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[[Image:Japanese matrix.png|thumb|right|Original with transparency.]][[Image:Japanese matrix on white.jpg|thumb|right|Against white background for easier reading at full size.]]
[[Image:Oni_matrix_overlays.png|thumb|right|214x172px|<center>What is the matrix?</center>]]
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 Bungie's name for a pattern of binary digits, [[wp:Kana|kana]] and [[wp:Kanji|kanji]] used recurrently as a background element in [[:Category:Promotional_art|promotional art]], [[:Category:Packaging_images|packaging]], [[:Category:Splashscreens|level splashscreens]], and even the [[:Image:Main_Title_Screen.png|Main Menu]]. It appears in animated form in Oni's [[Trailers|1999 trailer]]. It was likely inspired by "[[wp:The Matrix|The Matrix]]", which came out during Oni's marketing phase.<ref>"The Matrix" came out in early 1999, but the iconic [[wp:Matrix digital rain|"digital rain"]] visual was revealed somewhat earlier, in a [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8e-FF8MsqU&t=2m25s late 1998 trailer].</ref>


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.
A distinctive feature of Oni's "matrix" is the non-random meaning of the Japanese symbols, which was deciphered by dedicated fans over the years. Digest results of that research are presented below (a detailed historical account is available [[/Translation_effort|HERE]]).


==Dave's translation==
==Analysis==
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.
The original source file for the matrix is called [http://jongod.oni2.net/UnarchivedFiles/ONI%20ARCHIVE%203/Miscellaneous%20art/japanese%20matrix.psd japanese matrix.psd] in Bungie West's archives.<ref>Point of interest: the other background template from the archives, [[:Image:Circuit_pattern_grayscale.jpg|"circuit pattern grayscale"]], is in fact a derivative of the Oni matrix image, featuring the upper-left 29x25 cells (out of 42x28). Another derivative is [[:Image:Oni_matrix_pattern.jpg|"pttrn.JPG"]] (a 9x9 section of the matrix, with a different set of circuitry).</ref>


{{Pullquote|I don't know if this has been covered before, but perhaps this is of interest.
{|cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0
 
|width=1034px|
I got out my Oni notepad tonight (the freebie from the Action Sack) and the faint Kanji (Japanese characters) caught my eye. Behind the image of Konoko there are faint vertical lines of Japanese text faintly visable. Faintly is the operating word here. There are several words seperated by ones and zeros in each line. After squinting at these line for a while, I managed to translate a couple of them. Now these lines repeat, both within the "sentence" and also across the page. So while there looks like there are about 20 lines or so, there are only six unique "sentences" that I can pick out.
{{divhide|Show me the matrix}}
 
[[Image:Japanese matrix on white.jpg]]
They are:<br />
{{divhide|end}}
shinrai ni atai suru hito inai (there is no one I can trust)
|}


kiki (this is the Oni kanji repeated twice) ... kurai shorai (dark future)
There are 42 columns and 28 rows, but they're actually made up of four identical quadrants. The kana/kanji form [[seven]] unique phrases when read from top to bottom (therefore we assume the binary digits are read from top to bottom as well). There is no continuity from one column to another, so unlike traditional Japanese the columns are not to be read right-to-left.


kako no aru onna (a woman with a past)
The [[Oni_(myth)|oni kanji]] <span style="background:rgb(255,0,0); border-radius:0.33em; padding:0.25em">'''鬼'''</span> is the most recurrent element in the matrix, with 11 instances per quadrant. It mostly appears surrounded by binary digits, although it is also seen prefixed to '''kako no aru onna 過去のある女''' (yellow).<ref>In some columns, vertical wrapping produces a '''鬼鬼''' sequence, pronounced '''kiki''' (Japanese) or '''guǐguǐ''' (Chinese), and typically used as a given name or nickname. This seems irrelevant in Oni's context, and is likely unintentional.</ref>


furu kontakuto akushon (full contact action)
Here is all the unique material, color-coded:


