Introduction
Danganronpa is a series that I really like. I know, stop the presses: “A guy on the internet likes Danganronpa!” But for a while, it used to just be a guilty pleasure of mine. As I’ve gotten older though, and started caring less about what others think of me, it's grown into a series I can openly express my enjoyment for.
When I look at the games as a complete package, they embody many of the reasons why I enjoy Japanese media so much. One of those reasons is how experimental the series was. It tries several new things that no one else was doing at the time. Sure, visual novels and murder mysteries are a dime-a-dozen, but how many visual novel series have tried to immerse the player by incorporating elements from first-person shooters of all things? Then using that bullet motif as the central visual theme of the game.
One of the things I really love is that they take the concept of a typical slice-of-life high school anime, parody it and exaggerate those elements. Even the most basic character tropes are ramped up to 11. When playing the games, you really feel like they were made with a lot of heart and soul, as if you’re witnessing Kazutaka Kodaka’s own thoughts, passions, and creativity bloom into an entertaining story that only he could tell. The game very much wears all of its intentions on its sleeves and is unapologetic about it. Even with all the flaws the games have, those flaws stem from the creator’s imperfections, rather than from a lazy corporation trying—and failing—to appeal to a broader audience.
All of this, combined with Rui Komatsuzaki’s iconic art style which sets the visuals of this game apart from anything seen before, and music from Masafumi Takada, adding a unique psycho-pop vibe makes this game stand out a lot to me.
Now, I know no one will care to listen to me suck Danganronpa’s cock for fifty paragraphs, so let me just cut right to the chase. The chase in question is a discussion regarding the first game’s localization and looking into what was changed about the game when it was brought into English. Despite several changes being made to the game’s localization script, I was surprised that there wasn’t much comprehensive documentation regarding these changes. I mean, there are some isolated discussions, comments on forums, and blogs here and there talking about specific aspects, but there aren’t any that cover the whole game in relative depth. So, back by unpopular demand, I’m here today to compile these changes and discuss them in this one blog post!
To be more specific, since this game has nine zetsubillion lines of dialogue, I’m not going to provide every single minute change within the game. For example, I’m not going to talk about Free Time Events, the monologues in every Monokuma Theater, items that don’t pertain to evidence for a class trial, skills, or anything extra like that. I mostly just wanted to compile anything relevant to the main game.
A lot of the information and resources I’m using for this post are compilations of articles I’ve read online, videos, and my own research from watching a playthrough of the Japanese game. The links to the particular sites I got my information from will be provided in the references section at the end of this post.
Danganronpa’s Localizations
If you don’t know what “localization” is, it’s the practice of adjusting or changing certain aspects of a piece of media to appeal to a different target audience. This is often done in tandem with translation, so the two topics are often interlinked. I’ve gone into some detail on some of the key points to know about localization and the Japanese language in a previous post about Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon, so if you’re curious you could read that before continuing this post. If you already read that and still have questions about localization… that’s not my problem…
However, something I feel people don’t discuss a lot about localizations is how different Japanese is from English. By that, I mean that when translating something from Spanish to English, for example, there are minimal localization changes you’d make. You can usually translate something directly from Spanish to English and retain a lot of the Spanish culture from that particular piece of media. However, in Japanese, a lot of the culture is very much intertwined with the language so it often lacks any equivalents in English, for example, Japanese honorifics, first-person pronouns, and even sentence structures.
For some games, this isn’t a big issue, since being from Japan may not be a big part of its storytelling, like in the case of Metal Gear, Super Mario Bros, or Sonic the Hedgehog. But for a series like Danganronpa, a series loaded to the brim with aspects that are staples of Japanese culture and references to a lot of Japanese media, this is a lot more difficult. The localization of Danganronpa was essentially done to make a game that was originally for an otaku-type player base in Japan and localize it for a general audience of another region.
This makes the localization process a bit difficult because you have to make things more recognizable to an English reader, and the issue with that is looking for the fine line of what a US player could and couldn’t identify with. Like, a Western player may know what anime, sushi, and ramen are, but they might not know what a moé, bōsōzoku, or fujoshi is. A lot of the time, these terms are either kept or changed depending on the confidence a localizer has in the target audience, and it’s a bit interesting to see how different translators translate stuff, especially in manga.
As someone who has an interest in learning Japanese and the culture behind the language, I always love picking up on new terms and phrases from the manga I read. For example, in the translation of the One Piece manga that I read, the Devil Fruits are called Akuma no Mi in Japanese, and through context clues, I was able to learn that “Mi” is the Japanese word for “Fruit.” Or how in the same translation, rather than calling one another “friends” or “allies,” they use “Nakama,” and through context clues, you can tell what they mean. It almost makes me feel like a kid again, and I’m learning a new word from a complex book I'm reading.
I also find it really cool how the term “Nakama” eventually became a better-known word in the West because of One Piece, in the same way, a lot of other popular Japanese media popularized other Japanese words in the West, like “Otaku,” “Kaijū,” and “Ahegao.”
Though, with my example, I specifically mentioned manga. Since Danganronpa is voice-acted, you want to make sure everything sounds as natural as possible to the listener of the target language. So even if everyone knows what the honorifics “-chan,” “-kun,” or “-san,” mean, hearing someone speaking English use those honorifics could potentially take someone out of the experience. So, the localizers have to cut those edges off to make things sound more natural, and that unfortunately results in the loss of some Japanese nuances in the way some characters may speak or what kinds of honorifics they use.
While that’s understandable, albeit depressing, the changes I dislike a lot are the ones that come off as creative liberties or potentially alter how a character is seen by the fandoms of each region. V3 is definitely more infamous for this than the other games, and a common example people like to bring up is Gonta Gokuhara and how he speaks. While English Gonta is a very notable case, I wanted to bring up a more personal example: Tenko Chabashira.
Tenko was a character I initially did not like at all, with her only good moments to me being pretty scarce. The character's premise of “being sexist towards men” is a premise that felt a bit grating and shallow, and she reminded me too much of a particular genre of people that I despise online. This was until I read more of how she’s portrayed in the Japanese version and it gave me a bit more perspective on the character. In Japan, her hatred towards men feels less like genuine hatred, and more of a naïve child having a distaste for the opposite sex, similar to how young boys would avoid their female classmates or crushes because of cooties.
This attitude in the Japanese version also plays better into her Free Time Events where rather than cooties, her sensei simply told her that being around men will cause her Aikido powers to diminish. Likely just an innocent way to prevent her from fooling around, and not realizing that she would take that to heart as she got older.
In addition, her catchphrase “Degenerate Male” is a lot less harsh sounding in Japanese. In Japanese, one way to refer to a young man is "男子" (danshi), but Tenko replaces the 子 Kanji, used to refer to someone who is young, with 死, a Kanji used to refer to death, as they are both pronounced the same in the given context. So in Japanese, Tenko refers to men as "男死" (danshi) or “Death Man,” an over-the-top, but silly Saionji-tier insult. While I know you can’t translate this directly, and the localization team tried their best to find an equivalent, I just don’t think “Degenerate Male” conveys the same type of tone at all.
When you combine that with her generally polite and disciplined speaking patterns in Japanese, not too dissimilar from Kiyotaka Ishimaru, as well as the fact that rather than personal pronouns, she refers to herself in the third person which is commonly used by children or cutesy genki girls, the fact that despite her 'hatred' for men, she still addresses them using their proper honorifics (i.e. Saihara-san instead of just Shuichi), and her general boisterous and headstrong personality, you have a slightly different perception of the character in Japanese compared to English. Tenko is a very naïve, overly dramatic, and filterless person who has a childish crush on Himiko and has something more of a rivalry towards the male gender, rather than an actual hatred. A rivalry that’s mentioned less and less over the course of the game as she gets closer to the cast.
While you can argue that the localization attempts to present her as such, and these are only minor differences, a lot of these minor changes add up a lot and it can potentially create a divide in how some people see Tenko, reading her as harsher and meaner than she actually is.
Background Info
The very first Danganronpa game was released on November 25th, 2010, for the PlayStation Portable. The game didn't do too well at first but gained traction as time went on due to word of mouth. The game eventually got its hold in the West through a screenshot let's play on SomethingAwful in 2011. A user by the name of Orenronen uploaded a let’s play of Danganronpa (which at the time was written as “Dangan Ronpa”), and since the game was in Japanese, they provided their own translation of the game’s script.
This proved to be immensely popular, as many fans followed the Let’s Play, sent a lot of comments and support, and people were genuinely invested in the story and what would happen next. People were so hyped for this game that they were clamoring for the sequel before the first game ever even got localized. This is what I like to call The First Impact.
Eventually, fans of the series who were introduced by Oren’s Let’s Play would get the chance to play the game for themselves in English, as the game received a fan translation known as Project Zetsubou. Like the official localization, Project Zetsubou also took a few liberties to make things align more with a Western audience. This translation got a decent number of people into the fandom and is how many people first experienced the series. This was Danganronpa’s Second Impact.
The Third Impact came in 2012, in the form of Danganronpa: The Animation, a 13-episode anime adaptation of the first game that abridges a lot of the main events of the first game. The subs were decently faithful to the original Japanese lines, but the dub took a lot of liberties. While the anime itself is… meh, and the preferred experience is to just play the first game, the anime served to further the reach of the series to the West, with most people being drawn into the series during this era, including myself.
Then in 2014, we got The Fourth Impact. NISA officially localized Danganronpa on PS Vita and dubbed it Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc. This version was also ported to various platforms, such as PC, PS4, and the Nintendo Switch. Naturally, as this translation was official and wasn’t stuck on the PSP, it gained a great deal of popularity, attracted large swaths of people into the community, and is still popular even to this day.
NISA, also known as NIS America, is the U.S. branch of NIS (Nippon Ichi Software, Inc.) (日本一ソフトウェア). NIS America opened its doors in 2003 and specializes in translations, localizations, and the release of Japanese games and anime into English for the U.S. market. In 2007, however, they eventually expanded to European regions. They were responsible for localizing every mainline game in the Danganronpa series, including ports and compilations.
Outside of the games released from their Japanese branch, NISA also focuses on many niche titles that would likely otherwise remain in Japan, specifically JRPGs. Aside from Danganronpa, other notable localizations include Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana, Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love, Hyperdimension Neptunia, and The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II. Their efforts to translate these cult classics and bring them to the West have garnered NISA significant praise within the community, and they are decently respected. Furthermore, as you'll see in this post, their games typically feature very natural and fluid writing, which does a good job of engaging readers.
However, like many localization companies, NISA is also the subject of significant controversy and disdain from people online. NISA has received a lot of criticism regarding their practices and occasional genuine incompetence. I’ve even seen some people online refer to NISA as “the current-era Working Designs,” lol.
Many of these criticisms stem from things like changing certain jokes at the localizer's personal discretion, removing or altering aspects of a game while claiming it's better than the original, or going above and beyond when punching up dialogue. The Trails of Cold Steel series is usually the series most often pointed to in this regard.
While that is a common criticism for many companies, the incompetence issues are what I find more interesting. By incompetence, though, I specifically mean the fact that several of their older titles suffered from major bugs and glitches introduced during localization. For example, the game Ar Tonelico II had a major issue where the game would crash during one of the final battles if you took too long and the boss used a certain attack.
These issues were common, but NISA never really faced much backlash until the localization of Ys VIII. The initial release of that localization was filled with numerous syntax errors, grammatical errors, bugs, and mistranslations. It was so bad that NISA had to issue an apology and released an update that fixed these errors. And I feel since then, NISA's reputation has become a lot more negative with the general audience.
Title and Prologue
Let’s get started first and foremost with the name of the game itself. In Japanese, this game is referred to as Dangan Ronpa: The Academy of Hope and The High School Students of Despair (ダンガンロンパ 希望の学園と絶望の高校生 lit. Dangan Ronpa: Kibō no Gakuen to Zetsubō no Kōkōsei). In English, this was localized as Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc.
The name Danganronpa comes from the combination of the Japanese words Dangan (弾丸), meaning bullet, and Ronpa (論破), which refers to "refutation" or "argument." It's related to the act of breaking down or disproving an argument.
As you’ll notice, the title is written in Katakana rather than Kanji or Hiragana. Katakana is typically reserved for foreign words or names, loanwords, onomatopoeia, or scientific names. When native Japanese words are written in Katakana, there’s usually a reason for it, which ranges from being a stylistic choice, to needing to establish emphasis, to the Kanji just being too complex to write out. In this case, it was likely a stylistic choice, and the name “Danganronpa” was likely kept in English without localizing it to something else to retain the style established.
The subtitle “The Academy of Hope and The High School Students of Despair“ was completely changed, however, and it wasn’t even to something that retains a similar meaning. “Trigger Happy Havoc” almost sounds like a proposed localization of the title “Danganronpa,” before choosing to use that as the subtitle instead. I’m not sure what prompted the name change, but of the mainline games, it’s the one I have the least issue with.
While I won’t go into much detail about the sequels, I will briefly mention them here and there if any important or interesting topics arise. That said, the next game is titled Super Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair Academy (スーパーダンガンロンパ2 さよなら絶望学園, lit. Sūpā Dangan Ronpa 2: Sayonara Zetsubō Gakuen) in Japanese. The “Super” in the title is likely a nod to the evolution of gaming during the 16-bit era. Many games from that era, such as Super Metroid, Super Punch-Out!!, and Super Castlevania IV, were iterative sequels to their older NES counterparts. They retained a lot of the structures and core mechanics that made the NES originals great, while also building off of them and advancing their respective series. The use of “Super” in these titles became a trend during that time, symbolizing this evolution.
The choice of the term “Super” in SDR2 was meant to represent that the second Danganronpa game was meant to be an evolution of the first game—an iterative sequel—which retained a lot of the core aspects of the first game, but built upon them. This is shown in game through both expanding the lore of the first game or retreading themes seen in the first game and purposely subverting them, like how Nagato Komaeda is a purposeful subversion of Naegi’s character, for example. And that’s not even to mention that this second game also follows a heavy video game-themed motif via beats such as the Neo-World Program, the motive of the second trial, and the main helper character being “The Ultimate Gamer.”
The localization of the second game removed the word “Super” from the title and shortened “Goodbye Despair Academy” to just “Goodbye Despair,” which is a change I really dislike.
Likewise, the third game was called New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing (ニューダンガンロンパV3 みんなのコロシアイ新学期 lit. New Dangan Ronpa V3: Minna no Koroshiai Shin Gakki) but was renamed to Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony in English.
A common trend for a lot of modern remakes or new entries that are supposed to be seen as a new spin on a series is that they’d often have the term New (ニュー lit. Nyuu) or Shin (新) in their titles. This is usually done to establish that this is a fresh or original take on an older formula and represents somewhat of a new beginning. The most notable example of this is in the New Super Mario Bros. series of games, as the original DS game was meant to be a new beginning for the 2D style of Mario games. This can also be seen in Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon, which was called Fire Emblem: New Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light in Japanese, and Kid Icarus Uprising, which was called New Light Myth: Palutena's Mirror in Japanese. Even outside of games, you can see this in titles such as Shin Ultraman and Shin Godzilla.
In Danganronpa V3, the “New” is meant to establish the game as both a new spin on the series formula, as well as a way to point out that it follows a separate continuity from the previous games. It was meant to almost be treated as something completely separate, especially since the actual Danganronpa 3 was supposed to be the conclusion of the Hope’s Peak storyline. Furthermore, the Japanese subtitle “Everyone's New Semester of Killing” is meant to foreshadow a story event that happens later on in the game, but I won’t talk about that here.
So, going back to Danganronpa 1, the first thing to note is the name of the Prologue chapter. The Prologue chapter was renamed from “Welcome to Despair Academy” to just “Welcome to Despair,” similar to the change in the second game’s subtitle, and I’m glad that the series is at least consistent with that. We’re then introduced to the game with the execution of Jin Kirigiri. The execution itself was renamed from “A Space Journey” to “Blast Off!”
