On the topic of the missing text in the English version of Essential Evangelion Chronicle: Side A (bottom left of page 15), has anyone already nailed down the exact wording?

I strongly believe the interrupted sentence would read:

Though she is generally quiet and rarely expresses emotions, Rei does smile freely in Gendoh's presence.

I base this on:

The placement of letters that are just visible above the image covering the text;
Two pieces of phrasing from Rei's character profile on pages 12 and 13;
Literary Eagle's review of the book that flags up the error and provides the equivalent text from the French version, along with translation
(http://literaryeagle.tumblr.com/post/121921611439/for-my-32nd-evangelion-book-review-here-is-the);
Lastly, Rei's expression in the image that is covering the text.

Anyone else agree?

Oh, nice job! I'd say you've probably nailed it, or at the very least gotten really, really close. If I ever read the English version again (I tend to favor the French version since it doesn't have all those mistakes), in my head I'll probably read that sentence the way you've rendered it here. Good detective work!

Thanks for the reply, Literary Eagle, and for the warm welcome to a newbie.

(Are you bilingual, by the way? That's a handy advantage to have!)

So, yeah, hopefully it at least offers readers something plausible to fill in the blanks.

Knowing other languages is indeed a handy skill to have! I can read English, French, and some Japanese (still need a dictionary for a lot of kanji), and it's been very useful for all these book reviews I've been doing, and for other stuff as well.

Thanks again for sharing your nice bit of detective work for the English edition of Side A! I actually sent UDON Entertainment an email about the missing text and the other errors last year, but I didn't receive a reply, so I'm glad that someone was at least able to figure out what the English version of that sentence most likely says. Yay!

Wow, I'm jealous, Literary Eagle. I mean, Chronicle's been out in French for ages!

I know some Japanese but nowhere near enough to get by without subtitles. I can read hiragana and katakana but very few kanji, I'm afraid. Those are some impressive skills you have!

Re: no reply from UDON, that's a shame. I'd hoped they would put the corrections and missing text on their website, or at least acknowledge the problem. I can't claim to know how their books are put together, but you'd think the text files must still exist somewhere.

I've been curious, by the way: how come the text is missing in the English version but the French is okay? Is it just that the English text takes up more lines and comes too far down the page?

Neil-T wrote:I've been curious, by the way: how come the text is missing in the English version but the French is okay? Is it just that the English text takes up more lines and comes too far down the page?

The English text takes up eight lines, while the French text fits into seven lines. However, the problem was still easy to avoid. The English version uses a bigger font for the "Assigned Pilot - Rei Ayanami" heading, and also puts blank lines before and after this heading. The French version uses a smaller font for the heading and also doesn't have those unnecessary blank lines taking up valuable space, so if the English version had done the same thing then there still would have been enough room to fit all eight lines of text without any of it getting eaten by the picture. By the way, the English version even cuts off a little bit from the top and bottom of the picture... just a tiny amount, but it's noticeable when I put the English and French versions close to each other.

That's a fascinating insight. I had no idea just how different the two layouts were.

Yeah, you're right: that's a couple of needless things that have combined to cause that mistake.

I think, as an anime fan, you kind of get used to seeing translation blunders and stuff, but text buried under a picture is right there on the page. It's not like you'd need to have in-depth knowledge of Eva to spot it as a proof-reader. I don't understand how that mistake slipped through the net.

Seriously, though, 'Murdoch' Institute in Side B?! Nightmare!

Anyone fancy a go at the Missing Text guessing game?

Thank you for putting this mystery to rest!

No worries, Tumbling Down. Glad if it helps.