buramu (blam) korutana (cortana)
[[Image:Japanese_matrix_quadrant_colored.png]]


warui keikan (bad cop)}}
----
The [[seven]] unique phrases are as follows:
*'''kurai i sho-rai''' <span style="background:rgb(0,128,0); border-radius:0.33em; padding:0.25em">'''暗い将来'''</span> : "a dark future" (the first of Oni's taglines in the [[Trailers|1999 trailer]])<ref>One instance of '''kurai i sho-rai 暗い将来''' is truncated (first kana missing); vertical wrapping puts it next to the end of '''kako no aru onna 過去のある女'''.</ref>;
*'''ka-ko no a-ru onna''' <span style="background:rgb(255,255,0); border-radius:0.33em; padding:0.25em">'''過去のある女'''</span> : literally "a certain woman of the past", likely intended to mean "the past of a certain woman" or "a woman with a past", echoing Konoko's "uncertain past" (the second tagline)<ref>One instance of '''ka-ko no a-ru onna 過去のある女''' is truncated (second half missing), another is prefixed with '''oni 鬼'''.</ref>;
*'''shin-rai ni atai-su-ru hito i-na-i''' <span style="background:rgb(255,0,255); border-radius:0.33em; padding:0.25em">'''信頼に値する人いない'''</span> : literally "[there is] no one worthy of trust", likely intended to mean "no one left to trust" (the third tagline);
*'''fu-ru ko-n-ta-ku-to a-ku-shi-yo-n''' <span style="background:rgb(0,255,255); border-radius:0.33em; padding:0.25em">'''ㇷルコンタクトァクシヨン'''</span> : a katakana transcription of "full contact action" (one of Oni's [[Oni/Positioning|Unique Selling Points]]);
*'''i-i kei-kan / waru-i kei-kan''' <span style="background:rgb(0,255,0); border-radius:0.33em; padding:0.25em">'''良い警官 / 悪い警官'''</span> : "good cop" / "bad cop" (a phrase used in [[Oni/Early_Story|Oni's early story]])<ref>As the streamer wraps around, you actually get a contiguous 悪い警官良い警官, i.e., "bad cop good cop" instead of "good cop" / "bad cop".</ref>;
*'''bu-ra-mu / ko-ru-ta-na''' <span style="background:rgb(255,165,0); border-radius:0.33em; padding:0.25em">'''ブラム / コルタナ'''</span> : "Blam" / "Cortana" (cross-marketing for the upcoming Halo; "Blam" was the codename for Halo as well as a [[Blam (meme)|general Bungie meme]]);
*'''ko-ru-ta-na wa kuru ru yo''' <span style="background:rgb(192,192,192); border-radius:0.33em; padding:0.25em">'''コルタナは来るよ'''</span> : "Cortana is coming" (more cross-marketing)<ref>The '''ru る''' kana is superfluous here, i.e., it should be just '''wa kuru yo は来よ''', not '''wa kuru ru yo は来るよ'''.</ref>.
----
The five "lone kana" ('''ka''' <span style=" border-style:solid; border-color:rgb(0,0,255); border-width:0.15em; padding:0.15em">'''カ'''</span>, '''se''' <span style=" border-style:solid; border-color:rgb(0,0,255); border-width:0.15em; padding:0.15em">'''セ'''</span>, '''nu''' <span style=" border-style:solid; border-color:rgb(0,0,255); border-width:0.15em; padding:0.15em">'''ヌ'''</span>, '''sa''' <span style=" border-style:solid; border-color:rgb(0,0,255); border-width:0.15em; padding:0.15em">'''サ'''</span>, and '''re''' <span style=" border-style:solid; border-color:rgb(0,0,255); border-width:0.15em; padding:0.15em">'''レ'''</span>) are likely filler.
----
The binary digits do not seem to carry any meaning either. If "Big Endian" order is assumed for the digits, then the following numbers occur:
*'''2892''' (0101101001100), '''37''' (100101), '''22''' (010110), '''17''' (10001), '''10''' (01010),
*'''9''' (1001), '''5''' (0101), '''4''' (0100), '''3''' (011, 11), '''2''' (10), '''1''' (01, 1), and '''0''' (00, 0).
If "Little Endian" is allowed, then six additional readings/interpretations emerge:
*'''3132''' (0011001011010), '''41''' (101001), '''26''' (011010), '''10''' (1010), '''2''' (0010), and '''6''' (110).
Alas, none of those numbers are particularly relevant to Oni or Bungie.
----
Last but not least: note the uneven width of the columns, the slight variations in the vertical alignment (not a perfect grid), and how the use of a larger font size for some of the binary digits (red outline) causes rather sloppy-looking truncated "1"s at the bottom of the '''ka/se''' and '''nu/sa/re''' columns.


