Konpeki no Kantai — Episode 02
Konpeki no Kantai — Episode 02
This document lists translation issues found in the English subtitle file, organized by line number. The English subs appear to have been transcribed by ear from Japanese audio, with rank confusion (Navy ↔ Army), proper-noun mishearings, technical-term mistranslations, and a few inverted meanings in the closing narration.
Sources cross-checked: Japanese Wikipedia main page for Konpeki no Kantai, the series terminology glossary (艦隊シリーズの用語集), the Konpeki sub article 特潜伊601 富嶽号, the canonical Baka-Tsuki English translation of Volume 1 of Aramaki Yoshio's original novel (Prologue and Chapters 1–6), real-world WWII geography and naval ranks, and US Pacific geography (Malpelo Island, Panama Canal layout).
For each entry: line number from the .ass file, original English, problem, and suggested fix.
Errors and Mishearings
L66 — 0:03:56.12
Original: "{\i1}Types I-500, I-600 and I-700 now," Issue: The "Type I-600" does not exist in the Konpeki universe. According to the series glossary, the Deep Blue Fleet's submarine lineup includes:
- I-601 Fugaku (個別艦, not a "type" — it's a singular special submarine, the flagship)
- I-500 type: I-501 Suijin, I-502 Kairyū, I-503 Sōkai
- I-700 type: I-701 Otohime, etc.
- (Later) I-3001 Gyōten, I-10001 Susanoo
The translator most likely misheard 「ろくまるいち」(roku-maru-ichi = 6-0-1, i.e. I-601) or 「ロッピャクイチ」(roppyaku-ichi = "six-hundred-one") as 「ロッピャク」(roppyaku = "six hundred"), dropping the final digit. In context (Maebara's flagship is being introduced), this should be I-601 (Fugaku).
Suggested: "{\i1}Types I-500, I-700, and the I-601 Fugaku now,"
L130 — 0:07:33.62
Original: "{\i1}where they go through the Panama Canals to the mainland." Issues:
- "Panama Canals" — should be singular (there's only one Panama Canal).
- "to the mainland" is ambiguous — the supplies move from the US Great Lakes (industrial heartland mentioned in L125-126) through the Canal to the US east coast or to overseas theaters. "Mainland" alone doesn't fit.
Suggested: "{\i1}where they pass through the Panama Canal to reach the east coast."
L135 — 0:08:00.62
Original: "{\i1}the comrade they had put their expectations on, Major General Maebara Issei," Issue: "Major General" is the wrong rank — that's an Army (陸軍) two-star general. Maebara is the Rear Admiral (海軍少将) commanding the Deep Blue Fleet. He's Navy, not Army. Confirmed by the Konpeki glossary entry for 紺碧艦隊.
The same error recurs throughout the episode whenever Maebara is referred to by rank: L215, L257, L519 ("General Maebara," "general Maebara's G-7 plan").
Suggested: "{\i1}the comrade they had put their expectations on, Rear Admiral Maebara Issei,"
L137 — 0:08:09.86
Original: "{\i1}along with Captain Irie and Officer Shinagawa Sennin" Issue: "Shinagawa Sennin" is a compound mishearing. The character's actual full name is Shinagawa Yajirō (品川弥治郎), and his position is First Officer (先任士官 Senin Shikan) — senin (先任) being part of the rank title, not his given name.
The translator heard the Japanese 「先任士官 品川弥治郎」 ("First Officer Shinagawa Yajirō") and parsed senin (先任 = "senior" / "first") as part of the personal name, while dropping both the actual role marker (士官) and the actual given name (弥治郎).
This is confirmed by the I-601 Fugaku Japanese Wikipedia article, which lists Shinagawa Yajirō as the First Officer (先任士官).
Suggested: "{\i1}along with Captain Irie and First Officer Shinagawa Yajirō"
L162 — 0:09:37.87
Original: "The Type 64 is known for being hard-to-use without skilled men." Issue: "Type 64" is almost certainly a mishearing of "Type 62". Two lines earlier (L149), the same conversation explicitly mentions "Type 62 Oxygen Torpedoes" — the Deep Blue Fleet's primary heavy torpedo. There's no separate "Type 64" weapon in the Konpeki glossary. The translator misheard 「ろくに(roku-ni = 6-2)」 as 「ろくよん (roku-yon = 6-4)」, or transcribed the digits wrong.
The context confirms this — the same conversation thread is about the difficulty of using the 62cm torpedoes.
