I Just Wanted To Point That Out - Blog Posts

In italian the translation was done well, but they changed the original concept of the dialogue: While Makino tries to get them to say "Hello, what's your name?" Ace keeps on saying "I am Ace! Who are you?", which in Italy and probably everywhere else in the world is kind of unpolite, but not too much. When Makino tells him that that's wrong and not a polite manner of speaking, Luffy corrects him with " You have to say "Who THE HELL are you?" which in Italian is even LESS OKAY. The funny thing is that Ace does not use an even worse correction of the phrase, but he just rolls with Luffy's correction, repeating it to Makino; making this seven year old little boy the bringer of chaos in the conversation. Which, to me, is adorable.

I’m kinda curious how they translate this joke in English, actually, because the comedy in Japanese comes from the fact that Ace and Luffy just straight up SUCK at choosing appropriate ‘you’ pronouns. Makino is TRYING to get them to say ‘hello, what’s your name?’ but neither of them can think of an actual polite way to say ‘you.’

Ace starts with teme, which is so hostile it’s essentially a swear word, and Luffy tries to correct him to omae, which is less rude but still really not polite (and also what Luffy uses to address literally everyone in the present), and then Ace tries onore, which is less commonly used than teme but ALSO super angry/derogatory.