Katawa Shoujo Forums

Wow. No wonder it took a western dev team to get this game made.

sporkaganza wrote:

MDV wrote:It's SanCom, take it with a grain of salt. Artefact is a known sensationalist, he probably picks out the most negative of responses to publish on Sankaku.

Hey, the neutral ones are probably pretty boring, right? What worries me more is that there seems to be a profound lack of positive reaction - although that might be because I don't think the Japanese translation hasn't been released yet to my knowledge. I remember when the Japanese translation of Act 1 came out, a few people quite liked it.

There probably appears to be no positive reaction for the same reason as the neutral ones.

Honestly, I think changing the name of the game is stupid. Political correctness is stupid, and Japan is stupid. If people aren't willing to ignore the title and play the game then they aren't the kind of people who should be playing this game anyway. Isn't that the whole point of the game? Not judging people by their exteriors?

Haven't we figured out that the two cultures are just different by now? I mean FFS.

Like Pokemon is still pretty big with kids here but little do most people know about cut stuff like the lost episode with James crossdressing in a bikini with inflatable boobs.

I think some times people just need to get over it. It wasn't intended to be offensive - deal with it.

These quotes were compiled by the guy who owns Sankaku. I would take what he posts with a grain of salt.

Apparently Katawa Shoujo has been received quite well at all of the events (Comiket and so on) that the Japanese translation team has brought the game/artbooks to. I wonder how far along translations are for those who can't read English....

toast wrote:Honestly, I think changing the name of the game is stupid. Political correctness is stupid, and Japan is stupid. If people aren't willing to ignore the title and play the game then they aren't the kind of people who should be playing this game anyway. Isn't that the whole point of the game? Not judging people by their exteriors?

To be fair, I doubt you (or even I, for that matter) can fully understand the nuance of the Japanese language.
It doesn't seem as offensive to us, and it's easier to ignore the title because it's in another language.

However, you have to realize that in the Japanese language, there are many separate words that mean basically the exact same thing, but they are used based on context and politeness.
When we translate words from Japanese, this nuance is often lost because we do not have equivalents.
Example: The phrase "Thank You" can be said many different ways, each way implying a different level of respect. どうも (Doomo) and ありがとうございます can be translated as the exact same thing but in the nuance of the Japanese language, can mean very different things.

Basically, the cleanest-cut example I can give you is this extremely crude one:
Let's say someone in Japan made a visual novel about gay relationships, and called gave it an English name like "F__got boy"

Now, the devs didn't do this on purpose, and it's quite a unique case what they're dealing with (after all, it was based off of a Japanese artist.)
I don't actually think anybody involved with the creation of the game meant any harm. It's a rather beautiful thing, really. They could have gone for a fetishistic and materialistic route, but the way they handled the characters was very mature and appropriate, as well as eye opening. However, like with the example I gave above, the title will put some people off Japan the same way "F_____ Boy" would do in the Anglosphere.
However, if there is ever an officially sanctioned or fan-translated version of the game released in Japan, they should probably replace "Katawa" with something more appropriate.

Yuno wrote:

toast wrote:Honestly, I think changing the name of the game is stupid. Political correctness is stupid, and Japan is stupid. If people aren't willing to ignore the title and play the game then they aren't the kind of people who should be playing this game anyway. Isn't that the whole point of the game? Not judging people by their exteriors?

To be fair, I doubt you (or even I, for that matter) can fully understand the nuance of the Japanese language.
It doesn't seem as offensive to us, and it's easier to ignore the title because it's in another language.

However, you have to realize that in the Japanese language, there are many separate words that mean basically the exact same thing, but they are used based on context and politeness.
When we translate words from Japanese, this nuance is often lost because we do not have equivalents.
Example: The phrase "Thank You" can be said many different ways, each way implying a different level of respect. どうも (Doomo) and ありがとうございます can be translated as the exact same thing but in the nuance of the Japanese language, can mean very different things.

Basically, the cleanest-cut example I can give you is this extremely crude one:
Let's say someone in Japan made a visual novel about gay relationships, and called gave it an English name like "F__got boy"

Now, the devs didn't do this on purpose, and it's quite a unique case what they're dealing with (after all, it was based off of a Japanese artist.)
I don't actually think anybody involved with the creation of the game meant any harm. It's a rather beautiful thing, really. They could have gone for a fetishistic and materialistic route, but the way they handled the characters was very mature and appropriate, as well as eye opening. However, like with the example I gave above, the title will put some people off Japan the same way "F_____ Boy" would do in the Anglosphere.
However, if there is ever an officially sanctioned or fan-translated version of the game released in Japan, they should probably replace "Katawa" with something more appropriate.

But meanwhile I feel we should all know this in the meta state of things. It's not just because of different language and people speaking English and not getting the Japanese implication - or at least it shouldn't be - because you just described WHY this occurs, which means that the phenomenon can be known, and therefore accounted for.

I could understand misunderstandings happening out of ignorance but in this case I don't think that anyone is ignorant - by knowing the reason that this language difference occurs, they should also know the reason why they don't need to make a big deal out of it, because they are one and the same.

OP here.


Please note that this is 2ch we are dealing with, they are known to be crazy right-wing extremist conservatists.

It looks like the negative reaction is really about the name. I guess they could change it for the Japanese release but is there any point? It's free, after all.
I'm sure once people start playing the story they'll realise that it's not meant to be offensive in the slightest. Just a bit of a lingo hiccup! Strange English in manga and game titles is not uncommon, after all. We still read/play them regardless!

I think they need to lighten up.. I see japanese kids with shirts plaster with "FUCK STREET!" and other obscene ramblings all the time (ie. disrespecting and fucking our languange up) and it happens once on the other end of the spectrum and they become unwilling to even TRY the game? We deal with their shit all the time and overlook it! I could give a damn less about the title.. The story is what compels people and if they can't get past the title to even play the game, then they don't deserve something so beautiful... (and this is coming from someone who quite loves the culture of japan AND is deaf, so yeah...) I think that they need to stop acting like they give a fuck.. It seems like they want to "defend" the disabled, even though it seems to me that are of the fans of the game ARE disabled.. They seriously need to just get over it...

Guest wrote:I wonder how far along translations are for those who can't read English....

They haven't started yet but probably will soon.
Read here for details.

Rivin wrote:I think they need to lighten up.. I see japanese kids with shirts plaster with "FUCK STREET!" and other obscene ramblings all the time

You certainly have a point and are 100% right. This happens often, and is rather silly. In foreign languages, nobody cares if what they're saying is mean or not. If someone swore in Italian, I doubt you'd care. This is a real problem between languages and we need to address it


By having international swear words
jk

Guest wrote:OP here.


Please note that this is 2ch we are dealing with, they are known to be crazy right-wing extremist conservatists.

Right, and yet at the same time I've seen stuff come out of 2ch that makes Westerners go "what? Oh, those crazy Japanese are at it again..."

The irony is a killer some times.

By having international swear words
jk

Well we have the words fuck off which are pretty international and a good choice. We just have to expand the vocabulary.

whiteflags wrote:

By having international swear words
jk

Well we have the words fuck off which are pretty international and a good choice. We just have to expand the vocabulary.

eh, not really.
As mentioned by some of the quotes from 2chan, there's a list of words you cannot say on Japanese television. "Fuck" "Bitch" etc are not on the list. They really don't care about foreign swear words and they have a much less powerful connotation.