I TOTALLY wanna do this for everyone's entries. :'D I'm totally blown away by how much cool stuff is in the details.
While I knew about the whole deal of someone's manner of speech in japanese being an indicator of that person's character, I gotta say this was quite a bit more nuanced than anything I would have expected.For those who might be interested, I wanted to write a post to share some little, character-relevant things in his diary entries that I thought were cool.Disclaimer that I am, myself, only an intermediate learner of Japanese, and thus invite others more fluent than I to correct me in the event of mistranslations or misinterpretations!
Placed in a spoiler tag because I got long-winded :(
- Zannen-desu. A polite form of apology, and the one that Orbulon uses the most often. This is notable because it's not typical to beginning speakers of Japanese, who are more likely to use the phrase "Sumimasen" ("Excuse me") or "Gomen-nasai" ("I'm sorry", polite form) to apologize. However, Orbulon chooses to use this less typical but equally polite form, "Zannen-desu", a rough literal translation of which is, "I am regretful [about it]." As opposed to the beginner equivalents, "zannen-desu" has an overtone of empathy, typically used in situations where a speaker is expressing regret for another person's misfortune that may not necessarily be their own. I'm not sure what the "canonical" explanation for this is, or why he prefers it, but it's notable because it feels deliberate on the part of the writers; despite probably being encouraged to use "gomenasai" in his Japanese courses, Orbulon chooses to use this more "empathetic" apology instead.
- As is in line with people learning beginner Japanese, Orbulon adds the "-san" honorific to everyone's name. In most places this is appropriate, but in some other places, it sticks out like a sore thumb -- most notably, as the only character who addresses Dr. Crygor as "Mr. Crygor". But the constant use of the "-san" honorific also serves to characterize him as an outsider; where 9-Volt & 18-Volt speak to one another with no honorifics, and Jimmy & Wario speak in casual, familiar Japanese, Orbulon refers to everyone with a "Miss" or "Mister", regardless of status or relation -- even going so far as to tack the honorific onto 9-Volt's pet's name.
- On that note: for as far as I've read into other character diaries, Orbulon's is one of the only ones that makes relatively common use of the passive voice: "it seems"/"it appears that"/etc. To my knowledge, the other character that does this with a same, notable frequency is Dr. Crygor... an interesting in-character explanation possibly being that Dr. Crygor is a scientist and is thus inclined to treat all of his observations, even non-scientific ones, as hypotheses ("It appears that...") rather than absolute statements of truth. As the Japanese variant of Orbulon is characterized as more insecure (to the point of pulling an all-nighter to play video games for fear of looking stupid, or feeling queasy at the thought of not having a cold) and mildly passive-aggressive (what do you do when someone you're mad at comes to visit your house? Ignore them the entire time lmao), Orbulon's use of this passive tone may indicate either an unwillingness to speak assertively, or a distrust of his own senses. This serves to make the entry where he admits that he hasn't had enough sleep, & is abruptly direct in his request for people to steer clear of him, starkly different in tone from the rest of the entries, to a heightened comedic effect. Moral of the story don't catch Orbulon on a day when he hasn't slept.
- Nipongo. Despite his growing vocabulary over the course of the entries, Orbulon insists on making this typo every. single. time. What he means to say is Nihongo, the Japanese word for "Japanese language". The closest English equivalent to this typo could perhaps be "Jappanese" -- or for a Western US release, something like "American-lish". I don't know what it is about this word that perplexes him, but this doesn't even get better in later games lol.
- If you, like Younger Me, attempted to put Orbulon's diary -- or anything "written" by Orbulon for that matter -- through Google Translate, you may have noticed that he... seems to talk about "death" a lot, among other nonsensical, repetitive things. This is because for some reason, Orbulon thinks that all verb conjugations in Japanese should be done in Katakana, a character system reserved for non-native Japanese words, instead of Hiragana, the character system intended for words of Japanese origin. The supposed...uh...obsession with death that Google Translate!Orbulon has is, in actuality, Google Translate seeing the word "desu" ("to be") written in Katakana, and translating it into the closest phonetic English equivalent. Sadly, this is another set of typos that Orbulon does not overcome with time lol RIP in pieces, spaceman.
I want the Little O to be in Mario so badly. (The Mario and Wario series are in the same universe.) Spinoffs such as Kart, Party, and the sports games count.
Also, for those who didn't know, those are antigravity cleats he wears.
Also, for those who didn't know, those are antigravity cleats he wears.
I REALLY hope Orbulon is in Crazy Galaxy somehow
I think that there was a bit too much detail there for that to have been an April Fool's Joke imo.
[Orbulon's language but Italian accented]
I respect Eggman and Orbulon very much.
Honestly I want to be part of Orbulon's entourage too!
In an alternate reality...
And then Orbulon became so popular, that nobody had love for Ashley. Nobody even had love for Orb's bunny minion. But some knew Ashley's little demon friends for being in Rhythm Heaven.
I need a barf bag.
And then Orbulon became so popular, that nobody had love for Ashley. Nobody even had love for Orb's bunny minion. But some knew Ashley's little demon friends for being in Rhythm Heaven.
I need a barf bag.
I'd hardly call a 2,017 year old alien a kid.
Orbulon deserves more attention! I was surprised when I find out he didn't have his own stage in Touched!, since he was one of the "original" crew from the first game. It was kind of sad to see him turned into a "post game" character in smooth moves and G&W. Nevertheless I enjoyed his stage in Smooth Moves.
I first played WW in Japanese and Orbulon's stage was a nightmare... lol I couldn't read a single word of it so I had to guess all the answers.
Here's a little messy doodle I did of him (don't erase the pencil marks when the ink is still wet lol)
I first played WW in Japanese and Orbulon's stage was a nightmare... lol I couldn't read a single word of it so I had to guess all the answers.
Here's a little messy doodle I did of him (don't erase the pencil marks when the ink is still wet lol)
I might have mentioned it in the past, but I always liked how it was pretty much always Orbulon who got the more unusual stages such as having longer microgames that go with the IQ theme (Mega Micro Games), a game that requires teamwork, instead of competition (Mega Party Games) or him being the only character who's games use the Nunchuk (Smooth Moves).
I just like it because you can look at it as a subtle way to play up the alien motif, he's not from this planet, so of course his ideas for games will differ from the ones of the earthlings.
I just like it because you can look at it as a subtle way to play up the alien motif, he's not from this planet, so of course his ideas for games will differ from the ones of the earthlings.
!!! I never noticed this before but that's actually a super interesting observation??
Years and years ago, before I went to pre-school, I was playing with a couple Mega Bloks figures. One was a professor/scientist looking guy, and the other was an alien. I made the alien cry and the science dude say "I don't care!" Because I'm kinda obsessed with WarioWare, and Orbulon's an alien, and Dr. Crygor's a scientist, I made this.
Oh Orby don't listen to Dr. Meanie.
Oh Orby don't listen to Dr. Meanie.