Behold, my unsavory savior."

Originally their line was going to just be "哀れな..." or "Pathetic..." which wouldn't have required any translation because their expression alone says more. But I wanted to explore different ways for them to express themselves with a little bit more personality, I settled on the latter, which... as an anchoring phrase for this page, almost feels like it wants an on-page translation, and I thought seriously about including one... but I've not established that I'll be doing that on the 233 pages before this one and I really don't want to make it a precedent going forward. It could eat up a lot of space on the page and I still sort of enjoy the idea of letting people wonder about what's being said there. Let people read it if they can, otherwise, let them guess, or leave them with the freedom to look it up themselves if they feel so inclined.

So hopefully, without the translation, the message is still conveyed well enough through art alone. I do worry though that, since it's now three words instead of only one, many people may feel more like they're missing something important, when I'd argue they're really not. Taisuko's biting internal commentary doesn't really add much to this page nor does it affect the story in any way. Actually, as the character's been evolving in my head, I'm beginning to see them as sort of a... in-universe critic, if that makes sense.

Anyway, when I say that it is a ROUGH translation, it is because one of the beautiful things about Japanese is that it doesn't always translate very cleanly into English. If I translate Taisuko's line literally, it's more like, "came, unsightly champion." 出た(deta),　無様(buzama)　勇者(yūsha), but given the context, it can be interpreted more like "there it is, the (ungraceful/unsightly/clumsy/awkward) man of valor," (as 無様buzama is a single adjective that suggests something is just all-around pretty embarrassingly gross and awful, and yūsha specifically implies sort of an epic/fantasy style hero) and based on Taisuko's expression we can imagine them thinking this all in a very sarcastic, deadpan tone. Context, expression and body language are all a part of communication after all. Though the latter is probably pretty difficult for poor Taisuko right now.

Which is why, if I were to translate it into English, I'd give it just a little more of a biting sarcasm with "behold" and a little more poetic alliteration with "unsavory savior," in an effort to capture just a little more flavor in the translation. The meaning is effectively the same, with only some implied nuances being lost in translation.

So... yeah! When I use Japanese to represent my universe's Takaigo language, I do try to research each word and phrase I use as thoroughly as I can to achieve the best clarity and accuracy, but I am certainly no expert and I fully expect to make tons of mistakes. SO! Take this with a grain of salt, but I do believe that's what it says, based on using 2 translators and my favorite Japanese to English dictionary. If there's anything I've misunderstood, I'd love to know!