Kugo left the Cosmos with the pain of not being believed by anyone. Princess Aurora, who ordered his banishment, was also suffering, unable to understand Kugo’s behavior. Prof. Kitty, who heard what happened, revealed that the series of incidents was a trick using hyperspace transfer and discovered that the culprit was the monster Bemura, which is not a living organism. However, it is already too late, and the Cosmos has gone missing due to the Bemura. Can Kugo save the princess from Bemura’s demon hands?
It seems the space army of the Bemura is called “Space Dobers”. The Bemura leader says at 7:26:
スペースドーベルに攻撃命令を出す. クイーンコスモスをおびき寄せて. SUPEESU DOUBERU ni kogeki meirei o dasu. KUIIN COSUMOSU o obikiyose te. Give the attack order to the Space Dobers. Lure the Queen Cosmos out.
But there was a japanese toy back in the 70s called Space Dobers that were dobermans, that were part of the Microman series. The Bemura space army guys don’t look like dogs to me.
Anyway I translated it to “Space Army” at first so the audience could have a little more sense of what is going on but at the end I left the literal translation “Space Dobers”. I hope the viewers can understand that the Bemura Space Army is just called like that.
That is of course, if anyone is actually watching these episodes.
The spaceship that Kugo destroyed, thinking it was full of space monsters, was actually full of refugee girls who had lost their home planet. Princess Aurora decides to protect them and repair the ship. Princess Aurora is then targeted by a time bomb. Kugo believes that a monster disguised as the young girl Maria is the culprit, and he severely injures her. However, there is no evidence of such a thing anywhere. Kugo gradually becomes isolated, and even Princess Aurora sentences him to a cruel verdict!
According to Wikipedia, the official names of Kugo’s attacks are:
アストロボー (asutoro bou): Literally “Astro Bo”. A bo is a stick or staff used in martial arts. Since other groups have used “Astro Pole” and phonetically sounds very similar, I decided to use this translation.
アストロ・ザンダー (asutoro zandaa): Literally “Astro Thunder”. Nothing you can do.
アイアン・キッター (aian kittaa): Literally “Iron Kitter”, but a kitter is a cat, right? Other groups have used “Iron Cutter” and that’s very good because Kugo cuts things with this attack. But keep in mind that if that was the real name, then it should be アイアン・カッター (aian kattaa). I think the seiyuu just messed that up and nobody ever noticed. Anyway I’m also using “Iron Cutter”.
パライザー・ビーム (paraizaa biimu): I don’t really know what this is. At first I thought it was an attempt to say “Paralyzer Beam” but definitely that beam doesn’t paralyze anyone. So the most phonetically accurate made up word I could think of was “Palizer” so that’s what I’m using from now on. Also it seems that Google Translate agrees with me.
クローベルト (kurou beruto): “Crow Belt”, but it can also mean “Claw Belt”. Some people may argue that the Starcrow is actually Starclaw. Does this spaceship looks more than a crow to you, or a claw? Let me know. I’m using Starcrow since other groups have used that name, but personally, I think it’s Starclaw, and “Claw Blaster” and “Claw Belt”.
After catching a strong energy reaction, the Cosmos landed on a planet that was already in ruins. Hakka went on a reconnaissance mission and encountered an attack force from the planet Grieg, led by Captain Lugen. Captain Lugen was trying to exterminate the subterranean monster Alingo in order to protect the safety of his people living in the underground city. Hakka asks him to avoid a futile battle, but Lugen refuses to recognize the underground monster as his equal and launches a final extermination mission using incendiary mines!
Since this show was mainly aimed at kids in the 70s, most of the episodes try to send a message to the children. The topic of this episode is discrimination, and that people shouldn’t discriminate against others based on where they live. I think it’s an important message.
For this episode I used some font styling so it looks a little bit more like coming from a serious fansub group, even though I’m not. It’s all about appearances!
I sincerely hope if anyone out there is actually watching these episodes that you like the new fonts and style.