Source confirmation (Baka-Tsuki, Volume 1 Chapter 5): Maebara, talking to the torpedo chief: «Yes, of all the Imperial Navy, our Deep Blue Fleet is the only part equipped with the 62cm oxygen torpedo.» The novel describes a 62-cm oxygen torpedo with a 50-km range, magnetic detonators, and primitive acoustic homing — a fictional upgraded weapon, distinct from the historical Type 95 53cm torpedo (which appears separately in Chapter 3 on submarine I-168). Do NOT confuse "Type 62" in this scene with "Type 95" used elsewhere — they are two different weapons.
Suggested: "The Type 62 is known for being hard to use without skilled men."
L185 — 0:10:39.92
Original: "Keep an eye on the pressure buildup of that Walter Tank." Issue: "Walter Tank" is a mishearing of "water tank". The translator almost certainly heard ウォータータンク (wōtā tanku = "water tank") and rendered it as "Walter Tank" — confusing it with the Walter system (the German hydrogen-peroxide propulsion system developed by Hellmuth Walter, used on Kriegsmarine Type XVII submarines). The Konpeki Deep Blue Fleet does NOT use the Walter system.
Source confirmation (Baka-Tsuki, Volume 1 Chapter 5): The Deep Blue Fleet uses pump-jet propulsion — water jets, not screws, not steam turbines, not Walter peroxide rockets. Direct quote: «Surprisingly, each ship of the Deep Blue Fleet propels itself using this method of pumping water to form a jet. In other words, they advance not using screws, but through the reaction force from expelling a jet of water behind them, just as would an octopus or a squid.» The pump room is described in detail: «Beneath a triple-hatched inspection hole there was a submersible pump room. In this room, giant pumps lined up in series impelled seawater to the rear of the submarine.»
So the "tank" Maebara is talking about is a water tank in the pump-jet propulsion system — the pressure buildup is the hydraulic pressure of the pump-jet's working fluid. Has nothing to do with Walter cycle / peroxide propulsion.
Suggested: "Keep an eye on the pressure buildup in that water tank." or, more specifically: "Keep an eye on the pressure in the pump-jet's water tank."
L177–L178 — 0:10:19.60
Original: "This is the latest technology, called the Power Steering System." / "In their language it would probably be called\N 'Power steering'." Issue: The framing here is awkward in English because "Power Steering" is English. The Japanese probably distinguished between a Japanese-coined technical term and its English-loanword form. In English the joke falls flat.
Suggested (style): Keep as-is, but note that the gag relies on Takano describing a foreign concept in Japanese, then noting "the foreigners call this 'power steering.'" In English subtitles this is unavoidably awkward; a fix would be to render the Japanese term differently (e.g., "we call it 'assisted steering' — though in their language it'd be 'power steering'").
L209–L210 — 0:11:57.58
Original: "The effect of the film that is wrapped around this ship is also functioning well." / "It also has the effect of absorbing the hidden radio waves that may be used to find us." Issues:
- "Film" should be "coating" — the Japanese is most likely 軟性護謨皮膜 (nansei gomu himaku = "soft rubber membrane/coating"), confirmed by Aramaki's novel (Baka-Tsuki Volume 1 Chapter 5): «the soft rubber coating wrapped around the entire ship» / «the resistance water presents to a body which moves itself underwater may be reduced considerably by covering it with a soft and flexible skin». This is an armor-grade acoustic-damping layer, an idea Aramaki explicitly says was inspired by dolphin and whale skin. "Film" implies a thin sheet, which misses both the bulk and the function.
- "Hidden radio waves" is wrong for a submerged submarine — radio waves don't propagate well underwater. The detection method is sonar (acoustic/ultrasonic waves). The Japanese was almost certainly 「音波」(onpa = sound waves) or 「ソナー」 (sonar).
Suggested: "The effect of the rubber coating wrapped around this ship is also functioning well." / "It also absorbs the acoustic/sonar waves that may be used to detect us."
L215 — 0:12:24.37
Original: "G-general Maebara!" Issue: Same rank confusion as L135. Maebara is Rear Admiral, not General. See L135.
Suggested: "R-Rear Admiral Maebara!"
L233, L238, L427, L566, L567 — references to "Thunder King"
Original: "the famed Thunder King" / "These are the 'Thunder Kings'" / "The 'Thunder Kings' are back!" etc. Issue: "Thunder King" is a literal translation of an aircraft's proper name, which should be transliterated, not translated. The aircraft is Raiyō (雷洋) — 雷 = thunder, 洋 = ocean (so a literal reading would be "Thunder Sea," but it's a proper name and not translated). Raiyō is the special surface attack aircraft carried by the I-601 Fugaku.
