Aliens - Vol. 1 Ch. 6 - Fight!
- Thread starter MangaDex
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Squishy pug like alien. I wanna give it squishes and head pats.
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I think he was just really lonely
Maybe using it like just a friend? Maybe really isolated..
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The end of chapter 5 makes it sound like she was modeled after a real person
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So the robot has a survival instinct
Quite possibly. Either one is fairly likely I would say.
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Just use "it" until it says something concrete about it's gender (if it even has one)...
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probably for the same reason you don't see people blinking in manga in general.
And it could be that her "default" amount of having her eyes open is that same wide-eyed stare.
Interpretative-wise, I imagine the continued "wide-eyed" look that Aoi's got going on might be reflecting how Ami still entirely views her as a machine and not "a person" - especially since it's just the two of them alone this chapter (except when the other alien person shows up, but Aoi's not present for that scene).
If that is the case, I think we'll see more and more "breaking" from that mindset, both on Ami's end but also in terms of how Aoi is visually portrayed, as the story progresses.
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I guess it would depend on the original Japanese, and the specific denotation being used and the reasons for that usage, whether we're privy to that or not.
And if it does turn out that the little Pug-oid has an ascribed gender, using "it" up to that point would be weirder, retrospectively, than using "they" and ultimately discovering that "it" was correct.
That, and in English at least, "it" carries a lot of subtext toward nonperson objects, or animals that one is not familiar with. Doing so in this instance, without knowing the relative sentience of the newest cast addition and knowing their proximity of familiarity to Ami, might just be a bit off-putting for the translator in that context. (That's me putting my own interpretation on it, though; I don't intend to act like I'm speaking for them or anything.)
Like - say you have a pet dog that you've had for a couple years, and you know the dog's sex is male. You'd use "him", but not "it", right? Same general principle here, assuming the little one is similarly-proximal to Ami; "them" is a bit more fitting, in that context.
Yeah, this is exactly why I prefer "them". "It" is generally a pronoun used for inanimate objects in English, and tends to come off rather derogatory when used for anything people ascribe personhood to, including pets and humanoid robots like Aoi.
For reference, Arkady is only referred to by name in this chapter in Japanese. As a matter of fact, the language doesn't really have "it" or a non-plural "them". Japanese generally omits the pronoun instead of using those sorts of placeholder pronouns. So the "it" vs. "them" thing will probably remain open to interpretation.
I'm actually happy you brought it up, because I find these little nuances in translation very interesting. I don't see it as an argument where one side is wrong and one side is right, I think almost all interpretations are equally valid.
Also, these discussions basically perfectly mirror what is going through my head while I'm working. For a while my translation had Ami's coworker use "it", for example, until I changed it after a period of vigorous internal debate.
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It sounds like it would be better for everyone involved if you hold yourself to that in the future, then.
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If Arkady is a pet of significance but is otherwise not sentient, then I think it could go either way - especially if Arkady is also blending the line of seemingly synthetic-organic organism like the other aliens we see in an earlier chapter (no clue if that's actually the case, but they at least appear synthetic-like, in some respects) - at that point, like using "it" for Aoi....where's the line, really, and who's to say who gets to be the authority on that?
Since, there's also the line of logic dictating that Ami, being an alien, would hold different perspectives on the usage of referential pronouns, and thus whatever inclination or rationale we would use, even not considering ourselves readers outside the story is immaterial.
But as a translated piece from a language that is infamous for its dearth of pronoun usage already, it's an interesting conundrum, while trying to give the requisite respect intended to both the various characters, and their individual mindsets and inclinations. Maybe it'll be made clear down the line, or it'll ultimately just be a judgment call, and hopefully the one you pick now will not feel clunky down the road with additional context.
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She is modeled after a real person (see chapter 1. Maybe an actress or an idol).
It's about the "fantasy". The guy had an obsession
