Original Game: Lost in the Book with Tim Burton’s the Nightmare Before Christmas: The First Halloween
EN Server: A Storybook Adventure: Tim Burton’s the Nightmare Before Christmas: Twisted Thrills vs. Classic Chills
Original Skully: Now then, are you familiar with Halloween?
EN Skully: Is Halloween a holiday you celebrate?
Original Skully: ……you’re not? Ah, now, we can’t have that.
EN Skully: If not, I’m happy to elucidate.
Original Skully: Halloween is nightmares.
EN Skully: Halloween is a nightmare of our own creation.
Original Skully: Over the course of this night, I shall teach you……
EN Skully: I could spend all eve just setting the scene…
Original Skully: This is Halloween. This is truly Halloween. Yes, this is……
EN Skully: …for the special holiday we call…
In the original game Idia is in the manga section of the book fair, while on EN he is in the comics section.
In both versions he is looking for specific manga, with “manga” not being localized in one line.
Original Leona: Even someone as meek as myself wants to step out into the sunlight once in a while.
EN Leona: Yeah, well, sometimes even indoor cats like me feel like goin’ out in the sun.
(If you thought it was odd for Leona to be referring to himself as an indoor cat, you are correct: he didn’t.)
Original Malleus: Maybe you should be laid out in the sun to dry, along with your books?
EN Malleus: Perhaps some time in the sun with a book would do you good.
(If you thought it was odd for Leona to suddenly be talking about Malleus needing to dry out, this is why: in his original line Malleus is first to suggest that Leona needs to be dried out, removed from EN.)
Idia comments on not being able to trust Skully because of his use of a strange personal pronoun (“wagahai”). Azul counters by pointing out that the pronoun that Idia uses a lot of the time, “sessha,” is equally odd. Changed on EN to Skully talking “flowery” and Azul countering with Idia’s “cryptic net slang.”
More on the pronouns of Twst, here ▶︎
Original Jamil: Please reflect on your actions!
EN Jamil: I bet you didn’t even realize you grabbed onto me!
The characters consistently refer to Jack as “bones” throughout the story, changed to “skeleton” on EN.
There is one scene where Sebek actually does refer to Jack as a skeleton, changed to “bones” on EN.
Original Skully: Everyone, please…refer to this person as Jack-sama.
EN Skully: He has a name. Call him Mr. Skellington.
In the original game Skully repeatedly explains that he is from a village, a word that was changed to “town” and “burg” on EN in all but one place where “village” was retained.
Original Jade: Jack-san’s legs are very long…
EN Jade: Jack has a markedly long stride…
(This is at least the seventh time that someone saying “long legs” has been removed from EN.)
In the original game Skully uses the same honorific with Sally that he does with Jack, referring to her as “Sally-sama.”
On EN this was changed to Skully saying “Miss Sally.”
While there is a character who says “Miss Sally” in the original game, it is not Skully: it is Riddle.
Riddle refers to Jack as “Sir Skellington” in the original game, changed to “Sir Jack” for EN.
Taking offense on Lilia’s behalf Sebek says “I’m sorry, did you just suggest that someone could pose serious competition for Lilia?!,” but his original line uses a form of “you” that is so insulting it is practically a swear word (more here ▶︎).
A closer translation than “I’m sorry” might be, “You bastard.”
In what was possibly an easter egg from Yana, Jade says a line close to “After all, this is Halloween Town” using the word akumade. Written in hiragana akumade can mean things like “after all,” “ultimately,” “simply,” etc., but it can also be written in kanji as 悪魔で, retaining the same pronunciation while changing the meaning to, “as a demon.”
This “after all/as a demon” pun is an often repeated catchphrase by Sebastian of Yana’s manga, Black Butler. Jade is often compared to Sebastian by fans and this was possibly an intentionally self-referential moment. And it seems that the reference may have been picked up by the localization team, as it was written as “devilishly delightful” for EN.
Original Leona: My lady*…..I truly respect the formidable person you are.
EN Leona: Trust me, I hold such gallant ladies in the highest esteem.
