In EP. 80 of Kakegurui Kari from the April 2022 release of Gangan Joker (released March 22nd, 2021), Yumeko, Ririka, and Kirari try their hands at skinship…to very mixed results, including a misunderstanding with Sayaka.
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And, more pointedly, Kirari Momobami’s warped characterization in the English translation
When something is translated from its native language, it’s more or less inevitable that things will get lost due to a variety of factors: nuances of word choices, cultural influences, localization, and the translator’s own experience and fluency in the languages they’re translating from and to.
Translation is more of an art than a science. There’s no equation that you can plug words and phrases into and have them converted cleanly into any other language because words are more than dictionary definitions.
To translate something from one language to another while still preserving meaning requires a firm grasp not only of the mechanics of both languages, but also the cultural vocabularies of the languages as well. But even then, meaning can still be lost because the cultural contexts and codes that inform language exist outside of the words.
This is especially true when it comes to translating Japanese into English and vice versa.
Japanese translator Rei Miyasaka even goes as far as to say, “It’s almost like a miracle of convergent evolution that the two languages are compatible at all.”
Japanese to English translation is not easy, and in that regard I’m empathetic. However, that is not an excuse for taking too many liberties or outright getting it wrong. It’s the duty of a translator to shepherd the meanings and implications in the original text over to an audience that cannot access the original due to a language barrier. The meaning, implications, and connotations need to stay the same.
Unfortunately, the official Kakegurui manga English translations have not abided by that duty in several parts of the story, with the most recent casualty being Ch. 82 at the time of this writing. As a result, some characters’ personalities have been warped almost beyond recognition, with Kirari Momobami’s characterization being maybe the biggest victim to date.
With that out of the way, let’s dive in to what was actually said.
![[CROSSOVER] Kakegurui x Moonlight GardenRirika –> YoosunKirari –> Hyewon](https://64.media.tumblr.com/18846f92b516fc14b646943bd5345c67/tumblr_p03urc9SpR1wggjqeo1_r2_1280.jpg "[CROSSOVER] Kakegurui x Moonlight GardenRirika –> YoosunKirari –> Hyewon")
