The Devil Inside

[lore]

Anyone want to discuss this title? I was kinda confused on a few points, and it was sweet in the extreme, but overall, I ended up liking it.

I'm especially confused by Sougo's accent and why he could drop it when he was selling. Was his accent fake, like putting on a British accent for fun, or did he somehow learn to drop it?

Thanks! ^_^

[verygorgeous]

lore,

I loved this title! I love adorable, syrupy romances like this one.

Y'know, I too have wondered about the accent. I assume that it was meant to be a kansai accent but he drops it when he's being serious so I don't know which accent is his real one.

[lore]

Ok, I'm sure experts on accents will by by here soon, VeryGorgeous. We'll have to wonder until then.

But now this syrupyness, help me here. Basically, the two men wanted to be together and they each worried about how badly they wanted to be with the other one (both in a physical and romantic sense)? I just want to be sure I didn't miss a hidden layer.

Like I said, I liked it, but I could have done with just a tad more plot. I kind of wish Sougo's fortune-telling hadn't fallen by the wayside, and I wondered if all those pins he was giving out would come back to bite him in the butt, but that didn't seem to happen, either. But the art and all those little hearts flitting about...soooo cute!! I wanted to give the book a cuddle by the end.
^_^

[fairygirl]

I also thought this was a cute title! Regarding accents though...it's so tricky to try and reproduce such things in translation. I find that when English editions try to do this, the characters that speak in "accents" only come off as sounding grammatically incorrect and uneducated to me, but I'm sure that this is rarely the intent of the original. Unfortunately, I have no helpful suggestions as to how else different Japanese dialects could be conveyed, but I personally find it distracting. But yes, a nice story -- I should go back and re-read it.

[lore]

Regarding accents though...it's so tricky to try and reproduce such things in translation. I find that when English editions try to do this, the characters that speak in "accents" only come off as sounding grammatically incorrect and uneducated to me, but I'm sure that this is rarely the intent of the original.

Ah, see, that's what I was trying to figure out, if we were meant to see Sougo as uneducated, low-class, mysterious or just from a different area of Japan. I was hoping to get a little more characterization out of knowing, because I loves me some characterization.

Thanks for replying, Fairygirl! If you notice anything while rereading it, come on back and let us know what you're thinking. ^_^

[verygorgeous]

To me the basic premise is that the two have kind of an obsessive way of loving and neither one wanted to drive the other off because of previous experiences.

[ChibiKami]

I believe our translator said Sougo spoke with a "country" accent-kind of like from rural countryside of Japan, that he would kind of drop when he was working (showing that he's clever in that sense, and not an uneducated country bumpkin). This was a toughie-accents are really tough to localize in english, so the attempt was a kind of "southern" type accent. But yes-fairygirl does have it right-generally accents are very tough to reproduce (especially the infamous "Osakan" accent), and many times-they're given more of a "brash" way of speaking. The Devil Within was a little different-because the accent was really integral to Sougo's character-so the translator went with a more "southern" style of speaking.

[lore]

Verygorgeous - Cool! I both love and hate it when the couple is on the same page and they don't know it. Reading all their near-misses and misunderstandings is so stressful and yet totally romantic. ^_^

ChibiKami - Thank you so much for the notes on the translation! It does help to know what Sougo's accent was all about. I did get that he was smart enough to drop it when acting professionally, but that he's from the country was totally lost on me. I think the translators did a good job, though. Short of a mini side note saying, "psst, he's from the country", there wasn't any more they could do. Thanks again, and please pass my thanks to the translators if you "see" them. <3

[hanamaru06]

Surprisingly, I thought this title was really good and the story was sweet! X3 At first, the art style kept me away, but it really was very good, I'm so glad I read it!