==demos_kratos' translation==
Somewhat surprisingly, all the imperfections of the template are faithfully reproduced at higher resolutions. We are in fact seeing those truncated "1"s (and the truncated Japanese phrases) in every instance of the matrix (trailer, promotional art, in-game splashscreens, etc.) – although some exceptions may exist.
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 />
==Scrolling version==
First: While being literally correct it is way too complicated for such an easy phrase. I'd say ''shinyou dekiru hito ga nai''.<br />
[[Image:1999_trailer_opening.jpg|thumb|right|Trailer opening]]
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 />
The 1999 trailer's screen proportions exactly match those of this matrix image. Also, during the titles we see exactly 28 symbols down and 42 across. Thus, although the trailer's low resolution makes it hard to tell for sure, it is safe to assume that the template was made specifically for the trailer, and that the trailer's two sheets of "matrix data" sliding up and down are simple copies of the matrix image. The only thing that needs to be determined is the sliding speed, initial offset timing, and shape of the holes in the frontmost matrix sheet (the one that slides upwards).
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.}}


==Iritscen's translation==
From a casual examination, the scrolling speed is such that it takes about 5 seconds for the columns (28 symbols) to cover the height of the screen. The holes in the upwards-moving foreground columns, as well as the initial offsets of the columns at the start of each title sequence, are not documented at this point.
===Summary===
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
#the past of a certain woman
#no one worthy of trust
#full contact action
#good cop, bad cop
#Blam / Cortana
#Cortana is coming
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===
==Reconstructed version==
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.
With a copy of [https://www.gimp.org/ GIMP] in hand, you can now manipulate the matrix yourself in textual form. The transcribed Japanese text and numerical digits have been turned into an "HD" GIMP file (linked to from [[:Image:Japanese matrix on white HD.png|these]] [[:Image:Japanese matrix on white HD sans serif.png|renders]] of it).


[[Image:Japanese matrix translated.jpg|center]]
==Usages==
Hardly an exhaustive list, this is merely meant as a representative collection of matrix sightings, more or less high-quality, for anyone curious to see how ubiquitous the matrix is/was. There are multiple derivatives and versions with two superimposed matrices at different scale factors.


Additionally, out of the horizontal 21-column sequence, there are six duplicate columns. I have lettered the 15 unique columns with the letters A to O. Also, some of the 15 columns have duplicated sequences of characters. This leaves, by my count, [[seven]] unique phrases, when all is said and done. Notwithstanding that I don't actually know Japanese, I've painstakingly identified the characters, and under "Character transcription" below, I reproduce them as text (handy for anyone else's translation efforts), and then in "Detailed translation", I discuss their meaning as far as I can ascertain it and attempt to decode the binary sequences.
<gallery>
File:OST_case_back.jpg
File:Mousepad_3.jpg
File:Oni_Comic_Issue_3_Inside_Cover.jpg
File:Notepad_4.jpg
File:Windows_(RU)_jewel_case_-_front.jpg
Image:Act_2_.MISSION_FAILED.png
Image:Chapter_04_.MISSION_COMPLETE_(HD).jpg
Image:Chapter_14_.MISSION_COMPLETE_(HD).jpg
</gallery>