I also added the romaji lyrics to the songs for people that like to sing them. Sometimes I sing them, I have to admit.
I feel like I didn’t express well enough that the reason they are landing on planet Grieg is because there is a strong energy reaction in the area, and they take that chance so the princess can also rest.
Let’s take another look at what I think they’re saying, from 02:25:
Princess Aurora: もう少しでグリーグ星のエリアに入ります, 異常ないでしょうね mou sukoshi de GURIIGU sei no ERIA ni hairimasu, ijou nai deshou ne. We’ll soon be entering the area of the planet Grieg, is there anything out of the ordinary?
Don Hakka: いいえ、べつに iie, betsu ni No, not really
Sir Jogo: そんなことはないはずだぜ Sonna koto wa nai hazuda ze That can’t be true / That shouldn’t be the case. (Jogo is trying to say that there is actually something weird out there).
Don Hakka: いいやあそんなバカな Iiya, sonna baka na No, that’s ridiculous. (Hakka is trying to say that it’s ridiculous there’s something out there, he hasn’t seen anything yet).
Jan Kugo: おい、何だこれは Oi, nanda kore wa? Hey, what’s this? (Now the Cosmos’ computer is detecting the anomaly).
Don Hakka: かなり強烈なエネルギー反応だ Kanari kyouretsu na ENERUGII hannou da It’s a pretty intense energy reaction.
Jan Kugo: エネルギー反応 ENERUGII hannou? Energy reaction?
Sir Jogo: しかし長いことひこう続けたんだ, グリーグ星でした休みしないと姫が疲れてしまう Shikashi, nagai koto hikou tsuzuketa nda, GURIIGU sei deshita yasumi shinaito hime ga tsukarete shimau But we’ve been flying for a long time, if we don’t take a rest on Planet Grieg the princess will be tired.
So as you can see it’s not really clear from direct translations that the energy reaction is the cause that Jogo doesn’t want to continue until it clears maybe, and he takes the opportunity to land so the princess can rest for a while. That meaning is like… lost in translation I guess. That’s the best I could do.
I wonder if professional translators are well paid, because this is so tough.
The Cosmos is attacked by a monster glory flower shaped plant monster. Kugo and Hakka go out to fight it, but they are entangled by the strong vines, and the Cosmos is pulled by a planet’s gravity, forcing them to make an emergency landing. Kugo goes out to check on the situation and helps Malt, a boy who was fighting the monster. Malt, whose beloved friend Luna was killed by the monster, had vowed to avenge her death with his own hands and had been fighting alone. Kugo hopes that Malt, who reminds him of himself when he was a kid, will somehow be able to fulfil his promise to Luna.
Being the lazy person that I am, when I started working on episode 17 I just copy/pasted the songs from somewhere and gave a poor translation based on what I got. Since I’ve been noticing a lot of grammar errors and typos after each release, I decided to do proper QA on this episode and watch it from its very beginning.
That’s when I notice both songs had a lot of errors! Wrong kanji causing wrong translations, and it was a mess.
For the opening, well, the lyrics are just there in the video. Nothing you can do. The song is called スタージンガー のうた Starzinger no uta.
Here are the lyrics:
狭いもんだよ 銀河系 Semai mon da yo gingakei 星の彼方に 夢を持て Hoshi no kanata ni yume o mote ひとつ世界を とび出せば Hitotsu sekai o tobidaseba 胸もふくらむ 血もおどる Mune mo fukuramu chi mo odoru
ジャソジャソやろうぜ! ジャソク-ゴ Jan Jan yarou ze! Jan Kugo ドンドンいこうぜ!ドンハッカ Don Don ikou ze! Don Hakka サ-サ-がんばレ!サ-ジヨ-ゴ Saa Saa ganbare! Saa Jogo
ジャソ·ドン·サ- ジャソ·ドン·サ- Jan · Don · Saa Jan · Don · Saa 俺たち やらなきゃ だれがやる! Ore-tachi yaranakya dare ga yaru! ジャソ·ドン·サ- ジャソ·ドン·サ- Jan · Don · Saa Jan · Don · Saa 俺たち やらなきゃ だれがやる! Ore-tachi yaranakya dare ga yaru!
