Oh boy, you have no idea what beast you have unleashed. Alright, everything under a cut because this became way long, I could talk about Vento Aureo all day, every day. Also Vento Aureo spoilers, obviously.

As a general rule in French translation, you don’t actually translate accents in written media because it always comes out as clumsy and ridiculous at best and really racist at worst. This is a big difference with Japanese where you can have written markers indicating such and such character is speaking in kansai-ben or a tohoku dialect, so what you would consider the accents “proper” are lost in translation. However we make up for this loss of personality by working around other things: French is a very academic language, especially in writing and this includes things like manga. Things like contractions, a change in register or a certain vocabulary being used will be immediately picked up by the reader, if only subconsciously, and will help shape up the character.

It is a bit difficult to explain, but Doppio does in fact speak in a completely different way than Diavolo does. They don’t use the same words, so to speak. Doppio also uses a very every-day-life register, while Diavolo - who has a pretty high opinion of himself - sometimes sounds more polite than him. There’s this very nifty moment during the Risotto fight where Doppio gets mad… and he becomes very rude. He starts using contractions up the wazoo and in essence tells Diavolo to go fuck himself, stop talking and let him think (he doesn’t say that textually, but the intent of the expression he uses is basically that - we work a lot with intent and perceived meaning in French translation since we are allergic to translating swear words for some reason. Translating modern or laid-back texts in English was an exercise in acrobatics because out of 10 “fuck” I was only allowed to translate one and only if it was absolutely necessary. Chalk it up to the whole Academic thing I mentioned). Diavolo’s reaction to that is a very level-headed one. That moment alone could tell you volumes about Diavolo and Doppio’s dynamic - and that Doppio is hardly a scared wet towel and is in the mafia for a reason.

The different modes of polite speech are much easier, since we have that in French too. All the boys are criminals, and that comes across in their speech, especially when you compare them to Giorno. Fugo is incredibly amusing because he constantly switches from polite speech (not as polite as Giorno, but still, you know, proper) to very rude when he is angry (as in all the scenes with Narancia where they fight).

Mista is not exactly rude, but he is very familiar, easily the most familiar of the boys, which goes well with his laid-back, go-with-the-flow personality. The best part about Mista is how he, unlike Bruno, becomes extremely focused in times of danger (save that one time during the end fight when he’s having a panic attack and is threatening to shoot everyone because he’s having a panic attack). Like I said, Mista usually has a very relaxed sort of speech, but in scenes where they are in danger, in particular the Venice fight and when he’s torturing Zucchero, he becomes very wordy. And calm. And cool. He rambles to himself, but in such a calculated way that it really makes you wonder where all these words are coming from. It’s plain to see it’s an intimidation tactic, and he is so unshakeable in what should be a stressful situation that it honestly makes him easily the scariest of the boys. I always say Mista is hands down the character that was butchered the most by the shitty translation. Most of the western fandom has Mista down as a bumbling idiot, when actually he’s meant to come across as kind of scary and ruthless until you see his more mellow side with his friends. Mista is hilarious and very cute, but he’s not a panicky idiot. And I’ll stop here about Mista or this is going to become a Mista essay because I love Guido Mista.

Bruno speaks in a pretty neutral, although stern way (not neutral as in without feelings, but as in neither polite nor rude), except when his emotions get the best of him and his emotional state is reflected in his inflection and the amount of contractions he uses - giving a more urgent feeling. This change of speech in situations of stress tells you a lot about him as a character: it gives the feeling that Bruno, while a good leader, definitely bit off more than he can chew, and he knows it. But when you see him struggling to keep a stoic face while his speech is far, faaaar from being as level and calm as it usually is, it gives you the impression he tries to appear much stronger and in control than he really is for the sake of his team-mates, because they trust him to be in control of the situation. Does that remind anyone of Bruno’s last “talk” with Giorno and how he told him he was relieved to be able to rely on someone because he felt Giorno had his shit together? When that part comes up in the French translation, you already had a subconscious build up to it, and it just confirms that ah yes, Bruno was definitely trying hard to live up to everyone’s idealized expectations of him, and it was so hard on this poor kid.

And I’ll just say the shitty translation robbed us of the shining crown jewel that is Leone Abbacchio. Did you know Abbacchio is funny? He is hilarious. Everything he says in the scans falls flat as a pancake but he is actually really close to being the deadpan snarker of the group. Abbacchio speaks in a neutral-to-rude way, and is very very obviously depressed but seems to try to make up for it with a little humor around the people he cares about. He is very sarcastic (something French is very good at conveying), and Abbacchio might be the best example of personal relationships developed through speech alone, and really shows how a lot of Vento’s characterization was through talking; When Abba talks to Bruno, I was surprised to see there is a certain distance between them. In the scans everyone talks to each other in the same way, but in the French translation, Abbacchio talks to Bruno like you would talk to a superior; but he is at his most relaxed with guess who? Mista and Narancia. And it suddenly makes sense to have Narancia completely break down when Abbacchio dies, and to have Mista scream and cry (something we had never seen him do before) in Trish’s body when Narancia dies. Because those three were very close. Abbacchio plays up his age in a joking manner around Mista and Narancia by using expressions that would be more at home with an older character, not someone who is 21. Hell, he jokes around, period with Mista and Narancia: While Bruno is fighting KC the first time and they’re all waiting on the little boat, when Mista tattles on Narancia saying he’s keeping chocolates without sharing, Abbacchio squints his eyes at Narancia and basically says “you little punk” (get off my lawn) or during the talking heads fight, Narancia ends up writing something on his arm that roughly translates to “come and get me, my tongue wants some” or something equally sexual and Abbacchio says with the most deadpan face “didn’t know you were into that, but thanks for sharing” while both Narancia and Mista are freaking out like dumb teenage boys.