====Character transcription====
Some packaging art featured "binary rain" instead of a mix of binary and kana/kanji. The binary sequences have not been studied (filler, most likely).
{|class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto;"
|A
|B
|C
|D
|E
|-
|<big>鬼0100暗い将来1001鬼</big>
|<big>01過去のある女0101鬼</big>
|<big>信頼に値する人いない0101</big>
|<big>11ㇷルコンタクトァクシヨン</big>
|<big>カ0101101001100</big>
|-
|oni 4 kurai i sho-rai 9 oni
|1 ka-ko no a-ru onna 5 oni
|shin-rai ni atai-su-ru hito i-na-i 5
|3 fu-ru ko-n-ta-ku-to a-ku-shi-yo-n
|ka 2892
|-
|F
|G
|H
|I
|J
|-
|<big>00暗い将来1001鬼過去の</big>
|<big>良い警官010110悪い警官</big>
|<big>01010カ01010セ01</big>
|<big>011ブラム011コルタナ1</big>
|<big>ㇷルコンタクトァクシヨン01</big>
|-
|0 kurai i sho-rai 9 oni ka-ko no
|i-i kei-kan 22 waru-i kei-kan
|10 ka 10 se 1
|3 bu-ra-mu 3 ko-ru-ta-na 1
|fu-ru ko-n-ta-ku-to a-ku-shi-yo-n 1
|-
|K
|L
|M
|N
|O
|-
|<big>10001鬼0100暗い将来</big>
|<big>コルタナは来るよ100101</big>
|<big>い将来1001鬼過去のある女</big>
|<big>0ヌ0101サ0101レ01</big>
|<big>10ㇷルコンタクトァクシヨン</big>
|-
|17 oni 4 kurai i sho-rai
|ko-ru-ta-na wa kuru ru yo 37
|i sho-rai 9 oni ka-ko no a-ru onna
|0 nu 5 sa 5 re 1
|2 fu-ru ko-n-ta-ku-to a-ku-shi-yo-n
|}


===Detailed translation===
<gallery>
Now here is a translation, partly based off the efforts of those who came before me.
File:Early_box_art.jpg
File:Early_box_art2.jpg
File:Mac_(UK)_box_art_-_front.jpg
File:Windows_(DE)_jewel_case_art_-_front.jpg
</gallery>


{|class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; width:700px"
==Notable lookalikes==
|A
===The Matrix (1999)===
|-
The Matrix's code (a.k.a. "digital rain") used a custom typeface consisting of decimal digits, Latin capital letters and [[wp:Half-width kana|half-width kana]] - all of them mirrored horizontally. The characters do not actually slide downwards across the screen; instead they form a static grid which refreshes in downwards-scrolling sequences.
|鬼 / 暗い将来
|-
|oni / kurai i shorai
|-
|oni / dark future
|-
|The first character in the first column is the kanji for "oni". It shows up in seemingly random places in a few columns. Besides that, we have the phrase that has already been translated as "dark future". This is obviously the beginning of Oni's tagline, "A dark future...".
|}


{|class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; width:700px"
In the Oni 1999 trailer, the columns are actually sliding up and down, rather than revealed through in-place refreshing. This is a major difference between the animated Oni matrix and Matrix code. The other differences are:
|B
*the glyphs themselves (in Oni they are not mirrored, the kana are full-width, and the digits are binary rather than decimal);
|-
*Oni's lesser randomness (a small number of actually meaningful phrases and a uniform sliding motion, as opposed to the utterly unintelligible Matrix code).
|過去のある女
|-
|kako no aru onna
|-
|the past of a certain woman
|-
|This phrase is a bit odd, because it's clearly supposed to be "an uncertain past...", but it's not. I've chosen to render it as literally as I can since it's clear that even a liberal translation cannot arrive at "uncertain past". It's strange that "uncertain" became "certain", and somehow the character for "woman" got in there too. In any case, the "certain woman" with an "uncertain past" was the [[Oni/Early Story|Early Story]] Konoko, who did not recall her past and eventually found out that Griffin had wiped her memory.
|}


