Shangri-La Frontier - Chapter 260

This chapter is very strange. The raw contains many kanji with mismatched katakana “pronouciation guide” instead of the usual hirogana. But, our translator took it one step further and gave it his/her own take on the “intent” of the artist based on the katakana wording but not quite exactly. And thus it one more step removed, giving us 3 entirely different meaning to the same “phrase.” I am not sure if this is a good idea for a translator to inject his/her own interpretation since it makes this whole chapter rather confusing, not that the katakana wording would make much sense either. i wonder what the heck the manga artist is thinking by doing this. Just as an example since this chapter is pretty confusing with all the fancy words used, please need to read the raw and read the kanji to at least have the story to make sense. But, there is a sub story being play out through all the crazy subtext carried by the katakana and weird uses of Japanese language itself.

Okay the example I will use is just the simplest one. The phrase for “wished weapons” in kanji is “hero’s weapons” which is pretty standard for RPG games. However, the Katakana suggests that they are “Warchshot’s Weapons.” My guess is that translator “guessed” this was supposed to be Roarchack like in the movie Watchman which they have a version of their own in Japan. Now Roarschack Test is where you are shown some drawing and you are supposed to explain what you are seeing and it reveals something about your inner desires, thus your wishes. And so the translator’s translation is technically on spot, but rather convoluted way of reaching that conclusion. But, what if Warchshot turned out to be a real NPC in the game, a unique even and these weapons are what you need to activate his/her unique scenarios. Then, we, readers of the translation, would have completely missed this Easter Egg.