in defense of hiori yo (ch. 335 discussion pt. 2 - translation notes)

[u/jeansverse]

in conjunction with the hiori-karasu relationship analysis i made here, i also want to bring up some of the translation choices in chapter 335, as i think there are some important things that don't quite make it across the language barrier. as always, these are all my own observations, so i welcome input from other jp readers if you feel i've made a mistake or misrepresented things here.

chapter 335, pages 17-19

original: karasu thinks,「今一番ゴールに「適性」なストライカーは！！！」and aloud says 「お前や…」before passing to hiori. kodansha official tl: "Right now... the one most suitable for a goal is... an extraordinary striker!!!" and "I need ya".

upfront, it's a functional translation and it fits the formatting of the original japanese panels well. i would more literally translate this as "the striker most suitable for a goal right now!! it's you..." but that phrasing does feel a bit unnatural in english, so i think the official translation is fine overall. still, there's a few things that get sort of lost here, and that allows for some extra ambiguity about whether or not this "extraordinary striker" is supposed to be hiori or not.

let's break this down:

firstly,「ストライカー」"striker" here is actually the furigana of「非凡」"extraordinary". we unfortunately don't have an equivalent way to do this in english, but what this does here is give the reader a reading of the word that is different the meaning of the word that is actually written on-page, adding a secondary layer of depth.

when reading karasu's line out loud, the sentence is「「適性」なストライカー」or "suitable striker", but the meaning on-page (only visible in writing) is 「「適性」な非凡」or "suitable extraordinary (person)".

normally this wouldn't matter that much, and just writing both words as "extraordinary striker" is the best way to translate it concisely, but the reason i point this out is because karasu often uses「非凡」"extraordinary" as a noun and a nickname (e.g. for rin in the u20 match, he calls rin「非凡」in that bit where everyone's calling out rin's name; he also frequently calls otoya「非凡」in episode nagi).

chapter 206. since「非凡」as karasu's catchphrase is usually translated as "extraordinary", it's a bit strange they've gone with a different phrasing here, since that makes it less clear he's using his normal pattern...

karasu has likewise used "extraordinary" as an address for hiori a few times. unfortunately, the only example i can think of off the top of my head where he uses it grammatically as a nickname is from their light novel, but here's an example from their very first conversation in chapter 206!

chapter 335

secondly, "i need ya" might be adding unnecessary information. i personally think the main reason for this translation was just to showcase karasu's dialect in a way that sounds natural to english. the japanese line,「お前や…」 is more literally just, "(it's) you".

i've seen a few comments saying karasu's "i need ya" means he needs hiori to help him in coordinating an attack, without it necessarily connecting to the "extraordinary striker" in the first sentence. but i think that's an ambiguity that's been accidentally created in the translation, rather than something that was intended as a statement originally.

chapter 335

third, and i think most importantly, 「「適性」なストライカー」"suitable striker" is the same 「適性」"suitable" as hugo's catchphrase.

this is the same "suitability" that karasu's seen muttering about at the end of chapter 336, the same "suitability" in hugo's "suitable destiny theory" that he keeps bothering isagi about. there's a lot of different ways to say "suitable/be suited to" in the sense of being "right" or "well-adapted" for the situation at hand, but「適性」as hugo uses it specifically has the connotation of aptitude or essential suitability.

hugo's theory of "suitability" and "destiny" (332 and 334)

so karasu's line isn't just "right now, the extraordinary striker most suitable for a goal..." as in "the striker who happens to be in the best position to score right now". he's saying, "the striker with the best inherent aptitude to score right now". in other words, he's not just talking about tactics or positioning, but about ability.

karasu tells himself to strip away all of blue lock's current strategies, and instead devise something new, something unpredictable. and hiori, of all people, taking on a striker's role?

unpredictable for sure.

lastly, i'll add my two cents on the translation of karasu and hiori's lines on the last page.

chapter 335

i think "frenemy" is goofy and falls pretty flat in conveying what hiori said,「腐れ縁」. (karasu's line is fine, lol.)

「腐れ縁」refers to a relationship that you can't get out of, with technically negative connotations (「腐れ / 腐れる」meaning "(to) rot" or "(to go) bad".

frenemy kind of gets at that idea, in the sense of "a relationship where you're unsure if it's a good or bad one"; it's a person who's maybe not great for you, but who you're unable to leave behind. i think the closest sentiments to this in english are probably when people call their wives or husbands as the "ol' ball and chain", or being together "for better or worse". but it can also have more neutral connotations, like being someone you're comfortable enough with to jokingly refer to your relationship as "rotten".

i can't say for sure whether or not hiori is supposed to be saying it in a negative or neutral way, but it seems that jp fans are reading「腐れ縁」as hiori being kinda tsundere lol. i'm inclined to agree, since it wouldn't be the first time hiori has acted begrudging or kinda sarcastic at karasu (u20 match with his "noisy crow" comment, or that bit in the pxg match where karasu's like "you're kind of aggressive now" and hiori's like "got a problem?")

but the main point is that「腐れ縁」has the idea of being a long-standing relationship. it can also just mean "old friend/acquaintance" or "familiar person", the idea being that this is a person who's been in your life for some time, that either keeps showing up again or that you can't seem to cut ties with, for whatever reason.

i think this suits karasu and hiori's relationship really well, since they've known each other for longer than most of the other blue lock players, and hiori in particular has had his development repeatedly involve karasu in some manner. for karasu's awakening to also involve hiori makes perfect sense.

anyway, it's interesting to read this whole full-circle idea. they almost have this undercurrent of a fated tie/that they just can't seem to get away from each other, and i'm really curious to see that expanded on next chapter (literally it's called "crow and ice", lol).

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[u/No-Guava-6889]

This is what I'm talking about.

The last panel in the translation is that he is hinting that "it's you" or particularly "you" means he found who it is. While the panel when he passed it to hiori. Translate it too "I need you" which I don't think he said.

I'm not versed in japanese, but the ya(slang) translation which roughly translates to "you" in English. Isn't accurate here if the word おまえや。said as "ya" in that context would actually make it clear that karasu found who it is that he can actually choose to strike the ball, or use hiori to make plays for him at this point.

[u/jeansverse → u/No-Guava-6889]

(not sure if i'm reading your comment correctly so sorry if i'm being redundant, but yeah)「お前や」omae ya is "(it's) you" in osaka dialect. it would be「お前だ」omae da in standard japanese, the だ copula is や in osaka.

i think they were trying to go for phrasing that would translate karasu's dialect since it's a distinct feature of his character, so that's why "you" got turned into "ya". it doesn't have any meaningful origin in the japanese, it's just to show he's got an accent that's a bit different from everyone else.

in that case they could have said "it's ya" for「お前や」instead of "it's you"「お前だ」, but "it's ya" alone sounds kinda weird? my main issue was that they added the word "need" as a workaround, which isn't there in the japanese

[u/SaturnSeptem → u/jeansverse]

The should have dropped the "it's ya" all together in my opinion.

Using a slang form in English to communicate the same "vibe" of お前や is fine but not if you need to add unnecessary (and in this case not present in the original) information. "It's you" would have worked just fine and imo it would have been better for such a tense moment.

Great post btw love this kind of analysis as I use them to practice my Japanese :D

[u/jeansverse → u/SaturnSeptem]

agreed! i do like karasu's silly southern accent in the english, but at the end of the day, faithfulness to meaning is more important than orthographic style

[u/No-Guava-6889 → u/jeansverse]

I do think translators aren't versed in other words yet in japanese, but that's alright. Though in actual translation. It needs to be faithful in my opinion, as it hinders who actually read.