I can finally learn about this Sabo character...my friend sent me volume 60...
From the spoilers I was kinda worried. With Sabo being a noble's son and all... I was already planning to explore the nobility thing in PoSM, and the issues with the lifestyle, using a son of a Celestial as the means ... I've had a great deal of that part of the fic on the brain since before the whole Sabo flashblack, I just haven't managed to get to writing it yet. Of course since it's pretty obvious this is an issue that Oda will be working more with, it makes sense that I'm pondering it in a fanfic and that he's writing about it, and that we're having similar lines of thought, it's just....
There's also that coincidence with names--the Grey Ring (in PoSM) and the Grey Terminal. ... I suppose if one looks at the date that the chapter containing that name and then checks when the manga came out with the other one, it can be seen that I wasn't copying the whole grey thing, but who looks at that kind of detail before deciding, really? And it's such a minor point that I doubt people will remember it was mentioned a long time ago, once it does come up again, and when it does, in a big way. In either case I still look like I'm copying naming concepts. I know it's a fanfic, but there's "fanfic" and then there's "having no originality at all."
Besides, that level of coincidence is creepy to me. So I should probably change the name before it does become major, hmph. >.<
When I translated an interview with Watsuki Nobuhiro I learned something about Oda that I probably would have taken a while to pick up on otherwise--he is very fond of wordplay. The wordplay of Ruroni Kenshin's Kamatari both being an okama and using a "kama" (oogama) for a weapon was actually Oda's idea. So now I'm always on the lookout for wordplay on Oda's part--sometimes difficult, since translations can't always convey them without a few sentences of extra explanation. Thus they sometimes end up changed or left out, etc.
In the SBS for chapter 592 there was a run-down of the various shirts Ace and Luffy are wearing throughout the Sabo flashback. Luffy's shirts were cute wordplays; Ace's were just two-character compounds, albeit rather appropriate and/or ironic ones. XD Sabo didn't get anything of the sort, although the top hat and coattails kinda make up for it.
爆撃
bakugeki
"raid"無罪
muzai
"innocent"暴力
bōryoku
"violence"勝訴
shōso
"a victorious case"*独立
dokuritsu
"independent"略奪
ryakudatsu
"pillage"辻斬
tsujigiri
"test killing"†荒野
kōya
"wilderness"光線
kōsen
"ray of light"本能
hon'nō
"instinct"仁義
jingi
"code of conduct"* in reference to lawsuits
† I believe this could be in reference to the practice of killing a random passerby in order to test a new sword's quality and one's own skill; common in the Warring States and early Edo periods; officially banned in 1602.
シートン
shīton
"?"卵事件
tamago jiken
"egg incident"エフワン
efu wan
"F1"シシカバブー
shishikababū
"shish-kebab"ニュートン
nyūton
"?"ラザニア
razania
"lasagna"そば打ち
soba uchi
"soba strike"朝顔
asagao
"morning glory"エスキモー
esukimō
"Eskimo"乾季雨季
kankiuki
"dry season / rainy season"タピオカ
tapioka
"tapioca"チャンピオン
champion
"champion"
"F1" (efu wan)
"Wan" is both the sound of a dog's bark and how the English "one" is rendered in Japanese.
"shish-kebab" (shishikababū)
Three animals--lion, hippo, pig. "Shishi" is an older term for "lion," "kaba" is the word for "hippo," and "bū" is the grunt of a pig.
"lasagna" (razania)
A cat's mew is more commonly rendered "nya," but "nia" sounds very close and is not unused itself.
"Pio" and "pion" are similar cases--more commonly seen as "pyo" and "pyon." "Pion," is more the sound of hopping, rather than what a rabbit says. ...
"soba strike" (sobauchi)
"Bau" is a probable rendering of the first part of the English sound for a dog bark (the cutesiest one) "bow-wow." Only thing I'm not perfectly sure of is if this refers to soba noodles or the other kind of soba--"proximity, nearness", for a complete meaning more like "side strike." Albeit that it's not really a Japanese word, just a kind of weird construction that half makes sense. I guess that could make this one a triple wordplay, though. XD;
The other underlines are the sounds that the animals shown make ... except for the two I put question marks on. Not sure what he was trying to do there. I want to say the names Seton and Newton, but that seems kinda stretching it ... seems like it is what it looks like.