I’m going to list the different voice actors and actresses that play each character as they’re introduced. Even though this information is easily accessible via a simple Google search, it’s still a localization change.
Voices: JPN: Megumi Ogata | ENG: Bryce Papenbrook
In Makoto’s introduction, for the most part, there aren't many notable changes, but one of the most interesting changes to me was when Makoto is talking about how much of a normie he is, he mentions how “it’s not like I'm a psychic or mutant or whatever.” But the Japanese dialogue reads as such: “nor am I a mutant or a Stand User.” Meaning that the localization committed the horrible sin of removing a Jojo reference.
The school that this game takes place in is called “Hope’s Peak Academy” in English. In Japanese, it’s called Kibōgamine Gakuen (希望ヶ峰学園). The term Kibō (希望) simply means “hope” in Japanese. Actually, it took me an embarrassingly long time to realize that this is where K1-B0, the Ultimate Robot, in V3, gets his name from. Mine (峰) is the Japanese word for “peak” or “summit.” Gakuen (学園) is just the Japanese word for school, academy, or campus. It’s very straightforward.
Lastly, the small ヶ, or ga, is a common filler phrase typically used for the names of locations like in the town of Sekigahara (関ヶ原) in Japan. In the case of this English localization, this filler word is represented with an apostrophe s, so we call it Hope’s Peak and not Hope Peak.
Another interesting piece of trivia is that, while it’s not directly stated, Makoto’s very clearly reading info on his fellow classmates on 2ch or 2channel. It was an anonymous Japanese message board site founded in 1999 by Hiroyuki Nishimura. It was once seen as "Japan's most popular online community," and stated to have a level of influence comparable to TV, radio, or the newspapers.
Now before moving on, let’s get into the most well-known change. It’s a change that people either don’t mind or have a strong hatred for, and even people who aren’t familiar with Danganronpa or anything like that are likely familiar with it. Hell, your grandma likely has a strong opinion regarding this change. The change itself regards how talents are referred to: in Japan, they’re referred to as Super High School Level (超高校級 lit. Chō kōkō-kyū), while in English, it's simply Ultimate.
The Japanese name comes from a portmanteau of the words 高校 kōkō, meaning high school, and 高級 kōkyū, meaning high class or high level, with an added 超 chō, meaning super, ultra, or hyper. I’m a bit indifferent to this change because while “Ultimate” is okay on paper and is less of a mouthful, it removes a lot of the nuance in the original Japanese naming scheme.
It removes the mention of high school, which I feel is important because it establishes that, while they’re experts in their respective fields, they are still students with room to grow and be nurtured through the efforts of Hope’s Peak. Additionally, the removal of 'Super' also takes away from the over-the-top nature of the talent names, replacing it with the more flat and professional-sounding “Ultimate.” Since “Ultimate” is also less wordy, it eliminates the silly and janky feeling the title had in Japanese—a feeling the Japanese version later pokes fun at during the game. It’s also a lot more fitting for a talent-obsessed, over-the-top school with zany characters to have a more over-the-top name.
In the Project Zetsubou fan translation, rather than going with “Super High School Level” they instead opted to go with “Super Duper.” It also sounds silly, but it almost sounds too silly to me. This name does come from the original Japanese game though. In particular, it comes from one of the game’s execution movies, the execution in question uses the term 超高校級 in its title and translates it as “Super Duper.”
Furthermore, in Super Danganronpa 2, the term 超高校級 can be seen translated as “Great High school student Type,” which is another interpretation of Super High School Level, albeit a bit rough.
We learn of Makoto’s talent, Super High School Level 'Luck' (超高校級の「幸運」lit. Chō kōkō kyū no “Kōun”). This was changed to Ultimate Lucky Student. It’s not a big change, and normally I wouldn’t bring it up, but I kinda like how the vague use of the title “Luck” in the Japanese version parallels his later title of “Hope.”
After Makoto makes it to the school, he is gassed and wakes up in a classroom. He stumbles around the school for a bit until he meets with the other students. After some banter, they all decide to introduce themselves to one another.
Voices: JPN: Kōsuke Toriumi | ENG: Sean Chiplock
Kiyotaka Ishimaru’s the first student we interact with, so there’s a lot to talk about with him. First, his talent went from Super High School Level 'Public Morals Committee Member' (超高校級の「風紀委員」 lit. Chō kōkō kyū no “Fūki-iin”) to Ultimate Moral Compass. In Japan, the Public Morals Committee is a High School organization that is responsible for policing students who break school rules. These committees typically consist of teachers, school staff, and sometimes student representatives. Their purpose is to address disciplinary issues, mediate conflicts, and ensure that students adhere to school rules and regulations.
I dislike “Moral Compass,” because it doesn’t really tell you anything about the specifics behind his talent aside from the fact that he’s a righteous person. It also makes him feel more grand than he actually is, similar to Super High School Level → Ultimate. In the States, we don’t really have a Public Morals Committee, at least none of the schools I went to did, and the closest approximation would probably be being a Hall Monitor, which is also a common translation for Kiyotaka’s talent, and a better localization, in my opinion.
The Project Zetsubou patch opted to go with the title of Prefect. Prefect is a British term that refers to a senior student who enforces rules and disciplines troublemakers, similar to a hall monitor, which too I find to be a better localization.
One other thing worth mentioning is that his title referencing him being a “member” of the committee is cut. I feel it’s a bit of an unnecessary change and removes the idea of it being an extracurricular activity. This is a change that’s seen numerous times throughout the series, where NISA would inexplicably remove a lot of the mentions of characters being committee or club members. In the next game, Mikan Tsumiki went from being a Health Committee Member to a Nurse, Angie Yonaga went from an Art Club Member to an Artist, and Gundham Tanaka went from Animal Breeding Committee Member to… sigh… Breeder.
Additionally, the nickname “Taka” was added in localization. This is a particular change that gets under a lot of people’s skin, but I don’t really care about it that much. It’s slightly out of place for a person as stuck-up as Kiyotaka to want to be referred to using a nickname, but whatever.
Voices: JPN: Miyuki Sawashiro | ENG: Amanda Céline Miller
While not exactly a change, a minor oddity is that if you can read Japanese or have played Project Zetsubou, you might notice that Toko’s first name is spelled as “Touko,” not “Toko.” The spelling “ou” is commonly used to represent a long /o/ sound, which is typically written as “ō” in Romaji. When translating, whether the long /o/ sound is interpreted as “ou” or simply “o” depends on the individual translator, as the spelling doesn’t really affect pronunciation for an English speaker.
For example, the Japanese term for “East” is 東, and when used in the word referring to Japan’s capital, 東京 (Tokyo), it is rendered in English as “To.” However, in the popular doujin series, 東方Project (Touhou Project), it is rendered as “Tou.” This little oddity applies to many characters in the series such as Kyouko/Kyoko Kirigiri, Kokichi Ouma/Oma, and Kazuichi Soda/Souda.
Toko’s talent goes from Super High School Level 'Literary Girl' (超高校級の「文学少女」 lit. Chō kōkō kyū no "Bungaku Shōjo") to Ultimate Writing Prodigy. I kinda prefer Project Zetsubou’s translation of this title, "Super Duper Bookworm," because I feel it encompasses the intent of the original Japanese title more than “Writing Prodigy.” She’s an expert in writing, yes, but she’s also an avid fan of reading, which I felt that Literary Girl was meant to encompass.
One little fun fact is that there are two different portions in the game where Toko is talking about different literary classics, and in those lines, those are some of the only points in the game where Toko barely stutters when she speaks. She sounds very confident and it’s honestly very cute.
Furthermore, Toko's likeness might likely be a nod to the character Tohko Amano from the mystery romance light novel series, Bungaku Shoujo by Mizuki Nomura. Both characters have the same given name in Japanese, and the name of the light novel is the same as Fukawa's talent. This novel is localized as "Book Girl" in English, so "Ultimate Book Girl" is a possible alternative localization, albeit a bit clunky.
Voices: JPN: Makiko Ōmoto | ENG: Dorothy Elias-Fahn
Sayaka Maizono goes from the Super High School Level 'Idol' (超高校級の「アイドル」 lit. Chō kōkō kyū no "Aidoru") to the Ultimate Pop Sensation. Idols in Japan are primarily singers, but can also be trained in activities like acting, modeling, and dancing. Idols are marketed for their image, attractiveness, and personalities. The Idol Industry, while being kinda scummy, is a big thing in Japan, and it's common to see Idols featured in a lot of media such as anime and manga.
Changing Idol to Pop Sensation isn’t a huge change, as it’s probably the closest approximation that's relevant to an English speaker. It only slightly strips away some of the cultural context.
In Japanese, Sayaka refers to Makoto as Naegi-kun, while Makoto refers to Sayaka as Maizono-san, but in English, they just refer to one another by their first names. If you’ve seen a lot of anime, or just know about Japanese culture, you probably know this already, but in Japanese, it’s very common to refer to people you don’t know very well by family names rather than given names. For example, in the anime series, Komi Can’t Communicate, the lead character, Shouko Komi, is referred to as Komi by her classmates.
Typically, first names are only used by people you’re very close to or family members. In Komi Can’t Communicate, Komi’s family refers to her as Shouko. Furthermore, as she gets closer to the male lead character, he eventually refers to her as Shouko as well. This is seen in Danganronpa, as later on in the game, Aoi refers to Sakura as “Sakura-chan” instead of 'Ogami-chan,' like everyone else.
Before moving on to the next character, I want to talk briefly about Sayaka’s politeness and speaking patterns. Outside of their appearances, personalities, and talents, a lot about a character can also be discerned through their speech patterns and the level of politeness they speak with, and in the case of Danganronpa, the characters all have wildly different ways of speaking from one another.
I wanted to talk about everyone’s politeness levels and speech patterns in depth when we get to the Chapter 1 Class Trial, but since Sayaka and Mukuro don’t make it that far, I’ll talk about theirs in the introduction. Sayaka speaks in a very polite and timid manner which is associated with traditional Japanese beauty, or Yamato Nadeshiko. This is typically portrayed by women with fair pale skin and long black hair who are generally quiet and reserved, which Sayaka’s appearance fits to a letter. Replicating that speech pattern is really hard to portray in a localization, at least in speech patterns alone, so it’s understandable that this isn’t as noticeable in the localization.
Voices: JPN: Takahiro Sakurai | ENG: Grant George
Leon Kuwata goes from the Super High School Level 'Baseball Player' (超高校級の「野球選手」 lit. Chō kōkō kyū no "Yakyū Senshu") to the Ultimate Baseball Star. This is a change I don’t really mind, but mentioning it just to point it out.
During Makoto’s shock at Leon’s appearance, Leon comments saying something along the lines of “What? You imagined the Marukome boy or something?”
Marukome is a Japanese food company, and the Marukome boy, Marukome-kun, is their mascot who is featured with a big bald head. In English, this is changed to “What, were you expecting some kid with a shaved head?”
In the Project Zetsubou fan translation, Leon instead says “What? Did you expect the Pillsbury freakin’ Dough Boy, or something?” to which Makoto humorously responds with “...more like Tony the Tiger.”
During Leon’s introduction, he also mentions how he wishes to become the Ultimate Musician, this is translated directly, as in Japan, it’s still called 超高校級の「ミュージシャン」(Super High School Level Musician). I only bring this up, because in the next game, you’re introduced to Ibuki Mioda, who's also known as the Ultimate Musician in English but is called something else in Japanese, and the localization implies they’re one and the same.
In Japan, Ibuki is the Super High School Level 'Light Music' Club Member (
超高校級の「軽音楽部」lit. Chō kōkō kyū no “keiongaku-bu”). Light music is a specific music genre characterized by popular or mass music in contrast to classical music. It’s typically performed by bands, and enjoyed by audiences in a casual atmosphere. Specific examples include jazz, chanson, tango, and Hawaiian music.
The Kanji 軽音 (keion) is actually where the anime series K-On! gets its name from. And while everyone knows that Ibuki gets her name from taking the Kanji from the series’ band members, a cool piece of trivia I learned was that in SDR2’s PSP Booklet, Ibuki’s talent is spelled out as K-On!
But yeah, Ibuki’s talent and the talent Leon wants to get into aren’t the same. Ibuki focuses on a particular genre of music, while Leon is a lot more general.
Voices: JPN: Kappei Yamaguchi | ENG: Lucien Dodge
The best character in the game goes from the Super High School Level 'Doujin Author' (超高校級の「同人作家」 lit. Chō kōkō kyū no "Dōjin Sakka") to the Ultimate Fanfic Creator, and this change is a notably bad one in my opinion.
While “doujin” can imply fanfiction, it’s also a bit more nebulous than just fanfiction. The word doujin itself is spelled as 同人, which contains the kanji 同 (dō) meaning “same” or “similar,” and 人 (jin) meaning “person” or “people,” and the whole word itself refers to like-minded people, like a fandom or a community.
In the West, fan content is usually seen as just auxiliary, but in Japan, doujin content holds a higher level of prestige and is considered the beating heart of Otaku culture. Doujin content doesn’t stop at written works; it refers to anything self-published or independently made, such as games, anime, music, art, and other forms of media like cosplaying and tabletop roleplaying, with much of this content being sold at conventions or other fan activities. The most popular doujin series is the aforementioned Touhou Project. Touhou is so popular that fans of the games have even created their own doujin games, anime, and manga based on it.
In Hifumi's case, he specializes in doujinshi, specifically doujin manga. Doujinshi adds the character 誌 (shi), which refers to written works like manga, magazines, and novels. This comes from a shortening of the term 同人雑誌 (doujin zasshi), which literally translates to 'Doujin Magazine.' This is why other languages often translate his talent as 'The Ultimate Fanzine Creator/Author/Artist.
I never really felt “Fanfic Creator” carried the same nuance as “Doujin Creator” at all, because as an English-speaking fan reading this, when you think of fanfiction you usually think of exclusively written works submitted on platforms like Wattpad or Ao3, and that doesn’t fully establish much of a difference between Hifumi's talents and Toko's talents. While Hifumi briefly mentions his ability to write, his drawing skills are mentioned much more and are even shown off many times within the course of the game, such as his Free Time Events, his ability to sketch a blueprint of Robo Justice, and his ability to create a full cosplay of it, with the Justice Hammers included, and do all of that within a single night. I'm probably just being a bit pedantic though, since doujin culture is something I am very passionate about.
The Project Zetsubo fan translation translates his title as “Super Duper Otaku,” which is also used in Japanese box art.
In his introduction, Hifumi quotes a line from Xenogears, as he refers to himself as "The Alpha and the Omega!" And the localization does a good job of keeping this particular reference intact. In a lot of his dialogue, he references various anime, manga, and video games, but in the localization, some of these were changed to reference Western movies and novels instead.
Voices: JPN: Chiwa Saitō | ENG: Cassandra Lee Morris
Aoi Asahina goes by the Super High School Level 'Swimmer' (超高校級の「スイマー」 lit. Chō kōkō kyū no “Suimā”) in Japanese and Ultimate Swimming Pro in English. This is almost barely a change though, like with Leon’s title, the change only slightly embellishes it to make it sound more impressive. Additionally, the nickname “Hina” was added by the localization.
In Japanese, when writing down Makoto’s name on her hand to remember it, she asks him what characters are Naegi spelled with. This is because Japanese names often involve special readings of Kanji characters, and in many cases, there’s no way to know the correct spelling of someone’s name unless they tell you. However, in the case of “Naegi,” the surname isn’t common enough for there to be much room for misinterpretation on how to write it.
In English, she asks how it’s spelled, which kinda makes her look more unintelligent than intended if you’re assuming she’s writing using English characters. However, this isn’t the only time in the game where the use of English characters makes something seem dumber than it would in Japanese.