{|class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; width:700px"
===Ghost in the Shell (1995)===
|C
A possible inspiration for the "digital rain" in "The Matrix" is the opening titles of "Ghost in the Shell" (1995) ([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHil4Y4r3Wk&t=260s seen here]). In this case we are looking at a monochrome screen (hexagonal halftone) densely packed with lines of fixed-width characters (with slight height variations from one line to another). There are no letters or kana, and the digits are decimal rather than binary. Instead of scrolling, the digits are flickering in rapid succession, seemingly at random (patterns can be identified only by looking at snapshots). The opening titles' lines are gradually "extracted" from this rapid succession of digits, not unlike a [[wp:Split-flap_display|split flap display]].
|-
|信頼に値する人いない
|-
|shinrai ni atai suru hito inai
|-
|no one worthy of trust
|-
|As demos_kratos noted, the Japanese seems very stilted here. A literal translation would be "trust with worthy someone not", or when rendered more nicely, "No one worthy of trust". This is obviously intended as the end of Oni's tagline, "No one left to trust".
|}


{|class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; width:700px"
Since Oni's 1999 trailer specifically uses the sliding matrix columns as a background for titles (with titles seemingly emerging from the flowing data), it is possible that the GitS opening had a direct influence as well.
|D
|-
|ㇷルコンタクトァクシヨン
|-
|furu kontakuto akushiyon
|-
|full contact action
|-
|This is an amusing transliteration into katakana of one of Oni's [[wikipedia:Unique selling proposition|USPs]].
|}


{|class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; width:700px"
===Meteo (1989)===
|E
[[wp:Meteo (film)|Meteo]] is a Hungarian science-fiction art film. It is far lesser-known than "The Matrix" or GitS, but it has an [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpuijKR-054&t=1m50s interesting scene] with a perplexed coder staring at pages of cryptic data. Some of the code uses densely packed characters from the extended ASCII table, flickering at random, and visually similar to Matrix code.
|-
|カ0101101001100
|-
|ka 2892
|-
|???
|-
|"ka 2892" is obviously nonsensical. 2892 is not a number connected to Oni; 2032 is, but that would be 11111110000 in binary, which is not at all similar. It could very well be that the katakana "ka" and the binary are just random filler. I do think it's interesting to note that the 13 digits can be broken into four pieces and then the resulting numbers be converted to letters. For instance, breaking it down as 010-1101-001-100 yields 2-13-1-4, which would be b-m-a-d in the Roman alphabet. It almost makes one think they were spelling "blam", a phrase that occurs in kana form in column I. Moreover, the leading "ka" would make it "kablam". However, I just can't find a way to derive b-l-a-m from this binary.
|}
 
{|class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; width:700px"
|F
|-
|暗い将来 / 鬼過去の
|-
|kurai i shorai / oni ka-ko no
|-
|dark future / demons of the past
|-
|While the first phrase is reused from A, the second part is intriguing. Is it just a misplaced "oni" kanji next to a broken part of the phrase "kako no aru onna" from B? Is this a lucky accident like [[Konoko#Name|Konoko's name]], or was this an intentional formulation?
|}
 
{|class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; width:700px"
|G
|-
|良い警官010110悪い警官
|-
|ii keikan 22 warui keikan
|-
|good cop 22 bad cop
|-
|The first part of this phrase has been missed until now. "Warui keikan" is definitely "a bad cop", but it actually was intended to be read as part of the American expression "good cop, bad cop", which is found in the game's [[Oni/Early_Story|early story]]. Also interesting is that the binary wedged between the phrase is longer than the other binary sequences besides E and L, and that it comes out to 22, which is close to the age of 23 that was intended for Konoko in the early story, according to [[:Image:Unit_viewer-Konoko_2.jpg|this image]].
|}
 
