Dragon Quest CMs Starring Foreigners

Lately there has been a commercial for Dragon Quest 6, staring white folk. But it's not the only one in the series to be advertised this way. Sometimes these CMs have English, sometimes a Slavic-sounding language (to my untrained ears), and sometimes Japanese dubbing. Here's what I found:

DQ IV:


DQ V:


DQ VI (with great hair!):


DQ VII

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Bonus vid: SMAP DQ VII CM that is quite funny.
Related Post: A breakdown of a DQ IX ad.

Classic Japanese Sega SG-1000 CMs

The SG-1000 never came to America, so I was ignorant of its existence until today, but it was a Atari-esque system made long ago. Here is a collection of Japanese language commercials for it. Ah, 80s cheese, how I love you. Oh an keep an ear cocked for the old Segaaaa jingoistic saying!



I'll keep an eye out for the SG-1000 the next time I go to Super Potato.

Japanese in Print: Dragon Quest

It's time for another exploration of the Japanese to be found in adds; I'll try to keep it at an intermediate learner's level. A new Dragon Quest video game recently came out, and people seem to be really interested in it. It's been a popular game series since the 80s, and the characters in the games have always been designed by Akira Toriyama (the Dragonball dude). Akira really outdid himself on one character this time around: The agejō-looking faerie (hit that link for my explanation of agejō). Let's look at her before we take a look at the bigger ad:

She is dripping with the latest Japanese trends. The shorts, the ribbon shoes, the pose... it's all so now. Gotta love it. Another shot:
She does the J girl pigeon-toe even when flying.

And now the ad (click to zoom):

Ad Breakdown:

The Top few lines:
冒険をする時 When on an adventure
大切なことは the important thing
いろいろな人と with various people
話をすることです。is to have conversations
会話 conversation
を通じてby means of
世界で起っていることが the things happening in the world
明らかになれば、 if become clear,
あなたが you
そこで there
何をすればよいかが what should do
次第に gradually
分かってくる become clear
はずです。ought to be

Note that I could translate two things as should, but 何をすればよいかが is literally "what+obj.+ if do+ good+ the question of+sub." or "what would be good to do?" and はずです is "ought to+ be", expressing expectation, but could be should. Another word I often translate as should is べき. It is mostly for stating what one should do in a way that can come off as hoity-toity if not used correctly. You should think about what should means, shouldn't you.

The red circle:
村や町 villages or towns
に入ると when enter
さまざまな人と with various people
出会いますencounter

two とs in this one, but the first is a conditional と (when x is done, y is the result) and the other is the simpler "and/with" と. A third type of と is the quoting one, as in " x と言った". There is a と in the first breakdown, so take a look at that one too.

The bottom line:
困っている人を people in trouble
助けたり helping etc.
事件を cases
解決することで、by solving
物語は story
どんどん rapidly
広がっています spreading out

the たり conjugation of a verb means "doing things like" and is often followed by する even if the verb in the たりform is already する. Example: ゴルフをしたりする=doing things like golfing

I'll leave the dialog shots from the game alone.

Super Fast Mario

The Japanese narration is what sells this.


[via The Snow]
If you like this sort of thing, you may enjoy the series on the "green devil" at Nico Nico Douga even more; it had me laughing out loud, or LOLing, as the youngsters are reported to express. You have to be a member of the Nico Nico Douga to watch, but isn't about time you joined the age and LOLed as well?
Jeshii (of Yamato Damacy fame) has collected them all here.

罪と罰

Well, Sin and Punishment finally showed up on the wii shopping channel, so I bought it quickly. But I already finished it! I remember back in the day that game took me a month to get through; it was the most brain-reflex-intensive game, and still is, but I guess gaming brains like mine have moved on to bigger 3D world comprehension challenges. Still, it is cool as anything to fly around on a piece of concrete destroying an entire navy. Next I will try hard mode, if I can find it in those horrendously dim katakana menus. Other than those, things look a lot better than I remember.
In case you are wondering, I had the Japanese connection when I was in America, that's how I got to play this.



Reminds me, when I visited America, Benny had a NES and we played Mario bros. I was dying left and right; the controls just didn't feel natural.