Voices: JPN: Kōki Miyata | ENG: Dorothy Elias-Fahn
Chihiro Fujisaki’s talent is called the same thing in both English and Japanese so there’s not much to mention regarding him. His lines in Japanese are also very similar to how they read in English. The same thing applies to Kyoko since her talent of “???” is the same in both English and Japanese.
Voices: JPN: Yōko Hikasa | ENG: Erika Harlacher
Junkuro Ikushima on the other hand is called the Super High School Level 'Gyaru' (超高校級の「ギャル」 lit. Chō kōkō kyū no “Gyaru”) but was changed to the Ultimate Fashionista. The term gyaru is a Japanese transliteration of the English slang word “gal” and is a Japanese fashion subculture that was considered to be nonconformist and a rebelling against traditional Japanese beauty standards for women. The same traditional beauty standards that are portrayed by characters like Sayaka, as I mentioned before. It kind of makes my tin-foiled hat tingle, wondering if there’s any connection regarding the fact that Sayaka dies first, while Junko dies last.
The gyaru subculture had caused a bit of a moral panic in the past, as many women who followed this trend faced a lot of public discrimination like rejection from their families or shame from their schools.
Voices: JPN: Megumi Toyoguchi | ENG: Amanda Céline Miller
Gyaru is a bit of an umbrella term, as it's divided into multiple subcategories such as kogyaru, hime gyaru, ganguro, banba, and yamanba. Despite the many categories, they have similar core trends like hair dyed in a light color such as brown or blonde, heavy makeup, clothes that show more skin, tanned skin, and an eccentric attitude.
The term “gyaru” first picked up in popularity around the 1970s, with some people speculating that the birth of this trend was a result of Japan's unstable economy after the Japanese Bubble Period, in which the stock market was heavily inflated.
Mukuro’s speech patterns while posing as Junko are a bit interesting in that she speaks like a young teenage girl, peppering her speech with a lot of slang and abbreviations. In particular, she uses the term jan (じゃん) a lot, which is a shortened form of the term janai (じゃない), which roughly translates to “isn’t it?”
This pattern is actually translated pretty well in the localization, by method of having her use a lot of slang and abbreviations, and a lot of stereotypical valley girl terms like “like” and “totally.” This is pretty cool considering the gyaru fashion trend is loosely based on the Valley Girl aesthetic.
Voices: JPN: Kazuya Nakai | ENG: Keith Silverstein
In Japan, Mondo Owada was called the Super High School Level 'Bōsōzoku' (超高校級の「暴走族」 lit. Chō kōkō kyū no “Bōsōzoku”) which was changed to the Ultimate Bike Gang Leader.
In Japan, Bōsōzoku refers to a youth subculture associated with customized motorcycles called Kaizōsha (改造車, 'modified vehicles'). This culture first appeared as Japan was recovering from World War II. Many soldiers struggled to readjust to society, and some turned to drag racing and gang activity.
The Bōsōzoku style traditionally involved men with pompadour-styled haircuts, wearing boilersuits or leather military jackets with baggy pants and tall boots. This uniform became known as tokkō-fuku (特攻服, 'special attack clothing') and is often adorned with kanji slogans. Most of these traits are followed by Mondo.
Early Bōsōzoku gangs took inspiration from American greaser culture and popular Western biker films. In fact, Bōsōzoku became well known for its many similarities to old American biker culture.
Like in the case of Super High School Level Idol, Biker Gang Leader still fits Mondo’s talent very well. The only caveat is that it removes some of the extra context. I do feel they could probably still keep his title the same though and just explain the context in game naturally. If they were fine referring to Fuyuhiko as “The Ultimate Yakuza,” and explaining what that means in game, instead of changing him to “Gangster” or something, I don’t see much of an issue in referring to Mondo as “The Ultimate Bosozoku.”
While Makoto was browsing 2ch earlier, he stumbled on info about Mondo Owada. In English, Mondo is mistakenly referred to as “the de facto leader of every biker gang in Japan.” However, in Japanese, he’s just referred to as “the leader of Japan’s biggest biker gang.”
Voices: JPN: Kujira AKA Matsumoto Wakako | ENG: Jessica Gee-George
In English, Sakura is the Ultimate Martial Artist. In Japan, she’s the Super High School Level 'Martial Artist' (超高校級の「格闘家」 lit. Chō kōkō kyū no “Kakutōka”) but other translations interpret her Japanese title as Grappler and Fighter.
The Project Zetsubou translation actually originally was going to refer to her as "The Super Duper Heavyweight," but that was changed to "Super Duper Fighter" because her likeness is speculated to be based on a character named Hanma Yuujirou, the main villain of the Baki series. Yuujirou is portrayed as the absolute strongest creature in the world, and Sakura was likely intended to have a similar vibe as the peak of absolute human strength. Hell, they are both referred to as Ogre (オーガ). That said, because "Fighter" is a lot less specific than "Heavyweight," it was chosen to reflect this. A general "Fighter" would not only imply that she's the strongest in martial arts but also one of the strongest people in general. Don't ask me why the Funimation sub of the anime went with "Grappler."
When you meet Sakura Ogami, like Toko, her name is spelled slightly differently in Japanese. In direct translations and the Project Zetsubou Translation, her last name is spelled as “Oogami.” Likewise, Mondo’s last name is spelled as “Oowada.” This is just another way to represent a long /o/ sound in Japanese.
In Sakura’s introduction, there’s an error where in Japanese, Sakura’s description reads as: "Sakura Oogami, also known as 'The Ogre,' is the high school girl closest to being the strongest of the human primates." In English, this is translated as “some even think she’s the closest known relative to the primates–the famed missing link,” which just sounds mean-spirited ☹️
Voices: JPN: Akira Ishida | ENG: Jason Wishnov
In Japanese, Byakuya Togami is called the Super High School Level 'Young Heir' (超高校級の「御曹司」 lit. Chō kōkō kyū no “Onzōshi”) which was changed to Alluent Progeny. They essentially mean the same thing, the localization is just slightly more ornate, similar to Baseball Star and Swimming Pro.
Voices: JPN: Masaya Matsukaze | ENG: Kaiji Tang
The stoner goes by the title of Super High School Level 'Fortune Teller' (超高校級の「占い師」 lit. Chō kōkō kyū no “Uranai-shi”) in Japanese. In English, this was changed to Ultimate Clairvoyant, and Shaman in other translations. The title Shaman actually comes from the game's original Japanese box art, which was also used in the fan translation. Additionally, the localization added the nickname Hiro.
In his introduction, Yasuhiro asks Makoto if he’s interested in going out for drinks, mentioning that he’s 21 and had been held back a few years. In Japanese, however, he says he’s 20. Since 20 is the legal drinking age in Japan, he was aged up to 21 in the English version, which aligns with the U.S. drinking age… which is weird. The characters are Japanese and the setting is clearly Japan, so it feels unnecessary to Americanize this detail. The age change seems pointless unless it was a decision made by higher-ups to avoid potential legal issues related to depicting characters under the U.S. legal drinking age consuming alcohol. But that feels like a stretch, given the game includes much more graphic content, and Makoto doesn’t even take him up on his offer anyway.
Voices: JPN: Hekiru Shiina | ENG: Marieve Herington AKA Lindsay Torrance
Celestia Ludenberg is the Ultimate Gambler. In Japanese, she is known as the Super High School Level 'Gambler' (超高校級の「ギャンブラー」 lit. Chō kōkō kyū no “Gyanburā”). Notably, her title uses a transliteration of the English term "gambler" (ギャンブラー), instead of the Japanese term "shōbushi" (勝負師), which likely is meant to reflect her Western masquerade.
Now, if you can read katakana you'll notice that セレスティア・ルーデンベルク spells out Seresutia Rūdenberuku. Which would be rendered as Ludenberk and not Ludenberg. The g comes from getting the ク /ku/ kana and adding a dakuten to it, changing it to a グ /gu/. However, this isn't a simple change, in German, when the letter g ends a word, it takes a different sound, more akin to a soft /k/ or a /ch/. This is most commonly seen in the greeting “Guten Tag” and many adjectives that end with the -ig suffix. However, in game, it's still pronounced like a regular /g/ by Celeste and the rest of the class in English. It's oddly fitting considering that Celeste isn't actually European.
I mentioned briefly that every character generally refers to one another by their family names. However, as Celestia is a foreign name, she is the exception, and she is referred to by her first name. Well actually, she’s referred to using a nickname, in Japan her nickname was Celes, but in English, it’s Celeste.
Furthermore, when Makoto remembers the research he did on her the previous night, he notes that she was called “The Queen of Liars.” However, the moniker “Queen of Liars” is a mistranslation and essentially completely made-up. In Japanese, her introduction describes how she won an underground gambling tournament game called “King of Liars,” which is allegedly a reference to a manga called Liar Game.
The strangest thing about this mistake though is that this game is brought up once again in her free time events, and it’s translated correctly by referring to the game she played as “King of Liars.”
Eventually, you meet Monokuma. Spike wasn’t too strict regarding things that NISA could and couldn’t change in localization, but Monokuma’s name was one of the hard lines that Spike drew. As such, in the localization, his name is kept as “Monokuma.” Monokuma’s name comes from Kuma meaning bear, and Monochrome, which is spelled as Monokuroomu in Japanese. Additionally, in Oren’s original Let’s Play, he translated his name as Monobear.
Voices: JPN: Nobuyo Ōyama | ENG: Brian Beacock
In this portion of his introduction, Monokuma punctuates his phrases with the term -kuma, where Celeste points out that that’s been done to death already, which is a reference to Teddie from Persona 4. In English, Celeste is only just pointing out a bear pun in his statement about NASA. Additionally, in Japanese, Monokuma’s signature laugh is translated directly as Upupu (うぷぷ), which became Puhuhu in English. Though, he cycles through a number of different laughs.
When Monokuma introduces the rules for graduation, he refers to the situation as a “Killing School Life” or “Killing Game” in English. In Japanese, this was Mutual Killing (コロシアイ lit. Koroshiai) and Mutual Killing School Life (コロシアイ学園生活 lit. Koroshiai Gakuen Seikatsu). In the second game, during the investigations, you’ll listen to the songs Ikoroshia (Homicide) and Ekoroshia (Kill Command), which are both variations of this Japanese term.
In English, Monokuma provides you with the e-Handbook, but in Japanese, this is called the Electronic Student Notebook (電子生徒手帳 lit. Denshi Seito Techou). It’s quite the mouthful of a name, and considering how often it’s mentioned, that’s likely why it was renamed to something shorter.
Chapter 1
Chapter 1 is called Ikikiru (イキキル) in Japanese, a phrase that doesn’t have a direct translation and since it’s written in katakana, there are several ways it could be interpreted. When broken down it fits into two pieces, イキ (Iki) and キル (Kiru). Each of these pieces can have multiple meanings which I’ll mention below.
イキ could be interpreted as either: 生き (live), 息 (breathe), 逝き (die), or 活き (make use of one’s own skills/abilities).
Likewise, キル could be translated as キル (a Japanese spelling of the English word “kill”), 切る or 斬る (both meaning cut), or the suffix きる (to the fullest, or to the end).
It’s likely that this was likely meant to be an intentional pun with multiple meanings. The anime series, Kill la Kill (キルラキル lit. Kiru Ra Kiru) has a similar ambiguous nature with its name, as it can mean several different things. Additionally, the term “Kiru” can also refer to 着る (to wear), which follows the themes of that respective anime.
It seems like NISA chose to interpret イキ (Iki) as 生き (live) and キル (Kiru) as きる (to the end), and understood it as 生ききる (Living to the end), which they then reworded to “To Survive,” which isn’t a bad interpretation.
Additionally, the game’s OST features a song that is also referred to as イキキル and the English version translates this song as both “Buzzkill” and “Living to the Fullest” on different occasions.
The Project Zetsubou patch opted to name the chapter “Kill Free or Live Hard” a reference to the American movie “Live Free or Die Hard.” Furthermore, the anime adaptation translated this title as “Kill and Live.”
When you start the chapter, you’re in the Daily Life mode, which in Japanese is called (非)日常編 which translates roughly to "(Non)Daily Life Mode." Later on, when Sayaka is murdered in Makoto’s bathroom, the game then switches to the Deadly Life mode, which the Japanese version calls 非日常編, which again translates roughly to Non-Daily Life Mode.
When you go back to your room and check your handbook, you can view information for all the students. The only change worth mentioning is in the student info section, the English version adds conversions where centimeters are shifted to feet and inches. Meanwhile, kilograms are shifted to pounds.
Fast forward, Makoto is checking his dorm room and tries to open his door, but it turns out that it’s locked and can’t open. Monokuma then shows up and explains to him that the door in fact can open, it’s just a bit busted. Monokuma also explains that the boys’ bathrooms don’t have locks on their doors and says that the need for them is useless. He then reiterates saying “Well, it's not that it's pointless I guess. But I'm no expert on the birds and the bees and all that.”
In the Japanese version, he instead states “薔薇と百合とかには詳しくないんで…” which translates to “I’m not an expert on roses or lilies…” What makes this interesting to me is that the term for rose is 薔薇 (bara) and the term for lily is 百合 (yuri). Monokuma isn’t actually speaking about literal roses and lilies but is actually referring to manga genres. Bara is characterized by a focus on male same-sex love, as it is typically created by gay men for a gay male audience, and many of the men portrayed in these manga tend to be very muscular. Meanwhile, yuri manga is characterized by a focus on female same-sex relationships.
Moving on, you get access to the Mono Mono Machine, and when you obtain an item, the game displays the text “Got an Item!” whereas in Japanese, it simply says “Item Get!” There are similar terms like this used throughout the Japanese game, and in a lot of Japanese media in general. In Japanese, sentence structure is typically Subject-Object-Verb, and even if the particular phase is using English words, they’re still written in the Japanese sentence structure. The English version changes all of these phrases to match the English structure of Subject-Verb-Object. This same occurrence applies to when you obtain a Truth Bullet or any item at the end of a class trial.
Later on, the crew talks once again about how to escape from the school. During the convo, Monokuma shows up and Mondo says “So, mister serial killer psycho freak bastard...what the hell do you want!?” and Monokuma hilariously responds with “Mr. Serialkillerpsychofreakbastard, huh? That's a pretty long name! German, maybe?”
The exact same convo essentially happens in Japanese, however the name Mondo uses is a lot shorter. In fact, he simply refers to Monokuma as Mr. Serial Killer (連続殺人鬼さん lit. Renzoku Satsujin-san) in a sarcastic manner. Monokuma responds saying “...Serial killer? What a strange name. Is it German?” This is a simple stylistic choice, punching up the particular joke for the English audience.
After that, in the Japanese version, Monokuma comments on how no one is dead yet by saying オマエラ、ゆとり世代の割にはガッツあるんだね...でも、ボク的にはちょっと退屈ですぅ～！ This translates directly to "You guys have a surprising amount of guts for the 'Yutori generation'... But for me, it's a bit boring~!"
The Yutori generation, or the Relaxed generation, is the name given to the generation of kids who attended school in Japan during the '90s and early 2000s after the Yutori education (ゆとり教育, yutori-kyōiku) policies were set in place. These policies reduced the hours and content of the curriculum in primary education as a way to reduce the stress of the Japanese school curriculum and introduce education for social awareness. This was a response to the growing frequency of teen delinquency, violence, fights, and vandalism.
This mention was cut in the localization, where instead Monokuma says “I thought all you kids were lazy and selfish, and here you are working together. But I'm totally bored!”
Later that night, you return to your room to rest, but before you can, Sayaka comes in, saying she's scared. You agree to swap rooms with her for the night and spend the night in her dorm. The next morning, everyone gathers for breakfast, but you realize Sayaka is missing.
You rush back to your room and find everything in disarray. Panicking, you run into the bathroom and see Sayaka lying there, dead, with a knife thrust into her chest. It’s a truly haunting scene—or at least it would be if they didn’t just steal it from Oshi no Ko! Gosh!
