Japanese Visual Novel Developer Novectacle Stands Behind Controversial English Localization Changes in The House in Fata Morgana
Following a wave of backlash resulting from the discovery of narratively jarring changes made to The House in Fata Morgana visual novel, the game’s translation team and original developers have publicly expressed their continued confidence in the controversial alterations.
Developed by independent Japanese developer Novectacle, The House in Fata Morgana is a visual novel which follows the star-crossed romance of two lovers, Giselle and Michel, as they attempt to reunite their souls across historical time periods and spiritual reincarnations.
What unfolds as the player progresses is a sordid tale of heartbreak, physical violence, and supernatural mystery, taking place in a mansion with a constantly rotating assortment of residents and guided by an ever present and mysterious Maid.
Originally released by Nocectacle in 2012, the visual novel saw an international release in 2016 courtesy of visual novel English localization and distribution company MangaGamer. A physical version was released in 2019 through Limited Run Games, and a Nintendo Switch port has been announced for an upcoming but unknown release date.
The House in Fata Morgana entered recent discourse on May 2nd, following a tweet featuring a screenshot of an interaction between the witch Morgana and a paranoid businessman named Jacopo, in which Morgana asks how Jacopo’s “fragile male ego [is] holding up,” with the poster exclaiming their enjoyment of how “This being the first thing said to Jacopo will never NOT be a thing of f***ing beauty”:
This being the first thing said to Jacopo will never NOT be a thing of fucking beauty pic.twitter.com/f0krIl6Ikc
— Gamer, Italian, NEET – NSFR (@Irisposting) May 2, 2020
Here’s a look at the screenshot.
Without delving into too detailed of an explanation of The House in Fata Morgana’s intricate plot, Jacopo is seen to be an exceedingly jealous man, spending most of his time in the mansion concerned over his suspicions that his wife is attempting to seduce other men.
He even goes so far as to lock her in a small cottage on the property to prevent her from communicating with potential suitors. After his wife flees and Jacopo learns his suspicions were the result of outside machinations, he dedicates his life to searching for her, ultimately to no avail.
Despite his insecure and pompous exterior, Jacopo is later revealed to have protected Morgana when she was just a child, rescuing her from torture, caring for her wounds, and eventually falling in love with her.
The initial tweet was soon retweeted by Yukino, a member of the visual novel’s MangaGamer directed localization team, who noted that the “fragile male ego” line was originally written as “tsundere,” the term for a character who first shows hostility towards another character before gradually revealing their true affections.
The line was changed in localization in an attempt to make the game more palatable to Western audiences, with Yukino relating how it curiously “took over several weeks to come up with this translation.”
fun fact: in the Japanese, Morgana is calling him a “tsundere” here, and you have NO FUCKING IDEA how many brainstorming sessions it took over several weeks to come up with this translation https://t.co/Ou22oN62p8
— yukino🏳️⚧️🌸🔲💻💙🔥🌻⚖️👑🍹🥃🐽🎋🍁🎀💙⚗️🏢 (@yukinogatari) May 2, 2020
this was probably the very last line finalized in the script. we AGONIZED over it for so long
— yukino🏳️⚧️🌸🔲💻💙🔥🌻⚖️👑🍹🥃🐽🎋🍁🎀💙⚗️🏢 (@yukinogatari) May 2, 2020
When questioned about their decision to use the term “fragile male ego,” Yukino justified their translation by stating “there were a number of factors that led to the decision,” including “setting, time period, character voice,” and interestingly, “target audience.”
Why not just use tsundere? Either people will understand it and get a kick or people won’t and they’ll look it up and learn it. Tsundere conveys a sense of hot/cold friendliness. “Fragile male ego” seems like a stretch.
— Anon of Jacksonville (@ao_jacksonville) May 3, 2020
there were a number of factors that led to the decision–setting, time period, character voice, target audience. I’ve used “tsundere” as-is in other projects, we just decided a different approach was the most fitting answer for this situation
— yukino🏳️⚧️🌸🔲💻💙🔥🌻⚖️👑🍹🥃🐽🎋🍁🎀💙⚗️🏢 (@yukinogatari) May 3, 2020
This bit of insight into the visual novel’s development process soon caught the attention of general advocates for faithful translations of Japanese media, who took issue with the changing of a widely understood Japanese word into a line inspired by divisive language strongly inspired by social justice theory:
as a connoiseur of male tsundere characters… this aint it, chief
really doesnt work with what thats all about, and seems really passive-aggressive
— Daniel Kochen (@azraelcake) May 4, 2020
The original line has ‘tsundere’.
Imagine boasting over how hard you worked and how much company money you wasted to change a word that everyone in your audience would be familair with.
Thousands of people could do with your job in this time of need, and you use it for this. https://t.co/ucKlxi4RX5
— Jeko (@JekoJekoUEM) May 5, 2020
No… No, this is not the way. The original script said one thing, the localized script should say that thing too, even if it uses different words because English works like that.
It DOESN’T work like, well, saying an entire archetype of anime girls has a masculine ego problem.
— Percy “Get a Bidet” Quinn (@Percival917) May 4, 2020
Why not use tsundere? It’s pretty much a well understood concept worldwide now and if not easy to look up. Undertale, a western game, calls a cactus the tsundere of plants. I’m in Alabama and 45 year old rednecks know what a tsundere is.