*Leona does not technically say “my” lady, but he is using the word “Lady” in the respectful, noble sense of “Lord and Lady,” not in the casual sense of “hey, lady,” and wanted to emphasize that. In this scene Leona shifts from his usual crude, casual language into keigo (formal, respectful speech), that he sometimes slides in and out of as a part of his speech patterns. He is also addressing Sally specifically, even saying “you,” and is not referencing “gallant ladies” in general as is implied by the English translation.
Original Dr. Finkelstein: Ah, who will take home the coveted “Completely Drained of Blood Award” this year?
EN Dr. Finkelstein: Ah. The “Most Cold Blooded Prank of the Year” award is always highly anticipated…
This line in the original game came directly from the Japanese-language translation of Nightmare Before Christmas where the mayor gives an award for “Most Blood Drained in a Single Evening.” Rather than use the line from the original movie, EN changed it to “Most Cold Blooded Prank of the Year Award,” instead.
Original Dr. Finkelstein: And who will earn the ‘Remarkably Persistent Sucking/Kissing Award’…?
EN Dr. Finkelstein: And what about the frightening and honorable mentions?
The original line uses “chu chu,” which can be an onomatopoeia for kissing as well as sucking, like mosquitos sucking blood. There is a fandom joke that both awards could have been won by Skully for his pale face (“drained of blood”) and for his hand-kissing habit.
During a conversation between Riddle and Trey about eating Salisbury steak everyday EN-Riddle reminds him that eating “hamburgers” on Tuesdays is against the rules. EN-Trey had the line “And aren’t you being a little liberal with what constitutes ‘a hamburger’…?” added to his dialogue, because the actual rule is not about hamburgers at all: it is and has always been about Salisbury steaks, localized to “hamburger” on EN.
It is interesting that instead of having Trey say that he enjoys hamburgers they decided to keep “salisbury steak” for him, change it to “hamburger” for Riddle, and then connect the two words (that are actually the same word in the original story) with an added line about Riddle being too particular about what does and does not constitute a hamburger, instead.
This may have been to preserve the fact that Trey isn’t saying he likes hamburgers, he is saying he likes Salisbury steaks, so localizing the food in this context would go against his character, and we have seen this happen on EN before:
In the EN version of Cloudcalling Lilia says that “elephant ears” are one of his favorite foods, but that is something that he has canonically never said.
Jamil says that Kalim will ask him to cook “simple” things that are actually difficult to prepare, using minced meat cutlets as an example. On EN this was changed to “croquettes.”
The last time minced meat cutlets appeared on EN, they were changed to “ham and cheese.”
Original Skully: Light a fire in a lantern. Scary Night (hidden meaning: October 31st)
EN Skully: Let the lantern be lit. Scary Night.
It is interesting that Skully’s incantation was changed from a command to a more passive phrase, which is the opposite of what we saw with Trey’s incantation, which was change from a more passive phrase to a command (both in the game and English-language novelization).
Original Trey: I don’t see you at the Mystery Shop or the pop-up bread vendor, either.
EN Trey: I don’t see you at the Mystery Shop or the school vendor, either.
In the original game this is possibly a reference to the bakery that visits NRC once a month, first seen in Book 2.
Original Sebek: If this Halloween isn’t a success, then we……no……Malleus-sama will have no way of returning to Twisted Wonderland!
EN Sebek: If this Halloween isn’t a success…we will have no way of returning Malleus to Twisted Wonderland!
Original Vil: Our Epel has gotten in the mood and become restless. Keep him proper company for me.
EN Vil: Little Epel here has taken quite a shine to you. Play nice, won’t you?
Vil says “uchi no Epel“, and in this context “uchi” can mean either “my” or “our.” It is a word you use to refer to people in your own group, like in your family, company, school club, dorm, etc.
It also comes up later in the game when Leona uses it in reference to Sebek.
When Vil says it he is not saying “my Epel” in a possessive/affectionate sense but using it as shorthand for something maybe similar to “our dorm’s Epel.”