When Monokuma is explaining the rules of Class Trials (which are called School Trials [学級裁判 lit. Gakkyū saiban] in Japanese), he describes the culprits as “Black” (クロ lit. Kuro), and the innocents as “White” (シロ lit. Shiro). Kuro is a term often used in Japanese mystery stories like this to designate an unknown culprit or a mastermind. Evidently, the black and white motif also matches Monokuma’s design. In the English version, this was changed to “Blackened” and “Spotless,” which makes sense and retains the same meaning.
Mukuro is enraged by Monokuma and stomps on him, only for him to summon Gungnir and take her life. When she’s killed, Monokuma mentions how “this isn’t some shōnen manga story, when you die, you stay dead” in Japanese. In the English version, the mention of “shōnen manga” was changed to “Superhero comics.” In the Project Zetsubou translation, Monokuma’s line about “Superhero comics” was instead a Final Fantasy reference, referring to the Phoenix Down item.
Well… She’s still with us in spear-it.
When the investigation starts, you’re given your first Truth Bullet, the Monokuma File #1. In Japanese, Truth Bullets are instead called Word Bullets (コトダマ lit. Kotodama). However, Kotodama also has a double meaning. In addition to Word Bullets (言玉 lit. kotodama), it can be interpreted as Word Spirits (言霊 lit. kotodama). In ancient Japanese culture, words were thought to carry a spiritual power—often granted by gods—that could make their meaning come true. Many sources also remark a distinction between positive and negative kotodama, with positive ones granting blessings and good fortune and negative ones bringing curses and misfortune. Considering Makoto is the main protagonist, perhaps his title of "Ultimate Lucky Student" may be playing into this. The Lie Bullets introduced in New Danganronpa V3 may also be a reference to this.
Before leaving the gym to go on with your investigation, Yasuhiro exclaims how he doesn’t want to die. He then proceeds to call upon the gods to protect him saying: “I'm begging you! God, Buddha, Mother Earth, God of Space, King Neptune! Help me! I don't care who it is, just get me outta here!”
In the Japanese version, instead of calling upon King Neptune, he’s instead calling upon King Kai, a character from Dragon Ball.
When you go back to the scene of the crime, you find Leon’s name written out in blood, upside down behind Sayaka’s body, which Makoto reads as the number 11037. This is a pretty infamous Truth Bullet, and it’s also an example of how not changing something in localization can obscure or warp the particular perception of a piece of media in another language.
Since the game was written with a Japanese audience in mind—an audience who would only have a basic understanding of English—when they see these characters written behind Sayaka’s corpse, their first instinct wouldn’t be to think of them as letters spelling out someone’s name. Unfortunately, I can’t really think of a way you could change it to retain the same feeling for an English audience.
An unfortunate consequence of this, though, is that 11037 is referenced again several times in the series. While in Japanese it's meant to be a heartwarming nod to this case, as Makoto reads it as a message from an old friend to protect him from danger, in English it's almost seen as a meme due to how much it ruins the mystery of the first case.
After asking Hifumi for access to the trash room, he goes off on a tangent where he loosely summarizes the plot of the first episode of Fist of the North Star in the Japanese version. In the English version, this is changed to him quoting Morgan Freeman in Shawshank Redemption. Later on, Hifumi makes a reference to Dragon Ball when he sees Hiro’s broken crystal ball which is surprisingly retained in both versions. He also makes a reference to Dragon Quest 4, which is also retained in both versions of the game.
After investigating the trash room, Hifumi seems intent on pinning the crime on you. In Japanese, he states “It’s clear you are the culprit! The mystery has been solved!” which is the catchphrase of Hajime Kindaichi from the manga series Kindaichi Case Files.
In English, he just says “Everyone already knows you did it! All the mysteries are being solved one by one!” I don’t know if this is a reference to anything.
We finish our investigation and we head to the game’s first Class Trial, and since this is fully voice-acted, it’s here that I want to discuss the dialects, levels of politeness, and the honorifics used by the different characters in the cast.
Starting with Makoto, he doesn’t actually speak with any unique or notable dialects, level of politeness, voice quirks, or use any unique honorifics. He speaks in very standard Japanese, which reflects his role as the everyman that the player can self-insert to. In English, this is depicted with a more casual and slightly informal speech, which would be used by the average native English speaker his age.
Moving to Sakura, she speaks in an archaic way. She even refers to herself using the first person pronoun, ware (我), which is typically used by old, wise, or ancient characters like a deity, a wise wizard, or an experienced samurai. In the real world though, at least in modern Japanese, you’ll only ever see it in works of fiction. Similarly, she uses the pronoun onushi (おぬし) which is used by elders and samurai to talk to people of equal or lower rank. There isn’t really much of a way to portray this in English though.
Next, Kiyotaka typically addresses everyone as -kun (くん), which is normally used for young men. Kiyotaka, however, uses this honorific indiscriminately, as he addresses women with it as well. That’s because it’s also a common honorific used by higher-ups to refer to their juniors in a work setting, regardless of gender. This is meant to reflect Kiyotaka’s generally serious and uptight nature, as he speaks in a generally stiff and commanding manner.
Toko doesn’t refer to anyone using honorifics, which is usually reserved for either people you're close to, like very close friends, or people you dislike or have no respect for. Considering Toko’s character, you can probably guess which of the two is the case for her. She does, however, use honorifics to refer to Byakuya. She typically refers to him as Byakuya-sama, which is localized as “Master,” which is a very common translation of -sama (様, さま). The Project Zetsubou translation is a bit more creative, in that Toko instead refers to Byakuya as “My White Knight.” This is a pun based on his name, as the Kanji 白夜 (Byakuya), means “White Night.”
A piece of trivia I actually learned recently is that in Fire Emblem Fates, the regions Hoshido and Nohr, are called Byakuya and Anya (Black Night) in Japanese respectively.
Another piece of info about Toko is her stutter, which was actually brought up specifically in an interview with NISA’s head script editor, Phoenix Spaulding. He mentions that not only did they struggle to find the best way to carry over her stutter in English faithfully without her text being too unreadable, but they also struggled to find a VA who could portray her stutters in a way that didn’t come off as offensive to people who have similar stutters in real life.
Furthermore, something I find a bit interesting is how stutters are presented in the text itself. In Japanese, the stutters are typically depicted with either an ellipsis (...) or a comma (,). In the English version though, stutters are consistently portrayed using a dash (-).
Additionally, Toko also speaks in a very traditionally feminine way which is shown in phrases like “datta no yo” (だったのよ). The standard usage would be “datta yo,” but a “no” is added to soften it and make it sound more ladylike or emotive. It can also be used by male characters in specific contexts to show emphasis or personal involvement, but it’s less common. This specific usage of the term “no” is usually seen in a lot of shōjo manga and anime.
Next is Chihiro, who doesn’t use gendered pronouns to refer to himself during the course of the game. The only time he does is during a flashback in Chapter 2, where he uses the masculine pronoun “boku,” (ぼく) which the English translation doesn’t retain, but again, there is no real way for them to be able to retain it.
Yasuhiro ends a lot of his sentences with -be (ベ), a punctuation used by people who live in the Tōhoku region of Japan. It’s a region that is more in the country area, with the closest Western approximation being a redneck-esque accent, however, this isn’t retained in English. At most, the English version attempts to retain this alternative way of speaking by having him use “For serious” sometimes. In the Project Zetsubou patch, this is instead portrayed by replacing his "-be" punctuation with "dude."
Furthermore, in Japan, Yasuhiro uses "-chi" (ち) as an honorific for everyone. Though, it's less of an honorific and more of a cutesy nickname. This isn’t retained in English, but if I were a localizer, I’d use nicknames like “Taka” and “Hina,” make similar nicknames for everyone else, and have them be used specifically by Yasuhiro. The fan translation actually did do this, and below I've provided a table of the nicknames Yasuhiro uses for each student in the Project Zetsubou patch.
Hifumi refers to people using -dono (どの), an overly polite honorific that you rarely see in casual speech. It's used in formal or ceremonial contexts, particularly in written documents or legal settings. In anime and manga, it's often used for comedic effect or to emphasize a character's exaggerated politeness or old-fashioned manner of speaking. In English, this is changed to him referring to everyone as “Mr. [surname]” and “Miss [surname]” which is a change I have mixed feelings about, but I’ll bring it up in Chapter 3.
Celeste speaks in a very polite and refined manner and typically uses the first-person pronoun watakushi (わたくし). It’s the most formal way to refer to oneself, and you’d typically see people use it in events like business meetings, job interviews, or politics. Her manner of speaking is retained in English through her speaking very formally using big words and rarely using any slang or abbreviations.
For example, when introducing herself, she says “I do not think we have been introduced.” rather than something more casual like “I don’t think we’ve met yet.” Overall, it gives her speech a more stiff and calculated vibe.
For the most part, the rest of the characters speak in ways you’d expect from their presented personalities. Leon speaks informally with a lot of slang, Mondo speaks in a more crude way that uses swears, and Aoi speaks rather casually.
As the trial starts, Kyoko points attention to the pictures of Junkuro and Sayaka and asks about their inclusion. Monokuma explains away by saying something along the lines of “I'd feel awful if they got left out just because they died. Friendship penetrates even death's barrier!” wherein Hifumi responds with a shocked reaction saying “Friendship...penetrates?”
This joke was actually translated pretty well from the Japanese version and it makes me wonder how long it took NISA to come up with an equivalent.
For reference, in Japanese, Monokuma says “死んだからって仲間外れにするのはかわいそうでしょ？ 友情は生死を飛び越えるんだよ！” which translates to “Isn't it just so cruel to exclude someone just because they died? Friendship transcends life and death!” The term “life and death” is 生死 and is pronounced as “seishi.” In Japanese, Hifumi responds with “せいしが...飛び...超える?!” which translates to "Semen... t-transcends?!” The joke here is that the term “seishi,” when heard audibly, can be also understood as “精子” or semen, as they’re homonyms.
In Japanese, Makoto’s iconic “No, that’s wrong!” line is “Sore wa chigau yo!” (それは違うよ!) which directly translates to “It is different” or “That’s wrong!” with the English version only barely modifying this line by adding the “No!” to best portray the intended “oomph!” one would expect from breaking down an argument.
Later on, when the discussion moves on to the murder weapon, Hifumi says, “なんだか... それっぽくなってきましたな.." (Nandaka... soreppoku natte kimashita na...). The term I want to point out here is “soreppoku,” a variation of the term “soreppoi,” which roughly translates to “appropriately resembling,” “like that,” or “something typical.” Depending on the scenario, it can also be used in a negative connotation. For example, if you're at a restaurant and the dish you're served looks like a gourmet meal but tastes bland or cheap, you could say, "それっぽいけど、味が全然違う" (Soreppoi kedo, aji ga zenzen chigau), meaning "It looks like the real thing, but the taste is completely off."
It’s a term that often trips up Japanese learners. In the context of this line of dialogue, you kind of have to guess what it means. I mention this because every translation of this line differs greatly. In orenronen’s Let’s Play, they translate the phrase as “That sounds like a good idea.” In the Project Zetsubou translation, it’s rendered as “Ahhh… so this is what it’s come to…” In the official localization, this line is translated as “Wow...this is starting to sound like a real trial!”
In the Japanese text, it’s unclear whether Hifumi is responding to Sakura’s statement about moving on to the murder weapon or if he’s just speaking generally. Because of this ambiguity, the different translations essentially had to make educated guesses and curate the text accordingly.
During the trial, Aoi mentions how Sakura was in the kitchen with her while she was drinking tea, and Leon interrupts and asks who Sakura is. In English, this is played off as Leon simply not remembering Sakura’s name. But in Japanese, Aoi refers to her as Sakura-chan, and since most of the students are more inclined to refer to each other by their last names, Leon would have remembered her name as “Ogami-chan,” so it makes more sense for Leon to not recognize her when addressed as “Sakura-chan.” Additionally, it makes Leon’s reply to Sakura’s response more understandable.
Something I want to point out is that because Japanese words take up fewer characters than English words, the English versions of the Hangman’s Gambit minigames are inadvertently a little more difficult for us than it is for a Japanese player. However, in the very first Hangman’s Gambit game, the term to refer to individual strains of hair is かみのけ (Kaminoke) which is four characters, and it’s coincidentally the same amount of characters as the English word “hair.”
Later on, Toko mentions how she hasn’t showered and Hifumi responds saying “Oh my…” Toko then says “Y-You're no different! You s-smell like a big f-fat ugly donkey!” In the Japanese version, rather than calling him “a big fat ugly donkey,” she says ジャンボタニシ (Janbo tanishi) which is a common name for the Pomacea canaliculata, or the golden apple snail. I don't really know how Hifumi interprets that as a compliment, it makes just as little sense in Japanese.
Later on, when Makoto brings up Sayaka’s dying message (Daiingu Messāji), in Japanese, Leon responds with “Dani... what did you say?” as he mishears “Daiin” as “Dani.” In English, he instead mishears “Dying” as “Dining.”
The last minigame you partake in during the trial is called Bullet Time Battle in English. In Japanese, this is instead called Machinegun Talk Battle, hence many sources shortening the title to M.T.B.
After that, we move on to the execution, which is actually officially referred to as a “punishment.” This isn’t really a localization change, but more of a fun fact, Kodaka mentioned that the reason that they went with the term “punishment” instead of “execution” was because of the late voice actress for Monokuma, Nobuyo Oyama. She said that the term “execution” was too cruel, and wanted something lighter. Kodaka then suggested that she use “punishment” instead, and so Monokuma in the game frequently uses “punishment” and rarely “execution.”
Leon’s execution, The 1,000 Blows, is called Thousand Knocks (Senbon Nokku, lit. 千本ノック) in Japanese. The Japanese title references a training method with the same name that involves making players catch baseballs until they collapse from exhaustion. The execution might also be a reference to JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean, as in Chapter 688, the main character pelts another character with a baseball 1,000 times.
Chapter 2
Chapter 2 is referred to as Weekly Shōnen Despair Magazine (週刊少年ゼツボウマガジン lit. Shūkan Shōnen "Zetsubō Magajin") in Japanese. It’s an obvious nod to Weekly Shōnen Magazines, a weekly shōnen manga magazine published on Wednesdays in Japan by Kodansha.
The localization translated this as “Boys’ Life of Despair,” I couldn’t really tell you why. It completely removes the reference established by the Japanese version, and my only real guess as to why would probably be some kind of licensing issue.
I only just noticed this while proofreading, but Yasuhiro is holding a Shōnen Magazine in the title card.
During the Daily Life portion of this chapter, Monokuma calls everyone into the gymnasium to do exercises. Sakura says to Monokuma “So...why did you call us here? Certainly, it wasn't just to make us exercise…” In the Japanese version, she effectively says the same thing, but mentions the fact that the exercises are “radio exercises.” Radio Exercises are a part of NHK’s radio and TV programming, and have been since the 1920s. In short, they’re simple daily programs instructing the listeners on light stretching exercises to start their day.
Monokuma explains that a new floor has opened up in the school, and during this, he refers to the students as the “Disenchanted Generation.” The Disenchanted Generation is a term that refers to Japanese youth growing up during the Japanese financial bubble. Unlike previous generations who grew up in the '60s and ‘70s, known for their involvement in social movements, the Disenchanted Generation was described as apathetic and consumed by materialism.
In this dialogue, the localization changes this to Monokuma talking about needing something to keep the students excited and jokes about 'kids these days with their ADDs and ADHDs.
When you eventually explore the second floor, you reach the library where Toko, Hifumi, Byakuya, and Kyoko are. When talking to Hifumi, he mentions how none of his works are in the library, and Toko responds, mentioning how comics don’t fit in a library. Toko also mentions how fanfic is just porn drawn by amateurs.
