Japanese in Heroes - Part I
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This video may contain SPOILERS. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!
1 - Hiro Nakamura (Masi Oka : solid 9)
2 - Ando Masahashi (James Kyson Lee : 8ish)
3 - Boss at Yamagato Industries (Tohoru Masamune : 10; flawlessly unintelligible)
Heroes is a fascinating drama if for no other reason than it prominently features English-subtitled Japanese language in segments of the show. (If you missed my deconstruction, take a minute to check it out if you like.) What’s more interesting is that very few of the actors speaking in Japanese actually grew up in Japan. In fact, by my count, only one did. Now that Heroes is gaining momentum with its sights set on Japan with Season 1, and since Season 2 has just premiered on September 24th elsewhere, I thought we could take a look at the use of Japanese in the show (during Season 1, obviously). Therefore, I’m releasing a series of videos to cover all of the Japanese speakers from Season 1. I trust that the brevity of the clips combined with my intention to comment about them makes this fair use. There is at least 15 minutes of footage from Heroes that I culled from Season 1 specifically to make these videos, though I’ve cut it as much as possible. When you add my commentary (which is as concise as I could make it…to the point that some might say it’s meaningless) the full playtime gets even longer - hence the separate posts. Rest assured, however, that you won’t be watching me chew at any point in this series. First, to preface the videos, I’m going to list the people who utter at least one word in Japanese, in order of their appearance in the series. For the post wherein the actors appear in the video clip, I’ve placed the actors’ names and my completely subjective (read: exaggerated) Japanese language rating on a scale of 1 to 10 in parentheses - 1 being lousy and 10 being stellar. (If I missed any Japanese speakers, PLEASE let me know in the comments.) Here goes nothing. By the way, you’ll see more of Hiro and Ando as the other videos are released. Just in case this video wasn’t long enough for some of you. Also, my commentary will grow and flesh out a bit as the series continues. Feel free to add some comments, as well!
Still to come:
4 - Detective Furakowa
5 - Charlie Andrews
6 - Kaito’s Assistant
7 - Kaito Nakamura
8 - Kimiko Nakamura
9 - Noah Bennet
10 - Claude Rains
The following YouTube clips are extra shenanigans, just for fun.
I came across this video at Japan Probe, which picked it up over at the Ying-Yang Report.
Come back soon for Part II. 
on October 8th, 2007 at 1:29 pm
Currently watching the current run of Heroes season two which is turning out to be another great season.
on October 8th, 2007 at 7:06 pm
[...] Japanese in Heroes [...]
on October 8th, 2007 at 7:12 pm
[...] E diba last time we saw Sylar in the end of Season 1, he was stabbed right in the chest by Hiro Nakamura. Then while all our Heroes clamoring about Peter Petrelli in the brink of going nuclear in … Japanese in Heroes [...]
on October 8th, 2007 at 8:01 pm
I’ve heard you mention that you are going to be doing these posts before (I’m pretty sure…) and I have been waiting for them! In my offline, private written journal I actually wrote a bit about the current season and the subtitles (I’m interested in perhaps becoming a translator one day, when my japanese is good enough, and I find it interesting how everyone interoperates things vs how I do), as I now know more Japanese than I did when I watched the first season.
Also, I wasn’t aware that Ando was Korean until after the first season ended, but now I can totally hear that he does stress some things wrong and he does seem to have an accent, but he is good. With Masi, I can’t tell his accent, it seems good to me.
It’s also interesting to watch the clip of the begining of the show that you have in your video - I can understand so much more (and a lot of what they say is so basic too!)
I’m looking forward to more!
on October 8th, 2007 at 8:21 pm
My wife and I agree that all of the actors have a distinct American accent when speaking Japanese, even Tohoru Masamune. It’s definitely not natural Japanese he’s speaking, and if he’s a native speaker I suspect that it’s a result of the director coaxing him to speak “like an anime character”.
Overall, the Japanese they use is very much anime/manga style, from the words to the pitch of their voices. I find that more amusing than annoying, actually, because the show very much in the style of a live-action comic book, and it fuses Japanese manga with American superheroes.
Have you started watching season 2 yet, Deas? I can’t really make a comment on the Japanese in it without spoiling it for you if you haven’t started watching it yet.
The “shenanigans” aren’t loading for me. Boo.
on October 8th, 2007 at 8:31 pm
Awesome idea for an article!
I was intrigued the first time I watched Heroes when I saw that they were going with Japanese lines and English subtitles. At first I thought it was a risky move on the creators’ part, but it seems to be working out well.
