Category: Starzinger

Escape the Hell Planet!

Princess Aurora finally decides to fight. The cunning Ginginman takes the life of the father of the Three Poise Brothers and sends them into the battlefield in his place. The three brothers are convinced that their father’s death was the work of Kugo and his friends. The three brothers come at the Cosmos with a vengeance, and Kugo and the others are forced to fight an uphill battle. The three brothers, however, happen to learn everything from a microcassette left behind by their father and realize that they have been deceived. Kinkinman, realizing the failure of his plan, sends out Kinginder again!

You can download the torrent file in Anidex or Anirena, or get direct links from AnimeTosho.

Translation Thoughts

The title of this episode is: 地獄星を脱出せよ！– Jigoku hoshi o dasshutsuse yo!

地獄 jigoku means hell. But the planet our friends end up is Planet Magnet. They clearly say at 6:34:

敵を油断させてあのマグネト惑星の地獄谷へ突き落としてやるんだ
Teki o yudan sasete ano MAGUNETO wakusei no jigokudani e tsukiotoshite yaru nda
We’re going to catch our enemies off guard and push them down into the Hell Valley of Planet Magnet

マグネト惑星 MAGUNETO wakusei means “Planet Magnet”, or maybe “magnet planet”.

I wonder why they didn’t name this episode “Escape from Planet Magnet!”?

We got a new song for the opening! This will be the opening up to the last episode of Starzinger I, which is episode 64.

The song is called 宇宙の戦士スタージンガー Uchuu no senshi SUTAAJINGAA – Space Warrior Starzinger, and these are the lyrics:

君の汗が星になる
Kimi no ase ga hoshi ni naru
Your sweat becomes stars

君の涙が風になる
Kimi no namida ga kaze ni naru
Your tears become wind

闇と嵐をこえるとき
Yami to arashi o koeru toki
Through the darkness and the storm

遠い光が見えてくる
Toui hikari ga miete kuru
You see light in the distance

急げ 戦う男たち
Isoge tatakau otoko-tachi
Hurry up, fighting men!

夜明けが 君を待っている
Yoake ga kimi o matte iru
The dawn is waiting for you

スタージンガー スタージンガー
SUTAAJINGAA SUTAJINGAA
Starzinger Starzinger

力の限りを敵にぶっつけて
Chikara no kagiri o teki ni buttsukete
Strike the enemy with all your strength

胸に描くは はるか大王星
Mune ni egaku wa haruka daiou sei
The distant Great Planet is drawn on my chest

Great Explosion! Goldstar

Kinkinman was plotting to use Princess Aurora’s galaxy energy to conquer the galaxy. He gave the order to eliminate Kugo and his friends to Solda, the Attack Commander. Solda, who has no home of his own, uses Petrus to attack Kugo and the cyborgs, believing that he will be able to create an ideal planet. In the midst of a fierce battle, Petrus suddenly explodes. Ginginman had rigged the Petrus with self-destruct devices, regardless of Solda being his ally!

You can download the torrent file in Anidex or Anirena, or get direct links from AnimeTosho.

Translation Thoughts

Hakka enjoys speaking about him in the third person. Since he’s the obvious comic relief of the show, it’s always funny when he does it. At 7:06 he says:

このハッカさんはクゴより力があるんだぜ
kono HAKKA-san wa KUGO yori chikara ga aru nda ze

A direct translation would be “This Hakka-san is more powerful than Kugo”. The funny thing is, he always refers to himself as Hakka-sama and this is the first time he says Hakka-san. That was a humbling gesture from his side!

Hakka made me laugh when Kugo and Jugo ran away and he called them cowards (at 14:08 he says 意気地のない奴らだ – ikiji no nai yatsura da – “What a bunch of cowards”), but a second later he was running scared. He’s funny like that.