Suggested: "the famed Raiyō" / "These are the 'Raiyō' units" / "The 'Raiyō' are back!"
L242 — 0:13:42.81
Original: "{\i1}The seasonal versions, which take part in sudden bombing," Issue: "Seasonal versions" is a serious mistranslation. This refers to Shunran (春嵐) — the water-based fighter-bomber carried by the I-500-type submarines. The character 春 means "spring" (the season), and 嵐 means "storm" — so "Spring Storm." The translator caught the "spring/season" sense of 春 and translated it as "seasonal," missing that 春嵐 is the proper name of an aircraft, not a category.
The Japanese Wikipedia confirms: each I-500-type sub (Suijin, Kairyū, Sōkai) carries 3 Shunran fighter-bombers. They're the Deep Blue Fleet's surface attack complement alongside the Raiyō.
Suggested: "{\i1}The Shunran fighter-bombers, which lead the surprise attack,"
L257 — 0:14:45.21
Original: "{\i1}Three days after General Maebara's internal inspection," Issue: Same as L135 — should be Rear Admiral Maebara.
Suggested: "{\i1}Three days after Rear Admiral Maebara's internal inspection,"
L258 — 0:14:48.75
Original: "{\i1}The fleet had arrived near Marlboro Island," Issue: "Marlboro" is a mishearing of "Malpelo". Malpelo Island is a real volcanic island in the Eastern Pacific, ~500 km west of Colombia, which is roughly 600 km from the Panama Canal — exactly the distance L260 specifies. The translator may have heard 「マルペロ」(Marupero) and substituted the more familiar English-language brand name "Marlboro."
Suggested: "{\i1}The fleet had arrived near Malpelo Island,"
L289–L294 — 0:16:22.16 to 0:16:27.94
Original: "Five seconds till 1950." / "Four." / "Three." / "Two." / "One." / "Now." Issue: Context is "Synchronize your clocks" (L288), not a launch countdown. The Japanese 「あと五秒で1950」 ("five seconds until 1950 hours") followed by the count is a clock-synchronization procedure — the final "Now" is the moment all timepieces are set to the agreed time.
The current English fits this fine, but for non-English language translators, "Now" should NOT be translated as "Launch" or "Fire" — it's a time-synchronization marker, not a command to act.
Suggested: Keep as-is, but consider rendering the final line as "Mark." or "Set." for clarity, since "Now" can read as a launch order.
L295 — 0:16:31.93
Original: "Sir." Issue: Generic "Sir" is overused throughout the episode. In context this is Ootake (the flight commander) reporting to Maebara/Irie before takeoff. The Japanese would have a specific honorific (e.g., 「司令官」/「艦長」 = "Commander!" / "Captain!"). "Sir" as a standalone English vocative isn't a literal translation of any Japanese word.
Suggested: "Captain." or "Commander."
L349, L415, L440 — 0:20:28.33, 0:26:54.65, 0:29:07.88
Original: "Oi, Private Miagi," / "Private Miagi! Cover fire, now!" / "We can't be celebrating yet, Private Miagi!" Issues:
- "Private" is an Army rank — the lowest army enlisted grade. The character is a Navy aviator/gunner, so "Private" doesn't fit Navy nomenclature at all.
- "Miagi" is a mishearing/inconsistent romanization of Miyagi (宮城).
Both are confirmed by Aramaki's original novel (Baka-Tsuki Volume 1, Chapter 5), which gives:
- The character's full name: Miyagi Hikosuke (宮城彦助) — a young Navy rear-seat gunner/navigator on Ootake's Raiyō.
- His rank: Master Sergeant (Baka-Tsuki: «He was a master sergeant who did everything.»). In IJN naval terminology this corresponds to 上等兵曹 jōtō heisō ("Senior Petty Officer" / "Chief Petty Officer"), not "Private."
The translator may have heard the Japanese rank and defaulted to the most familiar low-enlisted English word.
Suggested: "Hey, Miyagi," / "Petty Officer Miyagi! Cover fire, now!" / "We can't be celebrating yet, Petty Officer Miyagi!" (Or drop the rank in casual address: Ootake calls him just "Miyagi" in the novel.)
L427 — 0:27:50.32
Original: "{\i1}The 'Thunder King' and Seasonal units climbed to their highest altitude, a staggering 9,900 meters." Issue: Combined error — see L233 (Raiyō) and L242 (Shunran). Both aircraft names should be transliterated.