For the ending song I really had my doubts if they say 見られない mirarenai or いられない irarenai. So I decided to look for another version with higher quality audio and I found this mostly weird but very funny karaoke video. It’s definitely いられない irarenai.
The song is called 姫のためなら Hime no tame ni, and these are the lyrics:
The air conditioner of the Cosmos has broken down, and the ship has become a steam bath! The planet they land on for repairs is none other than Jogo’s home planet. However, the planet has been turned into a cold, frozen world by the ice monster Todan. Jogo is reunited with his former subordinate, Monper. He loses his usual cool while facing Todon, and ignoring Kugo and the others’ attempts to stop him, he sets out alone to avenge his comrades!
Kugo and the others help Gerard and Amira that were inside of a drifting rocket. In their hometown planet Vester, a young girl is sacrificed every year in Skull rock to calm the wrath of a monster named Velania. Knowing this, Princess Aurora heads to Vester to save the people there. Velania is stronger than you can imagine, and Kugo and the others can’t defeat it. Realizing that it’s impossible for the cyborgs to win the battle, Princess Aurora heads for the Skull rock without telling anyone to fight Velania herself!
The Queen Cosmos has landed on a calm sea planet so princess Aurora can rest. Kugo and his friends are in front of the sea for the first time in a while but the princess, whose painful memories of the sea from her childhood have relived, is completely depressed.
Hakka, remorseful that he has hurt the princess’ feelings, refuses her invitation to swim and takes off looking for a gift to recover her honor. In the meantime, a moth monster called Vulture (Bageba – バゲバ ) appears! Envious of the princess’ beauty, Vulture sends her space monster and kidnaps her!
In every episode I struggle a lot with some lines. Every time Kugo or Hakka speaks I get shivers, especially if they are yelling while fighting with a lot of sound effects and a background music that’s always too loud. Sometimes even when it’s quieter I lose focus and I just translate without thinking or paying attention at the context, something I hope to stop doing at the future.
So I made a mistake at 12:23 when Kugo says:
あいつもう一度迎えに来ると思って甘えちゃうんだ aitsu mou ichidou mukae ni kuru to omotte amaechau nda
Without context you don’t know who’s doing what: who’s going to come and pick the other up, and who’s being spoiled (甘え – amae means spoil, 甘えちゃう – amaechau being an informal way to say 甘えてしまう – amaete shimau, something like “so spoiled”). The phrase 度迎えに来る – mukae ni kuru means “go and pick you up” or “come and get you”, things like that.
So after watching the episode again, definitely a better translation of that line is:
“He’s so spoiled if he thinks I’m going to go back and get him”
And even that sounds weird to me. What about:
“He’s so stubborn he surely thinks I’m going to go back and get him”
“He’s so spoiled he’s probably waiting for me to go back and get him”
Literal translations almost never work, you have to change them a little bit to make some sense of it in English.
So basically after getting some help from reddit I think I should use:
“He presumes someone will go and get him again, he’s so spoiled”
How would you translate it?
Same thing happened at 14:23 when Kugo says to Vulture:
自分で見にくいからって勝手なこと言うんじゃねえよ jibun de minikuikaratte kattena koto iu n ja nee yo
That means something like “you shouldn’t say selfish things because you’re hard to see”, meaning she’s very ugly. I would translate it to “Don’t be selfish just because you’re ugly”, I guess.
Another one, maybe:
この星もギャラクシエネルギーが弱まっていた kono hoshi mo Galaxy Energy ga yowamatte ita
That can be translated literally: “This planet was also affected by the weakening of the galaxy’s energy”. I don’t know what I was thinking…
I also fixed several typos, you can get the new subtitle script here.