He is expressing Epel’s inclusion in a group that they share (in this case, Pomefiore).
Because this use of “uchi” does not really exist in English the localizers had to go in a different direction to portray the same feeling, and chose “little Epel.”
If you thought it was odd that Vil calls Epel “little” without Epel reacting, you are correct: that is not what Vil actually said.
On EN-server it seems that some characters are allowed to use the word “master,” while some are not:
Jamil is allowed to use it as a part of his Unique Magic’s incantation, but his usual follow-up line of “Who is your master?” was changed to “Who do you obey?” on EN for the Nightmare Before Christmas event.
Jamil is not allowed to use the word “master” in reference to Kalim, in which case EN will remove it, rewrite it to “Employer” or “Boss” or, on one occasion, change it to “Hello,” instead.
Jamil was also not allowed to refer to himself as “master” for the day on his birthday.
The EN-game will also change responses to the application of Jamil’s UM depending upon who his target is:
Characters who are allowed to refer to Jamil as “Master” on EN are Azul, a STYX employee, the students of Noble Bell College, Scarabia Students, and a dream version of Kalim in Book 7.
Characters who are not allowed to refer to Jamil as “Master” on EN are Lock, Shock, Barrel, and Neige.
Azul had “Master” removed from his dialogue when referring to himself as the master of the anenome’d students in Book 3.
Sebek was originally allowed to refer to Malleus as his master in early vignettes, even using it to refer to Kalim’s relationship to Jamil, but in a more recent example Silver referring to Malleus as their master was changed to “employer.”
In a scene during Halloween where Lilia is scaring Magicam Monsters out of Ramshackle all dialogue calling Malleus his master had the word removed.
In the original game Sebek is surprised by Shock referring to Jamil as “Jamil-sama,” changed to Sebek reacting to the word “orders” on EN.
As is common for EN, the word “friend” was added to dialogue multiple times where it was never actually said: Jamil referring to the residents of Halloweentown as Jack’s friends, Jack referring to the students as Skully’s friends, Jack referring to the students as his friends, Barrel calling Leona his friend, Shock calling Skully their pal, Jade commenting on Leona and Zero being friends, Leona commenting on Jamil and zero being friends and Lock commenting on people “sitting around being pals” never happened in the original game.
There are only two instances during the event where the word “friend” actually does appear, both times in reference to zero.
If you also thought it was odd for Jamil to suddenly refer to children as brats, you are again correct: EN took the original name for Lock, Shock and Barrel of “bad brat trio” and localized it as “prankster trio,” which is a perfectly fine adaptation.
But they did not keep to their own localization when Jamil references the prankster trio later, translating it directly as “brats,” as though Jamil is suddenly revealing a distaste for children in general when he was actually just referring to Lock, Shock and Barrel.
If you also thought it was odd for Jamil to ignore Vil and Jade as they were speaking to him, you are correct again:
This conversation begins with Jade and Vil talking to each other about Jamil, which was localized accurately for EN.
But then they change from saying “him” to “you” on EN, as if addressing Jamil directly while he ignores them. Originally they are still discussing Jamil separately, while he talks with Jack. (Other pronoun mistakes on EN are catalogued here ▶︎ )
It is possible that EN’s translators maybe do not have the visuals when they translate and did not realize that Jade and Vil were talking ABOUT Jamil, not TO Jamil. We have received similar hints of this before, during Beanfest (twice) and in the main story.
If you also thought it was odd for a student to say that Night Raven College’s Halloween was both disappointing and exciting, you are again correct:
It is possible that EN originally wanted to say a line similar to “never fails to excite” but then decided to change it to “never disappoints” and combined them into “never fails to disappoint,” in a conflicting line of dialogue that is inaccurate to the original line where the student actually is complimenting the school’s Halloween.
Also changed for the English-language server: the final rhythmic involved the Twisted Wonderland voice actors singing the English-language version of “This is Halloween” from the original Nightmare Before Christmas movie, but the version of the rhythmic made available on EN was instrumental.
Twisted Wonderland Reference Note 