Category Archives: Translations

JAYWALK — Ikanaide Lyrics English Translation

恋なんてきっと一度もしてはいなかった
koi nante kitto ichido mo shite wa inakatta
I've certainly never been in love

好きじゃないって気づくまで
suki janaitte kitzuku made
I've tried to be in love,

好きになろうとしてただけ
suki ni narou to shite ta dake
Until I realise that I'm not

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Gyakuten Saiban Fanbook Character Profiles

I might translate a few more of these. If there's a character page you'd like me to translate, leave a request in the comment section. This is NOT related to the Naruhodo Gyakuten Saiban! fanbook. All scans are from the Ace Attorney Wikia. I edited out the Japanese text and replaced it with an English translation and did a bit of contrast and saturation enhancement. As always, I did my best, but I'm not fluent at Japanese. Click for big.

Phoenix 1 Phoenix 2 Edgeworth 1 Edgeworth 2 Larry, Judge, Payne Lotta Hart

Page 137 — Melody

Note: Phoenix uses the phrase "umai koto" meaning "clever or wise things", but "umai" also means "tasty". Gummi uses "oishii tokoro" is his next line. "Oishii" means "delicious". I think he interpreted it as the wrong "umai"? Unless oishii has another meaning. There's a reference to a line from Reminiscence 1. I can only assume that "miken ni hibi ga haitteru" (a crack appearing on one's forehead) is ruder than saying "shiwa", which means "wrinkle" or "crease"? I can't find any info on this phrase.

Page 137 — Character Blog 28/10/2005 — Melody

Phoenix: Hey, Edgeworth. Thanks for giving me a lift.

Edgeworth: ...It's no big deal. We're going to the same place, after all.

Phoenix: Man, I was in big trouble, with both my bike tyres punctured.

Maya: Hey, how about you buy a car, too, Nick? A bright red sports car?

Phoenix: Before that, I need to get my driver's licence.

Gumshoe: Honestly, pal. You're a disgrace of a defence lawyer, needing to get a lift from a prosecutor!

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Page 71, 78, 87 — Mia and Godot Postcards

Page 71 — Ask About Anything at the Fey & Co. Law Offices

mia-unsureyellow This is nice, isn't it?

godot-smileyellow What's going on, Kitten? I don't know why you keep bringing me here day after day.

mia-srsyellow Why can't you be a bit more serious when commenting on the postcards?

godot-shout Okay, you win. I'll be serious from now on.

mia-happyyellow Well, thanks for joining us again this month.

p71-postcard
by J/K, unknown prefecture

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Momotarou — English Translation and Transcription

A transcription and translation of the story of Momotarou, retold by the Yumearu channel. I hope this will be useful to beginner learners of Japanese.

昔むかーし、おばあさんは川へ洗濯に行きました。
mukashi, mukashi, obaasan wa kawa e sentaku ni ikimashita.
Long, long ago, Obaasan [Old Lady] went to the river to do her laundry.

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Page 48 — Final Farewells

Translator's notes: So we're finally on the last page. To anyone who's been following this since I posted my first translation effort 9 years ago: my apologies, and thanks for your patience. Anyway, here it is. I actually felt sad translating this. The end made me feel nostalgic for the old Ace Attorney world.

Page 48 - Final Goodbyes

Illusory Episode 20 — Special Compilation

Final Farewells — At the Airport

Phoenix and the gang have come to the airport to see off Edgeworth, who's about to set off on his travels. It seems it's also time to say farewell to "Naruhodo Gyakuten Saiban!". This is specially written for this compilation edition.

Pearl: Mr Nick, he's here! Hurry, hurry!

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Kansai-ben Version of For the First Time in Forever (Reprise) from Frozen

I found this on Ten Tobata's channel, except he didn't say where it was from, or even if it was official or fan-made. Anyway, my sensei, Yuki-san, hunted it down for me, without even being asked, I might add, because she's awesome like that. It's fan-made, after all. It's actually quite a sweet scene, at least this version. I've transcribed and translated the lyrics for you, which took me ages, because some of those kanji are complex, yet too blurry to make out, but I managed it eventually. As always, my knowledge of Japanese is limited, so there may be mistakes. Also, I've never watched Frozen, so there may be context stuff I've missed. Anyway, here is the video for anyone else who was looking for the Kansai/Osaka dialect version of this song. The singer also did the full song here.

Purple is Anna's lines, blue is Elsa's.

守ってもらわんでええねん。うちは大丈夫や
mamotte morawande ee nen. Uchi wa daijoubu ya!
You don't need to protect me. I'm okay!

な〜、エルサ、行かんとって、な〜
naa, erusa, ikan totte... naa!
Hey, Elsa, don't go...! Hey!