Suggested: "{\i1}The Raiyō and Shunran units climbed to their highest altitude, a staggering 9,900 meters."
L463, L480, L484 — 0:30:29.31, 0:31:19.55, 0:31:26.13
Original: "Chief Shirai! Is our G-7 ready?" / "You work fast, Chief Shirai." / "Listen well, Chief Shirai." Issue: "Shirai" is another mishearing of the same job title 水雷長 Suiraichō that gets mangled as "Suidai" at L539. This is the I-601's torpedo officer position. The translator heard 「水雷長 (suiraichō)」 / 「すいらいちょう」 and rendered it inconsistently as both "Shirai" and "Suidai" across the same episode, treating both as personal surnames.
Per Aramaki's novel (Baka-Tsuki Volume 1 Chapter 5), the torpedo officer of the Fugaku is Lieutenant Terajima Chuusaburō (寺島忠三郎). (Note: Baka-Tsuki spells the given name "Chuusaburou" — possibly 忠三郎, not 丑三郎 as we listed in the working glossary; this needs novel verification.) Maebara addresses him by role in these G-7 attack scenes rather than by surname.
The same character is referred to as "Chief Suidai" in L539 — same mishearing, different romanization. See also L539 below.
Suggested: "Torpedo Chief! Is our G-7 ready?" / "You work fast, Torpedo Chief." / "Listen well, Torpedo Chief."
L519 — 0:33:42.68
Original: "That is likely the start of General Maebara's G-7 plan." Issue: Same as L135 — Maebara is Rear Admiral, not General.
Suggested: "That is likely the start of Rear Admiral Maebara's G-7 plan."
L537 — 0:34:41.55
Original: "Chief Suidai!" Issue: "Suidai" is yet another mishearing of the job title 水雷長 Suiraichō (torpedo chief), already mangled as "Chief Shirai" at L463/L480/L484. Same role, third different transliteration in the same episode. The Japanese 水雷 (suirai) = torpedo; 長 (chō) = chief. The translator is treating the role marker as a personal surname.
Per Aramaki's novel (Baka-Tsuki Volume 1 Chapter 5), the torpedo officer (水雷長) of the I-601 Fugaku is Lieutenant Terajima Chuusaburō (寺島忠三郎). In these G-7 attack scenes, Maebara is addressing him by role, not by surname.
Suggested: "Torpedo Chief!" or "Lieutenant Terajima!" — same fix as L463/L480/L484.
L538–L539 — 0:34:42.70, 0:34:45.14
Original: "Apologies, but could you put on New Officer Kinsetsu?" / "This is New Officer Kinsetsu! Keep her steady!" Issue: The English here is a mistranslation, but the real dialogue is anchored in canon. Aramaki's novel (Baka-Tsuki Volume 1 Chapter 6) describes a very specific bit of submarine procedure right before this kind of attack — switching the sonar listening duty from a junior sailor to an experienced one:
«"Who's the one listening?" asked Maebara. "Nakayama Issui." Issui was a sailor first class. "Switch with Sergeant Yamane." He was a petty officer. … "I am requesting this because we're going to do a sonar attack." … Yamane Shuusuke was an expert in hearing who came up from the Yokosuka Navy Band.»
So in the source novel, just before a sonar/periscope attack, Maebara explicitly requests the chief sonar operator (Sergeant Yamane Shūsuke) be put on station instead of the junior sailor currently listening. The anime appears to have lifted this dialogue beat into this scene (the periscope attack on the last destroyer after the G-7 strike).
"Kinsetsu" is therefore most likely either:
- A mishearing of Sergeant Yamane (山根伍長 Yamane gochō) — though phonetically "Yamane" and "kinsetsu" don't overlap cleanly.
- An aniime-side condensation that replaced the named character with a functional title like 「聴音長 chōonchō」 (chief sonar listener) — closer functionally, still not a great match phonetically.
- Possibly a different Japanese term entirely, e.g. 「近接照準員 kinsetsu shōjun'in」 ("close-range sighting officer") — fits "kinsetsu" phonetically and fits the periscope-attack context, but isn't a term used in the novel.
Either way, what Maebara is asking for in the canon is the chief sonar listener / Sgt. Yamane, since the next move is a sonar-guided periscope attack on a destroyer at 1,500m range. Render the title functionally rather than as a personal name.
Suggested: "Apologies, but could you put on the chief sonar operator?" / "This is the chief sonar operator! Keep her steady!" (Or, if the translator wants to use Yamane explicitly per the novel: "Apologies, but could you put on Sergeant Yamane?" / "This is Sergeant Yamane! Keep her steady!")
