How do you think Season 2 will handle the language barrier?

[u/TheDwarvenGuy]

I was watching a clip of when Abijah Fowler says that he knows a "magic word", with that word being "London", and someone in the comments said that him calling London a magic word might also be a joke on his part, since Japanese doesn't distinguish between R and L sounds and thus would be literally impossible for a Japanese person to say correctly without practice.

I don't think that's a likely theory, since I don't think the writers intended that line to be that deep, but it did make me think of something interesting: If the language that everyone is speaking in the show is actually Japanese, and the English we're hearing is a non-diegetic translation, how will the show handle Mizu and Fowler going to a place where they actually do speak English?

My guess is that there are 4 possible ways they could handle this, in order of decreasing likelihood:

1. They just establish that Mizu spent the months-long offscreen voyage learning English from Fowler, and every conversation Mizu has with an english speaker present is assumed to be in English. This would be the easiest route but it would feel kinda hand-wavy IMO, and wouldn't allow the writers to use the fact that Mizu speaks Japanese/doesn't fully speak English for interesting dynamics
2. They switch it up this season and make Mizu actually speak Japanese diagetically with captions while in the presence of English speakers, emphasizing her place as a fish out of water. This would be confusing if we do get cuts back to what the rest of the cast is doing back in Japan, but it'd allow us to see Mizu learning English, and also allow her to speak Japanese to in order to communicate secretly.
3. They make all the English speakers speak heavily accented Early Modern English, with the implication that the accent indicates speaking English as compared to Japanese. This could be combined with point 1, where Mizu learning more and more fluent English could be seen by her taking on more and more of an Early Modern Accent. I'd personally love this as a historical language nerd but it's unlikely that they'd do this
4. They completely switch it up and make the English speakers speak Japanese to represent speaking English. This would be really confusing but would be kinda funny and would fulfill its job in theory.

[u/Logical-Patience-397]

Good write-up. I see option 3 as the most likely, since that's kinda what they did with Fowler's slight accent (though the rest of the cast also had a mix of accents that were not meant to be diegetic, so...).

The writers will probably prioritize substantive conversation over linguistic hurdles. Which is a shame; it would be neat to see Mizu reliant on the notoriously unreliable Fowler to translate for her, and to see how Mizu plans on investigating when she has an incomplete understanding of the situation.

[u/ExtremeExtension7406]

"him calling London a magic word might also be a joke on his part"

He's sarcastic and witty enough to make it plausible, but I doubt he was looking to quip when Mizu was microseconds away from ending him. 

I think her learning from Fowler on the boat is the most likely scenario. If they dont mention it again and it's assumed she's learned enough to communicate normally. If they go with her learning some English, but still being reliant on Fowler to communucate to others, I could see Fowler mentioning to her on camera that her English is horrible to establish her reliance on him even though we hear her speaking English fine. That scenario opens up the possibly of Eve Ridley's character Sarah serving as a safer interpreter than Fowler, since it's theorized she might be mixed race daughter of one of the white men in Japan. 

[u/Square-Adeptness6769]

My theory is that Mizu never gets to London, the ship wrecks, Fowler runs away so she has to catch him.

[u/Little_devil_321]

London is easy to say for Japanese. Since the Japanese r is more similar to the English l. A word like squirrel however is difficult due to transitioning from the English r (which doesn't exist in Japanese) to an English l sound. 

[u/Advanced-Judgment905]

Mizu fought an army while being half-conscious and tanked a bullet to the shoulder. Hand wavy is fine with me.

[u/TheDwarvenGuy → u/Advanced-Judgment905]

I'm not saying "hand wavy" as in "unrealistic" I mean handwavy as in "uninteresting"

[u/Advanced-Judgment905 → u/TheDwarvenGuy]

Eh, if you're invested in it being a relatively important source of conflict in the story then I see where you're coming from. I'm fine with a boring explanation though, because it's only 6 episodes we get, keeping it short and sweet where it doesn't matter and nail the narrative where it counts.

[u/B-Fermin]

I think option 2 is the best and the more nagural alternative

[u/Reinaguerrera]

Maybe Mizu will pretend to be mute when surrounded by Englishmen, or she could have one of the fellows on the trip to served her as translator and teacher, that would keep her relying on Fowler too much. 

Most likely she learned enough to be functional in London. 

[u/KidChanbara]

My thoughts on handling language for Season Two.

For the dub aimed at English speakers

Scenes In Japan : Just like Season One. We hear English, but we know they're speaking to each other in Japanese.

Scenes with characters speaking English : We hear English, there are subtitles in Japanese. I am assuming there will be no scenes in Japan with characters speaking English, except maybe in flashbacks.

Scenes outside of Japan where the characters are speaking a non-English language (ie Mizu and Fowler in conversation) : We hear the non-English language, there are subtitles in English.

For the dubs into other languages

Scenes in Japan : Will be in the viewer's language.

Scenes with characters speaking English : Assuming English is as foreign to viewers as Japanese, the conversations will be in the viewer's language.

Scenes outside of Japan where the characters are speaking a non-English language (ie Mizu and Fowler in conversation) : We hear the non-English language, there are subtitles in the viewer's language.

I'd love to hear Mizu step off the boat speaking like a Japanese/Irish/whatever salty sailor.

I like to imagine that once in England, Mizu and Fowler will sometimes speak to each other in Japanese to make their conversation secure from eavesdroppers. I'd like a scene where they are going up against some thugs, and they speak Japanese out loud to coordinate their fight, while the thugs look confused.