Sky Crawlers Engrish

Sky Crawlers is primarily in Japanese with a number of spoken English lines. News reports and radio communication between pilots in particular are all in English, presumably to give it some kind of “authentic” feel because the movie takes place in Europe (and yet everyone has a Japanese name, written in kanji, heh). The BluRay comes with Japanese subpics that give the non-English speaking Japanese people who watch the movie a translation of the spoken English. If you can understand a bit of Japanese to read the subs and also decipher the spoken Engrish (it’s a bit hard due to the radio noise and pronunciation) you will notice some discrepancies between what the two say. One of those discrepancies has particularly grabbed my attention.

puni
Squish~

The Japanese subs have the line “Teacher wo gekitsuisuru” (I’ll shoot down the Teacher) for two lines. The first time is in the opening of the movie. Some people from Rostock have encountered the Teacher. One of the pilots says something in English which gets subbed in Japanese using the previously mentioned phrase, he pursues the Teacher, and he dies. The second time is the last line before the credits when Yuuichi finds himself in the same situation as at the start of the movie. He and others from Rostock are out flying and have run into the Teacher. Yuuichi goes after the Teacher, and the subs say “Teacher wo gekitsuisuru” again here for his English line, and he also dies.

The way the same line is used twice in the subs and both pilots meet their end by the same person reinforces a theme of the movie about repetition. It also reinforces the evidence about clones, or maybe not clones but just Kildren being built with similar traits, and gives the idea that the pilot seen at the beginning of the movie was an earlier version of Yuuichi and Jinrou. The clone/same build evidence is also seen with the new Yudagawa who folds the newspaper the same way, and in the Mitsuya and Yuuichi’s convo about Yuuichi becoming Jinrou, and in Yuuichi remembering stuff but not knowing from where. It’s like saying the tedium is there even in your final words. It also kinda loops around to close off the movie the same way it began.

strike-witches-parody
God dammit Japan

…is pretty much what I’d be thinking if I only read the Japanese subtitles and didn’t know English at all, or didn’t know it well enough to decipher what they say in English for those lines.

For the first line, the pilot very clearly audibly says “I will kill him” in English. Subbing this as “Teacher wo gekitsuisuru” is cool. But for the second line, Yuuichi, also very clearly audibly in English, says “I will kill my father”. Even though both the English and the Japanese are talking about killing the same person, “Teacher wo gekitsuisuru” being used again as the sub isn’t conveying what’s being said in English. Suddenly, it’s not just that Yuuichi is some clone or born from a mold, he’s specifically a clone of or modeled after the Teacher.

23 Comments
March 8, 2009 by miasmacloud in Anime
Tagged , ,

23 Responses

  1. Reply
    FalseDawn
    March 8, 2009 at 5:14 am

    I wondered about that. I think Yuuichi assumes that Teacher is their father (perhaps the scientist that creates them each time?) and so perpetuates the war. They say Teacher’s the only non-Kildren pilot so that would kinda work. But hey, it’s Production I.G and Mamoru Oshii – trying to make sense of everything in it is an uphill struggle.

    Surprising that they subbed it wrong though – you’d assume they’d know both languages. And this is actually the best English (and accent) I’ve heard in any Japanese film/series ever, so it makes it equally strange.

    • Reply
      miasmacloud
      March 8, 2009 at 9:00 am

      I don’t think he’s a scientist or something, just a pilot like what they said.

      What I got out of it is that the Teacher used to be at their Rostock base, fucked Kusanagi, Kusanagi gave birth, he ditched them, and Jinrou and Yuuichi were somehow clones of him, but inferior and “children” who will never surpass the original/adult in order to keep the war machine going. Kusanagi is said to have that obsession with the Teacher, going off pursuing him during the rain etc, and she also goes to Yuuichi’s bed and q_q’s over memories of Jinrou since she claims to later have loved Jinrou. But then when she talks about the Teacher being there before and her respect for him, I guess it’d be possible he had the same bed too.

      • Reply
        FalseDawn
        March 9, 2009 at 3:05 am

        So do you think each of the Kildren has like a grown-up counterpart they’ve been cloned from? Because they don’t look like they’re all cloned from Teacher (even though the character designs do look pretty similar).

        • Reply
          miasmacloud
          March 14, 2009 at 11:03 am

          If they do all have adult counter parts, the movie direction didn’t really hint at that imo since you don’t hear about any other adult aces besides the Teacher.

  2. Reply
    Disland
    March 8, 2009 at 10:18 am

    The spoken English made me go all D: since it was terribly written.

  3. Reply
    C.I
    March 8, 2009 at 12:52 pm

    Yeah it would make sense if you think that the Teacher is more of a template for Jinrou and Yuuichi (and quite possibly almost every pilot out there). The movie does iterate that war needs to go on because in there always needs to be something to capture and hold the public’s attention, and that is war.