In Japanese, “comics” is instead “manga,” and “fanfic” is instead “doujinshi.” This line is actually one reason why I dislike the changing of Hifumi’s talent to “Fanfic Creator,” because while fanfic does have the reputation of being smut fics written by thirsty fans, the negative reputation doujinshi has, especially among people in the West, is a lot more prevalent.
As most people in the West are introduced to doujin material through ero-doujinshi, a lot of people have the misconception that all doujin is just pornographic manga. Call it “Death of the Author,” but I feel this misconception fits Hifumi very well. The same way a lot of people reduce doujin media to just pornographic content almost mirrors the way people reduce Hifumi to just a pervert. While doujin does have a lot of ero content, like every fandom-related work, and Hifumi makes several perverted jokes, both at their core aim to display and spread their love and passion for the media they love and they want to attract like-minded people.
Since I don’t get a chance to mention this later, during Hifumi’s free time events, he mentions doujin circles and doujin conventions, however, in English this is changed to fanfic circles and fanfic conventions…which don’t exist.
When talking to Toko, she seems to be unhappy with the books in the library, and Hifumi mentions how the variety is lacking. In English, he mentions how there are no comic books or young adult novels. In Japanese, this is instead manga and light novels.
In English, Toko responds by shitting on Hifumi’s work, and he retorts with “Ooh, the lady doth protest too much, methinks! I bet you're secretly into boy-on-boy action!” The first part of this statement is a reference to the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare.
In Japanese, Hifumi responds with “またまたぁ。そんな事言って… 実はボーイズラブ系を熱望してたり?” Which would translate roughly to "Oh, come now. Don’t say things like that… Could it be that you're just secretly craving Boys' Love?"
The first part, “またまたぁ" (matamatā), is a lighthearted and informal expression used to convey playful disbelief, emphasize a repeated action, or add a nonserious and carefree tone to a response. It's somewhat similar to phrases like "Now now," "Again?" “Oh, stop it,” or “Yeah, right,” in English. This is actually one of the best examples of how different Japanese is from English, as a term as simple as “matamatā” is very abstract and can have wildly different translations depending on the context. That said, seeing "matamatā" interpreted as a Shakespeare quote, yet still having it strangely be just as effective at de-escalating the argument as the Japanese version, is interesting, to say the least.
Anyways, Boys' Love is a genre produced and consumed by women that primarily features homosexual relationships between attractive male characters. The main difference between Boys’ Love and the aforementioned Bara is the target audience. Bara is targeted towards gay men, while Boys’ Love is targeted towards heterosexual women.
The localization of “boy-on-boy action” isn’t completely devoid of the same meaning as Boys’ Love. But, to me anyway, the word “action” implies a more of a crude and sexual undertone. Whereas Boys’ Love isn’t always strictly sexual. In any case, I did some research to see if the Japanese line “またまたぁ。そんな事言って…” was in reference to a manga or something else, but it’s a bit too general for me to find anything.
Actually though, when doing research on this topic, I learned that the term "yaoi" isn't actually a term commonly used in Japan. The term yaoi came to be in the late 1970s and early 1980s in the context of doujinshi culture. It was a portmanteau of the terms "yama nashi," "ochi nashi," and "imi nashi," meaning "no climax, no point, and no meaning." It was used in a self-deprecating manner to refer to amateur fan works that solely focused on sex and lacked anything else like a plot or character development.
Moving on, Celeste forces Hifumi to make tea for her. The specific kind of tea she requests is “Royal Milk Tea.” In the English version though, she simply says “Milk Tea.” This is a minor detail, but I find the mention that it’s “Royal” fits very well with Celeste’s character. Royal Milk Tea originated from Lipton’s Royal recipe series in 1965. The notable thing about it is that the volume of milk in this tea is higher than that of regular milk tea giving it a smoother and creamy texture making it popular with people all over the world.
It's a common misconception that this type of tea comes from British royalty and is their preferred way of making tea. In actuality, Royal milk tea originated in Japan and is sold in many cafes there. This parallels Celeste's identity in that she often presents herself as an extravagant noble of European descent but is actually a regular Japanese girl. …It actually fits her to a tea.
The next day, Chihiro is talking about how he wants to become stronger, and Sakura offers to help him work out. In English, Hifumi responds to this by saying “B-But then Miss Fujisaki would get smashed into a billion pieces!” Hifumi virtually says the same thing in Japanese, but I wanted to point this out because this is one of the few times he doesn’t use the honorific “dono.” In Japanese, he instead refers to Chihiro as “Chihiro-tan.” Tan (たん) is a cutesy mispronunciation of the honorific “chan” used to address a small, cute girl. Hifumi does flip-flop between using “tan” and “dono” for Chihiro though.
When Taka and Mondo begin to form a friendship, they start calling each other "Bro." In Japanese, they refer to one another as "Aniki," which means "big brother" in Japanese. Terms like Aniki can be used to address an older brother, but it can also refer to someone who isn’t your actual brother, such as a close male friend or a superior you look up to. Often, in Japanese media, terms like Aniki or Onii-chan (which also means "big brother") are translated differently, such as a nickname, or something when the ties between the speakers aren’t familial. However, in this case, since “Bro” is a common term that men use in English to refer to one another when they’re close, the direct translation of Aniki → Bro works here.
Later on, you find Chihiro dead and arranged in a bizarre fashion. The text is a little hard to read, but in Japanese, it reads チミドロフィーバー (Chimidoro Fībā). チミドロ is a katakana spelling of 血みどろ, which means “bloodstained” or “covered in blood,” and フィーバー is just the English word “fever.”
In English, this instead says “Bloodlust.”
When the trial starts, Hifumi makes a pun regarding Genocide Jack’s signature message, and similar to the “friendship…penetrates…” joke, this one is pretty well translated. In Japanese, when recalling Jack’s calling card, チミドロフィーバー (Chimidoro Fībā), Hifumi misremembers it as チチデカフィーバー (Chichi Deka Fībā). Chichi is a casual way to refer to a woman’s breasts, similar to a term like “titties” or “boobs.” Deka just means big or large, and as we went over before, Fībā is just the English word “fever.” In English, since Jack’s calling card is changed to “Bloodlust,” Hifumi misremembers the term “Booblust.”
A very minor change is when talking about how Toko may be Genocide Jack. In Japanese, Aoi mentions "でも、腐川ちゃんは血が苦手なんだよ？" which translates to "But, Fukawa-chan is bad with blood, remember?" In the English localization, "bad with blood" was punched up to "bloodophobia or whatever."
After Byakuya announces that Toko is Genocide Jack, you then play a Hangman’s Gambit game to uncover how this is the case. During the game, the word you’re trying to complete is…
I’m not sure how I feel about using the word “Schizo” in this context. It’s not really an accurate term to describe Toko’s condition, and it comes across as offensive toward the mentally ill. I mean, I use the term “schizo” when referring to myself, as I often refer to my own posts as “schizoposts” in a joking manner, but seeing the term used completely straight toward a character who’s mentally ill kind of rubs me the wrong way.
I guess it’s just one of those terms that carry different meanings in Japan. Every word has different connotations and weight behind it as a result of its history, so it’s important to understand th—
Wait… What? “Schizo” was only added in the localization? In Japan, the term is just “Multiple Personalities”? Wow, uh… I don’t know what to say, so let’s move on…
During the class trial, you’re met with the only other student to have received a name change, and this one is a lot more notable than changing Ludenberck to Ludenberg. The student in question is the Ultimate Murderous Fiend (Super High School Level Murderer in Japan) Genocide Jack. The name Jack is based on Jack the Ripper. Additionally, throughout the game, she prefers to be called Genocide Jill, which comes from the theory that Jack the Ripper was actually a woman, who is typically dubbed "Jill the Ripper." The name can also come from the nursery rhyme, Jack and Jill. In Japanese, she is instead called Genocider Shō, with the Kanji 翔 (shō) meaning “soar” or “fly.”
Voices: JPN: Miyuki Sawashiro | ENG: Erin Fitzgerald
I initially thought the name Shō was based on a character from Clock Tower II, as a character in that game, Alyssa Hale, also has a serial killer split personality named Shō in Japanese, but renamed to Bates in English. But apparently, this was just a big old coincidence, as Kodaka has stated publicly that he’s never even played Clock Tower II.
Apparently, this name was changed because, in Japan, Shō is a common male-given name, so the audience is supposed to be led to believe that Shō is male. So when it’s revealed that Shō is actually a schoolgirl, it’s meant to surprise you and take you off guard. But to a Western-speaking audience who wouldn’t identify with the name “Shō,” that twist would be lost on us. So the character was renamed to Jack.
In her introduction, she states “I'm the Ultimate Murderous Fiend, Genocide Jack! Or better yet, let's go with Genocide Jill!” in English. In Japanese, she’s referred to as Shō consistently throughout the game, the extra line of wanting to be called something different didn’t exist. Instead, the Japanese line roughly translates to “I am the ‘Super High School Level Murderer,' Genocider Shō! My real name is Toko Fukawa, but that’s a pretty lame name!!”
Interestingly though, in English, the mention of her not liking the name “Toko” is added to her next line, when Taka asks her if she’s okay. In English, the convo goes as such.
Taka: “Toko...what happened to you?”
Genocide Jill: “Not Toko! That's a loser name! And what happened is a textbook split personality! So what if one of them happens to be a serial killer!? You should turn a blind eye to one's faults!”
Whereas in Japanese, her convo plays out more as:
Kiyotaka: “W-What’s wrong… Fukawa-kun...?”
Genocider Shō: “So what if I have a split personality? And what if one of those personalities happens to be a murderer? You should just let that one flaw slide.”
Later on, Genocide Jill talks about how she murders people, and how the way Chihiro was killed was an embarrassment of an imitation. In English, she refers to her murders as a special fancy dish from an Italian restaurant, while Chihiro’s murder was like using Ragu and Chef Boyardee. In Japanese, she instead refers to her murders as a fancy ramen place and compares Chihiro’s murder to those instant ramen packs that get you through college.
Then when talking about the arrangement of the body, she states “That's right! In my recipe of murder, if the bloody message is the tortellini then the arrangement of the body would be the pesto sauce!” Meanwhile, in Japanese, she says “That’s right! If we compare the bloody message in my murderous art to the slices of roast pork in a bowl of ramen… The crucifixion is just like the boiled egg!!”
Jill then starts to refer to Makoto as “Big Mac,” which is admittingly a funny nickname. In Japanese, she simply refers to him as Ma-kun, a simple shortening of his first name.
When it’s later revealed that Genocide Jill only kills men she’s attracted to, in Japanese, she says “そう! アタシが信念と情熱を持って殺るのは、萌える男子だけなのよッ!” Which roughly translates to “That’s right! Those murders that I carry with such passion and conviction… They’re all moeru boys!”
This line is basically the same in English, but I wanted to point towards the specific characters used by Jill to refer to these guys, or more accurately, how they make her feel. In Japan, she uses the term “萌える” (moeru). If you spend a lot of time in anime communities, especially back in the day, you may recognize this term, or at least its more common form, moé (萌え). It literally refers to budding or to sprout, but in otaku spaces, it’s a slang term used to refer to feelings of strong affection towards certain characters in anime, manga, video games, and other otaku-related media. These characters often embody a feeling of cuteness and innocence that invokes feelings ranging from wanting to protect these characters to more sexual desires. The concept of moé has existed in Japanese media since the 80s, and the idea of it has had a profound impact on Japanese media and has evolved over the years.
In English, Jill says “That's right! The people I kill with such passion and conviction...are all adorable little men!” This is a decent localization, as it carries the same colloquial meaning. However, this kinda made me notice that in Hifumi’s second Free Time Event, he mentions the word “moé” and it’s completely unchanged in the localization. Yet they changed terms like “manga” and “light novel” to “comics” and “young adult books,” which are concepts that would be a lot more well-known to an English audience, especially back in 2014. Between this and the inconsistency of how Celeste’s FTE properly translates the King of Liars line, it makes me wonder if the FTEs and the main game were translated by completely separate people.
There’s a lot to talk about regarding Genocide Jill, and there’s no end in sight! The next thing I want to mention is how she refers to herself as a Fujoshi (腐女子), which directly translates to "rotten girl." It’s a term used to refer to women who are very into anime, manga, and video games, like an otaku, but fujoshi have a greater focus on being fiercely into Boys’ Love-related media. The term originated on 2ch in the early 2000s as a derogatory insult, but it was later reclaimed as a self-descriptive term. In English, Jill instead refers to herself as a “full-throttle boy-on-boy fangirl!”
She also mentions how she wants to be a Kifujin (貴腐人), which roughly means “a noble fujoshi,” referring to a fujoshi whose interest in Boys’ Love persists into adulthood. In English, this is localized as “a full-fledged fanmadam!”
Something that really cracked me up was when Taka mentioned that since Chihiro is a girl and not a man, Jill wouldn’t kill them. Jill responds with, “Would an Italian chef suddenly start making ramen, just because they're both noodles? Don't be stupid!” What I find so funny about this line is that in Japanese, she basically says the same thing, but the two types of dishes are swapped.
When Genocide Jill reveals her special scissors, in Japan, she has a special name for them, which is Mai Hasami (マイハサミ). The term "Mai" is just a Japanese spelling of the English word "My," and "Hasami" is just the Japanese word for "scissors." It's almost the equivalent of making something sound fancy by preceding its name with a Spanish "El," like "El Calculator." It’s a difficult name to translate, since “my very own handmade My Scissors,” doesn’t sound very natural in English. The official localization opts to keep her scissors unnamed, which is boring. I like what the Project Zetsubou translation does, where they instead rename her scissors to “Genoscissors.” It retains the same silly feeling it has in Japanese while also reflecting that these are scissors that belong to her.
Since this is the first time I’m showing a Nonstop Debate, I wanted to mention that the white text that flies across the scene in these portions actually pays homage to the video-sharing site, Nico Nico Douga. On that site, comments left by users will fly over the screen in a similar manner, other users can even shoot them down!
When Makoto is discussing the possibility that the crime scene changed, he brings up the swapping of the two posters. In English, he refers to one of the posters as “a picture of a big-boobed supermodel.” In Japanese, he refers to it as “a gravure idol with big boobs.” A gravure idol is a type of model that poses in provocative lingerie and swimsuit photos for magazines, calendars, and DVDs typically marketed to men.
Afterward, Jill makes a pun about the model’s boobs. In Japanese, she says “巨乳じゃなくて虚乳だったりしてッ! ゲラゲラゲラ.” The joke plays on the two homophones 巨 (きょ, kyo), meaning "huge" or "gigantic," and 虚 (きょ, kyo), meaning "empty" or "hollow," which implies something fake or inauthentic. Essentially, Jill is joking that the model's breasts aren’t really “big” (巨乳, "kyonyū") but instead “fake” (虚乳, "kyonyū"). The pun is a simple case of wordplay, as both kanji sound the same but have different meanings. It's similar to the "seishi" joke Hifumi makes in Chapter 1.
In English, since there isn’t a homonym that refers to both “big” and “fake,” the English localization changes the pun to Jill directly suggesting "I bet those massive jugs of hers were totally fake! Kyeehahaha!" without any wordplay. In the Project Zetsubou fan translation, the big boobed model is instead referred to as a "busty" supermodel, and Jill's joke is instead "She's not busty, she's busted—for havin' some fake-ass titties! Gahahahahaha!" which I find to be a better localization than the official one.
Later on, Jill refers to Chihiro as “Cherry,” in English. In Japanese, like Makoto’s name, she simply shortens his name to Chi-tan. Also, speaking of Chihiro, when Sakura is preparing to search his body, in Japanese, Jill takes notice of how Aoi refers to Sakura as “Sakura-chan” instead of “Ogami-chan,” which implies that the two of them are pretty close, so Jill replies saying “Is this yuri, I see? Are you two in that kind of relationship!?”
In English, since everyone just refers to Sakura as “Sakura,” it makes Jill’s comment come off as unprovoked. Especially considering that “yuri” is translated as “girl-on-girl action.”