{|class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; width:700px"
|H
|-
|01010カ01010セ
|-
|9 ka 9 se
|-
|???
|-
|I have omitted the "01" after the "se" because I think it's simply another "01010" that's cut off. "9 ka 9 se" is probably gibberish filler like E probably is, but I took a couple different approaches to trying to translate it. One was to try to piece together a word from the syllables "ka" and "se", as well as from all the free-floating syllables in the text, as found in E, H, and N: ka, se, nu, sa, re. When that failed to turn up anything useful, I read the number 9 as it is pronounced in Japanese, "kyu". Oddly, one reading of "kyuka kyuse" could be liberally interpreted as "leaving one's former name". I'm not sure if this is a coincidence, as it seems far too clever compared to the fairly naive use of Japanese in the rest of the matrix.
|}
 
{|class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; width:700px"
|I
|-
|ブラム / コルタナ
|-
|buramu / korutana
|-
|Blam / Cortana
|-
|Besides being a trademark Bungie phrase (also see the sidebox on [[Blame!]] for the same kana), "Blam!" was the code name for Halo, which is the game with the AI companion Cortana. I suppose this was a case of a little marketing cross-pollination.
|}
 
{|class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; width:700px"
|J
|-
|ㇷルコンタクトァクシヨン
|-
|furu kontakuto akushiyon
|-
|full contact action
|-
|Though paired with a different (probably random) number this time, 3 instead of 1, this is a duplicate of D.
|}
 
{|class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; width:700px"
|K
|-
|鬼 / 暗い将来
|-
|oni / kurai i shorai
|-
|oni / dark future
|-
|Though paired with different (probably random) numbers this time, 17 and 4 instead of 4 and 9, this is a duplicate of A.
|}
 
{|class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; width:700px"
|L
|-
|コルタナは来るよ100101
|-
|korutana wa kuru ru yo 37
|-
|Cortana is coming! 37
|-
|As already caught by demos_kratos, this is a fuller reference to Cortana than the one in I. There seems to be a superfluous "ru" in there, but maybe I just don't understand enough about Japanese syntax. I don't see a significance in the 37, but since I am not very familiar with Halo, and the number is unusually long, I am including it. It's probably just padding, though.
|}
 
{|class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; width:700px"
|M
|-
|い将来 / 鬼過去のある女
|-
|i sho-rai / oni kako no aru onna
|-
|???
|-
|At first this seems to be a random mishmash of the phrases from A and B to serve as filler, but, like F, there seems to be a potential meaning to the phrase "oni kako no aru onna", which could be translated loosely as "the haunted past of a certain woman". Possibly just a coincidence.
|}
 
{|class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; width:700px"
|N
|-
|0ヌ0101サ0101レ01
|-
|0 nu 5 sa 5 re 1
|-
|???
|-
|This seems to be more kana-plus-numbers gibberish like in E and H. I brought it into my decoding efforts on H, and also considered reading this phrase using the pronunciation for 5, "go", but came up empty-handed.
|}
 
{|class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; width:700px"
|O
|-
|ㇷルコンタクトァクシヨン
|-
|furu kontakuto akushiyon
|-
|full contact action
|-
|Though paired with a different (probably random) number this time, 2 instead of 1 or 3, this is a duplicate of D and J. They should have translated more of [[Oni/Positioning|the game's USPs]]!
|}


==Notes==
<references/>


[[Category:Oni history]]
[[Category:Oni history]]

Latest revision as of 22:02, 9 November 2023

What is the matrix?

The "Oni matrix" is Bungie's name for a pattern of binary digits, kana and kanji used recurrently as a background element in promotional art, packaging, level splashscreens, and even the Main Menu. It appears in animated form in Oni's 1999 trailer. It was likely inspired by "The Matrix", which came out during Oni's marketing phase.[1]

A distinctive feature of Oni's "matrix" is the non-random meaning of the Japanese symbols, which was deciphered by dedicated fans over the years. Digest results of that research are presented below (a detailed historical account is available HERE).

