: “So many…”
So, one thing I’d like to talk about briefly while we still remember it is that this game had some.. issues.. when it was translated to Japanese.
The first, and most major, was the name Katawa Shoujo. None of the writers for this speak Japanese as far as I know, so none of them knew at the time that the word “Katawa” is considered highly offensive in Japan. You’ll notice in the first post that it was translated as “Disability” in the fan translation of the original doujin page. The word is actually their equivalent of “Cripple”. There was a surprising amount of outrage on 2ch about this, but even knowing what it meant, Four Leaf chose to keep the title the way it was.
There were some other issues though. Iwanako’s name is not actually a Japanese name - it was something the writers made up that sounded Japanese enough to an English-speaking audience. This actually became a bit of a problem when they had to translate it later: they kind of used a mishmash of kanji that makes the right sounds but doesn’t make any sense as a name.
Looking back, I’m not a big fan of this particular scene because of the white text on a white background. It actually kind of hurts my eyes a little.
In reality, it’d be strange for him to be taking a ton of medication - my dad was taking six or so pills a day up until the day they implanted the pacemaker, when they actually took him off a bunch of the meds to stop them interfering with it.
: “Also, I’ve spoken to your parents and we believe that it would be best if you don’t return to your old school.”
: “What?!”
: “Please, calm down, Hisao. Listen to what the doctor has to say.”
: “We all understand that your education is paramount; however, I don’t think that it’s wise for you to be without supervision. At least, not until we’re sure that your medication is suitable.”
: “So, I’ve spoken to your parents about a transfer. It’s a school called Yamaku Academy that specializes in dealing with disabled students.”
Yamaku Academy’s name is one of the other issues 4LS had translating this into Japanese, in that it’s also just a made-up name that sounds Japanese enough.
: “It has a 24-hour nursing staff and it’s only a few minutes from a highly-regarded general hospital. The majority of the students live on campus.”
: “Think of it as a boarding school of sorts. It’s designed to give students a degree of independence, while keeping help nearby.”
: “Of course, that’s only if you want to go. But.. your mother and I aren’t really able to home school you. We went out there and had a look a couple of weeks back. I think you’d like it.”
: “Compared to other people with heart problems, people with your condition usually tend to live long lives. You’ll need a job one day, and this is a good opportunity to continue your education.”
: “Well, you should be excited at the chance to go back to school. I remember you wanted to return to school, and while it’s not the same one…”
: “It’s not what you think. All of the students there are pretty active, in their own sort of way. It’s geared toward students that can still get around and learn, but just need a little help.. in one way or another.”
I kind of feel like the writers for this game realized that Yamaku doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, since most public schools have staff trained specifically for students with disabilities, but they had to go along with it because it was implied in the original concept art. Even here I feel like they had a little trouble describing exactly what it should be.
: “Your father’s right. And many of the graduates of the school have gone on to do amazing things. A person doesn’t have to be held back by their disability. One of my colleagues in another hospital is a graduate.”
Finally, we’re done with the prologue and move on to Act 1. I should mention that this game absolutely does not fuck around with routes: pretty much from the minute we arrive at Yamaku Academy, we’re going to need to make very precise choices so we wind up on the route we want to be on. In fact, it’s possible to hit a bad ending in Act 1 if we’re not careful.
Oh, and if we were to load the game up here, this is what the title screen looks like at the end of the prologue. It’ll only get more full as we go on.
In case you’re curious, all of the photos of “Yamaku Academy” are actually a college in Sendai, Japan. One of the writers took a trip there specifically to take photos for this game. In real life, there’s nowhere near the college that Yamaku could exist, but the writers placed it on top of an old ruined castle that exists on a hill across from where these photos were taken.
Anyway, I changed my mind on one thing: after doing some more research, I found out that the time paradox issues with the plot aren’t actually as noticeable as I thought. We’re coming up on the first choice that determines what route we’ll take at the beginning of the next update.
I’ve put a poll here, but I’d prefer people post in the thread - votes in the thread will count as two votes. However, I’ve purposely removed Hanako and Lilly from the poll. Votes for either of them will not count, because they more or less need to be done together and I’d rather save them for either the middle or the end of the LP.
Which Route First?
- Rin
- Emi
- Shizune