Genji Part 1 (for Orphan)

Here's the original Collectr's blog post about Genji Part 1. My favorite part is 

You still following this? I lost the thread a long time ago. 

This makes for my first completed joint project with Orphan. Almost unbelievable how I was literally brought up on their subs, with Kasei Yakyoku being one of my first ever translations from English, and now I'm returning the favor with my own hands. What a time to be alive. 

The show is a clusterfuck indeed, here's my version of the guide to characters that no one but me ever gonna read: 

"Heike (平家) refers to the Taira (平), hei being the on'yomi reading of the first kanji and "ke" (家) means family. Note that in the title of the Genpei War, "hei" is in this combination read as "pei" and the "gen" (源) is the first kanji used in the Minamoto (also known as "Genji" which is also pronounced using on'yomi, for example as in The Tale of Genji) clan's name." so TLDR: Heike = Taira, Genji = Minamoto due to stupid alternative japanese readings. Better just accept it and move on. 

BUT THEN, Seiwa Genji himself also has alternative name of Yoritomo which they use freely and without transition, so Genji clan = Minamoto clan, but Genji himself = Yoritomo. How are you supposed to keep all that in mind? Beats me. 

AND THEN, there's also Katsumi who is a spitting image of Seiwa Genji, and THEN, there are also two Kiyomoris. 🤯 What was the point of making him (younger) Kiyomori's twin or just, well, including him in the story? No answer. Quite frankly, that could be said on account of a good half of the characters here. I'd venture they wanted to save on character designs and character cells, quite understandably so for the anime this mid. 

If, while watching it, you happen to think to yourself that it's inconsequent, haphazard and dumb, you'll be absolutely right. I even changed some lines to try to attach some more logic to it. Even the original story in manga was shallow, corny and incorrigible. Then, there's this abridged version in the ova, where they omitted many explanations, motivations, exposition and reasoning, leaving you to guess for why this and that happens. When releasing this translation, I reckon it would be absolutely INDISPENSABLE to put up some clarifying info with it, as this OVA is jumping through events of the source manga in the most higgledy-piggledy way, making it impossible to follow and appearing therefore utterly inconsequent to anyone without prior knowledge of the manga (in addition to this OVA being inherently very mid). The clarifying info is as follows: 

Heike clan is the same thing as Taira clan, just spelled in alternative way, if you will. Same goes for Genji = Minamoto. Better just accept it and move on, as in this OVA, characters just use both variants and switch between them freely, without any explanation, since this whole paragraph would have been an obvious thing to a native Japanese, as well as the fact the two characters for Taira and Minamoto make up the name of the Genpei war, which is another pivotal event of the Japanese history, too massive to delve into it and too boring to send you weebs look it up yourselves. For now, let's just keep in mind this: Taira/Heike ⚔ Genji/Minamoto (supposedly). 

There exist two parallel universes - the Tokyo (usual, "our" one) and the "Tokyo" (alternative one - an epitome of anachronic, as it exists both in the future and in the past at the very same time, as the medieval Genpei war is still ongoing in "Tokyo" world) - the two rarely come in touch, but you could travel from Tokyo to "Tokyo" if you set off from a certain Tokyo pier in a certain direction at a certain time. 

Sakura, whom the main character embarks on a quest of looking for, is a sort of princess of one of the feuding clans in "Tokyo". Why did she come to usual Tokyo in the first place? Wiki claims the order of events was such: Genji in "Tokyo" poisoned by Taira clan arrow (intended for Kiyomori by assasins sent by his step-mother also from Taira clan in order to remove him from the line of succession, who found the two in the neutral zone within the city of Tokyo). Sakura, as his betrothed, comes to Tokyo to look for antidote. In the 10 days she's been doing it in Tokyo, she somehow managed to make a lot of acquaintances, infatuate Katsumi and make herself known to the entire Katsumi's family. 

Why her, why Tokyo, or how did she manage all this in a 10 days' span? No answer, but I would blame the flow of time not being the same in two worlds, therefore 10 days in "Tokyo" time might have been longer in Tokyo time. 

Why did she erase herself from everyone's memory, excluding Katsumi, even though that meant losing her own memory? Allegedly, because she loved Katsumi too much, quite probably because she also wanted Katsumi to follow her to "Tokyo" despite her pleading him not to (keep in mind, Katsumi is effectively a copy of her fiancée during all this time, but at the same time, she allegedly never met Genji in person so there was no way for her to know what he looks like). 

What is the connection between Katsumi and the real Genji? None. They aren't brothers/relatives/reincarnations, they just happened to be looking exactly the same and coming together at the right place and time purely by luck. Or so says the wiki. 

Who are all the people seeing Katsumi off when he's going out on a date with Sakura? Allegedly, all are his brothers and sisters from different mothers. Make of that what you will, but you guessed it, they serve zero purpose.

What is the desert Katsumi and the peacock landed in after travelling to "Tokyo"? In the alt. universe, a new desert formed just south of Tokyo. You guessed it - for no other reason but to introduce some new unusual location into the story. 

How did Sakura manage to land precisely in Taira clan HQ? Purely by luck. 

How did Kuya end up in Tokyo, where he runs across Katsumi, nearly swindled by apple vendor? Kiyomori sent him out on a scouting mission to track down the enemy. Why to Tokyo and how come Kuya doesn't even know how his enemy looks? No answer. 

How is Genji clan not squashed yet, given how the enemy has flamethrowers and tanks, one of which Kiyomori even brings to the center of Tokyo? No answer. 

Who is the Minamoto warrior we see in the beginning of episode 1 getting his dad ran over by a tank? No clue. Really, I could only guess it could be Benkei due to his red hair, but that's about it. This scene predictably serves zero purpose as well. 

There could be more inexplainable events that I forgot to mention there, but I lost my will to live long ago. Yours truly, Perevodildo. 

Sorry, but this here is a historical picture. 

 

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