Although few of the actors are native speakers, they have grown into their roles and look better every episode.
My only problem now is with the writing. A lot of it tends to sound like it is being written for the subtitles, rather than the other way around. I’m curious if they have native Japanese speakers editing the script.
on October 8th, 2007 at 10:27 pm
Waitaminute, was that chewing business a dig against my videos?
Ah, I am so glad I don’t have to impute my info into all the comment fields these days
on October 9th, 2007 at 8:48 am
Danny Choo - Thanks for the comment! I’ve only just started it, myself. And I’m going to have to play catchup, since my replacement computer hasn’t been delivered yet…
Carlie - I couldn’t agree with you more about how my impression of the show changes as my Japanese improves. I encourage you to watch all of these clips without paying attention to the subs. You can see more of the underpinnings of the translations that way, I think. Cool stuff.
Alex - Well, I definitely hear the accents too. For me, the most pronounced American accent is Masi Oka, whenever he’s using the ～ん+です form. Can you think of any better examples for me to try and find? But wait up - could you please tell me what the heck Tohoro Masamune said? I’m still in the dark on that one. Also - I’m only 2 episodes into it…but I’m stoked about the possibilities that Season 2 presents already…ahem…Kenzo…former idol…’nuff said.
Chris - I agree that the characters are looking better and better every episode. (Though, I’ll say that I found Ando’s Japanese had fallen back a point or two in the 1st episode of the 2nd season…but was pleasantly surprised to see Kaito speaking English.) I think that the problem is a natural translation issue - the script is handed to Masi Oka in English, and he translates it. Therefore little goodies like “This is how we roll” get thrown in. There are things we say (or don’t say) in English that are included (or omitted, respectively) in Japanese. It adds to the odd feeling, I think. Good point. I’ll try to include it in one of the upcoming write-ups.
Clay - No, no, no. I quite enjoy your videos. The dig was meant for a buddy who complained that she’d wasted at least 10 minutes of her life watching me chew things on my blog.
on October 9th, 2007 at 7:23 pm
[...] The beach cities near LA are actually hard to get to, expensive to film in and restrictive to film production (meaning, most of them won’t let trucks drive in until 8 AM and you have to be gone b… Japanese in Heroes [...]
on October 10th, 2007 at 5:28 pm
Well, you could have been in the clear for making a dig; I chewed a lot in my last vid (not posted to my site).
on October 11th, 2007 at 8:14 am
Ha ha ha. Sheeesh. I’d come right out with it and dig you if I intended to…there’d be no question about it.
on October 14th, 2007 at 10:57 am
Haven’t watched the commentary on Japanese yet, but I just wanted to say that I think it’s hilariously funny they used (I think it was) Jurassic Park music for the video montage of Heroes in that first video you linked. That just made me laugh.
Also, I like the new blog set-up. It looks great. Well done.
on October 15th, 2007 at 8:55 am
The Jurassic Park music and Indiana Jones music are heavily abused on Japanese TV. (I love soundtracks…especially those 2…) But yeah. And I’m glad you like the temporary setup.
on October 15th, 2007 at 1:02 pm
I wanna watch Heros now….
on October 15th, 2007 at 2:32 pm
Hey Uyen!
You should… Doooo iiiiit….
on October 20th, 2007 at 3:26 am
Nice, Interesting stuff indeed. And I started learning Japanese only towards the end of the first season so I was really dependent on the subs. Anyway I am still a beginner and therefore can’t really make out what they are saying without the subs except “dai pinch” which hiro said at the end of season 1…
Anyway, I never knew Ando was Korean… O_O And what does the boss say in that clip? Were you able to figure it out?
on October 20th, 2007 at 2:09 pm
My previous comment is awaiting moderation?
on October 21st, 2007 at 10:02 am
Hey Atreya - thanks for all the comments. Apparently the spam filter thought something was up when I got 4 or 5 rapid fire comments from you - so it nuked a few. I fixed them. Sorry about that. Can’t be too careful.
on October 21st, 2007 at 7:41 pm
Ah, ok. Even I thought it must be the work of a spam filter. I wasn’t too surprised when some of my comments disappeared but the whole “awaiting moderation” thing confused me… because I expected a visual code confirmation instead ^_^;; Anyway, what does the boss say anyway? (in the video)
on October 22nd, 2007 at 1:14 pm
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on January 27th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
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on April 18th, 2008 at 10:42 am
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