Leif of Leonster Translations

Treehouse/localization Hisame quickly became famous for his quirky love of pickles. It made him popular with some, but also gave many others yet another reason to criticize the localization for making changes to the original. It’s pretty obvious he was changed from the Japanese, even to those who don’t know much about the Japanese version.

Well, the localization didn’t make any MAJOR changes, you could say…

In the Japanese, he was a fanatic of tsukemono - pickled vegetables. I really don’t like pickled things, but being in Japan, you don’t have much of a choice in eating them all the time. Fortunately, many types have a very light pickled flavor, so just about anyone can manage to eat them. Sometimes I honestly can’t even tell if the vegetables I’ve been served are pickled or fresh. They are pickled in either salt or brine (which is just… salt and water), and an entire range of vegetables are commonly pickled: cucumbers, ginger, cabbage, bok choy, plums, daikon (Japanese radish)… just to name a few.

From even a description this short, you can tell how tsukemono make for much more of a hobby than what making pickles implies. There’s many different types and ways to serve them. It’s an entire section of Japanese food culture, whereas pickles are a single food item with few varieties. Not that there aren’t other relatively common pickled vegetables in the West - I don’t think my family would ever forgive me if I forgot sauerkraut exists - but we all know that it’s just pickles the localization chose to have for Hisame’s beloved food. (Unless I’m the only one who thinks “pickles” refers to only cucumbers… then this entire post is really awkward.)

However, this love of tsukemono makes Hisame seem like an old man, and this was the humor of Hisame’s character in the Japanese. He also was very strict about rules and tradition - which isn’t much of an issue, as this is considered a trait of old people in the West as well. However, most people in the West would know nothing about tsukemono, and the equivalent, pickles, don’t (never mind that his S support with F!Corrin ((at least, could be others I am not aware of)) kept in the joke) carry that “old man” connotation, so a large part of his character is lost in translation. 

I agree that something had to change to make Hisame translate to a Western audience, though it’s up to personal opinion that making him a quirky guy and amplifying his pickle love too was a good alternative. 

From what text I have seen so far, the biggest changes were to his flavor text - like his level up quotes and my castle quotes. This post will soon be followed up with some translations so we can all get a much better understanding of exactly how he changed. (EDIT: Naw, it’s the biggest issues are definitely within his supports. Particularly those with F!Corrin.)

Here’s an article that goes more into depth about tsukemono, for those interested.