Translation Corner

The contributors

Kamokamen, original/main character designer (Twitter @ sangsilnoh)

Oobari Masami, director (Twitter @ G1_BARI)

Ura Ryuuta, chief animation director (Twitter @ matatabeat)

The origins

"happy new episode release" bonus arts by the main character designer

and their two Yotsuba&! joke tweets:

Isami works at a flower shop called Brave Flower

Smith is the single father of the "mysterious girl" Lulu who is in kindergarten

This spiraled into a whole AU that has Actual Lore because the staff kept adding to it.

My main sources were 2 different tweet compilations made by Japanese fans and the very broken Twitter search. I got into the fandom when Episode 9 aired (before that I was just watching the show weekly and nothing else) so backsourcing all of this was not easy, and unfortunately I can’t guarantee this post has every relevant tweet. For example I found nothing about Smith’s job. It might exist, it might not, who knows. But the staff was very clear that they just wanted everyone to have fun coming up with ideas when they were tweeting about Bravern-the-character.

Isami & Bravern

- Isami and Bravern drive a motorcycle with a sidecar (ART!) called Brave Thunder

- according to the director Bravern wears a helmet

- Bravern exists in that miniature form which was designed by the director, completely unexplained (first appearance of "easy-to-draw Bravern-kun" | official plushie version which he brought to the 3rd talkshow | non-flowershop AU maid uniform update! also designed by him | "bunny day" update)

(T/N: this is not actual canon, but in the Animedia (May issue) interview’s Q&A section the director said Isami has the impression of someone who has a much older brother who passed away when he was young. JP fandom said nope this is the happy AU so he’s alive)

Smith & Lulu

- Smith and Lulu drive a "granny bike" called Spar Kaiser

- Lulu's seat is a child bike seat dubbed "co-pilot seat"

(T/N: answering a fan’s question, the character designer who designed Smith’s weird shirts once tweeted he’s probably using a translator app to scan the text on them.)

Other characters

- as far as I know there’s no "official" flowershop AU version of Superbia

- some time ago the director made a miniature design for him as well, but people usually draw Superbia in a humanoid form in this AU which was designed by the character designer

(T/N: not flowershop AU related, but Superbia speaks in Hiroshima dialect.)

- Miyu has a moped (a modified old Honda Super Cub) and she rides around town with Hibiki to get McDonald’s

(T/N: also not flowershop AU related, but Hibiki considers Isami a younger brother, according to the 3rd talkshow reports.)

- Satake was Isami's homeroom teacher and he was the one who taught him how to properly ride a motorcycle

- it was due to Satake’s influence that Isami chose an American-style Japanese bike which he bought secondhand for cheap for the fun of repairing and customizing it

(T/N: the tweet linked above is from March, but at the 3rd staff talkshow we learned that Satake’s bike in canon is a Honda CBR250RR. At the 2nd talkshow the staff said he gives off the impression of being a good cook, and the director shared he must be single because of the bike & red jacket combo.)

ADD ALT TEXT if you share this on other sites as screenshots. I genuinely can't be assed to care about credit, but I care a lot about accessibility.

Before I get to Chapter 21 because this is relevant: in 20-4 when ‘Hikaru’ visits Yoshiki at night (the last few pages of Chapter 20) we briefly see Hikaru’s POV. The bright light in the middle of Yoshiki’s chest is his soul/spirit, as Hikaru sees it.

Tweet caption: By the way, this is what the light is. Image text: Yoshiki’s soul… It’s pretty.

(This is more or less unrelated to Chapter 21, but in 20-1 when Kurebayashi-san mentions kegare [impurity] Yoshiki recalls the time when ‘Hikaru’ mentioned the same before they checked out what Yoshiki’s sister found in the bathroom in Chapter 11.)

I checked the existing scans to see how certain terms/names were translated.

21-1

Yoshiki is squatting down in front of two gravestones: one marked, one unmarked. The marked grave is the smaller one and it reads “Caw-son” [the pet bird from Chapter 11] the unmarked grave is the bigger one. There’s an unopened pack of a cream-filled roll in front of the unmarked grave. Yoshiki touches the gravestone with an apology: he apologizes that he couldn’t do more than this because as long as “he” [fake Hikaru] is there, no one’s going to grieve [real Hikaru.] But because ‘Hikaru’ exists, no one will forget the real Hikaru, and Yoshiki feels happy about this, and he finds this feeling “the scariest.”