    The fact that there will always be inferior clones of the teacher trying to shoot him down practically guarentees a never-ending cycle of dogfights. Long story short, war never ends and people will never really die when they are killed ;_;

  4. Reply
    Sakagami
    March 10, 2009 at 1:16 am

    strike witches vs sky crawlers plz

  5. Reply
    superzombie23
    March 10, 2009 at 8:52 am

    I totally caught that “father” line at the end, and it confused the hell out of me. It’s hard to believe they subbed that wrong >.>

  6. Reply
    Ginnodangan
    March 14, 2009 at 6:28 am

    It was odd how it seemed to interchange between English and Japanese quite easily.

    • Reply
      miasmacloud
      March 14, 2009 at 11:05 am

      Hmm only time I thought it was weird was when the random pilot crash landed and Kusanagi went batshit going back and forth between speaking in English or Japanese. Otherwise the movie seems to take place in a version of Warsaw, Poland where the predominate language in public is English.

      • Reply
        Ginnodangan
        March 14, 2009 at 7:37 pm

        Yeah, that and the British(?) accents were wierd.
        I suppose it could take place in an alternate version of Warsaw, Poland. As the sea in the map shown in the background is similar in shape to the Baltic Sea.

  7. Reply
    RickDias
    March 15, 2009 at 12:42 pm

    That SW parody had me LULZ.

    As for the comment about the English dialogues being decent I thought it was still pretty bad(bad as in Engrish bad). It only give the impression of being correct because the majority of it are interlaced with aviation/military jargons, which by the way are still half-assed and made me cringed on a few occasion. I suppose normal people who are not military geeks like me wouldn’t have notice it at all. In my opinion the English lines in Sentou Yousei Yukikaze did a much better job at being authentic.

  8. Reply
    Grinch
    March 22, 2009 at 10:51 pm

    For me the pilots speaking English while flying wasn’t odd at all. In civilian operations the international language of flight is English, so pilots need to know it. However, in modern military aviation its not as important as those are mostly carried out in the native language. I do recall though that the RAF officers leading the Polish pilots during the Battle of Britain constantly had problems getting the Poles to speak English on the radio.

    As a pilot and air traffic controller I don’t recall any of the lines particularly irking me for their authenticity, but that may have been because I approached this as purely a fantasy story. Should I ever have to control a pilot of an Asian flight, I do hope he speaks Engrish as well as was shown in the movie, as I had no trouble understanding at all. Unlike some Indian pilots I had to deal with while flying in Florida years ago…

  9. Reply
    nanashi-san
    March 28, 2009 at 11:34 am

    The “I kill my father”-thing is a reference to “The Stranger”, written by Camus. Kannagi quotes a line of this book when he meets Kusanagi. The main character of The Stranger kills his father “because the sun was too brilliant” (read it, you’ll understand) or so he says to the judge.
    Then while waiting for the capital execution, arguing with a Father (but this father is a priest), he lets go all his rage (shouting to the priest) and finds serenity with arguments such as “We can die any moment, so “when” means nothing”
    In this anime you can find a lot of topics (and even some lines) that are typical of Camus’s works.

  10. Reply
    conniechiwa
    April 10, 2009 at 2:54 pm

    Here’s my interpretation of the story:

    POINT OF VIEW
    The story is told through Kannami’s point of view but it really is all about the emotional hell that Kusanagi is going through.

    BACKGROUND
    “Teacher” (the ace pilot from Lautern), Kurita Jinrou (the lover killed by Suito Kusanagi, the base boss), Yuichi Kannami (the main protagonist who replaces Jinrou) and Hiiragi Isamu (the pilot that replaces Kannami right at the end of the movie) were all kildren clones created from the same personality template.

    This is why Fuko (the courtesan who sleeps with Kannami at the beginning) makes reference that Kannami reminds her of Jinrou (who she used to have sex with). Most likely Fuko also used to have sex with Teacher (remember the scene where Kusanagi jealously confronts Teacher in Fuko’s room).

    KUSANAGI’S DILEMMA
    Teacher used to fly for Rostock but made a deal to join Lautern, on the condition that Lautern would genetically modify him into a normal “adult male” (Kusanagi mentions this in conversation with Kannami).

    Here’s the tragedy of it all: Kusanagi fell in love with Teacher and had a child with him, prior to Teacher switching over to Lautern. Rostock than replaces Teacher with an exact clone of him named Jinrou.

    Thus, the tragedy that unfolds for Kusanagi — she remains madly in love with Teacher but cannot have him. Unable to contain her feelings, she begins a relationship with Jinrou who reminds her exactly of Teacher (Remember the scene where Kusanagi hugs the bunk bed, which was likely the very same bed used by Teacher, Jinrou and Kannami).

