Chapter 27: Duty

Different orders for the opening pages in this one! Tokyopop: a 2-page sequence of our "customer" for the chapter (a teenage hustler/assassin) killing someone, then 2 pages of D and Chris at the shop hearing a commotion outside, then D finds the customer bleeding all over his front steps.

Seven Seas: 2-page sequence of D and Chris, cut to the kid doing the assassination, cut back to the kid on D's front steps.

I'm guessing TP is right; it's the police-procedural "dramatic opening scene from the crime/mystery, then cut to the main characters" setup that PSOH uses a lot. But it uses the "light flashback for exposition, then cut back to the present" technique too, and the SS sequence is still perfectly readable.

In the Chris-and-D sequence, the pets chat about the noise outside, but there's also a "sirens" sound effect that SS translated, and TP missed. Don't skimp on your sound effects, translators!

Part of the chatter:

TP:
(Unattached dialogue bubble): You didn't sneak out again last night, did you, T-chan?
D (next panel): Well, it's a little early, but I think it's time to shut down for the day.

SS:
(Unattached): I suppose the detective will be busy all day.
D (next panel): In that case, perhaps I'll close up shop for a while, even though it's a bit early.
(Non-bubbled incidental text, not translated in TP): Why "in that case"?

The improv'd flourish of blaming T-chan is funny...buuut it deprives us of the very important information that D thinks "what even is the point of running my business when the Human I'm Definitely Not Overly Attached To isn't going to visit?"

Voiceover from the police radio describing the murder. TP adds a *lot* of detail to this, none of which is super-interesting tbh. Target was George Caprione in TP, Giorgio Cabrione in SS.

About the suspect:
TP: Estimated age is between 15 and 18 years old.
SS: Age, roughly fourteen to sixteen.

Are the numbers actually ambiguous in Japanese? Or is TP choosing to age the kid up for some reason? (He is Too Young For This either way...and with Akino's art style, he could be any of those ages)

Jill and Leon discuss the kid being part of a secret underground group that grooms children to be assassins: "Scorpio's Children" in TP, "Cor Scorpio" in SS. (They all get prominent scorpion tattoos, which seems counterproductive to the whole "secret" thing.)

Cops are staking out Chinatown, and...

TP:
Leon: I'm gonna check on our friend the Count.
Jill: Right.

SS:
Leon: I've gotta check on someone.
Jill: Doting much?

...okay, Jill's unimpressed face here is very cute for shipping reasons, but: Leon's little brother also lives at the shop! And Jill knows it.

Assassin/customer is doing a hostage situation in the shop, asks if D and Chris are "the only people here." Cut to human-form Pon-chan putting her hands over Chris's mouth, scolding him not to argue.

Leon spots the blood on the steps, has the sense to do a phone call instead of banging on the door. D tells the customer it would be suspicious for a business not to answer the phone, has a nice pleasant conversation which ends with him calling Leon "Orcot-san." SS turns it into "Mr. Orcot."

Weirdly, TP leaves the Japanese suffixes in. They left a couple in the Xiao Mei chapter, too (she and Leon call each other "Nue Ehr-chan" and "Leon-san".) I don't think they've actually done this before. Editorial slip with TP volume 7, maybe?

(To be clear, I'm a fan of leaving these suffixes un-localized...if they're what the manga characters would actually be using in context. Doesn't apply with English-speaking characters in the US.)

Anyway, the "Mr. Orcot" (instead of "my dear detective") is all Leon needs to hear to know that D is in some kind of trouble. Which kinda makes me want to do a whole re-reread just to make notes about "every way these two address each other throughout the series."

...except I'm sure there are nuances that haven't come through in either translation! Which of the 83 different ways to say "you" is D using in this or that speech bubble? I sure don't know!

Oh, good, Leon's co-workers do ask if he's worried about his brother.

Leon counters that he's worried about the assassin, actually. The overdone wordiness of TP this chapter is still happening (it's even longer than this, I'm just grabbing one representative speech bubble), so the SS version lands harder:

TP: If that kid so much as looks at D wrong, our perpetrator becomes a victim.
SS: If that kid makes one wrong move, D'll *shred* him!

More backstory. SS explains that "Cor Scorpio" is Latin for "Scorpion's Heart", thus the scorpion chest tattoo. TP, calling it "Scorpio's Children", says it's on the chest without saying why. The Ruthless Night scan agrees with TP. Are the SS translators inventing, here?