When Chihiro's secret is revealed, Monokuma says "Chihiro Fujisaki was totally a guy!" in the English localization. In Japanese, Monokuma says "不二咲千尋は男の娘だよーッ！！" Which translates to "Fujisaki Chihiro is an Otoko no Ko!!" The term Otoko no Ko (男の娘) is a common anime trope referring to a male character who dresses like a woman. The term is a play on the phrase 男の子 (Otoko no Ko), another term referring to a young man, but the Kanji for "young" (子) is swapped out for the Kanji meaning "girl" (娘). In English, this is often translated as femboy, crossdresser, or a previously popular term that is more controversial now.
When Kyoko is pointing her reticle towards Mondo, she brings up the fact that Mondo has a different way of addressing both men and women. For men, he refers to them as “dude,” and for women, he refers to them as “chick.” This is a small little detail that implicates Mondo for the murder, as he previously called Chihiro “dude” unwittingly before the reveal, implying he knew something the rest of the class didn’t.
In Japan, Mondo uses Ano Onna (あの女) or “that girl” to refer to women, whereas, with men, he refers to them as Aitsu (あいつ) or roughly “that guy,” which is a slightly rude genderless third person pronoun and used to refer to someone who is not close to the speaker.
In Japanese, Mondo’s execution is called 猛多亜最苦婁弟酢華恵慈. The name comes from 猛 (Mō) meaning 'strong,' 多 (Ta) meaning 'many,' 亜 (A) meaning 'Asia,' 最 (Sai) meaning 'extreme,' 苦 (Ku) meaning 'suffering,' 婁 (Rō) meaning 'connection,' 弟 (Tei) meaning 'younger brother,' 酢 (Su) meaning 'acidic,' 華 (Ka) meaning 'elegance,' 恵 (Kei) meaning 'grace,' and 慈 (Ji) meaning 'mercy.'
Now, completely ignore the definitions of the kanji mentioned in the previous paragraph; they have no standard meaning when put together. What matters is the way they’re pronounced together: Mōtāsaikuru Desu Kēji. This is actually English, or rather an approximation of the term “Motorcycle Death Cage,” using kanji characters to match the sounds. It’s a common practice for bōsōzoku to write names, slogans, and even ordinary words in this style, which is called Ateji. In English, this is simply changed to “The Cage of Death.”
Mondo’s biker gang, Crazy Diamond, is written in this fashion as well, 暮威慈畏大亜紋土 (Kureijī Daiamondo). Furthermore, Mondo and his brother Daiyo’s names also follow this pattern, as their names aren’t actually native Japanese names but loanwords from English, which together spell DaiyaMondo or Diamond. Furthermore, the gang’s name, Crazy Diamond, is a reference to JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, and Mondo’s likeness is likely a reference to Josuke Higashikata.
Chapter 3
The next chapter, Chapter 3, is titled as such: New Century Galactic Legend Returns! Armored Heroes, Stand Upon the Earth! (新世紀銀河伝説再び！装甲勇者よ大地に立て！ lit. Shinseiki Ginga Densetsu Futatabi! Sōkō Yūsha yo Daichi ni Tate!) This is just an amalgamation of several Mecha and Sci-Fi anime.
新世紀 (Shinseiki) comes from 新世紀エヴァンゲリオン (Shinseiki Evangerion), which would be translated directly as New Century Evangelion but is better known in the West as Neon Genesis Evangelion.
銀河伝説 (Ginga Densetsu) is a bit too common to trace down a specific reference, it could be referencing a multitude of things ranging from Legend of the Galactic Heroes, Cyborg 009: Legend of the Super Galaxy, or a song written by Hiromi Iwasaki.
再び (Futatabi) is used to indicate that something is happening for a second time or is recurring. For example, it can be translated as "again," "once again," or "for the second time." The Project Zetsubou fan translation translated this portion of the title as "Redux."
And 装甲勇者よ大地に立て！ (Sōkō Yūsha yo Daichi ni Tate!) is a reference to the first episode of Mobile Suit Gundam, called ガンダム大地に立つ！(Gandamu Daichi ni Tatsu) which was translated as Gundam Rising!
In the localization, this Chapter’s title was interpreted as “A Next Generation Legend! Stand Tall, Galactic Hero!” it gets the same general meaning across, but it removes a lot of the specific references. It’s likely that NISA did spot the references, but chose not to interpret them 1:1 due to potential licensing issues. They did a similar thing with a character in the next game, where Gundham Tanaka’s first name had an “h” added in the localization to curb any potential licensing issues that could arise by using the name “Gundam” for one of the characters.
When Aoi wakes up in her bed, she’s craving some donuts to eat. In Japanese, the types of donuts she’s craving are “Ring donuts, twisted donuts, azuki donuts, jelly donuts, malasadas, and sata-andagis.” Sata-andagis are sweet deep-fried buns of dough similar to doughnuts and are native to Southern China. Azuki donuts are donuts flavored with azuki paste, a popular type of red bean paste used in many Japanese baked goods. I’ve had it before in mochi, but it’s not really a taste I enjoy. In English, the types of donuts Aoi craves are “Glazed donuts, twisty donuts, jelly donuts, cream-filled, donut holes, and malasadas.”
The next morning, the students are discussing ways to escape, and Hifumi brings up the lack of 2D in the school. In English, he lists “Meggy, the drill shop owner, the bunny-eared Amazon, Catgirl Dogboy, and Robo Justice the Galactic King.”
In Japanese, Meggy was instead called “Megu-chan” or Meg-chan, Amazon was called “Amazoness,” and Robo Justice the Galactic King is supposed to be “Galactic King Justice Robo”
Furthermore, he mentions Princess Piggles, a character from the fictional anime series Demon Angel☆Pretty Pudgy Princess. In Japanese, her name is Princess Būko (プリンセスぶー子). Meanwhile, the series she’s from is called Heretic Angel ☆ Mochi Mochi Princess Būko (外道天使☆もちもちプリンセスぶー子 lit. Gaidō Tenshi☆Mochi Mochi Purinsesu Būko).
Also, as I just said before, Robo Justice was called Justice Robo in Japanese. Normally, this wouldn’t even be noteworthy since it’s just a name order swap, but in many older mecha anime, it was standard for robots to have the term “Robo” follow their title or descriptor—examples include Getter Robo, Giant Robo, Planet Robo Danguard Ace, and UFO Robo Grendizer.
When you explore the third floor and find Celeste in the Rec Room, she mentions how there are games of Othello and Shogi in there, and surprisingly, this was not altered in the English version. More importantly, you find Taka in the physics lab as well as a “time machine.” Monokuma states how it can go back one minute and says that it’s invaluable if you leave your pizza bagels in the microwave for one minute too long. In the Japanese version, pizza bagels are instead instant ramen.
After that, you can go to the art room, where Hifumi yaps about three figure makers that inspire him. When he’s finished talking about them, he states “Truly they can only be regarded as the Elite Four!” This may come off as a Pokémon reference, but it’s actually a bit deeper than that. In Japanese, he says “いずれも、フィギユア界の四天王の名に相応しいお方,” and I want to point attention to the phrase 四天王 (Shitennō), which roughly translates to “Four Heavenly Kings,” which refers to four Buddhist gods that rule over each cardinal direction: north, south, east, and west.
Shitennō is a term you’ll find referenced a lot in Japanese media to refer to four powerful beings, and many different games and anime translate this differently. In Final Fantasy IV, this term is translated as "Four Fiends of Elements." The Megami Tensei series translates the term as “Four Devas." And famously, the Pokemon games translate this term as “The Elite Four,” which is what Hifumi opts to use in this phrase in English.
Out of curiosity, I checked SDR2’s script to see if Gundham’s Dark Devas of Destruction uses a similar name in Japanese, and lo and behold, they do. In Japan, they’re called The Four Heavenly Kings of Darkness and Gods of Destruction (破壊神暗黒四天王 lit. Hakai-shin Ankoku Shitennō)
In the cafeteria, Genocide Jill mentions that “The long road to maidenhood begins with a single step…” In Japanese, she mentions “Otome Road.” Otome Road, or Maiden’s Road, refers to a street in Ikebukuro, Tokyo. It’s almost seen as the Akihabara for fujoshi, as it’s lined with shops and vendors for that demographic.
When you first discover the laptop in the bathhouse, Hifumi chants “Iä! Iä! Cthulhu fhtagn!” a reference to H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos. In Japanese, Hifumi instead teases Yasuhiro by chanting “Ekoekoekoekoekoekoeko…” a reference to the Wiccan chant, also known as "Eko Eko Azarak." A chant referenced in a lot of Japanese horror media to summon Lucifer.
When the laptop turns on, Yasuhiro exclaims “I-It's a ghost! Buddha and sweet baby Jesus, save me!” in the English version. In Japanese, he exclaims, “Namuamidabutsu namuamidabutsu!!” a popular Japanese version of a pure-land Buddhism chant.
When Hifumi starts to gain interest in Alter Ego, he says “…萌えますな.” Which translates to "...It’s so moé." Like with Genocide Jill, this is another instance of the term moé being used. In English, this is changed to “I...I believe I'm on fire…” This particular line change is one I find particularly interesting though. Back in older Japanese message boards and stuff, fans would use expressions such as “moé moé” or “moeru moeru” to express their affection for moé characters. They would intend to use the term “燃える” (moeru), meaning to burn up or to get fired up, which refers to either their burning passion or sexual desire.
However, old Japanese PCs would autocorrect the kana characters, もえる, to “萌える” (moeru), which I previously stated means to bud or to sprout. Over time, this spelling was so common that the original kanji was lost. That said, Hifumi’s localized line of “I...I believe I'm on fire…” almost pays homage to this original etymology.
When Monokuma calls everyone to the gym to present the next motive, you rejoin Byakuya and Toko. Byakuya has nothing important to say, but people note that Toko is no longer Genocide Jack, and is her normal gloomy self. In Japanese, she says “I wish you'd all get trapped under a Mikoshi and die just after pulling a "great luck" O-mikuji…”
A mikoshi (神輿) is a religious palanquin that Shinto followers believe serves as the vehicle to transport a deity in Japan while moving between the main shrine and temporary shrine during a festival or when moving to a new shrine. An O-mikuji (御御籤 / 御神籤 / おみくじ) is a popular paper fortune you can get at Shinto shrines. Because of the heavy cultural references which would be lost on an English-speaking fan, this is changed to “I hope you all win the l-lottery and get hit by a b-bus…”
Monokuma then offers ten million dollars to the blackened if they can get away with the next murder. In the Japanese version, this is instead one billion yen. Like the aging up of Hiro, this is an unnecessary change, in my opinion. It comes off as an attempt to Americanize a game that very clearly takes place in Japan. Even if you want to change it to something that’s more well-known to an English speaker, I feel enough people know what Yen is, or at least would understand from context clues. Seriously, you either go full Ace Attorney or go home.
When Taka discovers Alter Ego and learns that it can replicate Mondo, he becomes Kiyondo Ishida. In English, Kiyondo speaks in a fashion similar to a middle-aged mom with three kids who tries to cover up her swears by using terms like “fudge” instead of “fuck,” and “dumbbutt” instead of “dumbass.” In Japanese, he speaks somewhat similarly…? Or at the least, he speaks more informally, compared to his normal way of speaking.
When he first transforms he says “オウッ, もう心配は ねーぞ いら! 悪かったな、 迷惑掛けちまってよぉ!” Which roughly translates to “Oh, there ain’t no need to worry! Sorry for causing ‘ya trouble, man!"
The more informal language is portrayed by his usage of ねー (nee) an informal way of saying "ない" (nai). Nai is a formal and neutral way of making a verb into a negative form of itself. Nee is more common in casual speech, and you’ll often see it used in everyday situations where characters or people speak more informally or in a regional dialect. In English, the difference between the two would be “There is no need to worry” vs. “There ain’t no need to worry.”
He also uses the term “いら” (ira) a shortened and slangy form of "いらない" (iranai) which means "not needed." In addition, he also punctuates his statement with "よぉ" (yoo), an informal sentence-ending particle that adds emphasis or assertiveness to a statement. For the purpose of this example, I translated it as “man.” That said, it’s really interesting to me how much can be deciphered about a character from a single line of dialogue.
The next day, Kyoko reprimands the Alpha and the Omega for using Alter Ego after she tells him not to. Hifumi cries to Makoto about it, and in Japanese, he refers to Makoto as Naegi Makoto-dono as per usual, but in English, he refers to Makoto as “Makoto,” and this is actually the only time in the game that he breaks his naming convention of referring to people by their surnames. Even when he dies, he still retains his normal speaking patterns.
What a serious oversight, literally unplayable.
In the cafeteria, Byakuya is telling Genocide Jill to leave him alone, and Jill responds to him with "ねぇ、白夜様... ツンの時間がもったいないわ。デレだけにしましょうよ." This roughly translates to "Hey, Master... Let’s skip the 'tsun' part and jump straight to the 'dere' part!" The “tsundere” trope is a very common anime trope that describes a character who starts out harsh but gradually becomes warmer and friendlier.
As NISA didn’t think the term “tsundere” would resonate with a general English audience, Jill’s line is changed to “You don't have to play hard to get, Master! You can just play hard!” which is honestly funny as hell.
Later on, the remaining students are searching for Robo Justice after it attacks Celeste and Hifumi with Justice Hammers 1 and 2. Genocide Jill calls out for the robot and refers to them as “Mister Robot” in English, and “Robo-chan” in Japanese.
Furthermore, the screams in this chapter go from "Dohyaah!" to "Ha-aaaah!", "Yoo-hoo" to "Dohyaah!", and "Kyaaaaaaah!" to "Ungyaaaaaahhh!" They were kinda just shuffled around.
When you refind Hifumi and Taka in the art repository, Aoi holds onto Hifumi’s head and cries. Her tears end up waking him briefly, and you have a fairy tale-esque scene of him remembering everything about Hope’s Peak. Aoi asks Hifumi about who killed him, and he responds by telling them “Yasuhiro…” then he passes on.
This is the part I was referring to when I stated that I wasn’t a fan of how Hifumi’s honorific usage was adapted in the localization. As I stated earlier, Hifumi refers to everyone in Japanese by their surname followed by their first name and the dono honorific. So rather than referring to Makoto as Naegi-kun, he refers to him as Naegi Makoto-dono. As the hammer to his cranium undid the memory wipe, he remembered Celeste’s name as Taeko Yasuhiro, implying the two of them were close enough for her to tell him his real name, which is further implied by a picture you find of them and Sayaka in Chapter 4. As they were close in their previous lives, Hifumi knew Celeste as Taeko Yasuhiro, so he would refer to her as “Yasuhiro Taeko-dono.” In the Japanese version, it’s implied that he mentions Yasuhiro, but passes before he can complete the rest of his sentence.
In the localization, if they were consistent, Hifumi would have said “Miss Yasuhi-” and then passed before he could finish his sentence. But to keep the mystery, they instead omitted the “Miss” part because you would easily be able to tell that Hiro wasn’t the one who did it. I understand that there weren’t many other options to translate his wording in a way that’s relevant to a general English audience, but it still creates a shift in understanding of the narrative when you compare the two versions of the game. Like, I’ve seen people think he was still trying to cover for Celeste by implicating Hiro or completely miss the detail that he regained his school memories because of this, which really sucks.
During the trial, Makoto mentions that they found a suspicious note in Hifumi’s pants, where Genocide Jill, Aoi, and Sakura all react in pretty humorous ways. This is translated very directly from Japanese, as Makoto is referring to Hifumi’s “pantsu” (パンツ). Despite it being translated directly though, it doesn’t carry the same meaning in English. By “pantsu,” Makoto is actually referring to Hifumi’s undergarments or underpants, as pantsu is the word commonly used for it. I guess from the context, you can still come to the conclusion that Makoto was referring to his underwear in English but just didn’t want to sound crude. But when I first played it, I took “in his pants” quite literally, and assumed the note was in his pockets or something.