A lot of relationships can be expanded on with how you interpret the way all these characters talk to each other. After reading the French translation, I got the idea that Fugo was Bruno’s second in command because every time there is a situation to be discussed, Bruno goes to Fugo, and Fugo has a certain authority when he talks to everyone else (especially to Mista, God does Fugo not seem to like Mista) that is particularly visible in the Sleeping Slaves flashback chapters.

There are neat little details like Giorno’s use of the polite “vous” in French, and you can track down how he views certain characters/how comfortable he is around them by his use of “vous” (for anyone who doesn’t know, we have two ways of saying “you” in French: “tu” and “vous”, “vous” is more polite and therefore the default when you don’t know someone if you’re polite - which Giorno is - and what you’ll use for superiors, and “tu” is what you’ll use with people you know or people in your age group, it’s more casual). When Giorno is introduced to the guys, everyone is “vous” (and there is hardly anything cuter than Giorno being all proper and calling everyone “vous” when they’re all already calling him “tu”, it’s actually kind of funny and showcases the whole thugs-and-thus-more-casual vs literal schoolboy deal). In his first mission with Mista - when they’re in Capri tracking Sale - Giorno still uses “vous” when talking to Mista, but when Mista is standing right in front of the window where Sale is, Giorno switches to “tu” to warn him of the danger and then never switches back to “vous” again. Mista is also the first one to become “tu” just like that. Quickly all the boys become “tu”, even Buccellati, except guess who? Abbacchio. Abbacchio is forever “vous” when Giorno is talking to him which is really funny. Remember Abbacchio talks himself up and uses the good old “I’m older so I’m right” card with Giorno (both during the Illuso fight AND the Soft Machine fight, and he LITERALLY says “I’m older so I’m right” during the former. Please love Leone Abbacchio). Given the context, it comes across less as Giorno putting distance between them and more as him humoring Abbacchio in a “yes, yes, you are large and in charge and I’m just a brat” sort of way.

In the same vein, there’s the way in which Trish switches to “vous” when she is mad (usually at Bruno because Bruno is really bad at this whole girl business, oh my god Bruno were you raised in a barn— oh wait), which gives a sort of comical flair to the whole thing in the same way suddenly switching to something like “and, pray tell, kind sir, how could this have happened?” can be used as a comedic device in English if the character usually talks in a more casual way. The sudden unwarrated change of register is what makes it humorous and accentuates the “oh shit, she’s mad” thing —- and makes Bruno’s reaction even funnier



so done with you

There’s this little moment after the train fight, where a half asleep Abbacchio refers to Giorno calling him a rookie - but uses a word that in French is particularly associated with rookie cops. Which makes sense since Abbacchio used to be a cop; but he only reverts to that vocabulary when half asleep. He never uses it again. It’s one detail in one panel, but it’s that sort of detail that fleshes out characters and make them relatable and memorable.

There’s a lot of little details like that, small things that make you think this or that character are like this or that, and think this or that of someone else, which are sometimes an expansion of what the scans only grazed, sometimes go right against the scans (Ghiaccio’s entire rant about French and Italian is one huge mistranslation, another example of a character saying the literal opposite of what he originally says) and sometimes will surprise you with something the scans didn’t even touch upon (there’s this bit during the last fight about how a stand that goes requiem essentially becomes its own entity not linked to the user anymore??? That is just KIND of a big deal if you care about stand mechanics and the scans didn’t even begin to mention that part because the last fight in VA is easily the messiest most horribly translated part of the entire shitty VA translation, which is terrible since it’s, you know, the grand finale. There are so many omissions in the translation of that part it’s infuriating. Also the bad visual quality of the scans doesn’t let you see that GER shoots scorpions at one point. It’s awesome.) and of course this whole register thing is served be changes in font when appropriate - Prosciutto and Pesci come to mind as a good example of this (Prosciutto speaking while half dead uses a different font than the usual one, and Pesci’s change of heart is also accentuated by a change of font)



This is already way too long so I hope I answered your questions without getting lost in all the little side-streets of “I love Vento Aureo let me tell you about Vento Aureo”. Overall I’m really happy with the French translation, even though it’s an older edition and it shows in a few romanization mistakes (Formaggio is written as “Hormaggio” and Naples - or Napoli in Italian, since they write the names in Italian - becomes “Neapolis”? While all the other cities are written properly? It is a mistery). And I mention it’s an older edition because the recent French re-release of SDC got an absolutely stellar re-translation and they left things like “muda” and “wry” untouched (with a little footnote translating what “muda” means), while the French edition of Vento translates “muda” - which is fine but seeing someone scream “useless” or “inutile” in French repeatedly doesn’t have the same rythm as mudamudamuda does, especially in French. Sound-wise it’s kind of awkward - and changed Giorno’s one wry into “yeah” for no discernible reason. That is the one thing that drives me up a wall. Although having Giorno excitedly scream “YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!” while beating the tar out of Cioccolatta is admittedly really damn funny.