‘Hikaru’ arrives and says that ages ago he and Yoshiki used to play here [in the old shed] a lot. He points to a handmade Super Mario stage.

Sitting next to each other, ‘Hikaru’ asks Yoshiki how he’s different from real Hikaru. Yoshiki says the two of them are totally different. Real Hikaru was better at reading the mood, more mature, he was hard to understand. He was even more of a brat, he lied, and he had a surprisingly cunning side as well. And he’s never coming back, so. Different.

‘Hikaru’ asks if Yoshiki loved the real Hikaru, and instead of replying, a shocked Yoshiki asks why ‘Hikaru’ is asking this. ‘Hikaru’ tells him it’s because some time ago [Chapter 4] Yoshiki averted his gaze when he was looking at Hikaru’s body. Yoshiki says he doesn’t want to answer the question.

When Yoshiki grabs ‘Hikaru's’ shirt he says he no longer feels anything when he’s looking at ‘Hikaru’s’ body. Then he says it’s fine that ‘Hikaru’ doesn’t understand these feelings. ‘Hikaru’ agrees that it’s true that he doesn’t have “these kinds of feelings” and that he’s fundamentally different from humans. Then Yoshiki says it’s fine for ‘Hikaru’ to not become a human, and that actually he shouldn’t become something like a human.

The last 2 pages are Yoshiki’s thoughts: Yoshiki believes he and ‘Hikaru’ are entirely different beings so it’s not like they’re able to fully understand each other.  So that’s why ‘Hikaru’ doesn’t need to do anything other than just being here and not killing people. Instead of forcing ‘Hikaru’ to become like a human, if there’s a place where ‘Hikaru’ could live freely like himself… Yoshiki would do anything for this.

21-2

Yoshiki and ‘Hikaru’ summarize what they’ve learned so far from Matsuura-san in the library, Hikaru’s grandpa, and Kurebayashi-san, while Yoshiki takes notes.

When they’re done, Yoshiki wonders if ‘Hikaru’ is really a god. ‘Hikaru’ says he’s not, he was just called a “god.” ‘Hikaru’ wonders if the kegare [impurities] that gathered in the mountain spread out because he didn’t stay on the mountain, and that maybe he should go back. But Yoshiki says ‘Hikaru’ finally found a place where he belongs so don’t. Kurebayashi-san said she’ll help and Yoshiki and ‘Hikaru’ can find a way together. ‘Hikaru’ agrees. Then Yoshiki remembers that 2 days ago ‘Hikaru’ visited him at night, and ‘Hikaru’ reveals that his memories of it are fuzzy, but he probably did visit Yoshiki. ‘Hikaru’ wonders why he did that.

Scene switch to the Takeda family residence. Yoshiki and ‘Hikaru’ want to talk to old man Takeda about what Matsuura-san told them in the library. The daughter-in-law opens the door, surprised to see ‘Hikaru’ because it’s rare for anyone from the Indou family to show up, and she wonders what’s up. Yoshiki tells her they want to ask “old man Takeda” about something they need for a school project, but the daughter-in-law is having none of it. Then ‘Hikaru’ remembers Kurebayashi-san telling them if they run into any trouble just mention her name (because “even a housewife like [her] has a few favors to call in”) which works: the name jogs the daughter-in-law’s memory and she remembers her father-in law looking for a person named Kurebayashi, and she tells Yoshiki and ‘Hikaru’ to wait a bit.

[Summaries of 21-3 and 21-4 coming soon]

Notes

I didn’t translate kegare myself because I’m firmly on the “it’s rarely a good idea to translate cross-cultural religious concepts” side of the translation theory debate (best relevant example: “sin”)

CW transphobia

The word the bullies say doesn't truly mean "crossdresser" it's "girly boy" at best and a certain transmisogynistic slur starting with S at worst, depending on the context. Now, if you fast forward 2 chapters you get this scene:

With the exception of "Absolutely asinine." which is just the translator adding a nonexistent line, the translation is okay. This is followed up by:

The translation of this line is good, but keeping everything else about Tsubaki in mind the implications are not "Umemiya only likes women" but "you're not a real woman" and that's obviously pretty different. (If a chapter titled "Sisters" didn't do it idk what will make the official translator finally refer to Tsubaki-chan as a girl,,,,,,)

And here's the original of the final scene: