#ln5

Maomao sees herself as SO submissive and beheadable she literally needs to invoke contract law when she kisses Jinshi back. The English audience was ROBBED.

It happens when she's JUST about to activate her Art of Whore Sleeper Skills to flip his ass on that bench;

Official English;

To say again: none of this was Maomao’s fault. This was beyond her control.

Original Japanese;

　もう一度言う、猫猫に罪はない、不可抗力だ。

Direct Retranslation;

"Let it be said one more time; Maomao is innocent of crime, it was (The Will of Heaven)."

不可抗力だ, bù kě kàng lì, is a Chinese legal term, directly equivalent to "an act of God/Damnum Fatale/Vis Major" in English contracts. She practically looks at the camera to speak DIRECTLY to you, the reader, to deliver the legal defense she's gonna use in her court case.

Another botched translation from the LN5 Epilogue;

Maomao is as close to being confirmed autistic as you can POSSIBLY get, short of the DSM falling out of the sky and hitting someone on the head.

The Official English Translation has this passage;

Firsthand experience was just so much more memorable than merely asking questions. That was all. Maomao wasn’t any smarter than the average person, just a little more...dedicated. And when it came to emotion, that she actually had less of than most people. She felt sadness and happiness, anger and joy—less acutely than ordinary people, but they were there. But there were other emotions that people allegedly possessed which Maomao still didn’t understand.

But, no, "a little more... dedicated" changes the intent completely.

Because the kanji used here is the same one for Autism's characteristic special interests, in diagnostic settings.

強い興味 = Strong interest.

経験はただ聞くよりもずっと身につきやすくなる、それを実行しているだけだ。猫猫は他人より賢いわけではない。興味が他の人間のそれより偏っているだけだ。そして、猫猫の場合、知識の代わりに感情が人よりも欠落している。喜怒哀楽、それらは乏しいなりに存在する。でも、他人が普通持つという感情のいくつかはいまだよく理解できない。

A more direct translation is this;

Experience teaches far more readily than mere hearing; I'm only putting it into practice. Maomao isn't smarter than others. Her interests are simply more particular/concentrated/specialized than those of other humans. And in Maomao's case, emotions are lacking more than knowledge. Joy, anger, sorrow, pleasure—they exist, however sparsely. But she still doesn't quite grasp some emotions others take for granted.

She also very specifically uses "HUMANS" here. Not just "ordinary people." Other humans. The wording is focused on her alienation from other people and how it leads to wariness and misunderstanding-- something I find extremely familiar as someone with autism myself.

That's important for the overall tone of LN5's epilogue, because the point is that she denies her own value and neglects her personal emotions and desires. Her neurodivergence is part of both aspects.

She isn't calling herself "more dedicated," that's a compliment. She's making a neutral statement to downplay her intelligence, arguing that Jinshi would be making a bad choice if he picked her.

“No sir you shant”

Sometimes I hit a line that I simply cannot parse on my own, no matter how hard I try lmaoo

Check out this part in the LN5 Epilogue, right after Maomao suddenly goes quiet while thinking about the Lion Cage Conspiracy;

　無言の猫猫に壬氏が話しかけた。この男も猫猫が自分から率先して話す性格ではないことくらいわかっているのに、どうして横に座るのだろう。それでいて居心地が悪そうに眉間にしわを寄せるのだろう。早くさぼらずに仕事に戻ればいいのに。

DeepL rough translation;

Jinshi spoke directly to the silent Maomao. Even this man knew she wasn't the type to initiate conversation, so why did he sit beside her? And why did he frown uncomfortably? He should just get back to work without slacking off.

That second-to-last line there stuck out to me. It just seems... off. So I'm trying to scrutinize it closely;

それでいて居心地が悪そうに眉間にしわを寄せるのだろう

And uhh??? I'm befuddled. Jisho is not helping

居心地 = The feeling of a house or room

悪そう= Depraved monk? Rascal priest?? Evil expression???

眉間 = Glabella/Space between the eyebrows

しわ = Wrinkling, creasing

寄せる = Pushing towards? Adding? Allowing someone to visit? Having positive feelings for someone? Coming together? There's a LOT of ways this one can be interpreted apparently.

