It's just one of their masculine/feminine "for emphasis!" dichotomies that pop up from time to time, so if it pleases the court, I decided to do what I do with that.
It's just one of their masculine/feminine "for emphasis!" dichotomies that pop up from time to time, so if it pleases the court, I decided to do what I do with that.
edited: original post was written out of genuine frustration
I went around changing instances of "I tell ya" not into "ze" but into logical localizations of rough speaking patterns.
I've got no interest in being dramatic I just find it really aggravating trying to "translate" "ze" or "da ze". It's not really a catchphrase and even when it's memed in Japanese it's done so with specificity (singling it outside of bubbles as here or separating it from other lines, pointing out its use, or writing it in romaji). What it is is a manner of speech. She definitely, definitely uses "ze" a lot, but firstly- she doesn't use it THAT much (honestly, most of the time she doesn't say "ze" in canon and even fanworks) and secondly she's not the only Touhou character who uses it. She's not the only Japanese speaker in reality or fiction who uses it. It's just a way of talking; fanworks may point it out (canon never does) but that doesn't mean it should be "translated". If anything in the spirit of things, for times when the fans are highlighting the "(da) ze" most of the time you should transliterate, since the joke and point is that she's saying *ze*, which doesn't really mean anything.
It isn't "I tell ya", it's just a brusque way of talking. It's not a catchphrase, it's how Marisa speaks. Similarly Reimu speaks with a *high* number of "wa"s and "no yo"s, but you pretty much never see it mentioned in Japan or the English-speaking community. I'm sure azmaya, whose worked so long with Reimu specifically, grew a fondness for that "wa". I understand: it genuinely makes for a very unique way of talking from Reimu- a mixture of lax/cool and sudden emphatic screw you, you're under my jurisdiction now. With Marisa, her speech is overall most definitely tomboyish, mostly highlighted by the "(da) ze" and a lot of "zo"s as well. The ze is easier to carry into English than the wa.
I don't imagine my changing the ze to contextual English -- because, again, it's not a verbal tick but an indicator of manner of speech -- will be happily received. I noticed most of the work that had "ze" as "I tell ya" was for yuri artwork/comics, and especially ReiMari pieces. That explains why I've seen it often enough for it to start bothering me (I like ReiMari quite a lot); I ended up getting irritated seeing it in one of azmaya's works. Well, two actually--that one focused on Marisa that was all yellow got an "I tell ya" snuck into the hard translation (an adorable Mikagami Hiyori doujin, "Looks Like Hakurei Reimu and Kirisame Marisa Are Dating", also got an "I tell ya" into the hard TL). I would rather it not stick, especially as Azuma Aya is one of "the" Touhou artists, so even when she's making doujinshi people treat it seriously. I'd seriously rather not people get the impression that something that ostensibly means "it is" if not meaning nothing ("da ze") is "I tell ya", because it is not that. There's my reasoning, I put down my arms, and I'll probably periodically check for attempts at translating "ze" as if it's a catchphrase.
Updated
Absolutely!
Western fandom doesn't tend to notice it, but Reimu ends a large number of her sentences with "wa" like Marisa ends a large number of her sentences with "ze". To simplify: "wa" makes Reimu sound generally loose/airy- occasionally emphatic/forceful; "ze" makes Marisa sound tomboyish.
Fer sure!
That's a "ze", of course
I GET THE FEELING AN INCIDENT JUST STARTED SOMEWHERE