How the Characters of Chuhou Joutai Express Themselves in the Japanese Versions

The Japanese language is considered a diverse language in terms of personal pronouns, dialects, and formality. This form of diversity adds to the language’s difficulty. It is not uncommon for a single word to have several translations in the other language. This article also serves as a guide for localizers wanting to localize their Chuhou Joutai fan content into the other language.

Personal Pronouns

The English language only has one pronoun for the first person singular “I”. The Japanese language has many options, and they all convey that person’s personality. Most of the time, subjects are omitted in conversation, but pronouns have something to say about a character’s gender identity. Here are some of the pronouns the characters use in the franchise:

Character	Preferred Pronoun
Susumu Takajima (Driller)	Boku/僕
Kagami Ochiai	Uchi/うち
Crown Princess Konata	Atashi/あたし
Jack Fawkes (Hearthcliffe)	Ware/我
Shigeru Ochiai	Washi/わし

Any characters not listed use the default Watashi/私.

Dialects

As with any language, they have their fair share of dialects. The English and Japanese languages have many of them. The table below shows the dialects the characters speak between the Japanese and English versions of the Chuhou Joutai games.

Character	Dialect in English version	Dialect in Japanese version
Susumu Takajima (Driller)	Midwestern American	Tokyo/Standard
Kagami Ochiai	Southern American	Kansai
Crown Princess Konata	Brooklyn	Tokyo/Standard
Fred Fawkes	Newfoundland Canadian	Tokyo/Standard
Jack Fawkes (Hearthcliffe)	Standard Canadian	Tokyo/Standard
Hinako Lina Mongrey	Standard Canadian	Tokyo/Standard

Any characters not listed use the standard Tokyo dialect. Kozan, however, has its own dialect known as Gensokyo Japanese. An example of this is in standard Japanese, restrooms are called Otearai (お手洗い). In Gensokyo, restrooms are called araishitsu (洗室). I will explain these nuances in a future article.

Casual or Polite?

Almost all Drillimation media translated into Japanese, mostly dialogue and music comments, use the casual level of formality. In-game instructions or information usually use the polite level of formality. Some characters use the polite level when speaking.

That’s it.

This concludes the guide for how the characters speak in the Japanese versions of the games.