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Part of Your World — Kansai-ben version 関西弁

This is the 1997 version. Changes are highlighted in mermaid turquoise. I wasn't happy about removing the ね from the first line, because it takes it further away from the English "isn't it neat?", but more than that, I wanted to keep the rhyme, so change it did. Disclaimer: I'm not a native speaker, nor fluent in Japanese in any sense of the word.

よう見てみ、めちゃステキ
you mitemi, mecha suteki
Have a look at this. It's so wonderful!

これでもっとかんぺき
kore de motto kanpeki
This is even more perfect.

なんでも持ってんねん あたしは全て
nandemo mottennen atashi wa subete
I have everything, I have it all.

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Page 46 — Turnabout Goodbyes 2

Translator's note: There is a bit of wordplay carried over from the last page (ponkotsu [a hit or strike] rhyming with tonkotsu [piggy noodles]).

Page 46 — Turnabout and Goodbye

Episode 19.2 — March 2006 Issue

Takumi Snippet

Takumi Shuu (??)
Ace Attorney's director and scriptwriter. It's rumoured his fuel is alcohol.
Status: ...You'll have noticed we're at episode 19. It's just rushed by. I'm so full of gratitude to all of you who've joined us all the way till now. Farewell!


hamidashi Info Corner

• "Ace Attorney Court Figurine Collection"... The Ace Attorney characters finally have their paintwork completed, and the figurines have launched! The lineup is Continue reading

Page 44 — Turnabout Goodbyes 1

Page 44 — Turnabout Goodbyes 1

Episode 19.1 — March 2006 Issue

hamidashi Letters Corner

• I enjoy every issue. When I read this month's issue, and Edgeworth brought along the anything "bowl", I understood it and thought it was funny! And the way Suekane-san drew the Blue Badger was cute ♥ (Tenko, Fukuoka Prefecture)

• I'm waiting in excited anticipation for the Dorimaga phonecard drawn by Akiman-san! Please keep doing more and more of these types of projects in the future (Kyontai, Miyagi Prefecture)


Turnabout Goodbyes 1 — At the Yesterday Café

Having being summoned by a young Mia Fey, defence lawyer Diego Armando has come to meet her at the stylish "Yesterday Café". With her court debut just around the corner, what advice will a subdued Mia receive from from her senpai — ?!

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Page 40 — New Year’s

This page involved a lot of word play, which I found hard to convert to English. The game they are playing is "Old Maid". In Japanese, it's called Babanuki, which is written ババ抜き and means something like "extract/pull out the old maid". This is the reason for Gumshoe's logic for why he is the winner.

Gumshoe's concept for the year is "念には念を" which means something like "be doubly sure", and I translated more figuratively as "always be prepared". The character used, 念, is read "nen", and pops up later when Pearl tries to recite her proverb.

Gumshoe also makes a play on the phrase "sore loser". In Japanese, the word is 負けず嫌い (makezu girai) which literally means something like "without losing, hates". When Phoenix calls him this, Gumshoe then uses a word play on 食わず嫌い (kuwazu girai), which means a person who hates a food that they've never even tasted ("without eating, hates").

Pearl is trying to use a Japanese proverb 馬の耳に念仏 (uma no mimi ni nenbutsu), which means "reading the nenbutsu (prayer) into a horse's ear", equivalent to the English, "It's like talking to a brick wall". However instead she says 馬の耳に . . . てんねんきねんぶつ which means "into the horse's ear, protected species/natural monument". I tried my best to come up with a similar wordplay in English that also includes Gummi's earlier 念 (preparation), but it feels a little awkward!

"Happy New Year" in Japanese is written 賀正 (gashou). Gumshoe writes the first character in kana (が正), possibly because the first character is harder to write (although he should be able to).

Also, Ema Skye: you gross.

Page 40 - New Years

Episode 17 — January 2006 Issue

Takumi Snippet

Takumi Shuu (??)
Ace Attorney's director and scriptwriter. It's rumoured his fuel is alcohol.
Status: ...The production of Ace Attorney 4 has launched! I wonder how things will go from this. And so the new year has arrived at the Wright & Co. Law Offices.


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Page 12 — Autumn of..?

Translator's Notes: Larry uses the word yomikaki which means reading and writing, as in having the skill. Maya then uses the word dokusho, which I think means just reading in general. I translated it as "literature" to make Larry's next line work, even though it's not an accurate translation. I am also stumped at Maya suddenly bringing up Nagoya out of nowhere. Larry has a very casual, rough way of speaking that I'm just not familiar with, so there is a lot of guesswork on his lines.

Page 12 - Autumn of..?

Episode 3 — November 2004 Issue

Takushuu Column — Autumn of..?

"Everyone can enjoy it!" ...That's the column's one fast rule. However. Is that really enough? "No one can enjoy it" ...Such a column would be good, wouldn't it?

So this time, using "autumn of reading" as my excuse, being about "mystery" and being super self-centred, I think I'll narrate a personal story.

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