Cherry Tree High Comedy Club

[gekiganwing]

Thanks to an article on the Indie Games blog, I learned of a company called Nyu Media. They intend to localize several Japanese indie PC games, including five action games (both 2d and 3d)... and a rather different game called Cherry Tree High Comedy Club. Like most of their products, it's tentatively scheduled for release next year.

I'm not entirely sure what to make of this one. Looking at the product page at http://nyu-media.com/products/cherry-tr ... omedy-club , I'm seeing a lot of cute 2d graphics and stat screens. There's some sort of plot about recruiting fellow students in order to re-establish a club. It was originally made by a doujin circle called Atelier773. They have their own product page at http://atelier773.dojin.com/manken/index.html . I can't read 99% of it, but I did recognise the kana for "tsukuru" -- it seems that the game was created with RPG Maker XP!

It appears that Nyu Media's localization will change all the names. I'm not sure if that's a good idea. I put up with glaring name changes in Graduation and Casual Romance Club, but then again, those games were released years ago... That said, I probably shouldn't take my video games too seriously, and I might do well to rejoice that any English version will be made.

[J. Datie]

It appears that Nyu Media's localization will change all the names.

So, I guess their business plan is to market foreign things to people who are afraid of foreign things?

[Mink]

...Okay, wait. I noticed a screenshot that has a/the character in Japanese* clothing, and she works in a shrine, it seems. If it's so clearly in Japan, why change the names? I may rag on how the Hakuoki translation seems to be, but this seems like taking way too far in another direction. 8| Can there be no happy medium?

Actually, now I'm tempted to buy Hakuoki just because they didn't anglicize everything.

@J. Datie: It's not too surprising, considering the fact there was a movie dubbed in English that was already in English. And it was dumbed down.

[HigurashiKira]

Meh, a lot of translation companies do that sometimes. It helps get rid of some of the "foreign-ness" the games might have in English *Granted, it does ruin the moods of some games* But since they're not localizing anything I might like, I really don't-
*Sees eXeede series on list of games*
*hands over wallet*

[J. Datie]

...Okay, wait. I noticed a screenshot that has a/the character in Japanese* clothing, and she works in a shrine, it seems.

Also, the first day of school is in April.

@J. Datie: It's not too surprising, considering the fact there was a movie dubbed in English that was already in English. And it was dumbed down.

...wait, whaaat...?

[Mink]

The film Doogal is the same as The Magic Roundabout, a British film, but dubbed over with 99.9% Americans. This movie was already in English, and no, the accents weren't so heavy you couldn't understand them.

Also, they made it stupider.

[DaFool]

Looking Forward to Fighting Fairy in particular. For a doujin game, their 3D models beat GUST's. I kinda feel sorry for Carpe Fulgur -- they were the pioneers to show that doujin games are a viable market (Just like ADV showed that anime was a viable market), now all the Japanese indies are scrambling to partner up.

[chensterrain]

It appears that Nyu Media's localization will change all the names.

So, I guess their business plan is to market foreign things to people who are afraid of foreign things?

In all fairness, as far as I can remember from the Japanese version some of the characters' names were vaguely punny words related to smiling, so it makes sense that they'd change them in English to preserve that (Mairu (Sumairu) - Miley (Smiley), Hoemi - whatever they changed that to, etc). And, uh, then I guess they'd have to change all of the names to match, even if they weren't puns? I don't know.

[gekiganwing]

In all fairness, as far as I can remember from the Japanese version some of the characters' names were vaguely punny words related to smiling...

Interesting note. I wasn't aware of that. We'll see in 2012 how well this works.

Perhaps a positive comparison would be Gyakuten Saiban. I've heard it had a lot of punny names in the original Japanese text. The English localization as the Ace Attorney series seems well-regarded... perhaps they managed to convey the game's humor. TVTropes goes into some detail on this in their Woolseyism: Video Games article.

Regarding the Magic Roundabout movie, the current Wikipedia article says, "The film was received positively in the United Kingdom, but the American edit was largely panned in the United States." Reading further into the article, I was fascinated to see how much the reviews differed. Apparently the Doogal DVD is no longer getting much distribution, and it's easier to find the original version under the title Sprung! The Magic Roundabout.

[papillon]

Of course, the Magic Roundabout tv series itself is a wacky english dub completely replacing the plot of the French original!

Sometimes that works.

[Mink]

Didn't work in the American dub, though. Trust me, British version is miles better.

Also, a show where the American dub isn't terrible, and is sometimes argued to be better than the original: Samurai Pizza Cats.

@chensterrain: I get that, but considering it's obviously set in Japan, having all the characters have English names makes me go WTF.

[gekiganwing]

It's been about five months... and it looks like the English version is just a couple days away from release. The VNDB entry says April 27 2012. Nyu Media's own page says it will cost $8 US, and that it will be available on six Windows game download services.

Anyone currently looking forward to this one?

[kara24601]

I loved - ( well, probably still would even though it's been years and years since I've seen it ) - Samurai Pizza Cats and I love CTHCC. I sometimes get bothered with people doing what I would call "over-americanizing" of foreign media but with CTHCC the american names aren't a big issue to me and I love the humor in it

[LateWhiteRabbit]

@chensterrain: I get that, but considering it's obviously set in Japan, having all the characters have English names makes me go WTF.

I know it's kind of an old topic, but I just wanted to chime in that I don't think localizing characters to have English names is bad. Especially with a large cast - remembering dozens of foreign names is pretty difficult for non-native speakers. And the shrine maiden is the only overtly Japanese thing in the game. Like was pointed out, preserving the original INTENT of the naming and writing is what is most important in translations, not verbatim word accuracy. Making sure the character names are still punny plays on smiling and being happy in English is more important than preserving Japanese puns in an English translation.

Recettear is one of the best localizations I've seen, because they rewrote the script to make the character's quips and personality work in English. I don't know how many of you have done translation in the past, but being too accurate on a word by word basis is an amateur mistake. Idioms are a great example where this leads to disaster or poor writing. Puns and jokes are another. In Japanese if a character leaves off an honorific to be insulting or to show friendship, it may be necessary to choose a different phrase in the translation to convey the same character intent and meaning.

Frankly, I feel a lot of Japanese games (VN's especially) would have found more foreign success in the past if they didn't cling so tightly to using Japanese names.

[papillon]

Localisations that keep the Japanese names and then mangle their pronunciations get the worst of both worlds!

(i'm looking at you, suh-KOO-ra.)