L625 — 0:40:39.55
Original: "The Panama Canal is 800km far from Hawaii." Issue: 800 km is wrong by an order of magnitude. The actual distance from Hawaii to the Panama Canal is roughly 7,500–8,000 km (4,700–5,000 miles). The translator likely dropped a zero from "8,000 km" or misheard 「8千 (hassen)」 as 「8百 (happyaku)」.
This matters because the scene is Kimmel marveling at how far the Japanese fleet had to travel to strike the Canal — at 800 km the achievement is unremarkable; at 8,000 km it's stunning, and that's the point.
Suggested: "The Panama Canal is 8,000 km away from Hawaii."
L636 — 0:41:34.44
Original: "From this point on will the true battle start…\NThe battle which will lead my great Empire to a great loss." Issue: "Great loss" is almost certainly an inverted-meaning mistranslation. In the Konpeki premise — and in any reasonable reading of Maebara's character as a Deep Blue Fleet commander who has just secured a major victory at the Panama Canal — the final line cannot logically be "this will lead the Empire to a great loss." That's the opposite of his purpose.
The Japanese is almost certainly 「我が大帝国を大いなる勝利に導くための」 ("to lead my great Empire to a great victory") — closing the episode on the triumphal note that the Deep Blue Fleet is now operational and successful. Alternatively, per Otaka's "lose nobly" philosophy, it could be 「華々しい敗北」 ("a glorious / spectacular defeat") — but "great loss" as a flat translation flattens the irony and reads as defeatism.
Suggested: "From this point on will the true battle start…\NThe battle that will lead my great Empire to a great victory." (Or, preserving Otaka's framework: "…The battle that will lead my great Empire to a noble defeat.")
Minor / Style Observations
- L45 "Clipperton Island" — correct. Clipperton is a real French-claimed atoll in the Eastern Pacific, on the route from the IJN's Hawaii base to Panama. Good reference.
- L99 "It is the year 1942." — correct, anchors the New Year scene.
- L139 "all sparkling clean, 100% ready!" — fine, but slightly informal. Sailors' speech is appropriately casual here.
- L284–285 "20:00. That would be at 6AM at Panama, 13th of January." — note the 14-hour time difference (Eastern Pacific time vs Japan time). Geographically correct.
- L358 "having a total length of 65 kilometers" — correct. The Panama Canal is about 82 km long; "65 km" refers to the navigable lock-to-lock distance, which is roughly accurate. (For the record, the real Panama Canal is ~77 km lock to lock, ~82 km including approaches.)
Recurring patterns to watch for
- Navy/Army rank confusion — Maebara called "General" instead of "Rear Admiral" four times in this episode alone (L135, L215, L257, L519). Miyagi/Miagi called "Private" (Army term).
- Japanese aircraft/place names translated literally instead of transliterated — Thunder King (Raiyō), "Seasonal versions" (Shunran), Marlboro Island (Malpelo).
- Numerical errors — Type 64 instead of Type 62, I-600 instead of I-601, 800km instead of 8,000km.
- Japanese rank/role titles parsed as personal names — Shinagawa "Sennin" (= the role 先任 senin, "First [Officer]"); "New Officer Kinsetsu" (likely 近接, a function not a name); "Chief Shirai" and "Chief Suidai" (= same 水雷長 Suiraichō "Torpedo Chief", rendered inconsistently three times in one episode); "Private Miagi" (= Miyagi, Master Sergeant per canon).
- Submarine/sonar terminology — "radio waves" for underwater detection (should be acoustic/sonar); "film" for the rubber stealth coating.
- Inverted narrative meaning at the close — "great loss" rendered for what is almost certainly "great victory."
- Technical-term mishearings of English loanwords — "Walter Tank" for ウォータータンク (wōtā tanku = "water tank" in the pump-jet propulsion system).
The systematic pattern of mishearing Japanese rank/role markers as personal names (point 4) is especially worth flagging — the translator seems unaware that Japanese military communication often combines title + name in compounds where the title comes first. Words like 先任 (senin, "first/senior"), 水雷長 (suiraichō, "torpedo chief"), 機関長 (kikanchō, "engineer chief") need to be recognized as roles, not names.
Cross-referencing character names against the Konpeki Japanese Wikipedia roster (especially the I-601 Fugaku article, which lists every named officer) and against the Baka-Tsuki English translation of Aramaki Yoshio's original novels would catch most of these systematically.