Analysis

The original source file for the matrix is called japanese matrix.psd in Bungie West's archives.[2]

There are 42 columns and 28 rows, but they're actually made up of four identical quadrants. The kana/kanji form seven unique phrases when read from top to bottom (therefore we assume the binary digits are read from top to bottom as well). There is no continuity from one column to another, so unlike traditional Japanese the columns are not to be read right-to-left.

The oni kanji is the most recurrent element in the matrix, with 11 instances per quadrant. It mostly appears surrounded by binary digits, although it is also seen prefixed to kako no aru onna 過去のある女 (yellow).[3]

Here is all the unique material, color-coded:

Japanese matrix quadrant colored.png


The seven unique phrases are as follows:

  • kurai i sho-rai 暗い将来 : "a dark future" (the first of Oni's taglines in the 1999 trailer)[4];
  • ka-ko no a-ru onna 過去のある女 : literally "a certain woman of the past", likely intended to mean "the past of a certain woman" or "a woman with a past", echoing Konoko's "uncertain past" (the second tagline)[5];
  • shin-rai ni atai-su-ru hito i-na-i 信頼に値する人いない : literally "[there is] no one worthy of trust", likely intended to mean "no one left to trust" (the third tagline);
  • fu-ru ko-n-ta-ku-to a-ku-shi-yo-n ㇷルコンタクトァクシヨン : a katakana transcription of "full contact action" (one of Oni's Unique Selling Points);
  • i-i kei-kan / waru-i kei-kan 良い警官 / 悪い警官 : "good cop" / "bad cop" (a phrase used in Oni's early story)[6];
  • bu-ra-mu / ko-ru-ta-na ブラム / コルタナ : "Blam" / "Cortana" (cross-marketing for the upcoming Halo; "Blam" was the codename for Halo as well as a general Bungie meme);
  • ko-ru-ta-na wa kuru ru yo コルタナは来るよ : "Cortana is coming" (more cross-marketing)[7].

The five "lone kana" (ka , se , nu , sa , and re ) are likely filler.


The binary digits do not seem to carry any meaning either. If "Big Endian" order is assumed for the digits, then the following numbers occur:

  • 2892 (0101101001100), 37 (100101), 22 (010110), 17 (10001), 10 (01010),
  • 9 (1001), 5 (0101), 4 (0100), 3 (011, 11), 2 (10), 1 (01, 1), and 0 (00, 0).

If "Little Endian" is allowed, then six additional readings/interpretations emerge:

  • 3132 (0011001011010), 41 (101001), 26 (011010), 10 (1010), 2 (0010), and 6 (110).

Alas, none of those numbers are particularly relevant to Oni or Bungie.


Last but not least: note the uneven width of the columns, the slight variations in the vertical alignment (not a perfect grid), and how the use of a larger font size for some of the binary digits (red outline) causes rather sloppy-looking truncated "1"s at the bottom of the ka/se and nu/sa/re columns.

Somewhat surprisingly, all the imperfections of the template are faithfully reproduced at higher resolutions. We are in fact seeing those truncated "1"s (and the truncated Japanese phrases) in every instance of the matrix (trailer, promotional art, in-game splashscreens, etc.) – although some exceptions may exist.

Scrolling version

Trailer opening

The 1999 trailer's screen proportions exactly match those of this matrix image. Also, during the titles we see exactly 28 symbols down and 42 across. Thus, although the trailer's low resolution makes it hard to tell for sure, it is safe to assume that the template was made specifically for the trailer, and that the trailer's two sheets of "matrix data" sliding up and down are simple copies of the matrix image. The only thing that needs to be determined is the sliding speed, initial offset timing, and shape of the holes in the frontmost matrix sheet (the one that slides upwards).