Made-up group, but it originated with the real-world use of child soldiers in Cambodia. Presumably Akino was inspired by reading about the IRL demobilization/rehab efforts that were happening in the '90s:

https://www.refworld.org/reference/annualreport/cscoal/2001/en/65416

...So why give them a Latin name?

Cambodia was under French control for a while, that's why the Khmer Rouge are called that -- if you're trying to adjust the name in translation to be more culturally-accurate, why not make it Coeur Scorpio?

D invites the customer to live at the shop forever. Customer tries to escape out the back...and, like Chris, runs into a pet version of his mother. Flashbacks to his indoctrination, including "be angry and vengeful b/c your mom abandoned you."

Customer pulls a gun on her. Chris intervenes! The lead-up shows off more of TP being extra-wordy this chapter:

TP: Don't do it! Killing your own mother...believe me, you don't want to do this!
SS: Don't! You can't kill your mom! You just can't!!

But I like Chris's finisher in TP better than SS:

TP: You'll never be able to forgive yourself!
SS: If you do, God will never forgive you!

Presumably the reference to "God" reads as more neutral in Japanese (and/or in Shintoism)? But since the Orcots are culturally Christian, and canon never shows them being particularly devout or practicing about it, it's weird for one of them to suddenly bring up "what God would approve of". This would not be a regular factor in Chris's thought process!

Meanwhile, "do I forgive *myself* for the idea that I killed *my* mother" has to be on Chris's mind *all the time*.

As the customer has a bit of a breakdown about whether his mom would even accept him, what with the whole child-assassin lifestyle:

TP: I can't live a normal life anymore. Any chance of that died long ago.
SS: God could never let me have a happy, normal life.

...okay, I can't claim to know anything about religiosity in Cambodia in general, but: since these fictional child soldiers were raised in near-isolation with brutal indoctrination that doesn't mention *any* religion, I don't buy that this kid spends any time considering what "God" wants, either.

Customer tries to commit suicide. Somehow, D has set this up so the effect is that he "kills his old self," waking up with no memories and no scorpion tattoo, free to get a fresh start on a better life.

(The story Leon and the other cops get is a simpler "I put sedatives in his tea, so he's asleep now, you're welcome.")

D's lines on the final page seem to be another case where TP just completely replaced the original dialogue. This time, I don't like it at all:

TP: The life of a scorpion is never an easy one. They inspire fear in all animals, but most of all, within themselves.
SS: Oh, but I got what I wanted, see? I have this lovely crimson scorpion, safe and sound.

The faux-deep poetic stuff just...doesn't have anything to do with the themes of the chapter. Not only that, I'm pretty sure that I didn't actually register "D got to keep the assassin-self at the pet shop after all, now in the form of a scorpion" before I read the SS version! And that's a really good, clever ending!

Chapter 28: Diet

A little 3-part anthology of a chapter. Savvy thing to do when you have 3 ideas, and not enough material to make a full-length chapter out of any of them.

High schooler Emeralda "Em" (TP)/Emerada "Eme" (SS) just got dumped by John (TP)/Jan (SS), in favor of a skinny girl. Meets D at a bakery, where they both go for the same tart! He introduces her to Dorothy, a purrrrsonal trainer.

(Possible Oz reference, with the Dorothy+Emerald names? Not seeing any other obvious callbacks, though. Unless you count "our heroine goes on this whole journey for a guy who turns out to be not worth the effort.")

Customer 2: Irene, a supermodel whose colleague Clarisse (TP)/Clarice (SS) told her to visit the shop for a miracle weight-loss secret.

When she comes in, D says it's time for Chris's bath, and Pon-chan drags him away:

TP: Come on, Romeo.
SS: Come on, then!

No particular indication of "Chris thinks this woman is hot" in the art. It's not a contradiction, either, but I wonder if it distracts from the point of "D is selling something dangerous, and wants Chris out of the way."

D presents the model with a pearl-shaped supplement. There's a plot point that's either spoken by D or Irene, depending on translation:

TP: Just one dose each day should suffice.
SS: I really only have to take one?

Oof, some editor at TP should've caught that. It's a major plot point that Irene just needs one (1), total.

Third customer is Nash McKinley (in both translations!), an old friend Leon brings over. Recently lost a pet bird, looking for a replacement.

I have to take a second to highlight Leon's entrance, though:

TP: Yo, Count! Who's the babe?! I noticed she didn't leave with a pet. So what kind of business were you two transacting, eh?
SS: Yo! D! I passed a major hottie coming in! She a customer of yours?!