Furthermore, the undergarments you obtain from characters by getting their endings in School Mode are also referred to as “pantsu” in Japanese. While I don’t care too much, about whether or not NISA wants to refer to pantsu as “pants” or “undergarments,” I wish they’d be consistent for whatever term they used in each scene.
This is a bit of an unfortunate example, but nonetheless, it reminds me of how cool Japanese, and languages in general are. Oftentimes, one language would take a word from another language, but the definition of that word can sometimes become altered and take on brand new meanings.
The phrase I know off the top of my head is the word “hips.” In English, the hips refer to the pelvis and upper thigh bone. Meanwhile, in Japanese, hips (ヒップ lit. Hippu) was taken from English and is the term that’s typically used for “buttocks.” This is actually why the ground pound attack in older Mario games was referred to as “Hip Drop.”
Later on, when talking about the two victims, Genocide Jill refers to Hifumi as Huffy and Kiyotaka as Tick-Tock. In Japanese, this is instead Hifumin and Kiyo-tan. Interestingly though, in Danganronpa V3, Genocide Jack’s nickname changes from Huffy to Hifuminnie.
After that, the discussion shifts to what Hifumi could have been killed by. In Japanese, Genocider makes a joke about Justice Hammer 5 and says “For more details, check the web!!” In English, this is expanded to “Check out murdergear.com/hammertime or more info!” a specific website was added as well as the subpage “Hammer Time.” I sincerely hope no one who’s reading this is too young to know what "Hammer Time" is in reference to.
Fun fact though, that link, or rather the domain name actually takes you to a legit website. It takes you to some unrelated website that sells horror-themed clothing and merchandise, specifically zombie-themed.
Afterward, you implicate Celeste for being the orchestrator behind the murders, but as Makoto is talking, in the Japanese version, Byakuya very bluntly says “でしゃばるな...” which roughly translates to “Don’t butt in…” or “Don’t interrupt…” In English, this is instead “Shush. The adults are talking now.” which is a lot more condescending than the Japanese version.
When you suggest that Celeste was working with Hifumi, Celeste exclaims "That I would go within ten feet of that shit-for-brains! That lazy, worthless goddamn idiot!" when referring to Hifumi. In Japanese, she says "そんな事ある訳ねぇだろう, クソボケが！！誰があんなヘタレと組むっつーんだよ！！" In Japanese, she simply refers to Hifumi as a "hetare," (ヘタレ) a slang term that refers to a coward, wimp, or weakling. All the other insults in the English version are actually directed towards the rest of the class for implying that she would work with Hifumi. These insults are also punched up significantly, as she only refers to them as idiots (ボケ lit. boke) in Japanese. A more accurate translation would be "There's no way something like that could happen, you fucking idiot!! Who the hell would team up with a coward like him!?"
After that, she says "...うふ、失礼しましたわ." which just means "...Teehee, I do apologize for my rudeness" in standard Japanese. This was changed to the French term "pardonnez-moi" in the localization, possibly to punch up the tone shift.
During the trial, Byakuya picks up on something said by Celeste earlier which further links her to the murders. The thing in question is how earlier, Celeste says, “We are all going to die here. We are going to die, just like those guys died…” with her “those guys” comment being the one under fire, as at that point, she shouldn’t have known of Taka’s death. It’s a line that sounds a bit awkward coming from Celeste as it’s a bit informal compared to her usual formal speaking patterns. Furthermore, the usage of the word “guys” doesn’t really imply much, since it can be used as a gender-neutral term, and Celeste could realistically be referring to everyone who has died so far.
I wanted to see if this was clearer in Japanese, and it’s slightly clearer in that version. In Japanese, in place of “those guys,” Celeste says 彼ら (Karera). The term 彼 (Kare) is essentially a male pronoun; it’s used in the same way he/him would be used in English. The term ら (Ra) is a grammar particle used to make a phrase plural, so in English that would be like adding -s to the end of a noun to make it plural.
The problem with the term Karera is that there is no English equivalent. Every term used to refer to multiple people—they/them/us/we—is gender-neutral. So the localization essentially had to go with something that sounded slightly clunky in order to avoid changing the entire clue altogether.
Celeste tries to imply that Hifumi’s dying message was meant to imply Yasuhiro Hagakure, and Yasuhiro claims that his name isn’t actually Yasuhiro, it’s “Taro.” In the Japanese version, this fake name is actually a bit longer, where instead he says “Tarosuke.” This is kind of a case where I actually like the English line more. “Taro” is a very common Japanese name, to the point of “Taro Tanaka” essentially being the Japanese equivalent of “John Doe” or “John Smith.” It fits Yasuhiro’s general character and the overall stressful situation of the trial for him to desperately blurt out the most generic name he could think of to get out of trouble.
Though, in Japanese, the intention may be that in a desperate attempt to clear his name, Yasuhiro just thinks of the two most common masculine Japanese name suffixes, 太郎 (tarо̄) and すけ (suke), and strings them together into one name.
Kyoko further drives the gothic Ouiaboo into a corner by mentioning the fact that if Hifumi was referring to Yasuhiro, he would have said “Hagakure.” In Japanese, Celeste responds to this by saying “た, たまたま...ですわ... その時だけ... 下の名前で呼んだのでしょう” Which roughly translates to "I-it was just by chance… He just happened to call them by their first name that one time."
Genocide Jill then responds with “たまたま...?” This response, たまたま (tama tama) can translate to “by chance,” but the term “tama” can also refer to a small round object, like a ball, a bullet, a marble, a bead, or anything like that. In this case, from Genocide Jill, it’s being used as a childish way to refer to someone’s testicles, similar to using the term “balls.”
In English, this is translated as Celeste saying “I'm sure it was just incidental--by chance he just--his first name...!” Then Jill responds with “Indecent...?” which I feel doesn’t get the joke across at all. I know it’s difficult to find a good alternative, but “incidental” and “indecent” barely even sound the same, and “indecent” is hardly a term that would be seen as sexual by itself.
As Celeste is freaking out, she states that Yasuhiro is a loser’s name and asks if she looks like a loser. She then exclaims “Well!? Dooooo I!? What!? I think I've earned the right to be a little on edge!” This line always felt weird to me, because it came off as if there was supposed to be a response from someone else between these two statements.
In Japanese, this line is "ねーーーー だろがッ!! あぁッ! ? ちょん切るぞッ!!" which roughly means “You’re out of your damn miiiind!! What!? Off with your head!!" This isn’t an exact translation, but it’s the interpretation that makes the most sense to me given the context. In her previous line, she stated “Someone like me with a name as lame as 'Yasuhiro'...?”
The last part, ちょん切る (chongiru), means "to chop off" or "to cut clean off." It’s an exaggerated and vivid way of threatening someone, implying that you’ll do something drastic like cutting off a body part, in which most of the time is someone’s head.
The line is still a bit awkward in Japanese, but her continuing to make threats makes more sense to me than her saying that she’s earned the right to be on edge.
We later learn of Celeste’s birth name, Taeko Yasuhiro. Her given name, “Taeko,” (多恵子), roughly means "many miracles,” which likely references luck being a great factor in her gambling career. Her family name, “Yasuhiro” (安広), literally means “peaceful and spacious.” This last name is spelled with the Kanji 安, meaning “cheap” or “low,” possibly a reference to some sort of insight into her deeper insecurities.
As the trial concludes, Kyoko asks Celeste how she managed to get Hifumi to work for her. Byakuya then mentions that she probably relied on her specialty, “lying.” Celeste then responds saying “My specialty? Don't make me laugh. I didn't have to lie to get him to agree,” as she then proceeds to describe how she lied to Hifumi.
In Japanese, Byakuya says “You probably tricked him with your specialty, lying…” She then responds by saying something along the lines of “My specialty? How crude. I haven’t told any lies that can be called special.” This makes more sense to me, as she acknowledges that she lied, but only downplays it by acting as if it’s no big deal.
Furthermore, in Celeste’s flashback scene where she’s lying to Hifumi, there is a typo in the localization where a “to” is missing when she’s saying “allow him to continue.”
Celeste’s Execution in Japanese is referred to as The Versailles-style Witch Hunt Stake. In English, this is changed to The Burning of the Versailles Witch to make it sound more natural. Unfortunately, there is no Jojo reference to mention here.
In this execution, there’s a giant bunny ragdoll adorning the stage. This ragdoll is a reference to her early beta design, where she’s seen holding the same ragdoll.
Chapter 4
In Japanese, Chapter 4 is referred to as All All Apologies (オール・オール・アポロジーズ lit. Ōru Ōru Aporojīzu), which is simply a reference to All Apologies, a song by Nirvana. In the localization, this is changed to All・Star・Apologies. For some reason, the Japanese space markers “・” are retained.
You and the rest of the students check the new floor, and you join Aoi and Sakura as they look through the vitamin cabinet. In Japanese, Aoi is excited at how she’s found プロドルメンX (Prodolmen X). In English, this is changed to Proteinzyme-X.
At this point, this is the first you hear of The Tragedy. In English, this is called “The Biggest, Most Awful, Most Tragic Event in Human History.” In Japanese, this is instead The Worst, Most Despair-inducing Incident in the History of Mankind (人類史上最大最悪の絶望的事件 lit. Jinrui shijō saidai saiaku no zetsubō-teki jiken). This is another case where I prefer the English version of the name more, but I wish they managed to incorporate the term “despair” into the English name.
After talking to Alter Ego, you leave the bathhouse, and Monokuma is messing with Yasuhiro. In Japanese, Monokuma quotes the Book of Exodus 21:23–27 by saying “Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth.” Yasuhiro freaks out and Sakura reensures him by telling him that Monokuma was just quoting the Bible.
In English, Monokuma says “An eye for an eye, a fang for a fang…” which is probably just a joke on the fact that he’s a bear. Yasuhiro freaks out, and Sakura reassures him by telling him it’s just a saying, with all biblical references scrubbed.
Later, when Monokuma reveals that Sakura is the Mastermind’s mole, everything is in disarray. This discourse causes tension among the cast, and Sakura not wanting to kill one of her friends takes her own life.
This isn’t really a localization change, but as many people know, this death pose is a reference to the last panel in the manga, Ashita no Joe.
During the investigation, you find a book with a fake dying message that was planted by Yasuhiro. In English, it just says “Toko” written in blood, but in Japanese, not only does it say “Fukawa,” but it’s also written in katakana, which I find kind of interesting because the 11037 message in Chapter 1 was written in the Roman alphabet in both languages.
During this trial and throughout the game, Yasuhiro consistently refers to Sakura as “Ogre.” This is the case in Japanese as well, but one thing I find interesting is that in Japanese, Ogre is spelled as オーガ (Ōga), meanwhile, Sakura’s last name, Ogami, is spelled as オオガミ. This makes me wonder if in Japanese, Ogre, was meant to have the double meaning of being both a name people call her, and also a shortening of her name to form a nickname.
Later on, Yasuhiro brings up the dying message, he first introduces it as a “Shining Message,” then corrects himself and calls it a “Dying Message,” then when he’s put under pressure again, he calls it a “Vienna Sausage,” which is a bit random. In Japanese, rather than Vienna Sausage, he says “Viking Sausage” (バイキングソーセージ) which makes more sense to me, “viking” still sounds vaguely like the word “dying,” at least compared to “vienna.”
The conversation moves from Hiro to Toko, and the class is discussing the Chess pieces, and how two of them are missing. In Japanese, Toko questions why we’re talking about Chess in the first place, and Hiro responds by saying 日本人なら将棋だべ！, which translates to “Yeah if you're Japanese, you gotta be playing shogi!”
In the English version, Hiro instead responds with “Yeah! Shogi is way better!” It gets a similar tone across, but slightly changes the meaning. Strangely, it removes the mention of them being Japanese.
When Jill is summoned, she mentions that she and Toko don’t share the same memories. In English, she refers to Toko as “Miss Morose” while in Japanese, she calls her 根暗 (Nekura) a term meaning "gloomy" or having a "dark personality."
After explaining what happened, in the Japanese version, Jill gives Sakura a nickname, Ogre-chin. Chin (ちん) is a diminutive variant of -chan, which is most commonly used by young girls who are very close friends. Strangely, “Ogre-chin” was not adapted in any way in the English version, and Jill just refers to Sakura as “Sakura,” like everyone else. During this same trial, Jill also refers to Makoto as Mako-chin as well, but in English, she still just refers to him as Big Mac.
When the trial ends, we witness the execution of Alter Ego, Excavator Destroyer. In the Japanese version, this is called A Dozer Master (ショベルの達人 lit. Shoberu no Tatsujin). Some of the elements of this execution, as well as its Japanese title, might be references to the Taiko no Tatsujin (太鼓の達人)—also known as Taiko: Drum Master—series of rhythm games by Namco.
After the execution, in English, Monokuma states how he wants to make some chicken, and how he’s all about grilled chicken. In Japanese, he’s instead in the mood for Ramen, and talks about how he’s all about salt Ramen.
Aoi starts to apologize for what happened during the trial, and Byakuya tells her to stop apologizing. In Japanese, Jill responds to this by saying “What was that just now…? That sounded suspiciously like a relationship flag being set!” When talking about the nitty-gritty of video game development, flags refer to variables that are activated when certain conditions are met. Events that “set flags” can range from defeating a boss in an RPG to selecting the correct dialogue option in a dating sim.
In English, Jill says “Th-That totally wasn't normal, right!? Did she just c-capture his flag...?” which can still be interpreted as a gaming term, but the wording makes me think of it as a sports term.
Chapter 5
Chapter 5 is called Junk Food of Despair for the Dashing Youth (疾走する青春の絶望ジャンクフード lit. Shissō suru seishun no zetsubō janku fūdo) in Japan. This is a reference to the title of a Light Novel series whose name would translate to Parabellum of the Sprinting Adolescence (疾走する思春期のパラベラム lit. Shissou Suru Shishunki no Paraberamu), a high school themed novel series written by Makoto Fukami. The localization opted to go with the name 100 Mile Dash; Pain of a Junk Food Junkie, I’m not sure how they came up with that name.
There’s a song in the soundtrack with a similar name in Japanese, except the mention of despair is removed, so the title is just 疾走する青春のジャンクフード, which the English version translates directly as Junk Food for the Dashing Youth. Though, I kinda just refer to this theme as “The Yasuhiro, Hifumi, and Gundham theme.”
After investigating the fifth floor, the group talks about what they’ve found. Hiro mentions how he discovered a garden, and talks about the sprinklers in said garden. He says that you don’t want to be in the garden when the sprinklers turn on or else you’ll get drenched and catch a cold. Whereas Aoi responds by saying that idiots can’t catch colds. Hiro then agrees with her as “idiots can’t get wet!”
In English, Makoto responds by saying “Umm...I think you're thinking of ducks.” In Japanese, Makoto instead responds with “No... you're thinking of yo-kai…” I’m not sure if that’s a specific reference to anything, since I’ve never really heard of yo-kai not being able to get wet.
When discussing the chickens, Aoi brings up how they should raise them to make some fried chicken. Then suggests maybe barbeque instead, in English. In Japanese, she instead suggests yakitori, a Japanese type of skewered chicken.
Afterward, Makoto and Kyoko go into the bathhouse together and discuss more secrets regarding the school. Monokuma appears after they leave and Monokuma teases Makoto by implying that he--[REMOVED TO CONFORM WITH LOCAL AND INTERNATIONAL CENSORSHIP LAWS]--all over her. In the Japanese version though, Monokuma implies that Makoto probably--[REDACTED TO SATISFY CERO RATING RESTRICTION.]--her.