Rush! The Queen Cosmos

Kinkinman and Ginginman attack the Cosmos by launching their combined robot, Kinginder. Kugo’s arm is injured by Kinginder’s special attack, Storm Plasma, and he is unable to use his Astro Pole. Kugo and the others are backed into a corner, and they let Princess Aurora escape without regard for themselves. There is no time to hesitate to fulfill the mission. Princess Aurora once chose to go to the Great Planet, but she cannot abandon her friends who have traveled with her, and makes a U-turn of the Cosmos toward the battlefield!

You can download the torrent file or get direct links from AnimeTosho

Translation Thoughts

I always struggle with names. Always. In this episode, Solda goes out with an army of bugs that look a little bit like ladybugs if you ask me. The name I hear is エドバー edobaa but it can be anything.

At 6:17 Kinkinman says: 万一の場合を考えエドバー星人を一緒に連れて行け Man’ichi no baai o kangae EDOBAA seiji o issho ni tsurete yuke (“Take the EDOBAA aliens with you just in case”) and this is the first time I hear the name. Solda says the name again at 13:32. What do you think he says?

At 12:53 Solda says まずはお前から血祭りにあげてやるぜ mazu wa omae kara chi matsuri ni agete yaru ze, which can be directly translated to “First of all, I’m gonna give you the bloodbath!”. Don’t you agree that it doesn’t sound like a kid show anymore? I’m not sure. I changed that to “I’m going to make a bloodbath out of you first” because it’s easier to understand. Both are totally valid translations.

Charge! The Kinkinman’s Army

Kugo defeated Drango with a desperate attack. At the same time, the Cosmos was under attack by a monster army unleashed by Kinkinman. The Cosmos escapes to a light-absorbing planet, and manages to survive the monsters, but it loses contact with Kugo. Meanwhile, Kinkinman, having caught a rescue signal from Ginginman, personally commanded the Satellite Fortress Goldstar and launched an attack. Ginginman, who desperately wants to defeat Kugo with his own hands, knows this and plays his last trump card!

You can download the torrent file or get direct links from AnimeTosho

Translation Thoughts

In this episode the writers really abuse the phrase しっかりして shikkari shite, which in my opinion is one of those phrases that you know what it means, but it can’t really be translated. It can mean “wake up”, “snap out of it”, “calm down”, “hang in there”, “hold on”, “get your act together”, it’s crazy. It’s said 11 times in this episode!

Sometimes it bothers me a little that it seems there’s air everywhere, even in space! I mean, you can assume the cyborgs are not human anymore and they don’t need air in space, but Princess Aurora also doesn’t need a helmet or even a suit to come out from the Cosmos to help Jogo. Wouldn’t it be extremely cold? Or extremely hot if they are near a star to go out in a skirt? And when the cyborgs are fighting, sometimes they fall off their ships, as if there were gravity all over the place! Well, it’s a show for kids.

I think these episodes are getting harder and harder to translate. I kind of struggled with this one, and I’m not sure if the translation of some of the lines is actually accurate. I’m not sure if they are trying to separate from the children’s audience or include more of a teenager audience now. People can be killed now, something that didn’t happen in the first episodes, as Princess Aurora always reminded the cyborgs to not kill anybody. The language is becoming more mature as well, making it harder to translate. It’s always easier to translate a children’s show than an adult one.

A Great Battle! The Hateful Enemy

Ginginman has escaped from the black hole with the help of Kinkinman. Princess Aurora, who hates conflict, is unable to forgive Ginginman for wreaking havoc in the universe, and pursues his whereabouts in order to keep him locked up until peace returns. In front of everyone’s eyes, Ginginman cruelly wipes out the people of the planet Colon just to satisfy his own desires. The enraged Kugo stands up to Ginginman and his most powerful monster, Drango!

You can download the torrent file or get direct links from AnimeTosho

Translations Thoughts

The colonials say at 06:55 and at 07:33 見逃して下さい minogashite kudasai and that’s one of those Japanese expressions that I find hard to translate and usually change it completely to something else that better fits the context in english.