From a casual examination, the scrolling speed is such that it takes about 5 seconds for the columns (28 symbols) to cover the height of the screen. The holes in the upwards-moving foreground columns, as well as the initial offsets of the columns at the start of each title sequence, are not documented at this point.

Reconstructed version

With a copy of GIMP in hand, you can now manipulate the matrix yourself in textual form. The transcribed Japanese text and numerical digits have been turned into an "HD" GIMP file (linked to from these renders of it).

Usages

Hardly an exhaustive list, this is merely meant as a representative collection of matrix sightings, more or less high-quality, for anyone curious to see how ubiquitous the matrix is/was. There are multiple derivatives and versions with two superimposed matrices at different scale factors.

Some packaging art featured "binary rain" instead of a mix of binary and kana/kanji. The binary sequences have not been studied (filler, most likely).

Notable lookalikes

The Matrix (1999)

The Matrix's code (a.k.a. "digital rain") used a custom typeface consisting of decimal digits, Latin capital letters and half-width kana - all of them mirrored horizontally. The characters do not actually slide downwards across the screen; instead they form a static grid which refreshes in downwards-scrolling sequences.

In the Oni 1999 trailer, the columns are actually sliding up and down, rather than revealed through in-place refreshing. This is a major difference between the animated Oni matrix and Matrix code. The other differences are:

  • the glyphs themselves (in Oni they are not mirrored, the kana are full-width, and the digits are binary rather than decimal);
  • Oni's lesser randomness (a small number of actually meaningful phrases and a uniform sliding motion, as opposed to the utterly unintelligible Matrix code).

Ghost in the Shell (1995)

A possible inspiration for the "digital rain" in "The Matrix" is the opening titles of "Ghost in the Shell" (1995) (seen here). In this case we are looking at a monochrome screen (hexagonal halftone) densely packed with lines of fixed-width characters (with slight height variations from one line to another). There are no letters or kana, and the digits are decimal rather than binary. Instead of scrolling, the digits are flickering in rapid succession, seemingly at random (patterns can be identified only by looking at snapshots). The opening titles' lines are gradually "extracted" from this rapid succession of digits, not unlike a split flap display.

Since Oni's 1999 trailer specifically uses the sliding matrix columns as a background for titles (with titles seemingly emerging from the flowing data), it is possible that the GitS opening had a direct influence as well.

Meteo (1989)

Meteo is a Hungarian science-fiction art film. It is far lesser-known than "The Matrix" or GitS, but it has an interesting scene with a perplexed coder staring at pages of cryptic data. Some of the code uses densely packed characters from the extended ASCII table, flickering at random, and visually similar to Matrix code.

Notes

  1. "The Matrix" came out in early 1999, but the iconic "digital rain" visual was revealed somewhat earlier, in a late 1998 trailer.
  2. Point of interest: the other background template from the archives, "circuit pattern grayscale", is in fact a derivative of the Oni matrix image, featuring the upper-left 29x25 cells (out of 42x28). Another derivative is "pttrn.JPG" (a 9x9 section of the matrix, with a different set of circuitry).
  3. In some columns, vertical wrapping produces a 鬼鬼 sequence, pronounced kiki (Japanese) or guǐguǐ (Chinese), and typically used as a given name or nickname. This seems irrelevant in Oni's context, and is likely unintentional.
  4. One instance of kurai i sho-rai 暗い将来 is truncated (first kana missing); vertical wrapping puts it next to the end of kako no aru onna 過去のある女.
  5. One instance of ka-ko no a-ru onna 過去のある女 is truncated (second half missing), another is prefixed with oni 鬼.
  6. As the streamer wraps around, you actually get a contiguous 悪い警官良い警官, i.e., "bad cop good cop" instead of "good cop" / "bad cop".
  7. The ru る kana is superfluous here, i.e., it should be just wa kuru yo は来よ, not wa kuru ru yo は来るよ.