The Metallic Rouge anime kicked off in January, and now that we’re a month in, the storyline for the sci-fi show is really starting to solidify. As we learn more in the series, fans are starting to question some of the changes that have occurred in the translation.
Their mission proves difficult – as you’d expect – and as we learn more about this dystopian future, some context has come into question between the Japanese and English-language versions. Particularly, how some terminology has been changed.
Metallic Rouge has different terms on Crunchyroll
You might have noticed that in Metallica Rouge on Crunchyroll, Naomi is an agent of Aletheia. Another company is known as Ochrona, a word with Polish origin. These aren’t the original terms.
Aletheia represents the Ministry of Truth, while Ochrona now the title for the Protection Bureau. Fans have mixed feelings on what seems like pretty drastic changes. Aletheia was a Greek Goddess who represented something no longer being concealed, fitting the ministry in the show. Ochrona broadly means protection, also making it a befitting term.
It’s easy to see why such alterations would raise eyebrows. You hope, going into a localization, to experience something as close to the original vision as it can. But translation is a tricky, imperfect art. Jokes, dialog, mythology – they all require translators to infer what the creative team was going for, and make sure it all lands for people in English-speaking territories.
This would’ve just been more of that, and although it seems odd, the new terminology might actually be giving us further insight into Metallic Rouge. Could there be a suggestion here that the Neans, the robots living alongside humans, are related to the alien Junoids, since Aletheia is the daughter of Juno? Something to ponder while we await the next episode!
Anthony McGlynn is a Senior Anime Writer on Dexerto’s UK team. An expert on animes like Demon Slayer, Solo Leveling and My Hero Academia, he also has over 10 years experience covering games and pop culture for outlets such as Variety, IGN, Den of Geek, PCGamesN, PCGamer, The Digital Fix, and many more. You can contact him at: anthony.mcglynn@dexerto.com