見逃して下さい minogashite kudasai means something like “Please overlook this”, “Please don’t take this into account”, “Pretend you didn’t see this”, “Please let it go this time”, or something along those lines. As you can see those are expressions that are intrinsically linked to Japanese culture. In the Western culture in my opinion those kind of phrases don’t really work. So you’ll see that I translated them to “Please, let us go”.

The Resurrected Ginginman

Hakka found a planet where roses bloomed and, enchanted by its beauty, secretly landed there. However, it is a planet ruled by Ginginman. Balaran, the guardian of Ginginman’s treasure, disguises herself as a beautiful woman and approaches Hakka. Hakka becomes infatuated with Balaran and, unaware that he is being tricked, promises to free herself from the sealing chains that keep her prisoner and gets off the Cosmos, forgetting his mission. At the same time, the black hole that swallowed Ginginman emits a suspicious light.

You can download the torrent file or get direct links from AnimeTosho.

Translation Thoughts

The rose monster in this episode is called バララン bararan. Rose in Japanese is 薔薇 bara, so I guess a professional translator would have probably called her something like Roselyn. Since I like the names to be as close to their original Japanese names as possible, I used Balaran. She’s a monster anyway, so calling her Roselyn would have made her appear more human than she really is.

I happened to come across an early episode of this show dubbed in Spanish and I realized they translated パライザー・ビーム paraizaa biimu as “Rayos Paralizantes”, which actually means “Paralyzer Beam” in English. You might recall in a previous post that I had my doubts that they tried to say paralyzed, but I wasn’t completely sure. From this episode on, I decided to use Paralyzer Beam as the translation of the attack because even if the attack doesn’t paralyze anybody, at least the word makes some sense.

Which One of the Aliens is a Liar?

Kugo and the others find Pompo, a boy who needs help, estranged on a small planet. When the cyborgs try to pick him up, Pompo hijacks the Cosmos, taking the princess hostage, and tell her to take him to another planet. Kugo seizes him using his clone skill. Thinking that he is just a runaway boy, he tries to hand him over to his mother, who comes to pick him up, but Pompo tells them that she is a monster and fiercely resists. The group is not convinced that he was lying about his mother, and the Cosmos heads for the planet Dandan, a planet famous for being the planet of love and peace.

You can download the torrent file or get direct links from AnimeTosho.

Translation Thoughts

This is a great episode and, in my opinion, a very funny one. The episode is centered on the game called 輪投げ (wanage), which is ring toss or quiots. The 狸 (tanuki) are Japanese raccoon dogs, and in this episode they toss rings from their tails using their magical attack called 輪投げカッター (wanage kattaa), or “Ring Toss Cutter” (that’s the best made-up translation I could come up with, sorry about that).

The belief that these raccoon dogs are shape-shifters and can take the form of a human and are living among us is part of Japanese culture. Many anime shows are based on this, most recently 有頂天家族 (Uchouten Kazoku) “The Eccentric Family”, which is a very good show.

The Japanese love their onomatopoeias, and it seems they have an onomatopoeia for everything. In this episode, Kugo says ぱくぱく (pakupaku), which is the sound when you eat with your mouth open, and むらむら (muramura), which means either being disgusted or angry about something, or having a stomachache. Kugo is fed up with Hakka eating all the time and the sound he makes while eating, and tells him that’s distracting him from the game. The joke is that Hakka offers him medicine for his stomach, because he thought Kugo had an upset stomach.

Also, a nice thing to note is that since this was a show for kids, when a difficult word comes up, like hijack, they try to explain it to the viewers. In this case, it’s Hakka, who hasn’t heard the word before and asked what it means.

Love! Beyond the Galaxy

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?

You can download the torrent file or get direct links from AnimeTosho.

Translations Thoughts

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.

Tears! Become a Shooting Star

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!

You can download the torrent file or get direct links from AnimeTosho.

Translation Thoughts

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”.

Salute! The Hero of the Mud

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!

You can download the torrent file or get direct links from AnimeTosho.

Translation Thoughts

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.