I rewatched the Ryuuou no Oshigoto anime and counted four separate times where Ai did in fact refer to herself in the third person. I also noticed at least one time when she used the first person, 'watashi.' Most of the time she didn't use any pronoun at all, which is common in Japanese (though very frustrating for us English speakers.) Based on my knowledge of Ai from the anime, I wrote '100 Waifus.' The Ai of that book naturally referred to herself in the third person, because that's how I remembered her.
But when I read the English translated books 6-14, never once did Ai refer to herself in the third person. She always used the normal pronoun of 'I'. I assumed that my memory was mistaken and edited '100 Waifus' to 'correct' this mistake. But it turns out I wasn't mistaken, the professional translators of Book Walker were just lying to me. They were overwriting one of Ai's most distinctive speaking characteristics and 'normalizing' it for an English audience. They were eradicating Ai in translation. They drove the Ai I loved out of existence and made me disbelieve my own memories of her.
There's one other possible explanation, though extremely remote -- the Ai of books 6+ could've become more 'mature' and suddenly switched to using watashi at all times, in which case the translators weren't mistranslating the book. But if they seriously translated someone referring to themselves in the third person as referring to themselves in the first person then they should all slit their wrists in shame. Is this called translation these days? Destroying people's characteristics and turning them into someone else? I trusted their professionalism and edited my book to match theirs, and now it turns out I was the only one writing the truth all along.
The worst possible situation is if Ai steadily referred to herself in the third person less and less from book 1 to book 14. If the translators overwrote every single instance into a generic 'I,' then I would never know when the actual transition occurred. Since the Ai of '100 Waifus' starts at the end of the Ai of Ryuuou's volume 14, she could well only use 'watashi' in her speech patterns now. I don't know! Because they didn't translate it! I know in the anime, which covers books 1-5, she was much more likely to use 'Ai' than 'watashi,' but she did in fact use both. What did she say in books 6+? In book 14? I don't know because I can only read these worthless trash translations, I can't hear the actual Japanese word used.
If I'm in a position where any decision I make could be a misstep, there's no point editing everything back to third person 'Ai.' Readers expect English to follow first person pronoun rules so everything reads more fluidly if I keep it in that standard. And it's equally likely at this point for Ai to be using 'Ai' in third person or 'I' in first person, so if it's equally likely and sounds better as 'I' all I can do is leave things be.
Because I can't trust these translators and they don't translate anything correctly, I'll never know what the right answer is. All I know is that the initial way I wrote the book was exactly in line with the anime and I had nothing to be ashamed of. I did know Ai as well as anyone. I can't believe these people are paid money not to elucidate Ai's character but to obfuscate it. Urusanai.
Putting the headache aside, the Ryuuou anime was perfect and amazing. Even though this was the third time I'd seen it, it still drove me to tears. Ai was as charming as ever. Her kindly and menacing expressions, her voice, her wonderful hairstyle and fashion sense, everything worked together to create the perfect woman. A second or third season of Ryuuou would be amazing. I miss that animated, fully voiced Ai. And then I could find out if she used 'Ai' or 'watashi' in her later years once and for all. *sigh* Why didn't they make a second season when the books are so popular? What is the problem? For that matter, why didn't they make a second season of No Game No Life when the blu-ray anime sold over 10,000 per volume? The anime industry never makes any sense.
It was fun seeing and recognizing even the minor characters in the anime, like Kugui Machi and Ai's classmate Mihane. I suddenly knew who everyone was even if they only flashed by or delivered a single line in the anime. The books go into detail about everyone. It made me like everyone and everything more than ever. The anime may have sped some scenes up, but it never got any details wrong. This was the perfect adaption of the perfect story. Ryuuou is only 12 episodes long, but ep for ep it can compete with anyone.
Meanwhile I read the Rewrite omake visual novels. Shizuru sure showed a lot of skin in her idol outfit. I vociferously approve. I also noticed Kotori had an ahoge so I added that to her physical description in chapter 17 of '100 Waifus.' At least this is an accurate improvement of the book.
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