Translation > localization.
— DreadfulScroogery (@PainfulBuggery) May 5, 2020
However, many fans also supported the revisions, arguing that they not only improved the work, but also disingenuously dismissed concerns regarding the localization’s faithfulness as being solely rooted in outrage over a political or ‘SJW’ agenda, pointing to the visual novel’s exploration of historical concepts of sexuality and gender roles, rather than support for adherence to the original script.
A bunch of chuds have discovered a single line in an omake scene of a game that came out three years ago and they’re REALLY angry about it and it’s extremely funny. Anyway, The House in Fata Morgana now 50% on Steam
— Jacopo BEARzatti (@ritobito) May 5, 2020
fata morgana is not a title they would ever play but they pretend to be The Concerned Consumer in order to say this translation is bad
maybe they’ll pretend to be japanese too and say tsundere means tsundere
this is how low they’ve gotten and i am so fucking pissed— かすっち （ルビ：ｋａｓｔｅｌｐｌｓ） (@highimpactsex) May 5, 2020
one more thing on the fata morgana: seeing people complain about the translator “inserting political agenda where it doesnt exist” into a VN like fata morgana is hilarious, because they would feel the same about the VN if they actually read it
— Brando (@TheBrando2) May 5, 2020
While the change to the dialogue exchange with Jacopo has garnered the most attention, other examples of suspect edits made in the localization have surfaced, including lines insulting “poor, fragile masculinity” and a reference to Reddit-era meme humor, which would have been more relevant around the time of the game’s original release, through an unnecessary use of the French determiner “le.”
The mass of criticism being leveled at Yukino prompted responses from the teams involved with the visual novel’s production. MangaGamer condemned the backlash as “harassment” and encouraged fans to reach out to their support e-mail, claiming that the company does “take legitimate criticism into consideration.”
We would like to make it abundantly clear that we stand behind our localization staff and do our utmost to ensure that the developers’ wishes are respected as well. While there are numerous equally valid approaches to any given translation problem, harassment is not one of them.
— MangaGamer (@MangaGamer) May 5, 2020
If you have sincere questions or concerns regarding the translation of any of our titles we would encourage you to reach out to us at support@mangagamer.com instead. We may not be able to respond to all inquiries, but we do take legitimate criticism into consideration.
— MangaGamer (@MangaGamer) May 5, 2020
Novectacle voiced their support “for the main translator’s opinion,” explaining that translation “was picked up without taking into consideration the situation and the characters’ relationship” and providing further context to said relationship.
We have noticed there are discussions among some English community about the translation of FataMorgana, so we would like to express our simple thought. We stand for the main translator’s opinion.
— Novectacle (@Novectacle_EN) May 5, 2020
We assume it was picked up without taking into consideration the situation and the characters’ relationship.
The word appeared:
/ In the backyard: the specific situation that characters explain their stories, doing fourth-wall-breaking.— Novectacle (@Novectacle_EN) May 5, 2020
/ The word was said by Morgana to Jacopo. Morgana, especially in the backyard, speaks very acrimoniously. Plus, she has a reason to insult him.
/As the original word too, it is closer to bitter sarcastic meaning about his attitude.— Novectacle (@Novectacle_EN) May 5, 2020
So, “tsundere” at that line was not ordinarily “tsundere” meaning. Thinking those situations, we understand well our translator has chosen the word after much reflection.
— Novectacle (@Novectacle_EN) May 5, 2020
Yukino has since gone on to further explain the rationale behind their translation in a lengthy Twitter thread, noting that in an effort “to go with something easily understandable to all readers,” they had opted for “a translation of the *ideas* embodied in the word.”
1/ This tweet has gained quite a bit of traction over the last couple days, and that’s brought with it some confusion as to the reason behind our decision to translate this line as we did. Explaining will require spoiling Fata Morgana somewhat, so keep that in mind as you read.
— yukino🏳️⚧️🌸🔲💻💙🔥🌻⚖️👑🍹🥃🐽🎋🍁🎀💙⚗️🏢 (@yukinogatari) May 5, 2020
11/ Fata Morgana is historical fiction with heavy emphasis on societal issues shared throughout the world, so we decided it would be best to go with something easily understandable to all readers. Hence, “How’s your fragile male ego holding up?”
— yukino🏳️⚧️🌸🔲💻💙🔥🌻⚖️👑🍹🥃🐽🎋🍁🎀💙⚗️🏢 (@yukinogatari) May 5, 2020
12/ Rather than a translation of the word itself, it’s a translation of the *ideas* embodied in the word. Jacopo’s downfall is brought about by his hesitation to stray from societal expectations of masculinity. It’s a clear character flaw recognizable to all readers.
— yukino🏳️⚧️🌸🔲💻💙🔥🌻⚖️👑🍹🥃🐽🎋🍁🎀💙⚗️🏢 (@yukinogatari) May 5, 2020
13/ I chose to highlight this line specifically because it’s unexpected. But it’s a decision we made very carefully, and which has gone over consistently well with both readers and the original developers.
— yukino🏳️⚧️🌸🔲💻💙🔥🌻⚖️👑🍹🥃🐽🎋🍁🎀💙⚗️🏢 (@yukinogatari) May 5, 2020
What do you make of these changes? What do you make of Yukino, MangaGamer, and Novectacle’s responses to the questioning of the translation?
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