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Oni matrix: Difference between revisions
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The '''Oni matrix''' is a visual element that was used in artwork for Oni's promotional material. It appeared in Oni's [[Trailers|1999 trailer]] a few months after the release of The Matrix, a movie with a well-known Japanese influence, which made use of a thematic element consisting of green characters (mostly numbers and [[wikipedia:kana|kana]]) scrolling down the screen (as seen in the last few seconds of [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8e-FF8MsqU the trailer]). The Oni matrix likewise consists of numbers and symbols, though it only uses 0s and 1s for numbers and it uses all three of Japan's scripts: kanji, katakana and hiragana. It would be clear just from looking at it that Oni's matrix image was inspired by The Matrix, even if the actual file name of the promotional image didn't say "matrix" in it. | The '''Oni matrix''' is a visual element that was used in artwork for Oni's promotional material. It appeared in Oni's [[Trailers|1999 trailer]] a few months after the release of The Matrix, a movie with a well-known Japanese influence, which made use of a thematic element consisting of green characters (mostly numbers and [[wikipedia:kana|kana]]) scrolling down the screen (as seen in the last few seconds of [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8e-FF8MsqU the trailer]). The Oni matrix likewise consists of numbers and symbols, though it only uses 0s and 1s for numbers and it uses all three of Japan's scripts: kanji, katakana and hiragana. It would be clear just from looking at it that Oni's matrix image was inspired by The Matrix, even if the actual file name of the promotional image didn't say "matrix" in it. | ||
The Oni matrix is found in the trailer, | The Oni matrix is found in the trailer, [[:Image:Pad1b.jpg|the notepads]], [[:Image:Kon_pis_mousepad.jpg|a mousepad]], [[:Image:Windows (RU) box art - front.jpg|various box art]], etc. Below are some translations of its text. | ||
== | ==Dave's translation== | ||
In 1999, well before Oni came out, "Dave" on the original Oni Central Forum posted [http://carnage.bungie.org/oniforum/oni.forum.pl?read=1199 this breakdown] of what he could decipher from the background of his Oni notepad. Either Dave was not familiar with Oni's tagline ("A dark future... an uncertain past... no one left to trust."), or he intentionally chose to give a naive translation of the phrases taken from the tagline when he encountered them, perhaps to point out the weaknesses in the Japanese used by Bungie. | |||
Either Dave was not familiar with Oni's tagline ("A dark future... an uncertain past... no one left to trust."), or he intentionally chose to give a naive translation of the phrases taken from the tagline when he encountered them, perhaps to point out the | |||
{{Pullquote|I don't know if this has been covered before, but perhaps this is of interest. | {{Pullquote|I don't know if this has been covered before, but perhaps this is of interest. | ||
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warui keikan (bad cop)}} | warui keikan (bad cop)}} | ||
==demos_kratos' translation== | |||
In 2011, demos_kratos [[Special:Permalink/18653|responded]] to Dave's translation when I posted it on the wiki for the first time. He may have been more focused on the existing translation by Dave than on going over the original image character by character, but he did discover that there was more to the appearance of "Cortana" than just the name. | |||
{{Pullquote|One thing I can say for sure - They don't know Japanese. Or at least they didn't when the promo was made.<br /> | {{Pullquote|One thing I can say for sure - They don't know Japanese. Or at least they didn't when the promo was made.<br /> | ||
First: While being literally correct it is way too complicated for such an easy phrase. I'd say ''shinyou dekiru hito ga nai''.<br /> | First: While being literally correct it is way too complicated for such an easy phrase. I'd say ''shinyou dekiru hito ga nai''.<br /> | ||
Third: The translation is incorrect but I think Bungie meant exactly what translator said. ''kako no aru onna'' means "a certain woman of the past" when ''a woman with a past'' would be ''kako ga aru onna'' or ''kako wo motsu onna''.<br /> | Third: The translation is incorrect but I think Bungie meant exactly what translator said. ''kako no aru onna'' means "a certain woman of the past" when ''a woman with a past'' would be ''kako ga aru onna'' or ''kako wo motsu onna''.<br /> | ||
Fourth: If you look more closely you will see that there is a phrase ''korutana '''wa kuru yo''' ''which means ''Cortana is coming''.<br /> | Fourth: If you look more closely you will see that there is a phrase ''korutana '''wa kuru yo''''' which means ''Cortana is coming''.<br /> | ||
Fifth: It is correct, but the word "keikan" is rarely used in Japan. They use "keiji". I'm just pointing that out.}} | Fifth: It is correct, but the word "keikan" is rarely used in Japan. They use "keiji". I'm just pointing that out.}} | ||
==Iritscen's translation== | |||
===Summary=== | |||
I finally decided to give this a more thorough look than I did in 2011, since no one else | In 2014, I finally decided to give this a more thorough look than I did in 2011, since no one else had broken down the image character by character and actually shown their work. I revisited the binary sequences in 2017. My translation can be summed up as: | ||
#Oni! / a dark future | #Oni! / a dark future | ||
#the past of a certain woman | #the past of a certain woman | ||
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Previous to this, no one seems to have noticed the "good cop" in "good cop, bad cop", nor decoded any of the binary sequences. Details below, for the dedicated. | Previous to this, no one seems to have noticed the "good cop" in "good cop, bad cop", nor decoded any of the binary sequences. Details below, for the dedicated. | ||
===Image analysis=== | |||
There are 42 columns and about 28 rows in the image (that's [[seven]]-tastic!). It is not contiguous writing from column to column like the old Japanese style of writing vertically right to left; each column is unconnected to its neighbors. The sequence of columns repeats halfway through, and each column repeats a string twice from top to bottom. So only one-quarter of the image is unique. Here's a masked image that shows the unique portion of the image. | There are 42 columns and about 28 rows in the image (that's [[seven]]-tastic!). It is not contiguous writing from column to column like the old Japanese style of writing vertically right to left; each column is unconnected to its neighbors. The sequence of columns repeats halfway through, and each column repeats a string twice from top to bottom. So only one-quarter of the image is unique. Here's a masked image that shows the unique portion of the image. | ||
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|} | |} | ||
===Detailed translation=== | |||
Now here is a translation, partly based off the | Now here is a translation, partly based off the efforts of those who came before me. | ||
{|class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; width:700px" | {|class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; width:700px" | ||