Makoto wants to ask Monokuma a question, and in Japanese, Monokuma asks “...Do you want to know if I'm male or female? Bears don't have gender, you know!” In English, this is punched up to "Whether I'm a mademoiselle or a dudefella? But in the bear kingdom, there IS no male or female!" A lot of Monokuma’s lines are punched up like this, but this one was one I found particularly funny. You can tell Kodaka had a lot of fun writing Monokuma, and NISA seemed to equally have as much fun localizing the bear’s dialogue.
After this, Makoto asks Monokuma what was stolen from him… her… uh… them. Anyways, in the English version, Monokuma says “It was a key and ******!” In the Japanese version, Monokuma says “It was a key and a honyarara!” In Japanese, the phrase "ほにゃらら" (honyarara) is an onomatopoeic expression that doesn't have a specific meaning. It is often used to represent a sense of vagueness or ambiguity, similar to the English phrase "yadda yadda" or "blah blah."
The next day, everyone is wondering where Kyoko is. Monokuma chimes in and changes the subject saying “Hey, don'tcha hate it when you ask someone what their favorite movie is, and they name some indie bullcrap?” In the Japanese version, “movies” is instead “manga,” and instead of “indie bullcrap,” it’s “the most obscure stuff.”
The day after that, the crew finds Monokuma not moving in the gym, and Makoto shows up late. Hiro addresses Makoto’s lateness by saying “This is worse than being late for your wedding, the birth of your son, and your own funeral, all at once!”
In the Japanese version, he instead says 重役も社長も会長もすっ飛ばして、大統領クラスの遅刻だべ!, which roughly translates to “Skipping over executives, the president, and even the chairman—this is a tardiness on the level of a head of state!”
Afterward, Hiro expresses his nervousness at breaking down the door to the mastermind’s office. In English, he says that he has trouble getting his words out and says that he’s “all flubbust--no... I'm totally flabbag--flapstaf–” where Jill comes back and says “Fapsauce!?”
In Japanese, Hiro is instead trying to say しどろもどろ (shidoro modoro), which means "flustered," "confused," or "tongue-tied." He stumbles and says “しどどもどどに......” (Shidodomododo ni... ) and then しどど...しもどろもどろ...... (Shidodo... shimodoro-modoro...).
Then Jill comes back and says ...白い ドロドロ!? (Shiroi doro doro!?). “Shiroi” just refers to the color white, while “Doro Doro” refers to something gooey, slimy, or syrupy. I’m not sure how I would personally localize this line, but I find “Fapsauce” to be a bit awkward. It sounds like something you’d hear from an X-rated version of Adventure Time. It also doesn’t really sound that similar to “flabbergasted.”
After that, Jill seemingly forgets to get the pickaxe to open the door. Hiro responds to her saying “Omega-3 fatty acids, that's what you need! Great for the ol' memory factory!” In English, this is a piece of very straightforward health advice.
In Japanese, Yasuhiro instead says “You should go eat some of that special bread to improve your memory!” This is a reference to Doraemon. One of Doraemon's gadgets is the "anki-pan" (暗記 パン), also known as Copying Toast and Memory Bread in English dubs. The name comes from Anki, meaning memorization, and Pan, meaning bread. It's also a pun on "anko-pan," which is bread filled with red bean paste. In Doraemon, it's a special bread that makes you have a perfect memory once you eat it.
After that, you run to the garden and discover the cadaver of an unknown student. Woooo, I wonder who the cadaver belongs toooo~! What a mysteryyyy~! It’s Mukuro’s.
In English, Yasuhiro mentions how the mastermind was hidden in the school, and compares them to a “teenage Bigfoot.” In Japanese, he instead compares her to a “Tsuchinoko,” a similar Japanese cryptid, but is a snake-like creature rather than a giant ape-like creature with big feet.
When the crew checks the Data Center, Monokuma comes back to life and tells the students that the killing game is being broadcast all around the world in the English version. However, in Japanese, Monokuma only mentions that it’s being broadcast in Japan, which is the second time a change like that has occurred. It makes me wonder if the player is supposed to know if this game is supposed to take place in Japan or not.
Afterward, you check Kyoko’s bedroom, and under her bedsheets, she has a record of Mukuro Ikusaba. Her talent is listed as Soldier in both languages, but I would be remiss to not mention it.
All the students minus Kyoko meet up in the elevator and wait for the trial. Monokuma shows up out of nowhere, and in Japanese, Yasuhiro exclaims "うおッ! いきなり来た!" which roughly translates to "Whoa! That was sudden!" In English, he just exclaims “Jesus!” This isn’t the first time there was a change like this, I kinda just forgot to bring up the previous examples. But it’s kind of interesting to see these mundane Japanese sayings interpreted as more colloquial English sayings.
As the trial starts, Mukuro’s mercenary group, Fenrir, is mentioned. Toko talks about the lore behind Fenrir and mentions that he was the son of Loki, the troublemaker, and the giantess Angrboða, in Japanese. However, in English, Angrboða is left unnamed and is simply referred to as a female giant.
Similarly, when discussing the arrows, Toko references two different stories depending on the region. In English, she says “It's similar to Aesop's fable about the bundle of sticks... One stick is weak, but put them together, and they become strong. It's meant to teach cooperation.”
In Japanese, she says "It's just like the proverb about the three arrows... It's a lesson Moori Motonari, the Sengoku general, taught his sons... Even a single fragile arrow becomes sturdy when in a bundle... Using that story, he taught his sons they should stay unified instead of fighting each other..."
After the discussion regarding how Kyoko could have accessed the arrows in the Dojo, Monokuma haphazardly concludes the trial and executes you, the player. The Execution, After School Lesson, is simply romanized as Detention (補習 lit. Hoshū) in Japanese. However, this reading can also refer to "supplementary lessons" or "remedial classes," making the localization of “After School Lesson” pretty accurate.
When the execution fails, Kyoko comes soon after to rescue us. Here, she reveals that she is the Super High School Level 'Detective' or the Ultimate Detective. As you can see, these talents are the same in both languages.
Chapter 6 and Epilogue
In Japanese, this chapter is roughly called “How the Super High School Level 'Bad Luck' bewitched the Super High School Level 'Murder,' Super High School Level 'Execution,' and Super High School Level 'Despair'” (超高校級の不運が超高校級の殺人と超高校級の処刑と超高校級の絶望を引き寄せた理由 lit. Chō kōkō kyū no fūn ga chō kōkō kyū no satsujin to chō kōkō kyū no shokei to chō kōkō kyū no zetsubō o hikiyoseta riyū). Aside from the title being absurdly long, the other main focus of this title is how Makoto, the Super High School Level Luck, was able to stop the Killing Game and the Mastermind.
In English, this is localized to Ultimate Pain, Ultimate Suffering, Ultimate Despair, Ultimate Execution, Ultimate Death. It retains the long title, but it removes the idea that this Chapter revolves around stopping the Killing Game.
Because of the space limits, not being able to read the whole title in the time allotted, and some general “weirdness,” the Project Zetsubou fan translation instead translated this title as “The Super Duper High School Unluckster, or: How I Learned to Stop Despairing and Embrace the End,” a reference to Dr. Strangelove.
After escaping the trash, you go to the gym to talk to Monokuma about the farce that occurred in the previous chapter. After leaving the gym, you head to the cafeteria, where you encounter Monokuma key smashing.
In the Japanese version, his keysmashing is a mix of random kana and Roman letters, like: “おきFやじょち、あんjcじ;うぇcるいおうんり!”
In the English version, the kana is obviously removed, and the key smashing is completely different. It includes more non-alphanumeric symbols, such as @, &, and #: “Skrgh@yaGfew, anji&\krakAW;! fzzlbRff#[].”
After that, we reunite with the rest of the cast: Hiro, Hina, Toko, and Byakuya. When talking to Hiro, he seems to fully believe we actually died and came back to life. In the Japanese version, he asks us if we met Master Tamba, which is likely a reference to Tetsurō Tamba, a famous Japanese actor who appeared in nearly 300 film and television productions, both in leading and supporting roles, and was the winner of two Japan Academy Film Prizes but passed away in 2006 at the age of 84.
In English, this is changed to Miss Cleo, who is better known as Youree Dell Harris. She was an American television personality and actress best known for portraying Miss Cleo, a spokeswoman for a psychic pay-per-call-minute service called Psychic Readers Network. The weirdest thing about this reference is that, at the time this game came out, she was still alive. She only passed away a year or two after the game’s localization was released.
When you go off to investigate the school, you find Toko passed out in the morgue. When you wake her up, she becomes Genocide Jill and when you remember that the two of them don’t share memories, she delivers this line.
Bazinga is a catchphrase from the TV show The Big Bang Theory. In Japanese, she just says "そう！ 知識は共有してても、記憶は共有していないの！" or roughly, "That's right! Even if the knowledge is shared, the memories are not!" The Japanese line doesn’t have any particular reference, and like with a lot of Monokuma’s dialogue, this was added to punch up the Genocider’s zany nature.
During the class trial, Toko raises an objection to Mukuro's scars and how they were from her time in battle. Kyoko denies Toko’s objection, and then Toko gets… uh… turned on…?
….Anyways, she continues on during the Nonstop Debate, and when Kyoko doesn’t deny her again, Toko says “You didn't d-deny me this timesy wimesy!” before commenting on how she made her speak all cutesy. In the Japanese version, she says “ひ、否定すらしにゃいにゃんで...！” where the cutesy manner is portrayed by her punctuating her statement with “にゃんで.”
Nyan (にゃん) is a cutesy cat sound that you’ve most likely heard before in other Japanese media that features cats. It’s the Japanese variation of “meow.” In this context, it can also be seen as a cute version of Nan (なん) meaning “what.” De (で) is just a particle indicating reason or cause, similar to the English word “because.”
Speaking of denying, Monokuma starts to deny the possibility that the masked assailant who attacked Makoto a day ago was actually the Mastermind and not Mukuro. You’re sent to another Nonstop Debate where Monokuma asks if there are any indicators to prove that the masked assailant was someone else besides Mukuro. The correct answer is that the Fenrir tattoo on Mukuro’s right hand was absent from the assailant’s hand.
During this discussion, Monokuma tries to throw you off by asking if there was anything distinguishable on her left hand, right hand, left foot, right foot, and most important to us: her hips. Notable, Monokuma turns away and shows his behind when he says “hips.”
If you remember the example I mentioned back in Chapter 3 regarding the Hip-Drop in the early Mario games, this is actually the exact same case. See? It was relevant! But to refresh, in Japan, your “hips” don’t refer to the projection of the pelvis and upper thigh bone, instead, it actually refers to your buttocks. This was translated directly into English, which somewhat loses or alters the joke Monokuma was trying to make.
Later on, when you corner Monokuma by bringing up the power outage in the A/V Room he exclaims “Xanadu!” which is a reference to Nihon Falcom’s action-RPG series, Xanadu. This line is kept intact in the English version. However, later on, when you bring up the group pictures, he exclaims “Xanadu times two!” in the English version, which is different from what he says in the Japanese version. In that version, he instead exclaims “Faxanadu!” Faxanadu is a spin-off of the Xanadu series, and the title comes from a portmanteau of Famicom and Xanadu since this game came out on the Famicom.
I’m not entirely sure why this line was changed considering Faxanadu was released in the West for the NES, and the previous Xanadu line was unchanged.
As things start to heat up, we eventually get to meet Junko Enoshima, the REAL Junko Enoshima! As you’d expect, her talent of “Ultimate Despair” is unchanged from the Japanese version, Super High School Level 'Despair.'
Voices: JPN: Megumi Toyoguchi | ENG: Amanda Céline Miller and Erin Fitzgerald
When discussing Junko’s face, they discuss the magazine covers and how they have seen her before. While this isn’t a localization change, I noticed an inconsistency in the English localization. Back in Chapter 3, when Monokuma discussed the motive, I commented on how “yen” was changed to “dollars,” which I felt was an unnecessary change. However, when looking at the magazine covers, particularly the “Red Ribon[sic]” one, you can see that it’s priced at 600 yen, and not converted to six dollars or anything like that, despite all the other text in the magazine being translated.
As Junko is describing Mukuro, she claims that she was plagued with “the three atrocities," those being “atrociously rank, atrociously filthy, atrociously repulsive.” In Japanese, she says the same thing, but rather than “atrocious,” she instead uses “Zetsubouteki,” meaning “hopeless” or “despairing,” and describes Mukuro as having the three Zs. So, “despairingly rank (Zetsubouteki ni kusai), despairingly filthy (Zetsubouteki ni kitanai), and despairingly repulsive (Zetsubouteki ni kimochi warui).”
Later on, when talking about the outside world, Junko says something along the lines of “So, just like Crazy Eddie slashing his prices and passing the savings on to you, lemme give you a hint!” Needless to say, the reference to Crazy Eddie did not exist in the Japanese version.
Additionally, while everyone aside from Toko uses honorifics to refer to one another, none of the remaining students refer to Junko with any honorifics, at least not after she reveals herself as the Mastermind. This is a subtle way of showing their disdain for her.
The final execution, Junko’s execution, is called The Ultimate Punishment. In Japan, it is called The Super High School Level Despairing Punishment (超高校級の絶望的おしおき lit. Chō kōkō kyū Zetsubō-teki Oshioki) and is romanized in game as Super Duper Nasty Torture.
After all the despair in the academy is crushed—metaphorically and literally—we move on to the epilogue. In Japan, the Epilogue is called “Goodbye Despair Academy,” whereas in English, it’s translated directly as “Goodbye Despair High School.” Which particularly gets under my skin a lot. Why did they remove the mention of the academy in the prologue and in the title of the sequel game, but they left it here?
Conclusion
I’m not too good at conclusions, so this may be a scrambled mess, but that’s everything I wanted to discuss regarding the localization of Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc. I appreciate anyone who stuck around and read through this novel’s worth of localization changes peppered with my own commentary. If this post gets enough support, I may make a part two with all the bonus content, like the Free Time Events and more remote lines of dialogue, but that’s far into the future… like in 2026.
As I made apparent in my various blog posts, even the ones where I’m just discussing obscure games that I’ve played, I enjoy talking about translation and localization differences a lot. I hope that through reading this, you’ve also gained a newfound interest or fascination with translation. Regardless of whether you like or dislike the concept of localization, it’s a very fascinating topic to look into and study how different factors affect the process.
If you like this post, please look into some of my other posts, or check out my social media. I recently made a BlueSky account, so follow that if you’re interested. With all that said, I’ll see you next time!
References
As promised, I have listed all the sources I referred to, cross-referenced, and researched in order to compile these localization changes mentioned in this article. I strongly recommend you look through these for additional readings, as some of the minor changes that occur in the early game are explained in much more detail.
Danganronpa / TL Notes / General. (2012, October 6). Project Zetsubou. https://danganronpa.wordpress.com/dr1/tl-notes/general/
Aru Naru. (2018, November 17). Danganronpa Translation Critique: Prologue. Danganronpa TL Critique. https://danganronpatlcritique.wordpress.com/2018/11/17/danganronpa-translation-critique-prologue/
Danganronpa Wiki. (2017). Fandom.com. https://danganronpa.fandom.com/
Dangan Ronpa. (n.d.). Orenronen. https://lparchive.org/Dangan-Ronpa/
LET’S TALK LOCALIZATION | Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc. (n.d.). Hagane - Localization Addict. Retrieved October 4, 2024, from http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJW7cltWPCprOS1HOvcvgrFcMtqbB3R1M
Staff, S. (2014, January 25). How NIS America Localized Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc. Siliconera. https://www.siliconera.com/nis-america-localized-danganronpa-trigger-happy-havoc/
【PSP】ダンガンロンパ 希望の学園と絶望の高校生 (全8回). (n.d.). ゲーム燦爛サブチャンネル (Game Sanran Subchannel) . Retrieved November 16, 2024, from http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6cFNXzKZvnCUV8KpW90bzdlpVaoGHXg0
Hai, B. H. (n.d.). RomajiDesu - Japanese dictionary and translator. www.romajidesu.com. https://www.romajidesu.com/
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