That doesn't read at all like DeepL's assertion that it means "frowned uncomfortably." It seems like there's a LOT here.

Kevin translated this line as... literally nothing. It's cut completely from the English translation.

He should have known very well by now that Maomao rarely initiated a conversation. Why had he decided to sit by her, anyway? He should stop slacking and get back to work already.

Maomao comes across as a LOT harsher because she's not making any note at all of Jinshi's expression. I've also got a sinking feeling this was meant to establish some of the important emotions he's supposed to be feeling here. Did Kevin just skip it??

There's a part in LN5's epilogue that would have HEAPS more poetic meaning to the audience it was written for, and the English translation ends up chopping a lot of it by being too direct.

After Maomao leaves the building and goes to sit outside in the cold, she lets herself relax and look up at the stars. Three stars in particular catch her eye.

J-Novel's translation is this;

The sky seemed so vast. There was no moon, making the stars appear to shine all the brighter. Three of them shone brightest of all, forming a triangle in the heavens. Perhaps those stars were the two lovers, and the river that separated them.

The original Japanese is this;

空が広い。月が出ていないため星がきらきらと輝いている。特に輝きの強い星が三つあり、空に大きな三角形を作っている。星の川に阻まれた恋人の星たちだろうか。

The first thing to note here is the first line. 空 が 広い. "Sky has vastness."

Except, 空 isn't only "sky." It's also "state of mind." Metaphorically, it's referring to Maomao's feelings in the same breath as she's looking up at the celestial dome surrounding the earth. In translating it directly, the English version has lost the purpose of the opening sentence; to establish that her mind's wandering as she stargazes.

The second line is passable, besides the fact that the absence of the moon is making the twinkle of the stars "light up" or "beam," with a double meaning that these stars are "lighting up in happiness" or "beaming a smile."

(Possibly a reference to Maomao missing the time before Jinshi was the moon prince, but that's conjecture, which should never be spoken aloud ofc ofc.)

The THIRD line is where having no context really botches this bit.

We in the West call these three stars Vega, Altair, and Deneb. Deneb, the third star, is NOT the river. Deneb is a bridge. The Milky Way is the river.

In both China and Japan, there are seasonal festivals dedicated to three bright stars that form a triangle in the summer. Both the Qixi Festival and the Tanabata reference a once-a-year meeting where Vega/Zhinu/Orihime and Altair/Niulang/Hikoboshi are able to cross the bridge to see each other-- as long as the weather is clear.

Sometimes these are referred to as "Chinese/Japanese Valentines' Day" because of these legends.

My point being, the Western audience would straightup just not know this unless you were already very familiar with these customs. The direct way that the translator put this scene into English turns it into a negligible description of the weather, utterly stripping the relevance of Maomao's buzzing mind comparing herself and Jinshi to starcrossed lovers.

The most direct translation I can possibly make without making alterations to localize it for the audience:

空が広い。 月が出ていないため星がきらきらと輝いている。 特に輝きの強い星が三つあり、空に大きな三角形を作っている。 星の川に阻まれた恋人の星たちだろうか。

Line 1: "The Sky/Maomao's State of Mind possesses Spaciousness."

Line 2: "Moon's absence makes star's twinkle beam (with happiness)"

Line 3: A particular brightness is in three strong stars, in The Sky/Maomao's state of mind they are constructing a three-angle-shape.

Line 4: Perhaps they're the Lovers separated by the Milky Way?

Now, here's my pass at an alternate English translation that attempts to preserve the prose;

The sky stretches beyond the horizon, taking her thoughts with it. With no moon in sight, the stars twinkle and beam all the brighter. Her mind drifts to three brilliant stars in the void, drawing the summer triangle with its furthest point on the opposite side of the milky way. Were those lights truly the souls of starcrossed lovers, kept apart by a celestial river?

Since Hyuuganatsu doesn't mention a bridge here, and Maomao seems to mostly be focusing on the aspect of the lovers being kept apart, I've opted to keep Deneb's position vague while making sure it's not "offering" a solution to the problem yet.