Shiravune have once again raped another western visual novel release with cringeworthy localization that throws western buzzwords and humor down the players throat.
Shiravune are merely a publication label that’s bankrolled by DMM that exclusively handles localized releases of many Japanese visual novels, and on June 23rd of this year, the English localized release of NUKITASHI was met with monumental disappointment.
The disappointment stems from Shiravune essentially buying out the translation from an American localization company by the name of Sol Press who went defunct, Shiravune paid for their localized translation and did absolutely nothing to change the nonsensical bullshit that lurked within NUKITASHI.
And what nonsensical bullshit was featured within NUKITASHI? The localized release essentially erased its authentic Japanese culture and replace it with abhorrent and out of place western slang words and terminologies.
Shiravune had delivered fans a massive steaming pile of garbage with by repackaging Sol Press’ EN release of NUKITASHI, which dramatically diverts away from an actual translation to shoehorn in garbage slang such as “Bazinga”, Poggers and “virginfag”.
The folks over at Sol Press were hard at work cramming in Big Bang bullshit and heinous Twitch slang into their translation before the outfit closed its doors for good.
“Nutting” being just one of many such infractions that plague the visual novel brought on upon by malicious western translators.
The localization is crammed full of US politics, buzzwords and references, no doubt the millennial tourist hacks tasked with translating the visual novel thought it would be more relatable to subvert the entire project to better “resonate” with western audiences.
Shiravune’s NUKITASHI is filled with buzzwords and western slang despite the fact that the parasites doing the translation are quite possibly the furthest thing from the actual target demographic.
Such as how it incorrectly translates the words lolicon into pedophile freely and unapologetically.
The localized release goes on to incorrectly translate otaku as neckbeard, which was undoubtedly seen as a direct insult targeting the players themselves
Thankfully, there’s a de-localization patch for NUKITASHI, which alters the script entirely to be less cancerous and more like how an actual English translation aught to be.
NUKITASHI’s English release was most unfortunate however it obviously had recouped enough money to validate the lack of actual supervision towards rogue translators as another release by Shiravune has been caught pushing garbage western dialect and slang.
Their next unfortunate victim? Criminal Border: 1st Offense, which has already been hit heavily by Steam’s garbage hypocritical standards, that resulted in the visual novel’s name being changed on Steam to “Liminal Border Part 1”.
Once more, a Shiravune release is disrupting immersion by incorporating Western slang and references, replacing authentic Japanese cultural elements with Western ones. This completely discards faithfulness, as the dialogue now includes Western terms like “incel.”
“Incel” is a term derived from the combination of the words “involuntary celibates,” referring to individuals within a virtual subculture who proclaim themselves as unable to secure a romantic or sexual partner despite a desire for one. This condition is commonly referred to as “inceldom.”
It is mainly used as a derogatory term by Western women to insult a man who does not align with their political views or lifestyle. Essentially, if you don’t respect a woman’s life choices, acknowledge sex work like OnlyFans as a legitimate job, or judge a woman based on her romantic history, you’re labeled a “virgin incel.”
Regardless, in the original Japanese version, the term “doutei” was used for this specific scene. It makes no sense for a translator to incorrectly substitute the word “virgin” for “incel” unless they are an untalented progressive hack attempting to impose Western cultural concepts onto Japanese media.
One might assume that the translators, who are seemingly incompetent, didn’t understand that “doutei” translates to “virgin.” However, this assumption would be incorrect, considering that the term is accurately translated in other parts.
This suggests that the deliberate inclusion of “Incel” was not a mistake but a conscious choice.
While the localized release of Criminal Boarder doesn’t feature as much obscene western lingo as NUKITASHI for example it however manages to suffer from an even worse fate.
Aside from the actual story and premise being lousy and retarded, some worthless garbage about a digital drug not a single person looked at the translated script and thought “hmm, this fucking gibberish doesn’t actually make any goddamn sense”.
Shiravune can’t use the excuse of taking over the publication/localization efforts from another company in the case of Criminal Border. They were solely responsible for orchestrating its localization, which turned out to be incomprehensible nonsense plagued with Incel bullshit.
The lack of curation in the localized translation of Criminal Border is glaringly apparent. The broken English used in the translation would undoubtedly trigger alarm bells on any spell checker. This leads me to genuinely suspect that a machine, due to its incoherence and poor quality, likely performed this localized rendition.
The game’s narrative revolves around a magical drug that induces self-stimulation and potential sexual activity through its hypnotic effects. Despite this, Criminal Border still refers to gender instead of sex.
Fortunately, the visual novel made its debut on Steam with absolutely no attention. Just two days since its release, it has garnered a noteworthy peak player count of merely 17 “incels.”
Hardly anyone made the purchase with is a positive development because garbage translations like this shouldn’t go unpunished. However, there is likely to be zero impact here that Shiravune is financially backed by DMM, with their main goal being to scrutinize Japanese visual novels for Western audiences who end up rejecting them entirely.
A company not in the business for actual profit and consumer satisfaction but one that’s merely operating with an agenda.
This entire situation highlights the failures of gatekeeping a medium. The elimination of region locking was anticipated to provide easier access to Japanese content, but it has backfired significantly. Publishers now employ questionable translators who inject their own agendas unchecked, leading to the frustration and alienation of the target audience.
Localized releases are reaching a point where they necessitate additional translation patches to rectify western slang filled with memes and political agenda. The removal of region locking hasn’t brought any benefits; instead, it has only tarnished the cherished media we hold dear.
Do not spend your money buying localized releases of this sort of material, especially from Shiravune, you’re just paying for propaganda at this stage, if you feel as if you must pay for something please just buy the goddamn Japanese release instead.