    The plot seems to suggest that when Jinrou discovers that Kusanagi is actually in love with Teacher and not him (Jinrou just happens to look and talk exactly like Teacher), he is heartbroken and asks Kusanagi to kill him, which she does — and this then sends her into the suicidal mood she is in for most of the movie, as she relives her heartbreak of loving but not having Teacher, and her guilt over killing Jinrou.

    Just when Kusanagi thinks things can’t get any worse, along comes Kannami (another Teacher clone), who again triggers all her repressed feelings. The dilemma is that Kusanagi is unable to control her unrequited love for Teacher and continues to love him by proxy via Kannami. Finally, Kusanagi can no longer take the guilt and pressure and asks Kannami to “kill me this time.” But Kannami refuses and instead tells Kusanagi that in order to make things better, one must first choose to live.

    When Kannami says “I will kill my father” at the end when he goes after Teacher, he has realised that he is nothing more than a clone of the Teacher template, and is trying to end the vicious cycle of heartbreak for Kusanagi’s sake. Unfortunately, he fails.

    At the end of the movie after the credits, Kannami’s replacement arrives (yet another clone of Teacher). But something has changed inside Kusanagi, who seems to have taken onboard what Kannami said and has accepted her fate. Hence, she says “I’ve been expecting you.”

    QUESTIONS
    The interesting thing is, how many clones of Teacher has Kusanagi killed? How long has this vicious cycle been going on? Was Jinrou the only one? Is Kusanagi a clone herself that has been killed before by a Teacher clone? The real tragedy would be a vicious cycle of Teacher and Kusanagi clones taking turns to kill each other to ease their pain.

  11. Reply
    Sol Falling
    April 11, 2009 at 6:54 am

    With regards to the Kildren, I got the impression that they were not ‘clones’ per se but rather recycled immortal bodies. The reasoning given was that it would be a waste to give up their accumulated piloting experience. As such, since I think it was stated that the ‘Teacher’ was at some point a Kildren like the rest of the pilots, it doesn’t make sense to me for him to be a ‘template’ or ‘original’ for anybody. He’s just some guy.

    I am also not clear that Kusanagi loved the Teacher or had her child by him. All I felt was implied, with regards to the scene she spoke of him in isolation, was respect/admiration. However, I do seem to recall that Kusanagi first met Jinroh about 8 years before the events of the movie, which would be too late given the kid’s age. If someone could just validate that, then I will accept that the Teacher was Kusanagi’s lover.

    With regards to the “I’ll kill my father” line, I just went and read through ‘The Stranger’ (not particularly inspiring, but at least it was pretty short) and didn’t see it. Yeah, the guy he killed was just some random arab. I don’t really have any idea what “I’ll kill my father” was supposed to mean, but I’d prefer not to read anything plot-related from it (the fact that the Teacher is an ‘adult’ and probably one of the oldest Kildren is enough for me).

    As for some ‘never-ending cycle’ bullcrap, that’s pretty much not implied by the story. There’s a pretty solid timeline laid out, starting with the Teacher and Kusanagi working together, followed by the Teacher defecting, followed by Kusanagi meeting Jinroh, followed by Jinroh getting tired of his meaningless, never-ending existence and asking Kusanagi to kill him, followed by Kannagi showing up a couple weeks later, followed by the rest of the movie. There is basically no evidence suggesting more than one ‘Teacher’ or Kusanagi, or more than three Jinrohs (Jinroh himself, Kannagi, and the new guy at the end), at least with regards to the developed relationships between them (Kusanagi and the Teacher working together, Kusanagi and Jinroh being in love). The ‘cycle’ aspect only comes from the Kildren’s ability to continually be recycled after death, and the story basically suggests that all of the Teacher, Jinroh, and Kusanagi have been too good to be shot down, having survived at least 8 years in Jinroh’s case, and even longer (likely more than double that) for the Teacher and Kusanagi. Thus, there isn’t a cycle, as they haven’t died to enter it in the first place.

    Anyway, regarding the movie itself. I only got into it around a third of the way through, when Kusanagi started barking orders like a queen bitch. That kinda got me hot, and my crush on her carried me through the rest of the movie. 7/10 (lol trolling). I gotta admit, it was still better than a whole lot of vapid shit out there (if, y’know, irritatingly vague about its setting and plot thus leading people to make up completely useless shit as above).

  12. Reply
    miasmacloud
    April 13, 2009 at 8:13 am

    All bullshit deleted, Connichiwa’s posts marked as spam~

    tamarindream and bailey555 have the same IP of 118.100.158.34. Those are Malaysian IP’s, and Conniechiwa’s is too. ( ´∀`) Malaysian IPs, btw, aren’t static.

  13. Reply
    The Doctor
    February 6, 2010 at 4:27 pm

    I think that “conniechiwa” hit it on the nail. I’ve watched through the movie four times. What I conclude is indeed identical to the statement in his posting. All the clues and evidence is strategically placed throughout the movie.

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