Anyway Luffy's shirts are pretty adorable. If they were real I might just buy one, especially the shish-kebab or F1 or tamago jiken ones.
There's also that coincidence with names--the Grey Ring (in PoSM) and the Grey Terminal. ... I suppose if one looks at the date that the chapter containing that name and then checks when the manga came out with the other one, it can be seen that I wasn't copying the whole grey thing, but who looks at that kind of detail before deciding, really? And it's such a minor point that I doubt people will remember it was mentioned a long time ago, once it does come up again, and when it does, in a big way. In either case I still look like I'm copying naming concepts. I know it's a fanfic, but there's "fanfic" and then there's "having no originality at all."
Besides, that level of coincidence is creepy to me. So I should probably change the name before it does become major, hmph. >.<
When I translated an interview with Watsuki Nobuhiro I learned something about Oda that I probably would have taken a while to pick up on otherwise--he is very fond of wordplay. The wordplay of Ruroni Kenshin's Kamatari both being an okama and using a "kama" (oogama) for a weapon was actually Oda's idea. So now I'm always on the lookout for wordplay on Oda's part--sometimes difficult, since translations can't always convey them without a few sentences of extra explanation. Thus they sometimes end up changed or left out, etc.
In the SBS for chapter 592 there was a run-down of the various shirts Ace and Luffy are wearing throughout the Sabo flashback. Luffy's shirts were cute wordplays; Ace's were just two-character compounds, albeit rather appropriate and/or ironic ones. XD Sabo didn't get anything of the sort, although the top hat and coattails kinda make up for it.
爆撃
bakugeki
"raid"無罪
muzai
"innocent"暴力
bōryoku
"violence"勝訴
shōso
"a victorious case"*独立
dokuritsu
"independent"略奪
ryakudatsu
"pillage"辻斬
tsujigiri
"test killing"†荒野
kōya
"wilderness"光線
kōsen
"ray of light"本能
hon'nō
"instinct"仁義
jingi
"code of conduct"* in reference to lawsuits
† I believe this could be in reference to the practice of killing a random passerby in order to test a new sword's quality and one's own skill; common in the Warring States and early Edo periods; officially banned in 1602.
シートン
shīton
"?"卵事件
tamago jiken
"egg incident"エフワン
efu wan
"F1"シシカバブー
shishikababū
"shish-kebab"ニュートン
nyūton
"?"ラザニア
razania
"lasagna"そば打ち
soba uchi
"soba strike"朝顔
asagao
"morning glory"エスキモー
esukimō
"Eskimo"乾季雨季
kankiuki
"dry season / rainy season"タピオカ
tapioka
"tapioca"チャンピオン
champion
"champion"
"F1" (efu wan)
"Wan" is both the sound of a dog's bark and how the English "one" is rendered in Japanese.
"shish-kebab" (shishikababū)
Three animals--lion, hippo, pig. "Shishi" is an older term for "lion," "kaba" is the word for "hippo," and "bū" is the grunt of a pig.
"lasagna" (razania)
A cat's mew is more commonly rendered "nya," but "nia" sounds very close and is not unused itself.
"Pio" and "pion" are similar cases--more commonly seen as "pyo" and "pyon." "Pion," is more the sound of hopping, rather than what a rabbit says. ...
"soba strike" (sobauchi)
"Bau" is a probable rendering of the first part of the English sound for a dog bark (the cutesiest one) "bow-wow." Only thing I'm not perfectly sure of is if this refers to soba noodles or the other kind of soba--"proximity, nearness", for a complete meaning more like "side strike." Albeit that it's not really a Japanese word, just a kind of weird construction that half makes sense. I guess that could make this one a triple wordplay, though. XD;
The other underlines are the sounds that the animals shown make ... except for the two I put question marks on. Not sure what he was trying to do there. I want to say the names Seton and Newton, but that seems kinda stretching it ... seems like it is what it looks like.
Anyway Luffy's shirts are pretty adorable. If they were real I might just buy one, especially the shish-kebab or F1 or tamago jiken ones.